THE LATE MR MITCHEL AND THE TIPPERARY ELECTION.

Globe, Volume III, Issue 275, 29 April 1875, Page 4

THE LATE MR MITCHEL AND THE TIPPERARY ELECTION.

At Clonmel, on February 17th, says the European Mail, there was something intensely dramatic in the aspect of the election scene. The great crowd in the street outside the hotel, flushed with the triumph of the unopposed election of Mr Mitchel; the torchlight, the cheers, and the impassioned orator on the balcony; inside the group of excited, angry, bewildered men conning over the meaning and issue of Mr Ronayne's laconic telegram feconnting that Mr Disraeli meant to move for the papers relative to his escape, with the view to show that the election was invalid. But for the moderation of Mr Smyth, M.P., and one or two of his counsellors who kept their heads, the telegram would have been read verbatim to the crowd, and the consequences might have been serious. It was significant that noue of the military or constabulary were to be seen in the streets, and it is known that the latter force of Clonmel had received considerable accession of strength during the two previous days. It is no rash inference that the Government had foreseen all the possible consequences of their act, and had prepared for them. The Government action quite took the Mitchel party by surprise. There would have been none of this feeling had the Sheriff, actiug under instructions, refused the nomination of Mr Mitchel. There would have been no surprise had a Ministerialist candidate been nominated, to whom the seat on Mitchel's election being declared void would have, ipso facto, fallen. At the meeting of Mr Mitchel's supporters, which was held immediately after the dispersion of the public gathering, the strongest pledges were exchanged that their selected candidate should be returned again and again as often as the election should be declared invalid by reason of that return. An unimpassioned stranger who was present ventured to point out that this was a game which the Government were not likely to allow to be played ad infinitum, and that persistence in it would probably result in the suspension of the writ for an indefinite length of time. The reply to this reasoning was that Mr Mitchel would in such an event be returned by each county in Ireland, in the representation of which a vacancy should take place ; but to this proceeding two consents are obviously requisite, that of the constituencies of the respective counties and of Mr Mitchel himself. A correspondent says :—"lt was not until morning that we learnt that Mr Mitchel had arrived at Cork before dawn, and was in the Victoria Hotel there. I found him there at breakfast. He is physically a wreck; pale, wan, feeble, and emaciated. So weak is he that he had to be supported by two friends from the hotel omnibus into the railway carriage on his departure. He has almost wholly lost the- Irish accent, and there has been substituted for it what I may call the American intonation. His features bore a strangely close resemblance to those of the late Emperor Napoleon, as I paw that fallen man on the memorable morning of his surrender to Bismarck as the consequence of the battle of Sedan, fought the day before. -There was the same arrangement of moustache and imperial, the same character of profile, the same heavy, weary, suffering eye, the same leaden, dull complexion, the same impassiveness of aspect. Mr Mitchel had made up his mind no further as to the future than that he would visit the county of Tipperary, and meet his friends in the towns of Tipperary and Clonmel. He started with this intention from Coik, receiving a most enthusiastic ovation from large crowds, both as he quitted his hotel, and on his departure from the station. He was accompanied by his son, Captain Mitchel, by Mr Smyth,M. P. for Westmeath, and by a few other friends. When we reached Limerick Junction, which is the station for Tipperary, we found it in a chaos of wild excitement. There was no getting out of the carriage for the vast throng ou the station platform. Such a mass of tatterdemalionhood I never saw in all my life; not in the murkiest town in Spain, not in the "gus<-lubs" of Glasgow, not in the slims of Quebec, not in the seething purlieus of New York. The banners—how they waved above the heads of the tattered, squalid, cheering, merry, reckless, devil-may-care throng; and the bands—with what fervour they gave vent to the " Wearing of the Green," the "Shan van Voglit," and other patriotic melodies. How gloriously the inebriates—and half the crew were drunk as lords—swaggered along the pavement, twirling their shillelaghs round their heads, and roared themselves hoarse, cheering for Mitchel! As for the unfortunate Mitchel, it seemed to me that the moment he emerged from the carriage he was converted iustanter into a shuttlecock. I am sure he never felt his feet until he stood beside the carriage which had been provided to convey him to Tipperary. Into the cheerful throng 1 projected myself with a blind confidence. The wisest plan I soon found was to shake hands with every one. By dint of this athletic performance I reached a car immediately in the rear of Mr Mitchel's carriage, and embarked on this* vehicle in the society of a gentleman who hated Mitchel, but wuo was here in the laudable attempt to protect his windows in the event of the amusement which he anticipated at night. When we reached the town the enthusiasm was something absolutely furious, and a man was looked upon askance who did not fall into the procession. I found myself between a very drunken man without any shirt collar and another man with a shillelagh, and between these two patriots I passed on to Hogan's, which is a public-house. But it was not at Hogan's that the hero of the hour, who wore a white wideawake and violet comforter, and who looked very seriously ill, was to speak out, but at the window of the newsrooms opposite. In the main streets outside Tipperary crammed itself en masse, and listened while the patriot spoke. His words were something as follows:—" Men of Tip perary—lt is true I have come more than 3000 miles to find the people of Tipperary. and get returned by them to Parliament. For this I would ha'-e come from the North Pole; and yet I have not the honor to be- a Tipperary man. I am a Derry man. But I suppose Derry is as Irish as Tipperary. At any rate I am an Irishman. Allusion has been made to some steps which it is believed the Government are about to take—that is the British Government over in London. There is a man there who writes novels, and is of opinion that he knows better who Tippeiary should elect than you do. Now if Tipperary is to submit, to the dictation of this novel writer, why the next thing will be Cork, and then Limerick, and he will make them select the candidates he approves. Now some yews ago the BrjUsJh; Sovereign, selected me

as a fit subject to carry felon's chains and to bear the penalties of felony at the Antipodes. Now that I have returned here—you, the people of Tipperary, have thought me the person worthy of being returned to her Majesty's council to offer her Ministers and advisers the best aid of my talents and information to help them to govern the three kingdoms. It seems they cannot do without us. I have only this much further to say : you have had little experience of me yet; you have only heard of me and read of me. So long as I represent you I will not sell you, or trade upon you in any shape, but will appreciate the sacrifice the people of Tipperary, have made to put me into the very proud position which I now hold." Then there came addresses in the newsroom in which the native Irish was freely quoted,' and in connection with which drinks were freely quaffed. The scene at Mr Mitchel's departure from Tipperary was indescribable. I do not desire to malign any city, but I feel compelled to avow that for an hour before his departure I did not see a totally sober person of the male sex. This by no means guarantees the sobriety of the females, most of whom were in a state of whisky also. The reception at Cahir was wild in its demonstrativeness, but did not equal that at Clonrael, where there were three bands. Mr Mitchel, seated in a carriage, and half dead from weakness and exhaustion, was dragged round the town through huzzaing multitudes whose raptures were touching to behold Afterwards he came to the hotel, from the first-floor balcony of which it devolved on the half-dead patriot to make an oration which, in essentials, resembled that at Tipperary. There is a special element of the most superb fun in the whole demonstration. Mr Mitchel is acting as if he were a regularly returned member. The people know that he is not, and that, in a practical sense, all this business is the most unadulterated humbug; but this consideration in no sense troubles them, or indeed anybody. Indeed, it does not appear to have occurred to them, and yet they know all about it. They put me in mind of the French, only that the French are occasionally ready to die for an idea, whereas these people are prepared to go the length only of cheering and of drinking for an idea. But the French lack- the racy fun and spontaneous humor of these people ; they are delightful in this respect.