recorded of him, that no man did the honours of the table with more gentlemanly ease and politeness.
Mr. Pelham, who was highly delighted with his style of acting, once invited himself to sup with him, but the profusion of elegant dishes, with the choicest and dearest wines which Barry provided for him, so displeased the statesman, that he never gave him another opportunity of exposing his want of judgment.
This gentleman, besides the splendour of his dramatic talents, possessed, in a very eminent degree, the fascinating powers of polite address and persuasive insinuation. At no period of its history could the Dublin stage boast so powerful a combination of talents as when under the direction of Mr. Barry: and although the salaries of the very best actors in that day bore no sort of comparison to that of very inferior talents in this, yet his receipts were frequently inadequate to his expenditures, and he was, in consequence of that and his style of living, constantly embarrassed. He had, of course, a crowded levy of importunate claimants; but no man ever possessed more eminently the power of soothing, that "horrible monster, hated of gods and men"—a dun. For though most of them were sent empty away, none departed with an aching heart; for he adorned his impunctualities with such witching politeness, and so many satisfactory reasons, and cherished hopes with such encouraging prospects, as reconciled disappointments, and silenced the most rude and determined importunacy. Numberless are the instances related of his management in this respect. One or two specimens may serve to illustrate his talents.
His stage tailor at Dublin had agreed, in order to secure to himself all the profits of his contract, to furnish materials as well as workmanship; but the manager, in process of time, had got so deeply into his books, as to expose him to much embarrassment from his own creditors. Unwilling to offend so good a customer, the man had worn out all patience in the humilities of civil request and pres-
