CHAPTER XXI.

The "Young Volunteer"-O'Connell's Recollections of the Period of the Union-His first Political Speech-Irish and English Popular Agitation contrasted.

WALKING along the beach one morning, O'Connell pointed out the mode in which he resisted the encroachments of the sea. A paling of alder poles interwoven with bushes, is placed along the beach a little above high-water mark. A bulwark of such perishable materials requires to be renewed once a year; yet, by checking the action of the tide, it has accumulated a considerable quantity of sand, which preserves the soil within its ridgy barrier from being worn away by the waves. Ere this simple precaution was taken, the encroachments of the sea had been very considerable. beach presents a fine firm footing of white sand, beneath which, at the depth of a few feet, are the remains of a turf bog.

The

"There is," said O'Connell," a similar bottom under the sands on the beach of Ballinskelligs Bay, near the race-course. I remember when a Cork and Bristol trading vessel, called 'The Young Volunteer,' was wrecked there. She was dashed among rocks, where she got firmly fixed; the crew were going to put into the boats and row ashore, but the peasantry made signs to them to stay where they were. They were not much inclined to attend to these signs, and were rapidly getting into the boats, when a man named William Murphy levelled a musket at them, and thus compelled them to stay in the vessel. They ascribed this conduct to inhumanity, but they soon were undeceived. The receding tide left their vessel high and dry. At low water they were able to wade to the shore; whereas they would have been certainly swamped, had they tried in the high tide and rough sea to reach the shore in their boats."

The sun was now setting; his rays were intercepted from the part of the beach where we stood, by the rocks of the Abbey Island. "Come," said O'Connell," let us turn. Now, do look at those majestic mountain waves," he continued, facing towards the sea; "how often have I walked down here to watch the white breakers dashing in, and bursting in foam against the rocks!"

It was a beautiful evening. The atmosphere was perfectly transparent, and the rocky outline of the Abbey Island was clearly defined against the golden sky of sunset. The pure green waters of the bay lay dark in shadow beneath the rocks to the right; whilst the hills on the other side were lighted up with the last rays of evening.

"Fine weather for hunting," said O'Connell ; "the sky promises well for to-morrow." The Repeal was talked of; and he said, "The year of the Union I was travelling through the mountain district from Killarney to Kenmaremy heart was heavy at the loss that Ireland had sustained, and the day was wild and gloomy. That desert district, too, was congenial to impressions of solemnity and sadness. There was not a human habitation to be seen for many miles; black, giant clouds sailed slowly through the sky, and rested on the tops of the huge mountains: my soul felt dreary, and I had many wild and Ossianic inspirations as I traversed the bleak solitudes.

"It was the Union that first stirred me up to come forward in politics. My uncle Maurice was scarcely pleased at my taking a public part; not that he approved of the Union, but politics appeared to him to be fraught with great peril; and he would have preferred my appearing on some

question which would, in his opinion, have more directly concerned the Catholics."

I asked O'Connell if he was in Dublin when the

Union passed?

"Yes," he answered, "but there was less excitement than you would imagine; the hatred which all classes (except the small government clique) bore to the measure, had settled down into sulky despondency. I was maddened when I heard the bells of St. Patrick's ringing out a joyful peal for Ireland's degradation, as if it was a glorious national festival. My blood boiled, and I vowed, on that morning, that the foul dishonour should not last, if I could ever put an end to it."

O'Connell's first political speech was made against the measure of Union. He told me that he never wrote a speech beforehand; but of this, his first speech, he wrote the heads (a practice he frequently observed at all subsequent periods :) and after it was delivered, he reported it at full length for the Dublin Evening Post. The meeting at which it was spoken, was held at the Royal Exchange. Major Sirr endeavoured to disperse the Anti-Unionists. But an application which was made to the Viceroy for permission to meet, was conceded; as his Excellency probably thought the

success of the measure was effectually secured, and that there could be no danger in permitting the remonstrants to assemble.

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O'Connell contrasted his embarrassment when making his first speech with the ease and self-possession acquired by subsequent practice. "My face glowed," said he, "and my ears tingled at the sound of my own voice, but I got more courage as I went on."

Speaking of his own political agitation, as compared with the popular efforts of English Reformers, he thus criticised the latter: "In England they are very aristocratic agitators. If they want a public movement, they are never happy till they get some fellow with a handle to his name; some duke, if they can, and if not, a marquis; and so on down to a knight. Now, in Ireland, if a titled man will join us, well and good-we are glad to have him. But if we cannot get him, why, it never dispirits us, for we know what a movement exclusively popular is able to work out."

As O'Connell repeatedly declared that his first speech against the Union was the text book of his whole political life, I shall give it insertion in the Appendix.