place. Having given up his life to politics and polemics, he
could not have become a first authority in law, but he was unsurpassed
as a counsel, especially in criminal cases. Most men thought that he had
not the mental and moral qualities necessary for the bench, while he
was pre-eminently the man of the bar. This, however, is hardly a fair
estimate of him. He possessed in a remarkable degree all those qualities
in an advocate which entitle him to cherish the ambition of becoming
a judge. From the judgment-seat, when his bigotry did not blind him,
O'Connell would have given charges as luminous and just as his speeches
in court were powerful specimens of effective advocacy. His general
attainments were very considerable. The writer of this history once took
part in a conversation where O'Connell displayed a knowledge of Biblical
criticism, and a capacity to apply what knowledge of that description
which he possessed, which was very astonishing. On the same occasion
he brought forth stores of ecclesiastical history, which proved that,
although his studies had been confined to a particular school on
that subject, his reading within the limits of that school were very
extensive, and his memory altogether extraordinary. He had the faculty
of attaching men strongly to him, not only as a party-leader, but as a
man and a friend. Many thought him jealous of the fame of other orators
of his time; but there is no just ground for this. No man approached him
in reputation except Richard Lalor Shiel. O'Connell did not betray
in public any jealousy of this great oratorical rival; but he often
indicated, where he did not profess it, a distrust of his good faith--
and the suspicions of the leader were not ill founded: Shiel was never
in earnest in his arguments for the separation of the Irish from the
English parliament, but preferred the policy of infusing Roman Catholic
influence: he also preferred a high imperial position to that of a
provincial demagogue. This, in the opinion of the Irish popular party,
was treason to Ireland; and no doubt O'Connell sympathised with that
feeling, and suspected that the man second only in power to himself
was neither so ardent an Irishman or Roman Catholic as his countrymen
desired him to be. This feeling on O'Connell's part will account for
many acts towards Shiel which were set down to personal jealousy. Dr.
Michelsen is very unjust to O'Connell in the following critique upon his
character:--"His gr