The Sun.
London, England, 1864-06-18 00:00:00

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Pxl
Address from York to Mr. Gla,
The unenfranchised classes of York have held a public
meeting, and unanimously voted an address t 3 the Chan-.
cellor of the Exchequer, which, elegantly bound as a thin.
quarto volume, and every page illuminated with exquisite
art, has just been presented to Mr Gladstone by a deputa-
tion represented by Mr Westhead, M.P., and Mr Alderman
Leeman. The address, which was signed by Mr Charles
Ernest, the chairman of the working class meeting, was as
creditable to its originators, from the terms in which it was
expressed, as from the taste with which it was executed.
The address, and the answer returned by Mr Gladstone
were the following ;
"To the Right Honourable William Evart Gladstone,
M.P., Chancellor of the Exchequer.
"Honoured Sir,
"We, the working men of the city of York, in public
meeting assembled, desire to express to you our appreciation
of your masterly and courageous speech, delivered in the
House of Commons on the 11th of May last, in defence of
the work'ng classes, and in advocacy of their right to a fair
share of representation in the Parliament of this country.
"We read your speech with admiration and a deep
feeling of gratitude. It is a rare thing for a Minister of
the Crown so sp.ak with so much pride and generous
warmth of our order. From the time when you first re-
vised the tariff, and, standing by the side of Sir Robert
Peel, by your eloquence assisted him to break down the
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been winning the hearts and affections of the people of this
nation.
" Your great financial scheme of 1860 is still fresh in our
memory. The treaty of commerce with France, and the
abolition of the taxes on knowledge, with both of which
measures your name is honourably and conspicuously asso-
ciated, are producing blessings and benefits which are
i n
,13 tlivmea
have marked the manifestations of your sympathy
with the down-trodden and oppressed of every clime. You
have advanced the cause of freedom in foreign lands oy the
withering power and unflinching courage with which you
have from time to time assailed and exposed the mietleeds
and cruelties of continental tyrants.
"To the provident operative you have, by your Post-
office Savings Bank Bill, given security for his small sav-
ings; and your Government Annuities Bill of this session
is a measure which will stimulate the people to greater
thrift and forethought, and inspire them with more inde-
pendence. These acts, together with your speeches on the
last-named measure, and on Mr. Baines' Borough Fran..
chise Bill, make up a life that commands our lasting gra-
titude.

Mr. William Smith O'Brien died on Thursday at
Bangor. His name was first ridiculous as a pri-
soner of the coalhole of the House of Commons ;
next, notorious as the leader of the Irish rebels of
1848 ; again, ridiculous when he fought and was
captured in Widow Welsh's cabbage garden, and,
finally, simply obscure and disregarded. What in-
fatuatiou possessed such a man—a country gentle-
man of property, a Cambridge man, a man of
unblemished personal honour—to embark in such
absurd enterprises as made the name of " Smith
O'Brien" less the hangman's affair than a subject
for unlimited jokes ! His elder brother, Lord Inchi.
quin, lives the honoured lieutenant of Clare, and a
representative peer of his country in the British
Parliament ; he, though a man of greater ability,
lived latterly away from the land which might have
been proud to own him,

" We believe that when you say it is for the interests of
the country that the question of Parliamentary Reform
should be speedily ascertained and settled, that you will
strive to accomplish a settlement that will be satisfactory to
the people. We believe this because we think you incapable
of deceiving. We have marked the integrity and rectitude
—the deep sincerity—which guide your life,
" We wish to sustain you in your noble efforts to obtain
for us political recognition. Hitherto we have been, and we
now are, aliens in the land of our birth, We have no poli-
tical existence. Against the injustice of our position we
have petitioned and protested. We have shown, by argu-
ment and conduct, our fitness for the exercise of the Parlia-
mentary franchise.
" But we have been stigmatised as a 'vile mob,' es
brutally depraved,' that would take bribes,' and ' over-
bear the other classes of society.' This has been said by
members of t hat house which the lustre of your intellect
adorns. Where is our violence ? Where our disorder? In
what have we manifested a desire not to submit to the law ?
We are Englishmen : we love our country : we regard her
honour, and should be as ready in the day of danger to shed
our blood in her defence as the highest in the land.
"You, respected Sir, believe this. You have declared it,
and spoken words that have sunk deep into the hearts of
every working man in every corner of the land. We thank
you from our inmost souls. We look to you as a powerful
and consistent advocate of our cause, and may God long
preserve your life. That you may continue to be the sound
and impartial statesman—the friend of the poor—seeking
simple justice to all—is the fervent wish and desire of the
working men of this ancient city."
" Signed on behalf of the meeting,
"June 7, 1864." " CHARLES ERNEST."

" A mockery and a show."
Mr. William Smith O'Brien was born in 1803.
He was the second son of Sir Edward O'Brien,
fourth baronet, of Dromoland, in the county of
Clare, by the eldest daughter and co-heiress of Mr
William Smith, of Cahirmoyle, Limerick. His elder
brother (better known as Sir Lucius O'Brien, long
the Conservative M.P. for Clare) succeeded his
father as fifth baronet in 1837, and became 13th
Baron Inchiquin in 1855, on the death of his kins-
man, the Marquis of Thomond. One fact tolerably
well indicates the character of the subject of this
notice—that when, in 1862, Lord Inchiquin's
brothers and sisters were elevated to the rank of
baron's children, he refused to be included in the
Royal warrant.
Mr O'Brien, after an education at Harrow, and
Trinity College, Cambridge, entered Parliament in
1826 as the Tory M.P. for Ennis, and opposed
Mr. O'Connell at the famous Clare election.
He was member for Limerick from 1835 to
1849, and this waa the important part of his sena-
torial career—the position of a Protestant Irish
county member being his Archimedean stand-point,
whence he could, as he thought, move the Irish
world to O'Connellism.

It would not be of any use, and it would be cer-
tainly of little interest, to mention the hon. gentle-
man's speeches, and the little skirmishes which were
perpetually taking place in consequence, preliminary
to that in the cabbage garden. But the month of
April, 1846, produced a terrible outburst of Celtic
indignation on the part of the member for Limerick
county, which ended in a coalhole. The cause of this
outburst was quite worthy of its close. At the end of
March the Committee of Selection made a special re-
port to the House of Commons to the effect that Mr.
O'Brien baying been duly summoned to attend on a
railway bill as ordered was a " defaulting member."
Mr. O'Brien alleged, in a letter dated from the Ox-
ford and Cambridge Club, that he declined to serce
on committees " on any private bills except
such as related to Ireland," as the opposition to the
intended Irish coercion bill required all his time
and his faculties, which—as he justly said of the
latter at least—were " limited." In spite of a gen.
tlemanly and temperate letter from Mr. Backnall
Estcourt, member for Oxford University, and chair.
man of the Committee of Selection, Mr. O'Brien
refused to yield. On the 29th of April Mr. Henley
reported this fact, and Mr. Estcou rt moved that
the hon. gentleman was guilty of a contempt of
the House, which motion was carried by 133 to 13.
The next day Mr. O'Brien was committed to cus-
tody. If he expected to be " honoured with a
residence in the Tower," as a contemporary journal
remarks, he was mistaken. He was assigned a amall
apartment called the cellar, belonging to the porters,
on the north side of the House." The next indignity
was a " burst of laughter" when the present Lord Fer-
moy read a very defiant letter addressed to "my dear
Roche" from the House of Commons Prison," in
which he said that, " suffering from the injustice of
the house, he expected nothing from its generosity."
The general election released Mr. O'Brien, but
his confinement had not brought him wisdom. The
Revolution of February in Paris, and the general
upheaving of the continent of Europe, seemed to
produce a kind of echo in Ireland. O'Connell had
been dead a year, or Inc fun he would have made
of Mr. Smith O'Brien's ridiculous deputation .to
Paris, with Meagher of the Sword, O'Gorman, and
others, who are immortalised by Mr. Thackeray.
M. Lamartine was good enough to let the treason•
mongers down easily, but he flatly told them that
the Republic "would not commit an act, would not
utter a word, would not breathe an insinuation"
against the " inviolability of nations," which grand
phrase merely meant doing England the kindness
to let her mind her own business. The British. G-
overnment did not seem to appreciate Mr. 0 Brien s
love for French fashions and tried him for sedition,
Mr. O'Brien having, like many another prophet in
his own country, been grievously assaulted at
Limerick. He was defended by Mr. Isaac Butt in
the Hall of Four Courts, and, as might be expected,
the jury did not agree, and the matter came to an
end, though similar luck did not befall John Aiit-
chel. Nothing daunted, Mr. Smith O'Brien, having
been negatively successful at sedition, resolved to
make a direct attempt at high treason. Towards

" 11, Carlton House-terrace, June 16, 1864.
" My Dear Sirs,—l have to acknowledge with sincere
gratitude the receipt of the address from the working men of
the city of York, which you have bees eo good as to place
in my hands,
" The terms and spirit of that address supply me with a
fresh proof of a truth which has long been impressed upon
my mind, namely, that in this country, while the errors
and shortcomings of a public man are regarded with every
indulgence, his well-intended efforts to render sere cc to
the State will never fail to receive an appreciation, which
in some instances, like that now before me, goes far beyond
his deserts.

"I hope that the thank I now cordially return to those
whom you represent, will be taken as addressed to all who
have expressed, or who be inclined to express, psrti.•
cularly with regard to the subject of the franchise, senti-
ments corresponding with theirs,—l rerna'n, my dear Sirs,
very faithfully yours,
(Signed.) " W. E. GLADSTONE,
"To J. P. Brown-Westhesd, Esq., )I.P„ end
Mr Alderman Lemma."

the end of July he attempted to get up an iri;hre-
bellion
uoan
La
rd smalleasrceanl
de
0;
issued
troops Were sent off to Ire-
m gatheredo n m ou
na t
al
iont sof
and ragamuffinst.sv aproclamations. He
46 if an attempt was made to
together by Slievna-
s rtuamkoeuhriemd
thereof e
rhei mw
ot
uh
ladt
be fighting." The fighting may have taken place,
but the proceedings of "the Giant O'Brien," as he
was called, was mere skulking, He was arrested at
Thurles on August 5, and so the silly insurrection
came to an end. Mr. O'Brien was tried for high
treason and condemned to death. Her Majesty was
advised to commute the death penalty, but Mr.
O'Brien—the ruling passion strong even to death—
refused the proffered boon, which, however, the
bigotry and intolerance of the odious English Go-
vernment compelled him to accept. He was sent to
Bermuda, and refused to join Mitchel in forfeiting
his word and escaping. He was ultimately pardoned
(1856), and has been only lately favourably known
by a most sensible and judicious letter against en-
listment in Ireland for the Federal party.
Mr. O'Brien married, about 1836, the daughter of
Mr. Joseph Gabbett, of Limerick, by whom he had
a large family. His estates, which were, before his
conviction, transferred to his family, had not come
back to him, his eldest son having come into pas
session of Cahirmoyle, giving his father an annua,
income from the estate.
o w of
Thus dies a descendant of Brien Boroihme and of
f
Murrogh O'Brien,
a lesspe r
8
but
a nge
whose
o s nieari vianth
honour wasunimpeachable,
judgment, conceit, and impetuous love of notor-
iety led him into the escapades which in any other
country would have cost him his life ; but which,
under the sway of the British Government, which
he abhorred, only brought him into contempt, and
let him die in the obscurity which was the last
thing he would have coveted,