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Article THE LATE BROTHER DANIEL O'CONNELL. Page 1 of 7 →
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The Late Brother Daniel O'Connell.
THE LATE BROTHER DANIEL O'CONNELL .
ONE of the most gifted and greatest men of the age , Daniel O'Connell , has fallen asleep . His character , and the circumstances of his eventful life , become now the property of the future historian ; the word " future" may be well used , for it will be hopeless , for many years , to expect between the malignant diatribes of his opponents , or the ultra-laudation of his admirersa just balance of the character of " the man" who possessed a
, , power over the Irish nation far surpassing that ever possessed by a prime minister or crowned head . For good or for evil Daniel O'Connell was a great man . We have waded through the numerous articles of the press , and select the following from the Daily News , which we believe to be the most considerate . In future we may devote more time and space to the " character" of this great man . " Plutarch ' s portraits are but those of heroic personality . In the life
of O'Connell , his own personal character and endowments , however interesting , are of minor consideration . It was the age and its necessities that called forth O'Connell—not O'Connell who created the age and worked its moral revolution . With England in full career of the development of liberal opinions—to allow Ireland to lag behind it , and rot in bigotry and oppression , was impossible ; and had not Ireland found its own regenerator , there would not have been wanting Englishmen to undertake—with far less skill and power , perhaps , but still we have no doubt with final success—his great task . " O'Connell , however , entered upon it , and this is his great merit , at
a time when not only no Englishman dreamt of even the necessity , but when no Irishman durst face it , or entertain the hope requisite for such daring . No one , indeed ; in the upper walks of political , or even social life , would have yoked himself to such a trial of Sisyphus . Perhaps the young Catholic barrister himself had not much hope ; as the regime of the day barred against him every avenue to fortune and power , he was driven to advocate the great popular cause of the Irish Catholics , in pursuit of and retaliationif not of eminence . The result
vengeance , was , his obtaining all . " From first to last Mr . O'Connell has been the enemy of rebellion , the antagonist of the sword , the deprecator of civil war . Many thought that his late campaigns against the physical force party were suggested by envy and by age . On the contrary , it was but the following up of his long career . O'Connell was never a man of ninety-eight , never a
dreamer ot fraternization with Jb ranee , never a radical loe to British connexion . His efforts to discountenance those absurd alms , and the pestilent party who cherish them , are not sufficiently counted to him . The difficulties of his position are fully understood only by those who know , that in combating the obstinate and unjust prejudices of Englishmen by the only means in his power , the effervescence of Irish passions , he was , at the same time , obliged to restrain and guide those passions , so as not to place the two countries in a permanent and sanguinary state of antagonism . " The merits and demerits of Daniel O'Connell form , however , a theme on which one might expatiate through volumes , and which one
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Late Brother Daniel O'Connell.
THE LATE BROTHER DANIEL O'CONNELL .
ONE of the most gifted and greatest men of the age , Daniel O'Connell , has fallen asleep . His character , and the circumstances of his eventful life , become now the property of the future historian ; the word " future" may be well used , for it will be hopeless , for many years , to expect between the malignant diatribes of his opponents , or the ultra-laudation of his admirersa just balance of the character of " the man" who possessed a
, , power over the Irish nation far surpassing that ever possessed by a prime minister or crowned head . For good or for evil Daniel O'Connell was a great man . We have waded through the numerous articles of the press , and select the following from the Daily News , which we believe to be the most considerate . In future we may devote more time and space to the " character" of this great man . " Plutarch ' s portraits are but those of heroic personality . In the life
of O'Connell , his own personal character and endowments , however interesting , are of minor consideration . It was the age and its necessities that called forth O'Connell—not O'Connell who created the age and worked its moral revolution . With England in full career of the development of liberal opinions—to allow Ireland to lag behind it , and rot in bigotry and oppression , was impossible ; and had not Ireland found its own regenerator , there would not have been wanting Englishmen to undertake—with far less skill and power , perhaps , but still we have no doubt with final success—his great task . " O'Connell , however , entered upon it , and this is his great merit , at
a time when not only no Englishman dreamt of even the necessity , but when no Irishman durst face it , or entertain the hope requisite for such daring . No one , indeed ; in the upper walks of political , or even social life , would have yoked himself to such a trial of Sisyphus . Perhaps the young Catholic barrister himself had not much hope ; as the regime of the day barred against him every avenue to fortune and power , he was driven to advocate the great popular cause of the Irish Catholics , in pursuit of and retaliationif not of eminence . The result
vengeance , was , his obtaining all . " From first to last Mr . O'Connell has been the enemy of rebellion , the antagonist of the sword , the deprecator of civil war . Many thought that his late campaigns against the physical force party were suggested by envy and by age . On the contrary , it was but the following up of his long career . O'Connell was never a man of ninety-eight , never a
dreamer ot fraternization with Jb ranee , never a radical loe to British connexion . His efforts to discountenance those absurd alms , and the pestilent party who cherish them , are not sufficiently counted to him . The difficulties of his position are fully understood only by those who know , that in combating the obstinate and unjust prejudices of Englishmen by the only means in his power , the effervescence of Irish passions , he was , at the same time , obliged to restrain and guide those passions , so as not to place the two countries in a permanent and sanguinary state of antagonism . " The merits and demerits of Daniel O'Connell form , however , a theme on which one might expatiate through volumes , and which one