ought not to be classed together. How old the style may be in Ireland, we cannot undertake to say-though we think there are traces of it in Ossian. We would observe too, that, though born in Ireland, neither Swift nor Goldsmith were trained in the Irish school, or worked for the Irish market; and we have already said, that it is totally to mistake our conception of the style in question, to ascribe any tincture of it to such writers as Milton, Bacon, or Taylor. There is fancy and figure enough certainly in their compositions; but there is no intoxication of the fancy, and no rioting and revelling among figures-no ungoverned and ungovernable impulse-no fond dalliance with metaphors-no mad and headlong pursuit of brilliant images and passionate expressions-no lingering among tropes and me lodies-no giddy bandying of antitheses and allusions no crave ing, in short, for perpetual glitter, and panting after effect, till both speaker and hearer are lost in the splendid confusion, and the argument evaporates in the heat which was meant to enforce it. This is perhaps too strongly put; but there are large portions of Mr C's Speeches to which we think the substance of the description will apply. Take, for instance, a passage, very much praised in the work before us, in his argument in Judge Johnson's case, an argument, it will be remembered, on a point of law, and addressed, not to a Jury, but to a Judge.

I am not ignorant that this extraordinary construction has re ceived the sanction of another Court, nor of the surprise and dismay with which it smote upon the general heart of the Bar. I am aware that I may have the mortification of being told, in another country, of that unhappy decision; and I foresee in what confusion I shall hang down my head when I am told it. But I cherish, too, the consolatory hope, that I shall be able to tell them, that I had an old and learned friend, whom I would put above all the sweepings of their Hall' (no great compliment, we should think), who was of a different opinion-who had derived his ideas of civil liberty from the purest fountains of Athens and of Rome-who had fed the youthful vigour of his studious mind with the theoretic knowledge of their wisest philosophers and statesmen-and who had refined that theory into the quick and exquisite sensibility of moral instinet, by contemplating the practice of their most illustrious examples--by dwelling on the sweet-souled piety of Cimon on the anticipated christianity of Socrates -on the gallant and pathetic patriotism of Epaminondas-on that pure austerity of Fabricius, whom to move from his integrity would have been more difficult than to have pushed the sun from his course! I would add, that if he had seemed to hesitate, it was but for a moment that his hesitation was like the passing cloud that floats across the morning sun, and hides it from the view, and does so for a moment hide it, by involving the spectator without even approaching the face of the luminary. And this soothing hope I draw from the dear

est and tenderest recollections of my life-from the remembrance of those attic nights, and those refections of the gods, which we have spent with those admired, and respected, and beloved companions, who have gone before us; over whose ashes the most precious tears of Ireland have been shed. [Here Lord Avonmore could not refrain from bursting into tears. Yes, my good Lord, I see you do not forget them. I see their sacred forms passing in sad review before your memory. I see your pained and softened fancy recalling those happy meetings, where the innocent enjoyment of social mirth be came expanded into the nobler warmth of social virtue, and the harizon of the board became enlarged into the horizon of man-where the swelling heart conceived and communicated the pure and generous purpose-where slenderer and younger taper imbibed its borrowed light from the more matured and redundant fountain of yours. I. 139-148.

my

. Now, we must candidly confess, that we do not remember even to have read any thing much more absurd than this-and that the puerility and folly of the classical intrusions is even less offensive, than the heap of incongruous metaphors by which the meaning is obscured. Does the learned author really mean to contend, that the metaphors here add either force or beauty to the sentiment; or that Bacon or Milton ever wrote any thing like this upon such a topic? In his happier moments, and more vehement adjurations, Mr C. is often beyond all question a great and commanding orator; and we have no doubt was, to those who had the happiness of hearing him, a much greater orator than the mere readers of his speeches have any means of conceiving:-But we really cannot help repeating our protest against a style of composition which could betray its great master, and that very frequently, into such passages as those we have just extracted. The mischief is not to the master-whose genius could efface all such stains, and whose splendid successes would sink his failures in oblivion-but to the pupils, and to the public, whose taste that very genius is thus instrumental in corrupting. If young lawyers are taught to consider this as the style which should be aimed at and encouraged, to render the Judges benevolent, by comparing them to the sweet-souled Cimon,' and the gallant Epaminondas; or to talk about their young and

6

the clouds and morning sun, with what ؛ slender tapers, ' and

precious stuff will the Courts and the country be infested! It is not difficult to imitate the defects of such a style-and of all defects they are the most nauseous in imitation. Even in the hands of men of genius, the risk is, that the longer such a style is cultivated, the more extravagant it will grow,-just as those who deal in other means of intoxication, are tempted to strengthen the mixture as they proceed. The learned and candid author

before us, testifies this to have been the progress of Mr C. himself-and it is still more strikingly illustrated by the history of his models and imitators. Mr Burke had much less of this extravagance thań Mr Grattan-Mr Grattan much less than Mr Curran and Mr Curran much less than Mr Phillips.-It is really of some importance that the climax should be closed somewhere.

There is a concluding chapter, in which Mr C.'s skill in cross-examination, and his conversational brilliancy, are commemorated; as well as the general simplicity and affability of his manners, and his personal habits and peculiarities. He was not a profound lawyer, nor much of a general scholar, though reasonably well acquainted with all the branches of polite literature, and an eager reader of novels-being often caught sobbing over the pathos of Richardson, or laughing at the humour of Cervantes, with an unrestrained vehemence which reminds us of that of Voltaire. He spoke very slow, both in public and private, and was remarkably scrupulous in his choice of words: He slept very little, and, like Johnson, was always averse to retire at night-lingering long after he arose to depart-and, in his own house, often following one of his guests to his chamber, and renewing the conversation for an hour. He was habitually abstinent and temperate; and, from his youth up, in spite of all his vivacity, the victim of a constitutional melancholy. His wit is said to have been ready and brilliant, and altogether without gall. But the credit of this testimony is somewhat weakenedby a little selection of his bons mots, with which we are furnished in a note. The greater part, we own, appear to us to be rather vulgar and ordinary; as, when a man of the name of Halfpenny was desired by the Judge to sit down, Mr C. said,

I

thank your Lordship for having at last nailed that rap to the counter;' or, when observing upon the singular pace of a Judge who was lame, he said, 'Don't you see that one leg goes

before like a tipstaff, to make room for the other?'—or, when vindicating his countrymen from the charge of being naturally vicious, he said, ' He had never yet heard of an Irishman being born drunk.' The following, however, is good- I can't tell 'you, Curran,' observed an Irish nobleman, who had voted for the Union, how frightful our old House of Commons ap-pears to me. Ah! my lord,' replied the other, it is only 'natural for Murderers to be afraid of Ghosts; '-and this is at least grotesque. Being asked what an Irish gentleman, just. arrived in England, could mean by perpetually putting out his tongue? Answer" I suppose he's trying to catch the English accent. In his last illness, his physician observing in

the morning that he seemed to cough with more difficulty, hé answered, that is rather surprising, as I have been practising all night.

But these things are of little consequence. Mr Curran was something much better than a sayer of smart sayings. He was a lover of his country-and its fearless, its devoted, and inde fatigable servant. To his energy and talents she was perhaps indebted for some mitigation of her sufferings in the days of her extremity-and to these, at all events, the public has been indebted, in a great degree, for the knowledge they now have of her wrongs, and for the feeling which that knowledge has excited, of the necessity of granting them redress. It is in this charac ter that he must have most wished to be remembered, and in which he has most deserved it. As to any flaws or lapses in his private life, we agree, with the excellent author before us, that his death should consign them to oblivion; and that, as his claims to distinction were altogether of a public nature, nothing should be allowed to detract from them that is not of the same description: At the same time, that our readers may know all that we know, and that their uncharitable surmises may not go beyond the truth, we cannot do better than conclude with the following passage from this most exemplary biography, in which, as in all the rest, the author has observed the tenderness which was due to the relationship in which he stood to his subject, without violating, in the least degree, that manly fairness and sincerity, without which he would have been unworthy of public confidence.

• But the question will be asked, has this been a faithful picture? -Have no shades been designedly omitted ?-Has delicacy or flattery concealed no defects, without which the resemblance cannot be true? To such inquiries it is answered, that the estimable qualities which have formed the preceding description, have not been invented or exaggerated; and if the person, who has assumed the duty of collecting them, has abstained from a rigorous detail of any infirmities of temper or conduct, it is because a feeling more sacred and more justifiable than delicacy or flattery has taught him, and should teach others, to regard them with tenderness and regret. In thus abstaining from a cruel and unprofitable analysis of failings, to which the most gifted are often the most prone, no deception is intended. It is due to that public to whom Mr Curran's merits have been here submitted as deserving their approbation, to admit with candour, that some particulars have been withheld which they would not have ap-. proved: But it is also due to his memory to declare, that in balancing the conflicting elements of his character, what was virtuous and amiable will be found to have largely preponderated. He was not perfect; but his imperfections have a peculiar claim upon our forbear

ance, when we reflect that they sprung from the same source as his genius, and may be considered as almost the inevitable condition upon which that order of genius can be held. Their source was in his imagination. The same ardour and sensibility which rendered him so eloquent an advocate of others, impelled him to take too impassioned and irritating views of questions that personally related to himself. The mistakes of conduct into which this impetuosity of temperament betrayed him cannot be defended by this or by any other explanation of their origin; yet it is much to be able to say that they were almost exclusively confined to a single relation, and that those who in consequence suffered most, but who, from their intimate connexion with him, knew him best, saw so many redeeming qualities in his nature, that they uniformly considered any exclusion from his regard, not so much in the light of an injustice, as of a per

sonal misfortune.

There was a time when such considerations would have failed to appease his numerous accusers, who, under the vulgar pretext of moral indignation, were relentlessly taking vengeance on his public virtues by assiduous and exaggerated statements of private errors, which, had he been one of the enemies of his country, they would have been the first to screen or justify. But it is hoped, that he was not deceiving himself when he anticipated that the term of their hos tility would expire as soon as he should be removed beyond its reach. "The charity of the survivors (to use his own expressions) looks at the failings of the dead through an inverted glass; and slander calls off the pack from a chase in which, when there can be no pain, there can be no sport; nor will memory weigh their merits with a niggard steadiness of hand. But even should this have been a delusive expectation-should the grave which now covers him prove an unrespected barrier against the assaults of political hatred, there will not be wanting many of more generous minds, who loved and admired him, to rally round his memory, from the grateful conviction that his titles to his country's esteem stand in defiance of every imperfection of which his most implacable revilers can accuse him. As long as Ireland retains any sensibility to public worth, it will not be forgotten, that (whatever waywardness he may have shown towards some, and those a very few) she had, in every vicissitude, the unpurchased and most unmeasured benefit of his affections and his virtues. This is his claim and his protection-that having by his talents raised himself from an humble condition to a station of high trust and innumerable temptations, he held himself erect in servile times, and has left' an example of Political Honour, upon which the most scrutinizing malice cannot detect a stain.' II. pp. 475–479.