to the newspaper office, the rain, which was falling heavily at the time, had most unfortunately streamed into his pocket, and washed out the notes he had made of Mr. O'Connell's speech. Upon which the latter remarked that it was the most extraordinary shower of rain he had ever heard of, inasmuch as it had not only washed out the speech he did make, but had washed in another, and an entirely different one. Reprimanded from the Chair.-In February, 1838, O'Connell made a speech at the Crown and Anchor Tavern, in which he asserted that the Tory election committees of the day were guilty of foul perjury. Attention was called to this language on the following night in the House of Commons by the young Lord Maidstone (afterwards Earl of Winchilsea), who moved a vote of censure upon the member for Carlow. This was carried by a majority of nine. Consequently, on the 28th of the month O'Connell, being in his place, was ordered by the Speaker to stand up-and was gravely reprimanded. : "Beastly Bellowings."-Macaulay writes in his Journal, June 11, 1840 "The House was engaged upon Stanley's Irish Registration Bill. The night was very stormy. I have never seen such unseemly demeanour, or heard such scurrilous language in Parliament. Lord Norreys was whistling, and making all sort of noises. Lord Maidstone was so ill-mannered that I hope he was drunk. At last, after much grossly indecent conduct, a furious outbreak took place. O'Connell was so rudely interrupted that he used the expression 'beastly bellowings.' Then rose such an uproar as no O. P. mob at Covent Garden Theatre, no crowd of Chartists in front of a hustings, ever equalled. Men on both sides stood up, shook their fists, and bawled at the top of their voices. Freshfield, who was in the chair, was quite unable to keep the smallest order. O'Connell raged like a mad bull; and our people-I for one-while regretting and condemning his violence, thought it was much extenuated by the provocation. . . A short and most amusing scene passed between O'Connell and Lord Maidstone, which in the tumult escaped the observation of many, but which I watched carefully. If,' said Lord Maidstone, 'the word beastly is retracted, I shall be satisfied. If not, I shall not be satisfied.' 'I do not care whether the noble lord be satisfied or not.' 'I wish you would give me satisfaction.' I advise the noble lord to carry his liquor meekly.' At last the tumult ended from absolute physical weariness. It was past one, and the steady bellowers of the Opposition had been howling from six o'clock with little interruption." His Duel with D'Esterre.-O'Connell was not sufficiently guarded in his language when speaking of other men, and on one occasion some one opposite to him said, “Such language might provoke a duel." "Oh, no," remarked O'Connell, pointing to one of his hands with the other; "there's too much blood upon this hand already." I heard him say this, and the effect, as he suited the action to the word, was very great.Professor Pryme. O'Connell here referred to the incident of his duel with D'Esterre, which is thus related by Phillips :-" In one of his many mob-speeches, O'Connell called the Corporation of Dublin a 'beggarly corporation. A gentleman named D'Esterre affected to feel this as a personal affront, he being one of that very numerous body, and accordingly fastened a quarrel on the offender. . Being one of those who accompanied O'Connell, he beckoned me aside to a distant portion of the very large field, which had a slight covering of snow. 'Phillips,' said he to me, this seems not a personal, but a political affair. I am obnoxious to a party, and they adopt a false pretence to cut me off. I shall not submit to it. They have reckoned without their host, I promise you. I am one of the best shots in Ireland at a mark, having, as a public man, considered it a duty to prepare, for my own protection, against such unprovoked aggression as the present. Now remember what I say to you. I may be struck myself, and then skill is out of the question; but if I am not, my antagonist will have cause to regret his having forced me into this conflict.' The parties were then very soon placed on the ground, at, I think, twelve paces distance; each having a case of pistols, with directions to fire when they chose, after a given signal. D'Esterre rather agitated himself by making a short speech, disclaiming all hostility to his Roman Catholic countrymen, and took his ground, somewhat theatrically, crossing his pistols upon his bosom. They fired almost together, and instantly on the signal. D'Esterre fell, mortally wounded. There was the greatest self-possession displayed by both." Wanted, a Bellman.-At the Clare election, to the horror (says Phillips) of Vesey Fitzgerald, the rival candidate and a member of the then administration, Daniel, with the aid of his priests, polled tenant against landlord. Vesey, a lord in embryo, could not stand it, and he fled. Next day was a great day for Daniel. Priest, curate, coadjutor, bishop-he who, with no franchise, had voted notwithstanding; and he who, having one, had voted very often-the whole available population, the pure children of nature as he called them, and some of them most justly, hailed their champion as he shouted from the hustings, "Boys, where's Vasy Vigarald? Och hone, Vasy, but it's me that's dull without ye. Righi, mavourneen! righi,* and send the bell about for him. Here's the cry for you 'Stolen or strayed, Lost or mislaid, The President of the Board of Trade.'" 66 Scorning Advantage.-During a Dublin election, where Mr. West was a candidate, O'Connell resorted to his nicknames, and " sow West" and "ugly West" were lavished liberally. Gentlemen," said West, good humouredly, "Mr. O'Connell takes advantage of me, for he wears a wig." "I scorn all advantage," exclaimed Daniel, casting off the ornament, and exhibiting a scalp literally without a hair between it and heaven-“I scorn all advantage; compare us now, boys; is sow West the beauty?"-Curran and his Contemporaries. An Unexpected Opponent. Fagan, in his "Life and Times of O'Connell," relates an incident that occurred during the canvass of the constituency of the county of Kerry, when the "Liberator's" nephew *"Run, darling! run!" was a candidate for the representation. Daniel spoke from the balcony of the Chamber of Commerce in Tralee one day, and opposite him were the committee rooms of the Knight of Kerry. In the midst of a very powerful speech a donkey suddenly began to bray. The effect was most ludicrous. Every man, woman, and child, tittered, while the Conservative gentlemen roared aloud. Placid and collected, however, O'Connell looked around. A smile lighted up his face, and, raising his voice to its fullest pitch, he cried out, "Hear him! hear him, boys! 'tis the chairman of the Knight of Kerry's committee." Parodies. Some of O'Connell's parodies and poetical applications in debate (remarks Phillips) caught the humour of the House, and were considered felicitous. Amongst these was his sneer at the smallness of Lord Stanley's personal adherents after some general election "Thus down thy hill, romantic Ashbourne, glides The Derby dilly, carrying six insides." His celebrated parody on three members of Parliament, Colonels Sibthorp, Perceval, and Verner, was extremely ready, and produced a roar :— "Three colonels, in three distant counties born, Sligo, Armagh, and Lincoln did adorn. The next in bigotry-in both, the last. The force of Nature could no further go To beard the third, she shaved the other two." Two of these gentlemen looked as if they never needed a razor, and the third (Sibthorp) as if he repudiated one. Jupiter Relenting.-The following is related by Phillips, as illustrative of the arbitrary disposition of the great Repealer: "On a matter of parliamentary inquiry, on which I had quite as much experience as himself, our judgments differed, and I fared accordingly. No one could ever tell, however, when the storm might arise; but he had it ready, and often nursed it in smiles. After walking down with me to the House of Commons one evening, arm-in-arm, as friendly as possible, he vehemently assailed me on the subject alluded to. He refused to retract. No alternative was left but to right myself, which was done in a way by no means to his satisfaction. After my excellent friend Colonel Perceval, in his place in Parliament, read my letter of reply, Daniel fell into one of his paroxysms. The gallant member,' said he, may now congratulate himself on having severed a friendship of twenty-five years' standing." Friendship indeed! His translation of the idem velle et idem nolle must have been a curiosity. For six months and upwards, when we met, his look was a wild glare. At last it pleased his Jupitership to relent. He walked up to me one day in the Reform Club, in high good humour: Charles, shake hands; I'm tired not speaking to you. I forgive you !'" The Mob Orator.-The following allusion to O'Connell is to be found in Lord Lytton's "St. Stephen's" "Had that fierce railer sprung from English sires, His creed a Protestant's, his birth a squire's, No blander Pollio, whom our Bar affords, Had graced the woolsack and cajoled 'my Lords.' Pass by his faults, his art be here allow'd- Sought he to shine, then certain to displease; Tawdry yet coarse-grain'd, tinsel upon frieze. His Titan strength must touch what gave it birth; Hear him to mobs, and on his mother earth!" And the poet thus records his own observation of the power of O'Connell's voice over an immense crowd: "Methought no clarion could have sent its sound Even to the centre of the hosts around; And, as I thought, rose the sonorous swell, As from some church-tower sings the silvery bell. It glided, easy as a bird may glide; To the last verge of that vast audience sent, "Then did I know what spells of infinite choice, To the grand troublous Life Antique-to view, Mutable Athens heave her noisy seas." The Last Speech.-On the 3rd of April, 1846 (writes Mr. Disraeli in his "Life of Bentinck") Mr. O'Connell had announced that he should state his views at length on the condition of Ireland. Accordingly, when the order of the day for resuming the adjourned debate (on the Irish Coercion Bill) was read, he rose at once to propose an amendment to the motion. He sat in an unusual place, in that generally occupied by the leader of the Opposition, and spoke from the red box, convenient to him from the number of documents to which he had to refer. His appearance was of great debility, and the tones of his voice were very still. His words, indeed, only reached those who were imme diately around him, and the ministers sitting on the other side of the green table, and listening with that interest and respectful attention which became the occasion. It was a strange and touching spectacle to those who remembered the form of colossal energy, and the clear and thrilling tones that had once startled, disturbed, and controlled senates. Mr. O'Connell was on his legs for nearly two hours, assisted occasionally in the management of his documents by some devoted aide-de-camp. To the House generally it was a performance in dumb show, a feeble old man muttering before a table; but respect for the great parliamentary personage kept all as orderly as if the fortunes of a party hung upon his rhetoric; and though not an accent reached the gallery, means were T taken that next morning the country should not lose the last and not the least interesting of the speeches of one who had so long occupied and agitated the minds of nations. RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. A Harsh Voice.-Sir Francis Doyle writes: "Sheil never spoke without careful preparation, and every sentence was beautifully modelled. As a whole, perhaps there was too much glitter and gaudiness, but still his glowing fancy and great rhetorical skill bore down all hostile criticism, and everybody listened to him as he went on with admiring expectation. Unluckily, both for himself and his hearers, his voice was detestable— something between the yell of a peacock and the squeak of a slate pencil -so that unmixed pleasure could not be enjoyed, and you were obliged to wait for the newspaper next morning to understand how great he really was." "Mr. The Grave of a Government.-Professor Pryme says: Sheil was distinguished, like O'Connell, by his advocacy of a repeal of the Union, and was one of the most eloquent and impressive speakers in the Parliament (1835). On a motion respecting Ireland, during Peel's short administration, he said that the grievances of that country had been fatal to several Governments, and even now,' pointing with bended form to that space of the floor which lies before the Treasury bench, 'have dug the grave that is yawning before the present one.' The sensation which his action and his figure created was so intense that we were almost tempted to look if there were not a chasm in the place he pointed to. He spoke with prophetic lore." A Burst of Patriotism.-One of his most remarkable and beautiful outbursts of nationality (writes Francis) was in 1837, in his celebrated attack on Lord Lyndhurst for his "alien " speech. Alluding to the alleged charge that the Irish were aliens in blood and religion, he delivered this magnificent burst: "Where was Arthur, Duke of Wellington, when these words were uttered? Methinks he should have started up to disclaim them. 'The battles, sieges, fortunes that he'd passed,' ought to have come back upon him. He ought to have remembered that, from the earliest achievement in which he displayed that military genius which has placed him foremost in the annals of modern warfare, down to that last and surpassing combat which has made his name imperishable— from Assaye to Waterloo-the Irish soldiers, with whom your armies were filled, were the inseparable auxiliaries to the glory with which his unparalleled successes have been crowned. Whose were the athletic arms that drove your bayonets at Vimiera through the phalanxes that never reeled in the shock of war before? What desperate valour climbed the steeps and filled the moats of Badajos ? Al, all his victories should have rushed and crowded back upon his memory-Vimiera, Badajos, Salamanca, Albuera, Toulouse-and, last of all, the greatest. Tell me, for you were |