IRELAND'S FAMOUS SONS ABROAD.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XX, Issue 25, 8 April 1892, Page 5

IRELAND'S FAMOUS SONS ABROAD.

The following are •xtracts from a lecture lately delivered by Mr Jeremiah M'Veagh, of London, before the Belfast Young Ireland Society :—

Passing through the English Parliament House, or Westminster Abbey, you will observe the name of a stray Irishman or two, Edmund Burke, for example. We hay« heard of a Wellington, of General Wolsely, of General Roberts, and of General White. Just as a few years ago a Cairns was Lord Chancellor of England, before long a Liberal Governmens will turn to another Irishman to fill the same post, Sir Charles Russell. The most distinguished of colonial administrators is an Irishman, Lord Duffeiin, as is Field-Marshal Sir Patrick Grant. One of the anti-Irish journals in England recently published a war-whoop from an indignant corresponded, who complained toat the Press in London was honeycombed wiih Irishmen ; that close on 50 per cen tof London journalists were Irish or of Irish descent. In Australia, take Victoria. Here two Chief Justices hailed from this country, the late Sir William Stawell and Mr George Higginbotham. Tha lata Sir Redmond Barry was, as first Chancellor of the Melbourne University, founder and first president of the Public Library and the National Gallery. The first President of the Legislative Council was an Irishman, Sir James Palmer. The leading men in the medical profession, trom the late Dr Richard Thomas Taacey to the renowned operator Thomas Naughten Fitzgerald, are Irish-born. Four of the five speakers of the Assembly are such, namely, the late Sir Francis Murphy, Sir Charles M'Mahon, Sir C Gavan Duffy, and the late Mr Peter La'or. Of Prime Ministers the names of the late Sir John O'Shanassy, Sir Gavan Duffy, and Sir Bryan O'Loghlen at once occur, as do that of the late Sir Robert Molesworth, who had no superior as an equity judge. Wilson Gray, the brother of Sir John Gray, became the founder and leader of the Liberal Party in Victoria, sat for Bodney in the Parliament of that colony, lives in history as the greatest of Australian land reformers, and died a judge in New Zealand. Mr R. D; Ireland, Q.C., also became a prominent Parliamentarian in Victoria, and was thrice Attorney-General, and died one of the leaders of the Australian Bar. The Hon Edward Butler became Attorney-General of New South Wales under Sir Henry Parkes ; the Hon R. S. Anderson, Minister of Justice io Victoria ; the Hon Michael O'Grady, Minister of Public Works ; and Judges Bindon and Macoboy of the same colony. Victoria, in fact, has had two ex-Irish rebels as her Prime Ministers— Sir Charles Gavan Unfit 1 / and Sir Bryan O'Loghlan ; and the latter, who organised and drilled a company of Clare insurgents in '48, is freely mentioued as the next Agent. General for Victoria in London. Sir Richard Dry became Premier of Tasman ; and only last year a memorial tablet to another great Irish- Australian— Right Hon W. B Dalley, P. 0., Q C. —was unveiUd in St Paul's London. The eldest son of Sir C. Gavan Duffy, the Hon J. Q\ van DuflS- , is a Minister of the Crown ; his second son is the leader rf the County Court Bir ; and the other two hold prominent positions in the Civil Service. Only a few months have passed since the death of Sir Francis Murphy, the first speaker of the Victorian Parliament ; and the equally lamented demise of the Hon John Macrossan, who had held the position of Minister of Public Works, in Queensland, who left Bchool at the age of sixteen in his native Donegal. As for Sir Francis Murphy, he sat in the Speaker's chair for fifteen successive yeare-the longest term on record in colonial annals. I don't know whether Mr E. G. Fiizgibbon would be complimented if I called him the Sir John Monckton of Melbourne , and the Vice- President of the New South Wales- Executive is a gentleman with the Hibernian patronymic of Daniel O'Connor, a lineal descendant of Arthur O'Connor of the '98 Rebellion. The Lieutenant. Governor of the same colony, Sir Frederick Darley, is also one of our-

elves; and uc Ministry elected this month is composed of one Scotchman, tvtu Englishmen, three "natives," and four Irishmen, for there can be no doubt as to the nationality of statesmen bearing tke names of Lanu. Barton, Slattery, and O'Connor.

A short time ago the title of LL.D., honoris cant*, was conferred upon Mr John J. Curran, Q. 0., M.P., of Montreal, at the Ottawa University, end the same honour was conferred upon Mr Dennis Ambrose Sullivan, Q.C., Mi P., of Toronto. Mr T. G. Shaugbnessy, another Irishman, is President of the Board of Directors of the Canadian Pacific Bail way. Sir Bdward Kenny, who has just passed away, was Mayor of Halifax, sat for twenty-six years in the Legislative Council of the province, and in 1867 became senator. Subsequently be held office in the Federal Council as Beceiver-General, and later on was made President of the Council. The Hon George Howlan was for several years Premier of Prince Bdward Island, and is now one of the Oanadiin Senators ; and all of you are acquainted with ths story of D'Arcy Magee, the traitor of 1848 in Ireland, but the Cabinet Minister in Canada.

As for the United States, I daren't attempt to speak in detail of the Irish there, for they are " all over the shop." They crowd the Senate, the bench, the hierarchy, the consulates, the army, the nary, the municipalities — in fact they are everywhere. John Boyle O'Bielly, for example, who, in Ireland, was only fit for the convict hulk, escaped from penal servitude, and became one of the greatest men of this generation in the States. And need Ido more than mention th« name of Patrick Bgan ?

Daring the recent civil war in Chili some of the warships which figured in the naval strife bore such names as the " O'Higgins," the Almirante Lynsh," the " Almirante Oochrane," and other Irish-sound-ing titles. Those vessels wsre named after distinguished Irish Chilians, and Don Bernardo O'Higgins, the greatest of its Presidents, was born in Ireland, and died in 1846. Lynch, whose Christian name was Patrick, was also of Irish parentage, and was one of the most remarkable seamen his native land ever produced. He died so recently as 1886. His career was less distinguished and exciting, perhaps, thaa that of O'Higgins, whose equestrian statue adorns one of the leading thoroughfares of Santiago. O'Higgins' s father, Ambrose, was born in Ireland, and was the son of labouring people. He rose to be Viceroy of Peru, and Marquis de Osorno, dying with that title at the commencement of the century. His son, Bernard was also one of Chili' B greatest soldiers. He is immortal as the saviour of Chilian liberty and to him is due the complete emancipation of that country from the rule of Spain.

In the Ansiriau army the Taaffes, the Butlers, the Lallys, the Smfieldt, the Dillons, the Nugents, and the Kavaoagba are amongst the moat honoured names ; an Irish journalist named Dillon is one of the most potent influences in Russian politics ; the O'Donnells and O'Neills are military heroes in Spain ; the MacMabons have given a President to the French Republic ; and, as the London Standard recently reminded us, the Prestons rendered conspicuous service in the Netherlands, and their representative, Count Preston, died only a short time ago at a great age at Brnsscls. He was specially wtll acquainted with the history of these two Anatro- Irish families, and be used to say that twelve Irish gentlemen presented themselves at the Court ot Leopold in 1692, and that they all but one earned titles of nobility with their swords, and that the exception was General Blake who, as general of cavalry, reached, the highest rank but one in the Austrian army (applause).

Why, Stanley discovered an ivory trader at the Mountains of the Moon named Stokes. And the other day there appeared at Windsor an ambassador from a South African King in the person of a Doyle. An English war correspondent has even assured us that the Mahdi is of Irish decent. And in one of the Borneo Islands yon will find an O'KeefEe " boraing the show." Id Bnglirh dependencies *uch names of governors as the late Sir John Pope Hennessy and the late Sir Patrick Go'quohoun frequently occur — both of whom have filled many diplomatic posts of great importance ; and the central figure in Manipur, the ill-fated J. W. Quinton, chief commissioner for Assam, was a native of Dublin. Russell Lowell, meeting in London one day a distinguished American politican who had been defeated in the Presidential election immediately before, asked him where he was going for his holidays? "To Ireland," was the reply. " What?" said Lowell ; " I thought it was the Irish vote in the Btates that annihilated your party the other day ? " " That's just why I'm going to Ireland," replied the American politician ; " I want to see what it is like for I am convinced it's the only blasted country on the face of the earth that the Irish don't govern."

The municipality of Marseilles is engaged in expelling the Sisters of Charity from the hospitals. The change will cost the city more than 300,000 francs a year. Sir A. E. Macdonald's eon and heir, Mr A. J. Macdonttld, came of age the other day, and in celebration of the interesting event there have been festivities at Woolo»er. The Maodonald family have done much for the Catholic Church, and at present support a piiest and mission themselves They do not often come before the public, bat they accomplish a great deal of good in their own quiet way. Sir Archibald is Deputy-Lieutenant of the county of Hants.