the Nile were still new; before the Homeric 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 AEneas 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 family, and the modern traditions of his house, combined to throw him into the ranks of the people’s enemies; and that these influences were not altogether barren of results is proved by the fact that O’Brien entered Parliament in 1826 as an Anti-Repealer, and exerted himself to prevent the return of O’Connell at the memorable election for Clare.  But O’Brien was no factious opponent of the national interests; even while he acted thus, he had the welfare of his country sincerely at heart; he steered according to his lights, and when time and experience showed the falseness of his views, he did not hesitate to renounce them.  To this period of his political career Mr. O’Brien often adverted in after life, with the frankness and candour that distinguished him.  “When the proposal to seek for a Repeal of the Act of Union was first seriously entertained,” said O’Brien, “I used all the influence I possessed to discountenance the attempt.  I