"It would be tedious and uninteresting to attempt a description of the civil-bill practice under this amiable barrister, who seemed to make it the study of his declining years to administer justice in the spirit of equality. In his endeavours he was often frustrated by the legal quibbles of petty attorneys, who quoted authorities to prove that an S with a tail was not the same as one without a flourish. His lordship, however, peremptorily refused to grant a dismiss on this account; and, lifting up his hands and eyes to heaven, he exclaimed, Well, really, the ingenuity of an attorney exceeds the conception of man!' "It is foreign from my object to describe the low wit that runs through court proceedings in Ireland: the spectators were in a roar of laughter during the greatest part of these melancholy displays of depravity. "There were one hundred and twenty-nine cases of assault, arising out of party quarrels in the neighbouring fairs and markets, between Orangemen and Catholics. To describe such scenes of ill-blood, prejudice, and perjury, would serve no good purpose. Both parties were wrong, and all were enemies to their own essential interests, while they thought their violence was serving their cause. In short, I returned to my humble home, from civil-bill practice, with a most disgusting satiety of the heartlessness which the profession of an attorney has a tendency to produce, and of the wretched state of the peasantry of Ireland. N. XII. FAMILY AFFAIRS. "The love of gold, that meanest rage, MOORE. "I HAVE often thought I never was quite so happy as when I accompanied my family from Dublin to the lodgings prepared for us by my father. When the coach stopped, he was at its door, and I in his arms in a moment. Then he handed my wife and little ones out so affectionately, and conducted them to the drawing-room! My poor dear afterwards told me, that he stopped at coming to the door, and looked at her earnestly, as though he wished for something. She suspected that it was a kiss, but being very modest and timid, she hesitated; and, I declare,' said she, I was glad when he took it.' My stepmother and sisters were inside to receive them: the meeting had all the appearance of affection and felicity. "In the course of the evening we were all seated round a cheerful fire, that sparkled like our countenances. My five children were intermixed with my three sisters, and really formed a group, upon which the pencil of an artist would have rested, whilst his delighted eye surveyed the charming whole. My eldest being a daughter, was just beginning to display considerable beauty; my father gazed upon her yellow hair and blue eyes with delight; whilst I dwelt with equal plea sure on the raven locks and dark eyes of my eldest sister present (for Mrs. had not been able to leave her own home); and my eye could have rested for ever on her open alabaster forehead, in which I traced the strong likeness of my grandmother. I had only one little boy, named after my father: the chubby rogue soon became such a favourite with grand-papa, that he took posses |