The Sun.
London, England, 1846-07-30 00:00:00

.oticening .72-;, Mt

LONDON, THURSDAY, JULY 30, 1846.

Taking advantage of the absence of Mr. O'CoNNELL,
he hot-brained advocates of the physical force move-

ment have been blowing their penny trumpets in
Conciliation-hall most lustily. These precocious
young gentlemen, not satisfied with bearding that
venerable patriot to his face, have ever since his
departure scoffed his recommendations—derided
his policy—reviled his recent proceedings—and
virtually spat upon his authority. And—alas !
for the influence of friendship and the bonds of
gratitude—foremost amongst this tumultuary band of
upstarts appears that very eccentric personage, Mr.
Sairru O'BRIEN. On Monday, after a most indecent
display of violence and a most fractious evidence of
hostility; these avowed champions of pikes, brick-
bats, and les lanternes, deliberately withdrew from the
Repeal Association, and bade farewell to the precincts
of the Corn Exchange. Heartily do we congratulate
the Irish people upon this catastrophe, and sincerely
do we trust that the partizans of the Liberator are
never again to be harassed by the impertinence of
these political firebrands. Separated from that sin-
gul-ar association and from its illustrious leader, . the
martyr of the coal-teller will incontinently find his
level again, and may possibly pine for the days when he
was puffed up to a very disproportionate elevation by
the undeserved eulogiums of O'CONNELL. He may
pine for the days when under the prestige of that
extraordinary man, he, Mr. WILLIAM SMITH
O'BRIEN, was deluded into the belief of his import-
ance. It is but natural that the individual who could
sulk in a dirty little room adjoining the Parliament
House, because his attendance had been required upon
certain railway committees, and who imagined
thereby that he had acquired immortality as a martyr
of Irish liberty—it is but natural, we say, that such
an individual should mistake the language of BonapiL
for eloquence, and the tactics of BOBADIL for wisdom.
But we are amazed that one who evinces the
possession of such a lively imagination should
be so entirely divested of common sense as to believe
himself capable of superseding the Liberator. Does
Mr. SMITH O'BRIEN forget that it is solely through
the complacency of Mr. O'CoNNEEn that he has been
enabled to emerge from obscurity ; that his present
prominent position as a representative of Irish
opinion is attributable solely to Mr. O'CoNNEnes
patronage ? That if he, Mr. SMITH O'BRIEN, has been
a chieftain among his fellow-countrymen, he has only
attained that elevation, like the Grecian monarchs
of old, by being raised upon the shield of O'CONNELL?
Does not Mr. SMITH O'BRIEN remember that, unless
the Liberator had proclaimed to the multitude
that an oracle was about to address them,
they would have beheld in him, Mr. SMITH
O'BRIEN merely a middle-aged gentleman of very
ordinary capacities ? Does he not feel that it has
been through the instrumentality of O'CONNELL, and
through the instrumentality of O'CONNELL alone—
not from any inherent genius—that he, Mr. SMITH
O'ButxN, has occupied any particular share of public
attention? Knowing and feeling all this, where is
his friendship, where is his gratitude for such ge-
nerous and magnanimous condescer.sion ? As to the
moral possibility of his superseding the Liberator as
the leader of the Irish population, the notion is alto-
gether dispelled by a comparison of the two men.
Surely the homeliest intellect would recog-
nise the disparity between them. A sensible Irish-
man need scarcely be asked his opinion as to the
fitness of O'CONNELL or O'BRIEN for so reponsible
and distinguished au office. O'CONNELL, the tried, con-
sistent, resolute, enthusiastic patriot; who has pleaded
during so many years, and with such a touching and
beautiful eloquence, for the extinction of the
woes of his afflicted race ;
for the members ofwhose indomitable
vfoim that i
Churchn
zeal obtained a th i
enantiwanhaolseLpeagleissleavtuenre.
eighths of his fellow-coma
tyiramaceinonwoefrea
momentary
caprice, whose ardour is not the ..a
caprice, but the predomitating influence of a long
life ; whose oratory heal not merely elicited the
acclamations of the people, but has acquired boons