The Sixty-ninth New York and Ninth Massachusetts would be far outstripped in numbers by the thousands of units scattered throughout our army and navy, regular and volunteer, for wherever the stars of the Republic light the gloom of the battle-field, or war thunders on the deep, there, his breast bared to her enemies, whoever they be, you find the most loyal and valorous Americans in the sons of the expatriated Irishman. While Anglo-Saxon statesmen may quibble in congress and Anglo-Saxon schoolmen criticise in college, “Like lions leaping at a fold when mad with hunger’s pang,” you will find in the forefront, disdaining quibble and laughing at criticism, the hot tide of valor and chivalry which, proud to be American, is not ashamed to be called Irish. Out upon the bigots who would do it injustice! Defiance to those who would deride its power or minimize its influence! It asks no quarter in any field of industry, learning, or strife, and is as great in peace as in war. If its more acknowledged glories are of the more sanguinary fields when Mars sows in blood and night what Minerva reaps in the dews and light of the morning, it is not because of any undue pugnacity, any animal ferocity, but because the Irish Celt, threatened with an extermination more cruel than that of our red Indians, with the schoolhouse closed to his intellect, and the church to his conscience, had to take down the stainless and invincible sword of his fathers and become a universal soldier. In every land, from the Shannon to the Tiber, from the Tiber to the Ganges, from the Ganges to the Potomac, and from the Potomac to San Juan; on every battle-field from Clontarf to Fontenoy, from Fontenoy to Waterloo, from Waterloo to Marye’s heights, where the Irish brigade climbed steeps made slippery with their blood; and from Fredericksburg to Santiago and Manila, Irish valor has gleamed a star on the pages of universal history. A MEETING IN PROVIDENCE, R. I., ON APRIL 19, 1899, TO OBSERVE THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE BATTLE OF LEXINGTON, CONCORD AND CAMBRIDGE. The Council of the Society held a meeting at the Narragansett Hotel, Providence, R. I., on Wednesday afternoon, April 19, 1899, in honor of the anniversary of the Battle of Lexington, Concord and Cambridge. President-General Gargan occupied the chair. A communication was read from the Society of American Authors, suggesting that the organization place itself on record in favor of recognizing December 14, next, as a “Washington Memorial Day” throughout the country. The date mentioned is the centennial anniversary of the death of the _Pater Patriæ_. The suggestion was adopted, and the secretary was directed to communicate this action to similar organizations interested in the anniversary.