SIR C. GAVAN DUFFY.

Globe, Volume IV, Issue 306, 5 June 1875, Page 3

SIR C. GAVAN DUFFY.

In an article in the “Dublin University Magazine ” for April last, entitled “ Notes on Passing Events,” and dealing with the career of the late John Mitchel, we find the following opinions concerning the late Premier of the Victorian Government;—

“ John Mitchel soon found that even among his chosen “ Young Icelanders ” there were unprincipled trimmers and traders. There were, in fact, very few honest men among them. There was one crafty arch-monkey, who adroitly managed to use other paws than his own to rake the chestnuts out of the fire. A man deepest steeped in treason, but who escaped from conviction and punishment owing to the obdurate conscience of a Dublin hotel-keeper; this man, Gavan Duffy, then assumed to be the guiding genius of the National movement; but John Mitchell found him out, separated from him, and commenced an agitation of his own.” An Editorial foot-note to the above is as follows;

“Of all the men connected with the 1848 treason, there was not one more guilty than Charles Gavan Duffy, a man who enjoyed, from the labors of others, an immensely overrated literary reputation, and obtained a position in the councils of the seditious that cannot be more forcibly expressed than by reference to the fable of the chestnuts, the cat, and the monkey.

This glowing patriot went to Australia, and silly dupes got up a subscription to return him to their Parliament. Some £6OOO, we believe, was collected ; he got into Parliament, and with his consummate art, and factitious ability in a new colony, became Prime Minister.

The character of the man is shown by one fact. Having by means, we need not allude to, obtained a majority, he carried a Bvl conferring on certain ministers a retiring pension of £2090 a year, andin the enjoyment of this pension, we understand, Sir Charles Gavan Duffy is n<Vw here on the look-out for some Irish constituency capable of returning him to Parliament. For Duffy’s career in the Antipodes, see the Melbourne Argus.”