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till he had lost all his money, and she still continued to encourage him, relying on his honour now that his money was lost. At length, fixing his eyes fiercely on her, he excused himself, declaring in a decided tone, that he would play no more with her ladyship, for that she had the devil's look and her own.

By this time, the Doctor having regained somewhat of his temper by the aids of dinner, and a little port wine, Mr. Curran resumed the conversation, and made enquiries as to the English course of studies; to all which he got short and uncourteous answers, not satisfactory to either. "Doctor," said he, " give me leave to ask you, have you read Milton's Paradise Lost, with Addison's Criticisms?" The doctor turned round peevishly, and told him he was impertinent, and making vastly too free, and locked himself up in impenetrable sullenness, muttering, that the fellow was a Papist, and a zealot of rebellion; and observed on the bad company so frequently met in public coaches. One of the ladies, with a perfect good humour, having perceived the raillery on the Doctor, archly said, “Come, Mr. Dublin shopkeeper, I'll take a glass of wine with you." Mr. Curran then addressing the Doctor, said, "Sir, it is now time to open your eyes to the genius, manners, and literature of a country, of which your prejudices must for ever keep you chained

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down in ignorance. Whenever I go with my tapes and threads into the houses of the greatest lords or bishops, or lawyers in Dublin, they converse with me with as much familiarity as these young ladies would do, but for the restraints your presence hath imposed upon them. In England you seem to begin at the wrong end of education, and your logic, sciences, and classics and languages, seem to me to be but half learned, if I am to judge by the specimens you afford."— "What!" said the Doctor hastily, "will you pretend to say, that we do not speak the English purely and correctly?" "I'll tell you what, Doctor, I will bet you the £40 I have here in my pocket, that the two last sentences you have spoken, or the two next you will speak, were not, nor will be Grammar, or pure or correct English: and, Doctor, as to your not speaking your own language. with the richness and purity of tone (the brogue), we do, I forgive you that; for it is more your misfortune than your fault; as you had not the good luck to have been born at the right side of the water; and thus, my good Doctor, I leave you." On another occasion he dramatized a country schoolmaster under circumstances nearly similar: possibly even its pleaşures may be too much for the present.

Mr. Curran was very national; he entertained a high opinion of the capacity of his countrymen;

and he maintained a continued warfare against English prejudices; and by way of convincing a nation through the medium of one person, he invited Mr. G. to pass some time with him in Ireland: but he found him so unmanageable, and unaccommodating, that they retained their original sentiments on almost every subject perfectly unaltered. They differed on one point. Mr. Curran had the passion of all great souls, the love of fame: he did not reject praise; the other did not like to give it. On a day when some important cause drew forth public expectation, and the courts were uncommonly crowded to hear him, Mr. Curran brought Mr. G. to and from court in his carriage: he was, in their return, in momentary expectation that Mr. G. would open with some eulogy on his speech of that day, and repay, by the cheap generosity of panegyric, what might have been, but probably never was, returned to him in beef and claret; nothing of that kind took place. Wearied with this disappointment, and chilled by the ice bank which neared him, and wishing to dash from this frozen ocean, he touched the subject himself,-it would not do. At length, in a fit of impatience, he asked Mr. G. how he liked the specimen of Irish oratory he had heard that day. The other observed coldly, curtly, and disapprovingly of it. Their days were not numbered long together.

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An English gentleman, one of those gossiping sçavans, who flutter about society to gather its sweets, having heard that in its capital the vivacity, wit, and learning of Ireland is best met and circulated in abundance and freedom at their tables, in a manner delightful to themselves, and surprizing to strangers, was determined, in gratification of this agreeable propensity, to judge for himself, and, though it were Iceland, to cull its flowers and browze upon its mosses. He accordingly obtained passports of introduction, and was received. The entré of this Anacharse was marked by a peculiar misfortune in the first instance; either by a bad selection, or perhaps by accident, he found himself placed at a table not the best calculated to prove the taste of a nation, on the result of that day's conversation. He found among the guests, at one of the city dinners, Mr. Grattan, and he contrived to be seated next him. Much had been said about grinding-stones, razorblades, rags and ribbons, dinners, lords, and fine ladies in a situation of this kind, dignity can scarcely sustain itself even by its manners. Amidst the incongruities of haut-bas new knights and corporators, all that the gentleman can do is to drink toasts, and writhe in grace: the flow of the mind is checked, and runs back into a chilly ebb; the sparks of light are smothered as they rise; and when one sees, that to indulge in unrestrained conviviality, dignity should sink into

buffoonery, self respect" takes the alarm, seeks refuge in silence, submits in arid assentation to' qald and unheeded remark, or languishes under* the conceits of animalized vivacity, in which the soul has no commerce, sympathy, interest, or elision. The traveller was much disappointed; and seeking an occasion to meet Mr. Curran a few days after at, dinner, not apprised of the un broken intimacy and friendship which politically and privately ever subsisted between those gentlemen, he indiscreetly observed, that he never felt any thing more lowering to Mr. Grattan, than in comparing his great character with himself; that he appeared to possess nothing striking in conversation, and to have exhibited nothing of those extraordinary powers for which he was so celebrated. Mr. Curran started, and replied, “ Surely, Sir, you cannot expect that: the sum will be always found in its imeridian: permit me, however, to ask you where you had the good fortune to have met this gentleman." On being answered, at a city feast; "Oh, yes: it is very true: I comprehend it perfectly. Yet, take my word for it, my good sir, he is still a sweet bird, though he never sings but in his own climate."

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The following anecdote does no discredit to any relater, and I think it is to Mr. Curran I am indebted for it. When the French armies got possession of Switzerland, they gasconaded in

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