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them black mail, than wage an impotent war, and indeed the combat would be every way too unequal between one Whose sword hangs rusting on the wall' and so many knights of fame,

Ten of them are sheathed in steel,
With belted Sword, and spur on heel;
Who never quit their harness bright,
Neither by day, nor yet by night;

They lay down to rest,
With corslet laced,

Pillowed on buckler cold and hard:

They carve at the meal

With gloves of steel,

And they drink the red wine through the helmet barred.'

I shall therefore content myself with an appeal to the good sense of these gentlemen, who are the fittest to correct their own errors, if any they have fallen into; but still, in doing this, I shall use the like freedom by them as they do by others.

I think then that their strictures upon some passages of this biography have been too fastidious, or, to borrow a sprightlier phrase of their own, too smart and snappish.'

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I think they have not viewed the story of the birth, and birth place of Curran's eloquence, of poor Apjohn and Duhigg, and the victory over the devil of temple bar, with their accustomed candour or discrimination. Had they known more of the men and manners they were censuring, they would never have supposed that this story was taken down by the author from his father's lips: indeed, they would smile at their own innocent mistake.

They say it is not the very best style of wit or talk that they have met with. But who has said it was? Its beauty, if it has any, is that it is entirely without such pretension, and is related simply as a part of the history of John Philpot Curran. The observation, or question of his friend was, whether his gift was from art or nature, or whether his eloquence was born with him. And the answer was, the history of its origin, showing how much it was owing to accident and circumstances; and when Curran was thus cheerfully complying with the desire of his friend, he was too unaffected, and too natural to think of making a display; he gave it as it came, and as it was.

As to the story of Mr. Boyse, I think that there also these accomplished critics have misconceived both the moral and the fact....Did their good feelings never teach them, that true and genuine affection, because it shuns all exhibition, will be fain at times to hide itself under the show of bluntness?

Indeed this censure is so forced, that it seems to have involved the learned commentators in some confusion of ideas, not very usual with them; for they say that all this might be very well between the two friends, but it was dreadfully too theatrical for a pri

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vate society. In our fastidious country,' they say, 'we really have no idea of a man talking pathetically in good company, and still less of good company sitting and crying to him. Nay, it is not very consistent,' they add, with our notions, that a gentleman should be most comical.' The expression of the author hardly warranted this observation. He was speaking of the variety of his father's conversation, which abounded in those magical transitions, from the most comic turn of thought to the deepest pathos; for ever bringing a tear into their eye before the smile was off the lip. From these and other passages, these gentlemen are led to suspect, that the Irish standard of good conversation is radically different from the English. For my own part, having spent half my life in Ireland, and the other half in various other countries, and having seen some good company both in England and Scotland, I am much at a loss to find upon what these observations are founded; I have generally found least said about good company, in good company; and those to please the most who dealt the least in precepts of book conversation. I am now an American, and equally distant, with the exception of a very little arm of the sea, from the one and the other island, and the way we unsophisticated Americans think upon these subjects is this; we find that God has given to man two distinct characters, by which, though all the rest were lost or effaced, he might be defined and distinguished from the brute creation- the smile and the tear.'Here then are two schools of conversation—too rival gymansia, one on each side of the channel of Saint George. The disciples of the one neither admit of laughter or of tears: or if they do, it must be serio-comic mirth, or pathos of that nature, that cannot excite a

tear.

The other school, abandoning the whole transnatural regions, to their more refined and attic neighbours, assemble round the festive board, and as the wine flows, and the blood and spirits circulate, they make the course of their humanities. By laughter they prove, if not that they are gentlemen, at least that they are men. And if any unexpected touch of pathos brings the tear into their eye, their philosophy is that of nature, which traces the cause through the effect. They acknowledge a power beyond themselves, and find the literæ humaniores written in their hearts, by him who made the laws essential to their moral and material frame: and they acknowledge him who made the tear to flow, to be the same who made the water issue from the rock.

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The world must judge, then, which is the better school. If there any law it must be international. For my part, if this be the only, or radical difference between the rival standards, I do not wonder, that before the comeing of Lionel Duke of Clarence, the English in their language and apparrell, and all their manner of

liveing, had submitted themselves entirely to the Irish.' And the compliment is perhaps better than was intended to the Irish school.

As regards the danger of bad imitation, let these accomplished critics beware how their own kibes are galled, for though it be given to few to imitate the Scotch reviewers in their extensive knowledge, and great range of thought, or in the strength and clearness of their diction, yet every art and science has its jargon, and the cant of criticism about taste and good conversation is what the parrot may learn, and the cuckoo, sing, to the great disturbance of whatever is genuine, natural, or manly.

What kind of person would John Philpot Curran have been, if he had formed himself upon these straight-lined rules. Would Homer have been worshipped as a god, or would he not, if they prevailed, be kicked out of good company, as in that barbarous age when he first sung his ballads through the streets of the Greek cities? Would not Shakspeare be the next victim of this rage? and Tully, whose jocularity was his right arm, whose pleasure was to show his wit among his friends, and who confesses that he loved his own jokes best, and that they were but quicquid in buccum venerit,' whose jests filled three whole volumes: how would he be censured for being so vastly comical?'

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There is perhaps one way to reconcile and draw advantage from their differences, by bringing about a friendly commerce.

Let the North Britons consign to their Hibernian neighbours what they have to spare of the mental philosophy, and their systems ideal and non-ideal, and of their semi-voluntary operations of the intellect, and the Irish in return supply them with their surplus heart and soul, and let this be hereafter called the channel trade. But it is time to quit these trifles, and render justice to that dignity which belongs to these writers whenever they assume their proper attitude and station.

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These things,' they say, speaking of Curran's wit, &c. are of 'little consequence. Mr. Curran was something better,' &c. p. [239.] Such manly language would atone, if atonement were due, for all the censures upon the wit, the style, or the manner of Curran ; and Ireland owes to these authors this acknowledgment besides, that when the minions of despotism, so long combined against her, perverted her cause, and sided with her tyrants, they still respected the country of 'feeling hearts and eloquent tongues.' And though they should not be converted to the Irish standard of wit or conversation, I trust that upon more acquaintance they will find reason to admit, and to assert, that virtues of a higher kind than either taste or genius lie buried in the graves of Irish traitors.

But on this subject I shall trust myself no further, I have already detained the reader too long from better matter; I have spoken more of myself than perhaps I ought, and more of Ireland than I

had intended. Such fruitless recollections of her sufferings cannot change her destiny. If I can cherish any hope for her, it is in the steady march of the free and prosperous republic of which I am now a citizen. If integrity and union shall continue to direct her councils; if native health and vigour still prove a match for the attacks which corrupt intrigue and foreign influence will never fail to make upon her freedom and renown; if honesty be cherished as it ought, and fraud discountenanced, and law administered with firm impartiality; if religion, the chastener of the public morals, be still pure and holy, untainted by hypocrisy or guile; if all these blessings shall continue to her; if the mild wisdom of her Franklin, and the farewell voice, and warning accents of her Washington, be ever in the ears and hearts of all her citizens; then may the great example stronger than armed millions work to the end of UNIVERSAL EMANCIPATION.'

LIST OF LATE PUBLICATIONS.

1. AGRICULTURE AND FARRIERY.

Address of the Hon. William Walker, President of the Berkshire Agricultural Society, delivered before the same, together with reports of the Committees of Departments, and the Address of Elkanah Watson, Esq. first President of the Society. Pittsfield.

Practical Horse Farrier; or the Traveller's Pocket Companion, showing the best method to preserve the Horse in health, &c. 2d edition, with engravings, and enlarged. By William Carver of NewYork. Philadelphia.

Southwick's Agricultural Almanack, for 1821. Published under the patronage of the board of Agriculture. Albany.

The Address of Dr. Samuel L. Mitchill, delivered to the NewYork Agricultural Society, has been republished in the Albany Plough Boy, of Dec. 16th, and 23d. 1820.

A Small Tract, entitled a candid and impartial exposition of the various opinions on the subject of the comparative quality of Wheat and Flour, in the Northern and Southern sections of the United States, with a view to develope the true cause of the difference, &c. In a letter from John C. Brush, of Washington, D. C. to Samuel L. Mitchill, LL. D. Washington.

This well written Practical Tract supports by facts, observations, and reasonings, that the inferiority of Northern Flour is wholly owing to the too late cutting of the Wheat-or, in the usual phrase, to the letting it stand until it be dead ripe.

(2.) EDUCATION.

The American System of Practical Book-Keeping, adapted to the Commerce of the United States, in its domestic and foreign relations, &c. with a plate of a Balance-Chart, by James Bennett, accountant, lecturer on Book-Keeping, and President of the Account. Benev. Soc. of N. Y. with

Jackson's Book-Keeping, adapted to the Commerce of the United States, &c. &c. By James Bennett. Royal 8vo. pp. 188. both, $2. New-York. and

Bennett's Conversation Cards-teaching the whole science of BookKeeping, $1. E. Bliss. New-York.

(Foreign.)

Hints for the Improvement of early education, and Nursery discipline. 1st. Am. edition, Collins, New-York, 12mo. pp. 123.

(3.) CHEMISTRY, BOTANY, GEOLOGY, MINER. & NAT. HIST. Conversations on Chemistry; in which the elements of that science are familiarly explained, and illustrated by experiments. From the fifth and latest English edition, revised, corrected, and considerably enlarged. To which are added notes and observations, by an American gentleman, 2d. edit. Greenfield, Mass. 12mo. pp. 420.

Geological Survey of the County of Albany, by Amos Eaton and T. Romeyn Beck, M. D. 8vo. pp. 51. Albany.

Philips's Outline of Mineralogy, with engravings, 2d edition, by Dr. Mitchill, much enlarged. 12mo. Collins & Co. New-York.

A Compendium of Physiological and Systematic Botany. With plates. By George Sumner, M. D. Hartford. 12mo. pp. 300.

The Natural History of the Bible, or a description of all the Quadrupeds, Birds, Fishes, Reptiles, and Insects, Trees, Plants, Flowers, Gems and Precious Stones, mentioned in the Sacred Scriptures. Collected from the best Authorities, and alphabetically arranged. By Thaddeus Mason Harris, D. D. Boston, Wells & Lilly. 8vo. pp. 476.

(4.) HISTORY, BIOGRAPHY, GEOGRAPHY AND TOPOGRAPHY.

The Ohio and Mississippi Pilot, consisting of a set of Charts of those rivers, representing their channels, islands, ripples, rapids, shoals, bars, rocks, &c. accompanied with directions for the use of navigators. To which is added a geography of the States and Territories, west and south of the Alleghany mountains. By J. C. Gilleland. Pittsburgh, 12mo. pp. 274.

History of Chelmsford, from its origin in 1653, to the year 1820. By Rev. Wilkes Allen, A. M. 8vo. pp. 192. Haverhill, Mass. Life of Com. Oliver H. Perry. By John M. Niles. Hartford. Life and Letters, together with Poetical and Miscellaneous pieces of the late William Person, a student of Harvard University. 18mo. Cambridge.

If manly strength of character, united with the finest sensibility, may deserve and reward attention, we may safely recommend this book to all who take delight in seeing the affections and the moral qualities called into action, and can love and admire excellence under whatever circumstances, and at whatever age it may appear.

There is something of a romantic and mysterious interest blended with the

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