ballads had yet been chanted in the streets of an Eastern city; before
the foundations of the Parthenon were laid on the Acropolis; before the
wandering sons of Æneas found a home in the valley of the Tiber, the
chieftains of his house enjoyed the conqueror's fame, and his ancestors
swayed the sceptre of Erie. Nor was he unworthy of the name and the fame
of the O'Briens of Kincora. Clear sighted and discerning; deeply endowed
with calm sagacity and penetrating observance; pure minded, eloquent,
talented and chivalrous; he comprised within his nature the truest
elements of the patriot, the scholar, and the statesman. Unfaltering
attachment to the principles of justice, unswerving obedience to the
dictates of honour, unalterable loyalty to rectitude and duty; these
were the characteristics that distinguished him; and these were the
qualities that cast their redeeming light round his failings and his
errors, and wrung from the bitterest of his foes the tribute due to
suffering worth. If nobility of soul, if earnestness of heart and
singleness of purpose, if unflinching and self-sacrificing patriotism,
allied to zeal, courage, and ability, could have redeemed the Irish
cause, it would not be left to us to mourn for it to-day; and instead of
the melancholy story we have now to relate, it might he given to us to
chronicle the regeneration of the Irish nation.

William Smith O'Brien was born, at Dromoland, County Clare, on the 17th
of October, 1803. He was the second son of Sir Edward O'Brien, and on
the death of his kinsman, the last Marquis of Thomond, his eldest
brother became Baron of Inchiquin. He was educated at Harrow and Trinity
College, Cambridge; but his English education, however much it might
have coloured his views during boyhood, did not seriously affect his
innate love of justice, or warp the patriotic feelings which were
developed in his earliest years. The associations into which he was
cast, the tone of the society in which he moved, the politics of his