The Irish Confederates, and the Rebellion of 1798

Front Cover
Harper & brothers, 1851 - 369 pages
 

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

Popular passages

Page 71 - I speak in the spirit of the British law, which makes liberty commensurate with and inseparable from British soil; which proclaims even to the stranger and sojourner, the moment he sets his foot upon British earth, that the ground on which he treads is holy, and consecrated by the genius of universal emancipation.
Page 71 - British earth, that the ground on which he treads is holy, and consecrated by the genius of Universal Emancipation. No matter in what language his doom may have been pronounced ; — no matter what complexion incompatible with freedom, an Indian or an African sun may have burnt upon him ; — no matter in what disastrous battle his liberty may have been cloven down ; — no matter with what solemnities he may have been devoted upon the altar of Slavery; the first moment he touches the sacred soil...
Page 17 - We were now treading that illustrious island, which was once the luminary of the Caledonian regions, whence savage clans and roving barbarians derived the benefits of knowledge, and the blessings of religion. To abstract the mind from all local emotion would be impossible, if it were endeavoured, and would be foolish, if it were possible. Whatever withdraws us from the power of our senses ; whatever makes the past, the distant, or the future predominate over the present, advances us in...
Page 69 - ... benches of public justice were filled by some of those foundlings of fortune, who, overwhelmed in the torrent of corruption at an early period, lay at the bottom like drowned bodies, while soundness or sanity remained in them ; but at length, becoming buoyant by putrefaction, they rose as they rotted, and floated to the surface of the polluted stream, where they were drifted along, the objects of terror, and contagion, and abomination.
Page 320 - MY DEAREST RICHARD, — I find I have but a few hours to live, but if it was the last moment, and that the power of utterance was leaving me, I would thank you from the bottom of my heart for your generous expressions of affection and forgiveness to me. If there was any one in the world in whose breast my death might be supposed not to stifle every mark of resentment, it might be you.
Page 362 - For there is no nation of people under the sun that doth love equal and indifferent justice better than the Irish, or will rest better satisfied with the execution thereof, although it be against themselves ; so as they may have the protection and benefit of the law when upon just cause they do desire it.
Page 266 - Intelligence, activity, temperance, " patience, to a surprising degree, appeared to " be combined in the soldiery that came over ** with Humbert, together with the exactest " obedience to discipline. Yet, if you except " the grenadiers, they had nothing to catch the " eye. Their stature for the most part was low, '* their complexion pale and sallow, their clothes " much the worse for the wear : to a super" ficial observer they would have appeared " incapable of enduring almost any hardship.
Page 354 - I wish to see the established church of England great and powerful ; I wish to see her foundations laid low and deep, that she may crush the giant powers of rebellious darkness ; I would have her head raised up to that Heaven to which she conducts us. I would have her open wide her hospitable gates by a noble and liberal comprehension ; but I would have no breaches in her wall ; I would have her cherish all those, who are within, and pity all those, who are without ; I would have her a common blessing...
Page 276 - I have repeatedly braved the terrors of the ocean, covered, as I knew it to be, with the triumphant fleets of that power which it was my glory and my duty to oppose. I have sacrificed all my views in life ; I have courted poverty ; I have left a beloved wife unprotected and children whom I adored, fatherless. After such sacrifices in a cause which I have always conscientiously considered as the cause of justice and freedom — it is no great effort at this day to add the sacrifice of my life.
Page 266 - ... any hardship. These were the men, however, of whom it was presently observed, that they could be well content to live on bread or potatoes, to drink water, to make the stones of the street their bed, and to sleep in their clothes, with no covering but the canopy of heaven.

Bibliographic information