The Sun.
London, England, 1847-05-25 00:00:00

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS' wearing out his powers. There had been to solemn
~I.
. ,
FROM THE MORNING PAPERS OF THIS DAY, judgment o public opinion upon him. He had not been
v.,
a,e the remains ,f bee oeen no event, nu resolution, no turn of the tide tha.
CIIRONECt 1,,.---1,..!.1R: .:.., ~. I! i, , 1 ,i, n ca' _ es t ,ff by thc rzytc. o' his alhercnts—h,. Lad n A
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nitous year, Worn down t.ty. famine awl p, stilenec. !he affections of his people or his church. There had
slid
this now to follow to the
iCI it'd account for this remarkable vicissitude. The only
I a( co.ant of it is this—that Mr. O'Connell had outlived his
, credit and his power. There is a strangeness about the
greatest man. The stroke will not be less severe be-
cause it was anticipated. The death of a man like
indicate a mystery of which time only will tell all the
iic O'Connell
red tobeispoonsseibolfe
uthzetehveensttserwnhriechaliatrye
issc scarcely hues-. 1
accidents and coincidences of his departure that seems to
import. That he has died at the acme of and unp
Nthuergwreilalt ElrnigslhiAlemadenerv. iewThwei;hwinildl aral-
iffdeirffeenrceinthtbeeilrosesstoi!
mates of the good and evil of his career; but they will , leled disaster is no accident ; his death attests far more
recognise it as the career of a giant. If his sphere of ac i than any act of his life the warmth, if not the unalloyed
tivity were remote from their knowledge and sympathies. simplicity, of his patriotism. It is the famine, seen and
they would still hear with sorrow that that mighty soul i felt though it be through an earthly and selfish medium.
had passed away; but the event is one to call forth in that has smitten down his soul. But there are other cir-
in this country a deeper feeling than that of passive sym- I loa
thecumstnces of his death not so naturally associated.
Why. Mr. O'Connell, intensely national as he was, hi great Irish agitator was dying on the shores
of the Mediterranean, death also was visiting the abode
belonged to the empire. In spite of his repeal doctrines,
against which and its occupants he had maintained a
the union between the two countries was embodied in
lifelong antagonism. A thousand miles and a still
his mind and character. English law, the elaborate
wider gulf of antipathies separated the representatives
creation of English ideas and habits, bad as large
of Irish nationality ands sop
royalty, both sharing
a share in him as Irish leadership. He was
no alien. His life was identified with an epoch the calamity of the people to whom they were
in English history. England as well as Ireland has so differently related. But twenty-four hours di-
lost a great man. But the work which will make the vided the demagogue and the Viceroy, equally
name of O'Connell memorable was done in Ireland. sinking under their intolerable bur ens. It
What a work it was will perhaps be better understood seems, too, an instructive chance that has brought
hereafter. He dies in the midst of social and political to the foreign obsequies of the Irish leader the sue.
disorder, and impatience may cry out that he lived in cessful chief of that great English league, founded
vain. Such men never live in vain. He found a people for better objects than the disunion of these realms. He,
of serfs, so debased by oppression as to be scarcely con-
too, may see in our present misfortunes how little
scious of their own degradation. He awakened in them
nations can do towards rectifying the errors of the past,
and how a good cense may achieve a present victory,
a sense of their own wants. He created a public opi-nion, and evoked the sentiment of a national life, which, and yet see the actual fruition of its objects indefinitely
wild and wayward as their first workings may be, are postponed. A powerful aristocracy has been beaten, and
the only means by which nations attain the happine=s a monopoly carried by assault; but there ends the
and the dignity of good government and self-respect. triumph hitherto barren of result. Cheapness and plenty
It was a stupendous task to break down the ancient bar-
are beyond the reach of political agitation. The whole
riers of legal inequality which divided the Irish people. civilised world is so thoroughly and so unanimously per-
But it seemed harder still to shake the superstructure suaded of a fundamental justice in Mr. O'Connell's
which custom had reared upon the basis of law. When cause, and an essential heroism in his character, that
modesty as well as generosity compel us to deal tenderly
the legal disabilities of Roman Catholics were gone, the
with this belie£ Whatever we may think of Mr.
social inequality of caste still remained firm and intact,
nell, our respect for human nature will hardly allow us
O'Con-
like an arch of solid masonry from which the scaffolding
• to believe all the world in the wrong. At the same
is removed. But that solid arch already lies in crumbling
fragments. The great task of social equalisation is all time, fidelity to our own honest impressions, and to that
but accomplished. We see old distinctions and exclu-
national instinct which has so often proved right, re-
•
sions almost obliterated. Signs of union multiply. The quires us to state how every true hearted Englishman
regards the career of this extraordinary man. It is
descendants of those who won at the Boyne will pro-
possible that foreigners may be dazzled by tbe brilliancy
bably be seen following the hearse of him who raised up
and power of an eloquence of which they can nulls
read
the vanquished people. Mr. O'Connell's labour was not
confined to the destruction of laws and usages which the language and learn the impression on the multitude
were pernicious. In destroying he also created and to whom it is addressed. We are able to compare words
organized. Irregular and perilous as his method might with facts.
be, he taught a people, who were almost destitute of HERALD.—Though we are not in a condition to
legal institutions habits of united action and of obedience Present our readers with legal evidence of the death of
to authorities in which they could confide. When his Mr. O'Connell, still there seems to be little doubt enter-
agitation was most formidable, it was still a proof that rained in the best informed quarters that the great
A
the Irish are eminently a governable people when the Agitator is no more, and that all that was mortal of
governors are skilful in their business. Clare election him perished at Genoa on the 15th instant. When we
c
assemblages and monster meetings were not mobs, but consider the mode and manner of his reported death,
arrayed masses, almost as restrained and as manageable and reflect, that notwithstanding tall his efforts—not
as armies. Such manifestations imply not only the withstanding all the struggles of a mind at one period
want of new social arrangements, but an aptitude for vigorous and vivacious, and of a body which, long after
falling in with them when they are suited to the he bad passed the grand climacteric, still presented a
genius of the people. Mr. O'Connell supplied the
robust and hale conformation—that he failed in achiev-
place of a government in Ireland. The confi-
ing his darling purpose of reaching the seat of the Pa •
deuce which the law and institutions of the country
pacy, and witnessing the splendours of that maarirna
never called forth was given to him and his various rerum Roma, far dearer to him as a Roman Catholic,
societies. He was, in fact, the first in modern than as a classic city—we are tempted to muse on the
times who ruled the people with their own consent. vanity of human hopes and wishes, and to
To accomplish so much required that extraordi-
draw from the event which we painfully record
nary combination of powers which the world has recog-
a mournful and a moral lesson. The tomb
nised in Mr. O'Connell. His intellect, shrewd and pe- has now closed over the greatest and the most
netrating rather than comprehensive, and his tact in successful agitator of modern times; he has died, not in
the Rome of the Popes, but in Genoa the Superb, well
dealing with men, would of themselves have made him
eminent in his profession, but not the leader of a nation. called the Rome of the ocean, and he sleeps his last
It was the passionate irrepressible energy impelling sleep far from the land in which he was born, and from
that intelligence which gave it a power so commanding. that ocean beside which his childhood was cradled. By
foreign hands his eyes were closed and his dying limbs
Most of his writings and speeches, if viewed sepa
adjusted, and if we are to believe the account of the last
rately, may excite wonder that an apparent meagreness
sad scene of his life, published in the Galignani, he
of intellectual resources should be connected with a re-
was neither conscious of the place in which he lay in his
putation so great; but the greatest single effort of Mr.
O'Connell was but an atom in the mass of his prodigious death-struggle, nor of the persons by whom he was sur-
activity. He was not an utterer of' novel or brilliant rounded. The image of death should at any time dis-
apothegms, but he said a few things, all of which had arm resentment ; but how much more eloquently and
Powerfully probably been said before, with such tremendous forceowerfully does death appeal to us when invested with
of iteration as to drive them home to the convictions attributes so sad and so mournful—so taming in every
and to weld them into the political creed of seven mil-
way to human pride, and so contrasted to a renown not
lions of people. Yet that Titanic energy might have
merely European, but stretching from pole to pole—
worn out the powerful frame in which it was embodied world-wide, in truth, in its immense extent.
with but little result, if it had been coupled with an aus-
tere and unsocial disposition. But Mr. O'Connell's nature
was genial, and full of deep affections. His attachments
to family and friends were warm to intensity. He loved
his children, not like a father, but like a mother. There
can scarcely be a better proof of the fervour of his per-
sonal feelings than the passionate devotedness which he
inspired in others. He did not, indeed, brook rivals near
the throne; but long before his political consequence had
either provoked rivalry or invited adulation, he was
famed for the number and the tenacity of his friendships.
All such connexions became elements of strength in the
position of the popular leader; but perhaps the single
characteristic which contributed most to make him the
darling of his countrymen, was the rich and gushing hu-
mour which burst up constantly, as from an inexhaustible
fountain, and blended itself with the whole stream of life
and business, at one time adding poignancy to scorn, at
another heightening, by contrast, the tenderness of pity.
Few, we think, *ho have seen a popular meeting in this
country under the spell of Mr. O'Connell's humour, will
doubt that in that faculty lay one main source of his
power with a people so susceptible as the Irish to the
ludicrous emotions. It seemed the natural mood into
which he relapsed after every suspension of effort. His
indignation was often histrionic, his pathos sometimes arti-
ficial; but his humour appeared to be the unforced and
joyous play of the mind in relaxation. He laughed
throughout his whole frame, and the contagion of his
mirth was too potent to be resisted. Mr. O'Connell had
his faults, and they were like his character—great. But
this is not the time to speak of them. In his failings, as
in his powers and nobler qualities, there are some
curious resemblances to another and a greater leader—
a leader of agitation—who, with similar weapons, broke
the fetters, not of one people, but of the human mind.
A rugged force of character, the keenest sensibility to
humour and pathos, a hard legal intellect, passions often
uncontrollable, fervent attachments and fervent hatreds,
the most arrogant and fe • o ensive assumption, and the
most foul-mouthed abusiveness, were all united in the
great reformer of the sixteenth But
century. time, and '
the veneration
which sees that the good done b such
le
men long outlasts the • evil, has softened all the harsher
lineaments
in the portrait of Martin Luther. Whatever
nobleness
.
nobleness and truth and earnest purpose were in him,
whatever
whatever can enlighten, inspire, animate, does not decay,
to
but brightens from age
age, and becomes an im-
perishable possession of the race. Time will in like
manner separate the dross from the gold in the character
ofDaniel O'Connell. Hiwor k • - s will remain open, and vindi-
cate its author. Other leaders, less open to accusation,
will enter into his labours, and probably demonstrate
that freedom from his faults is not the chief requisite for
accomplishing similar results. We may possibly see
more enlarged views, more strict consistency, more
scrupulous propriety, but the mighty heart which
moved the people will scarcely be felt again. In the
government of Ireland Mr. O'Connell's death opens a
new era. It creates difficulties and presents opportuni-
ties, which, if not skilfully dealt with, may lead to very
disastrous issues. The labours of half a century had
united in Mr. O'Connell's person an unparalleled combi-
nation of influences. To move him was to move Ireland.
For Irish Governments that resource is now at an end.
The tie which held together so many jarring elements
is broken, and his political despotism seems likely to be
succeeded in the first instance by anarchy. While men
are still looking undecided into a doubtful future, a
vigorous policy and some regard to popular prejudices
might win the confidence of the nation. The object, in
fact, for an Irish Executive to aim at should be nothing
less than to step into Mr. O'Connell's vacant place. But
time is precious, and there are political passions now at
work in Ireland which, if not counteracted, will soon 1
transfer the public mind of that country to new and more 11
dangerous leaders. The materials for agitation were
never more abundant, and the flame, if kindled at the
present time, will catch in quarters which it never reached
before. Government should look well to its position and
resources. Patronage is not an instrument to be effec-
tual at such a time. If it be relied upon for the euppres-
iiii.". nc 1:41iitie.,......fis I* )Wa5........5t.L.... ammo, -6.~7l,itipArcailcos-cras
rediteWl. so • band of plaoemen sancf.enepentants. One
word upon a point to which we allude with reluctance,
though it is not impossible it may have already suggested
itself to the generous feeling of her Majesty's Govern-
ment. The remains of Mr. O'Connell will naturally be
brought home to be laid in his native soil. Under
existing circumstances, it would, we think, be a mark of
respect at once becoming and just, and which certainly
would be fully appreciated by the Irish people, to permit
those who are charged with this sad office to avail them-
selves of the services of one of her Majesty's ships.
TlMES.—There was a time when the thought of Mr.
O'Connell's disappearance from the scene suggested
many interesting and anxious speculations. Would he
transmit his sceptre and crown, or would they be buried
in his grave ? Would his honours remain in his family,
or, like the Macedonian conqueror, would he leave then;
t 3 be fought for or divided by his chiefs ? Would it
indeed be found that so turbulent a career only disguised ,
a mission of peace, and that the
prince of demagogues i
mediated between the conqueror and the conquered,
between the unbending Norman and the revengeful
Celt? When the imposing phalanx of a national
confe-
deracy was removed, would a thousand sanguinary guar-
refs occupy its place? Ireland had so long been identi-
fied
with Daniel O'Connell that it was scarcely possible
to conceive the one without the other. The people were
committed to a mighty enterprise, of which only one
man had the key. The Argonauts without Jason, the
followers of Ulysses deprived of their leader, could not
be more helpless than the Irish repealers, should they
suddenly find their Liberator no more. Such wero the
reflections that for more than thirty years, and up to a
recent day, were familiar to the mind of
very( very
nsan- Mr. O'Connell '
thoughtful English . is dead. Where
are now the questions with which Peace-loving people
were wont to torment the future, and endeavour to ex-
tract an oracle from every sign of the times ? All is
silence. All is calm. The sudden close of half a cen-
tury's agitation almost passes in the crowd of events.
The death of that formidable tribune who was supposed
to keep the whole tyranny of the old world at bay, and
whose name had long been in either hemisphere the
watchword
of revolt, falls on thischangeful and melan-
choly hour with no more n a faint recollection
of the past. No one asks what will Ireland do? The
event has no bearings on the future. O'Connell is gone,
and his mission expires. Yet how is this? Most cer-
tainly it is no human band that has wrought so mar-
vellous a change. Mr. O'Connell had not been detected
at last in the subtleties of litigation, or overwhelmed by
the majesty of the law. He had not been crushed by
the triumph of his political adversaries. He was not
under the ban of a victorious party, the frowns of indignant
royalty, or the killing vigilance of energetic statesmen.
No coercion was taming his spirit, no prosecution was

THE LAST MOMENTS OF MR.
O'CONNELL.

We have received the following letter from a gentle-
man, to whom it was addressed from Genoa, with per-
mission to publish it :
" Genoa, May 18, 1847.
" Intent on visiting the tombs of the apostles, and
paying his homage, as a Catholic, to Pius IX., O'Connell
was interrupted at this stage of his pilgrimage by fatal
illness, and expired at the Hotel Feder, in this city,
about an hour and a halt after sunset on Saturday, the
15th instant.

" His life is for history, which will take care of it, but
this memorandum of what occurred since his last illness
seized him will be received, perhaps, with some interest,
were it only for its complete exactness. It has been
read for the approval of Mr. O'Connell's friends and
the physicians who attended him ; they sanction it as
correct.

" For two clays after his arrival here from Mar-
seilles by the Lombardo steamer, the friends of the
illustrious pilgrim observed with joy that the im-
provement in his health, which they began to date
from Avignon, went on increasing ; but cm Satur-
day, the Bth, it became necessary to have recourse to
the same aperient remedies which had been for some
time past adopted to relieve him, and always with com-
plete success. Diarrhoea, however, set in some time
after the remedies applied on Saturday night bad pro-
duced the desired result, and as it still continued on
Monday morning: (after a partial cessation on Sunday)
it was deemed expedient to call in additional medical
aid. The English physician resident here, Dr. Duff,
and Dr. Berretta, of this city, met in consultation with
Dr. Lacour, the physician who had accompanied O'Con-
nell from Lyons. The diarrhosa was regarded as rather
fortunate than otherwise, as helping to relieve the head,
where they were of opinion the chief danger was to be
apprehended.
" With this view (which coincided exactly with that
taken of O'Connell's case from first to last by the most
eminent physicians of France), their remedies were
mainly directed to check the congestion, which they
judged to have been gaining ground in the brain from a
period considerably distant. The success with which
their efforts were attended was not lasting. However,
even after a fourth physician, Dr. Voviani, was called
in on Friday, there still were hopes. Nevertheless, it
was judged prudent to be prepared for the worst ; and
on Friday night the last rites of the church were re-
ceived by the illustrious sufferer with a serenity and
a fervour of piety which produced upon the members of
the clergy and his friends who surrounded his bed the
most profound and edifying impressions.
" Towards three P.M. on Saturday he called his own
man, and, taking him warmly by both hands to acknow-
ledge the rare fidelity with which he had served him, he
said, As yet lam not dying •' but two hours later he
called for the Rev. Dr. Miley (his chaplain), to whom he
said, when he had bent down over him, the better to
hear his fast sinking voice—' I am dying, my dear friend!'
" The physicians were still in attendance ; but from
that moment the prayers and other offices of religion,
which had not been interrupted from the preceding
night, were pursued with redoubled earnestness by his
friends and the chief members of the tlergy. At first
his voice was united in the prayers and responses ; but
as it became less and less distinct, his hands clasped in
fervour—his eyes, his countenance revealed how his soul
responded to the litanies for the dying, which they were
mingling with their tears around his bed.

"bcasionally, during this, his last illness, as the
brain became more and more invaded, there was a
momentary wandering of the mind, from which, how-
ever, the slightest word recalled him. He never mur-
mured, though his internal sufferings, at times at least,
must have been great. Every one was struck with
his serenity, his recollection, and fervour in receiv-
ing the last rites of religion. The adorable name of
Jesus, and the prayer of St. Bernard to our Blessed
Lady, mingled from time to time wilh va fromse
Pnalms, .no We most earnest and contrite aspirations,
mo-
ments a
bl me
its
ret p ehrop
ex
*psi
rl y
eduren
choins t
ni pus.e d
tUo prectoongnf
swe
hsconfessor, and to respond to his suggestions.
" Far from surprising him, he had been long, long fa-
miliarised with the contemplation of kis last end, pre-
pared for it perfectly, and almost eager for its advent.
When that spirit, so mighty, which seemed to glory in
and to sway the tempests which agitate our being, took
its flight, there was no more trace or sign of pain or
struggle thaw when the babe in smiling sinks to slumber
upon the mother's breast.

" It will be a lasting, though still a sorrowful consola-
tion, for his friends and family, that no resource of skill
or climate calculated to prolong the existence of this ex-
traordinary man has been left untried. The professional
advice obtained for him was always the best that could
be procured.

His body is to be embalmed and conveyed to Ire-
land. His heart he bequeathed to Rome. The autopsy
demonstrated singularly the correctness of the view
taken of his case, and how wonderfully. successful had
been the remedies recommended in postponing the fatal
event. _ _

" His obsequies commenced from the moment of his
decease, and are still continued with princely pomp in
the church of our Blushed Lady delle Vigne. They
are to close to-morrow with a grand requiem mass, at
which his Excellency the Governor- General, the fo-
reign Consuls, and Mr. 11. Cobden, are invited to be
present."

THE LINNEAN SOClETY.—Yesterday, the 24th of
May, being the anniversary of the birth of J. Linnmus,
the celebrated naturalist, the annual general meeting of
the members of this society, was held at their apart-
ments, Soho-square. The Bishop of Norwich, the Pre-
sident, in the chair. The report of the auditors, read by
R. H. Solly, Esq., stated the receipts to have amounted
to 1,097/.. and the expenditure to a sum less by 1671.
The debt on the society amounted to 9051. Since the
last meeting the society had lost, by death, sixteen fel-
lows, two foreign members, and one foreign associate.
After the reception of the report, the secretary read me-
moirs of the most distinguished members the society had
lost. The officers were then balloted for and elected.
The Bishop of Norwich was re-elected president • J, s,
F. H. janson,
Bowerbank, Esq., W. J. Burchell, Esq.,
Esq., Daniel Sharpe, Esq., and N. Wallich, Esq., were
appointed
members of the society. The meeting then
dissolved, and in the evening the members dined to-
gether at the Freemasons Tavern.
Ma, COBDEN IN ITALY.—A letter from Livorno,
dated the stb inst., announces that a splendid banquet
is being prepared in that city in honour of Mr. Cobden,
M.P.—La Bilancia (Italian paper).