" It was not usual for the Irish bar or the Irish members of
Parliament to calculate in this way when a chance of "blazing" was in
question. Mr. Toler, afterward Lord Norbury of punning celebrity, had some
words with Sir Jonah Barrington. They left the House to settle the dispute
outside, but the Speaker, perceiving them, sent the sergeant-at-arms with
his attendants to bring them back. They caught Toler just as the skirts of
his coat had become so entangled in a door-handle that they were torn
completely off. Sir Jonah, resisting the sergeant's satellites, was caught
up by one of them, brought back like a sack of meal on the man's
shoulders, and thrown down in the body of the House. The Speaker required
them both to pledge their honor that the matter should end there. When
Toler rose to reply the dilapidated condition of his coat became apparent,
upon which Curran stood up and said gravely that "it was the most
unparalleled insult ever offered to the House, as it appeared that one
honorable member had _trimmed_ another honorable member's _jacket_ within
those walls, and nearly within view of the Speaker."

The incessant play of wit and drollery then animating the Irish capital
has perhaps never had a parallel in any society. The House and the bar
were both overflowing with it. When the dull, matter-of-fact Lord
Redesdale first came over to take the position of lord chancellor, he felt
some curiosity as to the reputation of the latter for these qualities
which had reached his ears in England. At one of his first dinners to the
judges and higher law-officers he found himself unable to see any wit, or
perhaps any meaning, in Toler's jests, and turning to another barrister,
Mr. Garrat O'Farrell, he said that he believed his name and family were
very numerous and reputable in the county of Wicklow, as he had met
several of them in his late tour there. "Yes, my lord," said O'Farrell,
"we _were_ very numerous, but so many of us have been lately hanged for
sheepstealing that the name is getting rather scarce in that county."
This reply reduced his lordship to silence, and it was probably some time
before he made up his mind as to whether he had really been associating
with law-breakers of so disreputable a class. Mr. Plunket afterward
puzzled Lord Redesdale still more when arguing a cause in chancery. The
question was about "flying kites" (fictitious bills). His lordship took
the word literally, and declared he did not understan