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New Zealand Tablet, Volume IX, Issue 468, 31 March 1882, Page 19

In Yorkshire, England, lately, a burglar was found in a very tight place indeed. His legs were hanging down a chimney in which he had stuck, and it was necessary to take down the mantlepiece and part of the chimney to release him. A return was issued from the War Office, Dec. 29, showing the total number of troops of all arms quartered in Ireland during each year since 1861. In that year the military force numbered 24,000 but in the following year it fell to 21,000, from which it fell to 20,000 during the three succeeding years, and it did not go beyond the figure for 1861 nntil 1871, when it reached 26,000. In 1872 no decrease in the strength of the military establishment is shown, but in, 1873 it went down to 24,000, and in subsequent years up to 1878 it vaiied from 21,000 to 23,000. In 1879 a large falling off is shown, as the force is put down at 18,000, and in 1880 it is only a thousand more. This diminution is readily accounted for by the Boer, Afghan and Zulu wars, which necessitated the withdrawal of all available troops to the field. In the present year the military force in Ireland had reached thi extraordinary total of over forty thousand, very nearly double what it had been during any year for the past twenty. During the years of the Fenian risrngjit never exceeded twenty-two thousand.