oderick Random_, who having stripped off his coat to fight, entrusted
it to a bystander. When the battle was over, and he was well beaten, he
turned to resume it, but the man had carried it off. Mr. Curran thus
applied the tale:--"So, my Lord, when the person entrusted with the
dignity of the judgment-seat lays it aside for a moment to enter into a
disgraceful personal contest, it is in vain when he has been worsted in
the encounter that he seeks to resume it--it is in vain that he tries to
shelter himself behind an authority which he has abandoned." "If you say
another word, I'll commit you," replied the angry Judge; to which Mr. C.
retorted, "If your Lordship shall do so, we shall both of us have the
consolation of reflecting, that I am not the worst thing your Lordship
has committed."

CURRAN'S QUARREL WITH FITZGIBBON.

Curran distinguished himself not more as a barrister than as a member of
parliament; and in the latter character it was his misfortune to
provoke the enmity of a man, whose thirst for revenge was only to be
satiated by the utter ruin of his adversary. In the discussion of a bill
of a penal nature, Curran inveighed in strong terms against the
Attorney-General, Fitzgibbon, for _sleeping on the bench_ when statutes
of the most cruel kind were being enacted; and ironically lamented that
the slumber of guilt should so nearly resemble the repose of innocence.
A challenge from Fitzgibbon was the consequence of this sally; and the
parties having met, were to fire when they chose. "I never," said
Curran, when relating the circumstances of the duel,--"I never saw any
one whose determination seemed more malignant than Fitzgibbon's. After I
had fired, he took aim at me for at least half a minute; and on its
proving ineffectual, I could not help exclaiming to him, 'It was not
your fault, Mr. Attorney; you were deliberate enough,'" The
Attorney-General declared his honor satisfied; and here, at least for
the time, the dispute appeared to terminate.

Not here, however, terminated Fitzgibbon's animosity. Soon afterwards,
he became Lord Chancellor, and a peer of Ireland, by the title of Lord
Clare; and in the former capacity he found an opportunity, by means of
his judicial authority, of ungenerously crashing the rising powers and
fortunes of his late antagonist. Curran, who was at this time a leader,
and one of the senior practitioners at the Chancery Bar, soon felt all
the force of his rival's vengeance. The Cha