The Army.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 2, Issue 286, 7 March 1881, Page 3

The Army.

The Poll Mall Gazette gives the following particulars respecting the nationality of the troops stationed in Ireland, which will be of interest at the present moment; —“ Nothing strikes one so much as the strange difference between the position of the various battalions according as they fall under the heads of English, Scotch, or Irish localised regiments. Of the English battalions, there are 46 at home and 63 on foreign service; of the Scotch battalions, three at home and 13 on foreign service; and of the Irish battalions, seven at home and nine on foreign service. At first the student strange to English customs might be inclined to compliment the Irish battalians on their good luck in having more than half their number at home, and ‘ localised.’ But a further analysis ot the figures would rather surprise him. Out of the 46 English battalions on home service no fewer than 18 are in Ireland, while the Irish battalions have in their own country only one solitary example —namely, the 104th at Dublin. And if he turns to the 104th Regiment, in another part of the Army List, he will find that it is in reality the Bengal Fusiliers. Not one of the regiments specially known as Irish and localised in Ireland is present in its own country, much less its own district. The Scotch regiments, on the other hand, have only three battalions at home; but two of them are quartered in Scotland, the third being in camp at Aldershot. There is no English or Irish Battalion in Scotland, which is therefore entirely garrisoned by its own people; while there is no purely Irish battalion in Ireland, nor any Scotch, the whole force there being English.”