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constant adversary, Curran, he was tainted, though rather in a less degree, with the too general custom of the day, profane swearing, and lewd talk. His father's luminous mind had, so early as 1771, when he published an "Essay on Commerce," advocated the system of free trade, that is, some years before Smith's great work had appeared, and familiarised the thinking world with the subject.

Chapter XIII. contains an amusing anecdote of a speech made by O'Connell at Waterford, during the agitation of the Catholic Question, it would appear in 1826, which the London deputed reporter, Mr. Michael Honan,-(now the correspondent of the Times at Rome and Italy in general,)—arrived too late to have heard; yet, most anxious to escape the censure of his employers for not performing his assigned duty, he earnestly requested of O'Connell to repeat for him what he recollected of the speech. "As I had nothing else to do," adds O'Connell, “I consented, and delivered a much better speech, walking up and down the room, than the one I had pronounced at the meeting. The reporter went off in

Fitzgibbon having summoned his young son to his presence for some imputed fault, the messenger, his brother, said-

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"Your father orders you to go to him-you must come instantly." "Orders! must!" repeated the boy of thirteen, "such language suits me not; nor will I stir an inch-DECRETUM EST"-proudly stamping his foot on the ground.

The old gentleman heartily laughed at this presumptuous burst of haughtiness, and in a note jocosely "requested the honor of an interview with Mr. John Fitzgibbon, Junior," when, after a few words, no further notice was taken of the matter.

I am surprised that no special biography of a person, who, for several years, and in most perturbed times, exercised an uncontrolled rule over Ireland, has appeared. Few Irishmen in the narrative of their lives, would offer a subject of more varied instruction and interest to a competent pen.

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high delight; and it was a topic of some surprise and amusement, that the very best report of my speech appeared in a newspaper which had no reporter at the meeting." It is in adverting to Shiel's unspoken speech at Pennenden Heath, that this circumstance occurred. It was also on this occasion that O'Connell, in language combining the warmest expression of friendship with the deeply impressed sentiments of esteem for the personal character, and unvarying support of liberal principles, in their largest application, of Mr. William Roche of Limerick, proposed him as Chairman of the numerous assembly, which included the principal Catholics of the province, and, therefore, demanded a gentleman of corresponding distinction to preside over it. Words, indeed, could hardly convey a stronger or more cordial conviction of eminent merit, as well as of affectionate regard, than O'Connell's introductory address in this instance. That the feeling was not transient, his letters, generally commencing and concluding with, "my dear friend, &c." and continued for years, indeed, to the last hour, are demonstrative; and of which the following copy of one long since communicated to me, will be evidence. The date shows that it was written shortly after the Emancipation Act.

"Bury-Street, London,
22nd May, 1829.

“MY DEAR SIR,-Many, many thanks-not in words, but from my heart-I am determined to contest Clare-which I would now do, even if I was undetermined before I got your kindest (underlined by O'Connell,) note. My accounts thence are most favourable. What care I for any political event, when I am sure of the cordial friendship of such men as you? Desiring my best regards to your

brother, as well as to his fine family, believe me, with affectionate regard, "Your's, &c.,

"DANIEL O'CONNELL. "P.S.-The more letters you are kind enough to write the better."

At this time, too, O'Connell introduced Mr. Roche to Louis Philippe, and his son, the late Duke of Orleans, when the latter was Duke of Chartres, and the father Duke of Orleans. Mr. Roche was chosen Member for Limerick so soon as a Catholic could represent it, and was even dispensed by O'Connell from the pledge of repeal, the sole instance, I believe, of that exception. It should be recollected that it is on one of O'Connell's most endeared friends that I thus dwell, and therefore not without a justifying reason for the details. To O'Connell, besides, it was his, and not less my pride, to claim alliance, on both our parents' side, paternal and maternal.

The name of "old Mr. Jeffreyes," mentioned at page 90 of the first volume, was George, not Charles; and O'Connell's early coadjutor in the Catholic agitation, Peter Bodkin Hussey, introduced at page 25 of the same volume, was called, I remember, red precipitate, from the color of his hair, and ardent character; but he afterwards abandoned both the Catholic cause and religion.

Often and complacently has O'Connell repeated, that the inborn ambition, the first conscious aspiration of his soul, which his memory could retrace, was, "that his name should be written upon the page of Irish history." And most fully, we may say, without any presumptuous claim of prescience, is that desire destined to be accomplished; for to none of her generation will the annals of his country owe, or more

justly devote a large, a grateful, and brilliant page. His mortal career is now closed, inauspiciously, indeed, and unseasonably, as succeeding events have shown; whilst, in whatever light his political course, which alone can be open to controversy, may be viewed, there can exist no variance of opinion, as to the surpassing energies of his mind, which, in their direction, if not the approval, must command the admiration of all.

As hostilities amidst scenes of national discord can, we know, be as fiercely pursued, and often with no less personal risk, as at the point of the sword, surely those who at home, in defiance of all danger, have perseveringly and intrepidly combated the enemies of Ireland, are entitled to similar commemoration. And if so, what name can supersede, in due expression of his country's obligations, that of O'Connell, who devoted his long and glorious life to that sacred cause? For although the struggle, which, during an uninterrupted series of forty years, he maintained against the combined selfishness, deep-rooted prejudices, and fanatic intolerance of the English people, aggravated in its rancour by the still more embittered Orange faction at home, had for its object, in the assertion of justice, to prevent, not to excite the effusion of blood, yet the contest of adverse interests and passions, which he had to encounter, placed him quite in as hostile a position, and demanded equal boldness of spirit, and capacity of mind, as if engaged in mortal strife, at the cannon's mouth. His final triumph, accordingly, over the multiplied obstacles he had to surmount, revealed in him, with unerring demonstration, all the faculties of a great commander. To have held in

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control a well-trained army, is far easier, and calls into exertion less energies of our being, than to maintain, as he did, submissive to his every behest, a nation of warm temperament, or, at least, several millions of an uneducated, undisciplined population, to whose gratitude for their religious enfranchisement, and confidence in his uprightness of purpose, he owed this boundless sway, and enduring possession, beyond all example, of the popular favor-that delusive phantom, which, while sunk in seeming subjection, can abruptly seize and fearfully wield the tyrant's sceptre, suddenly burst what appeared indissoluble in adamantine hold, and capriciously crush or enchain the idol of its own creation. History, I repeat, discloses not to our view a tenure comparable, in duration or intensity, of that proverbial symbol of inconstancy, which far exceeded what we read of Pericles, of Chatham, or any other competitor for fame in the power of "ruling the fierce democracy." In a word, O'Connell's command of the human will, "that spell upon the mind of man," as characterised by Byron, in application to Napoleon, sufficiently proves his genius, evinces the master-spirit, and proclaims the extraordinary man. Even the unmeasured abuse which, in the opposition of political feeling, assailed him, it belonged not to characters of common mould to excite, but which, in its source and consequences, will reflect to the future historian, the most vivid image of the age, and ensure to its object the commensurate, but more dispassionate notice of posterity.

The portrait of the elder Cato, as we find it in Livy, (lib. xxxix., cap. 40,) appears so apposite in many features to O'Connell, that, though referred to

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