reason to repent of his temerity, if he did not atone for his disobedience.

In private society, he was, to his intimate associates, bland and kindoften replete with anecdote, and not unfrequently extremely happy in his descriptions of the persons or characters of the great men whom he heard in public, or with whom he was acquainted. Of Mr. Grattan, being asked whether he was, in private society, an entertaining man, he thus speaks :

His conversation

"Very much so. contained much humour, of a dry, antithetical kind; and he never relaxed a muscle, whilst his hearers were convulsed with laughter. He abounded with anecdotes of the men with whom he politically acted, and told them very well. I met him at dinner at the house of an uncle of O'Conor Don, and the conversation turned on Lord Kingsborough, grandfather to the present Earl of Kingston, a very strange being, who married at sixteen a cousin of his own, aged fifteen; used to dress like a roundhead of Cromwell's time; kept his hair close shorn, and wore a plain coat without a collar. Grattan said of this oddity, "He was the strangest compound of incongruities I ever knew; he combined the greatest personal independence, with the most crouching servility to ministers; he was the most religious man and the most profligate; he systematically read every day a portion of the Bible, and marked his place in the sacred volume with an obscene ballad.'"

Pitt, whom he heard in a debate on the state of the nation, he said, struck him

"As having the most majestic flow of language, and the finest voice imaginable. He managed his voice admirably. It was from him I learned to throw out the lower tones at the close of my sentences. Most men either let their voice fall at the end of their sentences, or else force it into a shout or screech. This is because they end with the upper instead of the lower notes. Pitt knew better. He threw his voice so completely round the House, that every syllable he uttered was distinctly heard by every man in the house.

"Did you hear Fox in the debate of which you are speaking?' asked I.

"Yes, and he spoke delightfully; his speech was better than Pitt's. The forte of Pitt, as an orator, was majes tic declamation, and an inimitable feli

1813, some person having remarked to O'Grady that Lord Castlereagh, by his ministerial management, had made a great character for himself.'—' Has he,' said O'Grady; 'faith if he has, he's just the boy to spend it like a gentleman.'

666

O'Grady,' continued O Connell, 'was on one oocasion annoyed at the disorderly noise in the court-house at Tralee. He bore it quietly for some time, expecting that Denny (the highsheriff) would interfere to restore order. Finding, however, that Denny, who was reading in his box, took no notice of the riot, O'Grady rose from the bench, and called out to the studious high-sheriff

Mr. Denny, I just got up to hint, that I'm afraid the noise in the court will prevent you from reading your novel in quiet,'

"After O'Grady had retired from the bench, some person placed a large stuffed owl on the sofa beside him. The bird was of enormous size, and had been brought as a great curiosity from the tropics. O'Grady looked at the owl for a moment, and then said, with a gesture of peevish impatience, "Take away that owl! take away that owl! If you don't, I shall fancy I am seated again on the exchequer bench beside Baron Foster!"

"Those who have seen Baron Foster on the bench, can best appreciate the felicitous resemblance traced by his venerable brother judge between his lordship and an old stuffed owl.

"I remember,' continued O'Connell, 'a witness who was called on to give evidence to the excellent character borne by a man whom O'Grady was trying on a charge of cow-stealing. The witness got on the table with the confident air of a fellow who had a right good opinion of himself; he played a small trick, too, that amused me : he had but one glove, which he used sometimes to put on his right hand, keeping

the left in his pocket; and again, when he thought he was not watched, he would put it on his left hand, slipping the right into his pocket. "Well," said O'Grady to this genius, "do you know the prisoner at the bar?" "I do, right well, my lord!" "And what is his general character ?" "As honest, dacent, well-conducted a man, my lord, as any in Ireland, which all the neighbours knows, only-only-there was something about stealing a cow." "The very thing the prisoner is accused of!" cried O'Grady, interrupting the "witness to character."

"O'Grady,' continued O'Connell, had no propensity for hanging people. He gave fair play to men on trial for their lives, and was upon the whole a very safe judge.'

Among the Liberator's professional reminiscences was the following unique instance of a client's gratitude. He had obtained an acquittal; and the fellow, in the ecstasy of his joy, exclaimed'Ogh, Counsellor! I've no way here to show your honour my gratitude! but I wisht I saw you knocked down in my own parish, and maybe I wouldn't bring a faction to the rescue!'"

How the sardonic chief baron would have enjoyed the following incident, had he presided in the court in which it occurred:

"O'Connell amused us with the story of a physician, who was detained for many days at the Limerick assizes, to which he had been subpoenaed as a witness. He pressed the judge to order him his expenses. 'On what plea do you claim your expenses?' demanded the judge. 'On the plea of my heavy personal loss and inconvenience, my lord,' replied the simple applicant; 'I have been kept away from my patients these five days-and, if I am kept here much longer, how do I know but they'll get well?

But surely the great counsellor's memory or imagination must have played him false, when he gives the following account of the death of Brennan the robber:

of a purse, drew a pistol from his pocket and shot Brennan in the chest. Brennan's back was supported at the time against the ditch, so he did not fall. He took deliberate aim at Jerry, but feeling himself mortally wounded, dropped his pistol, crawled over the ditch, and walked slowly along, keeping parallel with the road. He then crept over another ditch, under which he was found dead the next morning."

This is utterly without any foundation in fact. Brennan died by the rope. He was hanged in the town of Clonmel, in or about the year 1808, together with an accomplice, called "the White Pedlar." We remember the occasion well. The member for Tipperary, the Hon. Montague Matthew, a brother of the late Lord Landaff, strongly interested himself to procure a remission of his sentence for the convict. It was his belief that he might be effectually reclaimed from his dangerous courses, and render good service to society, by his active The exertions as a police officer. Duke of Richmond was Lord Lieutenant at that time-and, when the county member vehemently pressed his suit, is said to have answered him, "I will consent to your proposal upon one condition." "What is that?" eagerly interposed Mr. Matthew, determined that no trifle should stand between him and the object of his wishes. "That you," said the jocose viceroy, "should be hanged in his

stead?"

Of Brennan, an anecdote was then current, which proves him to have been as ready-witted, as he was bold and daring. An old banker of Clon mel, Solomon Watson, was led by curiosity to visit him in his confinement. Brennan observed to him that he, of all men, should not rejoice in his misfortunes. "Why so?" asked Solomon; "why should not I, as well as all other honest and peaceable citizens, rejoice in the capture of so dangerous a character as you?"

"Be

cause," said the robber, "I did not join in the cry against your bank, when its credit was so lately endangered; and when the whole country were refusing your notes, I took them wherever I could get them!"

Of the late Lord Norbury, we have every reason to believe the following to be a just description :

"He was, indeed, a curious judge,' said O'Connell, He had a considerable parrot-sort of knowledge of law-he had upon his memory an enormous number of cases; but he did not understand, nor was he capable of understanding, a single principle of law. To be sure, his charges were the strangest effusions! I was once engaged before him upon an executory devise, which is a point of the most abstract and difficult nature. I made a speech of an hour and a-half upon the point, and was ably sustained, and as ably opposed, by brother counsel. We all quoted largely from the work of Fearne, in which many authorities and cases in point are collected. The cause was adjourned until next day, when Lord Norbury charged the jury in the following terms:

"Gentlemen of the jury,-My learned brethren of the bench have carefully considered this subject, and have requested me to announce their decision. It is a subject of the most difficult nature, and it is as important as it is difficult. I have the highest pleasure in bearing witness to the delight-yes, the delight! and, I will add, the assistance, the able assistance, we have received from the masterly views which the counsel on both sides have taken of the matter. Gentlemen, the abilities and erudition of the counsel are above all praise. Where all displayed such eloquence and legal skill, it would be as difficult as invidious to say who was best. In fact, gentlemen of the jury, they were all best! Gentlemen, the authorities and precedents they have advanced in this most knotty and important case, are like a hare in Tipperary-to be found in Fearne !' (fern.)

"Now,' continued O'Connell, as he related this bit of judicial buffoonery, 'in some years to come, if these things should be preserved, people won't believe them. But Lord Norbury has delivered stranger charges still. When charging the jury in the action brought by Guthrie versus Sterne, to recover damages for criminal conversation with the plaintiff's wife, his lordship said :"Gentlemen of the jury,-The defendant in this case is Henry William Godfrey Baker Sterne-and there, gentlemen of the jury, you have him from stem to Sterne! I am free to observe, gentlemen, that if this Mr. Henry Wm. Godfrey Baker Sterne had as many Christian virtues as he has Christian names, we never should see the honest gentleman figuring here as defendant in an action for crim. con.'

"The usual style of quoting law authorities some years ago, was not as at present,Second volume of Strange, page

ten,' but briefly, 'two Strange, ten.' A barrister known by the soubriquet of 'Little Alick,' was opposed to Blackburne in some case, in which he relied on the precedents contained in two Strange.' Blackburne, conceiving the authorities thus quoted against him were conclusive, threw up the cause, leaving the victory to Little Alick. But the court, not deeming the precedent contained in two Strange' so conclusive for Alick as Blackburne considered it, gave judgment against Alick's client, and of course in favour of Blackburne's. In announcing this decision, Lord Norbury threw off, on the bench, the following impromptu :

"Two Strange was Little Alick's case,
To run alone, yet win the race;
But Blackburne's case was stranger still,
To win the race against his will.'"

We retain in our possession, at this present, a manuscript, in Lord Norbury's hand, written on the back of a letter, and presented by him to Surgeon Carmichael, at, we believe, the last visit he paid him, when attending him in his last illness. The doctor had advised leeches for some inflammatory symptoms in his face, and the effect of the application is thus described by the facetious ex-judge, upon his dying bed :

"Dear Carmichael, the leeches have had a good pull,
No toper dropped off without taking his full;
Each drank till unable to drink any more,
Then, ready to burst, fell flat on the floor;
And this Horace knew well, as both I and you do,
When he said, nisi plena cruoris hirudo.'"'

The agitator observed that, when they were burying the judge :

"The grave was so deep that the ropes by which they were letting down the coffin did not reach the bottom of it. The coffin remained hanging at mid depth, while somebody was sent for more rope. Aye,' cried a butcher's 'prentice, give him rope enough-don't stint him! He was the boy that never grudged rope to a poor body.'"

We would observe that this reproach was earned, more by his jocularity, than his malignity. He did not deserve the character which was given him, as one who delighted in public executions. Many a time and oft, as we have been frequently informed by one whose duty it was to attend upon him, when "ruling the books," as it is called, on circuit, has he spared the life of a wretched culprit, from some

good-natured recollection of some favourable feature in his case, which justified an extension of mercy. We have not heard many well-authenticated instances of his jesting when passing sentence, but a pun had for him irresistible attractions. He was possessed by a jovial spirit of self-enjoyment, which could not, on the gravest occasions, be repressed from breaking out into sallies which transgressed the rules of strict decorum; and, as the reader has seen, he made a sportive allusion to his own infirmities when even upon the verge of the grave. It was but a very short time before his death that he called to ask after the late Lord Erne, whose health was equally precarious-and when the servant informed him that his master was very "bad, indeed!" "Tell him," said the jocular nobleman, "it is a dead heat between us!"

Of the "Union" judges, as they were called, O'Connell delighted to tell disparaging anecdotes; as every proof of a prostitution of patronage for such an object, was part of his munition of war in his combat for

repeal. Daly, he said, was one of

them :

"He went into parliament to vote for the Union, and to fight a duel, if requisite, with any one who opposed it. Norbury was one of Castlereagh's unprincipled janisaries. Daly was no better. Daly was made Prime Serjeant for his services at the Union, although he had never held a dozen briefs in all his life. He was on the bench, I remember, when some case was tried, involving the value of a certain tract of land. A witness deposed that the land was worth so much per acre. Are you a judge of the value of land?' asked Daly. I think I am, my lord,' replied the witness. 'Have you experience in it?' inquired Daly. 'Oh, my lord,' cried Counsellor Powell, with a most meaning emphasis, did you ever know such a thing as a judge without experience ?'"

Of Judge Day, whose promotion took place in 1797, he used to say :—

"Aye, poor Day!' said O'Connell, most innocent of law was my poor friend Day! I remember once I was counsel before him, for a man who had stolen some goats. The fact was proved, whereupon I produced to Judge Day an old act of parliament, empowering the

owners of corn-fields, gardens or plantations, to kill and destroy all goats trespassing thereon; I contended that this legal power of destruction clearly demonstrated that goats were not property; and I thence inferred that the stealer of goats was not legally a thief, nor punishable as such. Poor Day charged the jury accordingly, and the prisoner was acquitted.'

How tickled he would have been, had he been reminded of the paragraph which appeared in the Press newspaper, upon his appointment. It was, if we remember aright, to this effect" It has been customary for eminent lawyers, upon their promotion to the bench, to hand over their briefbags to some learned friend; thus pointing him out to their attorneys and clients as the individual whom they wish to succeed to their bar practice. Judge Day has departed from this good rule; we suppose for this reason, that he would not pay any friend of his an empty compliment !"

The very silly person who has favoured us with his "Personal Recollections," is very indignant that any appointments should ever have been made from political considerations. We would be glad to hear his opinion of the promotions to the bench, since the Whigs and Radicals, by means of the Reform Bill, have obtained an almost continued monopoly of power. Have they made no partisan appoint

ments?

Was O'Connell, to whom the patronage of Ireland was handed over, uniformly studious to recommend only the best lawyers for the highest places? Or did Popery and Radicalism serve as make-weights, in those who obtained this especial favour, for a very deficient knowledge of law? It would be invidious to specify instances, and we shall, therefore, abstain from so doing. But we defy Mr. Daunt to lay his finger upon a single man who was indebted, for his seat upon the bench of judges, to his merits alone, under a Whig-Radical adminis tration. And without justifying, for a single moment, improper appointments by any party, we take the liberty of telling him that there is an obliquity of vision, caused by a beam in his own eye, that should be removed, before he notices, with any severity, the mote in the eyes of other people.

Of Mr. O'Connell's Repeal politics

we are loath to speak with the fulness which the subject requires. The maxim "de mortuis," &c. is one which we reverence; and it is very difficult to hold it in remembrance in dealing with the Irish demagogue, in his advocacy and management of that question.

Could he have been sincere when he started it at first? Was he honest in its prosecution? These are the problems which his biographers will have to resolve. For our parts, without pronouncing a positive opinion, we find it very difficult to believe that a man of his vigorous intellect could have ever seriously entertained the thought, that England could, by any amount of moral force the only force which he would permit himself or his followers to employ-be brought to consent to a dissolution of the legislative union. To do so would be to divide the empire against itself, and to sink it, at once, to the condition of a third or fourth rate power, incurring the contempt of every other state in Europe. That any one who was not positively insane, or a simpleton more deplorably imbecile than any insanity could make him, should have thus thought, or thus reasoned, it certainly startles our credulity to believe possible and that Mr. Daniel O'Connell should be that man, whose shrewdness and common sense were not second to those of any other living politician, is a supposition so monstrous, that we could not entertain it without outraging every principle of moral probability by which we have been accustomed to be guided in such inquiries.

O'Connell was not an enthusiast, in the ordinary sense of the word. He was not a man whose imagination ran away with him. He was very fond of alluding to his "day-dreams," as he called them; but no public man was ever less deluded by visionary hallucinations; and that a matter-of-fact intellect, such as his, could have seriously entertained the belief that English statesmen, of any party, could consent to a measure which would inevitably involve, as one of its not remote consequences, the severance of Ireland from the British crown, we cannot for a moment imagine possible.

Strongly as we have, all our lives, been opposed to Mr. O'Connell, much more gratified should we be to find a good rather than a bad motive for the

extravagancies and the eccentricities of his turbulent and erratic career. But we positively cannot do so. He not only falsified all the professions upon the strength of which Emancipation had been obtained, but made use of the position which he attained in the legislature to enter upon a crusade against the established church, against any attempt to disturb or weaken which, he had recorded the most solemn obligation. But this new course of agitation was necessary to keep alive his popularity with the priesthood, whose aid was indispensable to obtain for him the vast sums of money which were annually levied as the O'Connell rent. Nor is it possible to separate his Repeal movements from his financial arrangements. The raising of an enormous fund, by shilling and penny contributions, from the rags and poverty of his countrymen, was the main-spring of the moral force system, which was to effect a peaceful dissolution of the legislative union. He took good care that the machinery which he thus set in motion, should be under his complete control; and the steam pressure by which it was set in motion, was raised or lowered according as it served his personal purposes with any existing administration. Were the Conservatives in power, Ireland was to be convulsed; they were to be threatened with a renewal of the agitation by which he had extorted Emancipation. This country was to be made the minister's "great difficulty." Were the Whigs in office, and contented to rule Ireland through him, the burning lava was no longer emitted from the volcanic crater of Irish grievances; and its internal rumblings were made to subside to a gentle premonitory murmur, just sufficient to indicate the existence of the slumbering elements, which would. again flash forth their destructive fires, should any recusancy to comply with his most extravagant behests be manifested by his trembling masters.

Thus, while repeal agitation was to the people of Ireland a delusion and a mockery, it was to him an instrument of personal ambition. Without it,

"his occupation was gone." The great agitator must sink to the level of ordinary political mountebanks and disturbers. He possessed, in no eminent degree, any of the powers of a great statesman; and could not have