The morning star and Catholic messenger., 1878-06-02
THE BATTLE OF FONTENOY.
Celebration Of the Battle Evo Of the Brig gade"
in Chicago.
SPEECH OF HON. A /. MORRISON.

With bloody plumcs the irish stand The h-ld j
| fought and won |"
| The "IIish Literary Association" O
Chicago celebrated the 1891 anniversar.
of the battle of Fontenoy, on the 10th May
in Greenebaum's Hall, with great eclat
Tie entertainmept consisted of an addres
| by Hon. A. L. Morrison the recitation o
Davis magnificent ballad, descriptive o
the famous battle, in glorious style, BY
Professor Mcfarland several humorou
readiDgs by Professor Rudolph and I
grand ball which exte, ded far into the
morning hours. This society has attained
for itself high position among the Letter
ary organizations of Chicago, its lectures
debates and entertainments being of the
very highest order, and always attended
by delighted audiences. Its annual ban
quets, which have been held on St. Pat
rick's night, for nine successive years, are
attended by the elite of the Irish American
portion of the community and are jastIy
regarded as the events of each returnin g
season. On this occasion the society cele,
brated the event on the lOsh instead of the
Ilth instant, as the latter date fell on Sat
urday, and the members did not wish to
extend the amusement into Sunday morn
ing. We give the address of Hon. A. L.
Morrison in full. He spoke as follows:
Mr.. President, Ladies' and Gentlemen,-
One hundred and thirty three years ago.
to morrow,-within a few miles of the
barrier town of Fontenoy, on the undu-
latipg plains OF the Netherlands and on
the north bank Of the sluggish Scheldt,-
one of the great battles of the world was
fought. On that decisive and disastrous
day, the rampant lions of England In glor-
iously bit the dust, and the Gllied banner
of France foated in naughty and unds
puted supremacy above the terrors of the
battlefield. The glorious old "Irish Bri
gade," composed of the infantry regiments
of Lally, Roth, Bulkeley, Berwick, Glare,
and Dillon, and the cavalry of Fitzjames,
commanded by Lord Charles O'Brien, Earl
of Thomond, Lieutenant General and
Marshal of France, formed part of the
victorious army. 1t is to celebrate this
defeat of our ancient enemy, to commemo-
rate the heroic deeds of those intrepid
Irish warriors, and to lay on their honored
graves the immortelles of our undying love
and affection, that we, their admiring
kinsmen, have assembled here to night.
The history Of the rld,-chequered as
it is by an Infinite variety of ever-chang-
ing incidents,-presents no parallel to the
career of the gallant Irish exiles who,
during the closing years of the 18th and
the entire of the 18th century, display ed
such soldierly qualities in the service OF
France. For the benefit of such of my
audience as may not be conversent with
the history of these stirring times, l will
cast rapid glance at some of the causes
which led to these strange and unique emi
grstions. In the year 1880. James Stuar!
(the fourth of the unhappy line of Scottish
monArchs, called to the English crown
upon the death of ENizAbeth, the last of the
iron Tpdors,) was expelled from England
by his rebellious subjects, and his son in
law, William, Prince of Orange, was calle
in to fill the vacant throne. A large por-
ton of the Scottish Highlandere, and the
entire Irish Catholic population, remained
true to the waning fortunes of the exiled
monarch aud sustained long and exhaust
iog war in hiss behalf. William was a
this time the recognized leader of aspowcr
full alliance OF the kings of Europe who
had banded themselves together TO resist
the aggressive spirit of Louis XIV. Vi
France, and subsequently maintained q
struggle Of many years duration, which is
known in history as the war of the Spanish
Succession, the cause of which was this -
In the last years of the reign of Charles II
of Spain, there were no less than three
aspirants to the monarchy; Philip, Dake
of Apjou, Dauphin of France, and grand
con of Louis XIV. being the nearest il
point of birth, was named in the roll oi
the dying king as his heir ; and, in the wal
which ensued to prevent his accession &c
the Spanish threne, the "Irish Brigade
largely participated. Thus James and
Louis were naturally flung together and
formed an alliance, offensive and defensive
with each other. The Earl of Tyrconnell
James Irish Viceroy, raised, according tc
soEe historians, 1O0. 600 men but, az their
equipment was to be accomplished by the
private contributions of the Irish 10y alists
1t followed that the means were found en-
tirely inadequate, and the result was that
the troops were badly organized and badly
armed. An arrangement was then entered
into by which Louis was to send 6,OOC
armed veterans to Ireland, in exchange
for like number of Irish recruits and
the same feet which brought the French
troops under General Lauzan carried back
5000 of the very flower of the young men
of ireland under the .chivalrous Justin
Mccarthy, Earl of .Mountcashel. The
services rendered by this small but brilliant
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