s due, and ultimately engage the sympathies of many for
or against it. Such was the case here; certain personalities, that
occasionally were thrown out, giving a piquancy to the controversy, and
investing it with the attraction of town gossip. "Falkner's Journal,"
"The Press," "The Post," and "The Freeman" appeared each morning
with some new contribution on the same theme; and letters from, and
contradictions to, "A Visitor at Castle Carew," continued to amuse the
world of Dublin.

The fashionable circles enjoyed recitals which contained the names of
so many of their own set; the less distinguished were pleased with even
such passing peeps at a world from which they were excluded; and thus
the discussion very soon usurped the place of all other subjects in
public interest.

It was remarked throughout the controversy that the weight of authority
lay all with the Castle press. Whatever bore the stamp of real
information was on that side; and the national journals were left merely
to guess and surmise, while their opponents made distinct assertions. At
last, to the astonishment of the town, appeared a letter in "Falkner's
Journal" from Curtis. He had been ill of the gout; and, as it seemed,
had only become aware of the polemic the preceding day. Indeed, the tone
of the epistle showed that the irritability consequent on his malady
was still over him. After a brief explanation of his silence, he went on
thus:

"The Castle hacks have asked, Why and how did Curtis take his leave of
Castle Carew? Now, without inquiring by what right these low scullions
presume to put such a question, I 'll tell them: Curtis left when he
discovered the company by whom he was surrounded; when he found that
he should sit down at the same table with a knavish pack of English
adventurers, bankrupt in character, and beggars in pocket.

"When he saw the house where his oldest friend in the world was wont
to gather round him all that was eminently Irish, and where a generous
hospitality developed a hearty and noble conviviality, converted into a
den of scheming and intriguing politicians, seeking to snare support by
low flattery, or to entrap a vote, in the confidence of the bottle; when
he saw this, and more than this,--that the best names and the best blood
in the land were slighted, in order to show some special and peculiar
attention to vulgar wealth or still more vulgar pretension, Curtis
thought it high time to take his leave. This is the why