In all that I have written, I have generally mentioned my treatment, as a prisoner and exile, in common with that of others. However, though our treatment was the same, our circumstances, as to age, health, wealth, and tender Some of connexions, were widely different.

us were young and healthy; others advanced in years, or delicate in constitution: some possessed liberal fortunes, which admitted of expense, and temporary privations; some had large capitals in business which continued productive in the hands of their connexions; others were in very limited circumstances or dependent on professions, the emoluments of which ceased with their privation of office: again, some were unencumbered with the cares of family; while others had to regret the distresses of wives and children deprived of the means, not only of competence and comfort, but nearly of subsisience. Others still, by the visitations of providence, had to mourn the death of relatives, near and dear to their hearts, with whom, in their last moments, they were debarred from intercourse, and even the possibility of affording relief, or administering consolation. From this variety of circumstance and connexion, our variety of suffering, both in body and mind, must have been equally great. Yet, god knows during our long seclusion from every foreign good, and under the inflictions which we suffered, the best circumstanced among us found

his sufferings nearly equal to his patience, and the burthen of his feelings almost as great as he could bear.

In the greater part of these misfortunes and sufferings it was my lot to be involved. I was in my fifty third year, when torn from my family, and deprived of my freedom. Latterly, I had suffered much from bilious attacks. With rhumatism, I had been so long and severely afflicted, that I had been obliged to wear flannel next my skin, from my knees to my wrists, for upwards of twenty years, previous to my arrest, Before the end of my second week in confinement, the prevalence of vermin among the poorer prisoners in the prevost, obliged me to throw it aside; though, in the opinion of an eminent physician, at the hazard of my life. Yet, thank god, I did not suffer any sensible injury from the change. An indignant feeling, arising from the treatment I was receiving, had invigorated my mind, and, perhaps, by a well-known sympathy, braced my bodily system-I was the husband of a justly beloved wife, who was born of a genteel family, brought up in affluence, and liberally educated; but, who, for several years, had been seldom able to dress or undress herself. Yet, thank god, she continued capable of presiding over the education of our two daughters. Besides these daughters I was father of four sons. One of these had finished

his education, and, as already mentioned, was serving his majesty, as a surgeon in the navy, whilst I was languishing in an Irish prison, under the anathema of the Irish clerk of the representative of his majesty in Ireland. Happily, I had a second son placed in an eminent mercantile house, as an apprentice; and the other two I was educating, for learned professions, or business, as circumstances, inclination, or opportunity might determine; in all the fondness of a father's hope, that they would be useful members of society. For the support and education of this family, my income was in all, about £270 per ann. only £25 of which was independent of my offices as a presbyterian minister, and master of a small academy.

From the number of my family, the extent of my connexions, and the expense to which I was exposed by circumstances which I have related, it was not in my power to save money, and my arrest put a complete stop to my earnings. My congregation, it is true, continued my stipend for about seventeen months. Yet, withal, such were the expenses to which I and my family were exposed, while I was prisoner in Ireland, that ere my confinement had half expired, every shilling I could call my own, was expended, and my family reduced to dependence on the above mentioned £25 per ann. a very small precarious annuity; and what my

son

son could spare from his income as a surgeon, And even these scanty resources were greatly diminished, before relief presented itself from any other quarter.

The first of these diminutions arose from the ingratitude and villainy of one of my own tenants a Hugh Hastings-whom I had been nursing up from beggary to independence, for sixteen years. Being master of a good horse, he got himself enrolled in lord Londonderry's yeomen cavalry. This effected, he not only refused to pay his proportion of rent, but, with sabre in hand, threatened the other tenants with vengeance, if they would dare to pay theirs to rebels and, for doing so, he impudently asserted the authority, and boasted the protection, of lords Londonderry and Castlereagh. This fact as far as relates to Hastings, is true in all its parts. But, as his conduct proves him to be a villain, his charge against their lordships must be a vile falsehood. No man, in his senses, can suppose that either could be capable of such unparalleled meanness and malice. The fact itself however, is a glaring instance of the impudence of scoundrels in the abuse of great names, and the enormities of which they are guilty under the pretext of their authority.

A second and more affecting diminution of their means of support was the death of my son, Bb 2

who

who was in the navy. Had this event affected only the external circumstances of the family, it would scarcely have been regretted. Or, had it stood alone, good sense, heartfelt religion, and the lenient hand of time, with the blessing of god, would have gradually obliterated the impressions, which it made, and soothed the sorrows, which it excited. But, preceded, as it had been, by the death of my father, and that of Mrs. Dickson's only brother; and succeeded, as it soon was, by those of her father and her only sister, the affliction of my family must have been great, indeed; and their situation melancholy, destitute as they then were, of father, husband, earthly guardian, or protector. And, surely, the heart must be a total stranger in the school of adversity, and equally so to the feelings of our nature, which can suppose my sensibilities untouched, or my soul unwrung, prisoner and exile as I was, far removed beyond the possibility, either of relieving their distresses by resuming my functions, or their hearts by mingling the expressions of my sorrow with theirs.

Having thus recited the principal circumstances of a confinement and exile, long in their duration, variegated in their modes, and, to me, ruinous in their effects; I shall now advert to the evidence, on which government, and those who

acted