The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1889-02-13
TO THE GREAT O'CONNELL.
THE TRIBUTE OF Mr.. GLADSTONE.
The D'Esterre Duel-Eloquent Oratory at
the Bar, On the Platform and
Elsewhere-A Very Re-
markabIe Man.

l published, In the end of 1888, a vol
ume on the relations of church and state,
which was thought to SAVIOR of the opin-
ions of the Oxford school. At the begin
ming of the ensuing session l CHANGED to
fall in with OiConnell behind the speak
er's chair. He laid his hand on my arm
and said: 81 claim the half of you" At
all times he was most kindly and genial to
one who had no claim to his notice, and
whose preiudices were all against him.
lie had, however, without doubt, more
religion than theology, and was in truth
thoroughly, consistently and sffectionate-
" devout. l will not inquire whether his
duelwith DEsterre requires any qualifica-
ton of this statement, as applicable to the
the date of its occurrence. 1t may be said,
however, that an Irishman who, either
then or for some time after, was not
duelist, must have been either more or
less than man. And the house of COM
mons is now familiar with the stately fig
ure of an Irish gentleman advanced in life
who carries with him the halo OF an
extraordinary reputation in that particu-
contemporaries for his singularly beauti-
tul and gentle manners.
To return to O'Connell. His profess
sional business absorbed his week days
in early life, so that his journeys from
town to town were very commonly made
on Sundays; and remember that in 1884
he suggested like expedient (of course
after his early mass fo1 the journey into
Essex to Sir G. Sinclair and myself, both
much otherwise inclined. But in these
letters he expresses a regret for the neces-
sity so often laid upon him; and, quite
apart from this, persons accustomed 10 a
British Sunday should hold themselves
disabled from passing a judgment upon
our Roman catholic fellow subjects, whose
week days are often more Sunday-like
than ours We gather from these vol
unes the interesting intelligence that at
one time. when still full of
vigor at sixty-four years of age, he
seriously contemplated a religious
retirement OF ClongOwes for the remainder
OF his life. In the formation of this de-
sire. disappointment at some failure or de-
cline of the rent may have played a
secondary part, but the main motive of it
is touchingly described in these few
words: Il want a period of retreat to
think of nothing but eternity" So that
when the final stage arrived, and he had
death in immediate contemplation on his
intercepted journey, both the first faint
whisper OF the summons and its later and
fuller sound found him watching, as one
prepared for the coming of his Lord. The
signs abound everywherein these volumes
that he bore with him lively sense of
the presence OF God, though taste and
reverence withheld him from its free
manifestation IN the bufera internal, the
heated and contentious atmosphere of
parliament.
NV reference to D'Esterre must be a lit
tie enlarged But for the use of a single
and dangerous epithet ("contemptuous"
in his explanatory letter about the corpOr-
alton OF Dublin, this unhappy antagonist
would not have even a preteXt for driving
forward the fatal controversy. In the duel
O'Connen purposely fired low; but his
shot was fatal. He offered to share his
income with the widow. This was de-
clined. To her daughter he paid an an
nuity daily until his death. On hearing
that she was the plaintiff in a weighty
suit at Cork, he threw up important briefs
and returned the retaining fees, went
down from Dublin, pleaded the cause and
won. And it Is said that he never passed
a certain building that recalled the mem
oTy OF d Esterre without uttering a PRAYER
for his soul. The duel was in 1915. At
later period he formed a deliberate reso-
luton never to fight another.
OCOnnell is clearly 10 be regarded as n
man who desired to maintain peace,
property and law Yet his case exhibits
the difficulties which are certain to arise
when, as in Ireland, legality and morality
have been long piJted against each other
in those provinces of human existence
which most concern the vital interests of
the people Accordingly, this friend OF
law nevertheless could upon occasion
recommend not only exclusive dealing,
since known as boycotting, but exclusive
treatment outside of dealings; and the
carrying OF that treatment to point so
extreme as, for example, the erection OF
cribs in the chapels, within which alone
those who had voted wrong were to be
allowed to pray. One step further planted
men in the domain of sheer violence.
II seems hard to deny that
this step was sometimes taken.
The violence must be con-
demned, and so must the recommenda-
ton, which was the immediate incentive;
but not so as to blind us TO the fact that
severer condemnation is due to those who
maintained abominable laws, impossible
TO be borne by human beings, except in
state OF abJect slavery. The tyrany of the
landlord, which was then counteracted by
the tyranny OF outrage, received in 1871
deadly blow from the introduction of Sc
cret voting and another heavy stroke in
1885 from the extension of the franchise.
The result has been that exclusive dealing
and such exclusive treatment as NAV now
follow it have come to be as a rule effect
ually ASSOCIATED from outrage, and coer-
cion, which has lost it's warrant, assumes
an aspect more odious than ever, because
IL is directed against action the same in
essence as that which has been found es-
genital for sell defense by the order low
ing workmen of Great Britain and which
is effectdally guaranteed to them by the
law.
1t would not be easy to name man
who attained to equal aggregate excel
lence with 0'COnnell in the threefold
oratory of the bar, the platform and the
senate AS a parliamentary speaker, no
one in matching him with his contempo-
Taries of the house of commons would
have relegated him to the second class;
but it might be difficult TO find his exact
place in the first. He was greatest when
answering to the call of the moment in
extemporary bursts, and least great when
charging himself with extended and COM
IL A. -