My cars have never received the slightest injury
from the people. Though travelling through the country for about
sixty years, the people have throughout respected the property
intrusted to me. My cars have passed through lonely and
unfrequented places, and they have never, even in the most
disturbed times, been attacked. That, I think, is an
extraordinary testimony to the high moral character of the Irish
people.'
"'It is not money, but the genius of money that I esteem,' said
Bianconi; 'not money itself, but money used as a creative power.'
And he himself has furnished in his own life the best possible
illustration of his maxim He created a new industry, gave
employment to an immense number of persons, promoted commerce,
extended civilisation; and, though a foreigner, proved one of the
greatest of Ireland's benefactors."
About two years after the date of my son's visit, Charles
Bianconi passed away, full of years and honours; and his remains
were laid beside those of his son and daughter, in the mortuary
chapel at Boherlahan. He died in 1875, in his ninetieth year.
Well might Signor Henrico Mayer say, at the British Association
at Cork in 1846, that "he felt proud as an Italian to hear a
compatriot so deservedly eulogised; and although Ireland might
claim Bianconi as a citizen, yet the Italians should ever with
pride hail him as a countryman, whose industry and virtue
reflected honour on the country of his birth.
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