Daniel O’Connell’s home, Derrynane House near Caherdaniel in County Kerry, Ireland. O’Connell believed that the spirit of British classical liberalism, which Douglass also admired and found in such figures as Richard Cobden, would in time set Ireland free from the very real injustices of Westminster’s heavy-handed government.
Introduction
American anti-slavery campaigner Frederick Douglass visited Ireland in 1845, and loved it. But in time he came to realise that there are two kinds of nationalist: those who want freedom everywhere, and those who want it only for themselves, and will enslave any other land or people in order to get it.
IT was not long after my seeing Mr O’Connell that his health broke down, and his career ended in death.* I felt that a great champion of freedom had fallen, and that the cause of the American slave, not less than the cause of his country, had met with a great loss.
All the more was this felt, when I saw the kind of men who came to the front when the voice of O’Connell was no longer heard in Ireland. He was succeeded by the Duffys, Mitchells, Meagher, and others, — men who loved liberty for themselves and their country, but were utterly destitute of sympathy with the cause of liberty in countries other than their own.
One of the first utterances of John Mitchell on reaching the United States, from his exile and bondage, was a wish for a “slave plantation, well stocked with slaves.”*
Daniel O’Connell (1775-1847) was a landowner and barrister who, following the failed Irish Rebellion of 1798, urged his fellow Irishmen to pursue independence from Westminster through peaceful constitutional change, and, above all, through classical liberal ideals and a rediscovery of Ireland’s traditional Catholic identity.
John Mitchel (1815-1875) was a firebrand Irish nationalist. Tried before judge Thomas Lefroy (at one time a friend of Jane Austen) and convicted of treason, he was sentenced to transportation to Bermuda and then Tasmania. He was maltreated and used for forced labour, but escaped in 1853 and fled to the USA, where he baffled Douglass by supporting the slave-owning South in the civil war.
Six Questions for Critics
1. What has the author tried to do?
2. How has he fulfilled his intention?
3. What is he striving to express?
4. How has he expressed it?
5. What impression does his work make on me?
6. How can I best express this impression?
From The English Critic (1939) by NL Clay, drawing on The New Criticism: A Lecture Delivered at Columbia University, March 9, 1910, by J. E. Spingarn, Professor of Comparative Literature in Columbia University, USA.
Archive
Word Games
Spinners Find in Think and Speak
For each group of words, compose a sentence that uses all three. You can use any form of the word: for example, cat → cats, go → went, or quick → quickly, though neigh → neighbour is stretching it a bit.
This exercise uses words found in the accompanying passage.
1 Cause. Not. Than.
2 Champion. Exile. Loss.
3 But. Feel. Front.
Variations: 1. include direct and indirect speech 2. include one or more of these words: although, because, despite, either/or, if, unless, until, when, whether, which, who 3. use negatives (not, isn’t, neither/nor, never, nobody etc.)
Homophones Find in Think and Speak
In each group below, you will find words that sound the same, but differ in spelling and also in meaning. Compose your own sentences to bring out the differences between them.
This exercise uses words found in the accompanying passage.
1.
Scene.
Seen.
2.
Brake.
Break.
3.
There.
Their.
4.
Knot.
Not.
5.
Him.
Hymn.
6.
Hear.
Here.
7.
Sees.
Seas.
Seize.
8.
Know.
No.
9.
Won.
One.
Verb and Noun Find in Think and Speak
Many words can serve as noun or verb depending on context: see if you can prove this with the examples below. Nouns go well with words such as the/a, or his/her; verbs go well after I/you/he etc..
This exercise uses words found in the accompanying passage.
1 Break. 2 Meet. 3 Reach. 4 State. 5 Wish. 6 Voice. 7 End. 8 Cause. 9 Career.
Variations: 1.if possible, use your noun in the plural, e.g. cat → cats. 2.use your verb in a past form, e.g. go → went. 3.use your noun in a sentence with one of these words: any, enough, fewer, less, no, some.
Add Vowels Find in Think and Speak
Make words by adding vowels to each group of consonants below. You may add as many vowels as you like before, between or after the consonants, but you may not add any consonants or change the order of those you have been given. See if you can beat our target of common words.
plng (6)
paling. pealing. peeling. piling. plunge. pooling.
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