1846-47 THE '0' IN O'CONNELL 305 



reception of a new train of ideas. Mr. Brooke, in 

 walking home with me, expressed strongly his 

 sentiments as to accepting truth in whatever form 

 it pleased God to vouchsafe it to us. Some 

 pleasant bantering passed on the subject of Mr. 

 Brooke's excluding lawyers from his dominions. 

 The characters of the natives of Borneo and their 

 language were discussed. Some anecdotes of 

 O'Connell were told. His proper family name 

 was " Connell," and so of all his family for some 

 generations ; he did not assume the " O " till he 

 got some property from an uncle, who made it by 

 smuggling, and whose abode was a notorious receiv- 

 ing house for run goods on the coast of Derrynane. 

 We had a discussion about Lamartine and his 

 " History of the Girondins," and my end of the table 

 was much interested by some of my revelations 

 from the secrets of the prison-houses at Paris — 

 Hallam in particular. He had no idea that such 

 documents were preserved as those I examined 

 at the Prefecture of Police/ 



On December 3 Owen was nominated a 

 member of the Commission of Sewers ; ' not a 

 very pleasant task,' he writes, ' as people strongly 

 dislike being told of duties which they have been 

 neglecting.' In a letter dated December 6, he 

 refers to the reason of this new Commission — 

 viz. the report issued by the Commissioners for 

 the Health of the Metropolis, &c. ' I call it 



vol. 1. x 



