Year: 1875

with confidence and PRIDE IN spite OF All our shortcom-
ings-than any other country of the Old World


HIS CALUMNIArORs.


II Is not nsedu here and 10 justify the career Of
O'Conne 70 vndicate him from the aspersons which
pursued him to the grave He had faults for he
mortal and looking back from the calmer period in
which we live % tho tempe5tnous days Of agitation we
inevitably note acts and words which might wish 20
have been unspokcn and undone But while, in the
peaceful enjoyment OF oonsummate liberty, We use
for uswho bore the burden and heat Of the day and
spent themselves in labor and devotion to the cause
We must remember


WORK ocoNNE1r HAD TO DO
and his materials for the doing OF H.


IL was his task TO f up a people prostrate-ap-
parently for ever-beiore an nyulnerabe power The
spirit OF manhood had been crushed from their hearts
and II was the first need OF their deverer 10


Create soul under the ribs Of death
and rouse them TO selircspect and sefdepcndence As
! have said, his brain and tongue were his only
harsh language and paid back hate and scorn
with interest, his violation Of social amenities and
fastdious tastes may have claim for pardon il IL
gave courage to a trampcd race and embodened them
to confront their hereditary lords Revolutions Of
opinion are as little wrought by abect meekness as
revolutions OF force; and when Shakespeare tells
If man will make courtesy TO say nothing ho is
vrtuous; the great painter of human nature points to
the virtue of slave OCOnnel cxaced from the Irish
Catholics submission TO authority as at once a moral
duty and the condition of success but whilst they
still sufferers from Injustice that submission could
only be what Burke had described as "a litigious
and dissatisfied obedience and this he could not well
maintain by honcyed words or the exchange of comp





counter and overthrow Again. he has been attacked
for his auocratc temper and intolerance Of rivalry
ana N ordinary circumstances good feeling would con-
denim these things so far they existed But, again.
we must consider OConnells position. To succeed he
required concentration OF authority He had to deal
with ignorant and undiscipl'ned masses-withOut
liable leaders intelligent opnion-and to draw forth
and utilize their latent strength firm hand and
vigorous will, defying opposition, were essential.


AGITATION


His scheme of peaceful agitation required for its
working apparent impossibilities. He aimed TO keep





ungovernabe stir to its depths the passion of the
people, and yet make them shrink from violence and
outrage to be himself at vehement and fierce and
cool OF judgment; stanch TO principle but plant aud
supple in adaptation TO the eXpedienccs of the hour
steady of purpose, but seeking his end by an infinite
variety of means OF means possibly not always wise or
always warrantable but always faithfully employed,
and with unerring precision. to carry forward the
mission of his life Considering these things We shall
probably conclude that If 'Conne had not grown to
be an autocrat, the Irish Catholics might have
been welded together in an unbroken and resisless
phalanx-mght never have been got 10 shape policy
capable OF carrying them TO their difficult end-might
have remained for many drcary year,


A heap of uncemented sand


torn by small divisions, committed to hostile courses
and powercss TO overbear the tremendous combination
Of royal enmity and astocratic influence and class in
tercst and popular hatred which threatened to hold
them in perpetual bondage.


PORTRAIT AS HE WAS


OConneIl very much an impersonaton Of his
country, in its strength and its weakness its virtues
and its faults If he had been more perfect he would
have less successful If he had been other than
i'll his peculiar time ana sphere oil aCtlOn, emanci
patton might have been indefinitely postponed or un
worthiy effected. Men say it would have come if he
had never lived; and so it might for Ireland sought
only justice and there Is God in heaven
But when would it have come or howg Would
the Irish Catholics have still been quiet slaves
Or would the intoerabe pressure of hope
less wrong have had its issue in social anarchy If
0'Connell had not been here to force them to self
assertion they might have continued to submit-it he
had been here TO moderate passions nfurated by
injustice they might have burst all bounds and desc
lated Ireland or broken up the Empire. Who can tell
what might have been2 But we know what IS; and we
have for deep thankfulness to Heaven and its
appointed instrument that doubt Is ended and pecua
tion done away and that wo rest, through his en-
deavors in the enjoyment of the priceless blessings OF
free constitution securing TO Us the fair admnisra
tion of equal laws.


HIS DEMANDS FOR JusrrcE-ruE rYsTALMENrs PLAN


There has been talk of O'Connells extrayagance of
pretension and unreasonabeness of demand. Tho
charge is not historically just Rightly or wrongly no
sometimes acted on the notion that largeness OF claim
was neediul TO enforce concession But he was pract
cay reasonable He had strong common sense, and he
country He stirred the multitude almost beyond re-
straint but he let them overpass the limits of
legality; and whom he could secure measure of sub
stanal benefit, he never threw it by to clutch at an


THE POWERS WITH WHICH HE BArrLED.


have said that here he needs no Defence but has
seemed TO becoming that little word should be
sad occasion Of such solemnity and world wide
interest-extonuatng nothing Of charges really sus-
tanable but repellng some of those with which tho
vrucnce Of faction strove through all his days to
backen his reputation AT various times he grappled
angrily with the press and the Parliament.
The great interests he assaulted and the keen suscepti
bites he was obliged to wound made him hosts of enc
mics. He was not spared while he lived Even now
the trail of sandcr shines his memory, and those to
whom it is dear driven TO defend IT, But every day
is lessening the necessity and lifting him more and
more above tho ioulness OF partisan abuse.


FAME AFTER VICTORY.


After 1929 0'Connell enjoyed reputation


With which all Europe rang from side to side
done act for which there no precedent He had
used method previously unknown. He was a vcto-
rious revoutonst who had changed peoples destiny
without blood crime, leading them safely through
the unspeakable pers of the stormes agitation the
world has He was the apostle of liberty and
the enemy of license He had reconced
with the advancement of human right This
was his high position in the palmest epoch of his
life He did other great and memorable things but the
unique achievement by which he will be for ever dis
tinguished from other leaders of mankind. the
liberation ofCatholic Ireland by purely moral means.
have fingered fondly that achievement because feel
that an Irish Catholic speaking of 0'Connell in the
metropolis of Ireland is bound chiefly regard him as
the author of our religious freedom 1t remains that
should tell you briefly how in wider theatre, after he
had won IT, and when his influence was enlarged he
acted the interest OF progress and for the benefit Of


THE LATER YEARS OF HIS PUBLIC LIFE


Do not fear that approach this latter period OF
present controversies or touching any question
capable of dsunitng honest Irshmen II l
disposed | should be precluded from dealing with
such topics by the eloquent programme OF your cee
bration proclamng that IL repudiates all exclusive
ness that it is meant to Transcend the bounds Of
sect and party and that it invites all men to combine.
in honoring whose opinions they may not all
adopt, whose actions they may not all approve, but
whose greatness is their property and ought
to be their common pride Your committee have
wisely said Of their organization, Sectionalsm and fac
tion were excluded but within 1t reserved place
for every OF every hue and shade and party who
feels pride in being the cOuntryman of O'Connel and
wishes to honor his momory" That pledge is binding
and should have rigid observance throughout your estal
DAYS and no man-conservative LIBERAL Catholic
Protestant unonist anti unionst for all these have
answered TO your call-should be forced to complain
that his generous confidence has been abused by
word or act compromising his opinions offending
his susceptibiltics religious political If there
had been pledge at all | would have acted on
that principle. Our solcmnity is national and Irsh
or it Is than nothing; and If OConnell be per-
mitted look down from that heaven in which all
humby trust he is enjoying his eternal rest he will
recognizeas the most grateful homage of the people
whom no freed-their striking OF truce of God, In
which they may celebrate his centenary by for
getfulness Of dissensions and unity of hearts.
Avoiding therefore, all matters of dispute, political
and religious, and looking only to accomplished and
accepted facts l shall advert, for moment, to