The life of the Right Honourable John Philpot Curran, late master of the rolls in Ireland

Front matter

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Chapter I

Mr. Curran's origin — His parents— Early education — Originally intended for the Church — Enters Trinity College — His ardour for the classics — Letter to Mr. Stack — Anecdote of ois Mother — Her Epitaph— While in College fixes on the Bar — Anecdote connected with the change of Profession — His character in College — Addicted to Metaphysics — Anecdote on the subject — Verses to Apjohn ." ; 1

Chapter II

Mr. Curran leaves College — Enters the Middle Temple — Letter to Mr. Weston — Letter to Mr. Keller — His first attempts in Oratory fail — His own account of the failure, and of his first success — A regular attendant at Debating Clubs — Anecdotes — His Poem on friendship — Dr. Creagh's character of him — Mr. Hudson's prediction- and friendship — His early manners and habits — Subject to constitutional melancholy — Letters from London — His society in London — Anecdote of his interview with Macklin — His early application and attainments — Favorite authors — Early attachment to the Irish peasantry — His marriage — Remarks upon the English Law IT

Chapter III

Mr. Curran called to the Irish Bar — Dissimilarities between that anri the English Bar — Causes of the Difference 68

Chapter IV

Mr. Curran's early success at the bar — His contest with Judge Robinson — His defence of a Romar. Catholic priest — His duel with Mr. St. Leger — Receives the dying benediction of the priest — Lord Avonmore's friendship — His character of Lora Avonmore — Monks of St. Patrick, and .ist of the original members — Anecdotes of Lord Avonmore — Mr. Curran's entrance into Parliamec' 69

Till CONTENTS.

Chapter V

the Irish Hou.ie Df Commons, in 17S3 — Sketch of the previous history of Ireland — Effects of the revolution of 1688 Catholic penal code — System of governing Ireland— Described by Mr. Curran — Intolerance and degradation of the Irish parliament — Change of system — Octennial bill — American revolution — I-s effects upor Ireland — The Irish volunteers — Described by Mr. Curran — Their nu-qbers, and infi^nce upon public measures — Irish revolution of 17S2 — Mr. Grattr ns public services — Observations upon the subsequent conduct of the Irish parliament 87

Chapter VI

blr. Blood s £ian of Parliamentary Reform— Mr. Curran's contest and duei with Mr. Fitzgibbon (afterwards Lord Clare) — Speech on Pensions — His professional success — Mode of life—Occasional verses — Visits "ranee — Letters from Dieppe ana Rouen — Anecdo'e — Letters from : aris — Anecdote — Letter from Mr. Boyse — Anecdote of Mr. Boyse — Letters from Holland 106

Chapter VII

H.is Majesty's illness— Communicated to the House of Commons — Mr. Curran's speech upon the Address — Regency question — Formation of the Irish Whig opposition — Mr. Curran's speech and motion upon the division of the boards of stamps and accounts — Answered by Sir Boyle Roche — Mr. Curran's reply — Correspondence ind duel with Major Hobart — Effects of Lord Clare's enmity — Alderman Howison's case 134

Chapter VIII

Btate of parties — Trial of Hamilton Rowan — Mr. Curran's fidelity to his party — Rev. William Jackson's Trial, Conviction, and Death — Remarks upon that Trial — Irish Informers — Irish Juries — The itfuenee of the times upon Mr. Curran's style of Oratory 166

Chapter IX

Catholic Emancipation — Mr. Curran moves an address to the Throne for a : inquiry into the state of the poor — Other Parliamentary questions — Mr. Ponsonby's plan of Reform rejected — Secession of Mr. Curran and his friends — Orr's trial — Finnerty's trial — Finney's Trial — The informer, James O'Brien 195

CONTENTS. U

Chapter X

Rebe.licc of 1798 — Its causes- Unpopular system of Government— Influence of the French revolution — Increased ntelllgence in Ireland — Reform societies — United Irishmen — Their views and proceedings — Apply for aid to France — Anecdote of -Theobald Wolfe Tone — Numbe/s of the United Irishmen — Condition of the peasantry and conduct

of the aristocracy — Measures of the Government — Public alarm — General insurrection , '. 234

Chapter XII

Trials of M'Cann, Byrne, and Oliver Bond — Reynolds the informer— -Lord Edward ~*'tzgerald — HL attainder — Mr. Curran's conduct upon the State Trials— Lord Kilwarden's friendship— Lines addressed by Mr. Curran to Lady Charlotte Rawdon — Theobald Wolfe Tone— His trial and death 293

Chapter XIII

Effects of the Legislative Union upon Mr. Curran's mind — Speech in Tandy's case — Speech in behalf of Hevey— Allusion in the latter to Mr. Godwin — Mutual friendship of Mr. Curran ind Mr. Godwin 818

Chapter XIV

Mr. Curran visits Paris — Letter to bis son — Insurrection of 1803 — Defence of Kirwan — Death of Lord Kilwarden — Intimacy of Mr. Robert Emmett in Mr. Curran's family, and its consequences— Letter from Mr. Emmett to Mr. Curran — Letter from the same to Mr. Richard Curran 338

Chapter XV

Mr. Currans domestic affairs — Forensic efforts — Appointed Ma=ter of the Rolls in Ireland — His literary projects— Letter to Mr. M'Nally— Account of r, Visit to Scotland in a letter to Miss Philr-ot— Letter .o Mr. Leslie — Letters to Mr. Hetheriugton 857

Chapter XVI

Mr. Curran is invited to stand for the borough of Newry— Speech to the electors— Letter to Sir J. Swinburne— Lettei on Irish affairs to H. R. H. the Duke of Sussex 8d^

a*

X CONTENTS.

Chapter XVII

Mr. Curran's health declines — Letters to Mr. Hetherington— Resignation c his judicial office — Letters from London to Mr. Lube — Letters from Paris to the same— His last illness and death 41"

Chapter XVIII

Observations on Mr. Curran's Eloquence — Objections to his Style considered — His habit* of preparation for Public Speaking — His Ideas of Popular Eloquence — Fis Pathos — Variety of his powers — His Imagination — Peculiarity of his Images — His use of Ridicule — Propensity to Metaphor — Irish eloquence — Its origin — Mr. Curran's and Burke's eloquence compared . . 46fi

Chapter XIX

Mr. Curran's skill in cross-examination — His general reading — nis conversation— His wit — Manuscript thoughts on various subjects — His manners — Person — Personal peculiarities — Conclusion t 49(5

Appendix

Anecdotes of Curran and his friends 511

LIFE OF

RIGHT HON. JOHN PHILPOT CUIIRAN.

Chapter I

Mr. Curran's origin — His parents —Early education — Originally intended for the Church — Enters Trinity College— Uis ardour for the classics — Letter to Mr. Stack — Anecdote of his Mother — Her Epitaph — While in College fixes on the Bar — Anecdote connected with the change of Profession — His -character in College — Addicted to Metaphysics — Anecdote on the subject — Verses to ApjoLn.

John Philpot Curran was born on the 24th day of July, 1750, at Newmarket, an obscure town of the county of Cork, in Ireland.* In several accounts that have been published of his origin and advancement, it has, by a general consent, been asserted that the one was very low and the other unassisted ; that he was the sole architect of his own fortune, and the sole collector of the materials which were to raise it; and lovers of the marvellous implicitly believed and repeated the assertion. Let not, however, the admirers of what is rare, be offended at being told, that, no matter how much praise may Le due to his personal merit (and the allowance unquestionably should not be scanty), a portion must still be given to the institutions of his country, and to those relatives and friends whose industry and protection placed him in a condition of sharing their advantages. It is of far more importance to the intellectual interests of men to diffuse a rational confidence in the

* Newmarket is eight miles distant from the dismantled castle of Kilcolman, where Spencer is said to have composed hi3 " Faery Queen." — M.

£ LIFE OF CUEKAN.

efficacy of instruction, than idly to excite their wonder, and perhaps their despair, by insinuating that there are persons who, by nature, are above it. It is not by hearing that the subject of the following pages was a heaven-taught, unaided genius, that others can be encouraged to emulate his mental excellencies, but by learning the real, and to him no less creditable fact, how he studied and struggled — what models he selected — what deficiencies he corrected- — by what steps he ascended ; to tell this is the duty of his biographer, and not to amaze his readers by uninstructive panegyric.

The lowness* of his origin has been much exaggerated. His father, James Curran, who has been represented as an unlettered peasant, was Seneschal of a manor court at Newmarketf It is confidently asserted, by those who knew him, that he possessed a mind and acquirements above his station; that he was familiar with the Greek and Roman classics, which he often cited in con-

* When Mr. Curran had risen to eminence, many tables of his pedigree were sent him, all of them varying, and the most of them, he conceived, too flattering to be authentic. Among his papers is the latest of these, tendered to hun while he was Master of the ' Rolls, and made out by a resident of his native place. In the paternal line it ascends no higher than his grandfather, who is stated to have been "a north-countryman, of the county Derry, from which, having met with disappointments, he came and settled in the county Cork :" it adds, that " his only son, Mr. Curran's father, was educated at a school in Newmarket, then kept by the Rev. Mr. Dallis, and afterwards by the Rev. Mr. Morduck, by whom he was considered the best Greek and Latin scholar in their school." In the maternal line, it presents a long list of ancestors, among whom are judges, bishops, and noblemen ; but Mr. Curran has marked his incredulity or fiis indifference by indorsing this paper with " Stemmata quid faciunt." Some other pedigrees derived his descent from the English family of Curwen in Cumber" and. — C [O'Regan, who was Curran's contemporary, and long on the most intimate ie.>. s vith him, says that the family was " of an English stock, transplanted from one of the northern counties, and encouraged to settle in that part of Ireland, under the protection of ths highly respectable family of the Allworth's, who retain considerable landed er*ates there to the present time, acquired after the fall of the Desmonds." Phillips says, that the paternal ancestor of the Curran family came over to Ireland one of Cromwell's soldiers, " and the most ardent patriot she ever had owed his origin to her most meruit ft and cruel plunderer !" — M.]

t The emoluments of the office v.-ef "try small. The Aldworth estates at Newmarket (formerly belonging to the Irish family or clan of the McAuliffes) consisted of 32,000 acres. As Seneschal, James Curran had jurisdiction to the value of forty shillings, and thus was — a Judge ! — M.

fits MOTirEH. 3

versation ; that he delighted in disputation, and excelled in it ; and, among his other favorite subjects of discussion, it is still remembered, that, after his son's return from college, the old man was frequently to be found in ardent contention with him upon the metaphysical doctrines of Locke.'*

His mother, whose maiden name was Philpot, belonged to a family well known and respected, and of which the descendants continue in the class of gentry. She was a woman of a strong original understanding, and of admitted superiority, in the circles where she moved.f In her latter years, the celebrity of her son rendered her an object of additional attention and scrutiny; and the favorers of the opinion that talent is hereditary, thought they could discover, in the bursts of irregular eloquence that escape her, the first visible gushing;* of the stream, which, expanding as it descended, at length attained a force and grandeur that incited the admirer to explore its source. This persuasion Mr. Curran himself always fondly cherished — " The only inheritance," he used to say, " that I could boast of from my poor father, was the very scanty one of an unattractive face and person like his own ; and if the world has ever attributed to me something more valuable than face or person, or than earthly wealth, it was that another and a dearer parent gave her child a portion from the treasure of her mind." He attributed much of his subsequent fortune to the early influence of such a mother ; and to his latest hour would dwell with grateful recollection upon the wise counsel, upon the lessons of honourable ambition, and of sober, masculine piety,

* Phillips says, " clu James Curran's education was pretty much in the ratio of his income." Thoc.^b Davis says that Curran's father had learned reading, writing, cyphering, and, 11 is said, some Greek and Latin. — M.

t " She was of gentle blood, and what is more to our purpose, she had a deep, fresh, womanly, irregular mind ; it was like the clear river [the Avenda'a] of her town, that came gushing and flashing and discoursing from the lonely mountains— from the outlaw's and the fairy's home — down to the village. She had, under an exalted piety, a waste of passions and traditions lying grand and gloomy in her soul, and thence, a bright, human love of her son, came pouring out on him, and making him grow green at her feet." — Davis.

* LIFE OF CURRANT.

which she enforced upon the minds of her children. She was not without her reward, she lived to see the dearest of them surpassing every presage, and accumulating public honors upon a name, which she, in her station, had adorned by her virtues.

John Philpot, the eldest of their sous,* having given very early indications of an excellent capacity, the Rev. Nathaniel Boyse, the resident clergyman at Newmarket, pleased with the boy, and moved by regard for his parents, received him into his house, and by his own persona] tuition initiated him in the rudiments of classical learning. This, his first acquired friend and instructor, had also the satisfaction of seeing all his care repaid by the rapidity with which its object ascended to distinction, and still moro by the unceasing gratitude with which he ever after remembered the patron of his childhood. Many of this gentleman's letters to him, written at a subsequent period, remain ; and it is not unpleasing to observe in them the striking revolution that a few years had effected in the fortunes of his pupil. In some of them the little villager, whom he had adopted, is seen exalted into a senator, and is solicited by his former protector to procure the enactment of a statute that might relieve himself and all of the clergy from the vexations of the tythelaws.

The rapid progress that he made under the Instructions of Mr. Boyse, and the fond predictions of his pares U, determined them to give their son, what has always been a prevailing object of parental ambition in Ireland, a learned education. It was also their wish, which he did not oppose at the time, that he should eventually enter the church. With this view he was soon transferred to the free-school of Middleton, upon which occasion his generous friend insisted upon resigning a particular ecclesiastical emolument (in value 10^. a year) for the purpose of partly defraying the expenses of his young favorite's studies.f He remained

* Mr. Curran had three brothers and a sister, all of who n. }-e survived.

+ O'Regan says that he was "transplanted" to the school of Middleton, by Mrs.

HIS CHILDJTCOD. 5

at this school until he had attained the preparatory knowledge of the Greek and Latin languages, which should capacitate him to become a student of Trinity College, Dublin. It may not be unworthy of remark, that the same seminary had, a few years before &ent iip to the capital the late Lord Avonmore, then commencing Ms career in circumstances, and with a success so resembling those of his future friend.*

The early history of eminent persons so generally contains some presaging tokens of the fortune that awaits them, that something of the kind may be expected here, yet Mr. Curran's childhood, if tradition can be credited, was- not marked by much prophetic originality .f At the first little school in the town of Newmarket to which he resorted, previous to his reception into Mr. Boyse's family, he used to say that he was noted for his simplicity, and was incessantly selected as the dupe and butt of his play-fellows. This, however, it would appear that he soon laid aside, for

Aldworth. In mature life, speaking of this lady, Curran said, " It is not to be wondered at, that she does not do all that is expected of her. To be enabled so to do, nature should have supplied her with three hands. It is impossible that, stintedly furnished as she is, she could accomplish the great purposes of her heart; she is not prepared for so enlarged a charity. Such in truth is her benevolence, that she would have occasion for the constant employment of three hands; but having only two, and these always engaged, one in holding the petition of the poor, the other in wiping away the tears which flow for their distresses ; and not having a third to put into her pocket for their relief, she is thus rendered incapable of administering to their wants; but still she is excellent, and her heart is bountiful." — M.

* Another of Curran's schoolfellows at Middleton, was Jeremiah Keller, subsequently well known as the witty and sardonic senior of the Munster bar. He presided, says Sheil, at their mess, "and ruled in all the autocracy of wit." Yelverton, afterwards Viscount Avonmore, and, for more than twenty-one years, Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer, in Ireland, was fourteen years older than Curran — which leads me to doubt their having been at school together, though, no doubt, both had been educated by the same master, Mr. Carey. Robert Day, afterwards one of the Irish Judges, and a friend of Grattan's, is also said to have been Curran's schoolfellow. — M.

t Thomas Davis, who was himself from that part of Ireland, honored by Curran's Dirth and pupilage, gathered up many recollections of his childood, which had floated down to these later times, on the current of tradition. He reports, from there, that Curran, at school, was " a vehement boy, fonder of fun than books." He describes him as being among the hills and the streams, his father's court, the fairs, markets, and merry-makings, and his mother's lap. He learned much passion and sharpness, ani 6ome vices, too. — M.

C LIFE OF CURRJlN".

a puppet-show having arrived in Newmarket, and Punch's prompter being takan suddenly ill, he, then a very little boy, volunteered to perform the sick man's duty, and seizing the opportunity, mercilessly satirized the reigning vices of the neighbours. This is almost the only exploit of his childhood that has been related.

He entered Trinity College as a sizer, in 1769, being then nineteen years old, an age at which the students of the present day have, for the most part, nearly completed their college course.* Here he studied the classical writings of antiquity with great ardour, and with eminent success. Nor did his enthusiastic admiration of them ever after subside. Amidst all the distractions of business and ambition, he was all his life returning with fresh delight to their perusal; and in the last journey that he ever took, Horace and Virgil were his travelling companions. He obtained a scholarship, and that his general scholastic attainments were not inconsiderable, may be inferred from his having commenced a course of reading for a fellowship,! but, deterred by the labor, or diverted by accident, he soon gave up the project.

When we reflect upon the lustre of his future career, it becomes a matter of natural curiosity to inquire how far his mind now began to indicate those qualities, by which it was to be subsequently so distinguished ; and upon this interesting subject there happened to be preserved some documents, principally a portion of his early correspondence and his first poetical attempts, from which a few occasional extracts shall be offered, for the purpose of giving some idea of the writer's juvenile habits and capacity. Whatever may be considered to be their intrinsic merit, several

* Curran entered Trinity College, Dublin, on the 16th June, 1769. The examination is a severe one, but Curran's answering must have been very good, as he obtained the second place at entrance. His Sizarship entitled him to free rooms and commons, at College. — M.

i O'Regun states that besides acquiring an intimate acquaintance with the Classics, Curran had made considerable advance in science, particularly in metaphysics and morality, while the purest modern classics in the English and French literature, became equally familiar to him. With the Bible he was familiar, and once said, " It would be a reproach not to eximine the merits of a work in which all mankind are so much engaged, and have taken so deep an interest." — M.

LETTER OF MR. STACK. 7

of them were at least written with considerable 2are, and may therefore be introduced as no unfair specimens of the progress of . his intellectual strength. To the student of eloquence their defects will not be without instruction, if thev inspire him with a reliance upon that labor and cultivation, which alone conduct to excellence.

One of the most intimate friends of Mr. Curran's youth, and of his riper years, was the late Rev. Richard Stack, his contemporary at Trinity College, and since a fellow of that University.* The following is a formal letter of consolation to that gentleman upon the death of a brother. The writer had just completed his 20th year, and appears to have been so pleased with his performance, that no less than three transcripts of it remain in his own hand writing.

" Dublin, August 20, 1770.

" Dear Dick.

"I am sorry to find by your letter (which I have just now received), that you judge my silence for some time past with so much more severity than it deserves. Can my friend suspect me of being unconcerned at his sorroAvs ? I would have svrote to you on hearing from Vincent of his late mi fortune, but that I was unwilling to press a subject upon your thoughts which you should take every means of avoiding. To offer consolation to a man of sense, upon the first stroke of affliction, is perhaps one of the most cruel offices that friendship can be betrayed, into. All the fine things that can be addressed to the fancy will have but small effect in removing a distemper fixed in the heart. Time and reflection only can cure thru.; and happy is it for us that in this chequered scene, where everything feels perpetual decay, and seems created only for dissolution, our sorrows cannot boast of exemption from the common fate. Time, though he sometimes tears up our happiness by the roots, yet, to make amends for that,

* Mr. Stack wrote a Treatise oj Optics, long a College Text-book. — J(.

S LIFE OF CUREAN.

kindly holds out a remedy for our afflictions; and though he violently breaks our dearest connexions, yet he is continually teaching us to be prepared for the blow. 'Tis true, nature on these occasions will weep, but, my dear Dick, reason and reflection should wipe away these tears. A few years may see us numbered with those whom we now regret, or wifl give us cause to congratulate those whore happy lot it was, by an early retreat from this scene of misery and disappointment, to escape those troubles which their survivors are reserved to suffer. 'Tis true, the inattention of youth will leave the great account more unsettled than might be wished; but at this age, we have everything to plead for that defect — the violence of passions, want of reason to moderate them. Faults, no doubt we have, but they are the faults of youth, of inexperience ; not a course of wickedness riveted by habit, and aggravated by obdurate perseverance, which (heaven help us) in a length of years they may become ; but, above all, that Being who is pleased to call us so suddenly from hence, has mercy and compassion to make allowance for these involuntary omissions. But I find I have fallen unawares upon a theme which I had no intention to pursue so far, as I was persuaded your own good sense would suggest much stronger reasons for your consolation than I could.

At the date of this letter, the writer, if he looked forward to fame, expected to find it in the pulpit ; but this, and a short religious discourse, are all that remain of his early compositions, which, from the style, would uppear to ba written with a view to his first destination. Mr. Stack, however, entertained so very high an opinion of his talents for the solemn ej v^uence of the church, that being appointed a few years after (HISS to preach before the judges of assize at Cork, and being anxicus that his matter should be worthy of his auditors, he entreated of his young friend, who was then upon the spot, and going h'.s first circuit, to compose a sermon for the occasion. Mr. Curran complied ; and his produc-

Tribute to his mother. 9

tion excited such general admiration, that his mother, in anewei to the congratulations of the neighbourhood upon so flattering a proof of her son's abilities, could not avoid tempering her maternal exultation with Christian regret, and exclaiming — "Oh, yes, it was very fine ; but it breaks my heart to think what a noble preacher was lost to the church when John disappointed us all, and insisted on becoming a lawyer." All his subsequent success and celebrity at the bar could never completely reconcile her to the change ; and in her latter years, when her friends, to gratify and console her, used to remind her that she had lived to see her favorite child one of the judges of the land, she would still reply — - " Don't speak to me of judges — John was fit for anything ; and had he but followed our advice, it might hereafter be written upon my tomb, that I had died the mother of a bishop."

This excellent and pious woman died about the year 1783, at the advanced age of eighty. It is not written upon her tomb that she died the mother of a bishop or of a judge; but there is to be seen upon it an attestation to her worth from the son who was her pride, which, as long as virtue and filial gratitude are preferred to the glare of worldly dignities, will be considered as an epitaph no less honorable both to the parent and the child.*

It was during the second year of his college studies that he fixed on the profession of the law. In his original intention of taking orders he had been influenced by the wishes of his friends,

* Her remains lie in the churchyard of Newmarket; over thirr is the following epitaph, wr .ten by Mr. Curran :

HERE LIES THE BODY OP

SARAH C* RRAN.

She was marked by

Many Years,

Many Talents,

Many Virtues,

Few Failings,

No Crime.

This frail memorial was placed here by a

Son

Whom she loved,

I*

10 LIFE OF CTJRRAtf.

and by the promise of a small living in the gift of a distant relative, and probably still more stu-ngly by a habitual preference for the calling to which his early patron belonged ; but his ambition soon overrule 1 all these motives, and he selected the bar as more suited to his temperament and talents. According to his own account, it was the following incident that suggested the first idea of a change in his destination.

He had committed some breach of the college regulations, for which he was sentenced by the Censor, Dr. Patrick Duigenan, either to pay a fine of five shillings, or translate into Latin a number of the Spectator. He found it more convenient to accept the latter alternative; but, on the appointed day, the exercise was not ready, and some unsatisfactory excuse was assigned. Against the second offence a heavier penalty was denounced — he was condemned to pronounce a Latin oration in laudem decori from the pulpit in the college chapel. He no longer thought of evading his sentence, and accordingly prepared the panegyric ; but when he came to recite it, he had not proceeded far before it was found to contain a mock model of ideal perfection, which the Doctor instantly recognized to be a glaring satire upon himself. As soon, therefore, as the young orator had concluded, and descended from his station, he was summoned before the Provost and Fellows to account for his behaviour. Doctor Duigenan was not very popular, and the Provost was secretly not displeased at any circumstance that could mortify him. He, therefore, merely went through the form of calling upon the offender for an explanation, and listening with indulgence to the ingenuity with which he attempted to soften down the libel, dismissed him with a slight reproof. When Mr. Curran returned among his companions, they surrounded him to hear the particulars of his acquittal. He reported to them all that he had said, " and all that he had not said, but that he might have said ;" and impressed them with so high an idea of his legal dexterity that they declared, by common acclamation, that the bar, and the bar alone, was the proper pro-