the Duke escaped with his able and faithful minister, when they retired to an estate near Dresden, called Weisstrop. Thanks, however, to the able management of Ward, the hereditary states of Parma and Placentia were recovered after a time; but the Duke, disgusted by hisexperience of real life resigned in favour of his own son, with whom the minister has retained the same favour, and exhibited the same talents, that first raised him to distinction, being more than a match for the first of the Italian diplomatists. Upon one occasion he was despatched to Vienna as an envoy from his little court,when he astonished Schwartzenberg by the extent of his capacity; in fact, he was the only one of the diplomatic body who could make head against the domineering and dictatorial spirit of the Austrian. In this respect he was often found useful by his brother diplomatists, his acquaintance being more particularly cultivated by the Russian Ambassador, Meyendorff, who appears also to have been a vast admirer of Yorkshire hams.

"Omne ignotum pro magnifico."

The English epicure gives the preference to Westphalian hams; the German gastronomist returns the compliment by dilating on the superior excellence of those from Yorkshire. An English

gentleman supping one night at the Russian Ambassador's complimented him upon his excel

lent ham:

"There's a member of our diplomatic body here," replied Meyendorff, "who supplies us all with hams from Yorkshire, of which county he is a native."

Through all his vicissitudes Ward has ever preserved a manly pride in his country, never for a moment attempting to conceal his humble origin, and the portrait of his parents in their homespun clothes may be seen in the splendid saloon of the Prime Minister of Parma. The Italian language he speaks well and fluently, and in the style of one used to courts; while, strange to say, the moment he attempts to express himself in English, his dialect is found to retain all the characteristics of his early education,-or rather want of education. To crown all that needs be said of this extraordinary character, Lord Palmerston, that acute and practised veteran in the ways of the world, declared, "he was one of the most remarkable men he had ever met with."

The following is a partial list only of the honours to which Ward has attained:

Baron of the Duchy of Lucca, and of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, Knight of the 1st Class of the Order of St. Louis of Lucca, Knight

Grand Cross of the Order of St. Joseph of Tuscany, Knight Senator Grand Cross of the Order of St. George Constantinano of Parma, and Noble, with the title of Baron, in Tuscany, Honorary Councillor of State to His Imperial Highness the Grand Duke of Tuscany, Minister and Councillor of State to H. R. H. Charles, Duke of Parma, &c.

THE RISE OF THE RIGHT HON. JOHN PHILPOT CURRAN.

THE course of these pages has shown, that it is by no means an uncommon event for the descendants of nobles to fall from their high estate, to the humblest position in society; and, on the other hand, it is still less unfrequent, for the lowest born to rise to the loftiest rank, by no other aid than the gifts of nature; but it is rare to see the former forgetting, or the latter remembering what they once were. Amongst the few who have been found willing to recollect an humble origin, Curran, the celebrated orator, the brightest ornament of the Irish bar, stands foremost. He was born in the obscure village of Newmarket, in the county of Cork. His family,

the paternal side, were not Irish, a maternal ancestor having come over to Ireland in Cromwell's army. His father, James Curran, derived his chief, but scanty, income from his office, as Seneschal of the Manor, and his education would seem, by all accounts, to have been as narrow as his income. To make amends, his mother was a woman of very superior mind, and it is to the mother that sons owe their peculiar talent and character, either because this is the result of a mysterious law of nature, or because the early education of the child, not that which is taught by books, but by precept and example, is entirely in her hands. She gives the young plant its first bias, and, though after-care and cultivation may improve the brilliance of its flower, or the flavour of its fruit, they will seldom materially alter the direction of its growth. In Curran's case, this was most fortunate, for his mother, though of humble station, and proportionably uneducated, was by nature witty, eloquent, and gifted with the rare faculty of making the traditions of the past live again in her burning utterance. She was at once the oracle and the arbitress of her circle, guiding by her wisdom, and delighting by her chronicles, all who came within that magic round. "Her wit," says Phillips, in his beautiful Recollections of Curran, "was the record of

VOL. II.