their officers had clerical titles. Thus the Founder was Barry Yelverton, afterwards Lord Chief Baron; the Abbot, William Doyle, Master in Chancery; Prior, John Philpot Curran, Master of the Rolls; Præcentor, Reverend William Day, S.F.F.C.D.; Bursar, Edward Hudson, M.D.; Sacristan, Robert Johnson, afterwards Judge. A list of fifty-six members is given in Curran's Life, by his son, vol. i. p. 141. When the brethren met, they usually held a Chapter before Commons, at which the Abbot presidedin his absence, the Prior or senior member. All the monks wore their habit, a black tabinet domino. A short grace, now used in the King's Inns, for Commons, was pronounced before dinner by the præcentor, 'Benedictus benedicat,' and after dinner Benedicto benedicatur.' The Charter song, written by the Prior Curran, was as follows: When St. Patrick this Order established He called us the Monks of the Screw;' That the fountain should never run dry. Each year when your octaves approach, In full chapter convened let me find you, Leave your fav'rite temptation behind you; Unless on a festival, found; And, this rule to enforce, I ordain it My brethren, be chaste till you're tempted; Yet, in honour of fasting, one lean face If the Abbot should please, he may wear it ;* If not, let it come to the Prior. CHAP. LXI. The Abbot, Mr. Doyle, had a remarkably round jolly face; while Curran, the Prior, was lean and thin. The Society gradually grew smaller, and ceased about the year 1795. CHAP. The reunions of the Irish gentry witnessed the consumption of large quantities of wine. Claret was the Claret the wine commonly enjoyed by these topers. wine of the Irish gentry. Port was quite secondary, and the Irish squire who allowed port to circulate after dinner was regarded with suspicion of being Anglicised. The use of white wine was confined to gouty topers who had received a hint that their potations of claret must cease for a time. It was kept in the housekeeper's room, for cordials, or made into negus by the ladies' maids. The numerous connections of the Irish Roman Catholic gentry in France made French wines and brandies easily attainable, for the preventive service' did not then exist, and the smuggler was a rattling, roving blade, well received by every born gentleman who behaved as such, and was treated accordingly. Whiskey, of later years the national beverage, was then unknown in the dining-rooms of the higher ranks, being reserved for their pocket-flasks when hunting, fishing, or shooting. It was left to the lower orders, who at this period were not so addicted to intemperance as they afterwards became, which before Father Mathew's crusade against drinking was so general that I heard a highly distinguished engineer officer declare, 'He did not believe in spontaneous combustion, for if it existed the people of Ireland would be off in a blaze.' 1 The recent abolition of the duties on foreign wines has revived the use of elaret considerably in Ireland, and it is no doubt a much more wholesome beverage than whiskey-punch. The enormous consumption of beer, however, shows that claret is by no means so popular, and I remember, at a dinner given by a noble lord to his tenantry, who as a great compliment were treated to some superior claret after dinner, one of the bucolic guests disturbed the gravity of the solemn butler by suggesting the propriety of letting them have a tumbler of punch, for he did not care to drink any more of the bad porter.' CHAPTER LXII. LIFE OF LORD PLUNKET, CONTINUED TILL HE BECAME A MEMBER LXII. Benefit of a ready made re THE advantage of beginning to practice any profession CHAP. with a reputation already made ought to be a great incentive to diligence while a student. To find business flow in from the very outset, instead of having weary days and anxious nights of watching and waiting for the brief that putation. never comes, rewards the steady and hardworking lawstudent. I have one very distinguished friend upon the Bench, who was a truly remarkable instance of this,' and Lord Plunket was another. His college career, and the success he achieved in the Historical Society, was a safe indication of his rare talents; while the absence of his strong frame and studious visage from the convivial parties of the Bar was not without a considerable influence upon the sharp-witted attorneys who entrusted their business to him. All young men were not of this plodding temperament. Plunket's progress at the Bar was what his reputation merited. His diligence as a law-student prepared him to argue on such questions as came in his way; and in the Court of Exchequer, where his friend Lord Avonmore was Chief Baron, he soon obtained a considerable amount of business. Irish Bar His practice, like that of all Irish barristers, was Practice not confined in its range. Common Law, Equity, the of the Criminal Courts, all were familiar to him. It does not general. answer for an Irish stuff-gown to decline taking business wherever business is to be had; and few, even of our most distinguished seniors, such as the admirable and highly prized Advocate, who worthily held the first place at the Chief Baron Pigot. CHAP. A few exceptions. English practice described by Lord Cairns. Irish Bar in my day, Abraham Brewster,' or the highly gifted and deeply read Edward Sullivan,2 and some others of their rare and acknowledged ability, could afford to limit themselves to any particular Court or class of professional practice. We are not, in Ireland, open to the criticism of a competent Judge, the eminent Irishman who has so lately sat upon the English Woolsack, Lord Cairns, who, in discussing the High Court of Justice Bill in the House of Lords, on Friday, April 29, 1870, said, 'Why is it that a barrister or a solicitor accustomed to the Courts of Equity, if he passes to the other side of Westminster Hall into one of the Courts of Common Law, is as ignorant of its forms and procedure as if he were in the Court of a foreign country? It is not that law and equity are, with rare exceptions, acting upon different principles. The laws of evidence are the same; so, too, are the laws of the construction of written instruments, and the modes of dealing with Acts of Parliament; but from the beginning to the end the forms and technical details are essentially different. In the Court of Chancery, the three Common Law Courts, the Courts of Probate, Divorce, and Admiralty, the proceedings all begin by a different writ, issued from a different office; so that, before any person who has a complaint can make it the subject of a civil proceeding, he must be advised, and pay for that advice, as to what Court to apply for a writ.' The Right Hon. Abraham Brewster, so long at the head of the Irish Bar, was called in 1819. He became King's Counsel in 1835, was Solicitor and Attorney-General, and on the accession of Lord Derby to power in 1866 was appointed Lord Justice of Appeal, contrary to the expectation of the profession, who expected to find him holding the Great Seal, then given to Mr. Blackburne. He had not long to wait. The failing health of one of the most remarkable men of the Irish Bar, Lord Chancellor Blackburne, placed the Great Seal at the disposal of the Prime Minister in March 1867, and Mr. Brewster became Lord Chancellor. On the change of Ministry in December 1868 he resigned, and was succeeded as Lord Chancellor by Right Hon. Thomas O'Hagan, now Lord O'Hagan. 2 Right Hon. Edward Sullivan, called in 1848, made Queen's Counsel in 1858, was Sergeant, Solicitor, and Attorney-General, and appointed Master of the Rolls on the lamented death of John Edward Walsh, Master of the Rolls in 1869. LXII. ket counsel petition against the return of the Hon. F. Hutchin The business of election petitions before Committees of CHAP. the House of Commons then, and lately again, afforded members of the Irish Bar considerable and emolumentary Mr. Plunemployment. Mr. Burrowes, who was Plunket's contempo- in the rary as a student, and called to the Bar shortly before him, early acquired a high reputation for skill in election law. He, along with Mr. Plunket, Mr. Burston, and Mr. Smith, were retained by Sir Lawrence Parsons, who petitioned son. against the return of the Honourable Francis Hely Hutchinson as representative of Trinity College. The petition was presented in the early part of 1791, and among the Committee selected to try it were the Hon. Arthur Wellesley-afterwards the victor of a hundred battles, Arthur, Duke of Wellington-and Lord Edward Fitz Gerald, whose sad fate is one of the tragic episodes of Ireland's disastrous history. The petition contained several charges against the Provost, father of the sitting Member, for an exercise of undue influence by him, the Provost, as returning officer, with the purpose of interrupting or preventing a free and indifferent election.' Among those voters upon whom it was alleged he had used such undue influence were Dr. Miller and Mr. Magee. The means were these, as stated by Plunket in his speech: 'Mr. Magee, on obtaining his Fellowship, had applied to the Provost for liberty to solicit a dispensation in order to pursue the profession of a barrister. The Provost required time to consider of it; and, after mature deliberation, refused it, alleging as a reason, that his sense of duty prevented him from granting it. Mr. Magee acquiesced, and thought of it no more; but, about three weeks before the election, an offer was sent to him from Lord Donoughmore,' of obtaining the very permission which before had been refused, and the allowance of a lay Fellow and other pecuniary advantages, to the amount of about 1001. per annum, on the express condition of not voting for Mr. Parsons, to whom he had solemnly promised his support. The offer was instantly rejected.'2 The Provost's eldest son. 2 Life, by his grandson, vol. i. p. 53. |