SLEEPERS REPROVED.

A methodist preacher once observing, that several of his congregation had fallen asleep, suddenly exclaimed with a loud voice, "A fire! a fire!" "Where! where!" cried his auditors, whom he had roused from their slumbers. "In the place of punishment,"

added the preacher; "for those who sleep under the ministry of the holy gospel."

Another preacher of a different persuasion, more remarkable for drowsy preachers, finding himself in the same unpleasant situation with his auditory, or more literally speaking, dormitory, suddenly stopped in his discourse, and addressing himself in a whispering tone to a number of noisy children in the gallery," Silence, silence, children," said he; "if you keep up such a noise, you will wake all the old folks below."

CURRAN.

In a debate on attachments in the Irish House of Commons, in 1785, Mr. Curran rose to speak against them; and perceiving Mr. Fitzgibbon, the attorneygeneral (afterwards Lord Clare) had fallen asleep on his seat, he thus commenced :---" I hope I may say a few words on this great subject, without disturbing the sleep of any right honourable member; and yet perhaps I ought rather to envy than blame the tranquillity of the right honourable gentleman. I do not feel myself so happily tempered, as to be lulled to repose by the storms that shake the land. If they invited any to rest, that rest ought not to be lavished on the guilty spirit."

be called a discussion. The members, when they in tend to speak, are obliged to inscribe their names on a list, for or against the question in discussion; the order in which they are to speak cannot be inserted ; they must go to the tribune in the succession in which their names are marked. Not one word are they per mitted to articulate in their place; if they think proper to speak, they must leave their seat, march to the tribune, ascend the steps, and when they have reached their pulpit, the glow of feeling has, perhaps, been chilled on the way; the sentiment is evaporated; the ideas are dispersed; the energies of mind have sunk under the ceremonial; and he who eagerly claimed a right to speak, finds at last that he has nothing to say.

There are, however, some deputies, who believe the country would be in danger, if they failed to transmit to the public the mass of their legislative opinions. They appear at the tribune with a manuscript of tremendous size in their hand; heir head bent upon the paper; their spectacles plac on their nose; and with a pre-determination not pare the chamber one single page, although th ussion is perhaps nearly closed; and they are he class of speakers who find new arguments assembly sometime to their honourable of the manuscri member is call his constitue consider

Although Mr. Curran appears here to have commenced hostilities, it should be mentioned, that he was apprized of Mr. Fitzgibbon's having given out in the ministerial circles, that he would take an opportunity during the debate, in which he knew that Mr. Curran would take a part, of putting down the young patriot. The Duchess of Rutland, and all the ladies of the castle, were present in the gallery, to witness what Mr. Curran called, in the course of the debate, "this exhibition by command."

When Mr. Curran sat down, Mr. Fitzgibbon, provoked by the expressions he had used, and by the general tenor of his observations, replied with much personality, and among other things, denominated Mr. Curran a "puny babbler.” Mr. C. retorted by the following description of his opponent. "I am not a man whose respect in person and character depends upon the importance of his office; I am not a young man who thrusts himself into the fore-ground of a picture, which ought to be occupied by a better figure; I am not one who replies with invective, when sinking under the weight of argument; I am not a man who denies the necessity of parliamentary reform, at the time that he approves its expediency, by reviling his own constituents, the parish clerk, the sexton, and the grave digger; and if there be any man who can apply what I am not, to himself, I leave him to think of it in the committee, and contemplate upon it when he goes home."

The result of this night's debate was a duel between Mr. Curran and Mr. Fitzgibbon; after exchanging shots, they separated, but confirmed in their feeling of mutual aversion.

At the assizes at Cork, Curran had once just entered upon his case, and stated the facts to the jury. He then with his usual impressiveness and pathos, appealed to their feelings, and was concluding the whole with this sentence: "Thus, gentlemen, I trust I have made the innocence of that persecuted man as clear to you as"---At that instant the sun, which had hitherto been overclouded, shot its rays into the courthouse; "as clear to you," continued he, as yonder sun-beam, which now bursts in among us, and supplies me with its splendid illustration."

BOURDALOUE.

"Hear him but reason in divinity,

And all admiring with an inward wish,

You would desire the king were made a preacher."

SHAKESPEARE."

The reputation or eloquence which this celebrated preacher very early acquired, reaching the ears of Louis XIV. his majesty sent for him to preach the Advent Sermon in 1670; which he did with such success, that he was retained for many years after as a preacher at court. He was called the King of Preachers, and the Preacher to Kings; and Louis himself said, that he would rather hear the repetitions of Bourdaloue, than the novelties of another. With a collected air, Bourdaloue had little action; he kept his eyes generally half closed, and penetrated the hearts of the people by the sound of a voice uniform and solemn. On one occasion, he turned the peculiarity of his external aspect to very memorable advan