ming (or affecting to become) exhausted, he held his handkerchief to his face: a dead silence ensued he had skill to perceive the precise moment to recommence-another blaze of declamation burst upon the congregation, and another fit of exhaustion was succeeded by another pause. The men began to wonder at his eloquence, the women grew nervous at his denunciations. His tact rivalled his talent; and, at the conclusion of one of his finest sentences, a "celestial exhaustion" (as I heard a lady call it,) not, unfrequently terminated his discourse-in general, abruptly. If the subject was charity, every purse was laid largely under contribution. In the church of St. Peter's, where he preached an annual charity sermon, the usual collection, which had been under £200, was raised by the Dean to £1,100. I knew a gentleman myself, who threw both his purse and watch into the plate!

Yet the oratory of this celebrated preacher would have answered in no other profession than his own, and served to complete my idea of the true distinction between pulpit, bar, and parliamentary eloquence. Kirwan in the pulpit, Curran at the bar, and Sheridan in the senate,were the three most effective orators I ever recollect, in their respective departments.

Kirwan's talents seemed to me to be limited

entirely to elocution. I had much intercourse with him at the house of Mr. Hely, of Tooke'scourt. Whilst residing in Dublin, I met him at a variety of places; and my overwrought expectations, in fact, were a good deal disappointed. His style of address had nothing engaging in it; nothing either dignified or graceful. In his conversation there was neither sameness nor variety-ignorance nor information; and yet, somehow or other, he avoided insipidity. His amour propre was the most prominent of his superficial qualities; and a bold, manly independence of mind and feeling, the most obvious of his deeper ones. I believe he was a good man, if he could not be termed a very amiable one; and learned, although niggardly in communicating what he knew.

I have remarked thus at large upon Dean Kirwan, because he was by far the most eloquent and effective pulpit orator I ever heard, and because I never met any man whose character I felt myself more at a loss accurately to pronounce upon. It has been said, that his sermons were adroitly extracted from passages in the celebrated discourses of Saurin, the Huguenot, who preached at the Hague (grandfather to the late attorney-general of Ireland). It may be so; and in that case all I can say is, that Kirwan was a most judicious selector, and

that I doubt if the eloquent writer made a hundredth part of the impression of his eloquent plagiarist.

I should myself be the plagiarist of a hundred writers, if I attempted to descant upon the parliamentary eloquence of Sheridan. It only

seems necessary to refer to his speech on Mr. Hastings's trial;* at least, that is sufficient to decide me as to his immense superiority over all his rivals in splendid declamation. Most great men have their individual points of superiority, and I am sure that Sheridan could not have preached, nor Kirwan have pleaded. Curran could have done both-Grattan neither :but, in language calculated to rouse a nation, Grattan, whilst young, far exceeded either of

them.

I have often met Sheridan, but never knew

* I had an opportunity of knowing that Mr. Sheridan was offered £1000 for that speech by a bookseller, the day after it was spoken, provided he would write it out correctly from the notes taken, before the interest had subsided; and yet, although he certainly had occasion for money at the time, and assented to the proposal, he did not take the trouble of writing a line of it! The publisher was of course displeased, and insisted on his performing his promise: upon which Sheridan laughingly replied in the vein of Falstaff:-" No, Hal!—were I at the strappado, I would do nothing by compulsion!" He did it at length-but too late! and, as I heard, was (reasonably enough!) not paid.

him intimately. He was my senior and my superior. Whilst he was in high repute, I was at laborious duties: whilst he was eclipsing every body in fame in one country, I was labouring hard to gain any in another. He professed whiggism: I did not understand it, and I have met very few. patriots who appear to have acted even on their own definition thereof.

QUEEN CAROLINE.

Reception of the late Queen Caroline (then Princess of Wales) at the drawing-room held after the "Delicate Investigation"-Her depression and subsequent levity-Queen Charlotte and the Princess compared and contrasted-Reflections on the incidents of that day and evening-The Thames on a Vauxhall night.

I HAVE often mused on the unfortunate history and fate of the late Queen Caroline. It is not for me to discuss the merits or demerits of her case, or to give any opinion on the conduct of the ruling powers in the business. I shall only observe, that though it was not possible to foresee such events as subsequently took place, I had, from the time of my being presented to that Princess by Lord Stowell, felt an unaccountable presentiment that her destiny would not be a happy one.

Upon the close of the "delicate investigation," a drawing-room of the most brilliant description was held at St. James's, to witness the Princess's reception by Her Majesty, Queen Charlotte.