before he transferred to another soil the tobacconist's motto quid rides, which every Budget of Momus, for the last half century, has assigned to Foote.

The first of the following sarcasms was delivered in good humour, and was received as it was given. The second was in the bitterest strain of indignant invective. They are, perhaps, neither of them precisely adapted to the juridical climate of Westminster Hall. In 1803 Mr. Curran was addressing a jury on a state trial;

6

"The judge, whose political bias, if any a judge can have, was certainly supposed not to be favourable to the prisoner, shook his head in doubt or denial of one of the advocate's arguments. · I see, gentlemen,' said Mr. Curran, I see the motion of his Lordship's head; common observers might imagine that implied a difference of opinion, but they would be mistaken-it is merely accidentalbelieve me, gentlemen, if you remain here many days, you will yourselves perceive, that when his Lordship shakes his head there's nothing in it!" P. 48.

On another occasion, in combating some opinion of the opposite counsel, he observed, that he had consulted all his law books, and could not find a single case in which the principle contended for was established. Judge Robinson, who was supposed, with what degree of truth we know not, tó have risen to the bench by writing political pamphlets, remarked, with no little coarseness, that he suspected the learned advocate's law library was rather contracted. Curran "eyed the judge for a moment in the most contemptuous silence: It is very true, my Lord, that I am poor, and the circumstance has certainly rather 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 books than by the сотроsition of a great many bad ones. I am not ashamed of my poverty, but I should of my wealth, could I stoop 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 ill-acquired elevation, by making me the more conspicuous, would only make me the more universally and the more notoriously contemptible."" P. 51.

Of an officer, of the name of Sellinger, whom he fought, he remarked, that it was unnecessary to return his (Sellinger's) fire, for he died in three weeks after the duel of the report of his own pistol.

In 1783 Mr. Curran was returned to Parliament for the borough of Kilbeggan; and, like most others of his profes

sion, his powers of oratory were found wanting when translated from the bar to the senate. After the fashion of that day and that assembly, however, he never failed to speak with as much personal bitterness over-night, nor to fire as many cases of pistols next morning, as the most distinguished among his contemporary orators: and these were, the qualifications, most needed in an Irish M.P.

Several of the leading rebels found an able advocate in Mr. Curran and his exertions in behalf of Oliver Bond, Rowan, and Jackson, were among those which will be longest in remembrance. When the last expired under his own hands in the dock, Lord Clonmell was presiding on the bench. Curran disliked this judge's conduct on the trial. A friend said to him,

"Never mind it, Curran; he'll soon follow your client-he's dying. He said Curran, by the Lord, he's such a fellow, that he'll live or die, just as it happens to suit his own convenience.'" P. 197.

The measure of union, of course, was an abomination in his eyes.

"He was one day, shortly after the debate, setting his watch at the Post-office, which was then opposite the late Parliament-house, when a noble member of the House of Lords, who had voted for the union, said to him, with an unblushing jocularity, Curran, what do they mean to do with that useless building? for my part, I am sure I hate even the sight of it.'-'I do not wonder at it, my Lord,' replied Curran, contemptuously; I never yet heard of a murderer who was not afraid of a ghost.' P. 226.

On his visit to England much of Mr. Curran's time was passed with Horne Tooke and Godwin. With the "principles" of the first Mr. Charles Phillips remarks, that those of Mr. Curran " very much coincided;" and the last has declared, in a dedication, that Curran was" the sincerest friend he ever had." Every body knows what the "principles” of Horne Tooke were; and every body must have a just value for the "friendship" of Godwin, who, in print, has avowed, that friendship gives no consolation. It is not the first time that these philosophical worthies have stood in close conjunction.

"All I view afflicts my sight,

All that Horne Tooke can plot or Godwin write."

With Lord Erskine, also, Mr. Curran was in habits of some

VOL. XVIII, AUGUST, 1822.

P

intimacy; and, in one instance at least, we think he fairly distanced his Lordship.

"Some time afterwards they met at the table of an illustrious personage. The royal host, with much complimentary delicacy, directed the conversation to the profession of his celebrated visitors. Lord Erskine very eloquently took the lead. He descanted in terms which few other men could command on the interesting duties of the bar, and the high honours to which its success conducted. No man in the land,' said he, 'need be ashamed to belong to such a profession: for my part, of a noble family myself, I felt no degradation in practising it; it has added, not only to my wealth, but to my dignity.' Curran was silent; which the host observing, called for his opinion. Lord Erskine,' said he has so eloquently described all the advantages to be derived from the profession, that I hardly thought my poor opinion was worth adding; but perhaps it was-perhaps I am a better practical instance of its advantages even than his Lordship-he was ennobled by birth before he came to it; but it has,' said he, making an obeisance to his host-it has in my person raised the son of a peasant to the table of his prince.' P. 230,

Mr. Curran was not advocate for Robert Emmett, and therefore Mr. Charles Phillips, in writing Mr. Curran's ›life, takes occasion to give a long defence of that unhappy young man, to re-print the justification of treason which he pronounced before sentence was passed on him, and to transfer to his own pages the epitaph which, in compliance with the request of his dying friend, that no man should write one on shim, Mr. Moore, the inspired author of Lalla Rookh," has inserted in the Irish Melodies. This is all of a piece.

"When I was concerned for the plaintiff," said Mr. Curran, "I always perused my briefs. It was unnecessary to do so for the defendant, because, you know, I could always pick up the facts from the opposite counsel's statement.". We like the honesty of this confession.

During the short-lived administration of the Talents, Mr. Curran obtained the Mastership of the Rolls, a post for which he was unqualified, which he disliked, and the attainment of which created a lasting breach between himself and Mr. Ponsonby. He held it about six years and then resigned it. The close of his life was marked by a distressing melancholy, and a confirmed hypochondriasm was terminated by apoplexy on the 13th of October, 1816. He died in lodgings at Brompton.

Mr. Curran's speech against the Marquess of Headfort, which is printed in the Appendix, gives us a higher notion of his powers than any thing else which Mr. Charles Phillips bas

*

recorded. Even in this, however, our admiration must be measured. We can scarcely imagine a more dangerous model than Mr. Curran's style presents to an unfledged orator; and he who attempts to follow his course will do well to bear in mind that the waxen wings of Icarus were melted in an attempt to outsoar the high-flying of his elders.

ART. X. Reminiscences of Charles Butler, Esq. of Lincoln's Inn. 8vo. 328 pp. 8s. 6d. Murray. 1822.

THERE are few individuals belonging to any of the learned professions, who have made the business of their profession the serious object of their lives, that have distinguished themselves more favourably in the general walks of literature than the venerable author of the volume before us. Mr. Butler explains to us in his preface, the means by which he has been enabled to devote so much of his life to the study and composition of works connected with criticism and the belles lettres, without having been seduced, or suspected of having been seduced by his professional friends, for one moment, from professional duty." He tells us that

-

"Very early rising a systematic division of his time,absti nence from all company and from all diversions not likely to amuse him highly, from reading, writing, or even thinking on modern politics, and, above all, never permitting a bit or scrap of time to be unemployed, have supplied him with an abundance of literary hours. His literary acquisitions, whatever they are, may, perhaps, be principally owing to the rigid observance of four rules:-to direct his attention to one literary object only at a time; to read the best book upon it, consulting others as little as possible ;-where the subject was contentious, to read the best book on each side to find out men of information, and, when in their society, to listen, not to talk.? P. 3.

Now these rules do really appear to have been wise and praiseworthy; and we make no doubt that there is bardly any individual, but might, by 'steadily following them, find abundance of literary leisure, however occupied or engaged in the business of his profession, be the nature of it what it may. The wonder is, in the instance of Mr. Butler as in every other similar instance, not that he found time to read

and write so much upon topics of merely literary interest, without sacrificing his legal studies, but that amidst such incessant occupation, in one particular and paramount pursuit, he was able to preserve his taste for literature unimpaired. Had Mr. Butler's literary compositions displayed the same extent of research and labour of thought, which we believe to be evinced in some of his professional productions, he certainly would deserve to be considered as something higher than merely a person of extraordinary activity of mind and of unusually versatile tastes; but we confess that in general we have seldom seen any thing that particularly excited our astonishment in the holiday tasks, if we may so call those opera subserva, which he seems, as we collect from a hint in the work before us, to have set himself, as the amusement of his vacations. Every thing which he has written displays great quickness of apprehension, and bears the marks of a mind always working upon a systematic plan, with a view to be informed of what is known, free from any ambition of enlarging the stock of general information, or of throwing any original light upon his subject. But for this very reason many of his writings are particularly useful as elementary books; and they are invariably recommended by an agreeable turn of thinking, and a disposition singularly disposed to be upon good terms, if possible, with every body and every persuasion. The vanity of being thought a man of universal talents and information, peeps out now and then through the natural and harmless complacency, which is one of the pleasant things sure to be engendered by the consciousness of regular and useful occupation; but it is a self-satisfaction fairly earned, and which is mixed up with no unkindly feelings; and upon the whole promotes the good will of the reader rather than his spleen.

The character which we are here giving of what has always been the impression made upon our minds by Mr. Butler's literary writings, is, we think, not a little borne out by the project of the volume before us; which is neither more nor less than the private history of his works; telling us how they originated, and when and where they were composed, and various other particulars connected with the author's "Reminiscences" of them, which we really have read with great pleasure and good humour, but not always without a smile, when we remembered what the greater number of those writings are, the birth, baptism and education of which are here so carefully registered.

These "Reminiscences" are divided into chapters, or