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a love of "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 my self with great ardor 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 can not contract the sight of his mind, as well as dilate and disperse it, wanteth a great faculty;" and, lest an exclusive adherence 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 key hole, suspected, as I afterward 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

* Irish barristers are compelled to "study" at the Temple, or some other Inn of Court, in London, besides eating half their term dinners at the Queen's Inn, Dublin. If an Irish barrister wish to practise at the English bar, he must first pass two years at a London Inn of Court, and pay the heavy stamp-duties and other charges-though he had already paid them in Dublin.-- M.

John Gale Jones was a notoriety-ia his way. He was born in 1771, and before he had reached the years of manhood, had declared himself enamored of French republican principles. Thence, until his death, in 1838, he was one of the boldest, ablest, and most constant speakers at political meetings in London. In 1810, he had arraigned the House of Commons at the bar of public

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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 occasionally 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, than 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 color of hanging us up on the foot of a contract made behind our backs." The Court opinion, and the Commons, instigated by the Government, committed him to Newgate, where he remained until the prorogation of Parliament, his liberation took place as a matter of course-neither branch of the Legislature having the power of awarding imprisonment beyond its own Session. He was tried, at Warwick, for sedition, and acquitted through the efforts of his counsel, Sir Samuel Romilly. I heard him speak in 1830, when he was fifty years' old, and even then, though his health was rather broken, he displayed much of the boldness, fluency, and eloquence, which had distinguished him in his prime. At the time I heard him, and until his death, his chief means of subsistence were what he obtained by speaking for payment in the political and other discussions which took place at the Rotunda in Blackfriars Road, the Cicernian Coffee House, and other debating societies in London. I remember that on one occasion, when I had ventured to present some matters of fact and figures of arithmetic against his beautiful flowers of rhetoric, Gale Jones condescended to admit that he had been mistuken, and to invite me from the body of the Rotunda, where I sat, as a spectator, to the platform where he and the other orators were placed. On my declining the invitation (thinking that the " post of honor is the private station," in such cases), he requested that I would drink his health, and sent round his own particular “pewter pot," out of which he begged that I would make the friendly libution !- M.

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. 1 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, Clarendon-street 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 Jooks a deep sense of rights 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 impracti

AN AGGREGATE MEETING.

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cable to force my way toward 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 Mohammedan 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 good-naturedly 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 congratulations. 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 con

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tributed to bring over a young deserter from the enemy's 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 sallied 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 news-hawkers, announcing that the morning papers contained "Young Counsellor ―'s grand and elegant speech."-" This," thought I, "is genuine fame," and I pushed on with a quickened pace toward the Hall.

On my entrance, the first person that caught my eye 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 sometimes 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,

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