and drill, and will be taken at first sight for
light infantry of the line, yet their manner, their
language, and their intelligence in conversation,
remove them far above the standard of the
ordinary soldier.

The period of drill having expired, the
effective men are told off to different counties;
one strict rule being observed, that no man is
to be sent to his native county, lest there
might be local temptations to breaches of the
"no favour" clause of the constabulary oath.
The training of the whole force in one central
depôt, from which they are scattered north, south,
east, and west, and to which they occasionally
return on receiving promotion, and under other
circumstances, tends greatly to foster an esprit
du corps amongst the thousands of which the
force is composed. The four constables that the
traveller meets with in an isolated roadside
barrack in the mountains of Ireland do not feel
that there are only four of them. They hardly
ever fully realise this. They are four of a great
force of between eleven thousand and twelve
thousand well-disciplined men, under the
command of one inspector-general, and with one
great drill-centre in the Phœnix Park and
commanding centre in the Castle of Dublin.
The four apparently isolated men know where
every station, or barrack, in their own and the
adjoining counties, is situated, and that even
in times like the present they could not be
long left without relief, if able to hold out for but
a short time against an attacking force. They
are sometimes called in Dublin "the county
constabulary," to distinguish between them and
the metropolitan police; but they are not ordinary
county police, as will be readily seen.

The several ranks in the constabulary are the
same as in the military, but with different names.
The grades are: sub-constable, acting constable,
constable, head constable (second class), head
constable (first class), third-class sub-inspector,
second-class sub-inspector, first-class sub-inspector,
second-class county inspector, first-class
county inspector. The military rank
corresponding with these is private, corporal, sergeant,
colour-sergeant, sergeant-major, ensign,
lieutenant, captain, major, and lieutenant-colonel,
respectively. Over the entire force are an
inspector-general, deputy-inspector-general, and
four assistant-inspectors-general. The chief
office is in the Lower Castle Yard, Dublin, and
between it and the depôt in the park hourly
intercourse is kept up by mounted orderlies,
and between it and the counties by daily
despatches. Each county inspector is responsible
for the discipline and good order of the force in
his county, or riding of a county, and he only
communicates direct with The Castle. Each
sub-inspector communicates with his county
inspector, and the head constables and constables
with their respective sub-inspectors. The men
in each barrack are paraded under arms every
morning; in full dress on Sunday and Monday
mornings. If there were only two men in the
barrack, they "parade" as formally as if there
were a thousand. It is told of one rather
eccentric sergeant, a martinet in his own
sphere, that he made three men go through the
movement of forming "four deep," telling them
to "dress" by the pump in the yard, and reckon
it as "the pivot man." At least once each
month the sub-inspector visits each barrack in
his district unexpectedly, and inspects and
drills the whole party. The arms, ammunition,
furniture, bedding, and all barrack
requisites, are minutely examined. The
sergeant's books, his diary of how the men
were each day employed, are closely gone into,
and "any complaints?" are asked publicly on
parade, and considered if made; which latter
very seldom occurs. The county inspector
makes a half-yearly inspection of every barrack
and party in his county; and when the men
from various stations attend the quarter sessions,
assizes, races, and elections, in discharge of
their duties, they are thus brought together
frequently in larger bodies than in their
barrack, and are then paraded and drilled each day.
By these several means the training which they
received in the depôt is kept alive, and discipline
is preserved. Any complaints against the men
for intemperance or insubordination are, when
proved, visited with severe fines and penalties,
reaching for a third offence to dismissal in
disgrace, the announcement of which is communicated
to the gentleman who gave the testimonials
on which the individual was taken into the force.

The duties of the constabulary are
multifarious. They act as an ordinary police force
throughout the country. They attend elections,
assizes, races, fairs, and markets, to preserve
the peace. In cities and towns like Cork, Limerick,
and Belfast, they perform regular city
police duties, singly on beats. They also dress
in "plain clothes," to act as detectives. They
arrest criminals. They collect agricultural
statistics. They suppress illicit distillation.
They look after poachers of game and salmon.
They take the census at each decade. They
deliver and collect the voting-papers for the
elections of poor-law guardians annually. In
fact, there is scarcely an act of parliament in
reference to the civil government of Ireland
with which the constabulary have not some
duty to perform. They are, besides all this as
civil servants, an admirable military force, as
their actions prove in suppressing Smith
O'Brien's "rebellion of '48," and their more
recent discharge of military duties in suppressing
the Fenian rebellion. Their courage and
skill at Tallaght, eight miles from Dublin, when
fourteen men, under Sub-Inspector Bourke,
dispersed five hundred or more armed Fenians,
and actually captured sixty-five stragglers in their
flight;* their spirited defence at Kilmallock,
under Head Constable Adams, when the same
number of men kept a barrack under a three
hours' fire from a Fenian force commanded by an
officer of the late army of America, and when
the barrack contained three women and thirteen
children—the wives and children of the
constables—prove them to be no mean soldiers.

*See page 342 of the present volume.

When the loyalty, or disloyalty, of Ireland is