The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1861-11-28

Col. CoRcoRAs.--Ths redonbtable Federal
warrior, who is still growing like sick bear
over his captivity and disgrace at Manassas, in
dites letter from Charleston to New York, in
which he complains that the prisoners were not
properly treated in Richmond that they Were
subjected TO the idle and offensive curiosity of
spectators that they had no opportunities OF
air and exercise, and, finally what Col Cor
coran evidently considers the climax of cruelty,
that no one offered them any spiritual con-
| ISOLATION"
We contess ourselves deeply panied by these
| prison revelations of Col Corcoran. That an
officer of his rare merits and Il gentleman OF
his high social position should be treated with
such indlgnitiest isa scandal to the Nineteenth
Century. Well may he gibe at Virginia
hospitality" which has SO simally failed to
| know true Prince by instinct, and per-
| mitted peerless scion of British peerage,
| and blooming flower of Federal chivalry, to
pine and almost perish for the want of ";ir.
exercise and spiritual onsolation'
1t ls all ancient saying, !" Put a beggar on
horseback, and he'll ride to the devil" and
d H-VA- Ai'oS oA''Atio OF the truth oil the
problem was never seen or heard of than this
! same CorcOran. Who is the man Who il
this fellow that gives himself more airs than
Prince Albert, twhom Corcoran refused to
| honor by calling out his regiment when the
| Prince visited New York y Tell it not in
| Gath-he is an ex-polcemen of Ireland, the
| lowest and most servile tool that the British
| Government employs for its meanest work in
| that or any other of its doninons He came
to New York, and improved his condition by
setting up dram-shop, which was literally
| patronized by the neighborhood politicians
| lhis Is the fellow who now tQnres as Colonel
and who makes more noise in the papers than
any and all of the. gentlemen of the regular
| service who have been taken prisoners It
must he the most mOrtitying circumstance in
| the captivity of those officers that they have
| To herd with such loafers and humbugs AZ
! torcoFan, and to be represented in the press and
pubic estimation by such a miserable coun-
| terieit of an officer and Il gentleman
We really feel ashamed to waste 40 many
| words on man who, i'll his own country,
wonld never have presumed to stand with hia
| hat OH IN the presence Of the humblest Of the
| neishboring gentry, but his taunt about ''Iir-
| ginia hospitality" seems to demand some com
ment. ltis sagreat want OF humanity that, when
| people are here who proclaimed in advance
their intention to lavage the whole land deiile
| its hearth stones, and exteIminate the whole
race, we do not board them at the Exchange
feed them on oysters and champagne, and
/ .s.,, ~ H. At.
| knowledge our shortcomings with all humil-
| ity We have failed most egregiousy in the
only kind Of hospitality that such wretches
demand or could appreciate, and that was, as
| we could not afford to furnish them with all
| the comforts due their exalted worth and
| character, to send them to q world where they
| would be sure of receiving their reward II
Gov. Wise had hung old John Brown on
| sight it would have saved a good deal of
bother afterwards; and if the South, invaded
| by an army which brought with it handcntf.
| and halters, and threatened rebels from the
President down, with the gallows, had treated
the prisoners Of that army with taste of their
| own medicine, the war would be now ap-
| preaching its end.
| As to Corcorans lament about "spirituap
| consolation, ii he does not mean "spirituons, -
| he manufactures sheer false hood when he saws
| that nothing of the kind was offered till he
reached Charleston. The pions and exemplary
Bishop Of his church in this Diocese, with a
zeal which acts upon the presumption that every
human form has a soul in it, visited Corcorau
| in prison, and was anxious to rescue him as
brand from the burning. But he was met
| with such a torrent of abuse of the South, its
cause, and its people, and such an evident de
/ termination TO convert a visit of a purely
| spiritual character into an occasion of politi
cal abjurgation and vituperation, that he was
| forced to shake the dust of the prison from his
feet If Bishop Lynch has met with any bet
ter success, of which we have no proof but
| Corcoran's word, it shows tha: captivity is
gradually bringing him to his senses But We
advise Bishop Lynch not to be too sanguine
of the new penitent. An old sinner like Cor
coran, an exQueens policeman in Ireland
and veteran bar keeper for Tammany Hall
| in New York, must be, morally speaking, an
Augean stable, and cannot he cleaned ont in q
day. He is one of those "lewd fellows of the
bsser sort" graphically described in the sa.
cred records, who need to be burned to a red
heat, like foul tobacco pipe, in the hottest
fires of penance, before any cleanly and hon.
est man can admit them to his company.