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ly considered any exclusion from his regard, not so much in the light of an injustice, as of a personal misfortune.

'There was a time when such considerations would have failed 'to appease his numerous accusers, who, under the vulgar pretext ' of moral indignation, were relentlessly taking vengeance on his public virtues by assiduous and exaggerated statements of private errors, which, had he been one of the enemies of his country, they ' would have been the first to screen or justify. But it is hoped, 'that he was not deceiving himself when he anticipated that the term of their hostility would expire as soon as he should be re'moved beyond its reach. "The charity of the survivors (to use his own expression) looks at the failings of the dead through an inverted glass; and slander calls off the pack from the chase in 'which, when there can be no pain, there can be no sport; nor 'will memory weigh their merits with a niggard steadiness of 'hand." But even should this have been a delusive expectation'should the grave which now covers him prove an unrespected 'barrier against the assaults of political hatred, there will not be wanting many of more generous minds, who loved and admired him, to rally round his memory, from the grateful conviction that 'his titles to his country's esteem stand in defiance of every imper'fection of which his most implacable revilers can accuse him. As 'long as Ireland retains any sensibility to public worth, it will not 'be forgotten, that (whatever waywardness he may have shown to'wards some, and those a very few) she had, in every vicissitude, 'the unpurchased and most unmeasured benefit of his affections and his virtues. This is his claim and his protection-that having by his talents raised himself from an humble condition to a 'station of high trust and innumerable temptations, he held him'self erect in servile times, and has left an example of Political Honour, upon which the most scrutinizing malice cannot detect 'a stain.' II. pp. 475–479.

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ART. XIII. Mr. Sampson's Preface.

[To the Life of Curran, Counsellor Sampson of this city has furnished, in answer to the request of the American publisher, an interesting and well written Preface; and as it contains a witty, courteous and spirited retort upon the preceding article from the Edinburgh Review, we avail ourselves of a portion of it.

He introduces his subject with this striking and beautiful compliment to the biographer,]—" It rejoices me to find the genius of Curran surviving in a Son, who in vindicating his father's fame VOL. II.

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has nobly, though perhaps unconsciously, established his own, and sweetly mingled the tender sentiment of filial piety, with the manly decision of a faithful and candid historian.

"I had been often before solicited to furnish something towards Curran's history; and about the time that this author proposed to become his father's biographer, an invitation from him to that effect was communicated to me through my friend Mr. Emmet. That I did not comply with a request which I deemed an honour, was not from any unwillingness to pay my share of a just tribute, but from an insurmountable reluctance to revive recollections full of regret, and the difficulty of separating the history of Curran from that of his country, with which it was interwoven and to speak on that subject with fulness and effect the time was not yet arrived. These difficulties, sir, I stated to you when I promised (for so I find you have considered it) to write something, but I merely thought of vindicating the reputation of a man, much extolled, but often undervalued, from censures founded on misapprehensions and mistakes. And let me add, that whatever difficulties I felt before, they are only enhanced by the reading of the work, where I find the task so well performed without any aid of mine, by the legitimate heir of his father's celebrity, who has so manfully taken charge of his own inheritance....I feel in its full force the delicacy and danger, without, or even with, the permission of the author, of interpolating any thing into a book, whose principal fault judicious critics find to be its too great amplitude: and to which defect, I should, with due respect, add that of its being already burthened with too long notes.

[Mr. Sampson was instrumental in preserving some of those forensic speeches of Curran, upon which his celebrity with posterity is said to depend-and those which Mr. Sampson reported are the most distinguished.]

*** When celebrated men have ceased to exist, the minutest circumstances that shed light upon their manner of being, and their moral habits, acquire an interest. Even fac similes of hand writing of men of cherished memory, have been thought worth preserving by engraved copies. Their letters, which are images of their thoughts and minds, must be much better worth preserving. The familiar epistles of Cicero are now read in the interior of this continent by a much greater number, and with no less avidity than they were by the Romans of his own and succeeding times.

[After quoting some of Mr. Curran's correspondence with his client Hamilton Rowan-he proceeds :]

I shall add one or two letters from Curran, written to myself in the easy style of friendship. I select them, because they have some reference to this trial; and also, because they turn upon the concerns of my own family, and have regard to no other

persons,

nor

no more important subject; and I, therefore, feel myself the more free to dispose of them.-It appears that a certain domestic occurrence invited my return to Belfast, where I had a house, and where I spent some of the vacations between the terms-and where my family then was.

DEAR SAMPSON,

I have executed your commission to Emmet faithfully. We have all very sincerely congratulated you on the fruits of your family toils, of which we are disposed to entertain the most favourable prognostics, and we do hereby offer you and your fellow Jabourer, our best and worthiest greetings thereupon.

'As to my part I have so strong an hope, that young Agonistes will one day achieve, what by reason of his tender years he may not now be able to perform, that I should, without scruple, have become bound for him in a spiritual recognisance to any amount; but, perhaps, not having yet decided under what banner he is to carry on the war of the flesh, he has not troubled himself with thinking of a bottle-holder. If he should talk about the matter, you may just hint to him that I pique myself upon a knowledge of the creed and ten commandments in the vulgar tongue.

Emmet tells me the trial will be out on Monday.
Yours very truly,

February 21, 1794.

J. P. CURRAN.'

The person here called Agonistes, was my now only son John Philpot Curran Sampson, and the reader need not be told, that the offer was to be his god-father or sponsor: and it seems that he had been invited to name the child, for he shortly after writes thus:

'MY DEAR GOSSIP,

A man did so foolish a thing, as proposing to do very well what may be as well, perhaps better done middlingly, for he certainly postpones, and probably does it so much the worse. If any thing can save him from the consequences of his past coxcombry, it can be only the want of time when he comes to perform -so it has been with me. I felt a foolish propensity to write a fine letter to you, instead of answering promptly and kindly what I felt very kindly. I I have now but a moment to say what I should have said two posts ago. I am very much flattered by my god-child's opinion of my orthodoxy, and I most cheerfully vow as many things in his name as he thinks he may be able to perform. As to the name itself, I accept the permission with much gratitude, but must beg to make Mrs. Sampson my true and lawful attorney, in my name, and on my behalf, to name that name, wishing from my heart, that it may often give gladness to hers and to yours.

'I should feel infinite pleasure in taking a trip to you, if my miserable avocations would leave it in my power to do so. I should wish to make my court to the young fellow before he got any prior liens upon his affections. If the levity of the age should unluckily catch him, he may chance to look upon my paternity with not so much reverence and regard as he ought to do. I received your enclosed, and as a friend and critic, I find our opinions not much asunder. Apropos-e contra-how do you find I look in your labours ?. Yours sincerely, as also my gossips,

J. P. CURRAN.'

This term gossip, has various acceptations in the English language, it means sometimes a merry-maker or pot-companion, a prater generally, and more especially a tattling woman.

In its

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strict etymological sense, it means relation; in the canonical sense it is that spiritual affinity created by sponsorship, at the baptismal font: but in Ireland it has a sense connected with her fearful code and mournful history, that renders it an endearing expression of sympathy and affection. Thus we find Sir John Davies, the attorney-general of king James, in Ireland, in his discovery of the true causes why Ireland was never entirely subdued' speaking thus: part 1.-171, &c. For first it appeareth, by the preamble of these lawes, (the statutes of Kilkenny,) that the English of this realme, before the coming over of Lionel duke of Clarence, were at that time become meere Irish in their language, names, apparell, and all their manner of living, and had rejected the English lawes, and submitted themselves to the Irish, with whom they had made many marriages and alliances, which tended to the utter ruine and destruction of the commonwealth. Therefore, alliaunce by marriage, nurture of infants, and gossipred with the Irish, are by this statute made high treason.'

Curran seemed tenacious of this word, and we find him writing in 1803, from Paris, that he had refused to dine with lady Oxford, because he had bargained for a Cabriolet, to go and see his gossip in the valley Montmorency. [His god-son.]

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The biographer has truly said, that the magical effusions of his father's genius, are better known by the traditions of his contemporaries, than by the most faithful reports of his speeches. This holds still more true with respect to his reputation as a wit, wherein I am sorry to say, he has been mercilessly dealt with. I may be but an indifferent judge of that quality of the mind, but chance has made me acquainted with a number of those, who, in my days, have been most celebrated for it in various countries, and I have known none of any country, who had any pretensions to vie with Curran.....I am sure I have heard from him a hundred pleasant sallies in the course of one convivial day, the very meanest of which was preferable to the best I ever saw in print.

It is much to be regretted, that the Author was too young to have been the partaker, either of his father's convivial moments, or of his more serious thoughts during the epoch of his greatest celebrity. For since with borrowed materials he could form so fair a sketch, had he enjoyed those advantages, how true to life and na

a [Before Mr. Sampson had finished this preface, an account was received of his son's death at New-Orleans,-where he had established himself, and in a few months had become an object of general esteem and interest throughout the state, and where his loss was lamented as a public calamity. On enclosing the preface to the publisher, Mr. S. informs him, in a note, that his only son was no more-regrets that the writing should go in so imperfect a state-and adds, "I could not foresee, when I retraced the image of past days, and revived the cheerful recollections of his dawn of life, that this paper should be moistened with a father's tears."]

ture would his portrait then have been.....It is at any time difficult, if not impossible, by any disposition of the letters of the alphabet, to communicate the point and spirit, the look, the gesture, and the apropos, that altogether go to constitute the grace and beauty of things too fine for handling; things that can charm but once; things that emit one transient gleam, and like the meteor of the shooting star, vanish as soon as seen. If they are not entirely lost by tradition, the finer part is sure to escape, the grosser only can be retained. No doubt many of Curran's homelier jests had better have remained in vulgar tradition; they were not intended to be printed, but to please those who could take pleasure in them; for he disdained none of his fellow creatures, and loved to please them all. But strip these pleasantries of their mimic and scenic accompaniments, nay, even of the vernacular accent with which he could so humorously utter them, and set them in print with the formality of a jest book, to be read off with a cockney accent, and they will have as little charm as the broad Scotch in Tam o Chanter, or Old Mortality, if delivered through the same organ. And how many have I pitied, that from contracted prejudices, and want of travel in the intellect, were unable to suffer the sweet strains of Burns, and the delightful historic tales of Walter Scott, by reason of their Scotch vulgarity! Upon the whole, however, I think the author has shown his good sense in copying so few of those jokes into his biography, and in giving those few by the way of schedule annexed.

Much also has been said and written against Curran's bad taste; and alarm has been excited, as well in the eastern as the western hemisphere, least his followers should invade the privileged occupants of the hesperean gardens, and rob them of their golden fruits, which certain critics seem determined to watch like trusty dragons. I only hope they will at all times be as ready to unfurl their banners, and as faithful in guarding their favoured territory against every other invader. Bad taste is become a favourite phrase in the cant of modern criticism; the more ancient maxim was, "de gustibus non est disputandum." It would be well, however, if these literary mathematicians would agree upon their moral standard of faith, before they ostracise genius, and wit, and nature herself from the republic of letters. Where is their true standard, or their first meridian, of which we hear so much and know so little? Where is their archetype? their shekel of the sanctuary? Is it east or west of Temple bar? Is it in Pekin or Connecticut? Is their temple of Jupiter in Threadneedle-street or Paternoster-row? Is their standard formed from an arc of a great circle, or from the span of a literary dwarf?

Until these questions be answered, it is still open to the academicians to dispute, whether he who could sway the learned and

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