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own countrymen and co-religionists, even if victorious in its termination, was a combat from which no honour could result.

The return of the Whig party to office, when the Peel cabinet was defeated on the Irish Coercion Bill in 1846, was hailed by Mr. O'Connell as the harbinger of good to Ireland, and he lent his influence to their support, that he might enforce his country's claims with a better prospect of their attainment, and though he could not be accused of abating the slightest portion of his demands on her behalf, his ci-devant friends made his adhesion to the Whig ministry a ground of complaint, and lavished upon him as much opprobrium as if he had been guilty of the meanest subserviency for the advancement of his private interests.

In addition to the vexation arising from this source, O'Connell had now to contemplate the frightful prospect of famine pervading the land of his birth. The failure of the potato crop was general throughout the country, and the starving peasantry who had so looked up to him as their Benefactor and Liberator, now trusted in his abilities to provide them with food. He felt, that although he could overthrow cabinets, and set viceroys at defiance, against the dispensations of Providence he was powerless. Our readers will readily believe that all that mortal wisdom, great experience, and individual effort could effect, he accomplished. He was incessantly importunate in calling upon the British Government, and Imperial Legislature, to partially repair the injuries of a nation whom their misgovernment and oppression had reduced to the necessity of subsisting upon a single vegetable, and that one the nature of which would not permit of any accumulation beyond the annual consumption. His labours in this cause would be most gratifying to record, but our rapidly diminishing space bids us hasten to the important, though melancholy task of chronicling the events of the last illness and death of our hero.

Mr. O'Connell left Ireland for the last time, on the 20th of January, 1847. His health was far from good, but he

hoped that his presence in Parliament might be instrumental in the alleviation of Irish distress, and he was not the man to study self when he could be useful to his country. He soon discovered, however, that he was no longer equal to the toils of midnight legislation, and after remaining but a short time in London, his medical attendants advised him to visit the coast, and he removed to Hastings. The physicians whom he consulted, all agreed, that nothing less than a change of air, and a total abstraction from the excitement of politics, could be of avail in restoring his health. After a brief stay at Hastings, he consequently embarked for the continent, accompanied by his son Daniel and the Rev. Dr. Miley.

Mr. O'Connell proceeded direct to Paris, and on his arrival there was waited upon by the leading men of all the great parties in the French capital, and he was only restrained by the delicate state of his health from being invited to numerous public demonstrations of the high esteem in which he was held; a convincing proof, if any were needed, that his fame was not alone Irish, but European. The Parisian physicians, like their English brethren, recommended travelling and a residence in a warmer climate; these measures they deemed sufficient to overcome his malady, and they flattered his friends with the hope that O'Connell's life might still be spared for some years.

The futility of these expectations were but too soon made evident. He decided upon a journey to Rome, to pay that homage to the holy city that every true Catholic is desirous to render, and left Paris for Lyons on the 29th of March; the weather was very severe, and twelve days were occupied in travelling to the latter city, and he at last only arrived in a very debilitated state. After a few days' rest, he slightly rallied, and again set forward by way of Valence and Avignon, whence he descended the Rhone to Marseilles, which he reached early in May. Mr. O'Connell's health experienced a still further amendment while resting here.

A voyage of a single day sufficed to reach Genoa, the farthest point of his earthly pilgrimage-a city which has thus

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earned another claim to the notice of the historian, as the closing scene of the career of one of the most extraordinary men of the age. A description of Genoa would be an uncalled-for intrusion, but the engraved view of its beautiful site given in this work, may help to fix the more vividly upon the minds of our readers, the painful fact, that O'Connell died in the land of strangers, and deprived of the consoling presence of his family and friends. He had been resident here only three days, when his illness rapidly increased, all the former symptoms that had abated since his departure from Lyons, returned with augmented virulence. He was afflicted with severe cough and obstinate diarrhoea, in addition to the chronic disease, which had long before defied the skill of his physicians. A consultation of his medical attendants, Drs. Lacour, Beretta, and Duff, was immediately held, they decided upon the application of leeches to the neck to moderate the pressure of blood upon the brain; this, with the help of some internal remedies, moderated the intensity of the disease for a few days. But the hand of death was upon him; he first lost the power of swallowing, and lastly that of articulation. The crisis was now at hand, and on the morning of the 15th of May, he received the last rites of the Church from the hands of Dr. Miley. At nine o'clock on the same evening he ceased to live. It is important to remark, that at no period of his sickness was his intellect or understanding sensibly affected, he retained the use of his faculties to the last, a circumstance which excited the surprise of the physicians, such being rarely the case with persons suffering under disease of the brain.

The body was opened by Dr. Balleri, of Genoa, in the presence of the gentlemen who had attended upon him; after a scientific investigation of the causes of death, the heart was taken out and placed in an urn, to be conveyed to Rome, and the body then carefully embalmed, to allow of its being transported to his native land.

Our notice of the "Pilgrimage of the Heart" to Rome, must necessarily be brief. The bearers of the sacred relic

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