which an example was set to the rest of the loyal people of the country, which has been followed with so much promptness, and has produced the salvation of the state. Of that corps Mr. Saurin was elected, and still continues, first captain; and on its interests and discipline he bestows the most unremitted attention.

It was not, however, till the project of an union between the two countries was taken up by the administration, that they seriously set about procuring the sanction and assistance of Mr. Saurin. To obtain his support, in that measure particularly, they shewed the most solicitous anxiety; probably because they knew or believed that the opinion of that gentleman would have great weight in regulating the opinion of the Irish bar, who were known to think so highly of his integrity and his talents. If it were with that view they wished to secure his support, they appear to have acted prudently; for, to the almost-unanimous opposition of the bar, an unanimity greatly owing to the example, the influence, and the reasoning, of Mr. Saurin, the first defeat of that measure may be fairly attributed.

On that important occasion, it is said, with great confidence, that administration offered to Mr. Saurin not only the prime-sergeantcy, when it should become vacant, but the place of attorney-general on the next promotion. This offer, Mr. Saurin is said to have declined; and it is also stated, that he was then offered the reversion of the Chancery. Instead,

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Instead, however, of accepting these munificent offers, for which he was to advise and promote the surrender of the constitution and independence of his country, Mr. Saurin suggested to some of his brethren at the bar the necessity of calling a meeting of the barristers to consider the question of Union, which, as it had now been officially announced, was to be proposed to the Irish parliament in the ensuing session. A requisition was accordingly signed by a number of the most eminent characters in the profession, and among them Mr. Saurin, desiring a full meeting of the bar, on a certain day, to declare their sense respecting the agitation of that momentous subject. The meeting was accordingly held and most numerously attended. Mr. Saurin opened the business of the meeting in a speech, not long, but marked by that ingenious address which peculiarly distinguishes him. In this speech, he shortly and forcibly stated or insinuated almost every argument which has been urged against an union, and concluded, by a resolution, declaring it unwise and unnecessary, at that time, to agitate the question. A long discussion followed, which terminated in a division, on which there appeared a vast majority in support of Mr. Saurin's resolution. The exertions of the bar, against the measure, led as they were by Mr. Saurin, did not terminate in that effort. A swarm of energetic well-written pamphlets, from the leading members of the profession, for some months afterwards continued to enlighten and animate the

public mind on that subject, and a periodical paper, called the ANTI-UNION, confined exclusively to that topic, and written with much zeal, much information, and great talent, contributed in no small degree to confirm the public, and, perhaps, the Commons themselves, in their reprobation of a legislative union. This paper was conducted and supported by four or five barristers, the intimate friends of Mr. Saurin, and guided in their management of it chiefly by him, though, from the pressure of professional business, he was himself unable to fill many of its pages.

His conduct, on this great occasion, made Mr. Saurin more than ever a favourite with the public, and, of his own profession, made him almost the idol. A meeting of the bar was again summoned, for the purpose of marking to the public the esti

mation in which his brethren held his character and his services to them and to the country. The meeting came to resolutions which must have been in the highest degree flattering to him, and which were certainly founded in justice. At present, Mr. Saurin continues to sustain the high character which he thus acquired by private and public virtue. He continues still to confine himself to his professional avocations, beyond which he stepped only on the single and most important occasion, when the liberty and independence of his country appeared to him to be assailed. If any change have taken place in the public mind respecting that momentous subject, Mr. Saurin yet remains

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remains unchanged; and it is some argument against a legislative union, that a man, acknowledged one of the most loyal, the most prudent, the most sagacious, and one the most learned in the constitution, has ever been, and remains, the decided and zealous opponent of that measure.

Mr. Saurin is low in stature; his countenance is characteristic of French origin; and, if the physiognomist be not rather influenced by what he knows a priori of the man, than by what he infers only from the visage of his subject, it bespeaks strongly a cool and sound judgement, a sagacious understanding, and a good heart. He is said to make considerably more in his profession than any other man at the Irish bar. There appears, however, no obvious or shining excellence in his manner of discharging his forensic duties. His diction is plain, but correct; his manner cool, disquisitional, and quite unimpassioned. His great merit as a bar-orator consists in the ingenuity of his statements, his colouring, his selection of facts, and his judicious arrangement of matter. He possesses a very strong memory, sound judgement, great legal knowledge, the result of laborious and early reading, and he is, above all, characterized for a degree of attention to business, to which even a young and a poor man is seldom found to submit.

W.

DOCTOR

DOCTOR SAMUEL ARNOLD.

(COMMUNICATED BY MR. THOMAS BUSBY.)

THIS gentleman, whose professional celebrity was so early acquired, and which has been so long and so deservedly maintained, received his musical education at the Chapel-Royal, St. James's, partly under the late Mr. Gates, and partly under his successor Dr. Nares.

The strong indications he evinced, even in infancy, of a genius formed for the cultivation of the tuneful science, determined his parents to yield to the bias of nature, by placing him in some respectable harmonic seminary. The inviting prospect of future patronage, from the late princesses Amelia and Caroline, was at the same time an additional inducement with them to give the fullest scope in their power to that impulse of genius, which, under skilful masters, could not but be productive of future honour and emolument to its possessor; and, at the express desire of those illustrious personages, he was, at the usual age of admission, placed in the King's Chapel. His ardent perseverance in study daily afforded the most convincing proofs that music was the science for which nature had designed him, and justified the choice his parents had made.

Mr.