" That he always wore a sword ; that he walked every morning 

 early at a particular solitary place which he named; that if he met 

 any person there who seemed disposed to attack him, he would 

 show him whether he was competent to defend himself." Mr. Kir- 

 wan, like his deceased brother, was an accomplished swordsman, 

 but he heard no more from his antagonist. 



Amongst his peculiarities was one common enough amongst 

 scientific men ; he cared not how extensive his correspondence 

 was, so long as it was confined to his favourite pursuits. He wrote 

 letter after letter to Bergman, Scheele, Chaptal, Klaproth, and La- 

 voisier ; but he could not bring himself to correspond upon business, 

 and he discouraged others from writing to him. On one occasion, 

 when a letter from his brother absolutely required an answer, he be- 

 gan in the following manner: — " Dear Brother, I read over twice the 

 letter you mere pleased to send me, which to me, who hate reading 

 or writing on any business, was a very disgusting task," &c. 



Yet he was an excellent landlord, was liberal to his tenants, 

 and watchful of their interests ; his opinion being, that it was as 

 much his duty to transmit to his heirs a prosperous tenantry as an 

 unincumbered inhei-itance. As a tenant, nothing could exceed his 

 punctuality ; regularly, on each gale day, three distinct knocks at 

 his landlord's door announced that Mr. Kirwan had arrived with 

 the rent. The three distinct knocks were his constant method of 

 making his arrival known wherever he visited. 



In whatever could promote the branches of knowledge which he 

 cultivated, he was liberal, annually allocating a large sum for the 

 support of his well-appointed laboratory, and the supply of his 

 library, into which he admitted all the foreign and domestic jour- 

 nals. The Royal Irish Academy received a token of his regard in 

 the bequest of the philosophical part of his library. When he 

 was engaged in making observations on the climate of Ireland, he 

 gratuitously distributed no less than thirty barometers and thermo- 

 meters, made under his own inspection, to enable persons in dif- 

 ferent places to make observations. Such was the confidence 

 reposed in his predictions of the weather, founded on observation 

 of past seasons, that the farmers would, in many cases, not venture 

 to sow a crop without consulting him by letter; and such was the 



