non, leading to the Luxembourg, as well as to the late "Chambre des Pairs," and the only street I remember that "sixty years since" had a flagged footpath, in that now embellished metropolis, he purchased and removed to his present residence, the Château de Bignon, near Nemours (Seine et Marne.) The produce of his property, sold here in 1834 or 1835, he invested in this purchase from the heirs of Mirabeau, who was born in that mansion, and not in Provence, as generally supposed, because the family estates were in that province, their original seat. The great orator's eloquent bursts still, I may say, resound in my ears, dazzling and entrancing my judgment, as Lord Chatham is reported similarly to have affected his hearers. Yet my old friend Vergniaud's genuine eloquence and reasoning powers struck me as far superior, as I can well believe that Chatham's son's were to those of his father. I have had the advantage, I may add, as a consolation of far advanced age, of having heard the most distinguished speakers of France and England, within the compass of sixty years. And, if I may be allowed the association, I can add that I have equally witnessed the performance of all the distinguished dramatic actors in both empires, during the same lengthened space.

Judging of Hamilton Rowan, who is next mentioned in the "Recollections," by a correspondence I had with him, I should infer, in contradiction to Napoleon's maxim, "that the heart should be in the head," that Rowan's head was in his heart, which so often made him the dupe of impostors. Benevolent and unsuspicious by nature, he was an easy prey to the artful and designing, I found,-more especially to females.

In August 1797, I heard the Mr. Lawless (so I believe,) alluded to at page 164, make a most violent revolutionary harangue at the Dublin Exchange, surrounded by Oliver Bond, (who was chairman,) and numerous other prominent members of the Irish rebellion. They were then, from my long foreign absence and prohibited national intercourse, wholly unknown to me, even by name, though subsequent events brought me in direct communication, not as an associate, but as a personal acquaintance with most of them. In justice to them, I am bound to assert that, excluding from my consideration all political aberrances, I found them almost universally men of honor and elevated feelings. This Mr. Lawless, originally a surgeon, as I have understood, and probably Mr. Rowan's companion in his knight-errant excursion, previously mentioned, afterwards sought refuge in France, where he rose to be a general officer, as mentioned by Lord Cloncurry in the same page. His distinguished conduct at Walcheren, during our unfortunate expedition there, in 1809, procured him the marked praise of Bernadotte, the future King of Sweden, then Commander-in-Chief in Holland. He has been sometimes confounded with another gentleman of the same name, though I believe no relative, who also removed to France, accompanied by his wife, a Miss Coppinger, not of the Cork distinguished family of that name, but from a Dublin branch; for so she told me. Their daughter was married to M. de Beausset, Napoleon's "Préfet du Palais," and nephew to the Cardinal Beausset, the biographer of Bossuet and Fénélon; but the union did not prove happy, and they so on separated. Her father had purchased and

cultivated a considerable tract of land near Carcassonne and Castelnaudary in Languedoc, or Département de l'Aude, which his widow was anxious to dispose of in 1828, but did not then succeed. Whether she has since, I know not. During the war of the Spanish Succession (1701-1714,) a Sir Patrick Lawless of the Irish Brigade, by a bold and dexterous exertion, forcibly transferred the person and services of the Duke of Medina-Celi, in whom were centered eleven Grandezas, from the cause of the Austrian claimant of the throne, to Philip of France, who finally obtained the Spanish crown. Was this determined officer of Lord Cloncurry's kindred, I would be glad to know? The details, in some degree, recall the audacious attempt of Blood, on the Duke of Ormond, in the reign of Charles II.*

The pages 176 to 179, refer to Mr. Wogan Browne, but omit all allusion to his literary habits, of which his library, sold after his death, (which happened several years anterior to the period assigned to it in the "Recollections,") afforded ample proof, unless

*The subjoined letter from the Rev. James Graves, Honorary Secretary of the Kilkenny Archeological Society, fully answers this enquiry— MY DEAR SIR,

Kilkenny, 12th November, 1850.

I have read, within these few days only, in the Gentleman's Magazine of July, your and the Editor's interesting communication on Lord Cloncurry's "Recollections"-In it, p. 51, you ask, was the gallant Sir Patrick Lawless of Lord Cloncurry's kindred? If you have not already discovered the clue, perhaps the following particulars regarding him, may interest you.

Walter Lawless of Talbot's-Inch, near Kilkenny, married Anne, daughter of James Bryan, Esq., of Jenkinstown, (whose will was proved the 13th November, 1671,) and had by her a son Patrick. Walter, who had served as High Sheriff of the County of Kilkenny, was an adherent of James II., and forfeited in consequence, 174 acres, "arable, meadow, and pasture" land; also a dwelling-house at Talbot's-Inch, described as "a pleasant seat, joyning the river Neor" (sic)-(Book of Sales of forfeited Estates.) His son Patrick

we apply to him Lady Craven's (or Margravine of Anspach's) not very decorous comparison of the possessor of unread books, to an original guardian of a seraglio, who, on his enfranchisement, ostentatiously keeps one himself. Not so, however, Mr. Browne; for he not only read but published. At his sale I bought a collection of old Italian tales, which, conjointly with Lord Clanbrassill and Colonel Stanley, he got printed by Edwards in 1790,-limited, however, to twenty-five copies, including two on vellum. The title is "Novelle otto rarissime, stampate a spese de' signori Giacomo, Conte di Clanbrassill, J. Stanley, e Wogan Browne." It is a slender quarto, and was distributed in presents. My copy was Browne's own; but at Count M'Carthy's sale at Paris in 1817, one of the vellum copies produced 598 francs, or nearly £26, though the vellum was by no means of fine texture. His residence is now the site of the Catholic College of Clongowes Wood, purchased after his death.

Lord Cloncurry, at page 255, reckons among the elite of his visitors at Lyons, his country seat, Richard Kirwan, the celebrated mineralogist, (rather than geologist, as characterised by his lordship.) I, too, had the advantage of his acquaintance, which

emigrated to Spain, where he distinguished himself, as you mention. There is, or was a connexion between the Kilkenny family, and the Cloncurry Lawlesses, which I think is given in most peerages, if my memory serves me well. The Bryan family, although also on King James' side, (James Bryan, the son of the above mentioned James, serving in James the Second's Parliament,) have retained their property and standing in the country, as also their religion, being still Roman Catholics. George Bryan, Esq., lately married to Elizabeth, daughter to the Marquis of Conningham, is connected with the Cloncurry family, through the Kilkenny Lawlesses, as pre-stated. I am, &c.,

JAMES ROCHE, Esq., J.P.

J. GRAVES, (Clerk.)

impressed me with a deep sense of his most extensive acquirements. Indeed, I have seldom seen them exceeded, even in the wide-spread circle of learned men, into whose society various circumstances have conduced to introduce me, at home and abroad. Amongst other personal anecdotes, he told me that on completing his collegiate studies, under the Jesuits at St. Omer's, when education was forbidden to Catholics in these kingdoms, he proceeded to Paris, where he was introduced by his cousin, the Chevalier D'Arcy, a member, though an Irishman, of the Academy of Sciences, to D'Alembert, then (about 1754,) the literary dictator of the French metropolis. (See p. 51, ante.) During the interview, Kirwan, with the unhesitating confidence of youth, applied some disparaging epithets to Bishop Berkeley's apparent paradox on the subject of matter, for which he was paternally, as he expressed it, reproved by D'Alembert,-" Beware, young man,” emphatically said the mathematician, "of passing precipitate judgment on what must necessarily be, now at least, beyond the reach of your understanding: a formidable adversary is your countryman, against whom, even in the maturity of my years, I should fearfully enter the lists; and assuredly it would require a riper intellect, and a more exercised pen, than you can now possess, to overthrow Berkeley's theory, however paradoxical it may strike you." He had been in frequent correspondence with Lavoisier, the father, in French conception, of modern chemistry, and certainly, with Guyton de Morveau and Berthollet, of its nomenclature, some of whose letters he showed me. Among them was one dated in 1793, written by Lavoisier's wife, as he happened to be peculiarly