The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1889-02-13

ends and can treat the first in entire sub
ordination to the last. To both these criteria
the life of 0'Connell fully answers. He
never for moment changed his end; he
never hesitated to change his means
His end was the restoration of the public
life of Ireland; and he pursued it, from
his youth to his old age, with unfaltering
fidelity and courage. In this cardinal re-
spect he drew no distinction between
Roman catholic Ireland and protestant
Ireland. Nay, he subordinated not civil
equity alone, but even liberation for his
co-religionists, 10 the political independ-
ence and unity of Ireland always under
the British crown. Perhaps the very
noblest epitaph that could be inscribed
upon his tomb would be q passage from
the speech which he delivered when only
twenty-fOur years OF age at a meeting OF
Roman catholics in opposition to the
union, on the 18th of January, 1907
Let every man who feels with me proclaim
that, if the alternative was offered him of union
or the re-enactment OF the penal code in all its
pristine horrors, he would prefer without hest
tation, the latter, as the lesser and more sui
ferable evil; that he would rather confde in
the justice of his brethren, the protestants OF
Ireland, who have already liberated him, than
lay his country at the feet of foreigners.
This exalted sentiment drew forth
nell was true to it in opposing the repeal.
Whatever difficulties that measure might
now entail, they had by experience been
shown to be at that time altogether sec
ondary. Mr.. Burke allowed to them no
weight whatever. O'Connell had lived
through the horrors that preceded and
brought about the union. 1t is my firm
belief that if Englishmen could have had
parallel experience IN their own
country they, tory as well as liberal,
would have adopted the sentiment OF
O'Connell, and that with their hands as
well as their hearts. Repeal was the one
obvious, direct and natural means OF re-
pairing the specific mischief. nor was it
then his business to appreciate the incon-
veniences of reversal; though it was
doubtless a duty to take them into view
when. within the walls OF parliament. he
became charged as a legislator with public
and imperial cares And this is the very
thing that, when the occasion arose, he
showed that he was able to do and did.
But the feasibility of his mind was in
defectible, and the rebounding force OF its
elasticity was still to be shown. Failing
with repeal, and failing with justice to
Ireland, he turned TO what appears in
these pages and elsewhere, under the
roughly-applied name OF federalism. Miss
Cusack has published curious note by
Mr.. Butt, which states with considerable
appearance OF authority that, in 1888 the
liberal leaders met and resolved to offer
to O'Connell parliament Tor Irish affairs,
under a system of federal union with
Great Britain. We must still hope for
further elucidation of so remarkable a
statement. What is indisputable is that
O'Connell seems to have been perfectly
prepared to adopt this guarded means of
of terminating and embodying the ma
tional life OF Ireland. In letter of Octo-
Der, 1874, to the secretary OF the Repeal
association, he gives his iull adhesion TO
this plan, and sets forth its principles at
great length, though after the manner OF
a man who does not feel himself TO be on
the eve of practical legislation. He de-
clares, however. an actual preference for
it over repeal pure and simple.
In general he had mean estimate of
his coadiutors in Ireland, and calls them
''the species of animals with which l had
to carry on my warfare with the common
enemy" His parliamentary following was
mostly of an inferior stamp, whence the
sobriquet of O'Connell's tail. They stand
in disadvantageous contrast with the BODY,
of about the same numerical strength,
who supported Mr.. Parnell in the parlia-
ment of 1880, and they could do little TO
tighten the multitudinous cares OF their
chief One of the revelations supplied
by these volumes exhibits the cruel pun
gency of those cares in point not hith-
erto known or appreciated. Through all
the wears OF Herculean labor entailed
by his parliamentary dominance, and
Notwithstanding the large sums,
sometimes exceeding $4,000 placed at his
disposal from year to year by the irish ma
ton. he lived almost from day 10 dav I'M
der the pressure OF the most acute pecu-
MARY anxieties II was probably with
some idea OF forethought for his family
that he founded, or shared in founding, a
bank and brewery, and it does not APP
pear that these had much 10 90 in the
making or marring OF bis fortunes.
The only signs OF heavy personal ex-
penditure in these volumes are that he was
compelled to have several residences;
that his frequent and rapid journeys must
have been expensive; that his charities
Ito which he pays touching minute at
tentiOn) were liberal, and that his
free and large nature delighted to
expand itself in hospitality at Darrynane.
No account is presented on the pages
before us, but we are safe in conjectuTing
that the rent would have met all these
charges over and over again; and they do
nothing to explain his constant use OF the
instrument Of credit, his resort to the ex-
pedients OF renewal, his casting himself,
again and again, sometimes in despair, on
the ingenuity, the devotion and the pa
thence OF his friend and agent, Mr.. P. V.
Fitzpatrick, who plays a silent part in the
narrative, but whose parts and gifts must
In their line have been as remarkable as
his active friendship was invaluable. The
explanation lies IN the ravenous demands,
at that date, of parliamentary life, the
heavy charges Of elections and petitions,
and in the fact that on him seems TO have
lain the burden of meeting the pecuniary
engagements of MANY seats and persons
beside his own and those OF his family.
We are told of single dissolution which
brings him five contests and five election
petitions. He is too brave to complain
readily, but sometimes it is more than he
can bear. On the 18th OF July, 1912, he
writes to Fitzpatrick: want is literally
killing me. L have grown ten years older
from my incessant pecuniary anxiety
God bless you, my dear friend" But
never, so far as appears, was there a man
more truly superior to money; its master,
not its slave. At his death his personal
property was sworn under col 500. This
value consisted principally, in all likeli-
hood, of insurance on his life, which it
was his practice to make largely. But his