Had we space and leisure, we should gladly trace this eminent advocate through his professional career; but all that we can afford to do now is to present our readers with a few anecdotes, not, we believe, generally known. The following passage, relating to an attempt made on his life, will be read with interest. A stronger instance of early and determined wickedness is not to be found in the records of depravity. "In one of these excursions a very singular circumstance had almost rendered this the period of his biography. He was on a temporary visit to the neighbouring town of Sligo, and was one morning standing at his bed-room window, which overlooked the street, occupied, as he told me, in arranging his portmanteau, when he was stunned by the report of a blunderbuss in the very chamber with him; and the panes above his head were all shivered into atoms! He looked suddenly around in the greatest consternation. The room was full of smokethe blunderbuss on the floor just discharged -the door closed, and no human being but himself discoverable in the apartment! If this had happened in his rural retreat, it could readily have been reconciled through the medium of some offended spirit of the village mythology; but, as it was, he was in a populous town-in a civilized family amongst Christian doctrines, where the fairies had no power, and their gambols no currency; and, to crown all, a poor cobbler, into whose stall on the opposite side of the street the slugs had penetrated, hinted in no very equivocal terms, that the whole affair was a conspiracy against his life. It was by no means a pleasant addition to the chances of assassination, to.be loudly declaimed against by a crazed mechanic as an assassin himself. Day after day passed away without any solution of the mystery, when one evening, as the servants of the family were conversing round the fire on so miraculous an escape, a little urchin, not ten years old, was heard so to wonder how such an aim was missed, that a universal suspicion was immediately excited. He was alternately flogged and coaxed into a confession, which disclosed as much precocious and malignant premeditation as perhaps ever marked the annals of juvenile depravity. This little miscreant had received a box on the ear from Mr. Carran for some alleged misconduct a few days before; the Moor's blow did not sink deeper into a mind more furious for revenge, or more predisposed by nature for such deadly impressions. He was in the bed-room by mere chance, when Mr. Curran entered. He immediately hid himself in the curtains till he observed him too busy with his port manteau for observation. He then levelled at him the old blunderbuss which lay charg ed in the corner, the stiffness of whose trigger, too strong for his infant fingers, alone prevented the aim from which he confessed he had taken, and which had so nearly terminated the occupations of the cobbler. The door was a-jar, and mid the smoke and terror he easily slipped out without discove ry." Mr. Phillips has given us several instances of Curran's wit, and talent as a punster. We select a few: "Inquiring his master's age from a horse jockey's servant, he found it almost impossible to extract an answer. Come, come, friend-has he not lost his teeth? Do you think,' retorted the fellow, that I know his age as he does his horse's, by the mark of mouth? The laugh was against Curran, but he instantly recovered- You were very right not to try, friend; for you know your master's a great bite.'" "He was just rising to cross-examine a witness before a judge who could not comprehend any jest which was not written in black letter. Before he said a single word the witness began to laugh. What are you laughing at, friend-what are you laughing at? Let me tell you that a laugh without a joke is like-is like- Like what, Mr. Curran?' asked the Judge, imagining he was nonplussed-Just exactly, my Lord, like a contingent remainder without any particular estate to support it.' I am afraid none but my legal readers will understand the admirable felicity of the similitude, but it was quite to his Lordship's fancy, and rivalled with him all the wit that Rabelais ever scattered."" "Examining a country squire who disputed a collier's bill: Did he not give you the coals, friend?' He did, Sir, but -But what?-on your oath was n't your payment slack ?'" "It was thus that in some way or other he contrived to throw the witnesses off their centre, and he took care they seldom should recover it. My lard-my lard-vociferated the peasant witness, writhing under this mental excruciation- My lard my lard-I can't answer yon little gentleman, he's putting me in such a doldrum. A doldrum! Curran, what does he mean by a doldrum ? exclaimed Lord Avonmore. O my Lord, it's a very common complaint with persons of this description-it's merely a confusion of the head arising from a corruption of the heart." Mr. "To the bench he was at times quite as unceremonious; and if he thought himself reflected on or interfered with, had instant recourse either to ridicule or invective. There is a celebrated reply in circulation of Mr. Dunning to a remark of Lord Mansfield, who curtly exclaimed at one of his legal positions, O! if that be law, Mr. Dunning, I may burn my law books!'-Better read them, my Lord,' was the sarcastic and appropriate rejoinder. "In a different spirit, but with similar effect, was Mr. Curran's retort upon an Irish judge, quite as remarkable for his good humour and raillery as for his legal researches. He was addressing a jury on one of the state trials, in 1803, with his usual animation. The judge, whose political bias, if any a judge can have, was certainly supposed not to be favourable to the prisoner, shook his head in doubt or denial of one of the advocate's arguments. I see, gentlemen,' said Mr. Curran, I see the motion of his Lordship's head: common observers might imagine that implied a difference of opinion, but they would be mistaken-it is merely accidental -believe me, gentlemen, if you remain here many days, you will yourselves perceive, that when his Lordship shakes his head there's nothing in it!'" There is another anecdote related by his biographer which we cannot withhold. It evinces, in a very forcible manner, the independence of spirit which actuated Curran through his whole life, and which, perhaps, was never more conspicuously shown than while he was yet struggling with adversity. The individual who excited the rebuke was a Judge Robinson. "I have every reason, from Mr. Curran's own report, to believe the character given of this Robinson by the historian of the foregoing anecdote. If he does not affect the nostrils of posterity' in precisely the same manner which has been prophesied, with more strength than delicacy, of a worthy judicial predecessor, it is only because he will never reach them. Future ages, how ever, may very easily esteem him more highly than did his own generation. Indeed, it was currently reported, perhaps untruly, that he had risen to his rank by the publication of some political pamphlets, only remarkable for their senseless, slavish, and envenomed scurrility. This fellow, when poor Curran was struggling with adversity, and straining every nerve in one of his infant professional exertions, made a most unfeel ing effort to extinguish him he had declared, in combating some opinion of his adversary, that he had consulted all his law books, and could not find a single case in which the principle contended for, was established: I suspect, Sir,' said the heart. less blockhead, I suspect that your law library is rather contracted!!' so brutal a re mark applied from the bench to any young man of ordinary pretensions would infallibly have crushed him; but when any pressure was attempted upon Curran, he never failed to rise with redoubled elasticity; he eyed the judge for a moment in the most contemptuous silence: It is very true, my Lord, that I am poor, and the circumstance has certainly rather curtailed my library; my books are not numerous, but they are select, and I hope have been perused with proper dispositions; I have prepared myself for this high profession rather by the study of a few good books than by the composition of a great many bad ones. I am not ashamed of my poverty, but I should be of my wealth, could I stoop to acquire it by servility and corruption. If I rise not to rank, I shall at least be honest; and should I ever cease to be so, many an example shows me, that an ill-acquired elevation, by making me the more conspicuous, would only make me the more universally and the more notoriously contemptible.' Robinson looked all that his nature would allow him, rather astonished than abashed; but I could not learn that he ever after volunteered himself into a similar altercation." We shall conclude with the account of a Society, called "The Monks of the Screw," of which Curran was a distinguished member, and which comprehended the first characters of the age and country, with respect both to rank and talent. "It met on every Saturday, during the law term, in a large house in Kevin's-street, the property of the late Lord Tracton, and now converted into a Seneschal's Court! The furniture and regulations of their festive apartment were completely monkish, and they owed both their title and their foundation to an original society formed near New-Market, by Lord Avonmore; of which he drew up the rules in very quaint and comic monkish Latin verse. The rea der may have some idea of what a delightful intercourse this society must have afforded, when he hears that Flood, Grattan, Curran, Father O'Leary, Lord Charlemont, Judges Day, Chamberlain, and Metge; Bowes Daly, George Ogle, Lord Avonmore, Mr. Keller, and a whole host of such men, were amongst its members. Curran was installed Grand Prior of the order, and deputed to compose the charter song. I have often heard him repeat it at his own table in a droll kind of recitative, but it is a little too bacchanalian for publication. It began thus 1 When Saint Patrick our order created, And called us the Monks of the Screw, 2 But first he replenished his fountain 3 My children, be chaste till you're tempted Then be not a glass in the Convent, Saint Patrick, the tutelary idol of the country, was their patron saint; and his Lilliputian statue, mitred and crosiered, after having for years consecrated their monkish revels, was transferred to the convivial sideboard of the Priory. If that little statue was half as sensitive to the beams of wit, as the work of Memnon was to the sunbeam, how often would its immortal master have made it eloquent!" It is but justice to say, that Mr. Phillips appears to greater advantage in this, than in any of his former publications, He is evidently improved both in thought and diction. He appears to have discovered at length that something more than mere imagination is required in a writer, and that an eternal succession of tropes and metaphors is only calculated to produce satiety and disgust. The style of the present volume is generally strong, clear, and pointed. There are, unquestionably, many passages we could wish to see either expunged or altered; but the book, on the whole, shows so considerable an improvement in the essentials of good composition, that we cannot dismiss it without saying that we regard it as the forerunner of higher achievements, and as an evidence that Mr. Phillips has already begun to tread in the path that has conducted so many of his professional predecessors to the heights of a splendid and enduring fame. G. ART. 5. History of the British and Foreign Bible Society, Abridged. By a Mem ber of the Parent Society, and Citizen of the State of New-York. [Continued from vol. iii. page 388.] Earl of Stanhope and Mr. Wilson: the latter gentleman had qualified it for being advantageously employed in printing the Holy Scriptures, and having recently proposed it to the University of Cambridge, the Syndics of the press had concluded to adopt his process. A singular coincidence is remarkable in the point of time, at which the great operations of the Society were ready to commence, and the introduction of that mode of printing, which has become so powerful an engine in its service. In the spirit of that clause, in the second law of the constitution, which says, that the Society shall add its endeavours to those employed by other Societies for circulating the Scriptures through the British dominions, a communication was made by the President to the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge in Eng land, and the Association for discountenancing Vice, and Promoting the Knowledge and Practice of the Christian Religion in Ireland, accompanied with a plan of the Institution. By the Dublin Association, the proffered assistance was cheerfully embraced; and the demand for the Scriptures amongst the Irish was represented as daily increasing, and exceeding the means of the association to supply. A circular letter was also addressed to the parochial clergy, dissenting ministers, and other respectable individuals throughout the united kingdom; from many of whom assurances were received of the most ready and active co-operation. Whilst these measures, assisted by the zeal of individuals, greatly contributed to increase the Society's friends and supporters at home, the proposition before adverted to, led to the foundation of the first Foreign Bible Society at Nuremberg, on the 10th of May, 1804, accompanied by the warmest co-operation and expressions of gratitude to the generosity of England, by many individuals of piety and influence in that imperial city. And this auspicious event was shortly afterwards followed up by a determination to print there, 5000 copies of a Protestant New Testament. agement which operated so successfully at Nurenberg. But of all the communications from the European continent, that which excited the greatest admiration and surprise, was an address from a Roman Catholic clergyman in Suabia, replete with the most affectionate and liberal sentiments, and evincing an ardent desire, in the language of his letter, to co-operate “in sending forth the pure Word of God as the best teacher, into the world:" and disclaiming the idea, that the use of the Bible had ever been prohibited to Catholics. This was accompanied by an assurance, that the people became more and more desirous to possess the Bible, which there was an increasing disposition amongst the clergy, not only to tolerate, but commend. The excellent author of the letter, though he foresaw many difficulties in the attempt, professed his desire to set on foot a Bible Society amongst the Roman Catholics. This unexpected communication was received with the highest gratification, and hailed as the most favourable prognostic by the enlightened friends of the cause, particularly the venerable Bishop Porteous; and the committee immediately resolved to place 1900 copies of the Protestant New Testament, then printing at Nurenberg, at the disposal of this zealous correspondent, for distribution in Suabia and Bavaria. A warm approbation of the Society's motives, with intelligence relative to the versions of the Scriptures in the Wurtemberg library, amounting to more than The measures adopted for the supply of 4000, different editions of the Bible, or the United Kingdom with Bibles, in the parts of it, was returned from that quar- English and Welsh languages, were proter. In Sweden and Holland it appeared secuted with as much speed as the stereothere was an opinion (entertained indeed type process would admit. A translaby many respectable individuals with re- tion had been made of St John's Gospel spect to England) that no scarcity of the into the Mohawk language, by Norton, Scriptures existed; but, as a very oppo- one of the chiefs of the Six Nations, who site account was received from the Rev. had been established on a fine tract of Mr. Janicke, minister of the Protestant country in Upper Canada, with the paterBohemian congregation at Berlin, with nal views and policy on the part of the respect to the state of the population of British government, of introducing among Bohemia, and it appearing that a recent them, settled and agricultural habits. attempt to publish an edition of the Bo- The chief was at this time on a visit to hemian Bible had failed, from the want of England, principally with the view of obadequate means, a sum of 100%. was ten- taining a confirmation of the grant to his dered to promote the formation of a Bible countrymen. The Mohawks are the eldSociety at Berlin, similar to the encour-est of the Six Nations, or Iroquois, (whose languages are from the same root) and were the most distinguished and warlike tribe in North-America. Select portions of the Old and New Testament, and the entire Gospel of St. Mark, had been = translated for them by Captain Brant, who had previously directed the affairs of the colony; and the Gospel of St. Matthew also, and many chapters of the Old and New Testament, had been printed for their use, at the expense of the British government. The translator had prepared an affectionate and pious address to the Six Nations, as an accompaniment to his version; but the superintending sub= committee conceived it their duty to separate every thing extraneous from the Sacred Volume, as incompatible with a fundamental principle of the institution, which suffered no additional matter to be incorporated with the Bible. About the commencement of the year 1805, the foundation was laid of that Biblical Library of the Society, which has since become so considerable and importtant. It was a very natural desire to possess such copies as could be procured of all the existing versions of the Scriptures, that the Society might not be at a loss for a standard edition, or the means of collation, whenever they might be induced to print on their own account. In consequence it was determined that of every edition printed under their auspices, six copies should be lodged in the Society's depository. As an appeal was, at the same time, made to the public munificenceGranville Sharpe, Esq. presented the new =library with thirty-nine copies of the Ho=ly Scriptures, or portions of them in various languages, together with the Irish and Italiau versions of the English Liturgy. A very handsome acknowledgement was made for this valuable present by the President, in a letter to the truly estimable donor. A transaction at this time occurred which, instead of involving the credit of either of the two distinguished Societies established in England, for advancing the cause of Divine Truth, as in the spirit of controversy it was supposed, evinces ra ther their mutual utility in watching with a jealous eye over the purity of the Sacred Text, and stimulating each others exertions in the common cause. As it had been determined to print an edition of Welsh Bibles and Testaments, the Rev. Thomas Charles, of Bala, was employed as a person fully competent from his knowledge of the language, to prepare a copy for the press; but whilst the work was in progress at Cambridge, under the sanction of the University, to print from the Oxford copy of 1799, revised by Mr. Charles, a complaint was made by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, upon the authority of Mr. Roberts, a respectable clergyman who had superintended the Oxford edition of 1792, that improper alterations had been made by Mr. Charles, in the orthography of the Welsh Version. The Society, and its President, listened with promptitude and candour to the complaint, and steps had been taken to obtain the impartial decision of a Welsh scholar of acknowledged reputation, the Rev. Walter Davies, of Myford; when intelligence was received, that the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge had passed a resolution to print 20,000 Bibles from the edition of 1746, (by a subsequent resolution altered to that of 1752.) In consequence the Committee, desirous of preserving uniformity in the text, adopted the same standard. An attack was at this period made by a writer styling himself a Country Clergyman, on the heterogenous union of members of the Society as hostile to the established church, and calculated to propagate schism; aware of the mischievous influence of such apprehensions, the Episcopal patrons of the Society, with the President, formally examined the conduct of the Committee, and found every reason to be perfectly satisfied with their proceedings; Mr. Owen, therefore, at the request of the Bishop of London, published a letter in answer to the attack, styling himself a Suburban Clergyman. In the mean time, from several foreign and domestic communications, the affairs |