Page:Biographia Hibernica volume 1.djvu/241

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BURGH official emolument, to the duty which he owed to his country. That country he loved even to enthusiasm. He moved the question of a free trade for Ireland, as the only measure that could then rescue this kingdom from total 230 decay. T he resolution was concise, energetic, and suc- cessful. He supported Mr. Grattan in all the motions which hnally laid prostrate the dominion of the British parliament over Ireland. When he did so, he was not unacquainted with the vindictive disposition of the English cabinet of that day, towards all who dared to maintain such propositions. One night, when he sat dowh after a most able, argumentative speech in favour of the jast rights of Ireland, he turned tó Mr. Grattan, "I have now," said he, "nor do I repent it, sealed the door against my ówn preferment; and I have made the fortune of the man pposite to me," naming a particular person who sat on the treasury bench He loved fame, he enjoyed the blaze of his own réputa- tion, and the most unclouded moments of his life were not those when bis exertions at the bar, or in the house of commons, failed to receive their accustomed and anple tribute of admiration; that, indeed, but rarely happened; he felt it at particular moments, during his connection with, the Buckinghanshire administration; nor did the general applause which he received counterbalance his temporary chagrin. He died at a time of life when his faculties, always prompt and discriminating, approximated, as it should seem, to their fullest perfection. On the bench, where he sat more than one year, he had sometimes lost sight of that wise precept which Lord Bacon lays down for the conduct of a judge towards an advocate at the bar. "You should not affect the opinion of poignancy and expedi- tion, by an impatient, and catching hearing of the coun- sellors at the bar" He seemed to be sensible of his Lord Bacon's speech to Jadge Hutton, on being made a judge of the Common Pleas