lies before me, indexed for reference like a merchant’s ledger. It consists of about one hundred and sixty pages, for the most part closely written, strongly indicative of the pains taken upon other subjects with a specific purpose in view.[1]
His chief correspondent at this period was Chetwood, who invites him from Cork to “Skull” to the “enjoyment of such music as he may not often hear.” He likewise sends verses to relieve the “soporific influences of law.” And of one of their chosen mutual friends, a young barrister on the same circuit, and also a “verse-man,” thus writes:—“I should lament your fate on every circuit much more than I do had you not such a companion as Hussey. You may talk of wretchedness, but you can neither of you be unhappy together. His petit extempore is delightful, as is all that he either writes or thinks.” On another occasion he mentions warmly “Hussey’s admirable Epithalamium.”
In 1771 a short visit was paid to England, led by some instinct to map out the ground on which he was ultimately destined to abide. Hence he sent Chetwood Dr. Johnson’s pamphlet on the Falkland Islands; when, as an example of the erroneous views formed by even educated persons in remote districts of eminent men living in the world, he asks whether the great moralist “is not venal?” He writes likewise for the best edition of the celebrated anonymous hero
- ↑ The title is, A Table of the several Statutes in Ireland respecting Treasons, Felonies, and the power of Grand Juries since Poyning’s Law. At the end of the alphabet are added abstracts from the State Tryals concerning the Criminal Law.—Edmond Malone.
