t they would be mistaken; it is merely
accidental. Believe me, gentlemen, if you remain here many days, you
will yourselves perceive that when his lordship shakes his head, there's
_nothing in it_!"

Curran was one day engaged in a case in which he had for a junior a
remarkably tall and slender gentleman, who had been originally intended
to take orders. The judge observing that the case under discussion
involved a question of ecclesiastical law, Curran interposed with: "I
refer your lordship to a high authority behind me, who was once intended
for the Church, though in my opinion he was fitter for the steeple."

He was one day walking with a friend, who, hearing a person say
"curosity" for "curiosity," exclaimed: "How that man murders the English
language!"--"Not so bad as that," replied Curran. "He has only knocked
an 'i' out."

Curran never joined the hunt, except once, not far from Dublin. His
horse joined very keenly in the sport, but the horseman was inwardly
hoping all the while that the dogs would not find. In the midst of his
career, the hounds broke into a potato field of a wealthy land-agent,
who happened to have been severely cross-examined by Curran some days
before. The fellow came up patronisingly and said, "Oh sure, you are
Counsellor Curran, the great lawyer. Now then, Mr. Lawyer, can you tell
me by what law you are trespassing on my ground?"--"By what law, did you
ask, Mr. Maloney?" replied Curran. "It must be the _Lex Tally-ho-nis_,
to be sure."

During one of the Circuits, Curran was dining with a brother advocate at
a small inn kept by a worthy woman known by the Christian name of
Honoria, or, as it is generally called, Honor. The gentlemen were so
pleased with their entertainment that they summoned Honor to receive
their compliments and drink a glass of wine with them. She attended at
once, and Curran after a brief eulogium on the dinner filled a glass,
and handing it to the landlady proposed as a toast "Honor and Honesty,"
to which the lady with an arch smile added, "Our absent friends," drank
off her amended toast and withdrew.

He happened one day to have for his companion in a stage-coach a very
vulgar and revolting old woman, who seemed to have been encrusted with a
prejudice against Ireland and all its inhabitants. Curran sat chafing in
silence in his corner. At last, suddenly, a number of cows, with their
tails and heads in the air, kept rushing up and down the road in
alarming proximit