1826.] Sketch from the Irish Bench. 485 
consequence, which like: the flickering light of an expiring taper, served 
only to form astronger contrast with the coming darkness.” He; indeed, 
had «fallen upon’ evil days;”—evil to his country, fatal to the prosperity 
of the people, fatal: to’-their morals, and fatal to their independence as 
a nation ; but to: those master spirits who could “ride the whirlwind and 
direct the storm,” they were days of honour and of ‘profit... To ‘them 
it was an easy matter, not only from the nettle danger, which choked 
the soil of their native land, to pluck the «“ flower safety,” but to gather 
to themselves lands and beeves and aristocratic distinctions, in direct 
proportion; as the lives and properties of others were more imminently in 
jeopardy ;/and ‘there were many belonging to that great body of which 
Mr. Toler was about to become a member, whose success shone forth 
as a beacon, to guide him on his way, and to teach him that, to the adepts 
in their school of philosophy, “ sweet are the uses of adversity.” At 
the period to which we allude, almost every barrister of note became a 
member of the House of Commons; and with a few, very few excep- 
tions, they rendered their vote the corrupt purchase of professional 
advancement. Jobbing was then at its acmé. Ministers had many 
services to require; parties ran high, opinion was awakened, not a voice 
was to be neglected; and what the government wanted urgently, it 
paid for with liberality. Such was the field in which a young barrister 
had to fight his way ; and into this field Mr. Toler descended, armed 
with strong volitions and rude health, a heart to which fear was a 
stranger, and a face which neither ridicule or reprehension could put 
out of countenance. With more readiness than preparation, with, at 
least.as much assurance as knowledge, if his acquaintance with Bacon 
and Bracton, were “less than might become” a lawyer, his intimacy 
with the weak side of human nature, and with Joe Miller, was. pro- 
found. . If he was weak in doctrine, he was strong in jest ; and conscious 
of the value-of gaining the laughers to his side, he left it to others to 
conyince a jury. He knew himself, and he knew his countrymen ; and 
he felt secure in addressing a mercurial people that a bon-mot would do 
more execution than a syllogism. ; 
The first. trophies; however, which the future chief-justice was des- 
tined to win, were not obtained in the law courts, but in the brilliant 
circles of fashion; where a tolerable person, popular manners, much 
constitutional good-humour, and above all the absence of that deep 
thought and fine feeling which mislead their possessor into thwarting 
the prejudices and denouncing the vices of society, rendered him wel- 
come to the céteries of both sexes. His incessant flow of animal 
spirits; his convivial pun, his humorous song, found a ready way to the 
hearts of those, who live only to be amused; and, if we are not misin- 
formed, the ability with which he performed and sung the part of Hecate, 
in Macbeth, for some fashionable patron of private theatricals, placed 
him at once at the head of the agreeable rattles of the day, and 
secured, his. supremacy among the good fellows of a society at all 
times proverbial for its taste for pleasure and for the vivacity of its 
_, But in;thus indulging a youthful taste for conviviality, Mr. Toler by 
no means lost sight of the main chance; and so cleverly did he play his 
cards, that he not only got himself into parliament, but he strengthened 
his interest there by procuring the return of his brother for one of the 
most unmanageable counties of Ireland, though that gentleman's for- 
