Page images
PDF
EPUB

soners that he would revenge his reputation upon me. I knew that if he was tolerated for robbing me, he would be more than indemnified for murdering me: I therefore proposed peace and the statu quo, which was accepted. But such was the doctor, and such the guardian; the only two beings of my species with whom I was permitted to converse, and that only, when the one came his daily rounds as a spy, to see that I received no indulgence; and the other opened my door to give me what was necessary to my existence.

Once, indeed, there came three gentlemen deputed from the grand jury, to visit me with the other prisoners under notice of trial. They asked me, if I had any thing to represent to the court then sitting, or to the jury? I told them, that my health was bad; that I requested to be tried, and was ready at a moment's warning. For this intrusion, I myself heard the doctor threaten these grand jurors, and reprove the keeper: For he said, that Mr. Cooke alone had the power to dispose of us.-I never heard that these grand jurors were whipped-if they were not, I hold them fortunate.

LETTER III.

Lord Cornwallis-Sir Ralph Abercrombie.

of

AT length, to pass over a world of odious details, came the Marquis Cornwallis, bringing words peace. Civil and military licentiousness were now at their height. You must have heard, that when the gallant and respected Abercrombie, since dead in the field of honor, was sent to command the army in Ireland, he found it impossible to make head against so much crime and anarchy. The combined efforts of Clare and Carhampton, and the weakness of what they called a strong government, had driven the whole people to rebellion, and made enemies of almost every honest man. The old and respectable magistrates, men of property and reputation in the country, were struck out of the commission of the peace, and foreign mercenaries put into it. The population of whole districts were swept without remorse on board tenders and prison ships; and fathers of families torn from their poor and peaceful cottages, to be sent on board the British fleet, where the tale of their bitter and just complaint was necessarily to

[ocr errors]

form the leaven of that fearful event so aptly called Carhampton's mutiny; and which was like to have cost the king of England more than the violence of a million of such men, with their strong governments, could ever do him good. Weak men, they had not minds to conceive that the only strong government, is that which is strong in the confidence and security of the people governed. They called these crimes, dictated by their own petty passions, by the name of "vigour beyond the law."-So Robbespiere called his. In short, he and his associates, seemed in every thing, except sincerity, to be their model. The difference was, that his cruelties fell chiefly on the rich and great-theirs afflicted the humble and the poor. The eloquence of Europe has been exhausted in reprobating his crimes. The mention of theirs, is still treason and death. Alas! the advocates of the poor, are few, and their reward is ruin. To celebrate successful villainy, is the sure road to gain and to preferment. Had I been capable of stooping to such baseness, instead of opposing myself to the unparalleled oppression of my countrymen, those who have perse-cuted me, know, in their own hearts, how open the road of fortune was to me. But nature, and a virtuous education, had made me differently, and if my conduct has been criminal, I own I am incorrigible; for, with all the time and reason I have had for sober reflection, I cannot see in what essential circumstance I could better discharge the duties I owe to God, to my fellow creatures, and to myself. Prudence might possibly, were the same events to recur,

dictate some safer course; but virtue could offer no. thing more pure. Nor have I been the dupe of any deceitful hope or passion. I saw, but too clearly from the first, how, in such a state of things, in attempting to do good, one must expose one's self to mischief; and it is to that settled principle I owe the courage which has been my safety and consolation through so many trials. If it were otherwise, and that I could suppose my conduct criminal, I know of but one way of future remedy for all such evils; that is, that we should hereafter educate our affspring in the contempt of what is generous and honest. You have children, my friend, and so have I. Shall we calculate, that the times to come, will always resemble those we have seen? Shall we, judging by such examples, train up their tender minds in calculating profligacy? Shall we stifle, in its birth, every generous feeling of compassion and humanity? Shall we teach them to mock at the love of their country? Shall we teach them the cant and outward form of a pure religion of equality and justice, but at the same time inure them to plunder and to murder in the name of that religion? Shall we give them early lessons, that restraints are only for the vulgar, and that he who does not prefer his avarice and ambition to every other consideration, is a fool; and if he is inflexible against seduction, that he should be hunted as a traitor?-Were these considerations rigorously pursued, how far would they not lead? further, I fear, than is for your happiness or mine. Let us rather encourage the hope, that crime will not always

triumph, and justice may yet return; that our offspring may be honest, and yet be happy. And let me for the present resume the thread of this extraordinary narrative.

I have mentioned, that Sir Ralph Abercrombie had been obliged to abdicate the command of the army in Ireland. I am not obliged to conjecture what his reasons were. He frankly and consistently with his manly character, published them in one short sentence, where he said that this famous army of Carhampton "had become contemptible to its enemies, and formidable only to its friends." And true his words did prove, when the half naked peasants of a few counties of Ireland, without arms or ammunition, or any other leaders than those, there was not wisdom to deprive them of, their misery and their despair could wage war and gain victories over the most costly army of Europe.

Lord Cornwallis, something wiser than his predecessors, or at least unactuated by party spite, saw how nearly all was lost, and formed a better plan. He shut up the houses of torture. He forbade pitched caps to be burned on mens heads. He put an end, in a great measure, to the ravishing of women, and the killing or whipping of Irishmen for sport. He interdicted half hanging to extort confessions. He put a stop to much of the petty-fogging and chicaning part of the administration; and he offered pardon and protection to such as would lay down their arms and return to their homes. But unhappily, whether it was that the faction were too strong for him, and

« PreviousContinue »