account, it is because I consider it to be infinitely to his praise that he should have so manfully surmounted his early pretensions and disappointments, as the progress of his professional history has evinced. The study of" four-day rules," and "notices to quit," demands no extraordinary reach of intellect; but the transition from the airy speculations of a sanguine and ambitious disposition to these unimaginative details is one of the most abrupt and mortifying that ever tried the elasticity and patience of the mental powers. Mr. Goold, notwithstanding the friskiness and levity of his external deportment, had the inward energy to face and surmount the repelling task. He plunged with a hardy and exploring spirit into the wilderness of law-burst through its perplexities, drank freely, and made no wry faces, from its bitter springs; and by a perseverance in patient and solitary labour, entitled himself to more substantial returns than that applause which he had once prized above every earthly compensation. Some time after Mr. Goold had formed this meritorious resolution, an incident befell him, of. which it is difficult to say whether it was most calculated to quicken or to damp his new-born ardour for laborious occupation. When Burke's celebrated Reflections on the French Revolution appeared, the author and the book, as all my readers know, were vigorously assailed. Mr. Goold, considering the subject not unworthy of his powers, had thrown himself into the controversy. He was at the time in a frame of mind befitting a sturdy partisan. He had recently returned from Paris, where, during a residence of some time, he had been an eye-witness of the disgusting clamour and excesses of the period. He was also still smarting from the recollection of certain rude accolades that had been forcibly imposed upon himself by sundry haggard Naiads of the Halle-a perversion of the authentic rights of men and of women, against which, when he came to record the fact, he did not fail to protest with genuine antigallic indignation. His pamphlet was entitled, characteristically enough, a Defence of Mr. Burke's work "against all his opponents." The number that had already declared themselves in print amounted to ten-two anonymous ladies, and eight gentlemen-among whom were Doctors Towers, Price, and Priestley. The defender of Burke took each of them in detail. The gentlewomen he despatched with a good deal of gallant forbearance; but for the doctors and their male auxiliaries he had no mercy. He belaboured them with unsparing logic and more relentless rhetoric, until every sign of sense and argument was beaten out of them, and proclaimed his victory by a final flourish of trumpets to the renown of Burke. "I never, says he, saw Mr. Burke but once. I saw him from the gallery of the House of Commons. I know no man that knows him, I probably shall know no man that knows him. In a few weeks I leave this country, perhaps never to return. I expect but little from any man. I shall never ask any thing. In whatever country I may live, in whatever situation I may be placed, I shall look down on grandeur, I shall look up to greatness. Nor wealth, nor rank, nor power, nor influence shall bend my stubborn neck. I am prostrate before talents; I am prostrate before worth;-my admiration of Mr. Burke amounts almost to enthusiasm," &c. This was pretty strong incense, and there was more of the same kind; but I am quite certain that it was offered without the remotest expectation of any return either in praise or profit; and as to the writer's professions of independence, though very hazardous in so young an Irishman, they have been amply justified by his subsequent life. The pamphlet, however, taken altogether, attracted the notice and excited the gratitude of Burke. The fact is rather curious, as illustrating the predicament of feeling in which that eminent person's new theories and new connexions had involved him. He had just quarrelled with his old political associates for adhering to the spirit of the principles he himself had taught them. Still professing the tenets of " an exalted freedom," he was pouring forth curses and derision upon one of the most provoked and necessary acts of freedom which the world had ever witnessed; and such is the sophistry with which a favourite passion can practise upon the strongest intellect, he would fain persuade himself that he was consistent to the last, and that doctrines which were hailed with joy in every despotic coterie of Europe, were the only genuine and unadulterated maxims of a British Whig. But though bold even to overbearing in his public assertions of his personal consistency, it is not unreasonable to surmise that in his private hours his heart was ill at ease. He must have felt that his fame, if not his conscience, was in want of external support. Certain however it is, that he grasped at the voluntary offer with something like the sign of a sinking spirit. The tributes of ardent admiration and respect so profusely scattered through his young countryman's pamphlet touched the veteran's feelings, and lived in his memory upon the first occasion that offered of marking his sense of the obligation. The opportunity seemed to present itself upon the appointment of Lord Fitzwilliam in 1795 to the government of Ireland. One evening Mr. Goold was sitting alone in his lodging, and indulging (if it can be called an indulgence) in those depressing reflections upon his future prospects with which the stoutest-hearted junior barrister is occasion.. ally visited, when an English letter was put into his hand. It was from Edmund Burke. It imported " that he had not forgotten Mr. G.'s admirable pamphlet, and that he was most desirous to advance, as far as it in his power lay, the author's fortunes. An occasion appeared to offer. The new viceroy of Ireland was coming, preparatory to his departure for that country, to pass some days at Beaconsfield; and if the demolisher of the ten opponents could contrive without loss of time to cross the Channel, and meet his lordship at Mr. Burke's, the happiest results might be anticipated." None but those who know the briskness of Mr. Goold's temperature, even at the present day, can well conceive the delicious perturbation of spirit that must have ensued. The lustre of the invitation itself-the expected glory of being present at conferences where the approaching redress of Irish wrongs was to be freely canvassed-the elevating prospect of being himself officially selected to contribute the aid of his attainments to the labours of a patriotic administration-these and many other bright concomitants had just arranged themselves into a picture almost too dazzling for mortal eye, when one miserable reality intervened like an angry cloud, and the gorgeous imagery faded away into melancholy dimness. He was under a financial incapacity of complying with the generous proposal of Mr. Burke. He was pondering over this mortifying obstacle, when one of his friends, the late Sir Charles Ormsby, entered the room. "Was there ever such an unlucky fellow ?" said he, handing the letter to Sir Charles. "See there what an opportunity of making my fortune presents itself, and yet, for want of about a hundred pounds to go over and make a proper appearance at Beaconsfield, I must let it slip." Sir Charles was not in those days as rich as he subsequently became, but his father was a wealthy and good-natured man. "Go to my father," said he, "shew him the letter, state your situation, and I undertake to say that he'll accommodate you." The experiment, succeeded. Mr. Goold flew to Beaconsfield; was too late to catch the viceroy, who had already set out for Ireland; passed some days with Burke; reposted to Dublin, the bearer of a powerful introduction to the favour of Lord Fitzwilliam; was graciously received, and would in all likelihood have been included in the political arrangements then in progress; but the Beresfords were at work on the other side of the water their fatal counsels prevailed the patriotic viceroy was recalled the doom, of Ireland was sealed, and the subject of the present sketch reconsigned to the hard destiny of a legal drudge. Fortunately, however, and honourably for himself, his spirit was too buoyant to sink beneath the disappointment. He betook himself with unabated ardour to his former pursuits. His professional acquirements and efficiency became known; clients poured in upon him; in a few years he was invested with a silk gown; and had not his political integrity interfered, he would, if current report be true, have before this been seated on the bench. Serjeant Goold's practice has been and still is principally in the Nisi Prius courts. I have not much to say of his distinctive qualities as a lawyer. He is evidently quite at home in all the points that come into daily question, and he puts them forward boldly and promptly. Here indeed, as elsewhere, he affects a little too much of omniscience; but unquestionable it is, that he knows a great deal. There is not, I apprehend, a single member of his profession less liable to be taken by surprise upon any unexpected point of evidence, or practice, or pleading, the three great departments of our law to which his attention has been chiefly directed. But there is no want of originality in his appearance and manner. His person is below the middle size, and, notwithstanding the wear and tear of sixty years, continues compact, elastic, and airy. His face, though he sometimes gives a desponding hint that it is not what it was, still attests the credibility of his German adventures. The features are small and regular, and keen without being angular. His manner is all his own. His quick blue eye is in perpetual motion. It does not look upon an object; it pounces upon it. So of the other external signs of character. His body, like his mind, moves at double-quick time. He darts into court to argue a question of costs with the precipitation of a man rushing to save a beloved child from the flames. This is not trick in him, for among the collateral arts of attracting notice at the Irish Bar is that of scouring with breathless speed from court to court, upsetting attornies' clerks, making panting apologies, with similar manifestations of the counsel's inability to keep pace with the importunate calls of his multitudinous clients. Serjeant Goold stands too high, and is, I am certain, too proud to think of resorting to these locomotive devices. His impetuosity is pure temperament. In the despatch of business, more espe cially in the chorus-scenes, where half-a-dozen learned throats are at once clamouring for precedence, he acquits himself with a physical energy that puts him almost upon a par in this respect with that great "lord of misrule" O'Connell himself. He is to the full as restless, confident, and vociferative, but he is not equally indomitable; and I have some doubts whether with all his bustle and vehemence, he ever ascends to the true sublime of tumult which inspires his learned and unemancipated friend. The latter, who is in himself an ambulatory riot, dashes into a legal affray with the spirit of a bludgeoned hero of a fair, determined to knock down every friend or foe he meets "for the honour of old Ireland." He has the secret glory too of displaying his athletic capabilities before an audience, by many of whom he knows that he is feared and hated. Serjeant Goold, who has not the same personal incentive, is more measured and courtly in his uproar, and will often, long before his lungs are spent, as if his dignity had taken a sudden fright, declare off abruptly, and invoke the talismanic intercession of the Bench. Let not the unlearned reader imagine that I am affecting a tone of idle levity. These forensic rants are of daily recurrence; and to have nerves to withstand them is a matter of no little moment to barristers and clients. It is within the sanctuaries of justice that much of the rough work of human concerns is transacted; and the subjects, to be handled well, must be roughly handled. The knave must be vehemently arraigned; the injured clamorously vindicated; the factious and dishonest witness tortured and stunned until his soul surrenders the hidden truth. The man who can do this is of value in his calling; but should his taste recoil from the rude collision, he may still attain to legal distinction by other and less rugged paths-but as he values his interest and fame, let him resign all hope of making a figure in a Nisi Prius court. Serjeant Goold passes in the Irish courts for an eloquent advocate. In one sense of the word he is so; for though far from being a pleasing speaker, and having manifold defects of delivery and action, he still contrives to make a very strong impression upon a jury, where feeling is to be excited, or the understanding forcibly impelled in a particular direction. His faults of manner are angularity, abruptness, and violence. His articulation is rapid and unmusical. His diction has no equability of flow, it bursts out in irregular spirts. But he has a clear head, much experience of human character and passion, and infinite reliance upon himself. His tones, however faulty, are fervid and sincere. His sentiments, though often extravagantly delivered, are bold and natural, and reach the heart. I would describe his ordinary style of addressing a jury by saying, not that it deeply moves them, for that would imply a more regular and finished order of speaking, but that it "stirs them up." In a word, he bustles through an appeal to the intellect or passions with great ability. He commits many faults of taste, but no essential breach of skill. The jury are often startled by his detonations, and often join in the general smile that follows those little personal episodes into which the learned Serjeant occasionally diverges; but after all, they see that they have before them a man who knows well what he is about. They listen to him with attention and respect; never suspect that he has the slightest design to puzzle them; and when they retire to cool their fancies in the jury-room, feel extremely disposed to agree that the views he had thrown up to them were founded in the justice and good sense of the case. The Mr. Goold sat in the last Session of the Irish Parliament. occasion of his presence there is much to his honour. I have not heard by what particular influence he was returned. It is sufficient to state, that he had already earned a character for talent and public integrity, which pointed him out as a fit person to co-operate in defending the last pass of the Irish Constitution against the meditated surrender by its perfidious guardians. The secret history of the Union has not yet transpired in all its ignominious details. A work professing to perform such an act of historical vengeance, and emanating from an eye-witness, was undertaken about eighteen years ago. A kind of prefatory volume taking up the subject at an ominous distance, was published as a specimen. The continuation, or, more strictly speaking, the commencement, was anxiously expected. I have no authority for asserting that there was any tampering with the writer's indignation; but it may be mentioned as a curious coincidence, that the suspension of his design was coeval with his appointment to be judge of the Court of Admiralty in Dublin, over which, if there be any truth in the old-maxim, “Major è longinquo reverentia," he must be allowed to have presided in a style of the most imposing dignity. He has for many years been a resident of France; sometimes, no doubt, sojourning in the Isle of Oleron, where our sealaws were originally compiled and promulgated by Richard the First, and latterly in the town of Boulogne-sur-Mer, where his marine meditations must be greatly assisted by the visible aspect of "things flotsam, jetsam, and ligan," to say nothing of the cheering influence of an occasional wreck, in reminding him of the convenience of judicial functions that can be performed by deputy. Had Sir Jonah Barrington persevered in his design, he would have had some strange things to tell of the honourable gentlemen who sold their country. There was much, however, that could not be concealed. The measure, smoothed and varnished as it might be to meet the public eye, retained all the coarse and disgusting outlines of an Irish job. It was proposed in 1799, and rejected. The following year, the proposition was renewed and carried. In the interval wonders had been done in the way of an amicable arrangement. The predatory rights of an Irish representative were duly considered and admitted. A vote and its concomitant privileges were not now to be estimated at the old marketprice of seven years purchase but, being to be bought up in perpetuity, a just and commensurate equivalent was allowed to meet the increased cost of a majority, all kinds of compensation in possession and reversion were forthcoming.* Peerages were given * Numerous anecdotes of the legislative higgling on this occasion are current in Ireland,- -some of them sufficiently dramatic. One member, for example, tendered his terms. They were accepted, and a verbal promise given that the contract |