eed by all, that his imprisonment in Richmond told considerably upon
him; his speeches, after his liberation, lacking that buoyant pleasantry
for which they were wont to be remarkable. The famine also weighed
heavily upon his spirits; every question, he frequently said, must be
postponed but the one of saving the lives of the people. We need not,
however, go in search of causes for his death; he had done the work of a
host of men, he was seventy-two, and it was natural he should die; but
the Irish people were not at all prepared for his death: no, in their
affection for him, they had made up their minds that their Liberator was
to live up to that ninety, which he had so often promised them,--and,
with the vigour of forty-five.

In the last days of March, 1847, O'Connell left Dublin for London, to
attend his parliamentary duties. He presented some petitions on the 1st
of February, and spoke at some length about the Famine on the 8th; his
speech, the last he ever made, occupying about one hundred lines of a
newspaper column. He was imperfectly heard. One report says, "Mr.
O'Connell rose, but spoke very indistinctly, and directed his voice very
much to the lower part of the house." The opening remark in Hansard
is,--"Mr. O'Connell was _understood to_ say." He was very kindly
received by the house; hears and cheers are thickly strewn through his
speech as reported. This was in part, no doubt, the kindness of pity
for the great old man, in the hour of his feebleness and humiliation.
For he, who in the day of his might, had hurled "his high and haughty
defiance" at them all, was there to crave bread, to save the lives of
those millions with whom he had so often threatened them. His last words
were an appeal to their charity; they also contained a prophecy, which
was, alas! but too strictly verified. "She is in your hands," he said,
"she is in your power. If you don't save her, she can't save herself;
and I solemnly call upon you to recollect that I predict, with the
sincerest conviction, that one-fourth of her population will perish,
unless you come to her relief. (Cheers from both sides)."

So ended the public career of the great leader of the Irish nation, to
be followed in two short months by his death. Two days after he had
spoken in the House of Commons, the rumour reached the Clubs that he was
dangerously ill. This was contradicted, and a letter from himself to the
Repeal Association, which was read at their next meetin