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854 CURRAN very mirror of christian charity, could find time on some wet Sunday to go to his college chapel and hear himself preach, as the best antidote against the libellous asperity of his pen. When the new mint was erected on Tower Hill, at an enormous expense, the high price of the precious metals, and the existing prospects of the country, rendered the office of the moneyers for a considerable time perfecily sinecure. No gold or silver was brought to the coining press; milling was confined to the pugilists and corn-grinders, and paper usurped the post of cash. At this period the honourable Mr. Wellesley Pole was appointed master of the mint. Upon these circumstances, Curran, in a convivial circle, observed,-"I am glad to find an Irishman for once at the head of a money-making department; it may a additional scence for the Beggar's Opera. For Mat o'the mint, we shall have Pat o'the mint; and, as the new esta- blishment is likely to coin nothing but rags, there can be no want of bullion during the reign of beggary." It was not unfrequent for Mr. Curran, in some of his witty rencounters, to have his own repartees sent back upon him at second-hand, as originals, by a puny antagonist. On one of those occasions, an arrow of this sort, notori- ously his own, came whizzing upon him, and being à-propos to the occasion, excited a wince; but, bowing to his as- sailant, he replied,-"I have no objection to a scratch from any weapon of your own; but I deprecate the fate of that unlucky eagle who was pierced by a shaft plamed from his own wing." During the late administration of Mr. Fox in England Mr. George Ponsonby was appointed to the Irish chancery bench, and Mr.Curran, as has been said, through the friendly offices of that gentleman, was appointed to the mastership of the rolls. But this was a situation by no means con- genial to his taste or his habits. His eloquence, the ornament of his talents and the source of his elevation, was also the delight of his soul, and upon this he considered hs new office as a complete extinguisher. It