The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1869-05-22 00:00:00

MR. KICICHAM, THE RELEASED
FENIAN. _

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Charles Kickham, one of the liberated Fenian
prisoners, has resumed his literary pursuits with unabated
spirit. Ile has published A Tale of Tipperary, which was
written when in Woking prison, and dedicated to "John
O'Leary, Portland Convict Establishment, or elsewhere " It
contains biographical sketches of his fellow political pri-
soners. He is also publishing is the Irishman a series of
political articles devoted to "Ireland's cause."—A correspon-
dent of the Daily News, who is travelling in Ireland and
" taking notes," has been on a visit to Mr. Eickham, and
thus records it:—
But I do not regret having come to this place, for
another reason. By the merest accident, I heard
that Mr. Charles Kickham, the liberated Fenian con-
vict, was residing in Mullinahone, and I resolved to
pay him a visit. "If you cio," I was told, "you will
have the police on the watch for you." I replied Can-
tabit vacuus coram policeman viator." He who has
neither treason, stratagem, nor wiles in his heart, may
even visit a liberated Fenian. My first impression of
Mullinahone was that Mr. Kickham made an unwise
exchange for the prison-house, for a more wretched,
forlorn, tumble-down sort of place it would be difficult
to realize, even in the imagination. I found Mr.
Kickham in a small house, looking towards a dis-
mantled and ivy-covered ...sidle, the walls of which
were of unusual thickness. Alt= a few words of
introduction, he told me that the EnglisL Mulli-
nahone was the "Mill of St. John;" that the origffi
of the castle was lost in the darkne,A of time; that in
1798 a Croppy's head VMS hung upon it as a warning
to all rebels, but that the hook from which it was sus-
pended was sent to the Chicago Fenian Fair two years
ago, and sold as a relic for the benefit of the Fenian
war treasury. I told him the object of my coming to
Ireland. I was surprised by his ready answer—though
he spoke through an interpreter with his fingers, being
wholly deaf—" Wherever the Fenian went they dis-
couraged individual assassination." "Strange," I said,
"I have heard a theory within the last few days which I
ascribed them to the Fenian organisation." "That is
not true," he replied, "at least as far as I know.
Hand me Davis's Poems." Having got the volume he
turned to the "Vow of Tipperary,', and pointed out
the following lines :
Too long with rash and single arm.
The peasant strove to guard his eyrie,
Till Irish Mogi bedewed each green,
And Ireland wept for Tipperary.
But never more we'll lift a hand--
We swear by God and Virgin Mary—
Except in war for native land.
And that's the vow of Tipperary.
Mr. Kickham's manner was too genuine, and his im-
pulse too quick to admit of any doubt that he, at least,
did not sanction those outrages which have alarmed
so many from their number and mysteriousness. On
the table beside him wan the first copy of a little work
which he has just published, "Sally Cavanagh; or,
Untenanted Graves.' Beneath it were several volumes
in quarto and folio. He made no allusion to his con-
nexion with Fenianism, but he complained, not so much
in anger as in bitterness, of the treatment he re-
ceived in prison. "It is a disgrace," he said, "to
the British Government. I cannot think the officials
would have acted as they did if they bad not re-
ceived orders from their superiors. It is a shame
to make political prisoners the companions of the most
debased and depraved felons." I could well under-
stand the feeling in Mr. Kickham's case, for I perceived
that I was talking to a man of very refined mind and of
a gentle nature. In different circumstances neither
the felon's dock nor the prison's cell would have been
Mr. Kickhani's place. Whatever his political senti-
ments, his moral principles, and his gentlemanly
demeanour were unfitted for a gaol life, and, as he
said, "If I had not been liberated I would have been
dead now."

THE BEST OFFERING TO O'CONNELL
MAY 14Th, 1569.
"The remains of the Liberator were this day transferred
from their temporary resting-place where they have reposedslice 1547, when be died, with great poinp, to the tomb
raised for him by national contribution in libisnevin Come.
tery."—Dub/in Neu, of May 14th.
Bear his bones, with all pomp, from the place they have kept
For the twenty-two years that have pass'd since he slept,
To the tomb that his Erin has painfully reared
Foe the Champion she loved, and her enemies feared.
There 's a time to note sharply, a time to pass by,
The flaw in the brilliant, the cloud in the sky.
There 's a time to be gen`rous, nor narrowly scan
The stains on a mem'ry, the faults in Oman.
standing now by his tomb, who devoted Ins life,
With wrong and oppression to wage deadly strife,
Till from Captive, Emancipate, Erin he saw,
lu the liberty won by the triumph of Law.
Why gauge the alloy that was mixed with his gold?
Earth and matrix a-by weigh, 'gainst the gems in their hold?
A great work was laid on him, and that work he wrought;
He'd is battle to fight, and that battle he fought.
And he wrought to good end, and he fought till he won,
And the sum of injustice was less 'neath the sun
Let what smallness or selfishness darken his name
lie drunk up and drowned in the light of that lame.
Let us think of the warm heart, still open, at need,
To the wronged of his race, the oppressed of his creed
Unteropted by pelf, and undauntea by power,
Too noble to crawl, and too daring to cower.
Let us think of the big brain, and eloquent tongue,
That like Erin's own clair-seach • now wailed, and now rung,
O'er the wrongs of the slaves he was vowed to set free,
Or in praise of his green isle, his gem of the sea!
On the bier that is borne to Glasnevin to-day,
One offering the hand of the Saxon can lay—
The Bill that the Church of the stranger strikes down—
Of the work of hie life consummation and crown !
Last link of the chain, once red-rusted with gore,
Forged by Saxon for Celt, in the the ill tunes of yore,
At whose crushing coil, forty long years ago,
His hand struck the fir*, and the deadliest blow !
• The ancient Irish harp. —Punch.
unenced

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_
THE DISCOVERY OF DIAMONDS
AT THE CAPE.
The advices from the Cape of Good Hope inform
us that the large 8:..q carattliamond recently found, and
valued at £30,000, has been detained at Cape Town.
Eight persons, including Mr. Green, the Civil Com-
missioner of Colesberg, and his clerk, Mr. Lorenzo
Boyce, now Civil Commissioner of Mamaqualand,
declare that in December last they negociated
a secret arrangement with Waterboer, chief of the
Griquas tribe. He transferred to them all his claims
or a royalty on precious stones or metals found within
his country, tiring the royalty at one-fifteenth of the
gross value. They assert that the diamond referred
to was found in Waterboer's country, and have pro-
cured an interdict on the gem in the Supreme Court
until their claims were settled. The owners of the
diamond assert that it was found on British territory

at Leith.
There were twenty more diamonds recently found in
the hands of different persons at Cape Town. How-
ever, when it became known that the above interdict
was served, not a single individual could be found to
own that he had one.
The correspondent of the draff Reinet Herald writes
that there are reports of another diamond, larger than
the filtA carat one, has ;ng been found.
The Rev. John M'Kenzie, for several years a mis-
sionary, returning to England in the Good Hope, reports
that gold in quantities sufficient to pay for working
will be found in the country, north of his late station,
and that had the diggers who recently arrived at Natal
been assured of their personal safety they would have
proceeded to the reputed gold country.