eat orators he stands out
among the very foremost. His speeches have become classics, and are
constantly quoted.

Another brilliant Irish orator, as well as an eminent wit, of this
period, was John Philpot Curran (1750-1817), who, born at Newmarket,
Co. Cork, and educated at Trinity College, Dublin, achieved a
wonderful success at the Irish bar. He defended with rare insight,
eloquence, and patriotism those who were accused of complicity in the
rebellion of 1798. As a member of Grattan's parliament, he voiced the
most liberal principles, and, though a Protestant himself, he worked
hard in the Catholic cause. He held the great office of Master of the
Rolls in Ireland from 1806 to 1814. The memory of few Irish orators,
wits, or patriots is greener today than that of Curran. His daughter
Sarah, whose fate is so inextricably blended with that of the
ill-starred Robert Emmet, has been rendered immortal by Moore in his
beautiful song, "She is far from the land where her young hero
sleeps".

Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin (1759-1797), the first advocate of the
rights of women, though born in London, was of Irish extraction. Into
the details of her extraordinary and chequered career it is not
possible, or necessary, here to enter. Her published works include
_Thoughts on the Education of Daughters_ (1787); _Answer to Burke's
Reflections on the French Revolution_ (1791); _Vindication of the
Rights of Women_ (1792); and an unfinished _Historical and Moral View
of the French Revolution_ (Vol. I., 1794). Having in August, 1797,
borne to her husband, William Godwin, a daughter who afterwards
became Shelley's second wife, Mary Godwin died in the following
month. Whatever her faults--and they were perhaps not greater than
her misfortunes--she had something of the divine touch of genius,
and, in a different environment, might easily have left some great
literary memento which the world would not willingly let die.

Maria Edgeworth (1767-1849), though born at Blackbourton in England,
belonged to a family which had been settled in different parts of
Ireland and finally at Edgeworthstown, Co. Longford, for nearly two
hundred years. She was the daughter of Richard Lovell Edgeworth
(1744-1817), who was distinguished for his inventions, for his
eccentricity, and for his varied matrimonial experiences, and who
himself figures in literature as the author of _Memoirs_,
posthumously published in 1820, and as the partner with his daughter
in _Pr