Page:Biographia Hibernica volume 2.djvu/562

 558 SMITH. polished. Many years ago, he delivered a speech in the Irish House of Commons, upon one of the Catholic bills, in which, amongst other departures from the cruel system which separated that persecuted sect from a l l social con nexion with their protestant fellow-subjects, there was a clause for permitting catholics and protestants t o inter marry; a permission previously debarred by the penalties o f transportation t o any clergyman who knowingly per formed the marriage ceremony, and o f voidance t o the marriage itself. The clause was strenuously resisted by many o f the high church members; but Mr. Smith, who supported the whole o f the bill, sustained this clause i n a style o f impassioned eloquence, with a l l the charities o f a christian, a l l the gallantry o f a liberal gentleman, and all the fervour o f a heart flowing with the sacred flame o f conjugal love. The House was astonished, the applause was unbounded, and the clause passed. A short time afterwards, a gentleman o f the bar repeated this passage o f Mr. Smith's speech t o Baron Yelverton, (who was a zealous advocate for the same cause,) with high encomium and surprise that the frost o f the philosopher had not extinguished the fire o f the patriot, nor the ardour o f the genial passion. But Baron Yelverton observed, that “if the cheering sun-beams could shed summer upon Saturn, revive torpidity t o action, and teach the ice o f the Poles t o dissolve, was i t wonderful that the united rays o f patriotism and native beauty should melt logic into pity and stoicism into love 2" I n the year 1794, the parliamentary duties and forensic labours o f Mr. Smith were terminated b y his elevation t o the judgment seat, a s one o f the barons o f his majesty's court o f exchequer; and never did a n appointment meet with more o f public and private approbation, and especially from that bar t o which h e had been s o long a n honour and a n ornament. As a judge, h e was most patient; every advocate was heard b y him with calm but earnest atten tion, and the juniors with parental kindness; for, t o all concerned his wish was “to d o justice for truth's sake, and