planted. But Mr. Grattan did not foresee, amidst that experience which had nearly arrived to prophecy, that he himself was to give the first refutation to his own opinion, in his own splendid speech, which, from its novelty of style and manner, the vastness of its conception, its reasoning and its fire, produced in the house surprise and admiration.

The Lawyer before alluded to, anxious to be informed how Mr. Grattan felt on the praises so profusely and so deservedly bestowed on him, asked Mr. Curran, "Was not Mr. Grattan exceedingly elated, and what he felt and said of himself on the occasion ?"....

Mr. Curran, totally forgetting the person who made the inquiry, inadvertently, indeed rather simply, answered, "Really I cannot say, nor is it in the power of steam to force one expression from him on such a subject, for he never speaks of himself." Mr. Curran, in relating the misfortune of this reply, thus inadvertently given, in one of those curious effusions in conversation, thus describes his own sensations;" I had scarcely uttered the words, when I was stunned with their own echo; I was like a child playing at the touchhole of a cannon with a torch, and in an instant shocked with the recoil of his own rashness: indeed, I question if the comparison be not too

dignified, too human to illustrate the beastly misery of my embarrassment. No! I felt more like a poor, worried, half-starved, cowardly turnspit, who after cautiously climbing within a few inches of the top of the kitchen dresser, and almost within reach of the tempting fragments that lay there, suddenly slips upon the range of polished pewter down headlong tumble, with a frightful dissonance, the dog, and an endless retinue of dishes, plates, ladles, pots, platters, and fryingpans, the crockery ware throwing in a friendly accompaniment; the cook, in the rage of thirst and perspiration, seizes a bason of scalding soup, while her astounded four-footed journeyman, having closely cowered his little apology for a tail, half dead with hunger and apprehension, slinks into the next stew-hole,"

The following must also be conceived to be related by Mr. Curran himself:-" The wittiest, most richly comprehensive, and at the same time most admirably appropriate reply I ever made in my life, was to B-. It is rather long and somewhat laboured, but if you will bear with me, I will repeat it all in less than half an hour, by a stop watch. My lord chief justice D.' says B. to me one day, with that large plausible eye, glittering in that kind of light which reveals to a shrewd observer that he is quite sure he has you, my lord chief justice D-, is beyond all

comparison, the wittiest companion I have ever known or heard of.' I looked into B.'s eye, and said hum! It required all his own oil to keep smooth the surface of that face."

It was once observed in Mr. Curran's company,

that the late Mr. Fox had no relish for broad humour. "I am not sure," said Mr. Curran, "that Fox disliked humour; sometimes, when the Hoyden raillery of my animal spirits has ruffled the plumage of my good manners, when my mirth has turned dancing-master to my veneration, and made it perhaps a little too supple, I have sported playfully in the presence of this slumbering lion, and now and then he condescended to dandle the child. He laughed inwardly. It was not easy to say what Fox would call a mot, but when said, I thought I saw a smile rippling over the fine Atlantic of his countenance."

In the senate, and at the bar, Mr. Curran possessed consistency, intrepidity, and integrity: in the former situation he always stood forth as the champion of the people's rights, uncorrupted and immoveable, from the principles he professed. He rejected office at an early period: it is perfectly well known that Lord Kilwarden waited on him, and requested his acceptance of the office of solicitor general, accompanied by all the urgency which his friendship could suggest.

The following fact is well authenticated: Lord Longueville, besides his influence in the city of Cork, was possessed of very considerable parlia mentary interest, and conceiving that the talents. of Mr. Curran would be a great accession to his strength, he made him the offer of a seat for one of his boroughs, accompanied by some compliment to his abilities, which then began to be universally acknowledged: Mr. Curran's reply was, that he had formed certain principles in politics which happened to be opposite to those of the party which his lordship supported. This objec tion was answered by a laugh, accompanied by an observation that Mr. Curran had a young family, that his good sense should prevail over the romance of unprofitable patriotism, and thus the conversation ended, without any compact on either side. Mr. Curran thought no more on the subject, till meeting a friend some time after, he jocosely asked him for a frank; the cause of this pleasantry being explained, Mr. Curran for the first time became apprized that he had been returned to parliament for one of Lord Longueville's boroughs; he took his seat accordingly, and voted on the first important question against the minister and the supposed patron. This produced much surprise, and when Mr. Curran was remonstrated with on the occasion, he excused himself by stating, that he came into parliament perfectly independent, and unshackled by any compact or

stipulation, and he was determined so to remain. He then had no more money saved up than five hundred pounds; with this sum, and by borrowing from his friends the difference, he purchased a seat for the remainder of the session, and Lord Longueville had the satisfaction of nominating for it a more complying member.

L

In his situation as a barrister, without any desire to lower the bench, or bring the king's commission into disrespect, he never cowered to any high-handed judge, but maintained the privileges of the bar, or rather of the public, in the representative character of barrister, with all the force of his firmness, and all the spirit which for titude and the powers of his eloquence could supply. He never shrunk from his duty, and he had to oppose himself single handed, on many lesser, and on some greater occasions, to Lord Clonmell and to Lord Clare, men though of dissimilar characters, yet both very formidable in their different departments.

Lord Clonmell was for many years chief justice of the King's Bench in Ireland, and, from very humble means, had risen to great power and opulence in the state, and was the founder of a great fortune and of a title. Politics widened the dislike mutually entertained, early engendered, and never totally extinguished: the chief justice