The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1835-11-20 00:00:00

MR. O'CONNELL.

We judged correctly when we said that no exposure of
Mr. O'Connell's conduct, however infamous the acts
which it might exhibit, would damage that person with
his admirers. The cheat practised upon Mr. Raphael
appears, indeed, to have served, rather than injured the
incendiary beggar. with his Roman Catholic country-
men, who plainly subscribe to the description of a
greatman" given by Fielding in his introduction to
the " History of Jonathan Wild." Jonathan Wild, him-
self, could not merit the character more clearly than it is
merited by Mr. O'Connell. The "rent" extorted from
the pauper population on Sunday, is understood to have
exceeded any fornier collection in almost the two-fold
proportion. The rapacious receiver, it is calculated, will
pocket from £20,000 to £25,000, " wrung from the hard
hands" of the poorest of poverty's children. Mr. O'Con-
nell is plainly not a Roman of the Brutus model, or he
" would rather be a dog and bay the moon." Twenty
thousand pounds a-year, the wages of sedition !—twenty
thousand pounds a-year, besides perquisites and vails !
and " the vails are amazing," when pigeons like Mr.
Raphael are to be plucked. Twenty thousand pounds a-
year, with et cetera, making the office more lucrative
thaunny office, ecclesiastical or civil, under the imperial
crown—a much better thing than the Irish lieutenancy,
the Governor-generalship of India, or the Jamaica go-
vernment! Twenty thousand poUnds a-year attached to
the stokership of Irish rebellion (every body knows that
the stoker is the man that keeps up the fire)—£2o,ooo
year for Mr. Daniel O'Connell's present function ; and
yet there are simple people who think that Mr. O'Con-
nell—that Mr. Raphael's plunderer—would relinquish
his task: add his £20,000 per annum upon some motive
of patriotism ! or that he could be bought off it. Bless
their simple souls! His countrymen know Mr. O'Con-
nell better, as will appear from the following anecdote,
which we must premise by remarking that, in Ireland,
Mr. Raphael is generally supposed to be a concealed
Jew. A gentleman asked a young Popish attorney what
he thought of his friend O'Connell now, after the
Raphael exposure ? " Why," said he, "that lam lost
in admiration. 1 always thought O'Connell a clever
fellow—he shoWed himself a right clever fellow when he
did the Duke of Wellington upon the catholic question ;
as to his huMbugging the whigs, any fool could do that ;
but he was a clever fellow that could do the Duke in
politics; and, now that he has cheated a Jew out of his
money, show me his match alive? He has but one more
to cheat, and that is " You need say no
more," rejoined the interrogator; " the craft.of O'Con-
nell himself will hardly deprive that one of his proper
prey."—Standard.

THE SIEUR V-, A ROMANCE OF REAL LIFE

. The resolution which it was supposed had been formed
by Morey, the accomplice of Fieschi of starving hiniself
to death, is not the first example of the kind on record.
The same mode of suicide has on several former occa-
sions been successfully adopted by accused and condemn-
ed persons. It has been remarked that the horrible
tortures of hunger do not produce delirium, or even
annihilation of the intellectual faculties, except when
violently imposed by power superior to that of the
victim. The suffering, on the contrary, when incurred
for the purpose of suicide, and endured with energetic
but fatal determination, seems to excite and. invigorate
the moral faculties, and to increase the acuteness of the
senses: In spite of the exhaustion and prostration of the
physical organization, the immaterial portion of the
system acquires renewed strength, and attains an incon-
ceivable developement of power.
A very curious example of suicide, by means of star-
vation, occurred some . year§ ago in Corsica. During
the elections, the Sieur V- rushed into the electoral
college, armed with a dagger, which he plunged into the
breast of a man who had done him some injury. The
man fell dead at his feet. The assassination was com-
mitted in the full light of day, and in the presence cf an
assembled multitude. Never was an act of Italian
vendetta more signally executed.
V- was tried, found guilty, and condemned to
death. His high spirit and resolute character were well
knoVti;- grid' it• Was suspected that he would seek, lay*,
a voluntary death, to evade the disgrace by perishing on
the scaffold. He was therefore vigilantly watched; and
every precaution was taken to deprive him of the means
of petting an end to his existence.
He resolved to starve himself to death during the in-
terval which elapsed between the sentence of the Court
of Assize and the reply which the Court of Cassation
wouldmake to the appeal he had addressed to it. He had
succeeded in concealing from the observation of his
jailors a portion of the food with which they supplied
him, so as to make it be believed that he regularly took
his meals. After three days subsistence, the pangs of
hunger became insupportable. It then suddenly oc-
curred to him that he might the more speedily accomplish
the object he had in view, by eating with avidity. He
thought that the state of exhaustion to which he was re-
duced would unfit hint to bear the sudden excess, and
that it would inevitably occasion the death he so ardently
desired. He accordingly sat dowu to the food which he
had laid aside, and eat voraciously, choosing in pre-
ference the heaviest things. The consequence was, that
he was seized with a violent fit of indigestion, from
which, contrary to his expectation, the prison doctor
speedily cured him. He then resumed his fatal design.
He suffered again what he had undergone before. The
torture was almost beyond his strength. His thirst, too,
was intolerable. It overcatite his resolution. He ex-
tended his hand towards the jug of water, which had
been placed in his cell. He thank with avidity, and, to
use his own expression, he " was restored to life." To
avoid yielding again to a similar temptation, he daily
took the precaution of, overturning the jug of water
which was brought to him. Lest he should be induced
to raise it to his lips, he threw it down with his foot, not
venturing to touch it with his hand. In this manner he
paSsed eighteen days. Every day, at different intervals,
he noted down in his album a minute account of his sen-
sations. He counted the beatings of his pulse, and
marked their number from hour to hour, measuring with
the most scrupulous attention the gradual wasting of his
strength. In several parts of his melancholy memento,
he declares that he felt it harder to bear the agonies of
thirst than those of hunger. He confesses that he was
frequently on the point of yielding to the desire of
drinking. He nevertheless resisted. He was surpzised-
to find his sight become more and more clear, strong,

and accurate; it appeared to him like the developement
of a new sense. The nearer he approached his latter
moments, the more his power of vision seemed to in,
crease. On this subject he thus expressed himself :
" It appears as thuugh I could see through the thickest
walls." sense of feeling likewise attained the most
exquisite sensibility. His hearing and smelling im-
proved in a similar degree. His album contains many
curious statements on these subjects. The •Sieur V—
had devoted some attention to anatomy and physiology;
and he attributes the increased acuteness of his senses to
the way in which the intestinal irritation acted on the
nervous system His ideas, he says, were. numerous and
clear, and were very different from anything he had ex-
perienced in moments of excitement or intoxication.
They were all directed to logiCal investigation, whether
he applied them to an analysis of material 'objects or to
philosophic' contemplation. He also felt. himself in-
spired with a singular aptitude for mathematical calcu.
lations, a study for which he had previously felt very
little inclination. In short, he declares that he never
derived so much gratification from his intellectual' con-
dition, as throughout the whole duration of his physical
torture. He made notes in his album to the last moment
of his existence. He had scarcely strength sufficient to
hold the pencil with which he traced the following
words My pulse has nearly ceased to beat—my
mouth is totally parched—but my brain retains a degree
.of vigour which in my sad condition is the greatest
solace Providence could bestow on me. It is impossible
that I can live out this day. My jailors watch me and
fancy they have adopted every precaution. They little
think I have outwitted thein. Death annuls the sentence
which 'has been prunouneed on me. In another hour,
perhaps, they will find nothing but a cold corpse_.***.e
expired as he foretold. His 'album has been
carefully preserved. It is a record replete with interest
to medical professors. The slow torture, endured with
.so much courage, and described with such remarkable
clearness, renders it one of the most curious documents
in the annals of medical science.—Court Journal.