aronet of the same
name. "No, your Royal Highness," replied Moore; "I am the son of a
Dublin grocer." He commenced writing his immortal _Melodies_ in 1807,
soon after his marriage. But he by no means confined himself to such
subjects. With that keen sense of humour almost inseparable from, and
generally proportionate to, the most exquisite sensibility of feeling,
he caught the salient points of controversy in his day, and no doubt
contributed not a little to the obtaining of Catholic Emancipation by
the telling satires which he poured forth on its opposers. His
reflections, addresed to the _Quarterly Review_, who recommended an
increase of the Church Establishment as the grand panacea of Irish ills,
might not be an inappropriate subject of consideration at the present
moment. It commences thus:

"I'm quite of your mind: though these Pats cry aloud,
That they've got too much Church, tis all nonsense and stuff;
For Church is like love, of which Figaro vowed,
That even _too much_ of it's not quite enough."

Nor was his letter to the Duke of Newcastle, who was an obstinate
opposer of Catholic Emancipation, less witty, or less in point at the
present time, for the Lords would not emancipate, whatever the Commons
might do:

"While intellect, 'mongst high and low,
Is hastening on, they say,
Give me the dukes and lords, who go,
Like crabs, the other way."

Curran had been called to the bar a few years earlier. He was the son of
a poor farmer in the county of Cork, and won his way to fame solely by
the exercise of his extraordinary talent. Curran was a Protestant; but
he did not think it necessary, because he belonged to a religion which
professed liberty of conscience, to deny its exercise to every one but
those of his own sect. He first distinguished himself at a contested
election. Of his magnificent powers of oratory I shall say nothing,
partly because their fame is European, and partly because it would be
impossible to do justice to the subject in our limited space. His
terrible denunciations of the horrible crimes and cruelties of the
soldiers, who were sent to govern Ireland by force, for those who were
not wise enough or humane enough to govern it by justice--his scathing
denunciations of crown witnesses and informers, should be read at length
to be appreciated fully.[570]

Swift's career is also scarcely less known. He, too, was born in Dublin
of poor parents, in 1667. Alt