We never understood that we had a nation behind
us--O'Connell alone comprehended that properly, and used his knowledge
fitly. It was by him the gates of the Constitution were broken open for
us; we owe everything to his rough work, and, to effect further services
for Ireland, there must be more of it. I never understood this properly
until they made me a peer of parliament, and I feel myself bound to make
the avowal under the circumstances in which you now see me, preparatory
to my passing into another world. You will communicate this to
O'Connell, and my most earnest wish, that he will receive the avowal as
an atonement for my not having always supported him, as I now feel he
should have been supported."[265]
O'Connell, as an orator, aimed at being what he was called for many
years, "The Man of the People." In some of his earlier speeches there
are marks of care and preparation, but during three-fourths of his
career, his only preparation was to master his subject; words of the
best and most effective kind never failed him. There is little doubt,
that elaborate preparation would have marred the effect of O'Connell's
oratory. He, like all great men, had a quick, intuitive mind--one, in
fact, that could scarcely bear the tedium of careful preparation, and
the true character of which came out in cross-examining and in reply;
for although great and lucid in statement, he was still more powerful in
reply.
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