Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1875-11-24
O'COnnelliana.

The secret of O'Connell's power with
his countrymen was his eOnsummate
knowledge of their idiosyncrasies, and
his natural capacity for rejecting on a
glorified scale their aspirations, their
vanity, their follies, their conceits. He
was an epitome of all that is most bril-
liant i'm the Irish character, and as such
his fascination and his influence for an
Irish crowd never failed. He knew
when to flatter and to wheedle, when
to cajole and to coax, when to terrify
and alarm, when to rouse to indigna-
ton, and when to quell to submission.
He made his hearers feel that they had
only to gaze upon his person and to hear
his words to witness an apOtheOsis of all
those qualities and characteristics which
were the chief ground of their patriotic
pride. "NobOdy," said one who knew
him well, and who hated him as well as
he knew him, 'can deny TO him the
praise eofinimitable dexterity, versatility
and even prudence in the employment
of the means which he makes conducive
to his ends. He is thoroughly acquainted
with the audiences which he addresses
and the people upon whom he practices,
and he operates upon their passions with
the precision of a dexterous anatomist
/ who knows the direction of every muscle
and every fibre of the human frame" I"
And in miscellaneous society, i'm London
| rs well as i'm Dublin, the LiberatOr could
make himself highly agreeable. He was
a visitor at Holland House, and il would
not be too much to assume that the re-
cognitiOn extended to him had some
thing to do with his temporary aban-
donment of Repeal. When Mr.. Greville
met him at William Ponsonby's in 1929,
the year of Emancipation, he said :
''There is nothing remarkable in his
manner, appearance, or conversation,
but he seems lively, well-bred, and at
his ease" In the House of Commons
O'COnnell was a failure, as every man
must be who has lived the best years OF
his life and has grown quite incapable
of readily adapting himself ID new
and peculiar atmosphere. He could
never catch its tone, and therefore he
could never for long hold its ear. His
quotations and his adaptations of poetry
were sometimes exceedingly happy.
Nothing could be better than his parody
on Coils. Sibthorp, Percival and Verney
Three Colonels, in three distant counties born,
The rsi IN mstehieae s imp1aenee Sn1 s Surpassed.
The next in bigotry: in both the last
The force Of nature could 10 further go
To beard the third she shaved the other two"
OF these gentlemen, two were imberbis
and the third intopsus. He was also de-
cidedly happy when, on being called to
order by the Speaker for having charac-
terized the interruptions with which he
was assailed on all sides of the House
as ''beastly bellowings," he retracted
the obnoxious epithet, but added that
he had never heard of any bellowings
that were not beastly. ''Perhaps.
writes his friend Mr.. Phillips, ''per-
sonality was his most besetting sin. He
had nickname for every one who pre-
sumed to thwart him-eurt, singing,
and vulgar, suiting the rabble taste,
and easily retained in the rabble MEN,
ory." The personally aggressive in
stinct, which i'm the House of Commons
found its qualification in such a jeu desprit
as that just quoted apropOs of the three
COlonels, assumed a far more vehement
aspect on popular reforms. "a man. y
writes Mr.. Lecky, the staunch admirer
of O'Connell, "who did not hesitate to
describe the Duke of Wellington as "A
stunted corporal and who applied to
other opponents such terms as "A mighty
big liar,' or "a lineal descendant of the
impenitent thief or "a contumelious
cur or "a Scorpion (as he called the
late Lord Derby,) place him beyond the
pale of courtesy" But there were
force, point and sting in O'ConnelPs
vituperative phrases. They stood the
test of all excellence-they stuck. His
description of Peel's smile, that it was
''like the silver plate on coffin," has
only been of late forgotten; and his
characterization of the Times, sit lies
like a false-numbered milestone, which
cannot by any possibility tell the truth, "
is said 10 have amused no one more than
the editor of the Times-Barnes.-TeB,ple
Bar.