EFFECTS OF ENLISTMENT--MARTIAL TENDENCIES--THE SHE BARRACKS--THE DUBLIN
GARRISON--AN ARTILLERY AMAZON--A COLONEL OF DRAGOONS--DONNYBROOK
FAIR--THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC.
In one of the preceding pages I stated that "the military enrolments
relieved our district of a great number of loose characters, whose
abstraction was very salutary to our community." I subsequently
expressed an intention to submit to my readers "some remarks that might
be considered interesting, and perhaps important."
It is unnecessary to particularise the numerous varieties of
objectionable tendencies and habits, any of which will be considered
sufficient to constitute the person exhibiting them "an undoubted
scamp." In Dublin and its suburban districts, society has never been
free from the evils incident to the existence of such disreputable
characters; but I fully believe that we are not more tainted by them
than any other part of the United Kingdom of equal extent and
population. The three regiments of militia embodied at the commencement
of the Crimean war relieved us of some hundreds of loose, disorderly, or
dishonest fellows, the riddance of whom produced a very desirable
decrease in the custody cases of our police-courts. However, at the
termination of the war, those regiments were brought back, and
disembodied in the locality where they had been raised; and many persons
might reasonably expect very disagreeable and injurious results from the
return of those whose departure was regarded as a happy riddance by the
community from which they had been abstracted. But very few instances
occurred of the discharged militia-men relapsing into disreputable
habits and criminal practices. Military service had produced a great and
most desirable reformatory effect. Supervision, strict without
unnecessary severity, with the adjuncts of regular and wholesome diet,
comfortable clothing and personal cleanliness, emulation in the
efficient discharge of duty, and the incitements arising from the
preference accorded in various minor appointments and employments to the
well-conducted soldier--all these, together with a change from the scene
of previous improprieties and disreputable associations, strongly tended
to generate a desire for improvement, and the acquisition of a new
character. Similar results were observable in reference to the last
enrolment and subsequent disembodiment of those regiments consequent on
the outbreak and suppression of the Indian mutiny. I wrote to the late
Lord Herbert of Lea, then Mr. Sydney Herbert, and Secretary of State for
War, in reference to the reformatory results, which I attributed to
military influence. He read my letter in the House of Commons when
moving the army estimates, and excited much laughter by stating that he
did not think it expedient to mention the name of the writer or the
regiments to which the communication referred.
My eldest son was a lieutenant in the County of Dublin Militia, which,
soon after being embodied, was stationed at Waterford. One morning he
was crossing the barrack yard from his quarters, to serve on a
regimental court-martial, before which some disorderly or insubordinate
characters were to be brought, when he was accosted by the wife of one
of the delinquents. She earnestly besought him not to be very severe on
"poor Larry," and that it would be a hardship if he got worse treatment
in Waterford than he'd get in Dublin for a little spree. She added, "The
owld gentleman, your father, long life to him, never put the poor fellow
up for more than a week at a time."
MARTIAL TENDENCIES.
During the period of my magisterial duty, I almost invariably discharged
the afternoon business, by an arrangement with my colleagues, which
tended to their convenience and mine. The attestations of recruits were
very seldom taken in the morning, and consequently they were generally
made before me. At the commencement of the Crimean war, recruiting was
very rife, and I was frequently appealed to by the recruit as to the
particular place in which the regiment for which he was enlisted was
stationed, inasmuch as he had bargained to be sent "where the fighting
was going on." This desire could not be attributed to any excitement
arising from sudden caprice or whim, or from indulgence in liquor, for
the attestation was never administered until twenty-four hours had
elapsed after enlisting, and unless the recruit appeared perfectly
sober, and aware of the responsibility which, with his own free will, he
was required to assume.
There was a man named Roger Tobin, who lived somewhere about the classic
locality of Stoneybatter. He appeared to be about twenty-five years of
age, tall, strong, intelligent, healthy, and handsome. There were at
least a dozen public-houses which the recruiting sergeants frequently
visited at the time of the Crimean campaign, being then in quest of the
martial spirits to whom pay, booty, promotion, and military glory were
promised as certain acquisitions, all considerations of danger or death
being left unmentioned and ignored as improbable or impossible. Roger
would enter one of these houses, having previously ascertained that the
sergeant had not yet arrived, and he would locate himself in a chair or
on a bench close to a table, and order some moderate refreshment. He
manifested an intense anxiety as to the most recent news from the seat
of war, and generally succeeded in making the proceedings of our army
the subject of conversation amongst the persons present. When the
collector of future heroes appeared, he was sure to be greeted by Roger
with the warmest wishes for his success in providing gallant hearts and
strong hands to repel the encroachments of Russia. The poor Poles would
be commiserated, and our brave French allies eulogized. Every topic
calculated to excite martial feelings would be adverted to by the
enthusiastic Roger. Such expressions would naturally lead the sergeant
to conclude that he might calculate on one recruit accompanying him back
to barracks, and his request or suggestion of immediate enlistment met
with a ready acquiescence. The magic shilling having been paid, the new
recruit would spend it in an additional libation, and address an earnest
exhortation to any young fellows then present to follow his example. The
sergeant would not be slow in giving a further advance, the application
of which to convivial purposes might procure him two or three additional
adherents. Ten shillings, or perhaps more, having been joyously spent,
Roger was informed that he was to accompany the sergeant, and any others
who had joined, and receive accommodation in the barrack, from whence he
would be brought next day to the police-court for attestation. Promptly
acceding to this direction, and raising his fine manly figure, he left
the table, and enabled the disgusted sergeant to perceive that his
recruit was clubfooted, and totally incapable of ever being put in
marching order. How the expenses incurred were afterwards liquidated,
whether the sergeant was the loser, or the liability devolved on the
recruiting department, I am unable to state, but I fully believe that
Roger repeated the same trick on many occasions. It would seem that each
sergeant did not wish to be the last victim, and consequently none of
them disclosed the deception to the new comers, or to those in other
parts of the metropolitan district. Roger's game was spoiled by a
warning communicated to the recruiting stations from the police.
THE SHE BARRACKS.
When the Richmond Barracks were built at Golden Bridge, they were
intended to afford ample accommodation for more than an entire regiment.
There were also barracks at Island Bridge, and the distance between both
was about half a mile. The former were generally occupied by infantry,
and the latter by artillery. A person in the vicinity had a large
building constructed through a speculative motive of a very
extraordinary kind. He was aware that soldiers marrying without leave,
or whose wives were dishonest, turbulent, quarrelsome, slovenly, or
habitually intemperate, were not allowed to bring such objectionable
characters into the regimental quarters. He consequently calculated that
he would find no difficulty in having his premises occupied by tenants,
to whose habits and morals he attached no importance, provided they paid
the rent, and his expectations were not disappointed. His apartments
were no sooner vacated by the incorrigible termagants of one regiment,
than a succession of vixens, was supplied from another to fill the
unedifying edifice. The proprietor had not appropriated any particular
name to the building, but it became speedily known in the district under
the designation of "The She Barracks." In the southern division of the
police districts, there were five extensive military barracks, and I can
unhesitatingly declare, that the cases supplied for police intervention
or magisterial decision from them all, were completely outnumbered by
those derived from the comparatively diminutive limits of the structure
designed for the use and associated with the name of the softer sex. The
details of the various charges and summonses in which inmates of these
premises were compromised, would neither be instructive nor amusing, but
I cannot ever forget a case in which two women, the wives of
artillerymen, appeared, on summons and cross-summons, to swear against
each other to the greatest extent of culpability. Each of them imputed
to her adversary the inclination and avowed intention to commit every
offence of a violent or malicious description, and neither came
unprovided with witnesses ready to surmount the most elevated pinnacles
of exaggeration. Whilst this auction of swearing was in progress, the
husbands of the two inmates of the She Barracks were seated together,
quietly listening to the proceedings, apparently on very friendly terms
with each other, and not evincing any anxiety for the success of their
respective consorts. At the close, I directed the informations of the
parties to be engrossed, and stated that I would commit both for a
month, unless they respectively found a surety in five pounds for their
future good behaviour. I added, that as they were strangers, I did not
suppose they could easily find bail amongst their neighbours, and that I
was satisfied to take the husband of each as a surety for his wife.
Immediately I was addressed by one of the artillerymen to the following
purport:--
"May it please your honor, I'm only a private soldier, and where would I
get five pounds in a day or two, when they begin again. Besides, if I
was a fit bail, I would sooner be bound for his wife's behaviour than
for my own wife's. 'Tis best to let them go." Then turning to his
comrade, he added, "Come, Sam, we're likely to have a quiet month while
they're both up."
Nevertheless, he was disappointed, for the two viragoes, acting on the
suggestion of an attorney who had been engaged in the case, came almost
immediately to terms, and neither of them would make an information.
They were consequently liberated, and instead of having a quiet month, I
am sure that the artillery men had, during that time, to undergo some
heavy domestic bombardments.
THE DUBLIN GARRISON.
The regular military establishments in our district produced very few
cases for decision by the civil authorities. I am not able to state the
exact strength of the Dublin garrison, but I believe that it is the
largest in the United Kingdom, and that the seven barracks never contain
less than five thousand men of all ranks and arms. Since the
commencement of the present century, this city has had quartered within
its limits or immediate suburbs every regular regiment in the service,
and large bodies of militia. In 1813, a private dragoon named Tuite
deserted, and on a Sunday morning stopped a gentleman named Goulding on
South Circular Road, near Portobello, for the purpose of robbing him.
The offence had a fatal conclusion, for Goulding was shot through the
heart, and the murderer was apprehended and executed. After his
conviction he acknowledged his guilt, but declared that he intended only
to rob, and that the discharge of the pistol was occasioned by his
trepidation. In 1818, a corporal named Alliard was indicted for
murdering a woman named Flood, in a cellar in Thomas Street, and he was
acquitted. These two cases constituted all the capital charges preferred
against soldiers before civil tribunals in our district from 1800 to the
present time. During my magistrature of upwards of twenty years'
duration, I had to send two private soldiers for trial on a charge of
passing base coin, and one of them was convicted. I had no cognizance or
knowledge of offences purely military as to their nature or number.
Whenever a soldier was found on a public thoroughfare in a state of
intoxication, he was taken by the police, and when sober, sent by
magisterial order to the officer commanding at his quarters; but the
number of such captures was very inconsiderable. Indeed if the entire
population of the district had been strictly similar to the military in
their habits and conduct, my office would have been almost a sinecure.
AN ARTILLERY AMAZON.
There was an affair brought under my cognizance about seven years
previous to my retirement, of which I have a perfect recollection, and
in which, I am free to confess, I busied myself beyond my magisterial
duties for mere amusement. An artillery soldier strolled into town from
his barracks at Portobello, and having indulged freely in liquor, betook
himself to a house in Bow Lane, off Mercer Street, about ten o'clock at
night. He was unable to return to his quarters, and having been
undressed, was placed in bed to sleep off his intoxication. The inmates
of the house were by no means of a reputable description, and amongst
them was a female unusually tall in stature, and with proportional
amplitude of figure. In a sudden whim, she arrayed herself in the
uniform of the sleeping soldier, and set out on a nocturnal promenade,
to the infinite amusement of her associates, by some of whom she was
accompanied. Their obstreperous merriment attracted the attention of the
police, and eventuated in the arrest of the amazon. On my arrival at the
police-court on the following morning, I was apprised of the
extraordinary charge which awaited my investigation; and I immediately
communicated with a gentleman with whom I was personally acquainted, and
who was in a high position connected with the Ordnance Office. He came
to me, and we arranged that I should not dispose of the case in the
police-court until the circumstances were made known to the military
authorities at Portobello. When the woman was brought before me, I
directed a sergeant of police to take her in a covered vehicle to the
barrack, and, in the meantime, the artillery man was captured in Bow
Lane by a party sent from the barracks, and as his own attire was not
forthcoming, he was brought away in a cab, and with habiliments not
altogether suitable to his sex or his station. The heroine was submitted
to some of the women, who divested her of the martial appearance she had
assumed, and transferred the garments to two non-commissioned officers,
who gave in return the clothes or improvised vestments that covered the
soldier during his return to barracks. I did not inflict any further
punishment on the woman, and I believe that the artillery man was not
severely treated: but I was informed by some of his officers that he was
made the object of the most persistent banter and ridicule amongst his
comrades, who accorded him the soubriquet of "Mary Anne." I believe,
indeed, that severe corporal punishment inflicted on his delinquency
would not have deterred the other soldiers from the commission of a
similar error so effectually as the jests and sarcasms supplied from
amongst themselves, and suggested by the appearance of one who had
returned from his roving so very unsuitably.
A COLONEL OF DRAGOONS.
Before I pass from the recollections and favorable impressions produced
by the almost uniform good conduct of the gallant members of our
garrison, I am disposed to give my readers a short narrative, without
any other comment than the expression of an opinion that it is one of
the many instances in which fact appears stranger than fiction. A lady,
the widow of a medical officer, having presented a memorial soliciting a
commission for her son, received a reply appointing him to a regiment in
one of our most distant colonies, and involving the necessity of his
speedy departure from this country. At her request I interested myself
to procure for him an outfit, promptly supplied, of excellent quality
and of very reasonable price. It was furnished by Buckmaster, Malyn, and
Co., of Dawson Street, who have also an extensive establishment in
London. I had occasion to call two or three times during the execution
of the order, and I was making one of those visits when two officers
entered. On seeing them, Mr. Malyn said to me, "This colonel is a most
extraordinary man; when he is gone I shall tell you why I say so." The
officers were in the uniform of a heavy dragoon regiment; one was the
lieutenant-colonel, the other was the adjutant. The former was in face
and figure such a man as I would consider that no painter or statuary
would decline to accept as a faultless model for a splendid artistic
production. His communication was very brief, but he appeared to be
intelligent and courteous. When he departed, Mr. Malyn told me that he
remembered him working on their shopboard, as a tailor, at their house
in New Burlington Street, London; that he knew his business perfectly,
being skilful, sober, and industrious. Nevertheless, he disliked such a
sedentary occupation, and being fond of equestrian exercise, enlisted
in the dragoons. Having entered the service, his conduct was such as
gained the approbation of his superiors, and he soon attained the rank
of sergeant. In active service he evinced patience, promptitude, and
courage, and the adjutancy having become vacant he was appointed to it,
with a concomitant commission. Being thus entitled to be received in
society as an officer and a gentleman, he gained respect and esteem in
his new position, and also succeeded in marrying a lady possessed of a
very ample fortune, by which he was enabled to expedite promotion
whenever it could be acquired by purchase. His success would seem to
have resulted from persistent good conduct, winning and retaining the
favorable opinions of all who could materially aid his advancement. The
most imaginative of our romance writers would certainly shrink from
presenting for our perusal the ideal descent of a field-officer's
epaulets upon the shoulders of a journeyman tailor.
DONNYBROOK FAIR.
I have to notice an event which occurred in 1855, and was productive of
most salutary results, not merely to the suburb in which it was
effected, but to the entire city and county of Dublin; I mean the
abolition or suppression of Donnybrook Fair. This excellent proceeding
was effected at the instance and mainly by the exertions of Alderman
Joseph Boyce, who was Lord Mayor of Dublin in the last-mentioned year.
It would be almost impossible to describe the scenes of drunkenness,
violence, gambling, and gross indecency that characterized an entire
week in the month of August, every year whilst "The Brook" afforded its
immoral attractions, causing our prisons to be immediately crowded with
loose, disorderly, or dishonest characters, so as to resemble hospitals
in a locality suddenly visited by an epidemic or contagious distemper. I
do not believe that, for many years previous to its suppression,
Donnybrook Fair was ever held without being the direct or indirect cause
of a life or lives being lost. It lasted for a week; and the greatest
intemperance and violence seemed to be specially displayed on the day
known as "the Walking Sunday." I visited the fair on several occasions
in my days of boyhood, and I can recollect some sad accidents in which
lives were lost or limbs fractured by vehicles having been driven
furiously by drunken "jarveys." I have seen the body of a female taken
out of a mill-race close to the fair green, into which she had fallen in
a state of intoxication. I witnessed a very furious encounter on the
bridge between coal-porters and some other class of combatants, in which
a man was thrown over the battlement and killed by the fall; but the
worst experience that I had of Donnybrook was in 1820, when an amiable
and most inoffensive young gentleman, named James Rogerson, was walking
beside me through the main street of the village, about eight o'clock in
the evening, and was struck in the head by a large stone thrown at
another person. He was felled by the blow, and was raised in a state of
insensibility. After he had revived a little, I took him in a covered
car to his father's residence in William Street, where he died in a few
days from the effects of the injury, and the perpetrator of the fatal
assault was never made amenable for the offence. From the time when I
attained the police magistracy in 1844 until 1855, I had to deal with an
ample share of the charges and summonses arising from the annual
nuisance of Donnybrook Fair; and I fully agreed with my colleagues in
considering such duties as "moral scavenging;" and just as pedestrians
might apologise for mud-covered feet or bespattered garments being
unavoidable in filthy thoroughfares, so the delinquencies arising from
the various evil excitements abundantly offered in the locality where
they occurred, were almost invariably imputed to the offender having
unfortunately gone to "The Brook." I must admit that in disposing of
drunken or disorderly cases, I was often influenced by the consideration
that when such an annual abomination was tolerated in a civilized
community, it was a ground for slightly mitigating the punishments
incurred by yielding to its abundant temptations.
In the early pages of these reminiscences I mentioned that a Lord
Lieutenant of Ireland had dined in a tent at Donnybrook Fair. I have
heard doubts expressed as to the correctness of such a statement. I now
reiterate it, adding that it occurred in 1808, in the viceroyalty of the
Duke of Richmond. It was noticed in several newspapers of the time, but
not with the slightest expression of disapproval. It was almost an
established custom for the Lord Mayor and Sheriffs, with many of the
aldermen and common council, to dine at the fair, but their festivities
were enjoyed in a house. The place was then in the city of Dublin, but
it has since, along with a large adjoining district, been added to the
county of Dublin as regards any civil or criminal jurisdiction, but the
parliamentary franchises are available in the city, although the
district forms no portion of it, and possesses no municipal privileges
whatever. This arrangement, or perhaps it might be termed "derangement,"
occurred in 1832. I shall not digress into any remarks on local changes
of a political nature, but resume my recollections of the fair now so
properly abolished.
Almost every tent displayed the proprietor's name, and generally the
place of his residence, to induce visitors, from the same direction, to
give him a preference. Colored signs were frequently exhibited, which at
night became transparencies by a lamp being placed behind each. On one
might be seen the representation of a fellow apparently dancing with a
young female, whilst underneath was inscribed--
"Here Paddy comes to have a swig,
A better one he never took;
And now he'll dance an Irish jig
With Dolly Dunne of Donnybrook."
I recollect another sign representing a bee-hive, for the exhibition of
which no reason of an industrial nature was adduced. It displayed the
following invitation:--
"In this hive we're all alive,
Good whisky makes us funny;
So don't pass by, but stop and try
The sweetness of our honey."
Such were some instances of the allurements to participate in
dissipations then not merely permitted, but encouraged, but which have
happily been prevented from continuing their periodical infractions of
public peace, and their interruptions of quietude and industry. I shall
conclude my observations on the subject by quoting a verse of one of Ned
Lysaght's songs, which tends strongly to prove that drunken violence was
not merely tolerated, but made the occasion of a laudatory strain--
"Whoe'er had the luck to see Donnybrook Fair,
An Irishman, all in his glory, was there,
With his sprig of shillelagh and shamrock so green.
His clothes spic and span new, without e'er a speck,
A neat Barcelona[17] entwined on his neck;
He goes into a tent and he spends half-a-crown,
He comes out, _meets a friend, and for love knocks him down_,
With his sprig of shillelagh and shamrock so green."
I sincerely hope that the "glory" derived from Donnybrook Fair has been
for ever quenched, and that future indications of love for a friend will
not require to be illustrated by the application of a shillelagh. Some
of my readers may not be aware that this designation of a cudgel is
derived from a barony named Shillelagh in the County of Wicklow, which
has been celebrated for its oak woods from a very remote period. I
believe at present they are the property of Earl Fitzwilliam; and I have
frequently heard that the timber contained in the roof of Westminster
Hall was supplied from them. I am not aware, however, that the
propinquity of such material has produced any quarrelsome or combative
tendencies amongst the senators or legal practitioners who frequent the
locality.
THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC.
I am disposed to offer here a few observations in reference to the
liquor traffic, and the effect of the laws by which it is regulated. I
have heard the commission of every offence in which violence was a
principal ingredient, attributed to the demoralising and infuriating
indulgence in strong drinks. I am convinced, by my official experience,
that hundreds of crimes unattended with actual violence, have also
originated in the debasing craving for stimulating liquors. Frauds and
thefts have been abundantly committed from such an incentive; and even
affection has been extinguished by its loathsome power so completely, as
to make the criminality and degrading infamy of a son or daughter,
subsidiary to the gratification of intemperate habits; and the result of
recent legislation has certainly neither remedied, nor in my humble
opinion mitigated, the prevalence of drunkenness and its multifarious
concomitant evils. We are informed that a strict observance of the
statute prohibiting the opening of public-houses on Sunday before two
o'clock, p.m., has been enforced, and notwithstanding that regulation,
we see numerous cases of intoxication in our thoroughfares two or three
hours before the publicans open. On a Sunday in the present year, a
servant-man left my house between ten and eleven o'clock, in the
forenoon, and returned, or rather was brought back, in less than two
hours completely intoxicated. In such a case the law is only operative
in restraining the regular licensed trader. To deal with those
infractions of the law and of public decency, the visitorial powers of
the police and constabulary should be greatly extended; and the
penalties incident to a conviction for the illicit traffic should be
augmented to at least fourfold the amount now authorised, with the
alternative, in case of non-payment, of three or four months'
imprisonment with hard labor. In the preceding pages I have mentioned a
conviction for smuggling tobacco, on which a penalty of one hundred
pounds or six months' imprisonment was awarded. I recollect a detection
of an illicit still in a house on Haddington Road, in reference to which
the Excise authorities required that every adult found on the premises
should be subjected to very severe penalties, or imprisonment for some
months; and when I declined to convict a young woman who was washing
clothes in the dwelling-house, and who was not a resident, but merely
employed there occasionally, the professional gentlemen engaged in the
prosecution were very dissatisfied with my decision. Offences against
the Customs or Excise, which tend to withhold or lessen the revenue,
even in the slightest degree, are made legally liable to penal
consequences, compared with which the infractions of laws intended to
protect the community from the innumerable evils generated by
intemperance, may be regarded as trifling indiscretions, undeserving of
strict and severe repression. If a trader sends forth from his premises
one hundred drunken customers, to exhibit every phase of violent or
indecent behaviour, his conduct is not visited with one-tenth of the
punishment incurred by selling a glass of poteen whisky.
FOOTNOTE:
[17] A showy description of silk handkerchief, supposed to be derived
from a Spanish city, and associated with its name.