The Irish standard., 1905-12-30
MIR. O'Brien, In New Book, Presents
Trustworthy Account of Ireland's
7 Efforts For Political Freedom
From the Inception Of the Fepian Movement
to the Imprisonment of Parnell and
Other Leaders.

mons, who listened to his language
with horror. I should hang you, Mr..
illon, II I got the chance, but I
should be infinitely sorry remarked
a fine old Tory Admiral, Sir John
Hay, who used to sit near US during
the Gladstone administration"
Very different was the attitude of
British members toward another of
Mr.. Parnelps lieutenants, Mr.. r. M.
Healy. We are assured that eyery-
body in the house outside the Irish
group would have Joined in hanging
him with a whoop. prime favorite
though he has become among them in
later times; and that the Tim of the
days of his "early manner" would
have chuckled over the whoop as tho
highest compliment they could pay
him. His theory of the uses to which
the House of Commons should he con-
signed by lrishmen was one compared
to which Mr.. Willie Redmond's pre-
cognization Of it as place where
Cossacks would yet stable their horses
was tho extreme of delicacy and mod
Grafton. A quarter of an hour after
he took his seat as member for Wex.
ford he started up to make his maiden
, ,speech--tiny of frame, sardonic of
visagc, his hands in his breeches
pockets. as coolly insolent as q Paris
ian gamin roaming through the Tuil-
cries palace at the heels of Louis
1 Philippe. making. havoc of the pic
lures and mirrors; as entirely detest-
able as a small Diogenes peering out
over the rims of his pince nez, as
from his tub, through bilious eyes
over his contemplate audience" Our
author says further that, outside the
exceedingly small circle of friends who
really knew him, Mr.. I. M. Healy's
disagrccableness was displayed to
those of his own way Of thinking all
but as Extensively as to foes. He had
as great physical horror of shak-
ing hands, even with his closest
friends, as miser would have of pull
ing out his purse. His theory of life
was to regard everybody as an enemy
until the contrary was proved. He
affected a brutality Of speech at which
Rabelais or Swift in his least dainty
movement might have hesitated. Mr.
O'Brien once heard him conclude
harangue with this peroration: II
have nothing more to say to you.
have discharged my stomach" His
superb powers as parliamentary
swordsman were still undeveloped and
unsuspected. To the House of Com
mons in general he was simply hate
full and hurtful. 1t was only the half
dozen or dozen men who knew his
amazing fertility Of intellectual re-
source, his devouring industry, his
resolute ambition, his eloquence of
tongue and pen, rich with plentiful and
sometimes not too reverent borrow
ings from the Old Testament, who
knew how very much greater things
were before him.
In the minds of Irishmen the names
of Mr.. Healy and Mr.. Thomas Sexton
were linked together from the outset
Of the Nationalist movement in a COM
parison which brought about a life
long rivalry Of some bitterness. In
our authors opinion the powers of the
two men were as a matter of fact,
complementary the one of the other
rather than cause Of mutual aepre-
citation. "Mr. Sexton's breadth Of
view, his dignity of language and
grasp of great principles and, in a
special manner, of financial intricacies
supplemented in a debate the effect
of his nimble colleagues airier and
more pungent sallies. His power of
producing an endless profusion of long
drawn and smooth flowing sentences,
in language of extraordinary opulence
and in a spontaneous form as fault.
less as If every word had been care
fully premeditated, was only exceeded,
and not greatly exceeded. by Glad