ABSTRACT
When O’Connell wrung from an unwilling Legislature the Act which made him one of the most beneficent as he was himself one of the greatest of men, he emancipated a people who were in many ways as unfit for as they were unused to freedom. Taking first the Catholic aristocracy, the natural leaders of the people in the public order, it may well be doubted if the world’s history shows anything more thoroughly contemptible than the character and conduct of this class. Instead of using their newly-found liberty to raise their fellow-Catholics from poverty and ignorance, they rushed to seize the fruits of a victory in the gaining of which they had no part. O’Connell’s action was paralysed and thwarted by the selfishness and corruption of his surroundings. Ireland has had a long spell of it, and her children may now hope that in the councils of Divine Wisdom a brighter and happier day is approaching.
