256 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1794. 



person who knew Lis natural turn, 

 which was that of an ur.conquera- 

 ble love of indolence and dissipa- 

 tion. ' The regularities of any pro- 

 fession were circles too confined fur 

 him, and the day that was passing 

 over him, was generally to decide: 

 Avhat he should do. With this 

 temper, instead of cultivating his 

 profession, he sought the recepta- 

 cles and convivialities of his coun- 

 trymen ; and as he was a good 

 scholar, abounded in anecdote, and 

 might, at that time, have imported 

 some of the agreeable manr.ei s of 

 the French, he found a ready chair 

 at several respectable tables in Dub- 

 Kn. 



About this time a doctor Lucas, 

 a man who afterwards was much 

 celebrated for his opposition to the 

 government of Ireland, started up, 

 and by those bold measures that 

 propose quick and sudden reforma- 

 tion of abuses, gained so much of 

 the popular attachment, that the 

 citizens of Dublin returned him as 

 one of their members in parlia- 

 ment. Another party opposed these 

 measures, and Hiffernan being con- 

 sidered as a young man of good 

 education ar.d lively parts, he un- 

 dertook to write against Lucas in a 

 periodica! paper, which was called 

 " The Tickler." 



It is seldom that the merit of this 

 species of writing outlives its ori- 

 ginal purpose. We have seen many 

 of those papers, which, however, 

 the doctor (as Hiffernan was usu- 

 ally called) n ight pride himself on, 

 possessed little else than personal 

 abuse, or contradictions of opposi- 

 tional statements. Now and then, 

 indeed, some ol the doctor's wh:m 

 appears, but it was of that kind 

 as must induce his best friends to 



transfer the laugh more to the man 

 than to his writings. 



♦' The Tickler," however, as a 

 party paper, made its way for some ' 

 tjnie, and procured at least* this ad- 

 vantage to the author (which he 

 unfortunately prized too higii^y 

 through life), of hving constantly 

 at private and public tables. An 

 author by profession at that time 

 of day in Ireland was no comm.cn 

 sight, and gained many admirers. 

 Tliose who l>ad their great oppo- 

 nent in politics periodically abused, 

 felt a gratification in the company 

 of their champion ; amongst these 

 he numbered many of the alder- 

 men of Dublin, and Hiffernan was 

 a man very well qualified to sit at 

 an alderman's table. 



If our author had the satisfaction 

 of being well-known and caressed 

 by his friends, he had at the same 

 time the misfortune of being equal- 

 ly known and hated by his ene- 

 mies ; and what was worse, his ene- 

 mies byfarout-numberedhis friends ; 

 in short, he became a mar]-.ed m.an, 

 and as he was one that gave an 

 improper licence to his tongue as 

 well as his pen, he met with se- 

 veral insults in coffee-houses and 

 public places. The doctor parried 

 this for some time; but as Lucas's 

 reputation carried all before it, and 

 as he was universally esteemed a 

 man of good intentions, Hiffernan 

 suffered additionally by comparison ; 

 so that being chased out of all pub- 

 he places, and, as he used to tell 

 himself, " ia some danger of his 

 life," he, by the advice of his friends, 

 airected his course to London, there 

 to try his inte as an author, " in 

 this general homeof the necessitous." 

 What year he came to London, 

 we cannot exactly ascertain, but it 



must, 



