The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1869-09-05
DANIEL o'coNNELL.
BY d. HOLLAND.

/
There We're giants in those days. wish we
mad iew Thoroughbred giants now for there
Is work to be done, and don't see that we are
doing it.
The great old man sleeps in his neacefnI
grave after a life of toll and trouble and anxi-
ETY.. He loved Ireland dearly; if he loved her
not over wisely but too WE'LL Gas hemight have
sald niaself, quoting the poet, that was the
defect OF our common human nature which
the greatest share with the smallest of u.s. And
Daniel SConnell q who differed from him in
as,sas Sn sasf 81 81 cs
land listened to him with, Difference. In the.
British Parliament he trampIed dewra-tfie bnl.
lying OF STANLEY; and swept aside the insoIence
of Graham; and Lord Melbourne, the Wing
Premier, humbly cultivated his alliance. Per-
haps, self-deceived, he was not over true to
Ireland then; for he cultivated the alliance of
the Wings too much. But they all courtcd
him, except, perhaps, the aristoeratc cur, Lord
John Russell; (the contemplate descendant of
the servant of the Eighth Harry's vilest de-
slres,} whose idea OF governing Ireland was by
coercion bills.
Two events produced y most unfavora bic
effect on the character of Daniel O'Connell.
when being educated in France, he witnessed
many OF the horrors of the French Revolution.
But he never made any calculation of the ante
cedent facts which had produced that revolu-
tlon-hlng Louis fifty years of dissolutc gov
eminent, the revolving pPnlgacy of his Court
and the nobility, the degradatioa of the army
and navy and The feariiil misery OF tie people.
Nor did he look forward to what folltJyyctl-
the astonishing rise Of success in E'rai,ce- the
wonderful victories achieved Ly ragged, shoe
less volunteers, ovcr-the veteran armies of
Europe-and the ssifasscr5ion, even in the
hour OF defeat, of 4 great patton, -
Then, again, tiur unfortunate duel with The
wretclcd bully DEstere affected him greatly.
This fellow was urged on by his masters, the
Dublin Corporation, to provoke 0'Connell into
ttttrt that he &gitatur ;tf.,i
relieve thehioi = dangerous enemy, The great
Dan avoided the quarrel as long as lie could
has religious opinions naturally made him
+#..tl ,l..t-
vas Forced INTO the quafrel. When he Went to
consult his friend, "Fire-ball > AIcNamar;s, the
latter had only one answer to give" You mast
go out and fight him, Dan
He did; and the bully aud professional duel
list was shot through the heart by the man he
was chosen to murder, and who had scarcely
kn s,I how to handle pistol up to that honr;
All this siDgularly affected OConnell, and
created in his mind that stFungc and unae-
countable craze Il know no other word by
which TO describe IT. which he, himself, was
wont to express in the formula, :" No political
amelioration is worth the shedding of a single
drop of human blood"
Within twelve months after the great old
IMAM had last uttered that heresy against man
hood, million of the irishrie persisted of fam
inc and the diseases which famine produces,
whilst corn and cattle capable of feeding six
times their number We're being exported to
England. The Popes held no such doctrine
when they preached up the crusades. Gregory
held no such doctrine when he defed the Elm
peror of Germany; nor did his SUCCESSORS when
they united with the Yenetians or CseFeese to
cheek the insolence of Austria, or when they
sent guns and ammunition to ireland to help
Hugh ONeill and Owen Rowe. Plus tho Ninth
did not think when he invited an Irish brig
ade to come and help him against his foes. If
O'Connell were true in that extraordinary the
DRY of his that mo political aRelioration is
worth the shedding OF single drop of human
blood what shall we think of Archbishop
Hughes, who preached that the solidarity of
the United States was to be maintained at any
cost of blood and money?
But am straying from my purpose.
My assumed function is not 10 deal with the
great Irish TribHne's political career, successes
or errors but to treat of those personal char
acteristics which distinguished him in private
and public life And here had many oppor-
tunities of studying the man.
] knew him only in his later age. was too
young to have known him earlier, And surely
a moro loyeablc old man never knew, except
my beloved and reveTed FRthcr Mathew, of
whom shall have much to say by and by.
O'Connel had IN extraordinary graciousress of