Page:Biographia Hibernica volume 1.djvu/351

 340 CURRAN. "Here he was flung into a room of about thirteen feet by twelve. It was called the hospital of the provost.' It was occupied by six beds; on which were to lie fourteen or fifteen miserable wretches; some of them sinking under contagious diseases. Here he passed the first night, with- out bed or food. The next morning his humane keeper, Major Sandys, appeared. The plaintiff demanded why he was imprisoned ? complained of hunger; and asked for the gaol allowance. Major Sandys replied, by a torrent of abuse, which he concluded by saying, 'Your crime is your insolence to Major Sirr; however, he disdains to trample upon you. You may appease him by proper and contrite submission; but, unless you do so, you shall rot where you are. I tell you this, that, if government will not protect us, by God we will not protect them. You will probably (for I know your insolent and ungrateful bardiness) attempt to get out by an habeas corpus; but in that you will find yourself mistaken, as such a rascal deserves.' Hevey was insolent enough to issue an habeas corpus; and a return was made upon it, that Hevey was in custody under a warrant from General Craig, on a charge of high treason; which return was grossly false." “ If," says the reviewer, “ it be the test of supreme genius to produce strong and permanent emotions, the passages which we have quoted must be in the very highest style of eloquence. There is not a subject of these king- doms, we hope, that can read them without feeling his blood boil, and his heart throb with indignation; and without feeling that any government, which could tolerate or connive at such proceedings, held out a bounty to rebellion which it would be almost dastardly to reject. The eloquence of these passages is the facts they recite; and it is far more powerful than that which depends upon the mere fancy or art of the orator." There are many passages, however, of this description in the volume before us, which deserves to be quoted. -Mr. Curran is giving a specimen of the state of his country, at the time that General Abercrombie, after his