O'Connell had announced, that he should state his views at
length on the condition of Ireland, and the causes of these agrarian
outrages. Accordingly, when the order of the day for resuming the
adjourned debate was read, he rose at once, to propose an amendment to
the motion. He sate in an unusual place--in that generally occupied by
the leader of the opposition, and spoke from the red box, convenient to
him, from the number of documents to which he had to refer. His
appearance was of great debility, and the tones of his voice were very
still. His words, indeed, only reached those who were immediately around
him, and the ministers sitting on the other side of the green table, and
listening with that interest, and respectful attention which became the
occasion. It was a strange and touching spectacle, to those who
remembered the form of colossal energy, and the clear and thrilling
tones, that had once startled, disturbed, and controlled senates. Mr.
O'Connell was on his legs for nearly two hours, assisted occasionally,
in the management of his documents, by some devoted aide-de-camp. To the
house generally, it was a performance of dumb show, a feeble old man
muttering before a table; but respect for the great parliamentary
personage kept all as orderly as if the fortunes of a party hung upon
his rhetoric; and though not an accent reached the gallery, means were
taken that, next morning, the country should not lose the last, and not
the least interesting of the speeches of one, who had so long occupied
and agitated the mind of nations. This remarkable address was an
abnegation of the whole policy of Mr. O'Connell's career. It proved, by
a mass of authentic evidence, ranging over a long term of years, that
Irish outrage was the consequence of physical misery, and that the
social evils of that country, could not be successfully encountered by
political remedies. To complete the picture, it concluded with a
panegyric of Ulster and a patriotic quotation from Lord Clare."[91]

That the rich and splendid voice, which had so often sounded in the ears
of his countrymen, like the varied and touching music of their native
land, and led them where he would, had lost its finest tones, was true
enough; but it had not so utterly failed as Mr. D'Israeli asserts. I
heard O'Connell speak in public after this time, and although the marks
of age and feebleness were in his whole manner, he managed his voice so
as to be heard and understood a