The Sham Squire, and the Informers of 1798

Front Cover
Donahoe, 1866 - Ireland - 379 pages

From inside the book

Selected pages

Contents

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

Popular passages

Page 202 - ... but that which your verdict shall afford. I have heard of assassination by sword, by pistol, and by dagger; but here is a wretch who would dip the Evangelists in blood; if he thinks he has not sworn his victim to death, he is ready to swear, without mercy and without end: but oh! do not, I conjure you, suffer him to take an oath; the hand of the murderer should not pollute the purity of the gospel: if he will swear, let it be on the knife, the proper symbol of his profession!
Page 171 - They are new to me. I found them growing on a grave which bore no tombstone, nor other memorial of the dead man, save these ugly weeds that have taken upon themselves to keep him in remembrance. They grew out of his heart, and typify, it may be, some hideous secret that was buried with him, and which he had done better to confess during his lifetime.
Page 308 - OH! BREATHE NOT HIS NAME. OH ! breathe not his name, let it sleep in the shade, Where cold and unhonour'd his relics are laid : Sad, silent, and dark, be the tears that we shed, As the night-dew that falls on the grass o'er his head. But the night-dew that falls, though in silence it weeps, Shall brighten with verdure the grave where he sleeps ; And the tear that we shed, though in secret it rolls, Shall long keep his memory green in our souls.
Page 163 - ... of growing authority. He measures his value by the coffins of his victims; and, in the field of evidence, appreciates his fame as the Indian warrior does in fight — by the number of scalps with which he can swell his triumphs.
Page 23 - It is very true, my Lord, that I am poor, and the circumstance has certainly somewhat curtailed my library : my books are not numerous, but they are select, and I hope they have been perused with proper dispositions. I have prepared myself for this high profession rather by the study of a few good works, than by the composition of a great many bad ones.
Page 46 - ... the Government of this realm during the continuation of his Majesty's present indisposition, and no longer; and, under the style and title of Prince Regent of Ireland, in the name and on...
Page 251 - The thing is incredible. If I was called upon to point out, next to Curran, the man most obnoxious to the Government, — who most hated them, and was most hated by them, — it would have been Leonard MacNally,— that MacNally who-, amidst the military audience, stood by Curran's side while he denounced oppression, defied power, and dared every danger...
Page 23 - I have stooped to acquire it by servility and corruption. If I rise not to rank, I shall at least be honest; and should I ever cease to be so, many an example shows me that an illgained elevation, by making me the more conspicuous, would only make me the more universally and the more notoriously contemptible.
Page 117 - Dickson, (lord bishop of Down) assured me that he had seen families returning peaceably from mass, assailed without provocation, by drunken troops and yeomanry, and the wives and daughters exposed to every species of indignity, brutality, and outrage, from which neither his remonstrances nor those of other Protestant gentlemen could rescue them.
Page 241 - ... bringing to the memory of your lordship. A learned and respected brother barrister* had a silver cup; the Major heard that for many years it had borne an inscription of "Erin go bragh" which meant

Bibliographic information