Sir Maurice O'Connell.

Thames Star, Volume X, Issue 3173, 21 April 1879, Page 1

Sir Maurice O'Connell.

I The Australian colonies hare lost a man of' mark and eminence in Sir Maurice Charles O'Connell, who hat been for man/ yean President of the Legislative Council of Queensland. The Tnstory of the deceased gentleman is emphatically AuitraHan rather than belonging to any particular colony, and is so in a degree beyond that in which the same observation could be made of any other colonial statesman. By, birlb. Sir. Maurice was a native qt Syd* ney. His grandfather on his mother's side, Admiral; Bligh, well-known in connexion with the mutiny pf the Bounty, was one of the early. Governors of New South Wales, and his father, General Sir Maurice O'Connell, was Acting Governor of New South, Wales* and the lately deceased .SirtMouriceshai. acted in the same capacity in Queensland several times. In his youth Sir: Maurice O'Connell entered the army as ensign at the age of 16, and seven years later threw himself in the very spirit of jjhivalrymlo the Carlist war, then raging in Spam. '■■ -He! raised id 'Ireland a regiment of the British Legion, and embarked for Spain to fight for "the Queen and the constitution." He attained the rank of general of brigade in com-' mand of 'the British Auxiliary Legion, and he was created a knight commander of Isabella the Catholic, \ besides < gaining other high disliuctions- by bis personal gallantry. He returned to Sydney in 1835 as military secretary, on the staff of his father, and his active and energetic disposition soon asserted itself ai con* spicuously in social and political life as it had on the field of warfare. He was one of the members for Fort Phillip in the Legislative Council of New South Wales. Throughout his life Sir Maurice O'Oonnell has brought to his public duties^ something of "the high' chivalrio feeling which led ta his early plunge into the Spanish war,' and he has been enabled to hold with'dignity an eminent place above the level-of faetiott or party strife. A colony is fortunate which possesses among its public men some of the stamp of Sir Maurice O'Connell, and it is matter for regret that we see so few of this order arising to talcs.the place x>f the old ones as they pass away. •