The Irish standard., 1907-08-17
ue. therefore refuse to take the

untrue. therefore refuse to take the
OATH"
He Immediately withdrew and was
elected under the new Emancipation
Bill for Glare. He entered Parliament
in 1880 and it was predicted by many
that he would be a Parliamentary
failure. Circumscribed as he was by
Parliamentary procedure and rules of
order he was likened to a huge palm
under a glass case. He was accus-
toned to addressing hundreds of thou
hillside. Yet he became one of the
most effective orators and astute de-
baters in the House. Macaulay re-
ferring to O'Connell, remarked: I'VE
never take count of time when the
gentleman is talking" And Dickens
used to relate that on occasion when
it fell to him to take notes of speech
by O'Connell, he was compelled to lay
down his pencil, SO moved was he by
the orators description of widow
seeking her only son among those
killed by the military, and of young
girl shot while leading her blind
grandfather.
During all this time O'Connell was.
to use his own words. the best
abused man in Europe" Wellington
sought to defame his character and
earned the title of "a stunted corpor-
AL" a name that followed him to the
grave. Peel for his vindictiveness,
was likened to 1.-The CLINT of the silver
plate on the lid of a coftin;" while Dis
raeli provoked him to declare that Dis
raeli, who was Of Jewish descent, was
the lineal descendant of the unpenitent
thief who died upon the cross"
His encounters with the London
Times" were many. On one occasion
he compared it to misplaced mile
stone; it can never, by any possibility,
tell the truth" Complaining to the
editor for being misrepresented in a
speech delivered in the House Of Com
mons. he was told that when the re-
porter was returning from the COM
mons shower of rain had fallen,
drenching his coat, and washed away
his notes. WELL" replied O'Connell.
that was the most extraordinary
shower Of rain I ever heard of, for it
not only washed out from his note
book the speech l made, but washed
in another and an entirely different
one"
Having won religious freedom for
his countrymen, he set himself the
task of obtaining for them civil lib
erty. For years he appealed to the
people to unite and his voice rang
from one end of the land to the other.
At Tara. where thousands of people
hung upon his words, Lord Lytton
thus describes the scene
"Once to my sight the giant there was
| given,
Walled by wide air and rooted by
boundless heaven;
Beneath his feet the human ocean Law
And wave on wave flowed into space
away.
Methought no clarion could have sent
it's sound
Even to the centre of the hosts around.
And as I thought rose the sonorous
swell
AS from some church tower swings the
silvery bell,
Aloft and clear from airy tide to tide
It glided easy as bird may glide,
To the vast verge of that vast audi
| ence sent,
1t played with each wild passion as it
| went
Now quelled the uproar; now the MUIR
murs stilled
And shouts and laughter answered as
it willed.''
Over half a million people had as
sembled at Tara. and O'Connel de-
manded a monster meeting of one mil
lion to assemble at historic Clontarf.
All preparations We're made for the
meeting. The Government was ship
ping regiment after regiment of SOL
diers into the country. Yet there was
no move to proclaim the meeting. But
on the very eve of the meeting a proc
lamation was issued from Dublin Cas-
| tie. Orders were despatched on the
advice of O'Connell. asking the people
to return to their homes and thus the
intentions of the Government were
foiled.
Soon after he was arrested for sedi-
ton. sentenced to one years impris-
onment and was obliged to paw s1o.-
900. An appeal was made to the
House Of Lords. and after three
months O'Connell was liberated. In