by Thomas Davis, prefixed to his edition of Curran's Speeches-a brilliant but brief tribute by one honest and gifted man to the worth and memory of another. Anterior to all these is the Memoir, by William O'Regan (the friend and contemporary of Curran, and often engaged with him in the same causes), written during Curran's lifetime, with his knowledge, if not with his direct sanction, and published within six weeks after his deatha book little known, but full of interesting personal details, and abounding with anecdotal and other illustrations of Curran's wit.
It appeared to me that there was sufficient in the career and character of Curran to interest not only the members of his own profession but a large number of general readers in this country. I have therefore taken the life by his Son, and without alterations or omissions, have introduced a large quantity of new matter, principally relating to his legislative and personal life. These additions will be found between brackets, and, with the notes which I have occasionally found it requisite to add, have made the Memoir more full of interest than any yet presented.
In the Appendix I have placed a few specimens of the wit with which Curran and his friends were wont "to set the table in a roar."
The portrait which embellishes this work is a characteristic likeness, by Comerford, of Dublin, now for the first time engraved in this country, and little known even in Ireland.
New York, September 20, 1855.