THEIR HEIGHT, FORM, AXD STRENGTH. 67 



56. In 1805, 13th of May, Charles James Fox, in 

 a (speech in the House of Commons, said : " All 

 your supplies would be little rivulets compared to 

 (Ireland) this great ocean of military resource." Of 

 that period Sir E. Bulwer-Lytton wrote that " two- 

 thirds of the British army was Irish, and the lowest 

 of them, the dregs of the Irish populace. What a 

 reflection ! " 



57. In 1807, Grattan, in the English Parliament, 

 said: "In the last war, of 80,000 seamen, 50,000 

 were Irish names; in Chelsea one-third of the pen- 

 sioners were Irish names ; in some of the men-of-war 

 nearly the whole complement of men were Irish. 

 What is the British navy? A number of planks? 

 Certainly not. A number of British men? Cer- 

 tainly not. No ; but a number of British and Irish. 

 Transfer the Irish seamen to the French, and where 

 is the British navy?" 



Grattan said in the English Parliament, May 31, 

 1811: "The Catholics constitute a great propor- 

 tion of your armies, a great proportion of your 

 marine force. A statement has been furnished of 

 the proportion between the Protestant and Catholic 

 part of the forces quartered in the Isle of Wight, 

 and of the crews of several ships at Portsmouth, and 

 the Catholics were by far the greatest proportion. 

 In view of our maritime and land forces, the number 



