life to be left unemployed: but, until the mind has received a certain full store of impressions through the memory, and until it has been well nourished with facts on which it may reason, I submit, if it be not a bad system of education to plunge the understanding into abstract and metaphysical researches. It is usual at the Scotch universities to encourage no intervening studies between Latin and Greek, and the mysteries of metaphysics. The consequence, I have remarked, was to make striplings, unacquainted with solid facts, employ themselves in straining after shadowy speculations, and in dogmatizing about the most doubtful things, whilst they were ignorant of the most unquestionable truths.

It might be inexpedient, as I have already acknowledged, to enact positive laws for the succession of classes which the students should enter; but indirect modes might be found of influencing the general course of studies, without interfering with the absolute liberty of the student. You might institute, for instance, such rigid examinations and such valuable prizes in the classes of natural philosophy and political economy and metaphysics, as would exclude persons from rashly entering them till they were fully prepared by mathematics for the study of physics, and by general knowledge for encountering the higher branches of moral science.

In general, perhaps, there would be found little difficulty in persuading persons choosing their own course of study, or shaping it for others, that the acquisition of languages and imitative accomplishments ought to form the first portion of their college studies; that historical facts, and the parts of science intermediate between its simplest elements and its abstruse researches, should be the next; and that the science of government, political economy, and metaphysics, should not be brought to exercise the mind till it has extensive knowledge on which it may argue, and a maturity of strength to save it from imbibing theories on gratuitous belief.

SKETCHES OF THE IRISH BAR.

Confessions of a Junior Barrister.

[MR. EDITOR,-The author of the Irish Bar Sketches seems of late to have suspended his labours; and should he resume them, I question whether it forms any part of his plan to take up the subject upon which I now propose to trouble the public. I trust, therefore, that he will not consider it an act of undue interference with his exclusive rights, if, pending his present silence, I solicit the attention of your readers to the following sketch of myself. It may be vanity on my part, but it does strike my humble judgment that the details I am about to submit, and I shall be candid even against myself, have an interest of their own, which will excuse their publication.]

My father was agent to an extensive absentee property in the south of Ireland. He was a Protestant, and respectably connected. It was even understood in the country, that a kind of Irish relationship subsisted between him and the distant proprietor whose rents he collected. Of this, however, I have some doubts; for, generally speaking, our aristocracy are extremely averse to trusting their money in the

hands of a poor relation. Besides this, I was more than once invited to dine with a leading member of the family when I was at the Temple, which would hardly have been the case, had he suspected on my part I was destined any dormant claim of kindred. Being an eldest son, This about thirty years ago was almost a from my birth for the Bar, matter of course with our secondary gentry. Among such persons it a young counwas at that time an object of great ambition to have " sellor" in the family. In itself it was a respectable thing-for who could tell what the " young counsellor" might not one day be? Then it kept off vexatious claims, and produced a general interested civility in the neighbourhood, under the expectation that whenever any little Yet to point of law might arise, the young counsellor's opinion might be had for nothing. Times have somewhat changed in this respect. this day the young counsellor who passes the law-vacations among his country-friends, finds (at least I have found it so) that the old feeling of reverence for the name is not yet extinct, and that his dicta upon the law of trespass and distress for rent are generally deferred to in his own county, unless when it happens to be the assizes'-time.

I passed through my school and college studies with great éclat. At the latter place, particularly towards the close of the course, I dedicated myself to all sorts of composition. I was also a constant speaker in the historical society, where I discovered, with no slight satisfaction, that In the cultivation of popular eloquence was decidedly my forte. this noble art, I adhered to no settled plan. Sometimes, in imitation of the ancients, I composed my address with great care, and delivered it from memory: at others I trusted for words (for I am naturally fluent) to the occasion; but, whether my speech was extemporaneous or At this period, and prepared, I always spoke on the side of freedom. for the two or three years that followed, my mind was filled with almost I was about to inconceivable enthusiasm for my future profession. enter it (I can call my own conscience to witness) from no sordid motives. As to money-matters I was independent; for my father, who was now no more, had left me a profit-rent of 300l. a year. No, Mr. Editor, but I had formed to my youthful fancy, an idea of the honours and duties of an advocate's career, founded upon the purest models of ancient and modern times. I pictured to myself the glorious occasions it would present of redressing private wrongs, of exposing and confounding the artful machinations of injustice; and should the political condition of my country require it, as in all probability it would, of emulating the illustrious men whose eloquence and courage had so often shielded the intended victim against the unconstitutional aggresIt was with these views, and not from a love of sions of the state. "paltry gold," that I was ambitious to assume the robe. With the confidence of youth and of a temperament not prone to despair, I felt an instinctive conviction that I was not assuming a task above my strength; but, notwithstanding my reliance upon my natural powers, I was indefatigable in aiding them by exercise and study against the occasions that were to render me famous in my generation. Deferring for the present (I was now at the Temple) a regular course of legal reading, I applied myself, with great ardour, to the acquirement of general knowledge. To enlarge my views, I went through the standard works on the theory of government and legislation. To familiarize

my understanding with subtle disquisitions, I plunged into metaphysics; for, as Ben Jonson somewhere says, "he that cannot contract the sight of his mind as well as dilate and disperse it, wanteth a great faculty;" and lest an exclusive adherance to such pursuits should have the effect of damping my popular sympathies, I duly relieved them by the most celebrated productions of imagination in prose and verse. Oratory was, of course, not neglected. I plied at Cicero and Demosthenes. I devoured every treatise on the art of rhetoric that fell in my way. When alone in my lodgings, I declaimed to myself so often and so loudly, that my landlady and her daughters, who sometimes listened through the keyholes, suspected, as I afterwards discovered, that I had lost my wits; but, as I paid my bills regularly, and appeared tolerably rational in other matters, they thought it most prudent to connive at my extravagances. During the last winter of my stay at the Temple, I took an active part, as Gale Jones, to his cost, sometimes found, in the debates of the British Forum, which had just been opened for the final settlement of all disputed points in politics and morals.

Such were the views and qualifications with which I came to the Irish Bar. It may appear somewhat singular, but so it was, that previous to the day of my call, I was never inside an Irish Court of Justice. When at the Temple, I had occasionaly attended the proceedings at Westminster Hall, where a common topic of remark among my fellow-students was the vast superiority of our Bar in grace of manner and classical propriety of diction. I had therefore no sooner received the congratulations of my friends on my admission, then I turned into one of the Courts to enjoy a first specimen of the forensic oratory of which I had heard so much. A young barrister of about twelve years standing was on his legs, and vehemently appealing to the court in the following words-"Your Lordships perceive that we stand here as our grandmother's administratrix de bonis non, and really, my Lords, it does humbly strike me that it would be a monstrous thing to say, that a party can now come in, in the very teeth of an Act of Parliament, and actually turn us round under colour of hanging us up on the foot of a contract made behind our backs." The Court admitted that the force of the observation was unanswerable, and granted his motion with costs. On inquiry, I found that the counsel was among the most rising men of the Junior Bar.

For the first three or four years little worth recording occurred. I continued my former studies, read, but without much care, a few elementary law-books, picked up a stray scrap of technical learning in the courts and the hall, and was now and then employed by the young attorneys from my own county as conducting counsel in a motion of course. At the outset I was rather mortified at the scantiness of my business, for I had calculated upon starting into immediate notice; but being easy in my circumstances, and finding so many others equally unemployed, I ceased to be impatient. With regard to my fame, however, it was otherwise. I had brought a fair stock of general reputation for ability and acquirement to the bar, but, having done nothing to increase it, I perceived, or fancied I perceived, that the estimation I had been held in was rapidly subsiding. This I could not endure— and as no widows or orphans seemed disposed to claim my protection, I determined upon giving the public a first proof of my powers

as the advocate of a still nobler cause. An aggregate meeting of the Catholics of Ireland was announced, and I prepared a speech to be delivered on their behalf. I communicated my design to no one, not even to O'Connell, who had often urged me to declare myself; but on the appointed day I attended at the place of meeting, Clarendonstreet Chapel. The spectacle was imposing. Upon a platform erected before the altar stood O'Connell and his staff. The chair which they surrounded had just been taken by the venerable Lord Fingal, whose presence alone would have conferred dignity upon any assembly. The galleries were thronged with Catholic beauties, looking so softly patriotic, that even Lord Liverpool would have forgiven in them the sin of a divided allegiance. The floor of the chapel was filled almost to suffocation with a miscellaneous populace, breathing from their looks a deep sense of right withheld, and standing on tiptoe and with ears erect to catch the sounds of comfort or hope which their leaders had to administer. Finding it impracticable to force my way towards the chair, I was obliged to ascend and occupy a place in the gallery. I must confess that I was not sorry for the disappointment; for in the first feeling of awe which the scene inspired, I found that my oratorical courage, which like natural courage "comes and goes," was rapidly "oozing out ;"-but as the business and the passions of the day proceeded; as the fire of national emotion lighted every eye, and exploded in simultaneous volleys of applause, all my apprehensions for myself were forgotten. Every fresh round of huzzas that rent the roof rekindled my ambition. I became impatient to be fanned for my own sake by the beautiful white handkerchiefs that waved around me, and stirred my blood like the visionary flags of the fabled Houris inviting the Mahommedan warrior to danger and to glory. O'Connell, who was speaking, spied me in the gallery. He perceived at once that I had a weight of oratory pressing upon my mind, and goodnaturedly resolved to quicken the delivery. Without naming me, he made an appeal to me under the character of "a liberal and enlightened young Protestant," which I well understood. This was conclusive, and he had no sooner sat down than I was on my legs. The sensation my unexpected appearance created was immense. I had scarcely said " My Lord, I rise"-when I was stopped short by cheers that lasted for some minutes. It was really delicious music, and was repeated at the close of almost every sentence of my speech. I shall not dwell upon the speech itself, as most of my readers must remember it, for it appeared the next day in the Dublin Journals (the best report was in the Freeman) and was copied into all the London opposition-papers except the Times. It is enough to say that the effect was on the whole tremendous. As soon as I had concluded, a special messenger was despatched to conduct me to the platform. On my arrival there I was covered with praises and congatulations. O'Connell was the warmest in the expression of his admiration. ;—yet I thought I could read in his eyes that there predominated over that feeling the secret triumph of the partisan, at having contributed to bring over a young deserter from the enemies camp. However, he took care that I should not go without my reward. He moved a special resolution of thanks "to his illustrious young friend," whom he described as "one of those rare and felicitous combinations of human excellence, in which the spirit of a Washington is embodied

with the genius of a Grattan." These were his very words, but my modesty was in no way pained at them, for I believed every syllable to be literally true.

I went home in a glorious intoxication of spirits. My success had surpassed my most sanguine expectations. I had now established a character for public speaking, which, independently of the general fame that would ensue, must inevitably lead to my retainer in every important case where the passions were to be moved, and, whenever the Whigs should come in, to a seat in the British Senate.

After a restless night, in which however, when I did sleep, I contrived to dream, at one time that I was at the head of my profession, at another that I was on the opposition-side of the House of Commons redressing Irish grievances, I sailied forth to the Courts to enjoy the impression which my display of the day before must have made there. On my way my ears were regaled by the cries of the newshawkers, announcing that the morning papers contained. "Young Counsellor's -'s grand and elegant speech." "This," thought I, "is genuine fame," and I pushed on with a quickened pace towards the Hall. On my entrance the first person that caught my eyes was my friend and fellow-student Dick We had been intimate at College, and inseparable at the Temple. Our tastes and tempers had been alike, and our political opinions the same, except that he some. times went far beyond me in his abstract enthusiasm for the rights of man. I was surprised, for our eyes met, that he did not rush to tender me his greetings. However I went up to him, and held out my hand in the usual cordial way. He took it, but in a very unusual way. The friendly pressure was no longer there. His countenance, which heretofore had glowed with warmth at my approach, was still and chilling. He made no allusion to my speech, but looking round, as if fearful of being observed, and muttering something about its being "Equity-day in the Exchequer," moved away. This was a modification of "genuine fame," for which I was quite unprepared. In my present elevation of spirits, however, I was rather perplexed than offended at the occurrence. I was willing to suspect that my friend must have found himself suddenly indisposed, or that, in spite of his better feelings, an access of involuntary envy might have overpowered him, or perhaps, poor fellow, some painful subject of a private nature might be pressing upon his mind, so as to cause this strange revolution in his manner. At the time I never adverted to the rumour that there was shortly to be a vacancy for a commissionership of bankrupts, nor had I been aware that his name as a candidate stood first on the Chancellor's list. He was appointed to the place a few days after, and the mystery of his coldness was explained. Yet I must do him the justice to say that he had no sooner attained his object than he showed symptoms of remorse for having shaken me off. He praised my speech, in a confidential way, to a mutual friend, and I forgave him, for one gets tired of being indignant, and to this day we converse with our old familiarity upon all subjects except the abstract rights of man. In the course of the morning I received many similar manifestations of homage to my genius from others of my Protestant colleagues. The young, who up to that time had sought my society.