“Mean time, for I more than feel how much I have passed the limits, I cannot but hope the best effects from the principle of religious freedom, which you are pleased to protect, and of which you will be so powerful a patron, and so bright an example.

"Be pleased, sir, to accept my humble thanks for your condescending wish, that I should have the honour of being present at the meeting of the friends of such a principle; as I find it is not to be immediate, I do not altogether give up the hope of being present, but, present or absent, it will have my most devout prayers for its success. I have the honour, sir, to be, with the most profound sense of attachment and respect,

"Your Royal Highness' dutiful servant, "J. P. C."

DECLINE OF CURRAN'S HEALTH.

417

CHAPTER XVII.

Mr. Curran's health declines-Letters to Mr. Hetherington-resignation of his judicial office- Letters from London to Mr. Lube-Letters from Paris to the same-His last illness and death.

In the beginning of 1813, the declining condition of Mr. Curran's health obliged him to meditate the resignation of his judicial office. While he was in London in the month of April of that year, he suffered a severe attack of inflammation in his chest. His illness, though by no means dangerous, was a subject of considerable alarm to his mind, in consequence of an old but unfounded opinion that his lungs were naturally weak; a mistake into which he had been led from confounding the temporary hoarseness and exhaustion which usually followed every great exertion in public speaking with a constitutional debility of that organ. There is something characteristic in his manner of announcing his illness upon this occasion to his friend in Dublin.

"DEAR DICK,

66

TO R. HETHERINGTON, ESQ.

'Really I think rather an escape-I have been confined to to my bed these ten days; a violent attack on my breast-lungs not touched better now, but very low and weak. I can't say with certainty when I can set out. Will you let Mr. Lockwood (or if he is not there the Chancellor) know my situation; a wanton premature effort might kill me.

"J. P. C."

TO THE SAME.

"DEAR DICK,

"I had hoped a quicker recovery, but the fit was most severe. I thought to have put myself into a chaise to-morrow, but the physician says it might be death, unless deferred some days longer. The malady was upon the breast; I think I caught it by walking from Kensington-the morning was snowy and the wind east. I had not even gone to a play but once-I am most uneasy at this absence from court, however involuntary. I have written to Lord Manners. I have no news; nothing could be kinder, or more general than the flattering reception I have met. Still I am not acting like a dying man. Surely I could not prepare to dance out of the world to a grand forte-piano; yet they talk of such a thing. The town is also full of rumours of a silver tea-pot, &c. &c.* What can all this mean? Doesn't it show a regard for our executors? My best regards to all about you, and with you. "J. P. C."

Mr. Curran was in a little time so far recovered as to be able to resume his judicial functions. In the long vacation he returned as usual to England, from which he writes as follows.

TO RICHARD HETHERINGTON, ESQ. DUBLIN.

"CHELTENHAM, September 8, 1818.

"DEAR DICK,

"You ought to have heard from me before; I have been a truant; however, in fact I had little to say: I am here now ten days. I took the waters; as usual, they bore down whatever spirits I had to lose. Yesterday I went to the doctor; he told me

When Mr. Curran was confined to his bed and suffering considerable pain, he could not abstain from the same playfulness. His medical attendant having observed one morning, that he found he coughed with more difficulty than on the preceding eveningThat's very surprising," replied the patient," for I have been practising all night."-C.

I had taken them wrong and was wrong in taking them; that I had no symptom of any disease whatever; he mentioned also, in confidence, that notice had been taken of my intimacy with Mrs. Forty; that there were some ladies not far from the well, strangers altogether to my poor dear, in whom religion had turned from milk, and soured into vinegar; who had little hope of being talked ill of themselves, and who made it a moral duty to slide themselves in upon the market jury of every character, and give a verdict against them upon their own knowledge; particularly if there were any circumstance that made it an act of common mercy, in those canters of slanderous litanies, to be silent or merciful. My dear sir,' said he, 'let not women complain of their injuries from men, when they are such odious beasts in devouring one another.' In truth, my dear Dick, it is frightful to see how little they can spare their friends, when they can make them the pretexts for venting their infernal malice. I confess it has added to my sickness of heart against that country,* of which I have really deserved so much.

"You can scarcely believe what a difference I find here—courted and cherished by strangers; I assure you the question of celebrity between the royal tiger and me is not quite decided. The change of scene is amusing, so is the diversity of characters; there is a moral benefit in the change of scene; you look back to the niche you filled and you see it not: how minute then must be the little thing that filled it? Here too every body is as intimate with me as I permit. I really begin to think that the best tenure of earthly attachment is tenancy at will. You have the use of the soil, and the way-going crop; then nothing you plant shoots so deeply but you may remove it without injury to the soil or to itself. If affections strike their roots far into the heart, they cannot be pulled up without laceration and blood. I am not without an idea of cutting you altogether: I could easily get into Parlia

*Ireland. The censorious ladies in question were his country women.-C.

ment and on my own terms, but the object would not justify a purchase; and I need not tell you, I would not submit to restrictions.

"You will be surprised when I tell you that I have the highest authority for knowing that the silly malice of the Castle has not had the smallest impression on a certain high quarter. As I have jilted Mrs. Forty, my head is getting better, and I shall try and write. I may as well stay here sometime as any where else: I am afraid of London; however, I can't but pay a visit to the Duke of Sussex. Will you enclose Wagram" to Mr. Reeves, and add my respects, and request that he will have the goodness to forward it to me to Cheltenham. The post is just going out-write to me by return; best regards to the hill. I begin to think that 'compliments to all inquiring friends' generally dwindles into a sinecure. What of the poor Priory? we have passed some happy and innocent days there. God bless you, dear Dick, prays very sin

cerely yours

"J. P. C.

"P. S. These senators are in bed, or this should pass more free than I have ever been able to do."

TO THE SAME.

“DEAR DICK,

"My last was in spleen and haste; this is a postscript. I can scarcely add what I should have said, because I forget what I did say; no doubt I was too vain not to brag of the civility I have met, and consequently of the good taste of every body. Did I say any thing of the Italian countess, or the French count her uncle, whose legs and thighs are turned into grasshopper springs by a canister-shot at the battle of Novi? She talks of going westward; as Irish scandal does not talk Italian, and as she can't speak English, she may be safe enough, particularly with the assistance of a Venetian blind! Dear Dick, God help us! I find I am fast recovering from the waters; I think I'll drink no more