The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1865-12-19
Gents: there /, no Con, ana 1TA.silr i hi.

directly from personal character. SYDNEY
SMITH once justified an assault on man Of
moderate abilities, whose purposes he const.
dered as mischicvons As they were well meant.
" do not attack him." said he, g for love of
"glory. but from love Of utility, rs burxo-
"mastcr hunts rat In Dutch dixie for fear
+" II will flood province
BrRkK was great master Of lofty contempt.
uousness. A fine specimen Of that Is the we'll
known passage in which he likened the English
sympathixers with the French revolution to
grasshoppers, filling the air with their irnpor
tunate chirp, whilst thousands of great cat
"tle, reposing under the British oak, chew the
" cud and are SILENT Scarcely less celebrated
is his attack on the Duke Of BEDFORD, where
his object is to degrade the whole house Of
RrssELL by emphasizing the corruption, SER
Witty and extortion Of its founder. Knowing
how well aware was all England of the patri-
, OTIS who had been connected with that house,
he makes that fact deviation from the natu-
| raj character Of their family. at is little to
=" b. doubted, he says, a." that several Of his
" forefathcrs. In that long series, have deye"e-
rated into honor and virtue"
The practical business Of invective is best
done by irony, uttered with GOODNESS and de-
liberation. The emotional element must not
be permitted to predominant. That method
which implies the greatest self possession i'm
parts the keenest edge to the blow, and irony
does not admit of a successful reply. No one
understood better than GRArrAx the effect of
the contemptuous method. The best illustra-
ton of his use of it is his reply to All obscure
but aspiring opponent in the Irish House Of
Commons, who assailed him in a stupidity
scurrilous speech with the hope Of drawing
! upon himself the invective which had SO
often smitten FLOOD and FITzGIBBOS. But
GRArrAx could not condescend to give his
opponent the celebrity he craved. Rising in
his seat he simply said
81 shall make no other remark on the per-
- sonalities Of the honorable member who has
"iust spoken than merely to say that, as he
IS rose without q friend, so he has certainly sat
down without having made an enemy"
An example of irony, covering the most in
sulting scorn, is found in the celebrated en-
counter of CrRRAN with Judge ROBINSON.
This Judge had risen to power by sycophancy
and the composition Of some miserably- written
political pamphlets, distinguished by nothing
but their venomous personality. CURRAS,
when poor young man. had a case to argue
in the Judges court, and, in cOntroverting
position taken by the opposing counsel re.
marked that he had " studied all his law books,
|" and could not find single case where the
'Principle cOntended for was established
~ suspect, sir,' interrupted the Judge, 81
suspect that your law library is rather con-
"tracted." CURRAN, feeling that this was in
tended as a sheer at his poverty, looked the
Judge steadily in the face and said: at is
''true, my Lord, that am poor. and the cir
"cumstance has rather curtailed my library:
Tiny books are not numerous, but they are
r 1>4~
"proper dispositions. have prepared myself
g for this high profession rather by the study
'of a few good books than by the composition Of
ga great many bad ones" am not ashamed of
"my poverty, but should be Of my wealth,
'could I stoop to acquire it by servility and
corruption. If rise not to rank, I shall at
''least be honest; and should ever cease to
abe so, many an example shows me that an
d" ill-acquired elevation, by making me the
"more conspicuous, would only make me more
universally and more VIGOROUSLY contempti-
"ble"
Among the few specimens of personal invcc-
tive which one can read with unmixed
qualification, not only on account of its lofty
self assertion, but just retribntion Of aris-
tocratic ins0lence, is the answer Of Lord THUR
Low to the taunt Of the Duke of GRAFTON on
his want of noble birth. It's effect in the House
of Lords is said to have been overwhelming
and derived peculiar pungency from a quiet
allusiOn to a bar sinister On the GRAFTON
escutcheon. How thrilling must have been
the effect, as THCRLow, reused by the acute
sting, stepped forward from the woolsack, and
with the native majesty Of his great intellect,
heightened by just and manly indignation, ex-
claimed: 1.-THE noble Duke cannot look before
him. or behind him, or on either side of him,
without seeing some noble peer who owes
"his seat in this House to his successful exer-
lions in the profession to which belong
"DOes he not feel that it is as honora BILE to owe
sit to these as to being the accident of an acct
"dent7 No man venerates the peerage more
ethan do but. my Lords, 1 must say that
8" the peerage solicited me, not l the peerage
/" Nay, more. lean say, and will say, that as a
"Peer of Parliament, as Speaker of this Right
Honorable House, as Keeper Of the Great
"Seal, as the Lord High Chancellor Of Eng
Gland nay, even in that character alone, in
(Which the noble Duke would think it an
" affront to be considered, but which character
none can deny meas q NAN I am, at this
time, as much respected as the proudest peer
81 now look down upon.''
Commenting upon a mode of invective some.
what too common in what are called delibera-
ANc DOuAcs, tuc ulIccI pcTSOuc1 assault, IL mas
been remarked by EMERSON that it makes q
great difference in the force of a sentence
whether man be behind it or no. It was his
personal manhood which gave peculiar energy
to the inyective of CHATHAM, who was de-
scribed in his youth g that terrible cornet of
horse, whose scowl gave Sir ROBERT WAL
"POLB pain in the back It is sad to think
that even Mansfield, so. SUI me in under
standing, should have been cowed by more
ferocious physical organization. It is said
that the younger PIrr inherited the fierceness
and brute force Of his father, and that even the
accomplished ERsxIxE quailea before him in
the House of Commons 1.-THE fact is. ERs.
" KINE," said SHERIDAN once to him, youlare
- afraid Of PIrr, and that is the weak point of
"your character"
The KEY SroxK.-Messrs CoLE h TURNER
have laid upon our table a copy of q monthly
Masonic magazine bearing the above title,
published at Raleigh, N. G. It contains much
learned lore" which the "brcthren of the