LIFE AND TIMES OF DANIEL O'CONNELL.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XX, Issue 44, 19 August 1892, Page 21

LIFE AND TIMES OF DANIEL O'CONNELL.

A LBOTUBfI RECENTLY DELIVERED AT AUCKLAND UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE CATHOLIC LITERARY SOCIETY BT THE HON J. A. TOLfl.

(Concluded.) O'Connell, though not generally understood — any more than Oorran, perhaps — to have been a profound lawyer, possessed every requisite of a barrister of the highest reputation, and with hardly an exception was the ablest man at the Irish bar. His greatest forensic effort is said to have been his defence of John Magee for libel ; bat all his speeches should be read by the young men of this Society, and jon will derive instruction, pleasure and profit from them. Yon may sot always experience highly-finished and elaborately-perfect oratory, or massive phrases ; but yon will recognise the ready wit and powerful eloquence of the tongas that responds to the promptings of the true, tender, and patriotic heart and glowing mind ; and you will arise from the perusal of O'Connell's speeches wishing you could •peak as well. Try to do so. Though O'Oonnell was capable of highest oratory whenever the spirit and occasion required, he also possessed a quality of speech in, the other extreme to which only those endowed with his extraordinary versatility could, with safety to their method of diction, venture to descend. And in this conneotion I may, as I suppose a patron ought to do, offer a word of advice to the young men of this Literary Society, and, looking at the political atmosphere, even to the young ladies, and it is this, that if you desire or hope to become good speakers, next to the acquirement of the facility of speaking, you should always in your ordinary conversation ar»d speech talk at your best. Ido not mean by this, that you are to talk on every occasion with that precision and style of rhetoric which is employed on more formal occasions, bnt that you are to avoid falling into the use of slang, and a careless or vnlgar choice of words and mode of expression, which though apt enough, perhaps, in a certain sphere, will most assuredly prove a serious and embarrassing

impediment to the ready and elegant flow of language from an habit, nally -choice vocabulary. I give this advice from my own observation. In my experience of speakers, the men and women who spoke best and most charmingly were those who always in conversation or in telling a Btory, or making a speech, talked at their best in the way I mention. One notable illustration of what I mean is our Sir George Grey — who on all occasions, whether in private or on the platform, speaks with that ease, appropriateness, and elegance which we all so much admire. Lady Wilde says that O'Connell) charming and enchanting as he was, could fight with all weapons, " from a boomerang (I should have thought from a shillelagh) to a jewelled bodkin," and sometimes adopted a coarseness of speech when bold ; doubtless, the outcome of the serfdom of his countrymen of the time, and the necessity of accustoming them to fight the dominant oppressing factions with tbeir own weapons. Hence, O'Connell had acquired the great power of invective and vituperation, and was sometimes matchless as a scold. An instance of this, vouched for as historical truth, though possessing features of vulgarity, is so characteristic of hlB lighter moods of fun, and forms so memorable an incident in his life that I must net omit it. There was a certain Biddy Moriarty in Dublin, who kept a huxter's stall *on one of the quays opposite the Four Courts. She had a notoriously "bad tongue," and its slang and abuse were proverbial. Some of O'Connell's friends one day thought he could beat her with her own weapons ; O'Oonnell doubted it himself, having beard her Billingsgate once or twice, But he never liked defeat, and backed himself to encounter the virago, and it was decided that the event should come off at once. An adjournment was accordingly made to the huxter's ■tall, the owner herself in charge of her small wares, and a few loungers and idlers hanging ronnd the stall — for Biddy was one of the sights of Dnblin. O'Connell commenced the attack. " What's the price of this walking-stick, Mrs What's-yonr-name 7 " " Moriarty, sir, is my name, and a good one it is ; and what have you to say agen it f and one-and-sixpence's the price of the stick. Troth, it's chape as dirt— so it is." " One-and-sixpence for a walking-stick— whew I Why, yon are no better than in impostor, to ask eighteen pence for what cost you two pence".

" Two pence, your grandmother 1 " replied Mrs Biddy ;" do you mane to say that it's chating the people lam t Impostor, indeed f " 11 Ay, impostor ; and it's that I call you to your teeth," rejoined O'Connell. " Come, cut your stick, you cantankerous jackanapes." " Keep a civil tongue in your head, you old diagonal," cried O'Oonnell, calmly. " Stop your jaw, yon pug-nosed badger, or by this and that," cried Mrs Moriarty, " I'll make you go quicker nor you came." " Don't be in a passion, my old radius— anger will only wrinkle your beauty." " By the hokey, it you say another word of impudence, I'd tan your dirty hide, you bastely common scrub ; and sorry I'd be to soil my fists upon your carcase." " Whew I boys, what a passion old Biddy is in ; I protest as I am a gentleman—" " Jintleman ! jintleman ! the likes of you a jintleman I Wlsha, by gor, that bangs Banagher. Why, you potato-faced pippin-sneezer, when did a Madagascar monkey like you pick enough of common Christian dacenoy co hide your Kerry brogue ? " 4 'Easy now— easy now," cried O'Oonnell, with imperturbable good humour, "don't choke yourself with fine language, you old whiskey-drinking parallelogram " " What's that yon call me, you mnrderin' villian ? " roared Mrs Moriarty, stung into fury. " I call you," answered O'Oonnell, *' parallelogram ; and a Dublin judge and jury will say that it's no libel to call you so I " " Oh, tare-an-ouns ! holy Biddy I that an honest woman like me should be called a parry belly gram to her face. I'm none of your parrybellygrums, yon rascally gallows-bird : you cowardly, sneaking, plate-lickin' bliggard I " " Ob, not yon, indeed 1 " retorted O'Connell ; " why, I suppose you'll deny that you keep a hypothenute in your house." " It's a lie for you, you robber ; I never had such a thing in my bouse, you swindling thief." •' Why, sure all your neighbours know very well that you keep not only a bypothennse, but that you have two diameters locked np in your garret, and that you go out to walk with them every Sunday, yon heartless old heptagon." "Oh, hear that, y« saints in glory ! Oh, there's bad language from a fellow that wants to pass for a jintleman. May the divil fly ' away with you, you micher from Munster.

" Ah, you can't deny the charge, yon miserable submultiple of a duplicate ratio." " Go, rinae your month in the Liffey, yon nasty tickle-pitcher ; after all the bad words yon speak. " Rinse your own mouth, you wicked-minded old polygon— to the deuce I pitch you, you blustering intersection of a superfiices I " " You saucy tinker's apprentice, if you don't cease your jaw, I'll " But here she gasped for breath, unable to hawk up any more words, for the last volley of O'Connell had nearly stifled her. " While I have a tongue I'll abuse you, you most inimitable periphery. Look at her, boys ! There she stands — a convicted perpendicular in petticoats ! There's contamination in her circumference, and she trembles with guilt down to the extremes of her corollaries. Ah, you're found out, you rectilineal antecedent and equiangular old hag I 'Tib with you the devil will fly away, you porterswiping similitude of the bisection of a vortex I " Overwhelmed with this torrent of lauguage, Mrs Moriarty was silenced. Catching up a saucepan, aha was aiming it at O'Connell's head, when be very prudently made a timely retreat. " Yon have won the wager, O'Connell, here's your bet," cried the gentleman who proposed the contest. It is doubted if Biddy was fully reported ; at any rate it was an nneqnal match, inasmuch a 9 O.Oonnell's attack was planned. I have said O'Oonnell was bold in speech— he was also physically courageous. This quality in his character was called forth in the duelling days of 1815. At one of the numerous Catholic meetings held at that period, Counsellor O'Connell said, "I am convinced that the Catholic cause has suffered by neglect of discussion. Had the petition been la«t year the subject of debate we should not now see the beggarly Corporation of Dublin anticipating our efforts by a petition of an opposite direction." AMr D'Esterre, a member of the Corporation, took offence at the expression, •• beggarly corporatioa,'* which, now-a-days, would not disturb the equanimity of corporations, and he championed tbeir cause. He requested an explanation from O'Connell, who, in reply, emphasised what he called his " contemptuous feelings for that body in its corporate capacity, although jt contains many valuable persons, whose conduct as individuals (I lament; must necessarily be confounded in the acts of the general body." This was the only satisfaction O'Connell vouchsafed to D'Bflterre, except that at about 4 o'clock one morning in January,

1815, when on the duel ground D'Bsterre was mortally wounded iby a ball from O'Oonnell's pistol. O'Oonnell felt deeply during bis life the fatal result of this Borrowful episode. For three weeks after he ( ' remained in retirement, and for years after the sad encounter he was observed to raise his hat, and his lips to move as in silent prayer, whenever he passed D'Esterre's late residence. He allowed D'Esterre'a daughter— the widow having refused it— an annuity to the day of her death. Seven months' after, strange to relate, he found himself involved in anothar " affair of honour," and with no less a personage than Sir Robert Peel. This time, howevsr, the arrangements were intercepted by O'Oonnell being taken in state by a guard of honour of forty picked constables, before the magistrates at Bow street and bound over in bonds of £2,000 to keep the peace. Before passing on to that period of O'Oonnell's political agitation —Catholic Emancipation, I must refer to that deep sense of humour and happy facility in telling amusing stories so admirably that made him, as he was, such a perfect host and travelling companion. Many of his best anecdotes and reminiscences have never been recorded but there remain still a good many, ont of which I select a vary few. One tcomical story was about a Miss Hussey to whom her father had bequeathed £150 per annum, in consideration of her having an ugly nose. When on bis death-bed his housekeeper asked him what he had left Miss Mary. He told her* how much, and that it would do if she got any sort of a good husband " Heaven bless your honour ! what dacent man would take her with the nose she has got ? " said the houskeeper. "Well, that's really very true," said the dying father. " Never thought of her nose " ; and be forthwith wrote a codicil for another £150 as a set-off against her nose. In conversation one day at his own table, where with hi a guests he appeared to such advantage, chatting on the subject of Temperance, he was led to speak of a Judge Boyd, who was so fond of brandy that he always kept a supply in an inkstand before him in Court. His Lordship used to depress his head on it now and then, and steal a hurried sip from time to time through a quill, without, as he thought, being observed. One day it was sought to throw discredit oo the evidence of a witness on the ground of his having been drunk. Mr Grady, counsel of the other side, laboured hard to show the man was quite sober. "Come now," said Judge Boyd, "tell the Court truly, my good man, were you drunk or sober." " Ob, quite sober, my Lord," broke in Grady, looking significantly at the inkstand, '• As sober as a judge 1 " O'Connell resorted to tricks when he could do so to the advantage of his client. One of these you have probably heard. It was in a murder case at the Cork assizeß, O'Connell defending. The principal witness had picked up a hat near the murdered man, and swore it was the hat cf the prisoner, whose name was Pat Hogan. The hat was produced, and O'Connell asked to see it ; it was handed to him. " Now," said O'Connell, "you are quite sure this is the hat you found ?" " Yea," your honour." « And the hat is in the same state as when you found it ?" •• Oh, yes ; juat the same." O'Connell looked inside the hat and spelled " P-a-t H-o-g-a-n." "Do you mean to say the name was in it when you found it ?" "I do, on my oath ; quite sartin." " Now you may go down," said O'Connell. "My Lcrd," said he, " there is no name in the hat— there must be an acquittal." Oa another occasion O'Connell was defending a life and death case, and when he plainly saw there waß not the slightest chance of acquittal, he began putting utterly inadmissible questions. Objection waa taken, of conrße, and O'Connell persisting. Sergeant Letroy, then acting-Judge, became irritated "and declined to allow this line of cross- examination. This was just what O'Oonnell wanted, and with apparent indignation, he exclaimed, " As you refuse me permission to defend my client, I leave his fate in your hands, and his blood be on your heads if he be condemned." O'Connell then rushed out of Court impetuously, and in an agitated manner walked up and down, till in about half-an-hour the attorney came running out of Court, crying, " He's acquitted 1" •' My only chance," said O'Oonnell, " waa to throw the responsibility on the judge," whom he knew was timid, and by this trick became tbe prisoner's advocate, and charged the jury in his favour. O'Connell rather defied judicial insolence, and he tells amongst others, an incident which also shows his willingness to help young solicitors. One one occasion a young barrister was called on in Court by the opposing counsel to admit certain evidence. O'Connell, who was sitting in Court, told the barrister to make no admission. " Have you a brief in this case, Mr O'Connell ?" asked his Lordship. " I have not my Lord, but I shall have when the case goes down to the Assizes." " When I waß at the Bar," retorted the Judge, " it was not my habit to anticipate briefs." " When you were at the Bar, I never chose you for a model, and now that you are on the Bench, I shall not submit to your dictation." A ragged stroller one day recognised O'Connell, and asked him for a little money. "I don't know you at all, my good man," said O'Connell. " That's not what jour son would say, your honour, for he got me a good place at Glasnevin Cemetery, only I hadn't the good luck to keep it." « Then, indeed, you were strangely unlucky," rejoined Dan, " for those who have places in cemeteries generally keep them." Speaking of ingenious attorneys, O'Connell told a good story about one Mr Oheckley, who was attorney at tbe Cork Assizes for a fellow accused of burglary and assault, committed at Bantry

Oheckley, O'Oonnell said, " was the cleverest rogue (not used in • literal sense) 1 ever heard of." The notoriously witty Jerry Kellar, of the Munster Bar, was counsel in the case. At the close of the oase for the prosecution, which was clearly and circumstantially made out—the Jndge asked if there were any witnesses for the defence f " Yes, my Lord," said Jerry Kellar, " I have three briefed to me." Oheckley brought in accordingly a respectable-looking farmer-like man with blue coat and gilt buttons, corduroy tights, and gaiters. "This is a witness to character, my Lord," and forthwith began to examine him. " You know the prisoner ?" said Kellar. « Yes, your hononr, ever since he was a gosoon I" " And what is bis general character ?" f • Och, the devil a worse 1" •• Why, what sort of a witness is this you've brought?" said Kellar, throwing dowh his brief and looking furiously at Oheckley. "He has rained the case." "He may prove an alibi," replied Oheckley. " Examine him as to alibi, as instructed in your brief." Keller resumed his examination ;— "Where was the prisoner on the 10th instant?" "He was near Oastlemartyn ." •« Are you sure of that ?" " Quite sure, counsellor." "How do you know with such certainty?" "Becanse that very night, coming from a fair, I saw the prisoner near my own bouse, a little way before me. I'd Bwear to him anywhere. He was dodging about, and I knew it could be for no good end ; so I slipped into the field, and turned my hone to grass ; and while I was watching the lad from behind the ditch, I saw him pop across the wall into my garden, and steal a lot of parsnips and carrots ; and what I thought a great deal worse of, he stole a bran-new English spade 1 got from my landlord, Lord Shannon. So, faith, I cut away after him, but as I was tired from the day's labour, and be being fresh and nimble, I wasn't able to catch him. But next day, snre enough, my spade was in his house,— and that's the same rogue in the dock I I wish I bad a hoult of him." •• It is quite evident," said the Judge, " the prisoner must be acquitted. An alibi is dearly established, because Oastlymartyn is sixty miles from Bantry, and he is certainly anything but a partisan of his. Now, will you swear an information against the prisoner for this robbery of your property ?" « An 1 troth I will, my Lord, with all the pleasure of life, if yoor Lordship thinks I can get any satis, faction out of him; lam told I can for the spade, but not for the turnips or carrots." «Go to the Crown office, and swear an information," said the Judge. It is needless to Bay the prisoner was discharged, and the information was never sworn. Some of the older criminals felt a keen interest in O'Connell's life. One especially, whom O'Coonell had defended three or four times for crimes just short of murder, found himself standing in the dock again for piracy. He bad stolen a brig, and cruised along the coast, seeking booty. O'Oonnell defended as usual, and got the criminal off on a technical point of jurisdiction. The rescued rascal fervently clasped his bands and lifting his eyes to heaven, said. " Oh, may the Lord in His mercy spare your honour to me/ What would become of me if anything happened to you." O'Connell also used occasionally to get a little advice from some of these criminals. He used to tell an anecdote about a cafctle-stealer whom he defended, and who was clearly convicted and was transported. The convict returned, and happening to meet O'Oonnell, the latter asked him how he had managed to steal the fat cows always. Thinking, perhaps, that O'Oonnell had some intention of going on a similar enterprise, he gravely compiled this answer :-» Why, then, I'll ?ell your honour the whole secret of that, sir. Whenever your honour goes to steal a cow, always go on the woret night you can, for nobody will likely be about. The way you'll always know the fat cattle in the dark is by this token— the fat cows always stand in the more exposed places, bnt the lane ones always goes into the ditch for B helter. " Now it must not for one instant be thought from these few stories and reminiscences that O'Oonnell was merely a brilliant witty advocate, without any of those qualifications of a studious or of a practical business character which would fit him for the serious or commercial aspect of his profession. Ir would be quite a mistake to think so. Lalor Sheil, one of Ireland's most cnltured orators, whose speeches every member of the Society should study and a contemporary of O'Connell, describes him as a professional drudge. And you will find that no man, no matter what his genius can, without considerable labour, attain pre-eminence in the proles' sion he may select for his career. Shiel, in his " sketches," says •— " If any one, being a stranger in Dublin, should chance, between five and six in the morning, co pass along the south side of Merrion Square, he will not fail to observe that among those splendid mansions there is one evidently tenanted by a person whose habits differ materially from those of his fashionable neighbours. . . , Should you ascend the steps ... to reconnoitre the interior you will see a tall abl«-bodied man standing at a desk and immersed in solitary occupation. Upon the wall in front of him there is a large crucifix. . . . Your first impression will be that he is some dignitary of the Church of Borne absorbed in his main devotions. But this conjecture will soon be rejected ... the book cases clogged with tomes in plam calf skin binding, the blue-covered octavos that lie on the tables and the fioor, the manuscripts in oblong folds begirt with crimson tape, make it evident that the party|med!tating . . . must be thinking far more of the law than the prophets. He is unequivocally a barrister of the ... plodding.cast who labour hard to make

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up by assiduity what they want in wit, who are up and stirring before the bird of the morning has sounded the retreat to the wandering spectre, and is already brdn cfeep in the dizzy vortex of mortgages, crow-remainders and remitters while his clients sHll lapped in Fweet oblivion of the Jaw's delay, are fondly dreaming that their canso is peremptorily set down for final hearing. Having come to this conclusion . . , you push on, blessing yoor stars en tho way that you are not a lawyer, and sincerely comuapsicnating the sedentary drudge wh m you have just detected in the prrformance of his cheerless toil." I have quoted this passapc for the double purpose of showing you O'Connell as a hard worker in bis profession, and also to give you a sample of the finished descriptive style of Bheil. To show you also that O'Connell was well versed in a commercial phass of his profession, to which I regret to say sufficient attention iB not devoted by those who adopt the law as a profsssion — I refer to a thorough knowledge of bookkeeping and accounts— he used to tell a story about a case, when he was young At the Bar, where they were trying to upset • verdict obtained against their client for £1,100. "My senior counsel," he says, " contented themselves in abasing witnesses, detecting flaws and making sparkling points, and eloquent but ineffective speeches. Whilst they flourished away I got out our client's books, and taking i»y place under the Judge's bench, went through the accounts from beginning to end ; drew the whole out by double entry, and numbered every voucher. Tho result plainly waß, that so far from a just balance of £1,100 against our poor devil, there actually was a ba'ance of £700 in bis favour, although the poor, sloveoly blockhead of a client didn't know it. Whea my turn came I made the facts clear, and the jury inquired if they couldn't find a vsrdict of £700 for Mr . " " I just tell you the circumstances to show you," said O'Connell, " that I kept an eye on that important branch of my profession." I commend the same advice to you, gentlemen. You should make the knowledge of accounts a special feature in your preparation for any business or profession, and especially the law. Another suggestion of great practical utility to literary young men, students, especially those purposing to go to the profession of the law, is mentioned by O'Connell. At a large dinner party a literary dispute arose as to bow a character in a novel had been disposed of by the author. A reference was made to O'Connell, who, with perfect order, traced all the characters, distinguishing one from the other in time and place. He waa asked how, in the midst of all his various political and professional duties, and the thousand-and-one things engaging or disturbing his mind, he could so clearly remember such a matter as this ? Ha said, "It is probably owing to the habit of my life, which has been to arrange all matters of knowledge according to chronology— that is, to see the order of time in which the events took place, As a lawyer, duriDg the period when I have devoted seventeen hours daily to my profession, I alwajs begin by Btudying the chronology of the case — what took place first, what next — until at last it has become such a practice with me that, although I just glanced over that novel, it has fixed itself upon my mind as if it were a law case." Now, ladies and gentlemen, I cannot pretend to give you examp^s numerous enough to afford you anythiog like an adequa'e idea cf O'ConnelPs forensic eloque cc. which was natural and not acquired, for his pressing and multifar.ous engagements prevented him Lorn even thu iT^p irat'on o£ his speeches especially in latter years, muci less the s s'ematic cultivation or refinement of these elements of oratory with which nature had so liberally endowed him. But as his speech in defence of Magre for alleged libel in denouncing ths administration of the Duke of Richmond in Ireland ia considered one of his best efforts— when he wa3 about forty years of age— l extract the peroration :—: — "Is there amonggt you any one friend to freedom? Ia there amongst you one man who esteems equal and impartial justice, who values the people's rights as the foundation of private happiness, and who considers life no boon without liberty 1 Is there amongst you one friend to the Constitution — one man who hates oppressio^i ? If there be, Mr Magee appeals to his kindred nrnd, and confidently expects an acquittal. There are amongst you men of groat religious zaal— of much public piety. Are you eincere ? Do you believe what you profess? With all this zgal, with all this piety, i% tbero any conscience amongst you? Ia there auy terror of vioKtine your oath ? Be ye hypocrites, or doeß genuine religion inspire ye? If you be sincere, it you have consciences, if your oaths cau control your mtjreste — then Mr Magee confilently expects an acquital. If amongst you there bo cherisned one ray of pure religion ; if amonst you there glow a single apark of liberty ; if I have alarmed religion, aruused tl c Bpirit of freedom in one breast amongst yoa— Mr Magoe is safe, and bis country is served ; but if there be none, if you be slaves and hypociites, he will await your verdict, and despise it." And they rroved to bo hypocrites, for they found Ma?ce guilty, and he was heavily fined, O'Connell'a own opin on w<-s that his greatest bar speech was in an important disputed will case, Blackwood v. Blackwood, in which the madness of the testator was nllegedOne of the hallucinations of Blackwood was that he was Napoleon Buonaparte, referring to which, to the jury O'Connell paid : " Oh 1 gentleman of the jury, it is profanation to compare the name of Pinckston Blackwood with that mighty spirit which, even in a bad cause, awed all Europe; at whose command the sceptres fell from ,the hands of kings, and nations trembled ; which by the power and

the splendour of iB genius arose above the gaza of an admiring world, until, dizzied by its own lofty soarings, it fell upon a barren rock, and expired in the blaza of its own magnificent creation." In 1823, with emancipation ever present in his vigorous and fertile mind, he determined on an organisation which would associate the priests in active politics. This was the first, time probably that the clergy were umted in agitation with their people and they bave remained in union since. This was and is natural, and has been justified by results. Tho clergy have been their guide and shield in doubt and their consolation in affliction. This organistion, then, by O'Connell embracM the whole nation, and was called the " Catholic Association." In the following year he established the Catholic Rent, by small populnr subscriptions, for the management of Catholic affairs. The Protestants thought it was subscribed to buy arms with, henco it used to be called the powder and ball tax. In the same year a prosecution was for the first time commenced against O'Connell for an alleged seditious speech, but the grand jury threw out tba bill. Failing this, a Bill called the Al^erine Bill was brought in to suppress the Association, whose proceedings were ably defended by Sir Henry Parnell and Henry Brougham. O'Connell and Sheil, accompanied by several others, Sir Thomas Eamonde amongst the number, proceeded to London to be heard at the bar of the House. The Common?, however, would not hear them and the Bill was pasEed and the Association suppressed. But O'Cjnnell drove his " coach and four " through it, for, with the assistance of Sheil, ho revised the old association under the guise of a New Catholic Association, for the purposes of publi-c and private charity, and the old Catholic Bent was collected with the saving clause " for all purposes not prohibited by law." About this time O'Connell made one of the mistakes of bis life. He had been permitted to make a rough draft of the Emancipation Bill, and he allowed himself to be reasoned by Government supporters into foregoing the forty shillings franchise, which he found it almost impossible to defend to the indignant Irish people. He doubtless consented at the time with the best of motives, as he was led to believe with this concession emancipation was certain, bnt he was perfidiously deceived by the Government as the Irish people before and sidco havo similarly been deceived. The greatest power of the great Tribune waa in swaying large assemblies of his countrymen. He had created the platform, which had hardly dawned up to this time, a political agent, and placed it in the position of being recognised for all time aa part and parcel of the Constitution. The nation became organised, and in the memorable year of 1828 simultaneous meetings of the people took place on the 13th of January, at which it waa computed 5,000,000 people attended. A vacancy for a, seat in the House of Cjrnmons occurring in the electorate of Clare, O'Connell, in a characteristic address which I cannot, stop to quo'e, announced himself as a candidate, to the hcrror of Vescy Fiiz*erald, the rival candidate, and a member of the Administration. The election was fiercely contested, and every elector voted, and voted very often, O'Conaell's enemies said. His inexhaustible native wit and eloquenca were at their greatest height perhaps ia this nnd the year succeeiing. He was returned by a majority of ever a thousand vote^, arxl chaired in triumph surrounded by tix'y thoi.s^ml people. At the close of the poll Vosey Fitzgerald fled, and O'Cunaell, in esultation, cnei out to the vast multitude, " Where's Vesey, boy.?. Ochon?, Vcspy Fitzgerald, it's dull lam without y ,v. Jiun, mavouraeen, lun, and s:nd the bell about for him ! I'll give j ou t^e call : " Lost or mislaid, Stolen or strayed, T he Right Honourable The President of the Board of TraJe." That day at Clare emmcipa'ioa was won, though not yet obtained. O'Connell knew that aa the law stood ha could not tiike his seat because bo could not take the Parliamentary oath, declaring his religion idolatrous. Still he was eligib'e for election, and being elected would force attentnn to the gross disability and injustice to Catholics. Ho declined to take the oath, and argued his claims at the bar of the House. Parliament refused to allow him to take his seat and he went back for re-election, and was triumphantly returned unopposed— the first election having cost £20,000. Meantime, petitions poured 'into Parliament, P<.el moved tho Catholic Relief Bill— they would not call it Emancipation. The Iron Duke and the King himself had to snecumb, "and Napoleon's conqueror yielded to a mightier foe," and the measure passed by a majority of 178. It was O'Connell's creation ; he arduously sustained it, and is entitled to the everlasting gratitude of Ireland for its accomplishment. It had several ludicrous clauses, such aa this, "That a Catholic judge could not attend Mass in wig and gown." As O'Connell said, " The judge, may continue a Catholic, but the powdered wi^and gown must stiil remain Protestant." After emancipation I may Biy that O'CV>nn±n almost immediately relinquished his larga practice and devote! the remainder of his life undividedly to the service of hia beloved country. He now at once smarted the Repeal Agitation— manstor meetings which were always the congenial sphere of hia popular geniua and mighty power were inagurated. It waa a power that by hia mere work could, and did, turn back 50,000 meu on their march. Hi 8 genius had been described

as " the geuius of the nation — one moment in jest and banter, sparkling like the streamlets in Irish glens ; in another like the tempest Ihmidat Irish mountains ; now soft as a song to tbe Irish harp, deep as the wind upon an Irish heath ; again mournful as waves around the Irish shores— in a poetry bold as their hopes, and in a prophecy as wild as their enthusiasm." His sway was not confined ..o Irishmen only. In England he addressed vast and delighted multitudes. On Oarlton Hill, Edinburgh, he spoke to tens of thousands of Scotchmen, and arous3d them by his dazzling eloquence. On the suggestion of Ireland's immortal patriot poet, Thomas Davis, the monster meetings were held on historic ground — Cashd, Mullaghmast, Tara, etc. It would interest deeply to read the description of the Repeal meetings — their vastness, their enthusiasm, and their order— and when I mention that at the Tara meeting, which O'Oonnell addressed, there were not less than 750,000 people — ten thousand horsemen alone — you can picture to yourselves the royal surroundings of the uncrowned monarch, and the national homage to the sacred cause of liberty he espoused, I must not forget to mention that the great apostle of "temperance, Father Mathew, was also in the front rank of Repealers. He considered that a sober man would make the best patriot, because he would be the most reasoning and reasonable ; therefore, temperance was a special feature of the Repeal organisation, and ensured peace anrl order. In 1841 the office of Lord Mayor was thrown open to Catholics, and O'Connell became the first Catholic Lord Mayor of Dublin — still agitating Repeal inside and outside the Corporation, fearlessly but constitutionally. His motto to the end of his life, as in the beginning, was " He who commits a crime gives strength to the enemy." But temperate and prudent as he was in his agitation, the last monster meeting to have been held at Clontarf in 1843— which O'Connell called the " Repeal year "—was proclaimed or prohibited by the Government, and he, his son John, Gavan Duffy, and others were tried for conspiracy, convicted and sent to prison. On appeal to the House of Lords the convictioa was quashed on the ground that tbe whole list of Catholic names had been omitted from the jury panels. Lord Den man, during the appeal case, said, "If such practices should continue, trial by jury would be a mockery, a delu. sion, and a snare." And Lord Macaulay, speaking in the House of Commons in 1844, said, 'I Mr O'Connell has been convicted, but you cannot deny he has been wronged." He used to 6ay, good hurnourealy> sometimes that members of his family had a trick of living till they were 90. But being now on the verge of 70 years of age, the imprisonment for tbre.3 months of this venerable patriot, though holding leveea in gaol, and though subsequently released amidst the wildest popular enthusiasm, apparently crushed, to some extent, the old Bpirit. In the following 3 'jar the dread calamity of famine smote the land and weighed heavily upon him. His great frame having broken down, he was ordered to a warmer c'imate, and at Genoa in May, 1847, his soul passed peacefully out of a life consecrated to the freedom and amelioration of bis race. His heart is in Rome, and a round tower marks the spot where his body lies in Glasnevn Camatery. The young men of this or any other generation will learn from the study of this gr>'at man's life the lesson of our being, h>w to live an! how to die, and to remember that our first duty is to God and next to our country t The lecturer concluded sis follows :—": — " This Sjcie. y is Catholic and literary. Let it be Oathol'c first and thea literary ; for If there bi about it any indifferentistn or disrespect for it 3 religion, its name is a mockeiy and its functions are harmful. Tdo not mean by religion, a narrow-minded bigotry, but I mean an open, sensible adherence to the name and practice of your religion. O'Connell was the most liberal ar.d tolerant of men or statesmen, but he was a steadfast Catholic. From a literary point of view you will find from the Btudy of his life and times liille to avoid, but much to imitate. Io recent years more impetuous mmds may and do criticise adversely O'Connell's moda of dealing with the Repeal movement, but it must be remembsred that be went into St Stephen's with the support of only twenty-six tuute members, not with forty, fifty, or as they number now eighty-six of the most vigorous political intellects and tongues in Ireland. Wliit a contrast ! Still grei'er is the contrast wiih the position of Ireland's hopes at this hour, when history has to racord that in. less ihan fifty years from the death of O'Connell, or abjut the sirae time that it took to secuie the one single measure of Catholic Ernanc.paMon — there is at ia t m th it greatest assembly iv the world a just rnijmty of nearly fifty votes ready at this moment to obtain for Ireland the management of her own affairs. The result of tbe recent elections is the triumph of an enlightened democracy, * the triumph of reason ani righteousness over prejudice and tyranny, 7 and a lasting confirmation of tuosa peaceful, constitutional, and moral lorces so persistently and eloqueatly advocated by t^at grtat, icepiriting and prophetic vuica now still, and. the memory of whose aspirations and achievements will ouly cause with the extinction of the Irish race." For us he lived, fought, suffered, dared and died, Struck off the shackles from each fettered limb, And all we have of best we owe to him. *****

Where'er we turn the same effect we find O'Coanell'a voice still speaks his country 'a miad. • • • • * We bless his memory, and with load acclaim To all the winds, on all the wings of fame Waft to the listening world the great O'Connell's name.