PREFACE.

In the following pages I have endeavoured to sketch a likeness of Curran, as he lived in society, introducing occasionally such of his cotemporaries as might serve to illustrate his character. My object has been to preserve as much as possible of the mind and manners of this extraordinary man, for the gratification of those who knew him, and for the, however faint, information of those who knew him not. This was my sole intention-there was neither leisure nor inclination to detail the unhappy politics of his period. As to the literary execution of the work, I am aware of its imperfections-aware, also, that its having been written in twenty-two days, amidst much to distract and not a little to deject me, can form no apology. It has, however, beguiled some