curtail the mischievous faculty of a grave animal whose momentum lies, not in his agility, but his weight; not in the quantity of motion, but the quantity of his matter. There is another ground, on which you are called upon to give most liberal damages, and that has been laid by the unfeeling vanity of the defendant. This business has been marked by the most elaborate publicity. It is very clear that he has been allured by the glory of the chace, and not the value of the game. The poor object of his pursuit could be of no value to him, or he could not have so wantonly, and cruelly, and unnecessarily abused her. He might easily have kept this unhappy intercourse an unsuspected secret. Even if he wished for her elopement, he might easily have so contrived it, that the place of her retreat would be profoundly undiscoverable; yet, though even the expense, a point so tender to his delicate sensibility, of concealing, could not be a one fortieth of the cost of publishing her, his vanity decided him in favour of glory and publicity. By that election he has in fact put forward the Irish nation, and its character, so often and so variously calumniated, upon its trial before the tribunal of the empire; and your verdict will this day decide, whether an Irish jury can feel with justice, and spirit, upon a subject that involves conjugal affection and comfort, domestic honour and repose-the certainty of issue the weight of public opinion--the gilded and presumptuous criminality of overweening rank and station. I doubt not, but he is at this moment reclined on a silken sofa, anticipating that submissive and modest verdict, by which you will lean gently on his errors; and expecting from your patriotism, no doubt, that you will think again, and again, before you condemn any great portion of the immense revenue of a great absentee, to be detained in the nation that produced it, instead of being transmitted, as it ought, to be expended in the splendour of another country. He is now probably waiting for the arrival of the report of this day, which I understand, a famous note-taker has been sent hither to collect. (Let not the gentleman be disturbed.) Gentlemen, let me assure you, it is more, much more the trial of you, than of the noble marquis, of which this imported recorder is at this moment collecting the materials. His noble employer is now expecting a report to the following effect: "Such a day came on to be tried at Ennis, by a special jury, the cause of Charles Massy against the most noble, the marquis of Headfort. It

appeared, that the plaintiff's wife was young, beautiful, and captivating. The plaintiff himself, a person fond of this beautiful creature to distraction, and both doating on their child; but the noble marquis approached her, the plume of glory nodded on his head. Not the goddess Minerva, but the goddess Venus had lighted up his casque, "the fire that never tires-such as many a lady gay had been dazzled with before." At the first advance she trembled, at the second she struck to the redoubted son of Mars, and pupil of Venus. The jury saw it was not his fault; (it was an Irish jury;) they felt compassion for the tenderness of the mother's heart, and for the warmth of the lover's passion. The jury saw on the one side, a young, entertaining gallant, on the other, a beauteous creature, of charms irresistible. They recollected, that Jupiter had been always successful in his amours, although Vulcan had not always escaped some awkward accidents. The jury was composed of fathers, brothers, husbands -but they had not the vulgar jealousy, that views little things of that sort with rigour, and wishing to assimilate their country in every respect to England now that they are united to it, they, like English gentlemen, returned to their box with a verdict of six pence damages and six pence costs." Let this be sent to England. I promise you, your odious secret will not be kept better than that of the wretched Mrs. Massy. There is not a bawdy Chronicle in London, in which the epitaph which you would have written on yourselves will not be published, and our enemies will delight in the spectacle of our precocious depravity, in seeing that we can be rotten before we are ripe. I do not suppose it; I do not, cannot, will not believe it; I will not harrow up myself with the anticipated apprehension.

There is another consideration, gentlemen, which I think most imperiously demands even a vindictive award of exemplary damages-and that is the breach of hospitality. To us peculiarly does it belong to avenge the violation of its altar. The hospitality of other countries is a matter of necessity or convention, in savage nations of the first, in polished, of the latter; but the hospitality of an Irishman is not the running account of posted and and ledgered courtesies, as in other countries;-it springs like all his qualities, his faults, his virtues-directly from his heart. The heart of an Irishman is by nature bold, and he confides; it is tender, and he loves; it is gencrous, and he gives; it is social,

and he is hospitable. This sacrilegious intruder has profanec the religion of that sacred altar so elevated in our worship, sc precious to our devotion; and it is our privilege to avenge the crime. You must either pull down the altar, and abolish the worship, or you must preserve its sanctity undebased. There is no alternative between the universal exclusion of all mankind from your threshold, and the most rigorous punishment of him who is admitted and betrays. This defendant has been so trusted, has so betrayed, and you ought to make him a most signal example.

Gentlemen, I am the more disposed to feel the strongest indignation and abhorrence at this odious conduct of the defendant when I consider the deplorable condition to which he has reduced the plaintiff, and perhaps the still more deplorable one that he has in prospect before him. What a progress has he to travel through, before he can attain the peace and tranquillity which he has lost? How like the wounds of the body are those of the mind! how burning the fever! how painful the suppuration ! how slow, how hesitating, how relapsing the process to convalescence? Through what a variety of suffering, what new scenes and changes, must my unhappy client pass, ere he can reattain, should he ever re-attain, that health of soul of which he has been despoiled by the cold and deliberate machinations of this practised and gilded seducer? If, instead of drawing upon his incalculable wealth for a scanty retribution, you were to stop the progress of his despicable achievements by reducing him to actual poverty, you could not even so punish him beyond the scope of his offence, nor reprise the plaintiff beyond the measure of his suffering. Let me remind you, that in this action, the law not only empowers you, but that its policy commands you, to consider the public example, as well as the individual injury, when you adjust the amount of your verdict. I confess I am most anxious that you should acquit yourselves worthily upon this important occasion. I am addressing you as fathers, husbands, brothers. I am anxious that a feeling of those high relations should enter into, and give dignity to your verdict. But I confess, I feel a tenfold solicitude when I remember that I am addressing you as my countrymen, as Irishmen, whose characters as jurors, as gentlemen, must find either honour or degradation in the result of your decision. Small as must be the distributive

share of that national estimation, that can belong to so unimportant an individual as myself, yet I do own I am tremblingly solicitous for his fate. Perhaps it appears of more value to me, because it is embarked on the same bottom with yours; perhaps the community of peril, of common safety, or common wreck, gives a consequence to my share of the risque, which I could not be vain enough to give it, if it were not raised to it by that mutuality. But why stoop to think at all of myself, when I know that you, gentlemen of the jury, when I know that our country itself are my clients on this day, and must abide the alternative of honour, or of infamy, as you shall decide. But I will not despond, I will not dare to despond. I have every trust, and hope, and confidence in you. And to that hope I will add my most fervent prayer to the God of all truth and justice, that you may so decide, as to preserve to yourselves while you live, the most delightful of all recollections, that of acting justly, and to transmit to your children the most precious of all inheritances, the memory of your virtue.

SPEECH OF MR. CURRAN,

IN THE CAUSE OF THE KING AGAINST THE
HON. MR. JUSTICE JOHNSON,

IN THE COURT OF EXCHEQUER, DUBLIN, FEBRUARY 4TH, 1805.

An act of Parliament was passed in England in the year 1804, which received the royal assent on the 20th July that year, which was entitled, to be an act to render more easy the apprehending and bringing to trial, offenders escaping from one part of the united kingdom to the other, and also from one country to another.

The fourth section of which is as follows, on the construction of which section the argument in the court of exchequer arose :

And, for remedy of the like inconveniency by the escape into Ireland of persons guilty of crimes in England or Scotland respectively, be it further enacted, that, from and after the 1st day of August, 1804, if any person or persons, against whom a warrant shall be issued by any of the judges of his majesty's court of king's bench, or of the courts of great sessions in Wales, or any justice of oyer and terminer or goal delivery, or any justice or justices of the peace of any county, stewartry, riding, division, city, liberty, town, or place, within England or Scotland respectively, or other persons having authority to issue the same within England or Scotland respectively, for any crime or offence against the laws of England or Scotland respectively, shall escape, go into, reside, or be in any place of that part of the united kingdom called Ireland, it shall and may be lawful for any justice of the peace of the county or place in Ireland, whither or where such person or persons shall escape, go into, or reside, or be, to indorse his name on such warrant, which warrant so indorsed shall be a sufficient authority to the person or persons bringing such warrant, and to all persons to whom such warrant was originally directed, and also to all sheriff's officers constables, and other peace officers, of the county or place in Ireland where such warrant shall be so indorsed, to execute the said warrant in the county or place in Ireland where it is so indorsed, by apprehending the person or persons against whom such warrant may be granted, and to convey him, her, or them by the most direct way, into England or Scotland respectively, and before one of the justices of peace of the county or stewartry, in England or Scotland respectively, living near the place and in the county where he, she, or they shall arrive and land, which justice of peace is hereby authorized and required to proceed with regard to such person or persons as if such person or persons had been legally apprehended in the said county or stewartry of England or Scotland respectively.

MY LORDS,-It has fallen to my lot, either fortunately, or unfortunately, as the event may be, to rise as counsel for my client