The Sun.
London, England, 1847-07-22 00:00:00

OBSEQUIES OF THE LIBERATOR

AT ROME.
LETTER FROM DR. MILEY.
(From the Cork Examiner.)
Rome, June 28, 1847, Two o'Clock, P.M.
BELOVED FRIEND,—Be not surprised -there be an
air erinconereney in what wriie. one ho has
Just beheld a—vi4ion,_uky inclipaeityM_givo - ranno
to the thoughts and emotions which
is exaetly in proportion with' their vividn
multitudiuous variety, and, I may add, di
deur. 01 how intensely and how often during t
last four hours have I longed that you were here--
that the whole family which bears his world-
honoured name—that the entire Irish people were eye
and ear witnesses of what it has been our privilege
to see—the Catholic enthusiasm the more than
earthly pomp and ecclasiastical magnificence with which
Rome—wide-sceptered, eternal Rome—has to-day per-
formed the Liberator's funeral. It was like a vision, I
calmly and solemnly assure you—a vision so august and
overpowering that no man could describe it, much less
when, fatigued and unnerved as I am now, not so much
isit
ssap e
Int chi if
eet
of
dfr o,e fad
ascoonounldbl at
tplhs
and
wdi
snhhoiaetcdnhx ci
as
my
gently,,ea
aduffertpnoeortmnl
ardently,
long
heage aftersheart.
evrestingaa
ri
vainly,
y
by many hours' movement and the sultry heat, as by that
mt
hTo
teuhhrnaei
t
all Ireland were present at the solemnity of to-day,
for then, and only
then, could they
have formed a
notion of the immensity of the effect that their Libera-
tor's principles have had upon the world—of the
services inappreciable for which they stand indebted
to his memory since he himself has ceased to live. " De-
functus adhuc loquitur." Often he said it, and to the
letter we have seen it verified to-day. He is agitating
for their rights and privileges even in the grave. I
wished, too, that they were here, is order that they
might estimate correctly how great and sacred are their
obligations towards the Romans and the Supreme Pon-
tiff Pius IX., whom may Heaven, in its bounty to the
Church and to the world, long continue to defend and
prosper!
Yes, I feel conscious that anything I can say must
fall so far short of the reality, that it were alm
osto b I
feel
tter
to be altogether silent ; and, on the other
how indispensable it is that the country should not be left
in ignorance of what so vitally concerns it, and what I am
certain it considers and cherishes as its dearest interest.
I have, on this account, besought of others far more
competent for the task, to write such details of the fu-
neral as may help, at least, to convey to the Irish people
a shadowy idea of what it was. This will state parti-
culars, such as the inscription which adorned the mau-
soleum or emnotaph—a tomb like a temple, more than
sixty feet in height, erected beneath one of the proudest
copulas of Rome—that one which the celestial orb of
Domenichino has adorned. They will describe the effect
of the choir of one hundred voices—the elite of those ,
whose echoes are familiar to the lacquered roofs of the
'
Lateran of St. Peter's, and of the chief basilicas of
Rome. They will estimate the multitudes by which the
Temple was crowded in all its vastness (it is more than
three hundred feet in lengtb)--enumerating the great
personages, such as ambassadors, Stc., who great
personages,
distinguished places. As for me, in the mood in
which I find myself—and in the fifteen or twenty
minutes yet remaining before the post closes—l can only
repeat, that the august magnificence with which the
Liberator's funeral has been solemnised here to-day, in
Rome—at the expense of the Roman people, and by
express command of the successor of St. Peter—is in-
describable, and cannot be comprehended adequately by
any one who has not seen it. It was grander under many
aspects, I am certain, than the
I funeral of‘Constantine the
Great, or Charlemagne. This, as warned you, may
sound like incoherency and extravagance; but here is the
proof that it is true:—
INSc RIPTION—No. 1.
(Over the Outer Door.)
IL O. M.
TO DANIEL O'CONNELL,
Of the Kingdom of Ireland the Safeguard weds, Protection,
Immortal for the greatest Deeds,
As for his Distinguished Services to the Christian
Commonweal,
The Nobles and the Roman People
The last due Offices of the Dead.
Have Performed.
Whoever you be who approach, citizen or guest,
Peace and Repose to his incomparable Soul
Beseech with Pure Mind.
That was the inscription placed, surmounted by the
emblazoned
emblazoned escutcheon of the O'Connell, above the
portals of the basilica where the rites were to be cele-
brated for his eternal rest. It tells, in the dialect of
Rome, how this tribute of piety, and honour to his
memory, is concurred in by all orders of the Romans.
The more than Roman Emperor—he who wears
the triple crown, and rules a kingdom which knows
no limits but those of the world—it
was he, Pius
the IX., who ordered the funeral. He exercised
the plentitude of the divine jurisdiction confided toris.ed
iiin
to secure for the departed " Hero of Christianity,
as the Pontiff himself entitled him,
the ianity,"
great
advantages from the suffrages of the Church. igirotest
pro-
claimed his wish that the obsequies should be in every
respect worthy of Rome, of the Papacy, of ('Connell ;
and he stopped not with the bare expression of his
wishes—even the very vestments worn at the altar in
the Requiem were sent, by his own special
order,
from
Cie Chapc!.
The Governor of Rome, surrounded by the civic
officers, was present. The grenadiers guard
round kept d
round the cenotaph were palmed fr-- ..e C •
vas the pude