SPIRITS ADDRESS BY SIR BRYAN O'LOGHLEN, M.L.A.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XIX, Issue 37, 19 June 1891, Page 15

SPIRITS ADDRESS BY SIR BRYAN O'LOGHLEN, M.L.A.

(Melbourne Advocate, June 6.) THBunveilingofthebron^statueerectedin front of St. Patrick's Cathedral to the memory of Daniel O'Oonnell took place, in the presence of a large and enthusiastic assemblage of the public, on Saturday afternoon. aaid-' BfJ * n °' Loßhlcn> who WM receiv ed with a storm of applause

MJM J Archbishop, Ladies and gentlemen,- -To-day ii a white letter day in my life— l may say its proudest day-for the high honour has been conferred on me of unveiling the statue of the great OConnell-tbe Liberator of the Irish Catholics and the foremost champion of the Legislative Independence of Ireland (cheers). We •re twelve thousand miles away from the scene of his triumphs, and forty-four years have gone by since his death, yet we love and admire him as strongly as ever (cheers). To-day is the thirtieth of May the anniversary of two thirtieths of May remarkable in the history of OOonneil and of Ireland. The first, forty-seven years ago, we execrate. The second, forty-six years ago, we celebrate here to-day Tbe first was the day of his imprisonment, the second was the day when a triumphant nation hailed bioa as still their chosan chief at a national levie at the Rotunda in Dublin (cheers). His imprisonment was both illegal and unjust. Udjusl because Judge Burton who sentenced him, exonerated O'Connell from any intention of using force or violence, and further said O'Connell had used his unbounded influence to keep and preserve the peace. As a matter of fact a packed jury had found a pariaan political verdict, and this sentence was based on that verdict. O'Conneli's imprisonment was illegal, as judgment was reserved by the highest court of the realm, and Lo-d Denman, one of the Law Lords, in delivering judgment of reversal used the historical words : <• If Bac h practices as have taken place in the present instance in Ireland, should continue the trial by jury would become a mockery, a delusion, and a snare." Three months of imprisonment passed away before the final decision was given in favour of O'Connell. In those days there was no telegraph system but we had organised a national telegraph. On every bill and' mountain top heaps of wood had been erected, On Thursday, the sth September, the Medusa arrived in Kingstown. I well remember the wild excitement— the cheering along the roads of distant Clare —as in the gloaming of that antumn evening mountain peak and hilltop blazed in succession to the skies, flashed the glorious news of the release of our nation's leader (cheers) On the 30th of May following, in '45, the whole of Ireland sent deputations from its counties, cities, and towns to levte O'Connell. Two hundred thousand peopli paid their homage to O'Connell in the stress of Dublin m be passed with the other Bepeal Martyrs in triumphal procession, and within the Botunda, what a glorious sight ? The mayors and councillors in their scarlet robes ; tbe '82 club in their green and gold. I remember well all the leading Nationalists were there; Thomas Davis, John Mitchell, Eichard O'Gorman, Gavan Duffy, Dr. Gray, my brother Colman, Meagher of the flishing sword. (A voice " Smith O'Brien.") Yes, I saw Smith O'Brien present to O'Connell a solemn pledge signed indivi iually by those present, that they, one and all, would never desist from seeking by every lawful means the Legislative Independence of Ireland until it is obtained (cheers) That is the 30th May, of which we celebrate to-day the anniversary The pledge taken that day has been kept faithfully and will bear frui^ tion yet in the restoration of its Parliament to Ireland (cheers) And this chosen champion of our nation, what manner of nun was he ? W«s he endowed with a spark of Archangel fire, or was he inspired like the prophets of old 1 He was neither. H d was but a man, with all th« passions, all the weakness of man, but his mte'lect, and his soul, his will, and his conscience, all the higher ethereal parts of his being, in its beauty and strength, completely overshadowed and eclipsed the blemishes (cheers). We were blind to his weaknesses— we saw only bis virtues and his talents— much as when we gase upon the firmament of Heaven, with all its glory of countless stars, this lower earth is left aside out of our charmed visiou and forgotten (cheers). Now what were his principles? I have often thought they lay in the first two petitions of the Lord's Prayer that he learned in Gaelic at his mother* knee. «Ar n-atair ata air neabh, go naomtar t-anam, go tainic do riogdac." « Our Father who art in Heaven Hallowed be Thy name. Thy Kingdom come." He must have conned these words over and over ; out on the purple hills of Kerry, that he loved so well-g.zing on the boundless expanse of the broad Atlantic, and listening to the boom of its mighty rollers endlessly breaking on its cliffs and headlands-his soul must have drunk in the greatness of God the Creator (cheers). He must have felt that every man owes unceasiug praise to His name and that the duty lies upon every man of intellectual force to bring about to the utmost of his power the Kin-dom of God on earth These words made all men brothers in his eyes-sharers in that Kingdom, whether Catholic, Dissenter, or Jew-whether his own countryman or a Pole— whether the white pauper of the United-

Kingdom, or the negro slave of Jamacia or the Btates. All, in bit eyes, were entitled, not to an equality of intellect, strength, or beaatv, ofr.nk, power, or money, but, as subjects of that Kingdom, to an equality of rights, an equality of justice, an equality of good government, an equality of freedom-in a word, entitled to civ.l and religion , liberty (cheers). His two principles were these-first. glory to God ; and, second, ordered liberty. If he wanted any confirmatim of there convictions of his, there were the words of the angelic song, « Glory be to God on high, and peace on earth to men of goodwill. Epitomise these words, and you may shortly say that O Oonn^ll s hfe-long principles were what are ours to-day-faith and freedom (cheers). Id his dying days he exemplified these principle!. I leave my soul to God, my heart to Rome, and my body to Ireland." Thus he crystalised his heart-whole devotion to his Church and his country. Lord O'Hagan, late Lo-d Chancellor of Ireland, wrote of O Connell as the Apostle of Liberty and the enemy of license. O Connell, had reconciled order and progress, and identified religion with the advancement of human right. The famous MonUlembert addressed O'Connell on his last journey through Prance not only as " the man of one nation," but " the man of Christendom," for he had shown all nations how to combine the cause of liberty with that of religion and order (cheers). What, then, were his methods? Discussion, agitation, and public meeting— public meeting, agitation, and discussion. Blessed with a great presence-a smile that won the heart— a voice as clear, as silvery, and as far penetratirg as the tones of a bell— with a magnetic sympathy drawing all men towards him -with a power to play at will upon all the chords of the human heart— evoking in turn mirth and laughter, indignation and hooting, elation and cheering, ridicule and jeers, scorn and groans, pity and tears- blessed, too, with a vigour and terseness and variety of argument to convince hit friends and to overwhelm bis opponents, he devoted all these gifts to the strvice of his country (cheers). After more than twenty years of unsuccessful effort in support of the Catholic claims and the Repeal of the Union, in the year 1823 he foundad the Catholic Association, which the Government suppressed by Act of Parliament in 1825. Nothing daunted, he founded the new Catholic Association, which body attained such influence that, in the general election of 1826, it succeeded in returning seven more emancipators, and ousting their opponents from Waterford, South Monaghan. and Armagh (cheers). Its successful weapon was the franchise gained in 1793 from the Irish Parliament. The talisman had been found. The man to use it was there, and the hour came. Vesey Fitzgerald took office in the Government. The seat for Clare became vacant, and O'Connell, the proscribed Catholic, was returned by a majority of two to on. (cbears), All honour to tbe electors of Clare who thug changed th« destiny uf their race and the future of the world to all time (cheers). Peel and Wellington acknowledged themselves beaten, and carried emancipation in 18fi*. While celebrating this almost miraculout success of O'Connell, let us pay a tribute of those noble Protestants who fjr years renounced power, place, and pay that justice might be done to their fellow-countrymen, for without their aid the Catholics alone could not have carried emancipation (cheers). O'Connell did not rest here. He threw himself into tbe »rena of Parliament, and helped to carry the Reform Act of '32, the Tithes Commutation Act, the Emancipation of the Disstraters and of the Jews, tbe Teat and Corporation Acts. But theonequeation thit he made his own, that for iorty-five years he proclaimed to be of more importance to Ireland than even Emancipation, was the Legislative Independence of his country— the Repeal of tbe Union (cheer*) Like another Moses it was not given to him to sea that promised land, though he had led his people out of the houw of bondage. But his spirit still lives. It walks abroad. His works have not been in vain. That cause will yet triumph, and Ireland, as sure as to-morrow's eun will rise, will yet see her own Parliament in College Green (cheers 1 ). There is one great lesson in O'Connell's life for all men. Stand up for the right, in and out of season, for the sake of rigbt, regardless of the consequences to oneself But there is a second, bear good will to all men— know no distinction of race, colour, or cree 1. Let not difference in religion or politics create dissension. Let each man act up to the beßt of his lights to promote full, civil, and religious liberty, and though like O'Connell he may not live to see the promised land of bis political desire, yet like O'Connell h« shall hear the words : •• Well done, thou good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of the Lord." My Lord Archbishop, I have been requested by the committee of subscribers to the O'Connell statue to entrust it to tbe custody of your Grace and your Grace's successors, in trust for the citizens of Melbourne, with every confidence that here, in froi t of that splendid cathedral that is dedicated to our national saiut, the statue of his great spiritual son, O'Connell— second <o none in the benefits he conferred on the Irish nation— will be preserved for future bges to the utmost of your and their power. On resuming his seat Sir Bryan was louily applauded.