bly married in Kilkenny. He was born at Ballahide, Carlow, his father was a gentlemen of ancient family and once of considerable fortune. After his father's death, he went to law with his family, and brought ruin on the property. His son, however, contrived to get from the wreck of it, between five and six thousand pounds, which he carried with him to England, and having squandered away whatever he possessed, he died there a few years ago. Dr. Brennan was a man of very considerable talents, which were most sadly misused by him; he devoted his fine talents to sarcasm and scurrility; the little use he made of them in his profession, was still sufficient to make his name known to medical men, not only in England but over the continent, as the person who first brought into practice the use of turpentine in puerperal disorders.

Besides the "Press," the other newspapers published in Dublin were, the "Dublin Journal," the "Freeman's Journal," "Saunders's Newsletter," the "Dublin Evening Post" and the "Hibernian Journal."

The "Dublin Journal" and "Freeman's Journal," were the organs of the government and the faction that swayed its councils. "Saunders's Newsletter" professed neutrality in politics, and was chiefly devoted to commercial communications. The two others were moderate supporters of liberal principles. The amount of literary talent employed in all, was extremely small; but in this respect, with the exception of the "Press," the "Dublin Evening Post" excelled all its cotemporaries, and in the fidelity and accuracy of its reports of the debates in parliament, it had no equal.

Of the "Dublin Journal," which claimed to be the government newspaper of that day, a few words may not be found unnecessary.

This paper was originally established by Mr. George Faulkner, one of the aldermen of the City of Dublin, and was ably conducted by him, for upwards of fifty years. His house was the rendezvous of the leading parliamentary, literary and political men of his day. He associated with persons of the highest rank, and was in the habit of entertaining them, it is said, in a style of splendour. Faulkner died in 1775. From the period of his death, this paper gradually declined in spirit and integrity, till its doom was fixed, when its fanatical career commenced, on its coming into the hands of one of the most illiterate and illiberal men who ever became ambitious of conducting a public journal. This person, Mr. John Giffard, better known by the complimentary sobriquet of the "dog in office," was brought up in the Blue Coat Hospital. He was taken by the hand by a person of the name of Thwaites, a brewer, and was brought up to the business of an apothecary. He married a young woman in humble life, in the county of Wexford, and set up as an apothecary, in the town of Wexford, but got maltreated in a brawl with a man of the name of Miller, in that town, and removed to Dublin, where he set up in the business of an apothecary, in Fishamble Street, in 1771.

In that year, a Mr. John Giffard, a cooper, of Price's Lane, Fleet Street, died in Dublin, but whether a relation or not of the former I cannot say; and the following year his name is found in the

list of common councilmen; as his prospects brightened, he changed his residence to College-street, then to Grafton-street, and finally to Suffolk-street, in 1790. He distinguished himself early for the violence of his democratic principles, became a member of the volunteer association, and declaimed, in unmeasured terms, against parliamentary corruption, tyranny, and English influence.

Patriotism, however, and the glory acquired in the volunteer service, brought no money into the pocket of Mr. John Giffard; and in a little time, to the amazement of his friends, he suddenly changed his politics, reviled his former associates, and was duly encouraged and advanced by his new confederates. The first notoriety he acquired, was in the discharge of the humble duties of director of the city watch. In this office he had given some offence to the collegians, and this powerful and lawless body, decreed the honours of a public pumping to Mr. John Giffard. As they were in the habit of beating the watch with impunity, and even breaking open houses for the purpose of seizing persons who had offended them, they proceeded to Giffard's house in a tumultuous manner, and commenced the demolition of his doors and windows. Giffard manfully defended his house, repulsed the assaliants, and shot one of the young rioters in the wrist.

From this time, though Giffard did not throw physic to the dogs, the fortunate dog was himself thrown into office. He filled no particular post or definable situation, but was a man of all work of a

dirty kind at the Castle, and a hanger-on of Clare and the Beresfords.

In the spring of 1790, Giffard's privileged insolence had already reached the acme of its audacity. He attacked Mr. Curran in the streets at noon-day, for alluding, in his place in parliament, to the large sums of money squandered on the surbordinate agents and partizans of administration.

The circumstances of this insult are detailed in a letter of Mr. Curran to the Right Honourable Major Hobart, the secretary, demanding the dismissal of this menial of the government from his post in the

revenue.

"A man of the name of Giffard," he states, a conductor of your press, a writer for your government, your notorious agent in the city, your notetaker in the House of Commons, in consequence of some observation that fell from me in that house, on your prodigality, in rewarding such a man with the public money, for such services, had the audacity to come within a few paces of me in the most frequented part of the city, and shake his cane at me in a manner that, notwithstanding his silence, was not to be misunderstood."

Curran, despising the menial, held the master responsible for the insolence of the servant, and a duel between him and Major Hobart was the consequence.

Just previously to the trial of Hamilton Rowan in 1794, for a seditious libel, it was found necessary to have a jury which could be relied on for a conviction,

and a sheriff that could be trusted in such an emergency. Mr. Giffard was made sheriff some months previously to the trial, "a a jury of the right sort" was impannelled, and Hamilton Rowan was sent to Newgate.

Mr. Giffard was at this time, by Lord Clare's patronage and protection, on the high road to preferment under government, and its countenance had already enabled him to become the chief proprietor of the "Dublin Journal." From the time it came into his hands, its violence, virulence, vulgarity, and mendacity, were of so extreme a character, that in the present day, its advocacy would be held detrimental and disgraceful to any party. Yet its editor was patronized, and preferred to places of honour and emolument by the administration, and especially favoured with the countenance and confidence of Lord Clare. Indeed, none but the most worthless and unscrupulous men, were selected for his favour, or fitted to be his agents.

The next signal instance of this man's effrontery, was on the occasion of Mr. Grattan's appearance at the hustings, in 1803, to vote for the then liberal candidate, Sir Jonah Barrington. Mr. Giffard objected to Mr. Grattan's vote, on the alleged ground of his name having been expunged from the corporation list, in consequence of the report of the secret committee of the House of Commons, especially got up and revised by Lord Clare, containing the evidence of a man of the name of Hughes (a notorious informer), involving Mr. Grattan in the designs of the United Irishmen. Grattan, on this