NOVELS AND NOVELISTS. 



Ill 



the personal malice of every man 

 in Ireland who was the known 

 enemy of the country. Without 

 the walls of the court of justice, my 

 character was pursued with the 

 most persevering slander; and with- 

 in those walls, though I was ,too 

 strong to be beaten down by any 

 judicial malignity, it was not so 

 with my clients; and my conse- 

 quent losses in professional income 

 have never been estimated at less, 

 as you have often heard, than thirty 

 thousand pounds." The incidents 

 attendant upon this disagreement 

 were at times ludicrous in the ex- 

 treme. One day, when it was 

 known that Curran was to make 

 an elaborate argument in chancery, 

 Lord Clare (the title of Fitzgibbon) 

 brought a large Newfoundland dog 

 upon the bench with him; and 

 during the progress of the argu- 

 ment, he lent his ear much more to 

 the dog than to the barrister. At 

 last the Chancellor seemed to lose 

 all regard to decency. He turned 

 himself quite aside, in the most 

 material part of the case, and began 

 in full court to fondle the animal. 

 Mr. Curran stopped short. " Go 

 on, go on, Mr. Curran," said Lord 



Clare. "O," replied Mr. Curran, 

 "I beg a thousand pardons, my 

 lord ; I really took it for granted 

 that your lordship was employed 

 in consultation." 



LIBERTY A PLANT. 



During the progress of a political 

 meeting held in the town of Cam- 

 bridge, it so happened that the late 

 Dr. Mansel, then public orator of the 

 University of Cambridge, but after- 

 wards master of Trinity College and 

 Bishop of Bristol, came to the place 

 of meeting just as Musgrave, the 

 well-known political tailor of his 

 day, was in the midst of a most 

 pathetic oration, and emphatically 

 repeating " Liberty, liberty, gentle- 

 men " he paused " Liberty is 



a plant " " So is a cabbage !" 



exclaimed the caustic Mansel, before 

 Musgrave had time to complete his 

 sentence, with so happy an allusion 

 to the trade of the tailor, that he 

 was silenced amid roars of laughter. 



Lord Bacon wrote in his will, "For 

 my name and memory, I leave it to 

 men's charitable speeches, and to 

 foreign nations, and the next ages." 



NOVELS AND NOYELISTS, 



SCOTT'S HABITS OP COMPOSITION. 



" To J. O. Lockhart, Esq. 



" Edinburgh, IGth February, 1833. 



"Sir, Having been for a few 

 days employed by Sir Walter Scott, 

 when he was finishing his Life of i 

 Bonaparte, to copy papers con- \ 

 nected with that work, and to write 

 occasionally to his dictation, it may ' 

 perhaps be in my power to men- 

 tion some circumstances relative to ' 

 Sir Walter's habits of composition, ! 

 which could not fall under the ob- ' 

 servation of any one except a per- I 

 son in the same situation with my- { 

 self, and which are therefore not I 



unlikely to pass altogether without 

 notice. 



" When, at Sir Walter's request, 

 I waited upon him to be informed 

 of the business in which he needed 

 my assistance, after stating it, he 

 asked me if I was an early riser, 

 and added that it would be no great 

 hardship for me, being a young 

 man, to attend him the next morn- 

 ing at six o'clock. I was punctual, 

 and found Sir Walter already busy 

 writing. He appointed my tasks, 

 and again sat down at his own desk. 

 We continued to write during the 

 regular work hours till six o'clock 

 in the evening, without interrnp- 



