c forces have worthily sustained our cause. The
casualties have been heavy. Ireland has had her share, although they
have been increased during the last week from the ranks of our gallant
navy by one of the hazards of warfare at sea. But of those who have
fallen in both services we may ask how could men die better? [Cheers.]

The Indian Contingent.

They have left behind them an example and an appeal. From all quarters
of the empire its best manhood is flowing in. The first Indian
contingent is, I believe, landing today at Marseilles, [loud cheers,]
and in all parts of our great dominions the convoys are already
mustering. Over half a million recruits have joined the colors here at
home, [cheers,] and I come to ask you in Ireland, though you don't need
my asking, to take your part. [Cheers and shouts of "We must."] There
was a time when, through the operations of laws which every one now
acknowledges to have been both unjust and impolitic, ["Hear, hear!"] the
martial spirit of and the capacity for which Irishmen have always been
conspicuous, found its chief outlet in the alien armies of the
Continent. I have seen it computed--I do not know whether with precise
accuracy--but I have seen it computed upon good authority that in the
first fifty years of the eighteenth century, when the penal laws were
here in full swing, nearly half a million Irishmen enlisted under the
banners of the empire of France and Spain, and we at home in the United
Kingdom suffered a double loss; for, gentlemen, not only were we drained
year by year of some of our best fighting material, ["Hear, hear!"] but
over and over again we found ourselves engaged in battle array suffering
and inflicting deadly loss upon those who might have been, and under
happier conditions would have been, fellow-soldiers of our own.
[Cheers.] The British Empire has always been proud, and with reason, of
those Irish regiments [cheers] and their Irish leaders, [more cheers,]
and was never prouder of them that it is today. [Great cheering.] We ask
you here in Ireland to give us more, [cheers, and a Voice, "You'll get
them,"] to give them without stinting. We ask Ireland to give of her
sons, the most in number, the best in quality that a proud and loyal
daughter of the empire ought to devote to the common cause. [Cheers.]

The Volunteers of Ireland.

The conditions seem to me to be exceptionally favorable for the purpose.
We have of late been witnessing here in Ireland a s