He continued his exertions, as Treasurer of the Society for Small Debts, until the time of his death, which took place Feb. 16, in the year 1814. T. J. PETTIGREW.] No. IV. RECOLLECTIONS OF CURRAN, AND SOME OF HIS CONTEMPORARIES. BY CHARLES PHILLIPS, ESQ. 1 Vol. 8vo. WITH TWO ENGRAVED PORTRAITS. E We have already noticed two memoirs of this celebrated orator, (sce vol. ii. pages 443 and 448,) and having known him ourselves, we are better enabled to estimate this curious collection of well authenticated anecdotes, composed within the short period of twenty-two days. "Early in life," observes our author, "I had been so accustomed to hear the name of Curran mentioned with admiration, long before I could understand the reason, that I began to make his character an absolute article in my literary creed, and to hold it in a kind of traditional reverence. As the mind strengthened, an inquiry naturally arose into the causes of such enviable celebrity. The bon-vivant referred me to his wit-the scholar to his eloquence - the patriot to his ardent and undeviating principle. The questions on which he had voted, were connected with the best days of Ireland, and his vote was always on the side of his country." Mr. Phillips having assigned to Mr. Curran a high rank among the patriots of Ireland, in a little poem called "the Emerald Isle," this circumstance appears to have attracted the notice and the gratitude of his hero. "When I was called to the bar, he was on the bench; and not only bagless but briefless, I was one day with many an associate taking the idle round of the hall of the four Courts, when a common friend told me he was commissioned by the Master of the Rolls to invite me to dinner that day at the Priory, a little country villa, about four miles from Dublin. Those who recollect their first introduction to a really great man, may easily comprehend my delight and my consternation. Hour after hour was counted as it passed, and like a timid bride, I feared the one that was to make me happy. It came at last, the important five o'clock, the ne plus ultra of the guest who would not go dinnerless at Curran's. - "Never shall I forget my sensations when I caught the first glimpse of the little man through the vista of his avenue. There he was, as a thousand times afterwards I saw him, in a dress which you would imagine he had borrowed from his tip-staff his hands in his sides-his face almost parallel with the horizon-his under lip protruded, and the impatient step, and the eternal attitude only varied by the pause during which his eye glanced from his guest to his watch, and from his watch reproachfully to his dining-room-it was an invincible peculiarity-one second after five o'clock, and he would not wait for the viceroy. "The moment he perceived me, he took me by the hand, said he would not have any one introduce me, and with a manner which I often thought was charmed, at once banished every apprehension, and completely familiarised me at the Priory. -- "I have often seen Curran - often heard of him- but no man ever knew any thing about him, who did not see him at his own table, with the few that he selected. He was a little convivial deity! he soared in every region, and was at home in all — he touched every thing, and seemed as if he had created it -he mastered the human heart with the same ease that he did his violin. You wept, you laughed, and you wondered, and the wonderful creature who made you do all at will, never let it appear that he was more than your equal, and was quite willing if you chose, to become your auditor. At the time I speak of, he was turned of sixty, yet he was as playful as a child. The extremes of youth and age were met in him, he had the experience of the one, and the simplicity of the other. "At five o'clock we sat down to dinner, at three in the morning we arose from table, and surely half the wish of the enthusiastic lover was at least conceded- Time' during that interval was annihilated.' From that day till the day of his death, I was his intimate and associate. He had no party to which I was not invited; and party or no party I was always welcome: he even went so far as to ask me to become his inmate, and offered me apartments in his town residence. Often and often, he ran over his life to me to the minutest anecdote described his prospects-his disappointments and his successes — characterised at once his friends and his enemies; and in the communicative candour of six years' intercourse, repeated the most secret occurrences of his history. Such is the claim which I have to be his biographer. I have said I do not mean to be laborious, but I hope to be a faithful one, withholding what was confidential, sketching whatever appeared to be characteristic; writing solely from his own authority, and as far as that goes, determined to be authentic." These are pretensions of no common order, and we have only to lament, that space does not allow us to transcribe some of the many well-told anecdotes, with which this little volume abounds. MEMOIRS OF THE LATE LIEUTENANT-GENERAL SIR JAMES LEITH, G.C.B., WITH A PRECIS OF SOME OF THE MOST REMARKABLE EVENTS OF THE Peninsular War. — By A BRITISH OFficer. 8vo. 1818. JAMES LEITH, the third son of John Leith, Esq., of Leithhall, was born at the seat of his ancestors, in Aberdeenshire, upon the 8th of August, 1763. The early part of his edu cation was conducted by a private tutor, after which he studied at the university of Aberdeen, and it ought to have been added, that anterior to this, he spent some years at the grammar school at Elgin. Being a younger brother, Mr. Leith chose the army as a profession; in consequence of which, he was sent to a military academy at Lisle, where he perfected himself in those sciences connected with the education of an officer. “ His talents, the elegance of his manner and address, made him, at the commencement of his life, distinguished and courted. Possessed of a commanding figure, and an intelligent, handsome countenance, he added to generosity of disposition, a warmth of heart, and a polished deportment, that stamped him as a person of no common promise.” In 1780, Mr. Leith joined the 21st regiment, and was soon after promoted to a lieutenancy in the 81st Highlanders. Having at length obtained a company, he served in that capacity until the peace of 1783, when his corps was reduced. Captain Leith, however, was not destined to remain long unemployed, for in the course of a few months, he was appointed to the 50th regiment then at Gibraltar, and soon after his arrival there, was nominated aid-de-camp to Sir Robert Boyd, K.B., then of that fortress. In the course of a few years, he accompanied General O'Hara, in the same capacity, to Toulon. When that gallant officer was taken prisoner by the enemy, the subject of this memoir was placed on the staff of Major-general Sir David Dundas, and on the evacuation of that city, he returned to England. His services having now obtained for him the rank of major, by brevet, Mr. Leith procured leave to raise the “ Aberdeenshire Fencibles ;" at the head of which regiment he served for some years in Ireland. “ During the rebellion,” we are told, “ he was conspicuous for his activity and firmness of mind, and those qualities that found full scope for develope ment in the mercy and forgiveness extended to many of the objects of mistaken feeling, whom circumstances placed in his who was power ; -- and it is no slight eulogium, that during scenes, where so much bloodshed was inevitable, Colonel Leith's humanity never became in the slightest degree questioned.” In 1803, the subject of this memoir obtained a commission as colonel of the 13th battalion of Reserve; and in the course of the following year, he was placed on the staff in Ireland, as a Brigadier-General. In 1808, he was promoted to the rank of Major-General, and was soon after destined to enter on that brilliant career in the peninsula, afforded by the occurrence of the Spanish revolution. Under General Moore, he was appointed to the command of a brigade, and distinguished himself greatly, by the bold front and manly resistance he constantly exhibited against the enemy, whose advance was frequently checked by his bravery and good conduct. He also distiriguished himself greatly at the battle of Corunna. On his return to England, Major-General Leith was immediately placed on the home staff; but soon after repaired to the Continent, and assisted at the siege of Flushing, after the surrender of which, he was conveyed to Harwich, in a state of dangerous illness, in consequence of a violent attack of the fever of that country. In 1810, we find him serving under Lord Wellington in Portugal; and he reaped new laurels at Busaco, by the promptitude and vigour of his charge against the French troops. But he was once more obliged to return to England in consequence of a fresh aftack of the Walcheren fever. We hear however, soon after his recovery, of his serving in Spain, and exhibiting fresh marks of his skill and gallantry, by the escalade of St. Vincente, which eminently contributed to the capture of Badajos. In an action with the Duke of Ragusa, he received a severe wound, in consequence of which the General was carried into Salamanca, and in 1813, was rewarded with the insignia of the Bath, on account of his very brilliant conduct at the battle of that name. After being repeatedly wounded, Lieutenant-General Leith returned to England, where he remained until 1814, when he a |