IRISH GUARDS.
[TO TUT EDITOR OP TER " EPTOTATOR."]
Sia,—I was very much pleased to see the suggestion in the Spec- tator of March 4th that one of the Irish Line regiments should be converted into a regiment of Foot Guards, though it seems a pity that the additional battalions of Guards recently raised were not made into an Irish Guard regiment, instead of becoming additional battalions of regiments already existing. On looking recently into certain volumes of Hansard, I found that in the year 1855 Mr. Vincent Scully asked Lord Palmerston why there were no Irish Guards, and that the Premier replied that the Guards had special privileges, and that they then bore as large a proportion to the rest of the Army as was expedient (Hansard, Vol. OXXXIX., 1855, p. 1,459). The formation of an Irish Guard regiment would be an act of courtesy pleasing to all Irishmen, Catholic or Protestant. Hitherto they must have felt that Irish ques- tions were taken up only when the necessities of English party politics compelled their consideration.—I am, Sir, dm, T. V. HOLMES.
Crooms Hill, Greenwich Park, S.E., March 7th.
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