The French army have the character of being the best marchers in Europe, and I know from experience that no men, to use a phrase of the _Fancy_, understand better than they do how to “hit and get away”; nevertheless I would say, that an army composed exclusively of Irishmen would outmarch any French army as much as I know they would outfight them. The quality which carries a Frenchman through, and enables him to overcome obstacles truly formidable in themselves, is his gaiety, and his facility of accommodating, not only his demeanour, but his _stomach_ also, to circumstances as they require it. An Irishman is to the full as gay as a Frenchman; if he does not possess his _piquant_ wit—and I don’t say that he does not—he has in a paramount degree the rich humour of his own country, which is nowhere else to be found. He can live on as little nourishment as a Frenchman; give him his pipe of tobacco and he will march for two days without food and without _grumbling_; give him, in addition, a little spirits and a biscuit, and he will work for a week. This will not be a task so easy of accomplishment to the English soldier; early habits have given him a relish for good eating, and plenty of it too; if he has not a regular allowance of solid food, it is certain he will not do his work well for any great length of time. But an Irish fellow has been accustomed all his life to be what an Englishman would consider half-starved; therefore quantity or quality is no great consideration with him; his stomach is like a corner cupboard—_you might throw anything into it_. Neither do you find elsewhere the lively thought, the cheerful song or pleasant story, to be met _only_ in an Irish regiment. We had a few Englishmen in my corps, and I do not remember ever to have heard one of them attempt a joke. But there are those who think an Irish regiment more difficult to manage than that of any other nation. Never was there a more erroneous idea. The English soldier is to the full as drunken as the Irish, and not half so pleasant in his liquor.