The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1899-06-03
RICHARD LABOR SHIEI
His Famous Speech I'm Reply to 1or, y
LyndhurSt.

His Famous Speech I'm Reply to Inv,
Lyndhurst.
The subjoined speech of Richard r,
lor Shiel was provoked by the rem,r,
of Lord Lyndhurst that the Irish WAN
aliens 1t thrilled all who heard if ,nd
sounded like the sudden sweep of tor
nado. Once when Mr.. Gladstone NO.
asked whom he regarded as the moet
eloquent speaker he had heard in tho
House of Commons, he answered +h,t
he thought he had never heard ,nv
more eloquent speaker than Richard IL,
lor She'll. She'll was a man of short
figure and somewhat insignificant an
pearance; and his voice was high and
shrill, and never we'll modulated, like
the voices of such orators as Lord Chat
ham or Mr.. Bright. But he spoke
with genuine feeling and enthusiasm
Shiel entered parliament as an Irish
representative Immediately after the pas
sage of the Catholic Emancipation act.
and remained member until 1880.
when he became British minister to
Florence. He died in 1851, aged g,
He also wrote some five tragedies,
which had moderate though ephemeral
success, and thus acquired considerable
reputation as dranatist.
"The Duke OF Wellington is not, am
inclined to believe, man of excitable
Temperament. His mind is of cast
too martial to be easily moved; but not
withstanding his habitual inflexibility,
cannot help thinking, that, when he
heard his countrymen, Qor we are his
countrymen,) designated by phrase as
offensive as the abundant vocabulary of
his eloquent confederate could supply
Il cannot help thinking that he ought
to have recollected the many fields Of
fight in which we have been contributors
to his renown. Yes, the battles, sieges,
fortunes that he has passed, ought to
have brought back upon hin,-he ought
to have emenbered-that, from the ear
Hest achievement in which he displayed
that military genius which has placed
him foremost in the annals of modern
warfare, down to that last and surpass-
ing combat which has made his name
mperishable-from Assaye to Waterloo
the Irish soldiers, with whom our ar
mics are filled, were the inseparable aux
iliary to the glory with which his un-
paralleled successes have been crowned.
Whose were the athletic arms that drove
your bayonets at Vimera through those
phalanxes that never reeled in the shock
of war before? What desperate valor
climbed the sleeps and filled the ,noats
of Badajos? All-all his victories should
have rushed and crowded back upon his
memory:-Vimiera, Badajos, Salaman-
ca, Albuera, Toulouse, and last OF all
the greatest!-Tell me, for you were
there, I appeal to the gallant soldier,
(Sir H. Hardinger) before me from
whose opinions 1 differ, but who bears,
l know, a generous heart in an intrepid
breast; tell me, for you. must needs re-
member-on that day, when the desti-
MES OF mankind were trembling in the
balance-while death fell in showers
upon them-when the artillery of France
1evelled with precision of the most
deadly science, played upon thenn-when
her legions, melted by the voice, and in
spired by the example, of their mighty
leader, rushed again and again to the
onset, tell me, if, for an instant, when
to hesitate for that instant was to be
lost, the aliens blenched? And when
at length the moment for the last and
decisive movement had arrived, and the
valor which had so long been wisely
checked was at length let loose-when,
with words familiar but immortal, the
great captain exclaimed: Up lads, and
at them!' tell me, if Ireland, with less
heroic valor than the natives of your
own glorious isle, precipitated herself
upon the foe? The blood of England,
of Scotland, and of Ireland flowed in
the same stream-on the same field.
When the still morning dawned, their
dead lay cold and stark together-in
the same deep pit, their bodies were
deposited:-the green corn of spring is
now breaking from their commingled
dust-the dew falls from heaven upon
their union in the grave. Partakers in
every peril-in the glory shall we not be
permitted to participate? and shall we
be told as requital that we are es-
tranged from the noble country for
whose salvation our life blood was pour
ed out?'