146 NOTES OF AN 



singularly enough with his ragamuffin audience, and greatly 

 added to the effect. On looking from one to the other, one 

 would have thought there could have been nothing in common 

 between the speaker and his auditory, — nothing in him that 

 they could understand, — nothing in them to appeal to. But 

 he possessed the true art of oratory, by which the great models 

 of antiquity performed those wonders. He did not descend to 

 the level of his hearers, by pandering to their base passions 

 and inHaming their low desires, but he brought them up to his 

 own elevation, and carried them along with him to the highest 

 pitch of excitement and enthusiasm. He appealed to those 

 common feelings of humanity, of love, of home, of kindred, of 

 country, of right, of truth, of religion, which, after all, are 

 more readily awakened in the unsophisticated, though poor 

 and destitute, than in the learned, the pampered, and the rich. 

 He was full of the happiest turns and allusions. There is a 

 rich vein to be worked upon in every human being, however 

 ignorant, humble, or depressed. There are universal feelings 

 of right and wrong, an inherent sense of justice and injustice, 

 which no tyranny or persecution can ultimately destroy. They 

 may be stifled or kept down in one generation, but they are 

 born again with the next, — eternal in their nature. All 

 children of one common Parent, there is no law of entail or 

 primogeniture in the feelings of humanity, or the powers of 

 the mind. 



But did we escape alive and unharmed out of the mob? An 

 Irish election mob, in the Irish capital, under the excitement 

 and triumph of the popular cause? — vociferating the most vio- 

 lent language, dealing terror and destruction around them, and 

 defying the civil power, — of course ? Nothing of the kind. I 

 have learnt the meaning and the power of " peaceful agitation." 

 We had worked ourselves as near the platform as possible, into 

 the very centre of the crowd, and were within hearing of the 

 cheers of the rival mob of the opposing candidates. Occasion- 

 ally there was an irresistible pressure irom that quarter, and we 

 were borne backwards en manse. But there was none of that 

 rude struggling by, and terrific elbowing, and brutual violence 

 of a London mob. Every one seemed as anxious to keep his 

 neighbour as himself in his place, and to prevent the weakly 

 and females from being borne down in the crowd ; and on the 

 returning tide gave preference to those who had occupied fore- 



