Excerpt from Daniel O'connell, the Irish Patriot This is the proper stand-point from which to look at o'connell's work. This is the consideration that ranks him, not with founders of states, like Alexander, Caesar, Bismarck, Napoleon, and William the Silent, but with men who, without arms, by force of reason, have revo lutionized their times, - with Luther, Jefferson, Maz zini, Samuel Adams, Garrison, and Franklin. I know some men will sneer at this claim, - t-hose who have never looked at him except through the spectacles of English critics, who despised him as an Irishman and a Catholic, until they came to hate him as a conqueror. As Grattan said of Kirwan, The curse of Swift was upon him, to have been born an Irishman and a man of genius, and to have used his gifts for his country's good. Mark what measure of success attended the able men who preceded him, in circumstances as favor able as his, perhaps even better then measure him by comparison. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.