inducements to retire from the Bench at so early a period.

Mr. Curran, some short time before his death, had occasion to consult a physician in London on the general state of his health. He accordingly waited on a gentleman very eminent in that profession; he had no introduction to him, and was perfectly a stranger. The doctor made many enquiries as to the nature of his complaint, and of his constitution, and among other things asked him, had his father ever been afflicted by gout.Even then, the humour of Mr. Curran did not desert him: he perceived the doctor did not see into the nature of his case, and, hoping little from him, he answered by assuring him, "that his father had left him neither money nor malady; that the only inheritance he ever got from him was a large stock of excellent advice; and that so careful was he of it, that he never broke bulk, never used any part of it, and that it was very likely to descend to posterity in the very same condition in which it had been left:"-wished the doctor a good morning, and left him more puzzled about the man than the malady.

Mr, Curran had for a long time prepared the outline of a Novel; the skeleton of it may yet be found among his papers, Mr. Atkinson, and others of his friends, received great pleasure from

its rehearsal by himself. He did meditate many works; but, he gave most of those hours he could devote to the indulgence of himself, in his favourite instrument, the violoncello.-It is hoped that these works, his poems, and his criticism on Milton, may survive*.

A gentleman of one of the southern counties in Ireland, well known for a certain determination of mind, an unaccommodating strength of resolution, was perceived to be very active on some trial in which Mr. Curran was engaged; it was proposed to refer the case to the arbitration of this gentleman, as he was reputed to be an honest man:-on the other side an objection was raised, founded on the known sternness of his character; and it was also remarked, that his iron leg was the softest part about him; "Oh, surely," said Mr. Curran," that must be irony."

Mr. Hoare's countenance was grave and solemn, with an expression like one of those statues of the Brutus head: he seldom smiled; and if he smiled, he smiled in such a sort as seemed to have rebuked the spirit that could smile at all. Mr. Curran once observing a beam of joy to enliven his face, remarked, "Whenever I see smiles on Hoare's countenance, I think they are like tin clasps on an oaken coffin."

* There are many songs and other small poems published under his name.

The printed speech of some young Barrister had been laid before Mr. Curran, and his opinion asked after he had carefully perused it. "Why," said he, "there is much more of flower than figure in it,—more of fancy than design it is like (as I suspect the mind of the author to be) a tree in full blossom, shake it, and you have them on the ground in a minute, and it would take a season to reproduce them."

A certain member of Parliament, at this moment a distinguished leader of opposition, being lately in the company of Mr. Curran, had heard him copiously and vehemently descant on the numerous grievances under which he represented Ireland to be labouring. This gentleman, become very urgent in his solicitations to get the materials for some good speeches from such a source, rather imprudently requested of Mr. Curran to supply him with a list of these grievances, accompanied by such observations and details as he would wish to make upon them. Mr. Curran suspecting that there was full as much of personal interest as of patriotism in the request, declined gratifying it. Some friend asked him in a few days after, why he did not comply with the earnest desire of the person alluded to. No," said Mr. Curran," I have no notion whatever, at my time of life, nor indeed at any, to turn hodman to any political architect."

When his imagination once began to take fire, it seems to have had the same influence upon all the faculties of his mind, which Falstaff ascribes to Sherris." It ascends me into the brain; it dries me there all the foolish, dull, and crudy vapours which environ it; makes it apprehensive, quick, forgetive, full of nimble, fiery, and delectable shapes; which delivered over to the voice, (the tongue,) which is the birth, become excellent wit."-HENRY IV.

I now conclude these anecdotes. Whatever may be the taste of other countries, were nothing more retained of him but those remarkable pieces of his wit and humour, all his conversation, they would be more acceptable to the country of his birth than memoirs of his private or of his public history; possibly they may be so to others. They are indications of mind; and, so far as the study of man is the object of curiosity, they furnish, perhaps, the best and most agreeable means of being acquainted with the nature and operation of Mr. Curran's.

The manner in which Mr. Hardy, the writer of the life of Lord Charlemont, notices Mr. Curran's debut in parliament, (the biographer being then a member of the House of Commons, and much esteemed by his friends,) is as follows: "When Lord Northington opened the session of

1783, every thing at first appeared perfectly tranquil; but there was soon an opposition to his administration. It consisted partly of several persons totally unconnected with the court, some young members of very promising talents, who had never before sat in paliament, Sir Laurence Parsons, (now Earl of Ross,) particularly Mr. Arthur Browne, and others. Mr. Curran also, who had come into the House of Commons on the general election, joined the opposition (returned for a borough of Lord Longueville's, as before related ;) but the persons most hostile to Lord Northington's administration, were some gentlemen who openly professed themselves attached to Mr. Pitt, the Grenvilles, and, in short, the English opposition. In this there was nothing disreputable or improper; some few sessions, however, afterwards, when those same persons supported the court system, as if not only they, but their auditors, had been in the habit of drinking the waters of Lethe, and forgotten all that was said or done, the constant theme of their lamentable declamation was, that all English parliamentary connexion, or acting with any view to English opposition, (no matter how congenial the principles of two parties at this and at the other side of the water might be,) were in the highest degree reprehensible, and injurious to the interests of Ireland: this band, with the gentlemen before mentioned, acted in opposition, but not always in