ish
and German Roman Catholics of the immigration. While they cried aloud
for religious equality for themselves, they carried on in Ireland a
fierce and brutal religious persecution, which was only restrained by
the influence of the more enlightened and liberal laymen of their own
communion, and by fear of the law; the impolicy of such a cause was not
sufficient to check the raging zealotry which so extensively prevailed.
All this O'Connell sanctioned and fostered, and, except when doing so
would hamper his policy or political relations in England, he invited
it.

Intellectually, O'Connell was a giant. His grasp of mind was
comprehensive and tenacious; and he was capable of reasoning clearly
whenever his religious bias allowed of his doing so dispassionately.
His perception was quick, keen, and discriminating, especially where
character was concerned. His knowledge of human nature was profound,
although he had not been a successful student of metaphysics. His
eloquence was more varied than that of any other man of his times; and
he possessed the faculty of adapting himself to his audience, and to the
changing feelings of an audience, to a degree which few men ever attain.
In a moment he could melt a popular audience to tears or convulse it
with laughter. He could be plain or ornate, coarse or courteous. The
eloquence of invective and vituperation was carried by O'Connell to a
very inglorious perfection. His eulogies were as dextrous and expressive
as they were, nevertheless, morally repugnant to honest minds. The
writer of these lines has heard him address a mob of peasants in the
county of Waterford on repeal, and an assembly of Quakers, Methodists,
and "other sectaries," as he would himself call them, in the city of
Cork, on an anti-slavery occasion, with equal effect. His broad-brimmed
and sedate audience were as much delighted with his elegant and pathetic
eloquence in favour of humanity and natural rights, as his peasant mob
were while he discoursed to them upon the certainty and glory of repeal,
and declared that "they were the finest peasantry in the world." On the
one occasion his action was graceful, and at times expressive even
to sublimity; on the other, it was bold and broadly natural, nor less
expressive of the passion he felt or simulated, and endeavoured to
excite. He possessed the oratory necessary for an Irish tribune, and
that which was adapted to the English senator: In his profession he
held a high