SIR GEORGE GREY ON DANIEL O'CONNELL.

Auckland Star, Volume X, Issue 1707, 7 August 1875, Page 3

SIR GEORGE GREY ON DANIEL O'CONNELL.

The Press Agency furnishes by telegram thefollowing summary of the speech delivered by Sir George Grey at the O'Connell centenary, a more condensed account of which appeared in last night's Star :—" Sir George Grey, whose rising was the signal for a tempest of frantic cheering, which lasted some minutes, proposed, " The land we live in- He said the real pith of this toast was "men, be men." The men who lived iD the land, and who made the land what it was, after encountering much toil and many difficulties, and even dangers, which some of those present had shared with himself,—those men and their families, he said were endeared to him by a thousand associations. Prom these he might wander to pass an eulogium on the great man whose memory we now celebrate. He had seen that great man, and had the privilege of hearing some of his greatest speeches. One of O'Connell's giftß seemed to be his power of estimating the necessities of mankind, a fact only recently acknowledged by modern politicians. He found his country depressed and with little education according to modern notions, but he detected lying dormant a power which properly exercised in the development of political rightß might be rendered of the highest service to mankind. He believed that his countrymen might be fitted by education for noble actions, and so he educated them until political knowledge became political power, and those without heard that voice arising from the beleaguered millions within, which told it was not safe to keep them longer imprisoned in that prison of religious disabilities, and so they jet them go forth into the world. They have issued forth a wonderful multitudegenerals, admirals, rulers, statesmen — a noble army led by O'Connell—a conquering boat which has spread over the whole world. J-he Government has been Hlumined by their wisdom, the army and navy have been rendered more energetic and victorious by their skill and valour. For aU this we are indebted to O'Connell. . He taught the great truth: a truth whose virtue now is felt by all mankind—that a race not allowed fall political rights must sink in the scale of humanity, i-rough him a great nation has been released from thraldom, and that conquering 'ace has sent a detachment to New Zealand, *«o to whom the colony is in no slight degree jadebfced for its prosperity." (Enthusiastic