kind. Add to all
this, that the gentleman was an Irish Attorney, and an Orangeman, and
the reader may easily suppose that he was 'a character!'

"Upon the occasion referred to, this gentleman gave repeated annoyance to
O'Connell--by interrupting him in the progress of the cause--by speaking
to the witnesses--and by interfering in a manner altogether improper,
and unwarranted by legal custom. But it was no easy matter to make the
combative attorney hold his peace--he, too, was an agitator in his own
fashion. In vain did the counsel engaged with O'Connell in the cause
sternly rebuke him; in vain did the judge admonish him to remain quiet;
up he would jump, interrupting the proceedings, hissing out his angry
remarks and vociferations with vehemence. While O'Connell was in the act
of pressing a most important question he jumped up again, undismayed,
solely for the purpose of interruption. O'Connell, losing all patience,
suddenly turned round, and, scowling at the disturber, shouted in a
voice of thunder--'Sit down, you audacious, snarling, pugnacious
ram-cat.' Scarcely had the words fallen from his lips, when roars of
laughter rang through the court. The judge himself laughed outright at
the happy and humorous description of the combative attorney, who, pale
with passion, gasped in inarticulate rage. The name of _ram-cat_ struck
to him through all his life."

HIS ENCOUNTER WITH BIDDY MORIARTY.

One of the drollest scenes of vituperation that O'Connell ever figured
in took place in the early part of his life. Not long after he was
called to the bar, his character and peculiar talents received rapid
recognition from all who were even casually acquainted with him. His
talent for vituperative language was perceived, and by some he was, even
in those days, considered matchless as a scold.

There was, however, at that time in Dublin, a certain woman, Biddy
Moriarty, who had a huckster's stall on one of the quays nearly opposite
the Four Courts. She was a virago of the first order, very able with her
fist, and still more formidable with her tongue. From one end of Dublin
to the other she was notorious for her powers of abuse, and even in the
provinces Mrs. Moriarty's language had passed into currency. The
dictionary of Dublin slang had been considerably enlarged by her, and
her voluble impudence had almost become proverbial. Some of O'Connell's
friends, however, thought that he could beat her at the use of her own
weapons. O