The morning star and Catholic messenger., 1877-09-30
THE OBSTRUCTIVES" At The LIVER
POOL CONVEN TION.
A PEN AND INK SKETCH.
dublin Nation. Sept 8 1

Liberal journals of England-publishes the
following pen and ink sketch of Messrs.
Parneii, Bigger, O'Donnell, and O'Connor
Power =
The withdrawal of MIR. Bait from the
Home Rule proceedings of Monday eiimi-
mated from the programme of the evening
demonstr alton the only name OF estaollshed
oratorical reputation but 1t Wouio oe rasn
TO conclude that the four menu oers OF
Parliament who represent the new Young
Ireland party are devoid OF senatorial
capacity and presence. Ideas of this sort
become current partly because a sort OF
stupid contempt for persona VINO annoy
hit4t,aBd- whom he does not want TO think
about, is q besettiDg frailty of the average
EngIshman, and partly because impres
sons of public men are generally produced
| by writers i'll the Reporters Gallery who
for the most part are capable of nothing
| but poticiDg what necktie a member wears
and how he plucks at it, or at furthest how
he treats his he. 1t was writer's of this
type who for years caricatured the late
George Odger, of whom we are able to say
from actual experiment that judges least
likely to be- leDient to an operative Radical
| orator were invariably charmed, when they
actually heard him, by his effectual and win.
ming advocacy ofhis opinions. Mr.. O'Donpell
has good right to resent, aud to resent
| contemptuously, the liberties come of the
hack sketchers have taken with him. He
| is young he is conceited he is aggravatiDg
of malice prepense; he is in many ways
disagreeabie. But to persons even moder-
ately acquainted with the "wings" OF the
theatre OF London literature he ia q familiar
figure of respectable standing. His pen
| bad the credit of formulating the position
of the Spectator on certain questions
notably the Catholic question-on which
that always striking journal has broadly
distinguished itself by special liberslity.
Unless We are to appraise literary men by
high stepping bays aud houses in Grosve-
nor Crescent, it is absurd to impute any
uncertainty of status to gentleman OF MIR.
ODonnel's avocations. And the outrage
is all the more ridiculous when perpetrated
by men who, while apparently devoid of
the faculty of real criticism, elaborate in
multiplied letters and kilograms all over
the country such evidence of humorous OBJ
servation as that one gentleman wears a
white waistcoat, that another offends the
tprOprieties by red tie, and third fans
3 himeelf with his notice paper.
OF the four " obstructionists the least
conapicuousy able is probably the most
artful. Mr.. Bggar "began it," His having
the House cleared one night while the Prince
of Wales was in the gallery not only scan
. dalized Belgravia and Bloomsbury, but
suggested latent power Of dogged, calcu
, | latlng malice, which has since been only
y y too fully developed in what MIR Biggar be-
,,f leves to be the interest of his country. Hi
"
It sn 1Eering, half of proclivity to mischief, ant
It his voice also a certain uncanny ring, which
Il arc frequent in cases where nature has no
y moulded the form with average sy mmetry
IL and it is easy to recognize in Mr. b Biggal
" one whose contrivance of ely mischief il
likely to be inexhaustable while he will b'
q perfectly impertubable in carrying 1t out
=, =, Probably it is safe to guess that he is th
N mainspring of the mechanism by which
o. Parliament has been incommoded. Twink
K ling malignity, however, or even shrewd
u ness III manipulating detail, though incon
le venient to deal with, is not politica
10 capacity; and it must be confessed that
40 Mr.. Biggnr gives any trouble, it s as a
~ artful child a cunning savage give
. trouble. Occasionally he has strokes o
=, humor, as when he said if war had bee
,e declare d, we should have had to ask Rus
a. sia TO wait till our soldiers had grown t
I'd maturity, or ss when he said, "Sir WilliaI
IN HarC0urGs principles are as much for sal
ir as my bacon is for sale" There was also
g. good instinct for character in picking on
d. Messrs. Bright, Gladstone, HILBERT, Stans
y field, and Lefevre as official Liberals VIII
o ere really Liberal. Bot on the whole
chr, dish narrowness and an elfish reckless
ness re the characteristics cf Mr. Biggar'
t observe. lions. They are delivered as be
. comes 8 plain man, calmly, coherentiy
. conversation ally, and without an atom
:. effort pretencGt or aaeetatlon.
d MIR. Parnell is 50 entirely English an
n "nice" in aspect, bearing, and pronuncia
J" tion, that it seemed rather hard upon hin
II for one of the speakers to gibbet lrish gen
. tlemen who have lost their accent in Lon
q ,S don society. The member for Meath ant
IT qaondom High Sheriff of Wicklow prooa
!: Div never had an Irish accent to lose, ant
has enjoyed an English university educa
q ton, OF which his manners bear the impress
ID This fair, we'll dressed and we'll brushet
ID slender young man is q gentleman ever.
L. inch of him, aud the very opposite of al
III eccentric one. He does not need transla
a. ting. Other English gentlemen can under
IT stand him. At least they can understan'
~ every thing about him except his pale fanat
of icism, which impels him to stand up an
o. quietly urge forth a stream of not to
be fluent and yet unfailing speech, character
ld lied by that amazing and unconscious in
ns dependence of fact which is never foun
on along with such keen and grave determin
g alton, except in minds which are in tn
bS H perpetual grasp of a masterful and consu
A' ming frenzy. There is no charm in whs
49, Mr.. Parnell says. The matter of his dit
O%d O% coarse bears little, if any, relation to tn
" | conditions around him, or to the actuI