I had taken them wrong and was wrong in taking them; that I had no symptom of any disease whatever; he mentioned also, in confidence, that notice had been taken of my intimacy with Mrs. Forty; that there were some ladies not far from the well, strangers altogether to my poor dear, in whom religion had turned from milk, and soured into vinegar; who had little hope of being talked ill of themselves, and who made it a moral duty to slide themselves in upon the market jury of every character, and give a verdict against them upon their own knowledge; particularly if there were any circumstance that made it an act of common mercy, in those canters of slanderous litanies, to be silent or merciful. My dear sir,' said he, 'let not women complain of their injuries from men, when they are such odious beasts in devouring one another. In truth, my dear Dick, it is frightful to see how little they can spare their friends, when they can make them the pretexts for venting their infernal malice. I confess it has added to my sickness of heart against that country,* of which I have really deserved so much.

"You can scarcely believe what a difference I find here--courted and cherished by strangers; I assure you the question of celebrity between the royal tiger and me is not quite decided. The change of scene is amusing, so is the diversity of characters; there is a moral benefit in the change of scene; you look back to the niche you filled and you see it not how minute then must be the little thing that filled it? Here too every body is as intimate with me as I permit. I really begin to think that the best tenure of earthly attachment is tenancy at will. You have the use of the soil, and the way-going crop; then nothing you plant shoots so deeply but you may remove it without injury to the soil or to itself. If affections strike their roots far into the heart, they cannot be pulled up without laceration and blood. I am not without an idea of cutting you altogether: I could easily get into Parlia

Ireland. The censorious ladies in question were his countrywomen.-C.

ment and on my own terms, but the object would not justify a purchase; and I need not tell you, I would not submit to restric

tions.

"You will be surprised when I tell you that I have the highest authority for knowing that the silly malice of the Castle has not had the smallest impression on a certain high quarter. As I have jilted Mrs. Forty, my head is getting better, and I shall try and write. I may as well stay here sometime as any where else: I am afraid of London; however, I can't but pay a visit to the Duke of Sussex. Will you enclose "Wagram" to Mr. Reeves, and add my respects, and request that he will have the goodness to forward it to me to Cheltenham. The post is just going out-write to me by return; best regards to the hill. I begin to think that 'compliments to all inquiring friends' generally dwindles into a sinecure. What of the poor Priory? we have passed some happy and innocent days there. God bless you, dear Dick, prays very sin

cerely yours

"J. P. C.

"P. S. These senators are in bed, or this should pass more free than I have ever been able to do."

TO THE SAME.

"DEAR DICK,

"My last was in spleen and haste; this is a postscript. I can scarcely add what I should have said, because I forget what I did say; no doubt I was too vain not to brag of the civility I have met, and consequently of the good taste of every body. Did I say any thing of the Italian countess, or the French count her unele, whose legs and thighs are turned into grasshopper springs by a canister-shot at the battle of Novi? She talks of going westward; as Irish scandal does not talk Italian, and as she can't speak English, she may be safe enough, particularly with the assistance of a Venetian blind! Dear Dick, God help us! I find I am fast recovering from the waters; I think I'll drink no more

composed, and my spirits, Why may not the wretch I am not much inclined to

of them; my nerves are much more though far from good, are more quiet. of to-morrow be happy to-day? abstract optimism, but I often think Pope was right when he said. that whatever is, is right,' though he was perhaps too shallow a moralist to know, not why he thought so, but why he said so; probably 'twas like your own poetry, he made the ends of the lines jingle for the sake of the rhyme.

"Apropos of jingle. I forgot, I believe, to beg of you to send me two copies of 'O Sleep!' I wrote it for Braham. the air not correctly. *

I suppose

"Did I beg of you to see and to direct James as to the erections at the barn? don't forget it; because, perhaps, I may see the Priory once again. I dreamt last night of your four-horse stable, and I was glad to find all well.

"You can scarcely believe what a good humoured compromise I am coming into with human malice, and folly, and unfixedness. By reducing my estimate of myself, every collateral circumstance sets out modestly on the journey of humility and good sense,

from the sign of the Colossus to that of the Pigmy, where the apartments are large and ample for the lodger and his train.

"Just as before, the post is on my heels; Richard has only time to put this in the office. I shall probably soon write more at my leisure. Compliments at the hill: ditto repeated shaking the bottle.

"J. P. C."

"The Scotch indorser of this gave me my dinner yesterday: champagne and soda. He votes with the Ministers. I gave a lecture, and got glory for rebuking a silly fellow that tried to sing an improper song in the presence of his son. 'Thunders of applause.''

TO THE SAME.

"CHELTENHAM.

"DEAR DICK,

"I have not been well here-these old blue devils, I fear, have got a lease of me. I wonder the more at it, because I have been in a constant round of very kind and pleasant society. Tomorrow Sir Frederick Faulkner and I set out for London. I don't turn my face to the metroplis con amore, but the Duke of Sussex might not take it well if I did not call upon him-so I go, being at once an humble friend and a patriot. Low as I have been myself in spirits, I could not but be attracted with the style of society and conversation here, particularly the talents and acquirements of females-I am sorry to say, few of them our countrywomen. The vulgarity too and forwardness of some of our heroes quite terrible. On the whole, however, perhaps, I'm the better for the jaunt."

Early in the following year, in consequence of the still declining condition of his health and spirits, Mr. Curran resigned his judicial situation. Upon which the following address was presented to him by the Catholic Board ::

“SIR,

"TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE JOHN PHILPOT CURRAN,

"The general board of the Catholics of Ireland feel it their duty to address you on your resignation of the high office to which your talents were called, and the duties of which you have disdischarged with the courtesy of a gentleman; the abilities of a lawyer; the dignity of a judge; and the characteristic integrity which has ever distinguished you. Taking a review of a life devoted to the service of your country, and the cause and the interest of public and private liberty, we shall ever hold in proud and grateful remembrance the energy which you displayed in resisting oppression, and defending the rights of the subject and the constitution; the independent spirit with which you met the frowns and seductions of power; the intrepidity with which you vindicated your insulted and maligned country, and the sacrifices which you made at the shrine of public virtue. The freedom and the privileges of your profession, so closely connected with those of the public, you upheld both at the bar and on the bench. The first flight of your juvenile genius was a noble and generous defence of an obscure but respectable individual against a lawless assault of tyrannical power. You have uniformly opposed that bigoted, that baneful policy, which impiously tries the principles of man by his religious creed. You have maintained the great and sound principle of religious liberty. A just, a liberal, and an enlightened mind abhors the pernicious system of excluding from equal rights those who contribute equally to the support of the state with their property and their lives; a system which sacrifies the liberty of the country to protect the monopoly of a party, and which, by perpetuating division and discord, saps the foundation of all social intercourse. You, Sir, and the other illustrious advocates of Irish prosperity, are well aware that the total extinction of such a system is absolutely essential to the consolidation and permanence of the general strength of the empire. Permit us, therefore, sir, to indulge our earnest hope, that your splendid talents, emerging from the eclipse of judicial station, and reviving under that name