Waterbury Democrat., 1901-01-25
WASTED vALoR.

There is no nation i'll the WOrld which has been plunged down so low into the depths Of degradation. or which has been held bound so long-in the chains of serv1tuda whose mill tary renown. nevertheless, is so bright and lustrous as Is that Of Ireland. The history Of our race is 8 curious and seemingly contradictory one. Irish men have won victories for every coun- try save their own. Beneath every
 flag and in defence of every throne
 have their swords been drawn. This was especially true of the exiled Irish of the seventeenth and eighteenth cen turies.
 For exiled in those penal days,
 Our banners over Europe blaze.
 AZof, Barcelona, Fontenoy, Sargos- sa, Families, Cremona, Lanelate, Dun- kirk, Friburgh, Blenheim, Dudenha- ven, Landen, and in a hundred other battles, seiges and surprises, the pre- eminence of Irish arms was manifest ed and acknowledged. Yet this mil itary renown won by Irishmen on the fields of continental Europe is not due solely to the martial spirit of the Irish race. Irish bravery Is universally &C., konwledged. But it would be false, y thirst for military glory, and not the heavy misfortunes which befel Ireland
 and which were Il consequence of Ire !! lands subjection to Englands domi- nation. that impelled Irishlnen to of- | fer their swords to any king that ac- l cepted them. When Ireland was | free nation, in the sixth. seventh and | eighth centuries her sons lived in dO- nestle tranquility and at peace With | the world. Literature was asSiduous- | ly cultivated. Schools of philosophy | multiplied. The arts were pursued.
 And the only victories won by Irish
 men on the continent of Europe were
 solely in the name of religion and sci
 ence. That was Ireland's golden age. 1 And 1reland's golden age was when 1 sine was an independent nation among 1 the nations of the earth. But the 1 Dane came, and then came War. Irish
 men threw aside their books and 1 grasped the sword. The arts of peace | fell into disuse. The Dane was ex- | pelled the land, and letters. poetry, mu- | sic. paintaing, architecture With 1 everything else that betokened civili- ! Zation, were pursued again, and sm1l- l ing peace, with the horn of plenty at | her feet and the sickle of the golden | harvest in her snowy hand, ascended 1 her chaT and reigned once more over
 l free and happy people. But then
 came the English invader. And then again came war. And for seven red
 stained centuries-from the day that
 Strongbow set hostile foot upon Irish
 soil down until this day-war has gone
 on between the Irish people and the
 champions of English domination. The
 history of Ireland under English rule may be written in four chapters. And
 these chapters may be headed: Plun-
 der Servitude, Martyrdom and Emf
 grafton For ages Ireland has been
 a nation of paupers and soldiers. This
 is T humiliating truth. Nor is 1t any
 the less true that it is to these m1sfor- ! tunes of Ireland, and not so much to l the spirit of reckless adventure, that | France. Spain, Austria and even Rus
 sia. owe some of their greatest heroes and many of their most glorious
 achievements. Every obserVant stu dent of Irish history will admit this.
 The English conqueror first tore the
 lands of Ireland from the possession Of
 the people, and then, in the reign of William and Mary, he struck a crush 1 ing blow at Irish manufactures. The ! English interest demanded this. Si
 that Irishmen finding it impossible to
 make a living for themselves in the | land of their birth unable to call the 1 fruits of the soil their own, and for
 bidden to practice their fingers in the | cunning of artifice, were absolutely | forced to sell themselves for their ra- ! 1ions, either to the commander or the l English garrison or to some foreign king: and for those miserable rations
 first, and for a kingly smile of recog-
 milton and a prospect of honorable
 promotion afterwards, the Irish sol
 dier of fortune freely poured out his
 blood and rendered most excellent ser 1 vice upon many and many gory field. l From Dunlzirk to Belgrade, from the l Duero to Waterloo. Ireland was first
 rate recruiting ground, and the recruit
 ing sergeants of Europe were well
 aware of the fact and readily took
 advantage of it. The recruiting agents
 of France had long been in the habit
 of crossing the narrow seas and bring
 ing back the stalwart sons of the west 1 ern island to serve their ambitious
 kings in every corner of Europe.
 The Irish went in thousands to I Spain, considerable numbers enisrated
 to Austria also. They went abroad as
 soldiers. It was a military exodus
 But it was to the shores of France l that the immense tide flowed for q 1 hundred years. According to Csti-
 mates based on the reports of the
 French war office. from October l691
 to May, 1145, or from the treaty of
 Limerick to the battle of Fontenoy,
 those Irish military eNiles amounted to
 above 450.O0O. and from l745 to 179l. l It.
 brigade through the fall of the Bour-
 bon monarchy by the first French rev
 olution, it is shown by authentic sour
 ces that the grand total for the cen
 tury of Irishmen by birth who died in ! the service of France alone comes up | to the enormous figure of 4SO,OOO
 1 During the latter years of Louis | XIV. says I writer, there could not
 be less at any one time than 3OOOO
 Irish in his armies. At one time also
 there were upwards of thirty Irish