of the army without being exposed to their fire, to be occupied by Blund :-assembly detached from Custom-house body.

LINES OF Defence. Beresford-street has six issues from Church-street, viz. Coleraine-street, King-street, Stirruplane, Mary's-lane, Pill-lane, and the Quay. These to be chained in the first instance by a body of chainmen ;[double chains and padlocks were were to be done in this form, doors marked. The block

deposited: they

and the sills of the

ade to be after

wards filled up; that on the Quay by bringing up the coaches from the stand, and oversetting them, together with the butchers' blocks from Ormond-market. The houses over the chains to be occupied with hand-grenades, pistols, and stones. Pikemen to parade in Beresford-street, to attack instantly any person that might penetrate; the number 200. Assembly, Smithfield depot, where were 800 pikes for reinforcements. The object was to force the troops to march towards the Castle, by the other side of the water, where the bulk of the preparations and men to receive them

were.

MERCHANTS' QUAY. In case the army, after passing the Old Bridge, marched that way, Wogan's house, and a Birmingham warehouse next to it, to be occupied with musquetry, grenades, and stones; also the Leather Crane at the other end of the Quay: a beam to be before the Crane, lying across the Quay, to be fired on the approach of the enemy's column. A body of pikemen in Winetavern-street instantly to rush out on them in front, another body in Cookstreet to do the same, by five lanes opening on their flank, and by Bridge-street in their rear. Another beam in Bridgestreet, in case of taking that route, and then the Cook-street body to rush out instantly in front, and the Quay on the flank N; there was also a chain higher up in Bridge-street, as well as diagonally across John-street, and across New Row, as these three issues led into the flank of the Thomasstreet line of defence, which it was intended only to leave open at the other flank, as it was intended to make them pass completely through the lines of defence. Wherever there were chains, the houses over them were occupied as above, and also such as commanded them in front. For this reason

the Birmingham warehouse, looking down Bridge-street, was to be occupied if necessary. There was also to be a rocketbattery at the Crane on the Quay, and another in Bridgestreet; the number of men 300. Assembly, Thomas-street; depot Castigan's Mill.

THOMAS-STREET. In case of coming by Queen's-bridge, a beam in Dirty-lane; main body of pikemen in Thomas-street to rush on them instantly on firing the beam. The body on Quay to attack in rear: in case of repulse, Catherine's church, Market-house, and two houses adjacent, that command that street, occupied with musquetry. Two rocket-batteries near Market-house, a beam before it, body of pikemen in Swift's alley, and that range, to rush on their flank, after the beam was fired through Thomas-court, Vicars-street, and three other issues: the corner houses of those issues to be occupied by stones and grenades; the entire of the other side of the street to be occupied with stones, &c.; the flank of this side to be protected by a chain at James's Gate, and Guinness's Drays, &c.: the rear of it to be protected from Cork-street, in case the officer there failed, by chains across Rainesford-street, Crilly's-yard, Meath-street, Ash-street, and Francis-street. The Quay body to co-operate by the issues before-mentioned (at the other side), the chains of which could be opened by us immediately. In case of further repulse, the houses at the corner of Cutpurse-row, commanding the lanes at each side of Market-house, the two houses in High-street, commanding that open, and the corner house of Castle-street, commanding Skinner-row, to be successively occupied. In case of final retreat, the routes to be three: Cork-street to Templeogue New-street, Rathfarnham, and Camden-street department. The bridges of the Liffey to be covered six feet deep with boards full of long nails bound down by two iron bars, with spikes eighteen inches long, driven through them into the pavement, to stop a column of cavalry or even infantry.

The whole of this plan was given up by me, for the want of means, except the Castle and lines of defence, for which I expected 300 Wexford men, 400 Kildare men, and 200 Wicklow, all of whom had fought before, to begin the surprises at this side of the water, and by the preparations for defence, so as to give time to the town to assemble. The

county of Dublin was also to act the instant it began; the number of Dublin people acquainted with it I understood to be about 3 or 4000. I expected 2000 to assemble at Castigan's Mill, the grand place of assembly. The evening before, the Wicklow men failed, through their officer. The Kildare men who were to act (particularly with me), came in, and at five o'clock went off again, from the canal harbour, on a report from two of their officers that Dublin would not act. In Dublin itself, it was given out, by some treacherous or cowardly persons, that it was postponed till Wednesday. The time of assembly was from six till nine: and at nine, instead of 2000, there were 80 men assembled; when we came to the Market-house they were diminished to eighteen or twenty. The Wexford men did assemble, I believe, to the amount promised on the Coal Quay; but 300 men, though they might be sufficient to begin on a sudden, were not so, when government had five hours notice by expresses from Kildare.

Add to this, the preparations were, from an unfortunate series of disappointments in money, unfinished, scarcely any blunderbusses bought up.

The man who was to turn the fuzes and rammers for the beams forgot them, and went off to Kildare to bring men, and did not return till the very day. The consequence was, that all the beams were not loaded, nor mounted with wheels, nor the train bags of course fastened on to explode them. From the explosion in Patrick-street, I lost the jointed pikes which were deposited there; and the day of action was fixed before this, and could not be changed.

I had no means for making up for their loss, but by the hollow beams full of pikes, which struck me three or four days before the 23d.

From the delays in getting the materials, they were not able to set about them till the day before; the whole of that day and the next, which ought to have been spent in arrangements, was obliged to be employed in work. Even this, from the confusion occasioned by men crowding into the depot from the country, was almost impossible.

The person who had the management of the depot mixed by accident the slow matches that was prepared with what was not, and all our labour went for nothing.

The fuzes for the grenades he had also laid by, where he forgot them, and could not find them in the crowd.

The cramp-irons could not be got in time from the smith's, to whom we could not communicate the necessity of despatch, and the scaling ladders were not finished (but one). Money came in at five o'clock, and the trusty men of the depot, who alone knew the town, were obliged to be sent out to buy up blunderbusses, for the people refused to act without some.

To change the day was impossible, for I expected the counties to act, and feared to lose the advantage of surprise.

The Kildare men were coming in for three days; and, after that, it was impossible to draw back. Had I another week, had I 1000l., had I 1000 men, I would have feared nothing. There was redundancy enough in any one part to have made up, if complete, for deficiency in the rest; but there was failure in all-plan, preparation, and men.

I would have given it the respectability of insurrection, but I did not wish uselessly to spill blood: I gave no signal for the rest, and they all escaped.

I arrived time enough in the country to prevent that part of it, which had already gone out with one of my men to disarm the neighbourhood, from proceeding. I found that, by a mistake of the messenger, Wicklow would not rise that night: I sent off to prevent it from doing so the next night, as it intended. It offered to rise even after the defeat, if I wished it, but I refused. Had it risen, Wexford would have done the same. It began to assemble, but its leader kept it back, till he knew the fate of Dublin. In the state Kildare was in, it would have done the same. licited by some of those who were with me to do so, but I constantly refused. The more remote counties did not rise, for want of money to send them the signal agreed on.

I was repeatedly so

I know how men without candour will pronounce on this failure, without knowing one of the circumstances that occasioned it. They will consider only that they predicted it; whether its failure was caused by chance, or by any of the grounds on which they made their prediction, they will not care; they will make no distinction between a prediction fulfilled and justified, they will make no compromise of errorsthey will not recollect that they predicted also that no system could be formed-that no secresy nor confidence could

be restored-that no preparations could be made-that no plan could be arranged-that no day could be fixed, without being instantly known at the Castle; that government only waited to let the conspiracy ripen, and crush it at their pleasure; and that on these grounds only they did predict its miscarriage. The very same men, that, after success, would have flattered, will now calumniate. The very same men, that would have made an offering of unlimited sagacity at the shrine of victory, will not now be content to take back that portion (that belongs of right to themselves, but would vio late the sanctuary of misfortune, and strip her of that covering that candour would have left her. R. E.

Shortly after Mr. Curran's death, several attestations to his character and powers appeared in the London newspapers. From these the two following are selected: the first, which appeared in The Morning Chronicle two days after his decease, was written by Mr. Godwin.

"MR. CURRAN is almost the last of that brilliant phalanx, the cotemporaries and fellow-labourers of Mr. Fox, in the cause of general liberty. Lord Erskine in this country, and Mr. Grattan in Ireland, still survive.

"Mr. Curran is one of those characters which the lover of human nature and its intellectual capacities delights to contemplate: he rose from nothing; he derived no aid from rank and fortune; he ascended by his own energies to an eminence which throws rank and fortune into comparative scorn. Mr. Curran was the great ornament of his time of the Irish bar, and in forensic eloquence has certainly never been exceeded in modern times. His rhetoric was the pure emanation of his spirit, a warming and lighting up of the soul, that poured conviction and astonishment on his hearers. It flashed in his eye, and revelled in the melodious and powerful accents of his voice. His thoughts almost always shaped themselves into imagery, and if his eloquence had any fault, it was that his images were too frequent; but they were at the same time so exquisitely beautiful, that he must have been a rigorous critic that could have determined