always had a measure to carry, and was sustained by all the authorities of power: Mr. Curran was among the distinguished leaders of opposition. These circumstances, and some early conflicts at the bar, fixed in both the most rooted animosity: Mr. Curran never yielded.

On one occasion the noble lord was SO pressed both by the argument, the eloquence, and the wit of Mr. Curran, that he lost temper, and called on the sheriffs to be ready to take any one into arrest, who would be found so contemptuously presuming to fly in the face of the court. Mr. Curran, perceiving the twittering of a swallow actively in pursuit of flies (for, like as in Nero's court, so, in the presence of this emperor, scarcely a fly was to be found), in his turn called on the sheriffs to take that swallow into arrest, for it was guilty of contempt, as it had contemptuously presumed to fly in the face of the court. The ridicule of this, and the peals of laughter which ensued, closed the

scene.

On some contested argument in the court of King's Bench, Lord Clonmell, who was said to have a stronger dash of the overbearing than of the brave, stood out against Mr. Curran with a brow-beating vehemence, and shewed a determination to have things entirely in his own way. He

made repeated but ineffectual efforts to reduce Mr. Curran, or, (as the phrase is used,) to put him down. He, however, withstood all the violence of those attempts and in a conflict somewhat resembling the modern description of battles, such as that of Rhoderic Dhu and James FitzJames, the encounter was upheld with all that passion could supply, or courage hope to extinguish. Mr. Curran looked, and lighted up all the fire of his mighty eye, surveyed his adversary with the most intense and indignant scowl, such as would have pierced through all impediments; while the red and inflamed countenance of the judge, with the menace and attitude of an overwhelming passion, kindled into a burning blaze. With a firm, calm, and measured tone, Mr. Curran addressed him, and whilst he did so, he seemed armed with the bolt of heaven, ready to hurl destruction on his victim. After some prelude he concluded his address in these words:

“Does your lordship think I am that silly dog, to bay that moon-to bay that moon-which I am not able to extinguish?"

But it was in the defence of Hamilton Rowan, the tremendous fire of his artillery was brought to play upon that judge. The powers of invective found in that speech have been seldom surpassed, seldom rivalled. At its delivery, even the bravest held his breath for the while. Yet

of this master-piece of eloquence, Mr. Curran did not think so highly as of others.

A Jury being sworn, the attorney general stated the case on the part of the crown. The evidence being gone through on both sides :

Mr. Curran." Gentlemen of the Jury: When I consider the period at which this prosecution is brought forward; when I behold the extraordinary safeguard of armed soldiers resorted to*, no doubt for the preservation of peace and order: when I catch, as I cannot but do, the throb of public anxiety which beats from one end to the other of this hall; when I reflect on what may be the fate of a man of the most beloved personal character, of one of the most respected families of our country; himself the only individual of that family, I may almost say of that country, who can look to that possible fate with unconcern? Feeling, as I do, all these impressions, it is in the honest simplicity of my heart I speak, when I say, that I never rose in a court of justice with so much embarrassment, as upon this occasion.

"If, Gentlemen, I could entertain a hope of finding refuge for the disconcertion of my mind, in the perfect composure of yours; if I could suppose that those aweful vicissitudes of human events, which have been stated or alluded to, could leave your judgements undisturbed and your hearts at ease, I know I should form a most erroneous opinion of your character: I entertain no such chimerical hope; I form no such unworthy opinion; I expect not that your hearts can be more at ease than my own; I have no right to expect it;

*A few moments before Mr. Curran entered into his client's defence, a guard was brought into the court-house by the sheriff.

but I have a right to call upon you in the name of your country, in the name of the living God, of whose eternal justice you are now administering that portion which dwells with us on this side of the grave, to discharge your breasts as far as you are able of every bias of prejudice or passion; that, if my client be guilty of the offence charged upon him, you may give tranquillity to the public by a firm verdict of conviction; or if he be innocent, by as firm a verdict of acquittal; and that you will do this in defiance of the paltry artifices and senseless clamours that have been resorted to, in order to bring him to his trial with anticipated conviction.

"This paper, Gentlemen, insists upon the necessity of emancipating the Catholics of Ireland, and that is charged as part of the libel. If they had waited another year, if they had kept this prosecution impending for another year, how much would remain for a jury to decide upon, I should be at a loss to discover. It seems as if the progress of public reformation was eating away the ground of the prosecution. Since the commencement of the prosecution, this part of the libel has unluckily received the sanction of the legislature. In that interval our Catholic brethren have obtained that admission, which it seems it was a libel to propose ; in what way to account for this, I am really at a loss. Have any alarms been occasioned by the emancipation of our Catholic brethren? Has the bigoted malignity of any individuals been crushed? Or has the stability of the government, or that of the country, been weakened? Or is one million of subjects stronger than four millions? Do you think that the benefit they received should be poisoned by the sting of vengeance? If you think so, you must say to them, "you have demanded emancipation, and you have got it; but we abhor your persons, we are outraged at your success; and we will stigmatize by a criminal prosecution the adviser of that relief which

you have obtained from the voice of your country." I ask you, do you think as honest men, anxious for the public tran quillity, conscious that there are wounds not yet completely cicatrized, that you ought to speak this language at this time, to men who are too much disposed to think that in this very emancipation they have been saved from their own parliament by the humanity of their sovereign? Or do you wish to prepare them for the revocation of these improvident concessions? Do you think it wise or humane at this moment to insult them, by sticking up in a pillory the man who dared to stand forth as their advocate? I put it to your oaths; Do you think, that a blessing of that kind, that a victory obtained by justice over bigotry and oppression, should have a stigma cast upon it by an ignominious sentence upon men bold and honest enough to propose that measure? To propose the redeeming of religion from the abuses of the church, the reclaiming of three millions of men from bondage and giving liberty to all who had a right to demand it; giving, I say, in the so much censured words of this paper, giving "UNIVERSAL EMANCIPATION !" I speak in the spirit of the British law, which makes liberty commensurate with, and inseparable from, British soil; which proclaims even to the stranger and the sojourner, the moment he sets his foot upon British earth, that the ground on which he treads is holy, and consecrated by the genius of UNIVERSAL EMANCIPATION. No matter in what language his doom may have been pronounced;—no matter what complexion incompatible with freedom, an Indian or an African sun may have burnt upon him ;-no matter in what disastrous battle his liberty may have been cloven down ;-no matter with what solemnities he may have been devoted upon the altar of slavery; the first moment he touches the sacred soil of Britain, the altar and the God sink together in the dust; his soul walks abroad in her own majesty; his body swells beyond