"A voice.—'You have always done your duty!'
"O'C.—May such be the judgment of the Most High!' (Applause.) 'Kindly spare me these interruptions.' (Laughter.) 'Our first duty is to obey the law. Don't think that in giving you this advice I intend that you should submit to unlawful outrage. After all, violence is not what I fear—I who am alone in the world.' (Cries of no, no, you are not alone!) 'Pardon me, my friends, I am alone; for she for whom I might have entertained fears, but whose courage would certainly never have failed, has been taken from my affections.' (O'Connell pronounced these last words with deep emotion, in which the whole assembly seemed to participate. Several ladies present raised their handkerchiefs to their eyes.)
"'Were they to put a gag in my mouth or handcuffs on my wrists, I would still point out the safest and wisest course for you to follow. I trust there will be no conflict: let us close our ranks, shoulder to shoulder, let us rally round the constitution, that Ireland may not be delivered over to her enemies by the folly, the passions, or the treachery of her children.' (Applause.)"
He knows how to excite the laughter of his audience, and to enliven them with racy comparisons, which are sometimes, however, of a kind unsuited to Christian discourses.
"There was formerly a fool in Kerry—a rare thing there. This fool having discovered a hen's nest, waited till the hen had quitted it, and then took the eggs and sucked them. After sucking the first, the chicken which had been in the shell began to cry out while descending the fool's throat. 'Ah, my boy, said he, 'you speak too late.' (Laughter.) My friends, I am not a fool; I know how to suck eggs. (Laughter.) Should England now be disposed to tell me that she is ready to do us justice, I would say to England as the Kerry fool said to the chicken: My darling, you speak too late. (Laughter and applause.)"
He then continued, in the most sublime and rapturous accents:—
"In the presence of my God, and with the most profound feeling of the responsibility attached to the solemn and arduous duties which you Irishmen have twice imposed on me, I accept them, relying not on my own strength, but on yours. The people of Clare know that the only basis of liberty is religion. They have triumphed because the voice raised in behalf of the country was first uttered in prayer to God. Songs of liberty are now heard throughout our green isle, their notes traverse the hills, they fill the valleys, they murmur with the waves of our rivers and streams, and respond in tones of thunder to the echoes of the mountains. Ireland is free!"
One may readily conceive the magic of this speech. I borrow once more from the pen of M. de Cormenin.