Falkiner — The Irish. Guards. 23 



:is well as any regiment in England " ; ^ but this did not prevent 

 Tyrconnel from proceeding with his refonns. The new officers were 

 commissioned and presented to the regiment on parade. Sir Charles 

 Fielding, who had served with the regiment from its fonnation and 

 risen from- ensign to be lieutenant-colonel, was superseded in his 

 command — the King, as Tp-connel put it, " being so well satisfied in 

 the long services of Sir Charles Fielding that he had removed him to 

 prefer him to a better post "; ^ and Sir William Dorrington, a native of 

 England and the youngest major in the army, whose subsequent 

 career evinced considerable military ability, but who was a complete 

 stranger to his new command, was appointed in his place. ^ Other old 

 officers of long standing ia the regiment, such as Major Billingsley 

 and Captain Margetson,* a son of the Irish Primate, were likewise 

 suspended. The changes among the officers were followed by the 

 dismissal of 500 men, at least 350 of whom, according to Clarendon, 

 were " able and lusty men," and a credit to the regiment. The 

 hardship of their dismissal was aggi'avated by the fact that they had 

 just bought fresh unifonns by direction of their colonel, the young 

 Duke of Onnond, and were not reimbursed for their expenditure. To 

 fill the places of these men, Dorrington received orders to recruit in 

 such counties as he thought fit ; and accordingly despatched Arthur,^ 

 one of his captains, to Connaught to raise men for the Guards — a pro- 

 ceeding much resented by Clarendon, who forbade Dorrington to 

 proceed in it. 



So violent an exercise of authority inevitably excited alann. 

 "All men,"® wrote Clarendon, "who have any consideration and 

 care of the King's service are extremely troubled at the method which 

 is taken of doing things. To turn out, in one day, 400 men of the 

 Regiment of Guards, 300 of whom have no visible fault, and many of 

 them cheerfully went the last year fii'st into the north and after- 

 Avards into England, does put apprehensions into men's heads which 

 they would otherwise have no cause for, and putting in none but 

 natives in their rooms, who really to the eye, as to stature and 



1 Clarendon State Papers, i., p. 440. 



"^ Ibid., i.,p. 434. 



^ Ibid., ii., p. 45. There is no authority for D' Alton's statement, followed by 

 O'Callaghan, that Dorrington was connected with the regiment from its formation. 

 His name does not appear in any of the early lists of officers. 



* Ibid., i., p. 435. 



5 Ibid., i., p. 578. 



« Ibid., i., p. 476, July 4, 1686. 



