O’CONNELL MONUMENT FUND.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume II, Issue 121, 5 June 1863, Page 2

O’CONNELL MONUMENT FUND.

Pursuant to advertisement, a preliminary meeting w r as held at Mr. McNalty’s, the Star Hotel, on Monday evening last, of persons taking an interest in the memory of Daniel O’Connell, when the resolution which appears in our advertising columns was unanimously passed. Mr. Buchanan, in opening the business of the evening, said he thought it might be desirable he should explain why he appeared so prominently in the matter rather than a countryman of the man they had met to honor. With this view he would ask them to take a retrospect of 40 years back—a long period in the life of a man, but short in that of nations. We saw that at that period there was a class in England with rights and privileges more akin to those of Pariahs than free men. This great class, with which it is my pride to be connected, I mean the Nonconformists of England, now a majority of the people of that country, were existing in a condition of Egyptian bondage, only a shade less dark and burdensome than that of their fellow-subjects, the Catholics of Ireland. And O'Connell, after the failure of his early eliortsto emancipate his co-religionists, with the prescience and energy that-marked him,perceived the advantage to be derived by securing the cooperation of this body, who were restless and smarting under the disabilities imposed by the legislation of a by-gone bigot age. In fine, by his hand was drawn the bill which ultimately passed, repealing the 1 est and Corporation Acts, those vile measures, the provisions of which effectually excluded from scats in Parliament, from any office of honor or emolument under the Crown, and even under petty municipalities, men whose sole offence consisted in their refusing subscription to oaths that violated their sense of truth. Had he done no other service than this, his memory ought, in my opinion, to be dear to the Dissenters of England. A long line of services, however, followed, the Catholic Emancipation Act of IS^y; the Reform Bill of 1832, measures which were virtually revolutions, but happily bloodless ones. On these, and the part he subsequently took in important Acts, it is not ray intention to be discursive. I will remark, however, that with his master mind, his eloquence, and grasp of thought, there were no honors, no wealth, no power beyond his reach, and that Ministries, Whig or Tory, would not have been glad to confer on him, to compound for his silence, if indisposed to yield them support. The broad road was open before him, but lie chose the narrow way that lodged him in Richmond Bridewell, steeped him in poverty, but conducted him to a shrine in the hearts of his countrymen ; the taper which illuminates but will never be extinguished while the English language lasts, and a Celt remains. On every side we witness and enjoy the fruits of his lifelong and devoted endeavors to elevate the mass of the people, to instil into them a proper sense as well of their duties in the commonwealth, as of their rights and privileges ; and, above all, we owe mainly to his eloquence, to his genius, to bis unflinching efforts, the priceless jewel of our civil franchises being no longer dependant on subscription to some particular creed, —a simulated adherence to which would violate our consciences, and transform us, not into, sincere converts, but into contemptible hypocrites. Si queer is monumentum, .circumspice. Yes, on all sides I see monuments consecrated to his labors. ■ I see them standing boldly out in indelible type on the Statute Book of our Country. I see them daily in the unfettered exercise by all men, without religious distinction, of that inestimable privilege of a voice in framing the laws that govern them, which is the birthright of every denizen of a free soil; and if we possess the eye of faith, we may penetrate into man’s nature, and perceive that on the great heart of the British and Irish nation, is engraved in characters of undying gratitude, the memory of his eminent services. And such, I must remind you, is the tribute bis spirit must appreciate

far more that any record of marble or of bronze. I therefore change the nature of my appeal. Ino longer ask you 'for your support to this movement with the idea of its doing honor to his memory. I ask you to join it, and do honor to yourselves, as by such an outward token can it alone be made manifest that you are free from the taint and the crime of forgetfulness. The Sattellites of power say that the political deeds of pub-lic-spirited men on behalf of the people are unhonored and no longer thought of, when they lie cold in their tombs. I therefore earnestly entreat you to do what is in your power to disprove this slander, and to demonstrate that, insignificant in number as this community may be, and placed as it is at the uttermost ends of the earth, with interests palpably held by our rulers, subordinate to those of the savage hordes in our midst, there, nevertheless, exist here minds that understand the worth, and cherish the memory of the great liberator, and that thrill even yet at the mere sound of the name of Daniel O’Connell.