DANIEL O'CONNELL.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3080, 11 May 1881, Page 4

DANIEL O'CONNELL.

Anecdotes of the Great Agitator arc plenty ; but here is one tbat I have never seen in print, and certainly as good as the best. I have it from a gentleman who has enjoyed the privilege of close friendly intercourse with a near relative of O'Connell's, and who is the happy possessor of several of the great man's manuscripts. O'Connell was possessed of a power of interpenetration that amounted almost to mind-reading. His insight into character, and his reading of phisiognomy were wonderful. The following instance is a remarkable example of this: On a certain occasion he was engaged by an heir-at-law to contest the validity of a will which had been unexpectedly brought forward as the last will and testament of the deceased, and declared to have been by him made on the very day of his death. The contestant was nephew of the testator, and nearest relative, and a very few hours before his uncle died, he (the uncle) had (old him that he was his sole heir. But the possessors of the new will swore roundly, and tho case seemed dubious for the nephew. In the course of the trial a witness for tho defence of the late will was called who swore positively that he saw the testator's hand upon the paper, with the pen in his fingers, and that the will was then signed. O'Connell watched this man narrowly. Ho was a very proper man in appearance • solemn and sedate ; with an outward shoxv of piety. There was something in his testimony net natural. The man was not telling truly what he had seen! At length O'Connell took him in hand for examination. " Witnes*! you were in the room, and saw the will signed ?" "Yes, sir." "You saw the testator, himself, write his name ?" " Yes, sir—l saw him write on the paper —on the spot where his name is now." " and he was alive at that time ?" " There was life in him, certainly, sir,— life and sense." This was the point which O'Connell had before marked : " There was life in him /" And, furthermore, he observed a peculiar twitching of the witness's lips—a puckering of the mouth—that "could only have been the result of some bit of remembrance— something dwelling in his mind in connection with the signing of the will which caused him thus to pucker his mouth involuntarily. " George Henry M'Grath!" calling the witness by his full name, " you know that the testator signed that will ?" " Yes, sir." " Did he have assistance ?" " Yes, sir. A man held his hand to steady it, for he was very weak." " Yet he was alive ?" "He had life and sense, sir." At this juncture O'Connell strode forward and looked straight into the man's face with one of those expressions which never failed to terrify the guilty • and when he spoke his voice was like a crack of doom : " M'Grath! Look me in the eye :Do you suppose I cannot look into your craven heart and see the base subterfuge you harbor there ?" Then, grasping the man's arm, and sinking his voice to tho tone of the sepulchre, he went on, speaking louder as be proceeded : " You say the testator had life in him. Now, sir,—on your oath, — what was it that had been put into his mouth ? Was it a living fly 1 Answer me !" The poor wretch shook like an aspen; and the attorney for the defendant had started forward to save the day, but O'Connell was on his guard. " Answer me !" _ And a convulsive Yes burst from the pale lips of the frightened man. ■ He was not proof against the electric power of the legal giant. Of course, that, closed the trial; and we will only add, in conclusion, that while Daniel O'Connell was able to appear in court the man who would appear against him must have Truth and Right on his side If he had not, no amount of testifying and swearing could avail against the wonderful interpenetration and cunning craft of this Man of the- people.