and as to his rent, it stood pretty much the same chance of liquidation as the National Debt. Mrs. Curran, however, was a barrister's lady, and what she wanted in wealth, she was determined should be supplied by dignity. The landlady, on the other hand, had no idea of gradation, except that of pounds, shillings and pence. One morning, Curran walked out to avoid the usual altercation upon this subject. He had

a family for whom he had no dinner; and a landlady for whom he had no rent. He had gone abroad in despondence; he returned home in desperation! When he opened the door of his study, the first object which presented itself was an immense folio of a brief, twenty guineas wrapped up beside it, and the name of Robert Lyons marked on the back of it. Curran instantly paid his landlady, bought a dinner, gave Robert Lyons a share of it; and from that dinner dated the barrister's prosperity.

When he defended the prisoners after the Rebellion of 1798, he was reminded by Lord Carleton that he would lose his gown, whereupon Curran replied with scorn, “Well, my lord, his Majesty may take the silk, but he must leave the stuff behind."

"Curran," said a judge to him, whose wig being a little awry, caused some laughter in court, "do you see anything ridiculous in this wig?" "Nothing but the head, my lord," was the reply. One day, at dinner, he sat opposite to Toler, who was called "the hanging judge." "Curran," said Toler, "is that hung-beef before you?" "Do you try it, my lord, and then it's sure to be." Lundy Foot, the celebrated tobacconist, asked Curran for a Latin motto for his coach. "I have just hit on it," said Curran; "it is only two words, and it will explain your profession, your elevation, and contempt for the people's ridicule; and it has the advantage of being in two languages, Latin and English, just as the reader chooses. Put up Quid rides upon your carriage." Curran's hatred for the Union is shown in the answer he gave to a lord who got his title for his support of the Government measure. Meeting Curran near the Parliament House, on College green, he said, Curran, what do they mean to do with this useless building? For my part, I hate the very sight of it." "I do not wonder at it, my lord," said Curran; "I never yet heard of a murderer who was not afraid of a ghost."

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Judge Robinson, a coarse-minded man, had the bad taste

to sneer at Curran's poverty, by telling him he suspected his "law library was rather contracted." Curran replied, "It is very true, my lord, that I am poor, and the circumstance has certainly somewhat curtailed my library: my books are not numerous, but they are select, and I hope have been perused with proper dispositions. I have prepared myself for this high profession rather by the study of a few good works than by the composition of a great many bad ones. [Judge Robinson was the author of many stupid, slavish, and scurrilous political pamphlets; and, by his demerits, raised to the eminence which he thus disgraced.] My books may be few; but the title-pages give me the authors' names, and my shelf is not disgraced by any such rank absurdities that their very authors are ashamed to own them. I am not ashamed of my poverty; but I should be ashamed of my wealth, could I have stooped to acquire it by servility and corruption. If I rise not to rank, I shall at least be honest; and, should I ever cease to be so, many an example shows me that an illgained elevation, by making me the more conspicuous, would only make me the more universally and the more notoriously contemptible." "Sir," said the judge, "you are forgetting the respect which you owe to the dignity of the judicial character." "Dignity!" exclaimed Curran : "my Lord, upon that point I shall cite you a case from a book, of some authority, with which, perhaps, you are not acquainted." He then briefly related the story of Strap in Roderick Random, who having stripped off his coat to fight, entrusted it to a bystander. When the battle was over, and he was well beaten, he turned to resume it, but the man had carried it off. Mr. Curran thus applied the tale: "So, my Lord, when the person entrusted with the dignity of the judgment-seat, lays it aside for a moment to enter into a disgraceful personal contest, it is in vain, when he has been worsted in the encounter, that he seeks to resume it-it is in vain that he tries to shelter himself behind an authority which he has abandoned." "If you say another word, I'll commit you," replied the angry judge: to which Mr. C. retorted, "If your Lordship shall do so, we shall both of us have the consolation of reflecting, that I am not the worst thing that your Lordship has committed."

A piece of empty self-glorification was set down by Curran with this memorable congratulation: "The honourable and

learned gentleman boasts that he is the guardian of his own honour; I wish him joy on his sinecure."

Curran has vividly described his first appearance at a debating society, after calculating upon the tear of generous approbation bubbling in the eyes of his little auditory, never suspecting, alas! that a modern eye may have so little affinity with moisture, that the finest gunpowder may be dried upon it. "I stood up," says Curran ; "my mind was stored with about a folio volume of matter; but I wanted a preface, and for want of a preface, the volume was never published. I stood up, trembling through every fibre; though, remembering that in this I was but imitating Tully, I took courage, and had actually proceeded almost as far as Mr. Chairman,' when, to my astonishment and terror, I perceived that every eye was riveted upon me. There were only six or seven present, and the little room could not have contained as many more; yet it was to my pain-stricken imagination, as if I were the central object in nature, and assembled millions were gazing upon me in breathless expectation. I became dismayed and dumb. My friends cried, "Hear him!' but there was nothing to hear. My lips, indeed, went through the pantomime of articulation; but I was like the unfortunate fiddler at the fair, who, coming to strike up the solo that was to ravish every ear, discovered that an enemy had maliciously soaped his bow; or rather, like poor Punch, as I once saw him, grimacing a soliloquy, of which his prompter had most indiscreetly neglected to administer the words." Such was the début of "Stuttering Jack Curran," or, "Orator Mum," as he was waggishly styled; but not many months elapsed ere the sun of his eloquence burst forth in dazzling splendour.

In an action brought by a priest of the Church of Rome against Lord Doneraile, at the Cork Assizes, Mr. Curran had to cross-examine Mr. St. Leger, brother to the defendant; and as it was his object to depreciate his evidence, he had described him in very gross and insulting language in his speech. In doing so, he had, however, not mentioned his name. When Mr. St. Leger came to the table, and took the Testament in his hand, the plaintiff's counsel, in a tone of affected respect, addressed him, saying, "Oh, Mr. St. Leger, the jury will, I am sure, believe you without the ceremony of swearing you; your character will justify us from insisting on your oath.” The witness, described by this mild and

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complimentary language (his irritation evidently diverted his attention from the very palpable trap laid for him), replied, with mingled surprise and vexation, "I am happy, Sir, to see you have changed the opinion you entertained of me when you were describing me a while ago." What, Sir! then you confess it was a description of yourself! Gentlemen, act as you please; but I leave it to you to say, whether a thousand oaths could bind the conscience of the man I have just described." A duel followed, in which Mr. Curran evinced great intrepidity.

Some great, big Irish counsellor said to Curran, “If you go on so, I'll put you in my pocket." "Egad! if you do," said Curran, "you'll have more law in your pocket than ever you had in your head."

Curran used to relate, with infinite humour, an adventure he had with a mastiff, when he was a boy. He had heard somebody say that any person throwing the skirts of his coat over his head, stooping low, holding out his arms, and creeping along backwards, might frighten the fiercest dog, and put him to flight. He accordingly made the attempt on a miller's dog in the neighbourhood, who would never let the boys rob the orchard; but found to his sorrow that he had a dog to deal with which did not care what end of a boy went foremost, so that he could get a good bite out of it. "I pursued the instructions," said Curran, "and as I had no eyes save those in front, fancied the mastiff was in full retreat; but I was confoundedly mistaken; for at that very moment I thought myself victorious, the enemy attacked my rear, and having got a reasonably good mouthful out of it, was fully prepared to take another before I was rescued. Egad, I thought for a time the beast had devoured my entire centre of gravity, and that I should never go on a steady perpendicular again.' "Upon my word," said Sir Jonah Barrington, to whom Curran related this story, "the mastiff may have left you your centre, but he could not have left much gravity behind him, among the bystanders."

Mr. Rogers relates that he once dined with Curran in the public room of the chief inn at Greenwich, when he talked a great deal, and, as usual, with considerable exaggeration. Speaking of something which he would not do on any inducement, he exclaimed vehemently, "I had rather be hanged upon twenty gibbets." "Don't you think, Sir, that one would

be enough for you?" said a girl, a stranger, who was sitting at a table next to Mr. Rogers, who adds:-"I wish you could have seen Curran's face he was absolutely confounded— struck dumb." Sir Jonah Barrington relates :-I never saw Curran's opinion of himself so much disconcerted as by Mr. Godwin, whom he had brought, at the Carlow assizes, to dine with Mr. Byrne, a friend of ours, in whose cause he and I had been specially employed as counsel. Curran, undoubtedly, was not happy in his speech on this occasion; but he thought he was. Nevertheless, we succeeded; and Curran, in great spirits, was very anxious to receive a public compliment from Mr. Godwin, as an eminent literary man, teazing him (half jokingly) for his opinion of his speech. Godwin fought shy for a considerable time; at length, Curran put the question home to him, and it could no longer be shifted. "Since you will have my opinion," said Godwin, folding his arms, and leaning back in his chair with sang froid, "I really never did hear anything so bad as your prose, except your poetry, my dear Curran !

Curran having ordered a new bar wig, and not liking the cut of it, he jestingly said to the peruke-maker, "Mr. Gahan, this wig will not answer me at all!" "How so, sir?" said Gahan, "it seems to fit." "Ay," replied Curran, "but it is the very worst speaking wig I ever had. I can scarce utter one word of common law in it; and as for equity, it is totally out of the question."

CURRAN PLAYING PUNCH.

The keeper of a street puppet-show arrived at Newmarket, to the no small edification of the neighbourhood; and the feats of Mr. Punch, and the eloquence of his man, soon superseded every other attraction. At length, however, Mr. Punch's man fell ill, and the whole establishment was threatened with immediate ruin. Little Curran, who had, with his eyes and ears, devoured the puppet-show, and never missed the corner of its exhibition, proposed himself to the manager, as Mr. Punch's man. The offer was gladly accepted, and the success of the substitute was miraculous. At length, before one of the most crowded audiences, he began to expatiate upon village politics, he described the fairs, told the wake secrets, caricatured the audience, and after disclosing every amour, and detailing every scandal, turned with infinite ridicule upon