ANECDOTES OF DANIEL O'CONNELL.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume III, Issue 127, 8 October 1875, Page 13

ANECDOTES OF DANIEL O'CONNELL.

O'CoNNEliii coitld be seen to greatest advantage in an Irish court of justice. There lie displayed, every quality of the lawyer and the advocate. For a round volley of abusive epithets nobody could surpass' him. One of his droll comic sentences was often -worth a speech of an hour in putting down an opponent, or in gaining supporters to his side. At Nisi Prius, he turned his mingled talent forabuse and drollery to great effect. He covered a witness with ridicule, or made a cause so ludicrous, that the real grounds of complaint became invested with absurdity. O'CONNELL.ON THE ATTORNEY. He said a good thing once in an assize town on the Minister circuit. . The attorney of the side opposite to that on which O'Connell was retained, was a gentleman remarkable for his combative qualities ; delighted in being in a fight, and was foremost in many of the political scenes of excitement in his native town. His person was indicative of his disposition. His face was bold, menacing, and scornful in its expression. He had stamped on him the defi- ( ance and resolution of a pugilist. .Upon either temple there stood j erect a lock of hair, which no brush could smooth down. These . ' locks looked like horns, and added to the combative expression of i his countenance. He was fiery in his nature, excessively spirited, j and ejaculated, rather than spoke to an audience; his speeches ! consisting of a series of short, hissing, spluttering sentences., by no I means devoid of talent of a certain kind. Add to all this, that the gentleman was an Irish Attorney, and an Orangeman, and the reader may easily suppose thar. he was " a character 1" Upon the occasion referred to, this gentleman gave repeated annoyance to O'Connell — by interrupting him in the progress of the cause — by speaking to the witnesses — and by interfering in a manner altogether improper, and unwarranted by legal custom. But it was no easy matter to make the combative attorney hold his peace — he, too, was an agitator in his own fashion. In vain did the judge admonish him to remain quiet; up lie would jump, interrupting the proceedings, hissing out his angry remarks and vociferations with vehemence. "While O'Connell was in the act of pressing a most important question he jumped up again, undisI rnayed, solely for the purpose of interruption. O'Connell., losing all patience, suddenly turned round, and, scowling at the disturber, shouted in a voice of thunder—" Sit clown, you audacious, snarling, pugnacious ram-cat." Scarcely had the words fallen from his lips, when roars of laughter rang through the court. The judge himself I laughed outright, at the happy and humorous description of the combative attorney, who, pale with passion, gasped in inarticulate rage. The name of ram-cat stuck to him through, all his life. SCENE AT KILLINET. O'Connell was a capital actor, and his dramatic delivery of a common remark was often highly impressive. Many years since, he went down to Kingstown, near Dublin, with a party, to visit a Queen's ship-of-war, which was then riding in the bay. After having seen it, O'Connell proposed a walk to the top of Killiney Hill. Breaking from the rest of his party, he ascended to the highest point of the hill, in company with a young and real Irish patriot, whose character was brimful of national enthusiasm. The day was fine, and the view from the summit of the hill burst gloriously upon the sight. The beautiful bay of Dublin, like a vast sheet of crystal, was at their feet. The old city of Dublin stretched away to the west, and to the north was the old promontory of Howth, jutting forth into the sea. To the south were the Dublin and Wicklow mountains, enclosing the lovely vale of Shanganah, rising picturesquely against the horizon. The scene was beautiful, with all the varieties of sunlight and shadow. ! O'Connell enjoyed it with nearly as much rapture as his youth ful and ardent companion, who broke forth — " It is all Ireland — oh ! how beautiful ! Thank God, we see nothing English here. Everything we see is Irish 1" I His rapture was interrupted by O'Connell, gently laying his j hand on his shoulder, and pointing to the ship-of-war at anchor, as he exclaimed — " A speck of the British power !" The thought was electric. That speck, significantly pointed out by O'Connell, suggested the whole painful history of his father- ! land to the memory of the ardent young Irishman. AN INSOLENT JUDGE. ; The judges themselves often came in for a share of his animad- • versions, when he deemed their judicial or other conduct deserved 1 public censure ; and when he pleaded as an advocate before tuem, ■ their resentment always betrayed itself. Singular to say, his prac- > tice was never injuriously affected by his boldness outside. Other > men have suffered vitally from the political or personal hostility of L judges — Curran was one of them. But O'Connell beat down the i most formidable "hatred, and compelled, by the sheer force of legal and intellectual power, the bitterest and most obstinate personal • rancour to give way. He compelled pompous, despotic and hostile judges to yield. He could not be awed. If they were haughty, he ) was proud. If they were malevolent, he was cuttingly sarcastic, i It happened that he was by at an argument in one of the 1 Courts of Dublin, in which a young Kerry attorney was called uponr by the opposing counsel,- either to admit a statement as evidence, i or to hand in some documents he could legally detain." O'Connell i was not specially engaged. The discussion, arose on a new trial i motion — the issue to go down to the Assizes. He did not interfere t until the demand was made on the attorney, but he then stood up s and told him to make no admission. i He was about .to resume his seat, when the Judge, Baron 3 M'Cleland, said, with a peculiar emphasis, " Mr. O'Connell, have i you a brief in this case ?" i " No, my lord, I have not; but I will have on© when the case .. goes down to the Assizes." ;, " When I," rejoined the judge, throwing himself back with an g air of lofty scorn, " was at the bar, it was not my habit to anticipate briefs."

"When you were at the bar," retorted O'Connall, "I never chose you for a model ; and now that you are on the Bench, I shall not submit to your dictation." Leaving his lordship to digest the retort, he took the attorney by the arm, and walked him. out of Court. EXAMINING A "WITNESS. O'Connell knew so intimately the habits and character of the humbler class, that he was able, by cajolery or intimidation, to coerce them, when on the table, into truth-telling. He was once examining a witness, whose inebriety, at the time to which the evidence referred, it was essential to his client's case to prove. He quickly discovered the man's character. He was a fellow who may be described as " half foolish with roguery." " Well, Darby," said the Counsellor, taking him on the crossexamination, "you told the whole truth to that gentleman?" pointing to the counsel who had ju3t examined the witness. "Yes, your honor, Counsellor O'Connell." " How do you know my name ?" " Ah, sure every one knows our own pathriotJ' " Well, you are a good-humoured, honest fellow. Now, tell me, Darby, did you take a drop of anything that day ?" " Why, your honor, I took my share of a pint of spirits." " Tour share of it ; now, by virtue of your oath, was not your share of it all but the jieioter ?" "Why, then, dear knows, that's true for you, sir." The Court was convulsed at both question and answer. It soon came out that the man was drunk, and was not, therefore, a competent witness. Thus O'Connell won the case for his client. ENTRAPPING- A WITNESS. An illustration of his dexterity in compassing an unfortunate culprit's acquittal may be here narrated. Hu was employed in defending a prisoner who was tried for a aiurder committed in the vicinity- of Cork. Tha principal witness swore strongly against the prisoner — one corroborative circumstance was, that the prisoner's hat was found near the place where the mur der took place. Tl-'e witness swore positively the hat produced was the one found, and that it belonged to the prisoner, whose name was •Tames. "By virtue of your oa*.h, are youpositive that this is the same hat?" " Yes." " Did you examine it carefully before your swore in your informations that it whs the prisoner's ?" "Yes." " Now, let me see it," said O'Connell, and he took up the hat and began carefully to examine the inside. Ho then spelled aloud the name James — slowly thus : " J — a — m — e — s. " Now, do yon. mean those letters were in fche hat when you found it ?" " I do." " Did you see them there ?" "I did." "This is the same hat?" "It is." "Now, my Lord," said O'Connell, holding up the hat to the Bench, " there is an end to the case — there is no name whatever inscribed in the hat." The result was instant acquittal. GAINING OVER A JURY. At a Cork, Assizes many years ago, he was employed in an action of damages, for diverting a stream from its regular channel, or diverting so much of it as inflicted injury on some party who previously benefited by its abundance. The injury was oflered by a nobleman, and his attorney, on'whose advice the proceeding was adopted, was a man of corpulent proportions, with a face bearing the ruddy glow of rude health, but, flushed in a crowded court, assumed momentarily, a color like that imparted by intemperance. He really was a most temperate man. O'Conaell dwelt on the damage his client had sustained by the unjust u.-urpation. The stream should have been permitted to follow its old and natural course. There was neither law nor justice in turning it aside from his client's fields. He had a right to all its copiousness, and the other party should have allowed him full enjoyment. In place of that, the latter monopolised the water — he diminished it. It became every day small by degrees and beautifully less. "There is not now," he said, "gentlemen of the jury, a tenth of the ordinary quantity. Tho stream is running dry — and so low is it, and so little of it is there, that," continued he, turning to the rubicund attorney, and naming him, " there isn't enough in it to make grog for Fogarty." A roar of laughter followed, and it was not stopped by the increased rosiness and embarrassment of the gentleman who became the victim of the learned advocate's humorous allusion. The tact in this gaily was, in endeavoring to create an impression that his poor client was sacrificed by the harsh conduct of a grog-drinking attorney, and thus create prejudice against the plaintiff's case. BETKNTIVB MEMORY. At Darrynane, he was sitting one morning, surrounded by country people, some asking his advice, some his assistance, others making their grie ranees known. Amongst tho rest was a farmer, rather advance't in life, a swaggering sort of fellow, who was desirous of carrying hii point by impressing the Liberator with tho idea of his peculiar honesty and respectability. He was "anxious that O'Connell should decide a matter in dispute between him and a neighboring farmer who, he wished to insinuate, was not as" good aa he ought to be. "For my part, I at least, can boast that neither I nor mine were ever brought bofore a judge, or sent to gaol, however it was witli others." "Stop, stop, my fine follow," cried the Libcrrtor, — "let me see," pausing a moment—" let me sec ; it is now just twenty-five years ago, last August, that I myself saved you from transportation, .and iiad you discharged from the dock." The man was thunderstruck ; he thought such a matt'r could not be retained in the great man's mind. He shrunk away murmuring that he thould get justice elsewhere, and never appeared before the Liberator afterwards. A I'OI,ItICAL HURRAH AT A FUNERAL. Ascending the mountain road between Dublin and Q-lencullen, in company with an English friend, O'Connell was met by a funeral. The mourners soon recognized him, and immediately broke into a vociferous hurrah for their political favorite, much to the astonishment of tho Sassenach ; who, accustomed to the solemn and lugubrious decorum of English funeral*, was nol prepared for an outburst

of Celtic enthusiasm upon such an occasion. A remark being made on the oddity of a political hurrah ab a funeral, it wai. replied that the corpse would have doubtless cheered lustily, too, if ho could. REFUSAL OP OFFICE. In 1838, on the morning when O'Connell received from tho Government the offer to be appointed Lord Chief Baron, he-walked over to the window, saying : "This is very kind — very kind, indeed! — but I haven't the •< least notion of taking the offer. Ireland co_uld not spare me now ; not but that, if she could, I don't at all deny that the office would j have great attractions for me. Let me see, now — there would not be inoro than about eighty days' duty in the year ; I would take ft country house near Dublin, and walk into town, and during the intervals of judicial labour, I'd go to Derrynane.' I should be idle in the early part of April, just when the jack-hares leave the most splendid trails upon the mountains. In fact, I should enjoy the office exceedingly upon every account, if I could but accept it con^ sistently with the interests of Ireland — but I cannot." ™