This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1905 edition. Excerpt: ... 76 the irish establishment m The Scottish regiments of cavalry among these were, as you doubtless know, the Greys and Seventh Dragoons (now Hussars); the Irish were the Fifth Horse (now the Fourth Dragoon Guards), the Fifth Dragoons, the Inniskillings, and Eighth Dragoons (now Hussars). The regular establishment of a cavalry regiment, whether Horse or dragoons, was six troops, excepting the Blues and Second Horse or King's Dragoon Guards, each of which had nine troops. We may leave the Scottish establishment alone, and confine ourselves to the period after 1707, when there were only a British and an Irish establishment. These, you must understand, were totally distinct. Each had its own Sovereign (the Lord-Lieutenant exercising regal power in Ireland), its own Commander-in-Chief, its own War Office, its own Paymaster-General, its own Board of Ordnance, its own Corps of Artillery, its own establishment for the strength of regiments, and even its own rates of pay. For Ireland in the eighteenth century was the victualling-yard of the world, and, since provisions were cheaper, the pay was lower than in Britain. In Ireland very early the troops were put into barracks--scattered barracks, it is true, but still barracks; and the Irish establishment being fixed in 1689 at 12,000 men, it was the practice, in order to save expense to England, to cram into it as many regiments, or rather skeletons of regiments, as could be comprehended in that number. Above all, partly for purposes of police, partly for economy, the garrison included a very large proportion of cavalry. From 1720 onwards, four regiments of Horse and six out of the fourteen regiments of dragoons were quartered in Ireland, often with establishments as low as thirty men in a troop....