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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 rose 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 weakened by 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 appears 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, he answered, that is rather surprising, as I have been practising all night.'

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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 indefatigable 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 character that he must have most wished to be remembered, and in which he has most deserved it. As to any laws or lapses in his private life, we agree, with the ex

cellent 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 can'not 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 assu'med the duty of collecting them, has abstained from a rigorous de'tail 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 tender'ness and regret. In thus abstaining from a cruel and unprofita'ble 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 approved: 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 forbearance, 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 uniform

ly considered any exclusion from his regard, not so much in the

light of an injustice, as of a personal misfortune. so much in the

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 hostility would expire as soon as he should be re'moved beyond its reach. "The charity of the survivors (to use his own expression) looks at the failings of the dead through an 'inverted glass; and slander calls off the pack from the 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 imper'fection 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 to"wards 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.

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ART. XIII. Mr. Sampson's Preface.

[To the Life of Curran, Counsellor Sampson of this city has furnished, in answer to the request of the American publisher, an interesting and well written Preface; and as it contains a witty, courteous and spirited retort upon the preceding article from the Edinburgh Review, we avail ourselves of a portion of it.

He introduces his subject with this striking and beautiful compliment to the biographer,]" It rejoices me to find the genius of Curran surviving in a Son, who in vindicating his father's fame VOL. II.

has nobly, though perhaps unconsciously, established his own, and sweetly mingled the tender sentiment of filial piety, with the manly decision of a faithful and candid historian.

"I had been often before solicited to furnish something towards Curran's history; and about the time that this author proposed to become his father's biographer, an invitation from him to that effect was communicated to me through my friend Mr. Emmet. That I did not comply with a request which I deemed an honour, was not from any unwillingness to pay my share of a just tribute, but from an insurmountable reluctance to revive recollections full of regret, and the difficulty of separating the history of Curran from that of his country, with which it was interwoven and to speak on that subject with fulness and effect the time was not yet arrived. These difficulties, sir, I stated to you when I promised (for so I find you have considered it) to write something, but I merely thought of vindicating the reputation of a man, much extolled, but often undervalued, from censures founded on misapprehensions and mistakes. And let me add, that whatever difficulties I felt before, they are only enhanced by the reading of the work, where I find the task so well performed without any aid of mine, by the legitimate heir of his father's celebrity, who has so manfully taken charge of his own inheritance....I feel in its full force the delicacy and danger, without, or even with, the permission of the author, of interpolating any thing into a book, whose principal fault judicious critics find to be its too great amplitude: and to which defect, I should, with due respect, add that of its being already burthened with too long notes.

[Mr. Sampson was instrumental in preserving some of those forensic speeches of Curran, upon which his celebrity with posterity is said to depend-and those which Mr. Sampson reported are the most distinguished ]

*** When celebrated men have ceased to exist, the minutest circumstances that shed light upon their manner of being, and their moral habits, acquire an interest. Even fac similes of hand writing of men of cherished memory, have been thought worth preserving by engraved copies. Their letters, which are images of their thoughts and minds, must be much better worth preserving. The familiar epistles of Cicero are now read in the interior of this continent by a much greater number, and with no less avidity than they were by the Romans of his own and succeeding times.

[After quoting some of Mr. Curran's correspondence with his client Hamilton Rowan-he proceeds :]

I shall add one or two letters from Curran, written to myself in the easy style of friendship. I select them, because they have some reference to this trial; and also, because they turn upon the concerns of my own family, and have regard to no other persons, nor

no more important subject; and I, therefore, feel myself the more free to dispose of them.-It appears that a certain domestic occurrence invited my return to Belfast, where I had a house, and where I spent some of the vacations between the terms-and where my family then was.

'DEAR SAMPSON,

I have executed your commission to Emmet faithfully. We have all very sincerely congratulated you on the fruits of your family toils, of which we are disposed to entertain the most favourable prognostics, and we do hereby offer you and your fellow Jabourer, our best and worthiest greetings thereupon.

As to my part I have so strong an hope, that young Agonistes will one day achieve, what by reason of his tender years he may not now be able to perform, that I should, without scruple, have become bound for him in a spiritual recognisance to any amount; but, perhaps, not having yet decided under what banner he is to carry on the war of the flesh, he has not troubled himself with thinking of a bottle-holder. If he should talk about the matter, you may just hint to him that I pique myself upon a knowledge of the creed and ten commandments in the vulgar tongue.

Emmet tells me the trial will be out on Monday.
Yours very truly,

February 21, 1794.

J. P. CURRAN.'

The person here called Agonistes, was my now only son John Philpot Curran Sampson, and the reader need not be told, that the offer was to be his god-father or sponsor: and it seems that he had been invited to name the child, for he shortly after writes thus:

6 MY DEAR GOSSIP,

A man did so foolish a thing, as proposing to do very well what may be as well, perhaps better done middlingly, for he certainly postpones, and probably does it so much the worse. If any thing can save him from the consequences of his past coxcombry, it can be only the waut of time when he comes to perform --so it has been with me. I felt a foolish propensity to write a fine letter to you, instead of answering promptly and kindly what I felt very kindly. I have now but a moment to say what I should have said two posts ago. I am very much flattered by iny god-child's opinion of my orthodoxy, and I most cheerfully vow as many things in his name as he thinks he may be able to perform. As to the name itself, I accept the permission with much gratitude, but must beg to make Mrs. Sampson my true and lawful attorney, in my name, and on my behalf, to name that name, wishing from my heart, that it may of ten give gladness to hers and to yours.

'I should feel infinite pleasure in taking a trip to you, if my miserable avocations would leave it in iny power to do so. I should wish to make my court to the young fellow before he got any prior liens upon his affectious. If the levity of the age should unluckily catch him, he may chance to look upon my paternity with not so much reverence and regard as he ought to do. I received your enclosed, and as a friend and critic, I find our opinions not much asunder. Apropos e contra-how do you find I look in your labours? Yours sincerely, as also my gossips,

J. P. CURRAN.'

This term gossip, has various acceptations in the English language, it means sometimes a merry-maker or pot-companion, a prater generally, and more especially a tattling woman.

In its

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