CURRAN. 3s9 to in illustration of the opinion of this judicious critic, judgment is bewildered amid the infinite variety of beau- ties. To quote every excellence would be almost to transcribe them entire. They are like portions of a splen- did and masterly picture, each a part of one great whole, and all designed to reflect, and set off the characters and beauties of each other. It is in fact like picking brilliants from their tasteful settings, where their juxta-position doubles their splendour; or taking detached features and members from the Medicean Venus, or the Farnese Her- cules, to give adequate notions of the beauty, or the strength which the entire statues can alone conyey. We have ventured to cite some passages, without, however, presuming to say they are the best,-and we refer the reader to the last edition of the Speeches themselves for the full enjoyment of all their excellence. n the trial of Major Sirr, upon an action for assault and false imprisonment on a Mr. Hevey, one of the nume- rous circumstances of wanton atrocity distinctive of the period, Mr. Curran gives this statement of the transac- tion:-"On the 8th of September last, Mr. Hevey was sitting in a public coffee-house, Major Sirr was there. Mr. Hevey was informed that the major had at that mo- ment said, he (Hevey) ought to have been hanged. The plaintiff was fired at the charge; he fixed his eye on Sirr, and asked if he had dared to say so Sirr declared that he had, and said it truly. Hevey answered that he was a slanderous scoundrel. At the instant, Sirr rushed upon him, and, assisted by three or four of his satellites, who had attended him in disguise, secured him and sent him to the castle guard, desiring that a receipt might be given for the villain.-He was sent thither.-The officer of the guard chanced to be an Englishman but lately arrived in Ireland; he said to the constable, 'If this was in England, I should think this gentleman entitled to bail. But I don't know the laws of this country; however, I think you had better loosen those irons upon his wrists, or they may kill him.
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