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OCKLEY, SIMON (1678–1720)

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Originally appearing in Volume V19, Page 992 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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OCKLEY, See also:SIMON (1678–1720) , See also:English orientalist, was See also:born at See also:Exeter in 1678. He was educated at See also:Queen's See also:College, See also:Cam-See also:bridge, became See also:fellow of Jesus College and See also:vicar of Swavesey, and in 1711 was made See also:professor of Arabic at See also:Cambridge. He had a large See also:family, and the pecuniary embarrassments of his later days See also:form the subject of a See also:chapter in D'See also:Israeli's Calamities of Authors. The See also:preface to the second See also:volume of his See also:History of the See also:Saracens is dated from Cambridge See also:Castle, where he was imprisoned for See also:debt. Ockley maintained that a knowledge of See also:Oriental literature was essential to the proper study of See also:theology, and in the preface to his first See also:book, the Introductio ad linguas orientates (1706), he urges the importance of the study. In 1707 he published a See also:translation of See also:Leon See also:Modena's History of the See also:Present See also:Jews throughout the See also:World; and in 1708 The Improvement of Human See also:Reason, exhibited in the See also:Life of See also:Hai Ebn Yokdhan. His See also:chief See also:work is The History of the Saracens (1708–1718), of which a third volume was published posthumously in 1757. Unfortunately Ockley took as his See also:main authority a MS. in the Bodleian of the pseudo-Wakidi's Futuh al-Sham, which is rather See also:historical See also:romance than history. He also translated from the Arabic the Second Book of Esdras and the Sentences of All. Ockley died at Swavesey on the 9th of See also:August 1720. O'CLERY, See also:MICHAEL (1575-1643), Irish chronicler, See also:grandson of a chief of the See also:sept of O'Clery in See also:Donegal, was See also:barn at Kilbarrow on Donegal See also:Bay, and was baptized Tadhg (or " poet "), but took the name of Michael when he became a Franciscan See also:friar. He was a See also:cousin of Lughaidh O'Clery (fl.

1595–1630), who, with his son Cacrigcriche O'Clery (d.1664)—one of Michael's co-workers—is also famous as an Irish historian. He had already gained a reputation as an See also:

antiquary and student of Irish history and literature, when he entered the Irish College of St See also:Anthony at See also:Louvain. In 162o, through the initiative of See also:Hugh Boy Macanward (1580-1635), See also:warden of the college, and himself a famous Irish historian and poet, and one of an old family of hereditary bards in See also:Tyrconnell, he began to collect Irish See also:manuscripts and to transcribe everything he could find of historical importance; he was assisted by other Irish scholars, and the results were his Reim Rioghroidhe (Royal See also:List) in 163o, Leabhar Gabhala (Book of Invasions) in 1631, and his most famous work, called by See also:John Colgan (d. 1659), the Irish biographer, the "See also:Annals of the Four Masters" (1636). Subsequently he produced his Martyrologium of Irish See also:saints, based on various See also:ancient manuscripts, an Irish glossary and other See also:works. He lived in poverty, and died at Louvain. O'CONNELL, See also:DANIEL (1775-1847), Irish statesman, known as " the Liberator," was born on the 6th of August 1775 near Cahirciveen, a small See also:town in See also:Kerry. He was sprung from a See also:race the heads of which had been See also:Celtic chiefs, had lost their lands in the See also:wars of See also:Ireland, and had See also:felt the full See also:weight of the harsh penal See also:code which See also:long held the See also:Catholic Irish down. His ancestors in the 18th See also:century had sent recruits to the famous See also:brigade of Irish exiles in the service of See also:France,' and those who remained at See also:home either lived as tenants on the possessions of which they had once been lords, or gradually made See also:money by See also:smuggling, a very See also:general calling in that See also:wild region. Thus he inherited from his earliest years, with certain traditions of See also:birth and high station, a strong dislike of See also:British See also:rule in Ireland and of the dominant owners of the See also:soil, a See also:firm See also:attachment to his proscribed faith, and habitual skill in evading the See also:law; and these influences may be traced in his subsequent career. While a boy he was adopted by his See also:uncle, See also:Maurice O'Connell of Derrynane, and sent to a school at See also:Queenstown, one of the first which the See also:state in those days allowed to be opened for Catholic teaching; and a few years afterwards he became a student, as was customary with Irish youths of his class, in the English colleges of St Omer and See also:Douai in France. These years in France had a decided effect in forming his See also:judgment on See also:political questions of high mement.

He was an See also:

eye-See also:witness on more than one occasion of the folly and excesses of the See also:French Revolution; and these scenes not only increased his love for his See also:church, but strongly impressed him with that dread of anarchy, of popular movements ending in bloodshed, and of communistic and socialistic views which characterized him in after life. To these experiences, too, we may partly ascribe the reverence for law, for the rights of See also:property, and for the monarchical form of See also:government which he appears to have sincerely felt; and, See also:demagogue as he became in a certain sense, they gave his mind a deep Conservative tinge. In 1798 he was called to the See also:bar of Ireland, and See also:rose before long to the very highest See also:eminence among contemporary lawyers and See also:advocates. This position was in the main due to a dexterity in conducting causes, and especially in examining witnesses, in which he had no See also:rival at the Irish bar. He was, however, a thorough lawyer besides, inferior in scientific learning to two or three of his most conspicuous rivals, but well read in every See also:department of law, and especially a See also:master in all that relates to criminal and constitutional See also:jurisprudence. As an See also:advocate, too, he stood in the very highest See also:rank; in See also:mere See also:oratory he was surpassed by See also:Plunket, and in rhetorical gifts by Bushe, the only See the See also:account of O'Connell's uncle, See also:Count Daniel O'Connell (1745-1833), to whose property he See also:fell See also:heir, in Mrs O'Connell's Last See also:Colonel of the Irish Brigade (1892), and O'Callaghan's Irish Brigade in the Service of France (187o). speakers to be named with him in his best days at the Irish bar; but his See also:style, if not of the most perfect See also:kind, and often disfigured by decided faults, was marked by a See also:peculiar subtlety and manly See also:power, and produced See also:great and striking effects. On the whole, in the See also:art of winning over juries he had scarcely an equal in the law courts. To understand, however, O'Connell's greatness we must look to the See also:field of Irish politics. From See also:early manhood he had turned his mind to the See also:condition of Ireland and the See also:mass of her See also:people. The worst severities of the penal code had been, in a certain measure, relaxed, but the Catholics were still in a state of See also:vassal-See also:age, and they were still pariahs compared with the Protestants. The See also:rebellion of 1798 and the See also:union had dashed the hopes of the Catholic leaders, and their prospects of success seemed very remote when, in the first years of the 19th century, the still unknown lawyer took up their cause.

Up to this juncture the question had been in the hands of See also:

Grattan and other Protestants, and of a small See also:knot of Catholic nobles and prelates; but their efforts had not accomplished much, and they aimed only at a kind of See also:compromise, which, while conceding their See also:principal claims, would have placed their church in subjection to the state. O'Connell inaugurated a different policy, and had soon given the Catholic See also:movement an See also:energy it had not before possessed. Himself a See also:Roman Catholic of birth and See also:genius, unfairly kept back in the race of life, he devoted his See also:heart and soul to the cause, and his See also:character and antecedents made him the See also:champion who ultimately assured its See also:triumph. He formed the bold See also:design of combining the Irish Catholic millions, under the superintendence of the native priesthood, into a vast See also:league against the existing See also:order of things, and of wresting the concession of the Catholic claims from every opposing party in the state by an agitation, continually kept up, and embracing almost the whole of the people, but maintained within constitutional limits, though menacing and shaking the See also:frame of society. He gradually succeeded in carrying out his purpose: the Catholic Association, at first small, but slowly assuming larger proportions, was formed; attempts of the government and of the See also:local authorities to put its branches down were skilfully baffled by legal devices of many kinds; and at last, after a conflict of years, all Catholic Ireland was arrayed to a See also:man in an organization of enormous power, that demanded its rights with no uncertain See also:voice. O'Connell, having long before attained an undisputed and easy ascendancy, stood at the See also:head of this great See also:national movement; but it will be observed that, having been controlled from first to last by himself and the priesthood, it had little in See also:common with the See also:mob rule and violence which he had never ceased to regard with aversion. His See also:election for See also:Clare in 1828 proved the forerunner of the inevitable See also:change, and the Catholic claims were granted the next See also:year, to the intense regret of the See also:Protestant Irish, by a government avowedly hostile to the last, but unable to withstand the overwhelming pressure of a people See also:united to insist on See also:justice. The result, unquestionably, was almost wholly due to the energy and genius of a single man, though the Catholic question would have been settled, in all See also:probability, in the course of See also:time; and it must be added that O'Connell's triumph, which showed what agitation could effect in Ireland, was far from doing his See also:country unmixed See also:good. O'Connell joined the Whigs on entering See also:parliament, and gave effective aid to the cause of reform. The agitation, however, on the Catholic question had quickened the sense of the wrongs of Ireland, and the Irish Catholics were engaged ere long in a crusade against See also:tithes and the established church, the most offensive symbols of their inferiority in the state. It may be questioned whether O'Connell was not rather led than a See also:leader in this; the movement, at least, passed beyond his See also:control, and the country for many months was terrorized by scenes of appalling See also:crime and bloodshed. See also:Lord See also:Grey, very properly, proposed See also:measures of repression to put this anarchy down, and O'Connell opposed them with extreme vehemence, a seeming departure from his avowed principles, but natural in the See also:case of a popular See also:tribune.

This caused a See also:

breach between him and the Whigs; but he gradually returned to his allegianceto them when they practically abolished Irish tithes, cut down the revenues of the established church and endeavoured to secularize the surplus. By this time O'Connell had attained a position of great eminence in the See also:House of See also:Commons: as a debater he stood in the very first rank, though he had entered St See also:Stephen's after fifty; and his oratory, massive and strong in See also:argument, although too often scurrilous and coarse, and marred by a bearing in which cringing flattery and See also:rude bullying were strangely blended, made a powerful, if not a pleasing, impression. O'Connell steadily supported Lord See also:Melbourne's government, gave it valuable aid in its general measures, and repeatedly expressed his cordial approval of its policy in advancing Irish Catholics to places of See also:trust and power in the state, though personally he refused a high judicial See also:office. Though a strict adherent of the creed of See also:Rome, he was a Liberal, See also:nay a See also:Radical, as regards measures for the vindication of human See also:liberty, and he sincerely advocated the rights of See also:conscience, the emancipation of the slave and freedom of See also:trade. But his rooted aversion to the democratic theories imported from France, which were gradually winning their way into See also:England, only See also:grew stronger with advancing age. His conservatism was most apparent in his antipathy to socialistic doctrines and his tenacious regard for the claims of property. He actually opposed the Irish Poor Law, as encouraging a communistic spirit; he declared a movement against See also:rent a crime; and, though he had a strong sympathy with the Irish See also:peasant, and advocated a reform of his See also:precarious See also:tenure, it is difficult to imagine that he could have approved the See also:cardinal principle of the Irish See also:Land See also:Act of 1881, the judicial See also:adjustment of rent by the state. O'Connell changed his policy as regards Ireland when See also:Peel became See also:minister in 1841. He declared that a Tory regime in his country was incompatible with good government, and he began an agitation for the See also:repeal of the union. One of his motives in taking this course no doubt was a strong See also:personal dislike of Peel, with whom he had often been in collision, and who had singled him out in 1829 for what must be called a marked affront. O'Connell, nevertheless, was sincere and even consistent in his conduct: he had denounced the union in early manhood as an obstacle to the Catholic cause; he had spoken against the measure in parliament; he believed that the claims of Ireland were set aside or slighted in what he deemed an See also:alien See also:assembly; and, though he had ceased for some years to demand repeal, and regarded it as rather a means than an end, he was throughout life an avowed repealer. It should be observed, however, that in his judgment the repeal of the union would not weaken the real See also:bond between Great See also:Britain and Ireland; and he had nothing in common with the revolutionists who, at a later See also:period, openly declared for the separation of the two countries by See also:physical force.

The organization which had effected such marvellous results in 1828—1829 was recreated for the new project. Enormous meetings, convened by the priesthood, and directed or controlled by O'Connell, assembled in 1842-1843, and probably nine-tenths of the Irish Catholics were unanimous in the cry for repeal. O'Connell seems to have thought success certain; but he had not perceived the essential difference between his earlier agitation and this. The enlightened See also:

opinion of the three kingdoms for the most See also:part approved the Catholic claims, and as certainly it condemned repeal. After some hesitation Peel resolved to put down the repeal movement. A vast intended See also:meeting was proclaimed unlawful, and in See also:October 1843 O'Connell was arrested and held to See also:bail, with ten or twelve of his principal followers. He was convicted (See also:February 1844) after the trials that followed, but they were not good specimens of equal justice, and the See also:sentence of imprisonment for a year and a See also:fine of £2000 was reversed on a See also:writ of See also:error by the House of Lords (See also:September 1844), and he and his colleagues were again See also:free. The spell, however, of O'Connell's power had vanished; his See also:health had suffered much from a See also:short confinement; he was verging upon his seventieth year; and he was alarmed and pained by the growth of a party in the repeal ranks who scoffed at his views, and advocated the revolutionary doctrines which he had always feared and abhorred. Before long See also:famine had fallen on the land, and under this visitation the repeal movement, already studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1824, and soon wen high reputation in his profession. He was United States See also:district See also:attorney for New See also:York in 18J3-1854. In politics an extreme States'-Rights Democrat, he opposed the See also:coercion of the See also:South, and after the See also:Civil See also:War became See also:senior counsel for See also:Jefferson See also:Davis on his See also:indictment for See also:treason, and was one of his bonds-men; these facts and O'Conor's connexion with the Roman Catholic Church affected unfavourably his political fortunes. In 1872 he was nominated for the See also:presidency by the " See also:Bourbon " Democrats, who refused to support See also:Horace See also:Greeley, and by the " Labour Reformers "; he declined the nomination but received 21,559 votes.

He took a prominent part in the See also:

prosecution of See also:William M. See also:Tweed and members of the " Tweed See also:Ring," and published Peculation Triumphant, Being the See also:Record of a Five Years' See also:Campaign against See also:Official Malversation, A.D. 1871—1875 (1875). He removed to See also:Nantucket, See also:Massachusetts, in 1881, and died there on the 12th of May 1884.

End of Article: OCKLEY, SIMON (1678–1720)

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