»V\V 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY 
 
 fieprinted from plates of the Tenth Australian Edition, 1897. 
 
THE 
 
 Orange Society 
 
 BY THE 
 
 RIGHT REV. H. W. CLEARY, o 
 
 BISHOP OF AUCKLAND, N.Z. 
 
 LONDON 
 CATHOLIC TRUTH SOCIETY 
 
 69 SouTHWARK Bridge Road, S.E. 
 
 i9'3 
 
:x\ASio 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 Preface to the First Edition* 
 
 For several years past a distincftively forward movement has 
 been manifest among the Orange lodges in the colony of 
 Vicfloria. Certain phases of this movement — such as, for 
 instance, the attitude of the brethren towards the Party 
 Processions A6t, the undisguised spread of the association in 
 pra(5tical]y every Department of the State, and the increased 
 bitterness and publicity of their attacks on a large secftion of 
 their fellow-citizens — have had the effecft of focussing public 
 attention more closely on the society than, perhaps, at any 
 previous period of its local history since 1846. The interest in 
 the proceedings of the lodges received a notable fillip through 
 the publication of certain matters which were brought to light 
 during the sittings of the Melbourne Post Office Inquiry 
 Board in 1896. The main features of the evidence in point 
 — which go to indicate a menacing condition of things for one 
 portion of the population of the colony — are given as follow in 
 the Minutes of Evidence taken by the Board^ : 
 
 A letter, penned some eighteen months previously, in the 
 handwriting of a line-repairer named William Taylor, had 
 fallen into the hands of the Departmental police.'- It charged 
 a trustworthy^ public servant, cable-jointer James Sullivan (a 
 Catholic), with having stolen a quantity of kauri pine, the 
 property of the Department.'' The letter was produced at the 
 Board's sitting of July i, 1896.^ Its appearance in the Age 
 report of the following morning was the first intimation 
 received by Sullivan regarding the charges which had been 
 made against him." At the opening of the sitting of the same 
 day, Mr. Maxwell, who appeared to assist the Board, brought 
 forward, with the sandlion of its members, the evidence of 
 James Sullivan and two others to show that the statements 
 contained in the letter were wholly devoid of foundation.' 
 
 iJhe official Minutes are now (fourth edition) substituted for the Agi 
 report, which appeared in previous editions. 
 "^Minutes of Evidence, Q. 845. 
 »Ibid., Q. 591. 
 *^Ibid., Qq. 827 sqq. 
 
 sibid.. Qq. 595-596. 605. 1 O O i\ 
 ^Ibid., Q. 836. .1 O O U 
 
 Tbid., Qq. 826 sqq. 
 
 V. 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 Departmental Detedtive White (a Protestant witness) testified 
 that he had investigated the charge, and had failed to find a 
 scrap of evidence to support it/ 
 
 The history of the letter was next told by line-repairer 
 William Taylor, who was examined by Mr. Maxwell. 
 
 " 852. Do you know to whom you sent this letter ? — I did 
 not send it to anybody that I am aware of. I copied it for 
 another party who had written it. He thought I was a better 
 writer than he, so got me to copy it." He named a fellow- 
 employe who lived near him, and who, said the witness, 
 " asked me to come into his house'' and " to write this out for 
 him."^ 
 
 " 855. Was it to injure cable-jointer Sullivan ? — He said 
 he was going to take it to the W^orshipful the Master of the 
 Orange lodge, to see if they could not fix up Sullivan, as he was 
 a Catliolic. I may mention at that time I was an Orangeman 
 
 myself. L [naming the person referred to in Q, 852] 
 
 induced me to join ; and I thought at the time, by the way he 
 laid it before me, it was a chance to bring Protestanism 
 forward. / soon found out it was only to keep down Catholics" 
 
 The witness then mentioned the name of a public official, 
 Mr. McLeod, " Worshipful Master " of the Queen's Own 
 lodge, ^° Melbourne, and expressed his belief that the letter in 
 question had come into his possession. At the time he copied 
 the letter, the witness believed the statements contained in it ; 
 but, said he, "to the best of my belief at the present time, 
 that which was done and said there in respecfl: to Sullivan v.-as 
 unfounded, because I have found that other statements regard- 
 ing Sullivan were untrue."" 
 
 He added that a considerable number of Orangemen in his 
 Branch — several of whom he named — had made statements 
 prejudicial to their Catholic fellow-employes.^- 
 
 Further light was thrown upon the letter against James 
 Sullivan by the unwillingly made admissions of another Orange 
 witness, and still more by his frequent and mysterious lapses 
 of memory and his tell-tale disinclination or downright refusal 
 to give any evidence regarding lodge proceedings touching the 
 charges mentioned above. Apart from its bearing on the case 
 at issue, his condudT: under examination is interesting for two 
 reasons : {a) because it furnishes evidence of the iron grip in 
 
 ^Ibid., Qq. 845-849. 
 
 ^Ibld., and Q. 853. 
 
 i°The Queen's Own lodge is understood to be composed altogether 
 of Public Servants. In a speech reported in the Victorian Standard, in 
 1896, its chaplain claimed that it is the largest Orange lodge in the world 
 
 ■^■^Ibid., Q. 860. 
 
 i2/6?W., Qq. S61-874, 891. 
 
 vi. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 which Orangemen are held by their oath or solemn protesta- 
 tion of secrecy ; (b) because our witness's hedging, memory- 
 paralysis, and defiance of the Board of Inquiry, are thoroughly 
 typical of the attitude of " loyal " Orangemen all over the 
 world Avhen questioned as to the " proceedings of the brethren 
 in lodge assembled." The following extracfts are from the Blue 
 Book containing the Minutes of Evidence taken by the Board on 
 July 2, 1896. The witness was examined by Mr. Maxwell: 
 
 " 1 121. Are you an Orangeman ? — Am I what ? I don't 
 think that is a proper question to ask . . . 
 
 " 1 164. Were you never up before the Worshipful 
 Master at an Orange lodge in connection with the matters 
 referred to in that letter ? — I don't think I should be asked 
 such a question. It is foreign to the subjedt altogether. 
 
 " 1 1 65. It has been ruled by the Board that this is a 
 very important matter, and the questions must be answered ? 
 — I did not see in the press that cable-jointer Sullivan was 
 asked if he were an Orangeman. 
 
 " 1165A. The Chairman. — You must answer the question, 
 please. 
 
 " 1 166. By Mr. Maxwell. — Were you up before the 
 Worshipful Master of any Orange lodge in reference to the 
 matters referred to in this letter ? — [Witness did not answer.] 
 
 " 1 167. By the Board. — You are not ashamed of being an 
 Orangeman ? — Of course not. 
 
 " 1 168. By Mr. Maxwell.— I suppose there is nothing to 
 be ashamed of in connection with anything done in the lodge 
 in reference to that letter ? — [Witness did not ansu'er.] 
 
 " ii6g. Please answer my question before I ask the Board 
 to deal with you. Have you ever been up before the Worship- 
 ful Master of any Orange lodge in connecftion with that letter ? 
 — / have attended a meeting of the lodge ivhen subjeds of that nature 
 were brought before them. 
 
 " 1 170. That is not my question. Were you ever up 
 before the Worshipful Master of any Orange lodge when the 
 specific matters mentioned in this letter were under discussion, 
 and received consideration ? — I cannot bring that to memory. 
 
 "1171. Then why did you take so long to answer? — 
 [Witness did not ansii^er.] 
 
 After some further distressing lapses of memory, the wit- 
 ness was asked : 
 
 "1176. Will you swear that you never were at a meet- 
 ing presided over by Mr, McLeod when this letter received 
 consideration ? — I cannot bring it to memory. 
 
 " 1 177. Well, read it again — [Witness did so] — Now, did 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 you ever hear the matters referred to in this letter before ? — 
 What ? The persons referred to ? 
 
 " 1181. What do you mean when you stated that you had 
 been at a meeting when subjecfts of this nature came up ; what 
 do you refer to ? — There are lots of matters that came up that I 
 would not tell you or anybody else here about. 
 
 " 1 1 83. I want to know still what you meant when you 
 stated you have been at meetings when subjecfls of a similar 
 chara(51:er have been under consideration ? — I cannot bring 
 them to memory just now. 
 
 " 1 184. Did you ever hear that such charges had been 
 made against cable-jointer Sullivan ? — I cannot go into 
 that. . . . 
 
 " 1 187. Is Sullivan a friend of yours? — No, I would not 
 like him to be a friend of mine. . . , 
 
 " iig6. Did you ever hear of the existence of this letter 
 before you saw it in the Age yesterday ? — I cannot remember 
 that. 
 
 " 1 197. Well, will you take a little time to think over it ? 
 — [After hesitation] — I cannot remember. 
 
 " 1198. Will you try again? — No, I cannot remember." 
 
 The witness's memory gave way with equal hopelessness 
 over several further questions on the same subjedl:. Mr. 
 Maxwell continued : 
 
 "1204. That won't do. I want an answer to my ques- 
 tion ? — [Witness did not answer.] 
 
 " 1205. The Chairmaii. — You must not trifle with the 
 Board in this manner. You must answer the question at once. 
 Yes or no, [Witness did not answer] ." 
 
 His memory continued to fail with dismal regularity 
 through a number of succeeding questions. 
 
 " 1 214. By the Board. — But you have been at a meeting 
 when these matters were referred to, and forgotten the circum- 
 stances ? — It would be possible, I suppose. 
 
 " 12 1 5. By Mr. Maxwell. — Do you consider that the 
 charges made against Sullivan in this matter were of a most 
 serious charadlier ? — Yes. 
 
 " 12 16. Then do you think if these matters had been 
 brought before the lodge you would be likely to forget the 
 fadl:, especially considering they had reference to your Depart- 
 ment ? — It is likely I might forget." 
 
 His memory was eclipsed through several questions that 
 followed. 
 
 " 1224. Then you swear you had nothing to do with the 
 formulating of these charges against Sullivan ? — I don't 
 remember anything about that. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 " 1225. Will you swear that you did not? — I could not 
 say anything about it. . . . 
 
 "1229. [By Mr. Mackey]}^ — Now, in answer to my 
 learned friend, you state that some similar matters to that 
 letter have been considered in the ordinary course of lodge 
 proceedings, so that you may have forgotten this particular 
 one ? — I think they did. I don't recoiled^ that one. . . . 
 
 " The Chaii'man. — The Board wishes to give its opinion on 
 your condudl and demeanour in giving your evidence here to- 
 day. It was most unsatisfactory, and you have done yourself 
 and any friends you wish to protedt, a great deal of harm. 
 You have not answered the questions direcftly or straight- 
 forwardly, and it is most unsatisfacftory." 
 
 No denial or disclaimer of this evidence has, up to the date 
 of this publication, appeared in the Melbourne daily press 
 from the officers or other members of the lodge referred to. 
 No reference has been made to the matter in the official Report 
 of the Post Office Inquiry Board, presented to both Houses of 
 Parliament, December 11, i8g6. No adtion in regard to the 
 statements elicited has been taken by the Crown law autho- 
 rities. The incident is apparently closed. The apathy of 
 Government in the matter has increased the sense of insecurity 
 which Catholic officials and employes in every Department of 
 the State had already felt by reason of such secret attacks as, 
 according to the evidence of one of the witnesses, have been 
 repeatedly levelled against James Sullivan and others of his 
 fellow-workers in the Post and Telegraph Service of the 
 colony. 
 
 The publication of the evidence elicited by the Post Office 
 Inquiry Board led to the appearance of portions of some of the 
 following chapters in the columns of the Melbourne Advocate 
 of July 10, 1896, and following dates. It has been deemed 
 desirable to place the fadfs therein contained in a form more 
 permanent, and more convenient for reference, than could be 
 furnished by the fleeting columns- of a newspaper. Hence the 
 appearance of this volume. Some seven new chapters have 
 been written, while those which had already appeared have 
 been greatly enlarged by the addition of a considerable amount 
 of matter which could not find room even in the generous space 
 placed at the writer's disposal by the editor of the Advocate. 
 The arrangement of the subjedts dealt with has involved a few 
 repetitions of statement, which the critical eye will duly 
 notice. Circumstances beyond the writer's control — in- 
 cluding the difficulty of procuring certain current lodge 
 
 i3Mr. Mackey appeared at the Inquiry for the Officers of the Engineer- 
 ing and Eledlrical Branch. 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 documents, etc. — have delayed the appearance of these 
 chapters in book-form. They are now placed before the public 
 in the hope that they may supply, in handy form, and as far as 
 they go, reliable information as to the aims, methods, and 
 tendency of a little-known, but acflive. secret society, which has 
 kept a portion of the North of Ireland in a state of unhealthy 
 ferment for over a century, and which, for the past few years, 
 has been executing a forw'ard movement in our midst. The 
 reader will perceive that the overwhelming majority of the 
 statements made in this volume regarding the Orange society 
 are drawn from the Reports of Parliamentary Committees, Royal 
 Commissions, and other forms of official inquiry, from the 
 documents of Orange lodges and the utterances of the Orange 
 press and platform, and from the works of Protestant writers 
 of undoubted eminence. 
 
 H.W.C. 
 March i, 1897. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 Preface to the Fourth Edition* 
 
 The favourable reception accorded to previous editions of this 
 book, and the continued demand for copies of it, have led to 
 the publication of the present issue. Several typographical 
 and other minor errors, Avhich were inadvertently passed over 
 in previous editions, have been correcfled. The book has been 
 revised throughout, and enlarged by the addition of some forty 
 pages of useful matter bearing on the Orange question, which, 
 ds had been anticipated, has already begun to assume a 
 somewhat unpleasant aspe(5t in more than one of the Aus- 
 tralian colonies. Since the lines on Orangeism in the police 
 force (pp. 323-324) went through the press, incidents have 
 occurred, arising out of disturbances at the Brunswick 
 L.O.L. procession, which are strongly calculated to in- 
 crease the growing distrust of Catholics in the adminis- 
 tration of justice in this colony. With a view to testing 
 their credibility, counsel for the defence asked several police- 
 men — Crown witnesses — if they were Orangemen. The ques- 
 tion was strongly objecfted to by Counsel acting on behalf 
 of the Crown, by the Police Inspeiflor, and a majority 
 of the bench. ^ Reference to the Reports of the various 
 Royal Commissions of inquiry into the riots in Ulster, 
 and to proceedings before Supreme Court judges in the 
 same province, will show that this question has been re- 
 peatedly put, both to police and civilian witnesses, as a 
 matter of course, and without the slightest demur or 
 protest, in prosecutions arising out of sectarian disturbances; 
 moreover, an affirmative reply is understood to indicate a 
 strength of bias which seriously impairs the credibility of a 
 witness. The reader is referred to the evidence of strong 
 se(5tarian bias displayed in party cases by Orange police in 
 Belfast ; to the regulation forbidding the members of the force 
 in Ireland from joining the association ; - to the notoriously 
 crooked ways of Orange witnesses ; ^ and to the stern and 
 
 '^Herald, July 26 and 28, 1897 ; Argus and Age of following days. 
 
 2Pp. 323-324. By the Regulations, Viftorian policemen, before being 
 received into the force, are required to state whether they belong to any 
 secret society, and if so, to what one. 
 
 ^See Preface, pp. 39-40, 46-47, 108, no sqq., 115, 123-124, 247-248, 321, 
 323-324, 3S5. 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIE'JY. 
 
 vigorous condemnation of the methods by which the founts of 
 justice are habitually poisoned by Orange magistrates* and 
 jurymen/ The ways of justice in the Orange portions of Ulster, 
 have, for over a century, been a scandal to the country, and 
 the despair of honest administrations; but I have yet to learn 
 that police-witnesses in that woful corner of the most distress- 
 ful country were ever protected, either by Crown officials or 
 the bench, from being compelled to answer a question which, 
 as the pages of this book will show, has, unhappily, only too 
 decided a bearing on their credibility in party cases. It will 
 be news to many of my readers to learn that, contrary to law 
 and facTt, the Orange association was officially recognised 
 as a Friendly Society by a Minister of the present Vicftorian 
 Cabinet. 
 
 I take this opportunity of thanking the Rev. E. C. Daly for 
 several useful suggestions, and both the Catholic and the non- 
 Catholic press of several of the colonies for their friendly 
 notices of the work. I desire, in particular, to gratefully 
 acknowledge the valuable services so freely and whole- 
 heartedly rendered me, from first to last, in connedlion with 
 this book, by the Rev. P. O'Doherty, M.R.I. A. 
 
 H.W.C. 
 August I, 1897. 
 
 Preface to the Seventh Edition. 
 
 In preparing the seventh edition for the press, I have correcfted 
 several errata, and appended many additional references to the 
 footnotes, chiefly from the Reports of the Parliamentary Com- 
 mittees of 1835. 
 
 H.W.C. 
 
 September 5, 1897. 
 
 ■^See pp. 34, 40-41, 43, 44 {note), 73, 75, 77, 17S, 208, 224, 223 (and 
 note), 249, 256, 260 {note), 2C5, 309, 311 [note), 312-314, 322-323, 325, 328, 
 
 333-334. 335-337, 345-347. 3«5- 
 
 r-See pp. 256, 304 305, 310, 317, 319, 320, 321, 322, 32G-327, 329, 330- 
 
 332. 345-347. 385- 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Contents* 
 
 Preface to the First Edition 
 Preface to the Fourth Edition 
 Preface to the Seventh Edition 
 
 Chapter I. Introducflory : A Brief Excursion 
 
 through Orangeism — Bre'r Rabbit's 
 Advice: When to "Lay Low" and 
 when to Strike — Parliament and the 
 Society : Some Embarrassing Atten- 
 tions — An Orange Question and what 
 it leads to — Why do we know so little 
 of the Society? — A Governor-General 
 gives a bit of his Mind. 
 
 V. 
 
 xi. 
 
 xii. 
 
 Chapter H. Stateof Parties at the Riseof Orangeism 
 — A Union of Hearts: Growth of Re- 
 ligious Toleration — The Rift in the 
 Lute: An Ancient Village Feud, and 
 what came of it 
 
 i6 
 
 Chapter IIL The Battle of the Diamond — How the 
 new Sign-board was set up — A Ques- 
 tion of Veracity : Rival Witnesses and 
 a Tangled Tale — "The Great Day": 
 "It was a Famous Vicftory" — What 
 the British Parliament thought of it — 
 The First Orange Lodge . . 36 
 
 Chapter IV. Peep-o'-Day Boys, alias Orangemen — 
 An Oath of Blood — The Inaugural 
 Revelry of the Lodges: "Sword, Fire 
 and Faggot: W^ill Thresham and John 
 Thrustout" — The Roll Call — The 
 Charter Toast . . . -57 
 
 xm. 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 Chapter V. Membership : Its Limitations — " No 
 
 Papist Need Apply" — The Queen, 
 the Rituahsts, and other " Wishy- 
 VVashy," " Shilly-Shally," " Namby- 
 Pamby" Protestants — A Marriage-law 
 of the Lodges — Who are Eligible ? 
 
 83 
 
 Chapter VI. Wheels within Wheels — How the 
 Secret is Guarded : Oaths, Tests, 
 Signs, and Passwords — A Message 
 from the King — Orangemen in the 
 Witness-box and at the Bar of the 
 House : Lodge Law v. Civil Law 
 
 105 
 
 Chapter VII. Organisation of the Orange Society: 
 The Ruling Caste; the Subjedl: Caste; 
 the Inner Circle and its Ways — The 
 Grand Lodge " Maintains its Autho- 
 rity" — How the Brethren " Make their 
 Influence Felt": Rules for Parliamen- 
 tary and Municipal Elecflions — The 
 Autocrat of the Lodges and the Poll- 
 ing-booth .... 
 
 126 
 
 Chapter VIII. Orange Demonstrations: Fine Phrases 
 Appraised — The Oratorical Carnival: 
 A few Whiffs from Billingsgate — The 
 .Secret out : Catholics and the Public 
 Service — The Scarlet Woman and the 
 Grand Old Enemy — Cain and Abel, 
 and the People who wear Horns 
 
 143 
 
 Chapter IX. Looking Backward : Orange Demon- 
 strations viewed through Green Glasses 
 — The Violated Treaty — The Penal 
 Code : Striking the Shepherds ; Dis- 
 persing the Flock — A Williamite 
 Marriage Law — Beggary by A(5l of 
 Parliament — "A Great System of 
 Bribery " — " The Ignorant Irish" 
 
 170 
 
 Chapter X. Orange Demonstrations : The Theat- 
 
 rical Display and its Methods — Roving 
 Agitators : Their Words and their Ways 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 -Wnat does "Loyalty" mean? — -The 
 March Past: Guns, Bayonets, "Sack- 
 fuls of Revolvers," Broken Heads, and 
 other Valuable Property — Sniffing the 
 Odour of Battle 
 
 193 
 
 Chapter XI. Orange Demonstrations: The Forces 
 Marshalled and getting to Work — 
 Party Tunes, Party Cries and Em- 
 blems, and the Big, Big Drum — An 
 Orange Holiday : How the Brethren 
 do their Merrymaking in Ulster— 
 Who Pays the Reckoning? — Some 
 Forms of Opposition 
 
 212 
 
 Chapter XII. The Loyalty of the Orange Society — 
 Clearing the Ground : A Definition 
 of Terms — Official Professions and 
 Official Praiflice : Five " Obligations" 
 of an Orangeman^How the Brethren 
 Aid the Civil Authorities— What "A 
 Slight Exuberance of Loyalty" means 
 — Loyalty in the Market: Its Selling 
 Price ..... 
 
 241 
 
 Chapter XHI. Loyalty of the Orange Society — Orange 
 Soldiery : "The Gallant Orange Yeo- 
 manry" — Martial Law, Free-quarters, 
 and other "Well-timed Measures" — 
 The Gentle Sex : LoyaHsts v. Rebel 
 Gallantry — The Orange Inquisition 
 and its Ways — How Rebels were 
 Made — The Reign of Terror; the 
 Reign of Law; the Reign of Peace . 
 
 25.7 
 
 Chapter XI\'. Loyalty of the Orange Society: Orange 
 Magistrates and Jurors — Bench, Bar, 
 and Parliament Speak — "Poisoning 
 the Founts of Justice": "The Law an 
 Instrument of Tyranny" — "Reform 
 the Magistracy of Ireland, my Lord " 
 — An Ulster Endemic : A Crop of 
 Cases and a Prescription 
 
 309 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 Chapter XV. Loyalty in the Supreme Council ot 
 the Orange Institution — The Grand 
 Lodge, the Party Processions Adls, 
 and the Courts of Justice — Corrupting 
 the Loyalty of the Army — How the 
 A6i of Suppression Worked — The 
 Cumberland Conspiracy 
 
 Appendix A. The Position of Catholics in Belfast, 
 Derry, and Armagh — The Position of 
 Protestants in the South and West of 
 Ireland ..... 
 
 Appendix B. Ritual of Introducftion to the Orange 
 Degree : Introductory Remarks 
 
 Appendix C. Rules of the Loyal Orange Institution 
 of Vi(5loria 
 
 Index of Authorities .... 
 
 General Index ..... 
 
 Additional References 
 
 Errata .... . . 
 
 34c 
 
 386 
 
 399 
 
 408 
 422 
 428 
 458 
 459 
 
 XVI. 
 
THE 
 
 Orange Society. 
 
 Chapter L 
 
 INTRODUCTORY : A BRIEF EXCURSION THROUGH 
 ORANGEISM—BRE'R RABBITS ADVICE : WHEN TO 
 ■LAY LOW AND WHEN TO STRIKE — PARLIA- 
 MENT AND THE SOCIETY: SOME EMBARRASSING 
 ATTENTIONS— AN ORANGE QUESTION AND WHAT 
 IT LEADS TO— WHY DO WE KNOW SO LITTLE 
 OF THE SOCIETY ?— A GOVERNOR-GENERAL GIVES 
 A BIT OF HIS MIND. 
 
 *' Could his Majesty, King William [of Orange] learn in the 
 other world that he has been the cause of more broken heads 
 and drunken men since his departure than all his predecessors, 
 he must be the proudest ghost and most conceited skeleton 
 that ever entered the gardens of Elysium." Thus wrote an 
 Orangeman, Sir Jonah Barrington,^ in his Personal Sketches. 
 The quoted passage applies to the breaches of the peace and 
 the general confusion which have been, ever since 1796, the 
 ordinary accompaniment of the typical Orange celebration of 
 the Williamite vicftories in Ireland. Since its rise, in 1795, 
 the Orange society has left its impress on the history of 
 Ireland : not indeed a broad track on the course of her story, 
 
 ^Sir Jonah Barrington was, early in 179S, a member of Lodge No. 176 
 (Dublin). Minutes of Evidence, Parliamentary Seled Committee (Irish) of 
 1835, 03 Orange Lodges, Q. 9522. 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 but rather the mark of one who works deeoly in a narrow 
 groove. The association presents many features of interest : 
 in its curious blending of politics and religion, in its early rise 
 and progress, its varying fortunes, its plan of orgaxiisation, its 
 aims, and its modes of a(flivity. A study of these last affords 
 an insight into what is, in some respecfts, a unique phase in 
 the known working of secret organisations. 
 
 There is one clear note in its special religious programme : 
 strenuous resistance to the Church of Rome. The rest, as we 
 shall see in the fifth and following chapters, is vague or 
 intangible (as where it speaks of supporting " the " Protestant 
 religion) ; or it is frankly abandoned, or not insisted on. The 
 English Parliamentary Selecft Committee, appointed in 1835 
 to inquire into the Orange society, said in their Report: " Your 
 Committee find that the Orange lodges have a decidedly 
 political charadlier, and that almost all their proceedings have 
 had some political objecft in view." In the course of these pages 
 the reader will see that the brethren have been, throughout 
 the course of Orange history, almost universally opposed to 
 all broad-minded and progressive legislation in the direcflion 
 of popular ^rights, such as Catholic Emancipation, Parlia- 
 mentary Reform, the Irish Education Aift, the extension of the 
 franchise, etc. On one subje(5l associated with politics, the 
 rules and ritual of the institution are of quite a Draconian 
 chara(5\er — namely, on the duty of the brethren to support the 
 nominees of the Grand Master at Parliamentary and 
 Municipal elecStions. Reference to the seventh chapter of 
 this series will show that, on this sul)je(5t, the law of the lodges 
 has a note as uncompromising as the snap of a steel trap. 
 
 The Orange society furnishes an interesting illustration of 
 what a movement from below may come to be when its 
 programme fits in with the need of a powerful political party, 
 determined, at all hazards, to maintain its star in the 
 ascendent. The organisation arose in 1795, among a "rude 
 and illiterate mob " in Armagh county.^ Through the 
 encouragement given to the association by Government during 
 the Pitt administration,* it rapidly worked its way sideways 
 and upwards until, in the course of time, it included in its 
 motley ranks members of every stratum in society, from Tony 
 Lumpkin to the royal Duke of Cumberland, brother of the 
 reigning King, William IV. It was, in effecft, an Association 
 for the Revival and Perpetuation of Religious Animosities ; 
 
 "^Chambers'' Encyclopedia, ed. 1865, art. " Orangemen." T'-? chapter 
 iv., infra. 
 
 ^Lecky', Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, vol. iv., p. 47; ci. vol. lii., pp. 
 431, 473; iv., 52, 55. See chapter xiii., infra. 
 
STRIKING THE FOE. 
 
 it was strangely out of joint with the temper of the time ; 
 it successfully stemmed the tide of religious toleration that was 
 coming in with a rush in the last quarter of the eighteenth 
 century; and in two short but feverish years ' (1795- 1796) 
 it succeeded in altering, to a great extent, the subsequent course 
 of Irish history. '' On its fortieth anniversary, in 1835, it had 
 a compacft party in Parliament ; had honey-combed the army 
 and every department of the Civil Service ; and had in its 
 ranks considerably over a quarter of a million of armed 
 civilians, all under the supreme and irresponsible control of 
 its Imperial Grand Master, the Duke of Cumberland.* 
 
 STRIKING THE FOE. 
 
 The Orange association possesses the keen sense which 
 secret societies, generally, share with hunted animals: when 
 its thews and sinews are young or flaccid, or when it is other- 
 wise lacking in physical force (as in Australia), or when there 
 is a scent of danger in the air, it follows the cautious advice of 
 old Bre'r Rabbit; "Lay low and say nuffin'."" But in the 
 days of its strength an opposite policy is pursued. For in- 
 stance : referring to its Augustan era — 1829-1835 — the Report 
 of the Parliamentary SeledT: Committee of 1835 says that in 
 the correspondence of the Imperial Grand Lodge, " there is 
 a general reference to the advantage of increase of numbers, 
 of boldness of attitude, and even of physical force, to support 
 the views of the Orange institution." According to his own 
 statement, Fairman was busy at the time working up among 
 the brethren " such an attitude of boldness as will strike the 
 foe [their political opponents] with awe,"' and "such a moral 
 and physical force" as will " strike them with terror and sore 
 dismay;"" while Deputy Grand Master Plunkct, M.P., refers 
 to " the physical strength of the Orange institution as its last 
 resort."'* In the pursuit of their "forward" policy, the brethren 
 (as we shall see in detail in subsequent chapters) calmly and 
 triumphantly defied magisterial and viceregal proclamations; 
 overrode A6is of Parliament (such as the Party Processions 
 
 *Lecky, op. cit., vol. iii., p. 446. See chapter ii., infra. 
 
 ^Report, Pari. Sele6t Committee of 1835. 
 
 «The adlion of a Melbourne lodge, as detailed in the preface of these 
 chapters, is a case in point, as regards a unit of the society. An instance 
 in which the whole society found it convenient to " lay low " will be found 
 in chapter x., infra, note 17 and text. 
 
 "Deputy Grand Secretary Fairman's letter to the Duke of Gordon 
 (Gra»d Master for Scotland), August 11, 1833, in Report of English Seled 
 Committee, Appendix. 
 
 ^Fairman's Letter to Lord Longford, June, 1833, ibid. 
 
 •Letter 10 Fairman, July 5, 1834, ibid. 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 and Oaths Acfts) ; withstood, with arms in their hands, ihe 
 forces of the Crown ; systematically, and on a vast scale, 
 tampered with the loyalty of the nation's last resource — its 
 army; and finally, as contemporary Protestant historians tell 
 us, entered into a conspiracy to exclude the Princess (now 
 Queen) Vicftoria, from the British throne, in favour of their 
 Imperial Grand Master, Ernest, Duke of Cumberland. The 
 menacing and seditious behaviour of the organisation led to 
 the Parliamentary inquiries of 1835. The revelations then 
 made as to the society's aims and methods of work aroused the 
 alarm and indignation of the country; the public exposure 
 shook the pillars of the Grand Imperial Institution of London, 
 that had ruled the lodges of the world. English Orangeism 
 fell like another temple of Dagon. Since that fateful year, the 
 olden glories of the society have never returned. It has 
 existed since then as a series of separate national associations, 
 held together in a loose confederacy by an Imperial Grand 
 Council, presided over by an Imperial Grand Master, who, I 
 believe, is, or was, the Earl of Enniskillen. These national or 
 colonial offshoots retain the same life-aims, the same organisa- 
 tion and methods of work, and (with slight modifications to 
 meet local requirem.ents) the same Laivs and Constitution. 
 
 EMBARRASSING ATTENTIONS. 
 
 It has been the lot of the Orange society to attract, 
 throughout the course of its history, the marked attention of 
 the makers and administrators of the law — more so, perhaps, 
 than any other association now existent. It was the subjecft of 
 animated debates in the Irish House of Commons as early as 
 1796, when it was, so to speak, only an infant in arms — one 
 year old. Its "forward" policy occupied the attention of the 
 British House of Commons almost every year from 181 3 to 
 1825, when it was suppressed by A(51: of Parliament. In 1836, 
 the English lodges dissolved in anticipation of a similar Acft. 
 The society was, moreover, the sole or chief objecfl of three 
 Party Processions Adts (1832, 1850, i860), and of divers Oaths 
 and Tests A(fls^°; and its proceedings have furnished themes 
 for question and debate in Parliament from its reorganisation 
 in 1828 down to the present time. In Ulster, and in Canada, 
 the celebration of its anniversaries is, as we shall see in the 
 tenth and eleventh chapters, a standing menace to the public 
 peace, and a constant source of anxiety to the Executive: in 
 the Irish province these displays have cost the ratepayers as 
 much money as would w-ipe out the public debt of an 
 
 ^See chapters vi., x., xi., infra. 
 
THE AUSTRALIAN LODGES. 
 
 Australian colony. Ulster is the head-quarters of the Orange 
 association ; the west of Scotland is a good ally ; Canada — 
 and especially the province of Ontario — has the most adlive 
 and energising of the colonial offshoots of the society ; Australia 
 is a land of promise. The first Australian lodge of which the 
 present writer has any record was founded in Sydney, in 
 defiance of the orders of the Commander-in-Chief, by one 
 Corporal INIcKee, of the 17th regiment, in 1833.^^ 
 
 Each colony has long had its Grand Lodge, with its 
 scattered groups of distridl and private lodges. The separate 
 Orange organisations in each colony were from time to time 
 and here and there moved in a halting and tentative way by 
 the spirit of federation which swept over Australia. Some 
 years ago the lodges of Vicloria, South Australia, Queensland, 
 and Tasmania, were brought under the control of what is 
 termed the Grand Council of Australasia.^^ The most recently 
 formed, or one of the most recently formed, of the lodges of 
 Vicfloria is numbered i6g.^^ Western Australia claims sixteen 
 lodges and about a thousand brethren. New South Wales is 
 apparently looked up to by some of the fraternity as the Ulster 
 of the group. The Royal Black Preceptory lodges are but the 
 penetralia of the institution — the ordinary meeting places of the 
 choice spirits who form the inner rings or " higher degrees" 
 of the association. Akin to the Orange body is the Protestant 
 Alliance Friendly Society. It also has for its organ the 
 Vidorian Standard, circulates among its members the 
 same class of No-Popery literature, and joins hand in 
 hand with the " Sons of William " in their annual demonstra- 
 tions." 
 
 ^'^Report of Parliamentary Seledt Committee (English) of 1835, p. xv. 
 
 I'-The Grand Council assembles once in three years. Its last meeting 
 was held in Melbourne, April 22, 1897, representatives being present from 
 the Grand Lodges of the colonies mentioned above (Victoyian Standard, 
 April 30, iSgy). The lodges of the colonies just referred to have a uniform 
 system of secret signs and passwords, which are devised by the Grand 
 Council at its triennial meetings (Victorian Standard, ibid). The New South 
 Wales lodges may or may not have joined this confederacy, but according 
 to Grand Secretary Baker of the Vidorian institution, they have a separate 
 and independent system of signs and passwords (Victorian Standard, 
 November 30, 1897). Western Australia has a Grand Council of its 
 own. 
 
 ^'^Victorian Standard, May 31, 1S97. 
 
 i*Reference to the Victorian Standard of November 30, 1896, will show 
 that the offices of this society are filled altogether, or almost altogether, 
 by members of the Grand Orange Lodge of the colony. The Protestant 
 Alliance Friendly Society may be looked upon as pradtically but a benefit 
 branch of the Orange association. 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 AUSTRALIAN LODGES, 
 
 The Australian colonies have not, thus far, witnessed the 
 full blossom and fruit of Orangeism, as displayed in Ulster and 
 in Canada. This is not, however, due to any difference in 
 principles of conducfl: — such does not exist : it is the result of 
 fewer opportunities or smaller possibilities of adlivity. None 
 the less, the society has contrived to produce, even in this 
 portion of the Empire, acute forms of local irritation. Riots 
 were narrowly averted in Melbourne on the twelfths of July, 
 1844 and 1845. On the Williamite anniversary of the following 
 year, a number of armed Orangemen assembled in the Pastoral 
 Hotel in that city, illegally hung out offensive party emblems, 
 and, while the authorities were proceeding to remove the 
 banners and arrest the brethren, fired through an open window 
 a volley which wounded an inoffensive spectator named David 
 Hurley, led to the death of a chance passer-by (Jeremiah 
 Denworth), and narrowly missed taking the valued life of one 
 of the most distinguished statesmen of the colony. Sir John 
 (then Mr.) O'Shanassy . A similar public display of an offensive 
 Orange emblem (a transparency) at the Melbourne Grand Lodge 
 (the Protestant Hall) led to another disturbance, November 27, 
 1867, on the occasion of the visit of the Duke of Edinburgh to 
 Vicftoria. In their joint narrative of the Duke's travels, his 
 chaplain and Mr. Brierly write: " The exhibition of a design 
 of such a decidedly party characSter had been generally con- 
 demned as likely to provoke the animosity of an opposite facftion, 
 and the authorities tried, but without success, to prevail upon 
 the Orangemen not to exhibit it." The same writers go on 
 to relate how, on the second night of the display, stones were 
 thrown at the "obnoxious device," when " the ] sople within the 
 building immediately fired an indiscriminate volley in amongst 
 the crowd. Two men and a poor boy were seriously wounded, 
 and the boy eventually died from the effects of his wound. 
 . . . Nothing can excuse the Orangemen for having, in 
 the first instance, exhibited a party device, which they knew 
 would provoke retaliation and lead to a breach of the 
 peace. "^^ Some of the proceedings of the Orange organisa- 
 
 isThe Cruise of H.M.S. Galatea, by Rev. J. Milner and Oswald W. 
 Brierly, p. 245-6^ The ^iwirrt^^ of 15th August, 1896, contains the follow- 
 ing : " Mr. Mansfield, of Geelong, has furnished us with the following 
 reminiscence of an Orange outrage: 'Among the reminiscences of 12th 
 July, 1846, I have never seen reference made to the death of Jeremiah Den- 
 worth, who was shot on that day. He arrived with me on 4th 06tober, 1841. 
 On the ill-fated 12th, when removing his furniture to a fresh tenement, he 
 was struck by a bullet, near J. T. Smith's tavern. The ball glanced from 
 the left hip, crossed the spine under the slcin, and after a year or n3"re 
 found its wav through the flesh on the inside of the right thigh, whence it wa.^ 
 
THE AUSTRALIAN LODGES. 
 
 ticn in Vicfloria have from time to time been the subjeCl 
 of uncompUmentary mention in the Legislative Assembly, and 
 it has furnished the occasion for the placing of the Party Pro- 
 cessions A(ft among the statutes of the colony. ^^ Its physical 
 strength is not as yet sufficiently hard knit to exhibit the bold 
 and triumphant defiance which Ulster Orangeism offers to Party 
 Processions A6ts. It has, nevertheless, both in Melbourne and 
 the provinces, made repeated efforts to evade the provisions of 
 the statute. 
 
 The Loyal Orange Institution of Victoria has taken another 
 ieaf out of the principles which prevail in Belfast and in the 
 Mecca of Orangeism, Derry, where, with a population of 
 18,346 Catholics, and 14,860 Protestants, the former 
 have been, almost to this hour, excluded from prac- 
 tically every office in the gift of the municipality. The reader 
 will see at the proper time from the pages of their organ, 
 the Vidovian Standard, that certain Orange leaders have on 
 sundry occasions given public expression to the opinion that 
 Catholics, because of their religion, are unfitted for positions 
 in the Public Service. An Orange lodge at Ballarat (with 
 Deputy Grand Master Mr. Vale, M.L.A., in the chair) cen- 
 sured certain members "for condudl: unworthy of Orangemen" 
 in voting for the admission of Catholics to be members of the 
 South Street Debating Society, even though their votes v/ere 
 given with a view to rendering the Society non-secflarian, and 
 thus securing for it a Government grant. The following report 
 of the proceedings appears in the not unfriendly columns of the 
 Melbourne Age of September 13, 1890, under the heading, 
 " Singular Display of Bigotry" : 
 
 Ballarat, Friday. 
 
 "The South Street Debating Society, the premier organisa- 
 tion of the kind in Ballarat, having resolved to admit Roman 
 Catholics to their ranks, are now entitled to a share of the 
 Government library or book vote. This share has already 
 been apportioned at £so, and the amount is now on the list 
 for payment to the board of management. But the rescinding 
 of the rule has involved several young Orangemen in trouble 
 with their lodge. No. 68, owing to their having countenanced 
 or advocated the admission of all classes to the debating club. 
 Among the offenders in this respetfi: are Mr. W. D. Hill, secre- 
 tary to the society, and Mr. F. Barrow. Both of these gentle- 
 men are members of the L.O.L., No. 68, and on Tuesday night 
 
 ejrtradled. He lingered in agony for three years. I frequently visited him 
 at his house at the rear of the Adam and Eve Hotel." 
 
 16" That this Ad is aimed at the Orange institution is a well-known 
 fadt." Victorian Standard (lodge organ), in leader. March ^i, 1897. 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 they were cited to appear before a meeting of brethren at the City Fire 
 Brigade Station to 'give an account of their stewardship.' 
 Deputy Grand Master Bro, R. T. Vale presided, and there 
 was a full muster of members of the institution. Bro. Hill, 
 who is a fluent speaker, asked what charge had been preferred 
 against him, and the reply was, that he had been guilty of con- 
 duit unbecoming an Orangeman in assisting the ' encroachments' of the 
 Roman Catholic Church by moving in the debating society for the ex- 
 cision of the rule limiting membership to Protestants. Bro. Hill said 
 he was not ashamed of the course of acftion he had taken, and 
 he refused to apologise in any way for his conducft. But why 
 should the Orangemen make, he said, a scapegoat of the South 
 Street Debating Society? In the Australian Natives' Associa- 
 tion, Orangemen and Roman Catholics mingled together, and 
 the same might be said of the Masonic fraternity, into whose 
 ranks men of all persuasions were admitted. Bro. Barrow 
 also refused to retracft from the stand he had taken in throwing 
 open the South Street Debating Society to all classes. The 
 chairman remarked that had the bar not been removed from the 
 Roman Catholics the Government grant to the society would 
 have been lost. Finally the lodge censured Bros. Hill and Barrow 
 for their adtioft. The former, before retiring from the lodge, said 
 warmly that the Roman Catholic Church had been frequently 
 charged with not allowing its members to exercise their own 
 judgment, but the Orange lodge were now doing the very 
 thing that they were decrying in others. If that were 
 Orangeism, he had enough of it. . . . Messrs. Hill and 
 Barrow have, since the meeting of the lodge, sent in their 
 resignations as members of the Orange institution."'' 
 
 The fa(5ls elicited at the Melbourne Post Office Inquiry of 
 1896, as reported in the Argus and the Age of July 3 (see pre- 
 face), would go to show that (i) an admittedly false charge was 
 made by certain brethren of a city lodge against a trustworthy 
 public servant, James Sullivan, his only crime being that he 
 was a Catholic; (2) that it was their intention to bring the 
 matter before the Worshipful Master of the lodge (who holds 
 a high position in the Public Service) with a view to " fix up " 
 Sullivan ; (3) that " subjecSts of this nature" were adliually 
 dealt with by the lodge. 
 
 These fadls will surprise no one who has lived in Ulster, 
 or is acquainted with the history of the Orange institution. 
 They are but the bubbles that occasionally float to the surface 
 from the dark depths of lodge secrecy, but they sufficiently 
 
 I'^The same fads are recorded in the Ballarat Star of the previous day 
 (i2th September, 1S90), in which it is stated that "a vote of censure on 
 Messrs. Hill and Barrow was unanimously passed." 
 
THE AUSTRALIAN LODGES, 
 
 indicate the set of the Orange current. Those who know the 
 history of such organisations are aware that they are frequently 
 most determined and dangerous when apparently almost 
 passive. We shall in due course refer to other reprehensible 
 features in the rules and actions of the Australian association, 
 which go to show that we are within measurable distance of 
 the time when the public and the statesmen of these colonies 
 will find themselves face to face with an Orange question, It 
 has long since reached an acute stage in Canada. Charles 
 Dickens (whose Pictures of Italy show the strength of his 
 feeling against Catholics) thus refers, in his American Notes, to 
 Toronto, the head-quarters of Canadian Orangeism : 
 
 " It is a matter of deep regret that political differences 
 should have run high in this place, and led to most discredit- 
 able and disgraceful results. It is not long since guns were 
 discharged from a window in this town at the successful 
 candidates in an elecffion, and the coachman of one of them 
 was adually shot in the body, though not dangerously 
 wounded. But one man was killed on the same occasion : 
 and from the very window whence he received his death the 
 very flag which shielded his murderer (not only in the commission 
 of his crime, but from its consequences ) was displayed again on the 
 occasion of the public ceremony^* performed by the Governor- 
 General, to which I have just adverted. Of all the colors in 
 the rainbow there is but one which could be so employed ; / 
 need not say that flag was Orange.'' 
 
 Chambers'' Encyclopaedia has the following : " Of the colonial 
 off-shoots of the Orange association, those of Canada have at 
 all times been the most adliive and the most flourishing. The 
 Canadian Orangemen being, for the most part, Irish emigrants, 
 carried with them all the bitterness of the domestic feuds with 
 the Roman Catholics. Outrages direcfted against Catholic 
 churches, convents, and other institutions, were of not 
 unfrequent occurrence until recently." The years 1871 to 
 1878 witnessed a long series of riots and confusion in the 
 Orange centres of the Dominion. With the exception of the 
 year 1871, the Marquis of Dufferin (an Ulster Protestant) was 
 Governor-General of Canada during the whole of this period 
 of se(flarian storm. On the 26th of September in the latter 
 year, when retiring from his office, he received at Toronto an 
 address from the " Irish Protestant Benevolent Society," 
 which is, I believe, an association of Orangemen, correspond- 
 ing with the " Protestant Alliance Friendly Society " of 
 Vi(5foria. In his reply, the distinguished statesman is reported 
 
 ^^The opening of a new college. 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 by the New York Herald of the following day to have spoken 
 as follows : 
 
 THE TRAGEDY OF ORANGEISM. 
 
 " No one can have watched the recent course of events 
 without having observed, almost with feelings of terror, the 
 unaccountable exacerbation and recrudescence of those party 
 feuds and religious animosities from which, for many a long 
 day, we have been comparatively free. Now, gentlemen, this 
 is a most serious matter. Its import cannot be exaggerated, 
 and I would beseech you and every Canadian in the land who 
 exercises any influence amid the circle of his acquaintance — 
 nay, every Canadian woman, whether mother, wife, sister, or 
 daughter — to strain every nerve, to exert every faculty they 
 possess, to stifle and eradicate this hateful and abominable 
 root of bitterness from amongst us. Gentlemen, I have had a 
 terrible experience in these matters. I have seen one of the 
 greatest and most prosperous towns of Ireland — the city 
 of Belfast — hopelessly given over, for an entire week, into the 
 hands of two contending religious facSlions. I have gone into 
 the hospital and beheld the dead bodies of young men in the 
 prime of life lying stark and cold upon the hospital floor ; 
 the delicate forms of innocent women writhing in agony upon 
 the hospital beds, and every one of these struck down by an 
 unknown bullet, fired by those with whom they had no 
 personal quarrel, towards whom they felt no animosity, and from 
 whom, had they encountered them in the intercourse of ordinary 
 life, they would have probably received every mark of kind- 
 ness and good-will. But where these tragedies occurred, 
 senseless and wicked as were the occasions which pro- 
 duced them, there had long existed between the contending 
 parties, traditions of animosity and ill-will, and the memory of 
 ancient grievances. But what can be more Cain-like, more 
 insane, than to import into this country, unsullied as it is by 
 any evil record of civil strife — a stainless paradise, fresh and 
 bright from the hands of its Maker, where all have been freely 
 admitted upon equal terms — the bloodthirsty strife and brutal 
 quarrels of the Old World ? Divided as you are into various 
 powerful religious communities, none of whom are entitled to 
 claim either pre-eminence or ascendency over the other, 
 but each of which reckons amongst its adherents enormous 
 masses of the population, what hopes can you have 
 except in mutual forbearance and a generous liberality 
 of sentiment ? Why, your very existence depends upon 
 the disappearance of these ancient feuds. Be wise, 
 therefore, in time, I say, while it is still time, for it is 
 the property of these hateful quarrels to feed on their 
 
 10 
 
LORD DUFFERIN. 
 
 own excesses. If once engendered, they widen their 
 bloody circuit from year to year, till they engulf the entire 
 community in internecine strife. Unhappily, it is not by 
 legislation or statutory restricflions, or even by the interference 
 of the armed Executive, that the evil can be effecftually and 
 radically remedied. Such alternatives, even when successful 
 at the time (I am not alluding to anything that has taken place 
 in Canada, but to my Irish experiences) are apt to leave a sense of 
 injustice and of a partial administration of the law rankling in 
 the minds of one or other of the parties. But, surely, 
 when reinforced by such obvious considerations of self- 
 preservation as those I have indicated, the public opinion of 
 the community at large ought to be sufficient to repress the 
 evils. Believe me, if you desire to avert an impending 
 calamity, it is the duty of every human being amongst you, 
 Protestant and Catholic, Orangeman and Union man, to 
 consider, with regard to all these matters, what is the real 
 duty they owe to God, their country, and each other. 
 (Applause). And now, gentlemen, I have done. I trust that 
 nothing I have said has wounded the susceptibilities of any 
 of those who have listened to me. God knows I have had 
 but one thought in addressing these observations to you, and 
 that is to make the best use of this exceptional occasion, and to 
 take the utmost advantage of the goodwill with which I know 
 you regard me, in order to effecfl an objedt upon which your 
 own happiness and the happiness of future generations so 
 greatly depend." 
 
 In 1882, the five judges of the Supreme Court {in re Grant 
 V. The Mayor of Montreal) declared that by virtue of cap. x., 
 sec. 6, of the Consolidated Statutes of the Dominion of Canada, 
 the Orange institution " is an illegal body, and its members 
 may be prosecuted and found guilty of misdemeanour."^'' In 
 the same year the Dominion Parliament rejedted a bill to 
 legalise the association.^" 
 
 KNOW-NOTHINGISM UP TO DATE. 
 
 From Canada, Orangeism stole silently into the United 
 States. Under the Stars and Stripes it has taken two forms : 
 the Orange society proper (to which brief reference will be 
 made in the sixth chapter) ; and the A. P. A., or American 
 Protedtive Association, so-called, whose proceedings, especially 
 in some of the Western states, bring back the memory of the 
 crimes and follies of the Know-nothing organisations of 
 1853 and the following years. The well-known Protestant 
 
 ^^Hist. 0/ Orangeism, by M.P., p. 297. 
 ^'^'Ilealy's Word for Ireland, p. 150. 
 
 II 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY 
 
 journalist, Mr, W. T. Stead, thus refer? to the A. P. A. in a. 
 recent work . 
 
 " Of all the folk-lore tales of Europe, the most horrible is 
 that of the Vampire of the Levant. The vampire is the 
 reanimated corpse of an evil doer, which is doomed to leave 
 the tomb, and return to the living in order that, with livid 
 lips, he shall draw in the life blood from the veins of his 
 sleeping friends. The A. P. A., that strange association for 
 the protedlion of American citizens, which seems to have 
 within its ranks far more Canadians and Orangemen from 
 Ulster and Glasgow than native-born citizens of the United 
 States, always reminds one of the restless vampire of south- 
 eastern Europe. No-Popery fanaticism died fifty years ago 
 in England. We imagined it dead and buried. But here is 
 the vampire thing making night hideous by re-visiting the pale 
 glimpses of the moon in Western America. It is the same old 
 demon, with its familiar hoof and horns and tail, scaring the 
 old women of both sexes with the bogey of impending 
 massacre, and of the domination of sixty millions by six. 
 . _ . The anti-Catholic propaganda is chiefly the work 
 of non-Americans, who, finding no field for the reception of 
 their pernicious nonsense in Cardinal Manning's country 
 [England] , are endeavouring to palm off upon the New 
 World the cast-off trumpery for which we have no more use 
 on our side of the water. '"^^ 
 
 WHY don't we know ? 
 
 It may at first sight appear singular that the Australian 
 public should know so little of the aims and methods of a 
 society which has its branches in every part of the colonies, 
 and which figures so prominently before the world when each 
 circling year brings its " glorious twelfth" around. The 
 explanation is not far to seek. It lies partly in the difficulty 
 of access to the standard sources of information on the subjedl:, 
 partly in the policy of secrecy pursued by the society itself. 
 
 I. The documents which turn a search-light into the secret 
 recesses of the lodge are contained in sundry Blue Books, such 
 as the voluminous Reports of the Parliamentary Committees 
 appointed in 1835 to inquire into the origin and working of the 
 Orange institution ; the. Reports of the several Royal Commis- 
 sions of Inquiry into the sectarian riots of Belfast, Derry, 
 
 21// Christ came to Chicago, pp. 356-357. On p. 254 Mr. Stead says; 
 "Most of their [the A.P.A.] members are not Americans but Canadians 
 or Britons." Deputy Grand Master R. T. Vale (Vicfloria) correctly 
 describes the A. P. A. as "a body based on very similar lines to the Orange 
 institution'' (Victorian Standard. November 30, 1896, p. 9 ) 
 
WHY DON'T WE KNOW? 
 
 Portadown, and elsewhere . the Jouynaii of the House ci Com- 
 mons ; and a number of books ihat have a iimued 
 circulation among the masses of the reading public, such 
 as the works ot Plowden, Madden. Mitchei, Sir Jonah 
 Barrmgton. Barry O'Brien, Lecky, Killen, " M.P,. ' 
 divers histories, volumes of letters and speeches, etc. All cf 
 these will be treely drawn upon in ihe course or the rcllowing 
 pa2;es ^' 
 
 2. Again, in these colonies Orangeism has not as yet forced 
 Itself on public attention by becoming, to the same extent as it is 
 in Ulster, a constant menace to the peace, a source of anxiety to 
 the Executive, and of financial loss to the country. In our midst 
 it is, happily, not yet strong enough in numbers or influence to 
 indulge in those ready resorts to armed resistance to the law, 
 and to intimidation at election times and during periods of 
 political excitement, which, as we shall see in due course, 
 continue to our day to be part of the settled policy of the 
 leaders of the Irish Orange association. This favourite policy 
 of organised physical force was justly regarded by the English 
 Parliamentary Committee of 1S35 as one of the most menacing 
 features of Orangeism, and one calling for its urgent suppression 
 in the interests of public tranquility. In the fourth, tenth, 
 eleventh, thirteenth, and fifteenth chapters, the reader will find 
 abundant details of the various uses to which the physical 
 strength of the lodges has been put from 1795 to the present 
 day. 
 
 3. The popular unacquaintance with the inner workings of 
 Orangeism is likewise fostered by a vital rule of the institution 
 — the rule of secrecy. As in many other secret societies, this 
 rule has a double acflion — {a) jealous concealment of lodge 
 proceedings, documents, etc. ; (b) the publication of what would 
 be termed on the Mining Exchange cooked prospecffuses. 
 
 (a) The sixth chapter deals with the rule of secrecy, detail- 
 ing the extreme, frequently illegal, sometimes criminal, means 
 employed to guard the proceedings of the society not alone 
 from ordinary profane outsiders, but from courts of law, from 
 Parliamentary Selecfl Committees of Inquiry, and even from 
 lodge members of a lower degree. This policy of secrecy — so 
 vital to the lodges — forms the chief difficulty which a writer has 
 to encounter in dealing with the proceedings of this curious 
 politico-religious association. 
 
 In the Australian colonies, at least, this policy of secrecy 
 is apparently extended, in efTe6f, to even the public fadls of 
 Orange history. The writer of these chapters has read the 
 
 "See Index of Authorities at end of this volume. 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 reports of some hundreds of L.O.L. demonstrations, together 
 with a great number of articles, etc., in the files of the 
 Viiitovian Standard-^ extending over a period of some thirteen 
 years. He cannot, however, recall a single instance in which 
 Orange speakers or writers appealed to the records of Orange 
 history in support of the claims advanced by them on behalf 
 of their association. As far as they are concerned, the history 
 of the Order begins and ends with the " glorious revolution of 
 1688," and the " glorious, pious, and immortal memory " of 
 William, Prince of Orange. Inside the lodges, in their press 
 and on their platform, the clock of time would seem to have 
 stopped short at 1690.-* No whisper, not a breath, of the Royal 
 Commissions of 1857, 1864, 1869, 1883, 1886, etc. Few, even 
 among the leaders and Press champions of colonial Orangeism, 
 appear to have any idea of the evidence which in 1835 laid 
 bare the secrets of the well " tyled " Grand Lodge, and felled 
 the institution at the moment when its final triumph was at 
 hand, and when, as distinguished Protestant historians main- 
 tain, the famous conspiracy was well nigh matured, which was 
 to set aside the Princess (now Queen) Vicfloria, and to place 
 upon the throne of England the Imperial Grand Master, 
 Ernest, Duke of Cumberland.'-^ 
 
 (h) I have indicated another contributing cause to the 
 prevailing lack of knowledge of the ways of Orangemen, 
 namely, their publication to the world, through press and 
 platform, of what the English Parliamentary Committee of 
 1835 termed a set of "ostensible purposes." These are chiefly 
 contained in what are termed the "basis of the institution," 
 and the "qualifications of an Orangeman." Significantly 
 enough, these are the only portions of the Orange rules which 
 are allowed to go before the public. They represent the 
 Orange society as a sort of exalted Quakerism, and are accepted 
 by many outside the lodges as the Nicene Creed of the insti- 
 tution. The patient reader who follows the course of this 
 volume will have abundant opportunities of seeing in detail 
 
 2»The Victorian Standard, in its issue of April 30, 1897, describes itself 
 as "the accredited organ of the [Orange] institution in Vidtoria." 
 
 24A curious instance in point is furnished by The Rise and Progress 0/ 
 Orangeism, by one F. Morgan, who writes under the pen-name "Ulster- 
 man." The book is dedicated to, and published "with the sandlion and 
 approval of," the Grand Master .of Vidtoria. The Rise and Progress of 
 Orangeism, of which the book professes to treat, are only lightly touched 
 upon in some 11 of the 96 pages of which it is composed. The remainder 
 of the publication is taken up with a bombastic account of the Williamite 
 wars in Ireland, "padded out " with long extrafts from the doggerel Orange 
 rhymes of Robert Young ("Old True Blue.") 
 
 2SSee chapter xv., infra. 
 
 14 
 
WHY DON'T WE KNOW? 
 
 the hopeless incongruity of the century-old feud that exists 
 between the public professions and the official pracffices of the 
 Orange association. 
 
 The purpose of this volume is not to give a set history of 
 the society, but to set before the reader certain broad features 
 of the inner working and the outward action of Orangeism, 
 which embrace the greater portion of its annals, and which 
 best explain its true aims, methods and characfter. I purpose 
 to deal briefly with 
 
 1. The rise of Orangeism; 
 
 2. Its methods of organisation; 
 
 3. Its demonstrations: their purpose, their methods, and 
 their results; 
 
 4. Some of its leading professions; how far they are 
 consistent, or at variance, with the facfts of its history. 
 
 In the course of the following pages the sources of informa- 
 tion referred to above will be freely drawn upon : namely, 
 Government Blue Books and other official publications; the 
 past and current rules, rituals, and proceedings of the Orange 
 society, as far as they have been brought to the light of day ; 
 newspapers, tracSfs, pamphlets etc., issued in the interest of the 
 lodges — as far as they can be decently quoted ; the utterances 
 of statesmen, judges, historians, etc., the vast majority of whom 
 are Protestants. In dealing with certain periods of Orange 
 history, I have not, of course, excluded such valued standard 
 Catholic authorities as Plowden, Madden, etc. The reader 
 will, however, note that the verdicl: of statesmanship and of 
 history on the Orange society comes chiefly from sources which 
 do not lie open to the imputation of undue bias against the 
 association. 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 Chapter IL 
 
 STATE OF PARTIES AT THE RISE CF ORANGEISA^ 
 —A UNION OF HEARTS. GROWTH OF RELIGIOUS 
 TOLERATION — THE RIFT IN THE LUTE. AN 
 ANCIENT VILLAGE FEUD, AND WHAT CAME OF 
 IT. 
 
 "It must be admitted that the [Orange] system had a rather 
 ominous begmning." So wrote the Ulster Presbyterian histor- 
 ian, the Rev. Dr. Killen.' The facfts connecfted with the rise 
 of the Orange Society may be briefly stated as follow: 
 
 1. The Orange society took its rise in a country where the 
 Catholic body were singularly free from the stigma of having 
 persecuted Protestants because of their religious convicftions. 
 
 2. It arose at a time when the members of the State 
 religion were more firmly and peacefully established in the 
 government of the country than they had been at any time 
 since the Reformation ; when there existed a kindlier feeling 
 between Protestants and Catholics in Ireland than at any 
 subsequent period of their history; and w^hen, of all times, 
 there was least need of an association to "defend the Protest- 
 ant religion" as by law established in the land. 
 
 3. The Orange society was founded in "the most Protestant 
 county in Ireland," where the Catholics were a minority of the 
 population, and in a province, too, where, as the venerable 
 Presbyterian historian, Hill, in his Plantation of Ulster, shows 
 the Catholics had been robbed of every inch of the land that 
 belonged to themselves and their fathers. 
 
 4. Catholics at the time were as loyal as the members of 
 any other religious denomination in the country. 
 
 5. The society took its rise in events which altogether 
 exclude the idea that it was founded for the defence of religion, 
 or 'the maintenance of the law. 
 
 6. Its rise was inaugurated by a fierce persecution of the 
 Catholic body in Ulster. This persecution was carried out in 
 
 i Ecclesiastical History 0/ Ireland, vol. ii., p. 359. Dr. Killen was President 
 of the Assembly's College, Belfast, and is held in high esteem as a historian 
 bv Irish Presbyterians. His evidence on the Orange society is all the 
 m'ore noteworthy when taken in connexion with his strong prejudice 
 against Catholics, which finds vigorous expression throughout the whole 
 course of his Ecclesiastical History. 
 
 16 
 
NOT PERSECUTORS. 
 
 direa violation of civil law and natural right ; it extended over 
 a period of several years ; and forms one of the blackest epochs 
 in the history of the nation's suffering and woe. 
 
 NOT PERSECUTORS. 
 
 I. Catholics and Protestants in Ireland.— The Protestant his- 
 torian, Lecky, says : " The Irish have not generally been an 
 intolerant or persecuting people."^ In another of his works' 
 he writes : " It is open to anyone to maintain that the Irish 
 Catholics would never have been content with any position 
 short of ascendency ; but whatever plausibility this theory may 
 derive from the experience of other countries, there is no real 
 evidence to support it in Irish history." Taylor (another 
 Protestant writer) says in his Irish Civil Wars^: " It is but 
 justice to the Catholics of Ireland to add, that on the three 
 occasions of their obtaining the upper hand, they never injured 
 a single person in life or limb for professing a religion different 
 from their own. They had suffered persecution and learned 
 mercy, as they showed in the reign of Mary, in the wars from 
 1641 to 1648, and during the brief triumphs of James II." 
 
 Writing of these three periods of the temporary triumph of 
 the hitherto persecuted Irish Catholics, Lecky says : " It is a 
 memorable fa(5t that not a single Protestant suffered for his 
 religion in Ireland during all the period of the Marian persecu- 
 tion in England. The treatment of Bedell during the savage 
 outbreak of 164 1, and the A6i establishing liberty of conscience 
 passed by the Irish Parliament in 1689,^ in the full flush of the 
 brief Catholic ascendency under James II., exhibit very re- 
 markably this aspedl of the Irish characfter, and it was displayed 
 in another form scarcely less vividly during the Quaker missions, 
 which began towards the close of the Commonwealth,*and con- 
 tinued with little intermission for two generations." Two pages 
 further on Lecky says: "The experience of Wesley half a 
 century later was very similar. He has more than once in 
 his ' Journal' spoken in terms of warm appreciation of the 
 docile and tolerant spirit he almost everywhere encountered."" 
 
 ^Leaders 0/ Public Opinion, ed. 1871, p. 214. 
 
 ^Hist. 0/ Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, vol. i., p. 36. 
 
 4Vol. i., p. 168. 
 
 s Catholics were in an overwhelming majority in this Parliament. The 
 A(5t ran : "We hereby decree that it is the law of this land of Ireland, that 
 neither now, nor ever again, shall any man be prosecuted for his religion." 
 This short period of Catholic triumph was, says the Protestant historian 
 Mitchel, the only time in which liberty of conscience was recognised by 
 law in Ireland from the days of Henry VIII. till the passing of the Eman 
 cipation A.&. in 1829. Mitchel's Reply to Froude, chapter iii., p. 79. Mitchel 
 was the son of an Ulster Protestant clergyman. 
 
 '^Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, vol. i., pp. 409, 411. Compare? his 
 
 17 B 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 Writing of the alleged organised surprise and massacre of 
 Protestants in Ireland in 1641, the same writer says that " the 
 charge is utterly and absolutely untrue." ' Rev. Thomas 
 Leland, whose extreme antipathy to his Catholic fellow- 
 countrymen is evidenced on almost every page of his History, 
 testifies " that during the Marian persecution several English 
 families, friends to the Reformation, fled into Ireland, and 
 there enjoyed their opinions and worship in privacy, without 
 notice or molestation."^ It is on record that the Catholic 
 Corporation of DubHn housed, fed, and maintained a large 
 number of Protestant refugees, and, after the death of Queen 
 Mary, sent them back in safety to their homes. 
 
 Another Protestant historian, Rev. Dr. Witherow, bears 
 willing witness to the tolerant spirit of the Catholics of the 
 North, when "for four months, from March to August, i68g, 
 all Ulster, except Derry and the districft around Enniskillen, 
 was completely at their mercy." ^ At the Alliance meetings of 
 the Presbyterian Churches, held at Belfast in 1884, Rev. Dr. 
 Killen, the historian, is reported by the Northern Whig of that 
 date to have said that "there was not a single instance 
 
 Leaders of Public Opinion, eA. 1871, pp. 214-215. Wesley did not recipro- 
 cate the tolerant spirit he found among the Catholics of Ireland. He wrote 
 against the removal of the Irish Penal Laws, and was replied to by Father 
 O'Leary in what Lecky terms "a series of masterly letters." Leaders of 
 Public Opinion, p. 132. 
 
 ■^In the first chapter, first volume, oi Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, 
 Lecky deals very fully with this alleged massacre. He shows that the 
 authorities chiefly relied on to support the story had a strong pecuniary 
 interest in painting the deeds of the plundered Irish in the darkest colours ; 
 and (p. 72) refers to the "enormous, palpable exaggerations they display, 
 and the absolute incredibility of their narratives." The crimes committed 
 by the insurgents have been, says he (p. 46), "grossly, absurdly, and men- 
 daciously exaggerated;" "hardly any page of history has been more mis- 
 represented" (p. 46); it has been "grossly and malignantly represented" 
 (p. 100). The story of the alleged massacre, he continues, "has been 
 exaggerated in popular histories almost beyond any tragedy on record. It 
 has, unfortunately, long since passed into the repertory of religious con- 
 troversy, and although more than 230 years have elapsed since it occurred, 
 this page of Irish history is still the favourite field of writers who desire to 
 excite sectarian or national animosity" (p. 59). He shows (pp. 98-99) that the 
 war of 1641 was not a religious one. The number of undoubted vidtims of 
 racial and religious hate which he is prepared to admit would fall very 
 short of those who were tortured, or slaughtered in cold blood, before and 
 during the insurredlion of 1798, mainly, as we shall see in the thirteenth 
 chapter, by armed Orangemen. Lecky holds it as "certain that in three 
 provinces out of the four, the adlual conduft of the Irish compares in this 
 respedt [of humanity] favourably with that of their enemies " (p. 93). Cf. 
 Leaders of Public Opinion, p. 215; Mitchel's Reply to Froude; O'Connell's 
 Memoir of Ireland; Haverty's History, etc. 
 
 ^Hist. of Ireland, vol. ii., p. 259, ed. 1774. 
 
 ^Derry and Enniskillen, pp. 316, 321. 
 
 18 
 
A UNION OF HEARTS. 
 
 on record in which any agent of the Presbyterian Church or 
 mission in Ireland had been molested by any organised attack 
 from Irish Catholics." Similar evidence is given by Rev. 
 Mr. Irwin, in his History of Preshytevianism outside Ulster 
 (P- 159)- " Their uniform testimony," says he, " is that 
 they, a small minority, have been treated with kindness by the 
 great mass of the population among whom their lot is cast." 
 
 [a). There was, then, nothing in the past condu(5t of the 
 Catholic body which would necessitate the formation of an 
 association for the defence of the Established or any other 
 Protestant Church in Ireland. Neither was there anything 
 demanding such a course of acStion in the special circumstances 
 of the country when Orangeism first took root, among the 
 lower strata of society, in the last quarter of the eighteenth 
 century, {h). The members of the State Church enjoyed at 
 the time a peaceful and long-established monopoly of the 
 government of the country, together with that of its offices of 
 honor and emolument ; while (c) the happiest relations existed 
 between the Catholic and the Protestant bodies throughout 
 the nation. 
 
 A UNION OF HEARTS. 
 
 2. Growth of Religious Toleration. — For some thirty years 
 before the rise of Orangeism, there had been spreading in 
 Ireland, side by side with the growth of a patriotic and 
 national sentiment, a steadily increasing spirit of goodwill 
 between the Catholic and the Protestant bodies. As far back 
 as 1770, an Irish Protestant writer could testify that " bigotry 
 is losing its force everywhere."^" The Volunteers of the North 
 (where the Orange society arose) admitted Catholics to their 
 ranks." At their Convention, they turned out and presented 
 arms to Father O'Leary.^'^ In 1782, the representatives of 143 
 corps of this national Protestant army, with only two dissentient 
 voices, approved of a larger mitigation of the Penal Code, and 
 the admission of Catholics to the suffrage." Lord Sheffield 
 testified, in a work published in 1785, that the Irish Pro- 
 testants, "one -fifth, or perhaps one -sixth of a nation, in 
 possession of the power and property of the country," were 
 "eager to communicate that power [of voting] to the remaining 
 four-fifths, which would, in effecft, entirely transfer it from them- 
 selves."" Irish Protestants, at that time, evidently felt that 
 
 loPreface to Molyneux's Case of Ireland, ed. 1770. 
 
 "Lecky, Leaders of Public Opinion, p. 130. 
 
 ^'^Ihid., p. 133. 
 
 ^^Ibid., p. 138; Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, vol. iii., p. 428. 
 
 ^^Observations on the Trade 0/ Ireland, p. 372. 
 
 19 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 they had nothing to fear from the placing of a large measure of 
 political power in the hands of their Catholic fellow-countrymen. 
 
 Writing of a later period, Lecky says that the old Penal 
 Code had " perished at last by its own atrocity. It became, 
 after a time, so out of harmony with the prevailing tone of 
 Irish opinion, that it ceased to be enforced, and the Irish 
 Protestants took the initiative in obtaining its mitigation. In 1768 
 a Bill for this purpose passed without a division in the 
 [exclusively Protestant] Irish Parliament, but was lost in 
 England. In 1774, 1778, 1782, and 1792, several Relief Bills 
 became law."^^ The great Relief Bill of 1793 became law only 
 two years before the formation of the first Orange lodge. It 
 gave Irish Catholics votes at Municipal and Parliamentary 
 elections, and was "acquiesced in by the majority of the 
 [Protestant] clergy."^*' The Commission of the Peace, the 
 jury-box, and ofiticerships in the army and navy, were now 
 thrown open to Catholics. All this was done by Irish 
 Protestants at a time "when scarcely any public opinion 
 existed in Ireland, when the Roman Catholics were nearly 
 quiescent, and when the leaning of the Government was 
 generally illiberal."" 
 
 In 1 79 1 (four years before the first Orange lodge was 
 founded) the society of United Irishmen, which, says Lecky, 
 "consisted originally chiefly of Protestants," was formed (to 
 use their own words) "to provide a union of friendship between 
 Irishmen of every religions persuasion, and to forward a full, fair, 
 and adequate representation of all the people in Parliament."^® "The 
 Protestant gentry of Ireland had many faults," says Lecky, 
 "but they were at this time remarkably free from religious 
 bigotry. "^^ The Orange writer Musgrave tells how they gave 
 land and money for the erecftion of Catholic chapels.^" In 1792 
 " a petition for [Catholic] Emancipation, signed by 600 Pro- 
 testant householders of Belfast, was presented to Parlia- 
 ment."^^ A similar petition came from Derry in the very year 
 in which the first Orange lodge was founded.-^ Rev. Dr. Lynch, 
 a Derry priest, collecfted, in one day, close on five hundred 
 
 ^^Leaders of Public Opinion, pp. 129, 130. 
 
 i6J6jVf., p. 211. Lecky adds that this Adl "produced nothing of that 
 frantic intolerance which, both among the EngHsh and Irish clergy, was 
 aroused by the much less important measure of 1829 " (the Emancipation 
 Aft.) Dr. Killen says that the passing of this Aft drove the Orangemen 
 "almost to madness." Eccles. Hist. vol. ii., p. 463. 
 
 I'^Lecky, Leaders of Public Opinion, p. 135. 
 
 ^^Ibid., p. 138. 
 
 i^Lecky, Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, vol. iii., p. 2S6. 
 
 "^^Memoirs of the Different Rebellions, 2nd ed., p. 635. 
 
 2iLecky, Leaders of Public Opinion, p. 138. 
 
 ^^Jreland in the Eighteenth Century, vol. iii., p. 296. 
 
 20 
 
1795: EXTREMES MEET. 
 
 guineas for the Long Tower church, which was begun in 1784, 
 and completed in 1786. Of this amount, fifty guineas were 
 contributed by the exclusively Protestant Corporation^ of 
 Derry, and two hundred guineas by Harvey, Earl of Bristol, 
 who was at the time Protestant bishop of the Maiden City.^ 
 Orangeism has altered all that. From its rise down almost to 
 the present hour, the position of Catholics in Belfast and Derry 
 is little better than it was before the Emancipation Bill 
 became law.^^ 
 
 1795 : EXTREMES MEET. 
 
 In 1795, the year in which " the illiterate mob of Peep-o'- 
 Day Boys" assumed the title of Orangemen, the relations 
 between the Protestant and the Catholic bodies in Ireland were 
 happier than they had been at any time since the Reformation, 
 or than they have ever been from the rise of the Orange society 
 to the present day. The students of the Protestant Dublin 
 University (Trinity College) petitioned for Catholic Emancipa- 
 tion in 1795, and publicly thanked Grattan for his labours in 
 the cause. •^^ As far back as 1 792, the Irish Bar " was almost 
 unanimous in favour of the Catholics."^'' Grattari'could declare 
 in Parliament in 1795, that the vast majority of the Protestant 
 and commercial interests were in favour of Catholic Emancipa- 
 tion.^'' Lord Fitzwilliam, the new Viceroy, represented to the 
 King "the universal approbation" with which Irish Protestants 
 viewed the measure.'^® In his letter to Lord Carlisle, he states 
 that "not one Protestant corporation, scarcely an individual, 
 has come forward to oppose the indulgences claimed by the 
 higher order of Catholics."-" Lecky says that at this time (the 
 early part of 1795) "the great majority of Protestants were 
 unquestionably in favour of it" (Catholic Emancipation).^" 
 Praiftically the only opposition to the movement came from 
 
 23Larcom's Ordnance Survey of Derry, p. 109. The Long Tower church 
 stands on the site of the old Dubh Regies of St. Columbcille, which dates 
 from about a.d. 546. (Ordnance Survey, p. 18.) CathoUc worship has 
 been continued unbroken on that hallowed spot for over 1350 years. 
 During the penal days the Catholics used to repair to it by stealth, and 
 there worshipped the God of their fathers. A marble slab, with an in- 
 scription, marks the site of the tree that sheltered the hunted priest, as he 
 ministered to his people. 
 
 2iSee Appendix A. 
 
 25Lecky, Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, vol. iii., p. 343: Leaders of 
 Public Opinion, p. 137. 
 
 "^^ Leaders of Public Opinion, p. 136. 
 
 2 ''Lecky, Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, vol. iii., p. 343. 
 
 28His letter is given in Grattan's Life and Times, by his son. Henry 
 Grattan (1846). 
 
 "^^ Leaders of Public Opinion, p. 144. 
 
 ^°Ibid., p. 143; Eighteenth Century, vol. iii., p. 285. 
 
 21 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 " an aristocratic facftion," who " disliked the measure as 
 threatening their monopoly, but it was plain that they would 
 not resist the determination of the Government. "^^ " All the 
 eading intellecfts of the country," says Lecky, "almost all the 
 Opposition, and several conspicuous members of the Govern- 
 ment, were in favour of Emancipation. The rancour which at 
 present exists between the members of the two creeds appears to have 
 been almost unknown, and the whole obstacle to Emancipation 
 was not the feelings of the people, but the policy of the 
 Government. "^^ " There are few facfts in Irish history," says 
 the same writer, " more certain than that the [wholly Pro- 
 testant] Irish Parliament would have carried Emancipation if 
 Lord Fitzwilliam had remained." 
 
 The reader will seek in vain, among the records of this 
 time, for an indication of fear on the part of the Protestant body 
 in Ireland that " the Church was in danger" in 1795, and 
 needed a special organisation for its defence. Before the close 
 of that fateful year, the outrages of the early Orangemen rudely 
 broke the bond of brotherly feeling which had been long and 
 steadily growing up between Catholic and Protestant in Ireland. 
 The inaugural outrages of the lodges gave rise to a " fierce 
 revival of religious animosities," which "left an enduring root 
 of bitterness in Irish life."^^ We shall see more of this as we 
 proceed. The altered feeling towards Catholics was strongly 
 evidenced during the Emancipation and Disestablishment 
 agitations, when vast numbers of petitions against these less 
 important Relief Bills reached the British Parliament ; when the 
 Orange lodges were in a state of scarcely veiled rebellion , 
 when the forces of the Crown were defied, the Queen 
 threatened, and the passing of the Bills "drove the brethren 
 almost to madness."''* Toleration was better understood in 
 Ireland in 1793 and 1795 (before the formation of Orange 
 lodges), than it was in 1829 and 1869. 
 
 A CATHOLIC MINORITY. 
 
 3. In the year when the Orange society arose, Irish 
 Protestants, even in those parts of the country where they 
 
 ^'^Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, vol. iii., p. 285. 
 
 ^^Leaders 0/ Public Opinion, p. 136; cf. p. 215. Referring to the period 
 of the recall of Lord Fitzwilliam, in 1795, Lecky says that, at this time, 
 "religious animosities appeared to have almost died away." Ireland in the 
 Eighteenth Century, vol. iii., p. 323. 
 
 3 3Lecky, Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, vol. iii., p. 446. 
 
 3*Compare Killen, Eccles. Hist. 0/ Ireland, vol. ii., p. 463. Lecky says : 
 "The concession accorded [to the Catholics] in 1793, was, in is.&., far 
 greater and more important than that accorded in 1S29, and it placed the Roman 
 Catholics, in a great measure, above the mercy of Protestants." Leaders 
 of Public Opinion, p. 136. 
 
 22 
 
CATHOLIC LOYALTY. 
 
 were a small minority of the population, evidently felt that 
 their religion had nothing to fear from their Catholic fellow- 
 subjects. Much less had they to fear in the county of Armagh, 
 where the first Orange lodge was founded in 1795. Lord 
 Camden, the Viceroy, who was sent over to Ireland in that 
 year to superintend the work of goading the people into 
 insurre(ftion, informed the English Government that the 
 Protestants [Episcopalians] were '*the most numerous" body 
 in the county of Armagh. ^^ Lord Gosford, a Protestant and 
 Governor of the county in 1795, wrote to Pelham that his 
 co-religionists were "greatly superior in strength" to the 
 Catholics in Armagh. '"^ Plowden, a contemporary historian, 
 states that " the county of Armagh is the most Protestant 
 [Episcopalian] county in Ireland. It is in great part a species 
 of English colony."'^'' Writing of the period when Orangeism 
 in its present shape arose, Lecky says : " In the county of 
 Armagh the Protestants were decidedly in the ascendent," 
 and that they were " considerably stronger than the 
 Catholics."^® Again, General Craddock had proved that the 
 forces of the Crown were quite sufficient to put down the 
 riotous lower orders of Protestants and Catholics who filled 
 the ranks of the Peep-o'-Day Boys and the Defenders. And 
 the forces of the Crown were wholly in the hands of the 
 Protestant majority. Of all parts of Ireland, the Established 
 Church in Armagh county stood least in need of a special 
 defensive organisation. We shall in due course see that, even 
 if such a need had existed, the Peep-o'-Day Boys — whether 
 known by that title, or by their later designation of Orangemen 
 — were the last to whom the State Church would have been 
 likely to look for aid. 
 
 LOYALTY OF IRISH CATHOLICS. 
 
 4. The Protestant historian, Lecky, says that the Irish 
 Catholics in 1795 (the birth year of Orangeism) "could point 
 with pride to their pcvfcCt loyalty for the space of a hundred 
 years, in spite of the penal laws, of the rebellions of 1715 and 
 
 ssproude, The English m Ireland, vol. iii., p. 178, twte ; Lecky, Ireland 
 in the Eighteenth Century, vol. iii., p. 434. See chap, v., infra, note 7. 
 
 •''^Quoted in Lecky's Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, vol. iii., p. 431, 
 note. 
 
 ^''Hist. of Irelatid from its Union with Great Britain, vol. i., introd. p. 9. 
 The designation "Protestant" was then appropriated exclusively by 
 members of the Established Church. See Killen, ii., p. 363, and chapter 
 v., infra, note 7. 
 
 ^^Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, vol. iii., p. 425 ; vol. iv., p. 47. Killen 
 says that Armagh County was the part of Ulster, " in which the largest 
 amount of money was expended by the state for the maintenance of [the 
 established] religion" ii., 356. 
 
 23 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 1745, and the revolt of the colonies."'^ At the time of 
 the Volunteer movement "they were perfecftly peaceful, and, 
 indeed, quiescent."^" We shall see, in the course of this 
 chapter, that the Irish Catholics as a body were quite dis- 
 associated from the feuds of the lower order of Protestants 
 and Catholics in Armagh county, which led to the formation 
 of the first Orange lodge. In 1793, during the debate on the 
 Catholic Relief Bill, Lord Arthur Wellesley declared in the 
 Irish House of Commons that the Catholic body were "as 
 loyal and trustworthy as any other of his Majesty's subjecfts."" 
 
 " The revolutionary movement in its earlier stages existed 
 mainly among the Protestants of the North," and principally 
 among the Presbyterians.'*^ Catholic priests looked with 
 horror on the Revolution, ^^ which had wrought such havoc 
 upon the Church in France. Up to the withdrawal of Lord 
 Fitzwilliam, although lawlessness existed, the Catholic masses 
 were free from the taint of " acftive political disaffecflion."^^ 
 The three leaders of the United Irishmen, in their Memoir to 
 the Government, are quite agreed upon two points — (a) that 
 their association " made but little way amongst Catholics 
 throughout the kingdom until after the recall of Lord 
 Fitzwilliam," and (b) that the Orange outrages in Ulster first 
 drove them in considerable numbers, and for self-protecflion, 
 into the ranks of the United men.^^ 
 
 In 1796 — the year following the opening of the first Orange 
 lodge — a French fleet invaded Bantry Bay. Then there was 
 witnessed a curious contrast between the sedition of the 
 Protestant portions of Ulster and the loyalty of the remaining 
 three provinces of Ireland. The Viceroy, Camden, asserted 
 that, to his personal knowledge, Ulster was at the time " ripe 
 for revolt."*" Belfast was the centre of the republican move- 
 ment. The Sovereign of the city failed to raise even a corps 
 
 ^^Leaders 0/ Public Opinion, p. 149. The celebrated Father O'Leary 
 "wrote an address to the Roman Catholics, inculcating loyalty during the 
 Rebellion of 1745" Ibid., p. 132. 
 
 ^oibid., p. 96. 
 
 *iQuoted in "M.P.'s" History of Orangeism, p. 73. 
 
 ^'^Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, vol. iii., p. 446; also 543, 544; v., 
 490, etc. Leaders of Ptiblic Opinion, p. 148. 
 
 ^^Leaders of Public Opinion, p. 148. Eighteenth Century, iii., 511. 
 
 ^^Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, vol. iii., pp. 446, 323 ; Leaders of 
 Public Opinion, p. 148. 
 
 ^sThe Memoir is given in full in McNevin's Pieces of Irish History, pp. 
 174-194. Cf. Plowden, Ireland from its Union, vol. i., introd., p. 51 ; Lecky, 
 Leaders of Public Opinion, pp. 148-149. See note 54, infra. Two of the 
 authors of the Memoir (Emmet and O'Connor) were Protestants; the third 
 (McNevin) a Catholic. 
 
 *6Lecky, Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, vol. iii., p. 544. 
 
 24 
 
CATHOLIC LOYALTY 
 
 of yeomanry to meet the threatened invasion. " The dis- 
 affedtion was grave and general."" "Everything is quiet" 
 [in the South and West] , wrote Beresford at the time, " and 
 loyalty apparent everywhere, except in the North.'"^^ Even 
 Lord Clare, in spite of his strong anti-Catholic feehngs, spoke 
 as follows in a debate in the Irish Parliament, February ig, 
 1798: 
 
 " During all the disturbances which prevailed m other parts 
 of the kii^gdom we were in a state of profound tranquility and 
 contentment there [in the Southern and Midland distridts] 
 . . When the enemy appeared on the coast ... a 
 general sentiment of loyalty prevailed in all ranks and degrees 
 of the people, who vied with each other in contributing to 
 defend their country against the invaders." ^^ The garrison of 
 Dublin was reduced.^" Catholic yeomanry corps were formed ; 
 and the Catholic population of Leinster, Connaught, and 
 Munster turned out enthusiastically to feed the troops, repair 
 the roads, contribute funds, and do all that lay in their power 
 to stem the tide of French invasion.*^ Even the Ulster 
 Catholics who had been driven out of their plundered houses 
 " to hell or Connaught," by the Orangemen, in the depth of a 
 bitter winter, were loyal and peaceable at the time.^^ " All 
 the evidence we possess," says Lecky, " concurs in showing 
 that the great body of the Catholics did not at this time show 
 the smallest wish to throw off the English rule, and that their 
 spontaneous and unforced sympathies were with the British 
 flag."^* 
 
 Whatever danger may have menaced the authority of the 
 British Crown in Ireland in 1795 — the year of the first Orange 
 lodge— such danger did not arise from the condudl of the 
 Catholic body, or of any considerable secftion of it. Again : 
 even had such a danger existed, the last persons to whom we 
 should have looked for a loyal defence of the Crown and 
 Constitution would be what Protestant officials, statesmen, 
 and historians unite in terming the " lawless banditti" of 
 Peep-o'-Day Boys, who in 1795 took to themselves the alias of 
 
 ^''G. Brown to Pelham, Dec. 30, 1796, Ibid., p. 543. 
 
 ^filbid., cf. pp. 480, 483, 545. 
 
 ^^Ibid., pp. 474-475- 
 
 ^°Ibid., p. 545; cf. p. 265. 
 
 siSee Lecky's Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, vol. iii., pp. 529-548 ; 
 Dr. Lanigan, his Life and Times, by Fitzpatrick, p. 72 ; Correspondence of 
 Edmund Burke, iv., p. 268. 
 
 •''■■^ Lecky, op. cit., p. 543. 
 
 ^^Ibid., p. 541 ; cf. pp. 443 and 540. At p. 540, he says that " although 
 treason had of late years been zealously propagated among them, its 
 influence was as yet very superficial." 
 
 25 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 Orangemen. There is no reason to doubt that the allegiance 
 of the Irish Catholics would have come unscathed through the 
 events which turned such a large proportion of Ulster Protes- 
 tants into rebels, but for the inaugural outrages of the Orange 
 lodges, and the cruel policy of Pitt in forcing the people into 
 rebellion for the purpose of depriving Ireland of her Legislature. 
 The Orange outrages of 1795, 1796, and 1797 produced a 
 consternation and panic in the country such as had never been 
 experienced since the days of Cromwell, and drove the Catholics 
 of the North for prote(5lion into the ranks of the United Irish- 
 men.^* These outrages were followed fast by the Irish Reign 
 
 54" We solemnly aver," said the United leaders in what Lecky terms 
 their " evidently truthful Memoir^' to the Government, " that whenever the 
 Orange system was introduced, particularly in Catholic counties, it was 
 uniformly observed that the number of United Irishmen increased most 
 astonishingly. The alarm whick an Orange lodge excited amongst the Catholics 
 made them look for refuge by joining together in the United system." McNevin, 
 Pieces of Irish History, p. 178, ed. 1803. See note 45, supra. 
 
 The other leading fadts connedled with the society of United Irishmen 
 may be briefly stated as follow ; 
 
 (a) The society was founded in Belfast, in 1791, by Wolfe Tone, a 
 Protestant barrister. 
 
 {b) It was at first (1791-1795) frankly loyal and constitutional ; its 
 aims being to secure, by peacable agitation. Parliamentary Reform and 
 Catholic Emancipation. (Lecky, Leaders of Public Opinion, p. 140; Wal- 
 pole, Kingdom of Ireland, ch. viii., p. 411). 
 
 {c) When constitutional agitation utterly failed, the society adopted 
 republican principles (1795-1798). (Lecky, op. cit.; Mitchel, Hist. Ireland, 
 vol. i., ch. xxx). They did not, however, adopt a military organisation 
 until the end of 1796 — when the Orange outrages had been in full progress 
 for a year or more (Lecky, Eighteenth Century, iii., 489; McNevin, Pieces of 
 Irish History, p. 182). Even after republicanism had become a plank of the 
 organisation, there is evidence to show that the United leaders would have 
 accepted Parliamentary Reform (McNevin, Pieces of Irish History, p. 104). 
 
 (d) The members of the society were at first almost altogether Pro- 
 testants, and mainly Presbyterians. A year or two before the insurredtion, 
 Samuel Neilson said two-thirds of them were Presbyterians and Deists, 
 the remainder members of the Established Church and Catholics (Lecky, 
 op. cit., iii., 202, 479, 489; v., 490; Leaders of Public Opinion, pp. 138, 141; 
 Dickson's Narrative, p. 116; Cornwallis Correspondence, ed. 1859, vol. ii., 
 338; Musgrave, Memoirs of Different Rebellions, ed. 1801, vol. i., p. 195). 
 Lecky states that at least five-sixths of the United Irish leaders were Pro- 
 testants. Eighteenth Century, vol. iv., p. 242; cf. vol. iii., p. 485. 
 
 [e) The great centre of the United Irish society was Ulster. (Wal- 
 pole, p. 464). It never secured so firm a hold on the South or West ; and 
 Wexford county, where the insurredion of 1798 broke out, was never 
 "organised." (Walpole, ch. xx., pp. 488-489; cf. Lecky, Eighteenth Cen 
 tury. iii., 383). 
 
 (/) The society was "vehemently opposed" by the Catholic bishops 
 and clergy (Mitchel, Htst. of Ireland, vol. i., ch. xxviii., p. 215; ch. xxxiv., 
 p. 283. Cf. Killen, Eccles. Hist, of Ireland, vol. i., p. 215; Lecky, Eighteenth 
 Century, vol. iii., p. 512). Arthur O'Connor, one of the chief leaders, 
 received Deacon's orders in the Established Church (Cornwallis Corres- 
 
RIVAL FACTIONS. 
 
 of Terror of 1797 and 1798, during the course of which the 
 Orange yeomanry, as we shall see, took a leading part in 
 furthering Pitt's policy, by deliberately goading and torturing 
 the unhappy people into insurredlion. 
 
 A CLOUD IN THE NORTH. 
 
 In the midst of the growing harmony and good-will between 
 Protestants and Catholics in Ireland, there existed, among the 
 lower orders of the population in Armagh county, elements of 
 religious discord and turbulence which cleft the fast uniting 
 masses of the people, and altered the whole current of the 
 nation's subsequent history. From about 1785 to 1795 con- 
 flicfts had been carried on in Armagh county between an asso- 
 ciation of the lower order of Protestants, called Peep-o'-Day 
 Boys or Wreckers, and a combination of the same class of 
 Catholics, who are known as Defenders. "The Peep-o'-Day 
 Boys," says Lecky, "ultimately merged into Orangemen."*^ 
 In the fourth chapter of this volume the reader will see that the 
 Orange association was essentially nothing more than the 
 Peep-o'-Day movement under an altered name, and with a 
 more complete organisation. 
 
 In the last quarter of the eighteenth century, the title of 
 Defenderism covered a large number of distincft and uncon- 
 necfted movements, which were mostly agrarian, and were "to 
 a great extent direcfled against the owners of property. "^"^ 
 They sprung from the grinding poverty and oppression from 
 which the Irish farming and labouring classes were suffering 
 at the period of which I write, ^^ and bore a strong resem- 
 blance in miniature to the peasant risings of the Graubund 
 and the Bundschuh, which arose in Switzerland and the Rhine 
 provinces, from somewhat similar causes, three centuries 
 before. At various times and places the poverty-stricken 
 masses banded themselves together under the title of Defenders, 
 to agitate for fair rents,^^ for the abolition of tithes and taxes,*^ 
 the lowering of church contributions,*^ the regulation of the 
 price of labour, etc."^ The Defender movement was for a long 
 
 pondence, vol. ii.. p. 389, note). He had a cordial hatred of the Catholic 
 Church and clergy (Lecky, Eighteenth Century, vol. iv., pp. 255-256). Dr. 
 Madden is the standard authority on the United Irish society. 
 
 ^^ Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, vol. ii., p. 511. 
 
 ^'^Ibid., pp. 221, 223, 386, 445. 
 
 ^''A good idea of the condition of the Irish peasantry may be gained 
 by a perusal of Arthur Young's Tour in Ireland, first published in 1780, and 
 frequently reprinted since. See, for instance, Bell's edition of 1892. 
 
 s^Lecky, op. cit., pp. 385, 386, 387, 392. 
 
 ^^Ibid., pp. 3S7-389; Walpole, Kingdom of Ireland, p. 442. 
 
 ^0 Lecky, op. cit., p. 387. 
 
 ^■^Ibid. 
 
 27 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 time scarcely or not at all of a political characfter.'^- It was at 
 first violently antagonistic to the United Irish society, into 
 which it nevertheless merged in 1796,''^ in consequence of the 
 Orange outrages in the North. 
 
 In Armagh county the Defender organisation was composed 
 of the lower classes of the Catholic minority of that county, 
 who were originally banded together to protecft themselves 
 against the plundering and house-wrecking carried on by the 
 Peep-o'-Day Boys, otherwise termed the Wreckers."^ The 
 original quarrel between the Peep-o'-Day Boys and the De- 
 fenders began in Armagh county in 1784 or 1785. It appears 
 to have been of the nature of a village brawl or a facStion 
 fight. "^ The distinguishing feature of the Peep-o'-Day move- 
 ment, from which it took its name, and by which it is known 
 in history, is house-wrecking, and the raiding of the homes of 
 Catholics by night for arms. Out of this original sin — "this 
 new form of disturbance," as Lecky terms it'''' — arose the sub- 
 sequent tangle of outrage and retaliation, the results of which 
 endure to the present day. Killen states'''' that the plundering 
 of arms from Catholics originated with some of the lower 
 orders of "Protestants of the Established Church." A con- 
 temporary pamphlet, which, according to Lecky, is " written 
 with considerable knowledge," thus refers to the Peep-o'-Day 
 Boys and the Defenders: " Here [in the county of Armagh] 
 fanaticism reared her standard, and a number of deluded people 
 entered into combination for the purpose of depriving Catholics of their 
 arms by force. . . . For some time the Catholics remained 
 patient and tranquil under their sufferings, although they 
 declared that all their efforts to obtain legal redress had been 
 unavailing, and that the necessities of the case would oblige 
 them to enter into counter-combinations to defend their lives 
 and properties against a banditti of plundering ruffians, who 
 appeared to be countenanced by authority, inasmuch as they 
 were not punished by the criminal laws of the land.""^ 
 
 ^-Ibid., pp. 223, 266, 446. 
 
 ^'^Ibid., pp. 221, 486 ; McNevin, Pieces of Irish History, p. 179. 
 
 6*Walpole gives them both titles (xiii., 441); so do O'Connor, a non- 
 Catholic writer (Hist, of the Irish People, p. 233), the author oi A Histoiy oj 
 Orangeism (p. 18), and many others. 
 
 65Walpole, Kingdom of Ireland, ch. x., p. 421; Lecky, Ireland in the 
 Eighteenth Century, vol. iii., pp. 212, 422 ; Musgrave's Memoirs vol. i., pp 
 
 50-54- 
 
 ^^ Leaders of Public Opinion, p. 216. 
 
 ^''Eccles. Hist, of Ireland, vol. ii., p. 356. 
 
 6 8^ View of the State of Ireland, and of the Disturbances in that Country, 
 by "Observer," London, 1797; re-published by Dr. Madden in 1863; 
 quoted by him in his United Irishmen, Third Series, vol. ii.. Appendix 6, p. 
 392. Madden says (ibid., p. 328) that the pamphlet was written by an 
 
 28 
 
RIVAL FACTIONS. 
 
 Plowden, another contemporary historian, states that the 
 raiding of arms was a new departure; that it originated with 
 the Peep-o'-Day Boys; that it was carried out in such a way 
 as to excite party feeling to the highest pitch ; that it gave 
 rise to the association known as the Defenders, who banded 
 themselves together, as their name implies, for the defence of 
 themselves, their homes, and their property against the depre- 
 dations of the midnight marauders. ^^ 
 
 A similar account of the rise of the two rival Armagh 
 facftions is given by Dr. McNevin, another writer of the 
 period. He tells how the Peep-o'-Day Boys originated the 
 house-plundering and raiding for weapons in Armagh county; 
 that the Defender association, as such, "derived its name from 
 the necessity of their situation," and that it was founded for 
 "a(ftual self-defence."™ Musgrave, the Orange writer, likewise 
 points out the new development out of which the Peep-o'-Day 
 Boy and Defender movements, as they are known in history, 
 arose. The Peep-o'-Day Boys, he says, assumed that name 
 "because they visited the houses of their antagonists at a very 
 early hour in the morning to search for arms ; and it is most 
 certain that, in doing so, they often committed the most 
 wanton outrages, insulting their [the Catholics'] person^; and 
 breaking their furniture."" 
 
 Mr. Christie, a venerable member of the Society of Friends, 
 and eye-witness of what he relates, testified before the Parlia- 
 mentary Selecft Committee of 1835 on Orange lodges, that the 
 Defenders were originally a defensive organisation, and that 
 the wrecking and burning of houses in Armagh and Tyrone, 
 which he himself had witnessed, began with the Peep-o'-Day 
 party. '^ Rev. Mortimer O'Sullivan, Deputy Grand Chaplain 
 of the Orange society, was prepared to admit, before the same 
 Committee, that the Peep-o'-Day Boys "were incited to corn- 
 
 Ulster magistrate. The author says elsewhere that the Peep-o'-Day Boys 
 " first set the example " of "taking arms by force " (ibid., p. 329). Madden 
 had a high opinion of "Observer's" work (ibid., p. 328). Lecky's opinion, 
 quoted above, will be found in his Eighteenth Century, ill., 442, note. See 
 also Mitchel's Hist, of Ireland, vol. i., ch. xxviii., end. 
 
 ^^Historical Review 0/ the State of Ireland (ed. 1803) vol. ii., pp. 201-202; 
 cf. p. 297. Mitchel says that Plowden "is as hostile to the Defenders as 
 any Orangeman." Hist, of Ireland, vol. i., ch. xxxix., p. 223 (Cameron and 
 Ferguson's ed). 
 
 ""^Pieces of Irish History, pp. 47, 113. 
 
 '''^Memoirs of the Different Rebellions, vol. i , p. 54. 
 
 '''^Minutes of Evidence, Qq. 5603, 5618, 5566, sqq. In the course of the 
 same examination Mr. Christie said that " there were processions of that 
 party [the Defenders] previous to the establishment of the Orangemen, 
 but not previous to the establishment of the Peep-o'-Day men." Qq. 5598, 
 sqq. 
 
 29 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 mence their aggressions at this early period, 1784, under the notion 
 that they were enforcing the Popery laws," and that their 
 "outrages" consisted in plundering Catholics of their arms 
 early in the morning.'^ Killen, the Presbyterian historian, 
 after having described the early fac5lion fights between the 
 Peep-o'-Day Boys and Defenders in Armagh county, says of 
 the former: "Associated together in companies, they entered 
 the dwellings [of the Catholics] very early in the morning 
 [at the peep of day] ; stripped them of their arms ; and fre- 
 quently burned their furniture. The Peep-o'-Day Boys were 
 not long permitted to proceed without opposition. The Roman 
 Catholics conspired for rmittial protedlion ; bound themselves by an 
 oath of secrecy; and were known by the title of Defenders."'* 
 Thus far as regards the origin of the two facftions. The article 
 on "Orangemen" in Chambers' Encyclopedia (ed. 1865), has 
 the following : " The members of the Protestant associations 
 appear at first to have been known by the name of ' Peep-o'- 
 Day Boys,' from the time at which their violences were com- 
 monly perpetrated ; the Catholics who associated together for 
 self-defence being called ' Defenders.' " The Protestant writer, 
 Walpole, referring to the early encounters of the two associa- 
 tions, says : " The Protestants were more numerous and better 
 armed. By law the Roman Catholics were not entitled to 
 possess arms, and the Protestants took upon themselves to 
 make domiciliary visits to their houses to search for arms, in 
 the early hours of the morning, and hence obtained the name 
 of Peep-o'-Day Boys. The Roman Catholics associated them- 
 selves for self-protecftion, and went by the name of Defenders."'* 
 In his Past History of Ireland, Mr. Bouverie-Pusey, who is a 
 member of various learned societies, and describes himself (p. 
 6) as " a Protestant and a convinced Protestant," states (p. 102) 
 that, after the Cathohcs had become possessed of arms during 
 the Volunteer agitation, "bands of Protestants in the North 
 combined on their own authority to disarm them, They were 
 called ' Peep-o'-Day Boys,' because they generally carried on 
 their operations in the early morning. A counter Catholic 
 association was called ' Defenders.' The former constituted 
 the germ of the association of Orangemen, which from that 
 date till now has played such a disturbing part in the history 
 of Ireland." On the same page he says: "We may safely 
 conclude that the Orangemen "^ were the aggressors." A 
 
 ■^■^IbuL, Qq. 562-563. 
 
 ''^Eccles. Hist, of Ireland, vol. ii., pp. 356-357. 
 ''^History of the Kingdom of Ireland, ch. x., p. 421. 
 
 ''"Mr. Bouverie-Pusey, like Dr. McNevin and several other writers, 
 applies the term " Ctrangemen " to the Peep-o'-Day Boys, who, as we shall 
 
AGGRAVATING CIRCUMSTANCES. 
 
 similar account of the origin of the two rival facflions is given 
 by Dr. Madden," Barry O'Brien/^ and the well-known Pro- 
 testant writer, Miss Harriet Martineau.''^ The noted Protestant 
 historian, Lecky, says in his Leaders of Public Opinion^: " In 
 1785, however, a new type of disturbance began. Protestants 
 in the county of Armagh, and afterwards in other districts, 
 began to form bands under the name of Peep-o'-Day Boys, 
 and to attack and persecute the Catholics, who then formed 
 societies called Defenders, who were at first a kind of irregular 
 police, and soon afterwards became bands of depredators." 
 The operations of the Peep-o'-Day Boys in Armagh, says the 
 same writer, " principally took the form of a plunder of arms, 
 and the wreckings of Cathohc chapels and houses. [Hence 
 the name of ' Wreckers']. The name taken by the Catholics 
 implies that the Protestants were the aggressors, and the stress 
 of evidence favours the conclusion that in the northern counties 
 this was the case, but many atrocious crimes were perpetrated 
 on each side, and many lives were lost."®^ 
 
 AGGRAVATING CIRCUMSTANCES. 
 
 Three chief circumstances tended to prolong and embitter 
 the quarrel between the Peep-o'-Day Boys and Defenders. 
 These were : 
 
 1. The chara(5ter of membership of the contending facftions; 
 
 2. Agrarian troubles; 
 
 3. The supineness or partiality of the civil authorities. 
 
 To these may be added the apparently systematic spread of 
 the idle tavern boasts of both facftions, false rumours of in- 
 tended massacre, etc., such as, at the period of the rise of 
 
 see in chapter iv., merely constituted the pre-lodge phase of the Orange 
 association. Cf. chapter iii., infra, note 44. 
 
 ''''The United Irishmen, first series, p. gg. 
 
 ''^Thomas Drummond, p. g4. 
 
 '''^The Thirty Years' Peace, vol. ii., p. 267. 
 
 sop. 216. A similar account of the origin of the two associations is 
 given in the same writer's /r^/a/wi tn the Eighteenth Century, vol. ii., p. 511. 
 "The Defenders," says he, "were professedly, as their name imports, a 
 purely defensive body." 
 
 ^''■Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, vol. iii., p. 212. An outrage said to 
 have been committed by the Defenders in lygi on a schoolmaster named 
 Barclay was only surpassed in atrocity by the indescribable barbarities 
 which a party of Orangemen are alleged to have inflidted on Father 
 McMeekin, his niece, and her son, the day after the Diamond affair. 
 These are detailed in a pamphlet published in 1802 and entitled The 
 Atrocities that led to\the Irish Rebellion. Cf. "M.P. ", pp. 25-27. Musgrave's 
 account of the Barclay outrage is marked by his charadleristic inaccuracy, 
 which includes an unaccountable blunder as regards dates. Musgrave is 
 as extreme a partisan of the Peep-o'-Day Boys as he is of the Orangemen. 
 See chapter iv., iiifra, note i. 
 
 31 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 Orangeism, were, says Froude, often "invented to mislead and 
 harass."®^ 
 
 I. Standard writers on this period of Irish history are quite 
 agreed that the ranks of the Peep-o'-Day Boys and Defenders 
 were recruited from the lowest strata of society. Feelings of 
 religious rancour were quite foreign to the general spirit of the 
 time, and were pracflically confined to "the lower orders of the 
 two religions. "^^ Musgrave,the contemporary Orange writer, 
 describes the Protestant facftion, out of which Orangeism 
 arose, as belonging to the "lower orders."®* Killen, the 
 Presbyterian historian, refers to them as "crowds of mis- 
 creants," who "were as ignorant of the true spirit of the 
 Gospel as if they had never heard the name of a Saviour."^ 
 The article on "Orangemen" in Chambers' Encyclopoedia (ed. 
 1865) speaks of them as "the rude and illiterate mob of Peep- 
 o'-Day Boys." The Secret Committee of the Irish House of 
 Lords reported in 1793 that the Defenders were " poor 
 ignorant labouring men."'^*' Walpole, the Protestant historian, 
 describes Defenderism as " a lawless outbreak of the lowest 
 and most ignorant of the peasantry, induced by poverty and 
 harsh treatment," and says that "both parties were composed 
 of the lowest and most brutal of the peasantry."®^ Lecky and 
 other writers speak in similar terms of the Defenders as well as 
 of the members of the rival association, who, after having 
 slaughtered large numbers of their opponents at the Diamond 
 village in 1795, took upon themselves the new designation of 
 Orangemen. 
 
 Both associations were secret, illegal, turbulent, in rank 
 antagonism to the friendly spirit then prevalent between 
 Catholics and Protestants in Ireland. Both were stained with 
 serious crime, and were disowned by the well-disposed members 
 of every creed. Plowden says : " The Catholics had suffered 
 from it [Defenderism] more than their Protestant neighbours ; 
 and to its suppression they had more generally, and as largely, 
 
 s^Froude, English in Ireland, vol. iii., p. igo; cf. Lecky, Ireland in the 
 Eighteenth Century, vol. iii., p. 42'> ; Musgrave, Memoirs of the Different 
 Rebellions in Irelatid, p. 54 ; Plowden, Hist, of Ireland from its Union, vol. i., 
 introd., pp. 13-14; Mitchel, Hist, of Ireland, vol. i., ch. xxix ; Madden, 
 United Irishmen, first series. Mitchel, Plowden, and Madden distindlly 
 charge the agents of the Government with exciting Catholics and Protes- 
 tants to distrust, fear, and hatred of each other. See chap, xiii., infra. 
 
 ^■■'Lecky, Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, vol. iii., p. 429. 
 
 ^^Memoirs of the Different Rebellions, ed. 1801, vol. i., p. 69. 
 
 ^^Eccles. Hist, of Ireland, vol. ii., p. 356. 
 
 s^Lecky, Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, vol. iii., p. 220. 
 
 ^''Kingdom of Ireland, ch. xiii., p. 442; ch. x., p. 421. Cf. Lecky, 
 Eighteenth Century, vol. iii., pp. 94, 219, 220, 486. 
 
 32 
 
AGGRAVATING CIRCUMSTANCES. 
 
 subscribed."®® In facft, Defenderism seems to have been, at 
 least in its later developments, as hostile to the Catholic 
 Church as the Church was to it. Archbishop Troy publicly 
 condemned the movement ; the Pope's legate excommunicated 
 the Defenders ; priests refused them the Sacraments, even at 
 the hour of death.®^ Defenderism and Peep-o'-Day Boyism 
 soon stank alike in the nostrils of every Irishman that loved 
 his country or his creed. The demon of religious discord was 
 being laid by the fast gathering spirit of friendly toleration. 
 It was evoked by the results that followed upon the midnight 
 raids of the rude, ragged, and illiterate Peep-o'-Day Boys. It 
 shakes its gory locks in Ulster to this day. 
 
 LAND HUNGER. 
 
 2. The Agrarian Trouble. — Referring to the disturbances 
 between the rival facftions. Dr. Killen says that "jealousies in 
 relation to the possession of land appear to have aggravated 
 their hostility."'"' The Relief A(fls passed previous to that of 
 1793 had placed Catholics pracftically on a level with Pro- 
 testants as to rights in land. Killen continues :^^ 
 
 "Before 1793 — when they [the Catholics] could not vote 
 as freeholders — many of the Protestant aristocracy did not 
 care for such tenants ; but when they obtained the eleiftive 
 franchise [in 1793] this difficulty was removed, so that they 
 became much more formidable as customers in the land 
 market. The poorer Protestants, who lost their holdings 
 when outbidden by these new competitors, felt deeply 
 aggrieved ; and thus personal chagrin was added to the bitter- 
 ness of sectarian antipathy." Killen's statements are confirmed 
 by Lecky.-'^ The Protestant historian, Walpole, writing of the 
 " persecutions" of 1792-1794, says that the objedl: of the Peep- 
 o'-Day facftion "was to expel from the country those Roman 
 Catholics who were scattered about amongst the Protestants 
 of the North, and to occupy their holdings."^^ In the fourth 
 chapter of this series the reader will have occasion to see how 
 far this purpose was effedted when the Peep-o'-day Boys 
 
 ^^ Ireland from the Union, vol. i., introd., p. 14. Cf. Lecky, Eighteenth 
 Century, vol. iii., p.p. 214, 520 (note): "M.P.", p. 73. 
 
 s^Lecky, loc. cit., pp. 392 (note), 381, 512, 520 (note), 518. 
 
 ^^Eccles. Hist, of Ireland, vol. ii., p. 358. 
 
 ^^Ihid. 
 
 ^"^Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, vol. iii., pp. 422, 424, 444, 445. 
 
 ^^Kingdofn of Ireland, ch. xiii., p. 441. Rev. W. Nassau Molesworth, 
 a Church of England clergyman, says that the objedl of the Peep-o'-Day 
 Boys and of the Orangemen was "to drive the Catholics out of the north- 
 ern counties of Ireland by wrecking and destroying their houses." History 
 of England from the Year 1830-1874:, vol. i., p. 376. 
 
 33 C 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 entered upon a wider scope of outrage and proscription, under 
 the altered title of Orangemen. 
 
 LOADING THE DICE. 
 
 3. The Civil Authorities. — The bitterness of the quarrel 
 between the two rival fadlions was seriously aggravated by the 
 supineness or partiality of the civil authorities. We have 
 seen from the evidence of the well-informed contemporary 
 pamphleteer, " Observer," that " all their [the Catholics'] 
 attempts to obtain legal redress had been unavailing," and 
 that pracflically no attempt had been made to put down the 
 early raiding of houses by the Peep-o'-Day Boys in Armagh 
 county, where the Protestant population were in a strong 
 majority, and where their leaders had under their control the 
 forces of the Crown, According to Walpole, *' the authorities 
 appeared content to permit the two fanatical parties to fight it 
 out. Whenever they did interfere strong partiality was shown to 
 the Protestants." ^* At one time a body of Volunteers was re- 
 organised to quell the disturbances, but, says Walpole, " this 
 only made matters worse, as they simply took the side of the 
 Protestants [Peep-o'-Day Boys] , and occupied themselves in 
 disarming the Defenders, while the Protestant magistracy 
 showed a corresponding partiality," ^^ Lecky tells how, at 
 this period, large numbers of Catholic peasantry were, on mere 
 suspic_ion, or from caprice, transported on board a tender by 
 Lord Carhampton and the Ulster magistrates, " without 
 sentence, without trial, without even a colour of legality," ^^ To 
 such men, says the same author, this fate " was more terrible 
 than death, and if the measure produced for a time the tran- 
 quility of consternation, it left behind it the seeds of the most 
 enduring and vindicflive animosity." ^^ 
 
 It is no difficult matter to foresee what would occur when 
 two secret and rival associations, composed of the lower orders 
 of the community, come into conflidt under such added circum- 
 stances of mutual provocation as have been broadly outlined 
 above. The Defender movement in Armagh was undoubtedly 
 provoked by the house-wrecking and plundering which was 
 carried out by the Peep-o'-Day Boys in a county where the 
 Catholics were in a very decided minority. The later history 
 of the two societies is ahopeless tangle of provocation, outrage, 
 and retaliation, in which it is no longer possible to determine 
 
 ^^Kingdom of Ireland., ch. xv., p. 456. 
 
 ^^Ibid., ch. X., pp. 421-422. See also Killen, vol. ii., p. 357; Bowles 
 Daly, Ireland in Ninety-eight, p. 50; Plowden, Historical Review, vol. ii., p. 
 201, ed. 1803. 
 
 ^^ Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, vol. iii., p, 419. 
 
 ^''Ibid., p. 420. 
 
 34 
 
AGGRAVATING CIRCUMSTANCES. 
 
 on which side lay the heavier weight of the grand total of 
 guilt. One thing, however — which is very much to our present 
 purpose — is placed beyond the reach of all doubt : The whole 
 history of the Peep-o'-Day Boys utterly forbids the supposition 
 that this early phase of Orangeism ever adopted what were in 
 later years (and still are) alleged to be the groundwork prin- 
 ciples of the society, namely, the defence of the Protestant 
 religion, the maintenance of the laws, and the cultivation of 
 virtue. The stigma of illegality, and of disregard of both 
 human and divine law, attaches to that organisation from the 
 day when the first oath-bound " crowd of miscreants" sallied 
 forth under cover of darkness to do what, under the title of 
 Orangemen, they were soon to carry out on a wider scale, and 
 in the face of day — namely, to plunder and wreck the homes of 
 the Catholic minority who lived amongst them. In the first of 
 these midnight raids Ues the fons et origo of the Orangeism of 
 our day. 
 
 35 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 Chapter IIL 
 
 THE BATTLE OF THE DIAMOND— HOW THE NEW 
 SIGN -BOARD WAS SEl UP — A QUESTION OF 
 VERACITY : RIVAL WITNESSES AND A TANGLED 
 TALE— "THE GREAT DAY" : "IT WAS A FAMOUS 
 VICTORY" — WHAT THE BRITISH PARLIAMENT 
 THOUGHT OF IT— THE FIRST ORANGE LODGE. 
 
 Mahomedans date their era from the Hegira, or flight, of their 
 prophet from Mecca. This event took place in or about a.d. 
 622. Every historian is, however, aware that Mahometanism, 
 as a separate religious system, had existed for many years 
 previous to the prophet's precipitate retreat to Medina. The 
 era of the children of Islam simply marks the period of a new 
 departure, in which their system was consolidated and placed 
 upon a formidable footing. Orangemen date their Hegira 
 from the battle of the Diamond hamlet, which took place in 
 Armagh county in 1795, between two bodies of Peep-o'-Day 
 Boys and Defenders. Apart from the mere accident of name, 
 Orangeism as a system had, however, existed for some years 
 previous to the affray of the Diamond. The Peep-o'-Day 
 movement was but the early or preparatory phase of the 
 Orange association — the membership, general principles, and 
 conducft of both being the same. This will be made 
 abundantly evident in the course of the next chapter. After 
 having defeated their opponents with great slaughter at 
 Diamond Hill, the vicTtorious Peep-o'-Day Boys took the alias 
 of Orange Boys or Orange Men. The new name did not, how- 
 ever, bring with it any new principle of acftion. It simply 
 occasioned a new departure in the old movement. It ushered 
 in the lodge era of the Orange association, brought about a 
 more complete organisation of the scattered Peep-o'-Day Boy 
 forces, and opened out to them a wider field of a(51:ivity. 
 
 The subjecft of the Diamond encounter calls for special 
 notice in these pages : in the first place, because of the intrin- 
 sically important place it occupies as the Hegira of the Orange 
 movement; in the second place, because the popular lodge 
 narrative of it is loaded with many incidents which are legend- 
 ary or unsubstantiated, but which are nevertheless advanced 
 
 i6 
 
RIVAL WITNESSES. 
 
 with an enthusiastic positiveness of assertion by no means 
 warranted by our present knowledge of that fateful conflidl. 
 
 It is exceedingly difficult, in facft quite impossible, to arrive 
 at a full and fair statement of the fadls of the Diamond en- 
 counter. The narratives of the chief contemporary witnesses 
 have been long out of print, are difficult of access to the 
 general reader, contradicft each other in important particulars, 
 and are open to the suspicion of party or religious bias. The 
 chief contemporary witnesses for the Diamond affray are four 
 — two Cathohc writers and two Orangemen. I shall give, in 
 their chronological order, the main statements of the witnesses 
 from each side. Out of the confused tale the reader may con- 
 strucft for himself, as best he can, a history of the battle of the 
 Diamond. 
 
 RIVAL WITNESSES. 
 
 Catholic Witnesses. — The two chief Catholic writers who 
 deal with the Diamond affair are Francis Plowden, LL.D., 
 the historian, and Dr. McNevin, a United Irishman. Both 
 were in the prime of life at the time of the conflicSl:, and are 
 acknowledged authorities on the events of the period.^ Plow- 
 den was a "loyalist," a careful collecftor of documents, and, as 
 Mitchel says, was "as hostile to the Defenders as any Orange- 
 man."^ His account of the Diamond affray of 1795, and of 
 the events leading up to it, was published in 1803 and 181 1.' 
 Dr. McNevin's narrative saw the light in 1807.^ 
 
 Orange Witnesses. — The two chief Orange witnesses as to 
 the affray of the Diamond Hill are two officers of militia — 
 
 iThey are both extensively quoted by Lecky, Killen, and generally by 
 historians who deal with the latter years of the eighteenth century. 
 
 "^Hist. of Ireland, vol. i., ch. xxix., p. 223, note. See, for instance, 
 Plowden's Historical Review of the State of Ireland, vol, ii., part i., p. 386. 
 
 3In his Historical Reviciv, London, 1803 (Vol. ii., p. 539); History of Ire- 
 land from its Union with Great Britain, Dublin, i8ri (vol. i., introd., pp. 16 
 sqq.) The dedication of both these works was accepted by the then Prince 
 of Wales. 
 
 4In his Pieces of Irish History, New York, 1807. Dodlor McNevin was 
 born in 1763. The United Irish society and their "French principles" 
 were, as has been seen, violently opposed by the Irish Catholic episcopate 
 and priesthood. This opposition was to some extent repaid in kind. In 
 his examination before the Selecfl Committee of the House of Lords, 
 August 7th and 8th, 1798, McNevin was asked by Lord Kilwarden, if, in the 
 event of a successful rebellion, he would have favoured the setting up of 
 the Catholic Church as the established religion in Ireland. He replied : 
 " I would no more consent to that than I would to the establishment of 
 Mahometanism" (Madden's United Irishynen, 2nd Series, Vol. ii., p. 244). 
 His charadter is thus detailed by a Protestant writer, Webb, in his Com- 
 pendium of Irish Biography (p. 321) : " The most striking features of his 
 charader were imperturbable coolness and self-possession, combined with 
 remarkable simplicity of mind and singleness of purpose " 
 
 37 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 Lieutenant-Colonel Blacker and Lieutenant-Colonel Verner/ 
 They were — by a singular coincidence — the only witnesses 
 examined on the events of that day by the Selecft Parliament- 
 ary Conmiittee appointed in 1835 to inquire into the Orange 
 society. Their statements are contained in the Minutes of 
 Evidence submitted by the Committee to the House of 
 Commons. Both were boys (Verner was 13 years old) at the 
 time of the Diamond Hill encounter." Both were Orangemen 
 from the first ; they were personal friends ; belonged to 
 wholly Orange families ; held high office in the association ; 
 and were notorious throughout their lives for the depth and 
 adlivity of their acrimony against their Catholic fellow-country- 
 men. Their story of the fight was told in 1835, forty years 
 after the .event, at a time when Orangeism was on its trial 
 before the British Parliament, and when the leaders of the 
 society were straining every nerve to conceal the damaging 
 evidence which eventually led to the suppression of the organi- 
 sation. Colonel Blacker's account is the fuller, and — if he 
 had been an unprejudiced witness — the more authoritative. 
 A few fa(5ts as to these witnesses, their sources of information, 
 etc., will the better enable the reader to gauge the value of 
 their testimony. 
 
 LIEUTENANT-COLONEL BLACKER. 
 
 The personal bias of Lieutenant- Colonel Blacker may be 
 inferred from the following fadts : 
 
 1. He resided, according to his evidence, "in the neigh- 
 bourhood of Portadown," the district which had been thrown 
 into a fresh ferment of religious fanaticism by the intemperate 
 discourse of Rev. Mr. Mansell, and which (according to Mr. 
 Blacker) had furnished the principal contingent of outside 
 Peep-o'-Day Boys who fought at the Diamond. 
 
 2. In the course of his examination before the Selecft Par- 
 liamentary Committee, he deposed that he was then (in 1835) 
 within " about six weeks" of being forty years an Orangeman. 
 This would give us " about" September 12th, 1795, as the date 
 of his initiation. If this is corre(5l, our witness must have been 
 sworn in a Peep-o'-Day Boy, the battle of the Diamond and 
 the formation of the first Orange lodge not having taken place 
 till September 21st of that year. Allowing, however, a suffi- 
 ciently wide margin of time for the word " about," he would 
 still have been among the very first to join the Orange associa- 
 
 ^Lieutenant-Colonel Verner was M.P. for Armagh county. He is, I 
 think, the writer of A Short History of the Battle of. the Diamond, which 
 appeared in 1863, when he would be 81 years old. 
 
 '^Minutes of Evidence, Seledl Parliamentary Committee of 1835, Q. 135. 
 
 38 
 
COLONEL BLACKER. 
 
 tion. In his examination by the Seledl Committee he stated 
 that he was Grand Master of the county of Armagh ; he was 
 also Deputy Grand Master for Ireland^ 
 
 3. He admitted before the Selecft Committee that he was 
 " mixed up with the transacftions of the Diamond " to the extent 
 of running into bullets "a considerable quantity of lead," and 
 of having it " conveyed to the persons of my neighbourhood 
 who were going to fight the battle of the Diamond." 
 
 4. In the course of his evidence, he states that his "principal 
 information" was derived from Captain Atkinson, " a^Ao took a 
 principal part in the transaction [the Diamond affray] that led to 
 the origin of the Orangemen ; and also several others of a 
 lower rank in society, who were mixed up with these transactions.'^ 
 The Captain Atkinson referred to was one of the first Orange- 
 men.^ In conjundlion with his two friends, Verner and Blacker, 
 he took a leading part in the discreditable police-court proceed- 
 ings which followed the destrucftion of the Catholic village of 
 Maghery, in 1830, by the notorious band of Orangemen 
 known as the " Killyman Wreckers."" It will thus be seen 
 that both our witness and his informants are wholly Peep-o'- 
 Day or Orange. Nay more ; one and all of them had, quite 
 apart from political or secStarian feeling, the strongest personal 
 interest in putting the most favourable construdlion upon the 
 sanguinary and peculiarly suspicious-looking affair in which, 
 apparently without the loss of a single drop of blood, they con- 
 trived to take the lives of some forty-eight Defenders. 
 
 5. Readers of Colonel Blacker's evidence before the Parlia- 
 mentary Committee of 1835," ^^^^^ be forcibly struck with his 
 unwillingness to state, even on oath, facfls which, though suffi- 
 ciently notorious, might be deemed damaging to the Orange 
 institution. When examined as to the early forms and subse- 
 quent alterations of the society's oaths, he was seized with that 
 sudden paralysis of memory, and that mysterious hesitancy of 
 speech, which have afflicfled Orange witnesses, when questioned 
 on lodge secrets, from the days of the Diamond down to the 
 
 ''Minutes of Evidence, Q. 9282. See also list of Irish Grand Lodge 
 oflficers at beginning of Appendix to Third Pari. Report. Another member 
 of the same family — Stewart Blacker — was also Deputy Grand Master, 
 and Rev. J. S. Blacker, Grand Chaplain. Yet another, Captain William 
 Blacker, was a Grand Officer of the first Grand Lodge ever formed, in 
 1797. The Dublin University Magazine for April, 1835, says that all Dean 
 Blacker's sons were among the first members of the Orange society. 
 Quoted by "M.P.," p 82. 
 
 ^Hist.o/Orangeistn, by " M.P.," p. 19 note; of. pp.- 175, sqq ; cf. Lecky, 
 Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, vol. iv., p. 55. 
 
 ^See this chapter, infra. 
 
 '^oMinutes of Evidence, Qq. 8930-8955, 9280 sqq., 9387-9394. 
 
 39 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 Melbourne Post Office Inquiry of 1896," He " could not 
 recollecft" the alteration made in the Orange oath about 1821.^^ 
 He garbled one oath about which he was questioned, by sup- 
 pressing its most notorious feature — that of conditional loyalty. 
 And yet he had been an Orangeman from the very foundation of 
 the society. The oath referred to, as well as its subsequent 
 alterations, were in the printed books of rules, and are 
 published in an Appendix to the Parliamentary i?^j^oy^5 of 1835. 
 During his forty years of membership he must have adminis- 
 tered it, or seen it administered, to considerable numbers of 
 persons in the great Orange county of which he had been so 
 long Grand Master. We have no reason to believe that 
 Lieutenant-Colonel Blacker's memory was clearer, or his 
 candour greater, with regard to events which took place at 
 the Diamond hamlet in 1795, and which he had learned almost 
 altogether on hearsay from interested parties. 
 
 6. Lieutenant-Colonel Blacker's partiality as a magistrate* 
 in cases in which Catholics and Protestants were concerned, 
 had long been a subjecft of bitter complaint. He warned the 
 Government in 1832 that Stanley's Party Processions A(5t of 
 that year would only have the effecfl of producing three Orange 
 processions where there had been only one before. ^^ He did 
 what lay in his "power to bring about the fulfilment of his 
 prophecy. According to the evidence of a Protestant magis- 
 trate, Colonel Blacker " gave three cheers" to a number of 
 Lurgan Orangemen who were being prosecuted for having 
 taken part in an illegal procession." In his evidence before 
 the Select Parliamentary Committee of 1835 he unhesitatingly 
 swore that the Orangemen of Ulster are more peaceable in 
 their demeanour on each succeeding twelfth of July than they 
 are on the other 364 days of the year ! ^' In 1833 he w^as 
 called upon by the Government for an explanation of his con- 
 du(5\ as a magistrate at Portadown. In reply, he wrote a letter 
 pradlically threatening armed resistance if Orange processions 
 were to be interfered with.^'' The very next year (1834) 
 Government found it necessary to dismiss him from the Com- 
 mission of the Peace. On the 12th of July of that year he had 
 
 11 See Preface. 
 
 'i-'^ Report of English Seleft Committee. Cf. Lecky, Ireland in th» 
 Eighteenth Century, vol. iii., p. 426, note. Deputy Grand Chaplain Rev. 
 Mortimer O'Sullivan, who had been an Orangeman only a few years, 
 could, under examination, easily remember both the oath of conditional 
 loyalty and the subsequent alterations in it (Qq. 588, sqq.). 
 
 ''■■'■Minutes of Evidence, Sele6l Pari. Committee, and Appendix D2, p. 179 
 
 ''■■^Minutes of Evidence, Q. 8827. 
 
 is/M., Q. 8975-8976. 
 
 i^The letter is quoted in " M.P.'s" History of Orangeism, p. 186. 
 
 40 
 
COLONEL VERNER. 
 
 openly countenanced and addressed an illegal procession of 
 some 2,000 Orangemen at Portadown. In the words of Captain 
 Patten (a Protestant Police Inspecflor), " he and his brother 
 magistrates [including Colonel Verner] acSted as if no such 
 law as the Anti-Processions A6\. were in force," Riots ensued. 
 The names of the offenders — who were Orangemen — were 
 taken down and sent to Dublin Castle. The Attorney-General 
 ordered that informations should be taken, and the incriminated 
 brethren returned for trial. Mr. Blacker positively refused to 
 take the informations. Nay more : he prevailed upon the other 
 magistrates to do the same, and thus for a time succeeded in 
 frustrating the law, and screening his fellow-Orangemen from 
 justice. An inquiry was instituted by the Government into 
 Lieutenant-Colonel Slacker's condu(ft, and he was dismissed 
 from the bench." This was in 1834, ^^^^ than a year before he 
 told his tale of the Diamond encounter to the Seleeft Committee 
 of the House of Commons. Lieutenant-Colonel Verner 
 "resigned the magistracy in disgust at Colonel Blacker's 
 dismissal." So runs the Report of the English Selecl; Parlia- 
 mentary Committee of 1835. 
 
 Like Colonel Blacker, Colonel Verner belonged to an 
 Armagh family who were intimately bound up with the 
 leadership of the Orange society from its very foundation, 
 and who were moreover notorious for their aiflive persecution 
 of the Catholic minority who lived about them. In his 
 evidence before the Sele(5l Committee (of which he and two 
 other Orangemen were members) Colonel Verner described 
 himself as a "Deputy Grand Master of the Institution, and 
 Deputy Grand Master of the county of Armagh. "^^ Those who 
 
 ^''Minutes of Evidence, Irish Report. 
 
 isAccording to the Dublin University Magazine for April, 1835, the five 
 Verner brothers were among the first initiated into the Orange society 
 (quoted by "M.P.," p. 82.) Col. Verner was one of these. In his evidence 
 before the Selecfl Committee, he said that his eldest brother was "the first 
 Grand Master" cf the Orange society. Thomas Verner was Grand Master 
 in 1800. James Verner, the Colonel's father, was an attorney. The con- 
 temporary writer, Plovvden, says of him; "He was then [in 1795], as he 
 still [1811] continues to be, prominently conspicuous for depressing and 
 persecuting the Catholics." He banished 96 Catholic families from an 
 estate left to his younger son (a minor.) His corps of yeomanry, says 
 Plowden, on their way to church, fired into a congregation of Catholics at 
 Tartarahan, killing and wounding several persons. On their return they de- 
 molished the chapel (Hist, of Ireland from its Union, vol. i., introd., pp. 47- 
 48, tiote; also pp. 25, and 124, note.) Mr. Wilson, an English Protestant, 
 who was a magistrate in Ulster, accused James Verner's sons (of whom 
 the Colonel was one) of having headed the party of Orangemen who, with- 
 out provocation, shot at Constantine O'Neil, a Catholic hatter, and burned 
 his house, in 1806. Mitchel, Hist, of Ireland, vol. ii., ch. xii; Plowden, 
 Hist, of Ireland from its Union, vol. i., introd., p. 48, 7iote. 
 
 41 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 have toiled through the voluminous Minutes of Evidence taken 
 by the Parliamentary Committee (Irish) of 1835 will recall his 
 connedlion with illegal Orange processions: his highly repre- 
 hensible conduift as a magistrate and yeomanry officer, in per- 
 mittinga body of armed Orangemen (the " Killyman Wreckers"), 
 without the slightest interference, to deliberately invade and 
 wreck, before his very eyes, and almost at his own door, twenty- 
 eight houses in the Catholic village of Maghery.^^ This was 
 in November, 1830, less than five years before he gave his 
 version of the battle of the Diamond to his brother members 
 of the Seledl Parliamentary Committee. He had received 
 due notice of the intended outrage. In his corps of armed 
 yeomanry he had at hand the means of preventing it. He 
 preferred to remain an interested spedliator, while his brother 
 Orangemen destroyed the homes of twenty-eight of his 
 Catholic neighbours. He subsequently refused to identify a 
 single one of the Orange rioters, although they belonged to his 
 own neighbourhood, and had carried on their work of des- 
 trucftion from start to finish in his presence and in the open 
 noon-day. 
 
 A more glaring instance of his partiality to Orangemen and 
 of his animosity towards Catholics, was soon given by the 
 gallant colonel. The gang of Orange "Wreckers" were 
 acquitted in the face of the clearest evidence of their guilt, 
 largely through his instrumentality. The bench was care- 
 fully packed by Orange magistrates. Among them sat our 
 other witness for the Diamond affray, Lieutenant-Colonel 
 
 '^ Two official reports of this bad business were sent to the Govern- 
 ment, one by Mr. Sergeant Perrin, the other by Mr. J. W. Handcock, J. P., 
 both Protestants. Both reports strongly inculpate Col. Verner. In his 
 own depositions (given in Appendix to JReport of Seledt Committee, 154), 
 he says that he never "called upon any of the persons mentioned by him 
 to arrest or stop any of the party, nor did he on his return desire them to 
 do so." Mr. Perrin condemns the refusal of the Colonel and others to 
 identify the Orange wreckers, who, he said, were "guilty of felony." He 
 concludes: " I am further of opinion that Colonel Verner appears not to 
 have performed his duty as a magistrate at Verner's Bridge, in order to 
 disperse (as he was bound and required by law) the persons there tumul- 
 tuously and unlawfully assembled, and compel them to depart to their 
 habitations ; that he did not take the measures and precautions proper 
 for that purpose, which he was empowered and required by law to take, 
 and which the result evinces to have been necessary for the preservation 
 of the peace and the threatened breach thereof; and that he is liable to be 
 prosecuted at the suit of the Crown, by information, for such (as it seems 
 to me) criminal a et;lect of his duty." The Colonel was not prosecuted. An 
 instrudlive account of Mr. Verner's share in this transadtion is given in 
 the Minutes 0/ Evidence of the Seled Parliamentary Committee, Qq 8678 
 and following. The matter was ventilated in Parliament. See Hansard, 
 3rd Series, vol. xxxix., p. 662 Cf. note 20, p. 43. 
 
 4.2 
 
COLONEL VERNER. 
 
 Blacker. The court was presided over by none other than 
 Mr. Atkinson (Q. 9397), the leader of the Peep-o'-Day Boys who 
 fought at the Diamond, and Mr. Blacker's principal informant 
 for the events of the " great day." The same bench of magistrates, 
 on the same day, sentenced to three months' imprisonment several of the 
 homeless Catholics of Maghery for having damaged the drums of the 
 Killyman Orange Wreckers to the estimated value often shillings. The 
 loss inflicfted on the unresisting CathoHc villagers amounted to 
 about ;^6oo.'" Three members of this bench of magistrates — 
 Blacker, Verner, and Atkinson — are our chief Orange inform- 
 ants as to the facfts of the battle of the Diamond, which took 
 place in 1795 between a body of Catholics and the very men 
 who, on the evening of the conflicft, originated the first Orange 
 lodge. 
 
 Stronger evidence could scarcely be needed of the marked 
 partiality of those who told the story of the Diamond encounter 
 in 1835. But there are certain further fadts in connecflion 
 with Colonel Verner which quite discredit him as a witness, 
 apart altogether from the strong secftarian warp of his feelings. 
 The facfts are recorded in the Minutes of Evidence, and the 
 Appendix thereto, which were laid upon the table of the House 
 of Commons by the Selecft Parliamentary Committee of 1835, 
 of which he was himself a member. 
 
 According to the official report of Captain Duff, a Protestant 
 Inspecftor of Police, and the sworn evidence of this same Captain 
 Duff,asergeantofpoliceand two privates, Colonel Verner, "wear- 
 ing orange and purple," headed (with others) a procession of 4,000 
 to 5,000 Orangemen at Dungannon on the 27th of April, 1832.'*' 
 
 fJoOn November 19, 1830, the Killyman Orangemen marched with 
 band and banners through the Catholic village of Maghery. According 
 to the Protestant magistrate, Mr. Handcock, the villagers were " in high 
 good humour," and asked the Orangemen to play some tunes. The request 
 was complied with, and the processionists went on their way unmolested. 
 On the following day (Saturday, the 20th), the Killyman " Boys'' again 
 reached the village, on their return march. Some villager asked them to 
 play " St. Patrick's Day," which is not a party tune, but is recognised, 
 even in the army, as the national air of Ireland. The Orange bandsmen 
 repHed by striking up one of their party tunes, "The Protestant Boys." 
 A scuffle ensued, the brethren were routed, and their drums, etc., damaged 
 to the estimated value of ten shillings. On the following Monday they 
 returned to Maghery, heavily armed. Rev. Mr. Donaldson, a Protestant 
 clergyman, swore that he counted 49 muskets, bayonets, etc. In revenge 
 for the defeat of Saturday, the Orangemen wrecked 28 houses in Maghery. 
 There was no resistance. See Perrin's official Report, in Irish Report, 
 pp. 174-178; Mr. Handcock's evidence, Qq. 8014 sqq. ; also Qq. 7840 sqq. 
 The Maghery prisoners were released at the instance of Lord Charlemont. 
 Minutes of Evidence, Seledt Pari, Committee of 1835 on Orange lodges, Qq. 
 8732. 8733. 
 
 '^'^Minutes of Evidence, Pari. Report of 1835, Q^- 7864, sqq., 8046-8056. 
 
 43 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 A scuffle ensued in consequence. Pistol-shots were fired by 
 the processionists, one of the bullets breaking the arm of a 
 Catholic named Peter Tully. According to the official report 
 and the sworn depositions of the witnesses just referred to, a 
 great meeting of the Orange processionists was next held, of all 
 places, in the court-house of Dungannon. Colonel Verner entered 
 and took part in the proceedings. He was called upon by Lord 
 Caledon^^ (a Protestant, and Governor of the county), and by 
 the Lord Chancellor, for an explanation of his conducfl. The 
 gallant colonel's defence was — an alibi. He denied that he had 
 been in the procession, that he had been decorated, that he had 
 been at the Orange meeting in the court-house at Dungannon ! 
 In the face of this denial, we have, not merely the sworn depo- 
 sitions of eye-witnesses mentioned above, but the resolutions of 
 the court-house meeting referred to, which were subsequently 
 published, and which are to be found at Q. 8056 of the Parlia- 
 mentary Committee's Report. One of the resolutions runs as 
 follows : " That the thanks of this Grand Lodge are eminently 
 due, and are hereby given, to Brother William. Verner [the 
 Colonel] , Brother James Verner, and Brother John Ellis, for 
 their attendance here this day.'"^ 
 
 In plain terms, Colonel Verner was convicfted of rank pre- 
 varication. This was in 1832. We have no evidence to show 
 that in the interval between that date and 1835 (when he told 
 his hearsay tale of the Diamond) he had outgrown the use of 
 that ready resort which makes the characfler of Tartuffe even 
 more contemptible than it is amusing.^* This leaves his friend 
 and CO- Deputy Grand Master, Lieutenant-Colonel Blacker, as 
 pradlically our only Orange witness for the incidents of the 
 Diamond Hill affray. I shall, nevertheless, include Colonel 
 Verner's scanty statements in my narrative. The reader can 
 take them for what they are worth. 
 
 A DAY OF DIRE NEED. 
 
 In dealing with the question of the reliability of Colonels 
 
 ^^Ibid.. Qq. 8052, 8055. 
 
 23In his examination before the ParHamentary Seledt Committee of 
 1835, Colonel Verner admits that he was at the procession, wore an Orange 
 handkerchief, attended the court-house meeting, and received a vote of 
 thanks. (Qq. 96O5-9671). 
 
 24At a later date, in 1837, when taken to task by Under-Secretary 
 Drummond for having, at an eledlion dinner, proposed the toast of " The 
 Battle of the Diamond" (he being a J. P.). he professed not to know what 
 battle was referred to. The Under-Secretary referred him to his (the 
 Colonel's) evidence before the Parliamentary Committee of 1835. The 
 Colonel was struck off the roll of magistrates and off the list of Deputy- 
 Lieutenants of Tyrone county. The matter was ventilated in Parliament, 
 when not one member ventured to defend Colonel Verner's adtion. See 
 Hansard, 3rd Series, vol. xxxix., pp. 634, 687. 
 
 44 
 
A DAY OF NEED. 
 
 Blacker and Verner as witnesses for the events of the battle ot 
 the Diamond, we must not lose sight of the special and peculiar 
 circumstances in which their account of the rise of Orangeism 
 was given to the world. Their story of the Diamond affray 
 was given at the most critical and disastrous period in the 
 history of Orangeism, when it was on its trial, so to speak, 
 for life or death, and when, of all times, its leaders felt the 
 most urgent need of having its origin justified, its existence 
 vindicated, its virtues — if it possessed any — brought into 
 strong rehef, and its failings covered over with a friendly cloak 
 of silence. 
 
 The defeat and disaster of the Orange society came in 
 1835, when it was nearing the summit of its highest triumph. 
 It had invaded the highest offices of the State. In spite of 
 stringent military regulations, it had corrupted the fidelity and 
 interfered with the discipline of a great part of the army. It 
 had in its ranks, according to its secretary. Swan, some 220,000 
 men in Ireland, and (by the Report of the English Parliamentary 
 Committee), 120,000 to 140,000 in England, This great body 
 of men were *' mostly armed," and ready to shoulder their 
 muskets and march at the command of the Imperial Grand 
 , Master, H.R.H. Ernest, Duke of Cumberland. This autocrat 
 of the society used the Royal arms, presided in regal state at 
 the Grand Lodge meetings in London, and was styled by the 
 English Grand Lodge " the nearest to the throne." ^ William 
 IV. was visibly nearing the close of his days. Both in and out 
 of Parliament the Orange association was stated to be engaged 
 in a vast conspiracy to alter the succession to the throne — to 
 set aside the just claims of the Princess (now Queen) Vidloria, 
 and to place the crown of England on the head of the Imperial 
 Grand Master, Cumberland, " the hoary tyrant of Hanover," 
 as O'Connell designated him. The whole condudl: of the 
 Orange leaders, and the correspondence of their Deputy Grand 
 Secretary, Fairman, lent a strong support to the charge of 
 conspiracy, while the subsequent revelations showed that the 
 organisation, by reason of its aims, methods, secrecy, and vast 
 resources of armed physical force, was a standing menace to 
 the peace of the Empire. Parliament took alarm. A Selecfl 
 Parliamentary Committee "^^ was appointed to inquire into and 
 
 2 5Draft address of the English Grand Lodge to Carlton Club, given 
 in English Seled Committee's Report, p. 17. 
 
 26The Irish Seledt Committee (appoimed by the House of Commons), 
 consisted originally of twenty-seven members. Thirteen of these were 
 Conservatives (belonging to the same political party as the Orangemen), 
 some twelve were Liberals, and one or two were neutral. Among the 
 Conservative members of the Committee were Colonel Verner (our wit- 
 ness), Sir Edmund Hayes, and Mr. Maxwell. These were all officers of 
 
 45 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 report upon the origin, working, and tendency of the Orange 
 society in Ireland. The disquieting revelations made before 
 the Irish Committee soon led to the appointment of another 
 Seleift Committee, to inquire into Orangeism in Great Britain 
 and the colonies. Orangemen in Parliament opposed the 
 motion tooth and nail — they had already had more than 
 enough of inquiry. The motion was, nevertheless, carried by 
 a large majority.^' The Selecft Committees were composed 
 almost altogether of Protestants of every shade of political 
 opinion, and included several leaders of the incriminated 
 association. The alarm of the Grand Lodges knew no bounds, 
 and efforts were put forth to suppress information that might 
 be damaging to the institution. 
 
 (rt) The Duke of Cumberland, the Imperial Grand Master, 
 refused point blank to give evidence. 
 
 (b) At least one of the books of the Grand Lodge was 
 mutilated before being handed over to the Parliamentary 
 Committee of Inquiry.-^ 
 
 (c) Others were withheld altogether. Our witness, Colonel 
 Verner, was seized at a critical moment with the typical 
 Orange loss of memory, and twice " forgot" to bring before 
 the Committee the early rules and regulations of the society, 
 which he admitted were in his possession. Fairman, the 
 Deputy Grand Secretary, defied the House of Commons, 
 
 the Dublin Grand Lodge, and prominent leaders of the Orange society. 
 (See list of officers given in Appendix to the Minutes of Evidence of the Irish 
 Seledt Committee.) Twenty-two witnesses were examined by this Com- 
 mittee. Of these, eight were officers of the Dublin Grand Lodge, or lead- 
 ing members of the Irish Orange association ; four were officers of police 
 (Protestants) ; two were Lords Lieutenant of counties (Protestants) ; 
 three were magistrates (Protestants) ; two lawyers (one a Catholic) ; 
 two farmers (Protestants) ; and one a dodor. They all resided in the 
 districfts where the Orange society was most adtive. The witnesses were 
 mostly adherents of the Church of England, which furnished by far the 
 greater bulk of the membership of the lodges. All, with the exception 
 of the Orange leaders, expressed opinions strongly condemnatory of the 
 institution. The number of Grand Officers on the Irish Seledl Committee 
 (which was almost exclusively Protestant) may possibly account for the 
 fadt that only Orange witnesses — -one of them a member of the Committee 
 — were asked to give an account of the Diamond affray. The same cir- 
 cumstance may also have some connedtion with the fad that, as the Right 
 Hon. R. L. Shiel said in the House of Commons, the order of the proceed- 
 ings were inverted : the Orange party were allowed to open the case them- 
 selves ; for a number of days none but Orange witnesses were examined ; 
 many of them were recalled, Rev. M. O'Sullivan, Deputy Grand Chaplain, 
 appearing before the Committee five times. Shiel's speech in the House, 
 August II, 1835, in his Speeches, ed. 1868, p. 120; see also Minutes of Evi- 
 dence, first, second, and third Irish Repsrts 
 
 '2'^Hansard, third series, vol. xxx., pp. 58, 239. 
 
 '^^See chap, vi., infra. 
 
 46 
 
A DAY OF NEED. 
 
 which had peremptorily ordered him to produce a certain letter- 
 book of the institution. He was committed to Newgate, and 
 absconded. Other Grand Lodge records also mysteriously 
 disappeared."" 
 
 (d) All the Orange leaders, with but one exception 
 (according to the English Committee's Report) positively de- 
 clined to give any information as to the oaths, secret signs and 
 passwords, etc., in use in the society. •''° 
 
 (e) The Duke of Cumberland, Lord Kenyon, and other 
 members of the inner circle of the association, were (as may 
 be seen by the Mimites of Evidence and the English Com- 
 mittee's Report) convidled out of their own mouths of palpable 
 prevarication in connecftion with the illegal spread of Orangeism 
 in the army.**^ 
 
 In the sixth and fifteenth chapters I shall have occasion to 
 enter more fully into the desperate and unscrupulous efforts 
 which were put forth by the Orange leaders in 1835, to justify the 
 existence of their association, to minimise, destroy, or remove 
 from the official eye the evidence of its misdeeds, and to break 
 the force of the blow which temporarily blotted the society 
 out of existence in England, and which destroyed for ever the 
 vast political power it had previously enjoyed. 
 
 Such were the circumstances under which the story of the 
 battle of the Diamond and of the rise of Orangeism was told 
 by two s^ach violent partisans as Messrs. Blacker and Verner— 
 forty years after the event, upon hearsay, without cross-exam- 
 ination, and without even an attempt to elicit a scrap of 
 evidence on the subjecft from witnesses from the other side, 
 many of whom must have been at the time still living. In the 
 circumstances, it would be folly to expecft that the account 
 given by the two friends, Messrs. Blacker and Verner, is a fair 
 and full narrative of the incidents that took place on that 
 autumn day, September 21st, 1795, in the hamlet of the 
 Diamond in far-off Armagh. We shall, however, give their 
 version of the affray, checking it here and there, as occasion 
 may arise, with the earlier narratives furnished, under de- 
 cidedly less suspicious circumstances, by the certainly not 
 more prejudiced witnesses, Plowden and Dr. McNevin. 
 
 BEFORE THE BATTLE. 
 
 State of Parties in the Diamond distri6l. — Reference has 
 already been made to the numerical superiority and complete 
 
 ■^o/bid. 
 
 ■*iSee chap, xv., infra. The Duke's false statement was made in 
 letter addressed by him to the Chairman of the ParHamentary Committee. 
 
 47 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 political ascendency of the Protestant population in the county 
 of Armagh at the period of which I write. The districft in 
 which the Diamond hamlet was situated, seems to have been, 
 at least for some time, free from the more serious forms of 
 outrage and retaliation which marked the " ancient village 
 feud " of the Peep-o'-Day Boys and Defenders in other parts of 
 the county. Blacker, in his evidence'^ on the subjecft says 
 that he " was at school till just before this period," but that 
 he understood from others that the Protestants of the districTt 
 [who were well armed and in a stronger numerical majority] 
 " were in the most persecuted state, that they were worried 
 and beaten coming from fair and market upo7i various occasiojis." 
 No more serious form of disturbance is laid by this witness 
 to the charge of the Defender party in his neighbourhood. 
 
 McNevin says : " An affray near Lough Brickland, on the 
 borders of the counties of Down and Armagh, and another at 
 the fair of Loughgall [in the very heart of the Diamond distrii51:] 
 preceded and led to " the engagement of the Diamond.*^ 
 
 According to the contemporary writer, Plowden, there had 
 been a lull '.n the disturbances between the Peep-o'-Day Boys 
 and the Defenders in Armagh, when the feud was " rekindled 
 by secret agents, and converted into a ferocious warfare of 
 religious contention."^* In his evidence before the Sele(5l 
 Committee of 1835, Mr. Christie, a Quaker eye-witness, who 
 Hved near the spot, deposed that this fresh outbreak took 
 place in 1794 and continued up to and after the battle of the 
 Diamond in 1795 ; that it originated in the Churchill distridt 
 (the seat of the Verners) and the Portadown districfl (in which 
 the Diamond is situated) ; that it took the shape of attacks by 
 night on Catholic houses, "a considerable number" of which 
 were wrecked, burned, etc. ; and that he knew of no Protes- 
 tant homes having been wrecked at this period.^ Lecky 
 grants that " in the latter part " of 1795, the Defender disturb- 
 ances, though far from ended, " appear to have perceptibly 
 diminished."^*' Plowden relates how the newly aroused sec- 
 tarian animosity was fanned into brighter flame by what we 
 may term by anticipation an Orange sermon, delivered at Porta- 
 down by Rev. Mr. Mansell, on the first of July, 1795. Accord- 
 
 3 2Blacker's evidence will be found in the Irish Committee's Minutes, 
 Qq. 8930-8955; Verner's in Qq. 80 to 83, 92, 106-108. 
 
 '•^'■^Pieces of Irish History, p. 114, New York, 1807. 
 
 '•^'^Hist. of Ireland from its Union, vol i,, Introd., p. 17. McNevin, in 
 his Pieces of Irish History, says that the Defenders were quiet from 1789, 
 onwards, until roused by " fresh aggressions" (p. 48 ; cf. p. 112). 
 
 ^^Minutes of Evidence, Q. 5589. See also Qq. 5566 sqq., 5573-5574. 
 
 5585. 5587- 
 
 '^^Irclani in the Eighteenth Century, vol., lii. p. 3S8. 
 
 48 
 
THE FIRST SKIRMISH. 
 
 ing to this author, the Portadown clergyman so wrought upon 
 the feeUngs of his hearers, that some of them forthwith pro- 
 ceeded to assault the Catholics of the district, and wreck their 
 houses, concluding the day's work with the murder of two 
 unoffending peasants who were cutting turf in a bog. We 
 shall in due course have occasion to see that some of the most 
 sanguinary riots in Orange history — as the great Belfast civil 
 war of 1857 — were in some measure due to the intemperate 
 utterances of clergymen of the type of the Rev. Mr. Mansell. 
 According to Plowden, the re-awakened fury extended to 
 Lurgan, where some Catholics were assaulted, " but no lives 
 were lost in the affray."^^ The local Catholic body thereupon 
 met, and were admonished by their leading co-religionists 
 not to take "retaliation or revenge into their own hands." 
 "Pacific and loyal resolutions," Plowden continues, "were 
 entered into by the Catholics, and liberal Protestants were 
 invited to do the like. A thousand copies of these resolutions 
 were circulated through the districft with the happiest effedl. 
 Tranquility and order were preserved for a considerable time 
 on one side of the Bann."=*^ In a footnote (p. 19) he adds : " So 
 powerful were the effetTis of these resolutions, that not one 
 individual Catholic or Protestant from Lurgan was engaged in 
 the battle of the Diamona. 
 
 THE FIRST SKIRMISH. 
 
 The parties engaged. — It seems clear that the Peep-o'-Day 
 Boys and the Defenders who took part in what Verner and 
 Blacker term the first skirmish of the Diamond, were gathered 
 altogether, or almost altogether, from the surrounding districSls. 
 {a) In describing (on hearsay) the Defenders who had come 
 into Loughgall, Blacker impHcitly associates them with the 
 fair-day and market-day brawls which (he had heard) had 
 "upon various occasions" taken place in the surrounding dis- 
 tricts while he was away at school, {h) He distinguishes those 
 who took part in the preliminary skirmish from another body 
 of Defenders, "not belonging [as he understood] to the county 
 of Armagh," who subsequently came upon the scene, and fought 
 what is termed the battle of the Diamond, on the 21st of 
 September. 
 
 Referring to the local Defenders, Blacker said : " I believe 
 their principal intention was to disarm the districft." He does not 
 accuse them thus far of any outrage, nor does he hint that they 
 even attempted to carry their supposed intention into effedl. 
 Had such a large body of men as he describes seriously 
 
 37piowden, op. cit., p. 17. 
 »»/bid , p. 18. 
 
 49 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 attempted to " disarm the districfl," they would undoubtedly 
 have got possession of many of "the great number of oic 
 volunteer firelocks" which (he said) " were in that quarter oi 
 the country," which, he believed, " were almost exclusively 
 Protestants'," and which created such havoc among the ill- 
 armed Defenders at the encounter of the Diamond, Mr. 
 Christie, the Quaker eye-witness referred to above, describes 
 the Catholics of these distridls as being armed at this time 
 with nothing better than " pitchforks and swords, and things 
 of that sort," and as having no leaders. ^^ Mr. Blacker adds 
 that the Protestants [Peep-o'-Day Boys] of the districTt: 
 assembled to oppose the Defenders, and there came in to 
 their assistance Protestants from the other districts of the 
 county, particularly from the neighbourhood in which I reside" 
 [Portadown, the residence also of Rev. Mr. Mansell] . 
 
 In reply to a question put by the Seledt Committee as to 
 the date of the Diamond encounter, Col. Blacker said : " Mon- 
 day was the 2ist^the great day — and I think it began about 
 Wednesday before, in September, 1795. The parties skirmished, 
 if I may use the expression, for a day or two, without much 
 harm being done." His friend, Lieutenant-Colonel Verner, 
 also said "there had been a previous skirmish."^" 
 
 Plowden, writing in 1811, after referring to the friendly 
 spirit evoked by the a(ftion of the Catholic body at Lurgan, 
 thus describes the preliminary encounter of the Diamond : 
 " But in the neighbourhood of Portadown [he is recounting 
 the effedlis of Rev. Mr. Mansell's sermon] the animosity of the 
 opposite parties [the Peep-o'-Day Boys and the Defenders] 
 had taken so decided a turn that the Defenders remained 
 under arms for three days successively, challenging their 
 opponents to fight it out fairly in the field rather than harass them 
 with iiiurderous nodurnal visits.''-^ 
 
 McNevin, in the work previously quoted (p. 114) says: 
 "For some days previous to this [the Diamond affray] both 
 parties had been preparing and collecfting their forces ; they 
 seized the different passes and roads ; had their advanced 
 
 ^^Minutes of Evidence, Pari. Seledt Committee of 1S35, Qq. 5623-5625, 
 
 4=0 /bid., Q. 82. 
 
 ^''-Ireland from its Union, vol. i., Introd., pp. 18, ig ; cf. Historical 
 Review, vol. ii., p. 202. The Diamond is situated "in the neighbourhood 
 of Portadown." Deputy Grand Chaplain Rev. Mortimer O'Sullivan, in 
 his evidence before the Seleil Committee of 1835 on Orange lodges, testifies 
 to the challenge which preceded the first engagement, but declines to say 
 from which side it came (Qq. 577). He also states that the parties to this 
 conflidl were, as far as he could learn, the Peep-o'-Day Boys and Defenders 
 (Qq. 579, 581). Col. Blacker states that the same "Protestant" body 
 fought in both of the Diamond encounters. 
 
 50 
 
THE GREAT DAY. 
 
 posts, and were in some measure encamped and hutted. No 
 steps were, however, taken by the magistrates of the county, 
 nor, as far as can be inferred from any visible circumstances, 
 even by the Government itself, to prevent this religious war, 
 publicly levied and carried on in one of the most populous, 
 cultivated, and highly improved parts of the kingdom. ^^ Nay 
 more : the party which provoked the hostilities, and which the 
 event proved to have been the stronger [the Peep-o'-Day Boys] 
 boasted of being connived at, for its well-known loyalty and 
 attachment to the Constitution.^^ Whatever may have been 
 the motives for this ina(ftion, certain it is that both parties 
 assembled at the Diamond, to the amount of several thousands. 
 The Defenders were the most numerous, but the Orangemen** 
 had an immense advantage in point of preparation and skill, 
 many of them having been members of the old Volunteer 
 corps, whose arms and discipline they still retained, and 
 perverted to very different purposes from those that have 
 immortalised that body. The contest [the first skirmish] was 
 not long or doubtful ; the Defenders were speedily defeated, 
 with the loss of some few killed and left on the field of battle, 
 besides the wounded, whom they carried away." He then 
 goes on to describe the truce and the subsequent battle of 
 September 21st.** 
 
 "the great day." 
 After describing the preliminary encounters between the 
 
 *2This statement as to official supineness is fully borne out by 
 Walpole, whose words have been quoted above. 
 
 *3This was their boast, as the author points out. In this respedt there 
 was a strong resemblance between them and the Orangemen, who, as we 
 shall see in subsequent chapters, were loudest in their protestations of 
 loyalty at the periods when their adtions were most disloyal and seditious. 
 We have seen above how some of the magistrates connived at the turbu- 
 lence of the Peep-o'-Day Boys, for party purposes, just as the early 
 Orangemen were encouraged for political reasons. 
 
 **See chapter ii., supra, note 76. 
 
 *^Colonel Blacker corroborates in 1835 many of the statements pub- 
 lished by McNevin in 1807 : (a) as to the general fadt of the massing of 
 the rival forces ; (b) as to their relative numbers (both here agreeing with 
 Plowden) , (c) as to their armament. Blacker was asked by the Com- 
 mittee: "Which [party] appeared to be best armed? I should say the 
 Protestants were the best armed, and I will state the reason : there were a 
 great number of old volunteer firelocks in that quarter of the country, and 
 I believe they were almost exclusively Protestants ' " {d) "A day or two" 
 of "skirmishing" with such weapons, and by such large bodies of men, 
 would naturally result in the few deaths and wounds which were inflidled, 
 according to McNevin, on the badly armed Defenders, "without much 
 harm being done" to the Peep-o' -Day Boys. This was precisely what 
 happened at the battle of the 21st. {e) Blacker refers to the Peep-o'-Day 
 Boys as "marching," "counter-marching," etc., as if they still retained 
 some idea, at least, of military form. 
 
 51 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 Peep-o'-Day Boys and the Defenders, Blacker continues (his 
 evidence here being altogether hearsay or conjecflure) : 
 
 " Mr. Atkinson on one side, and the priest of the parish on 
 the other, did their best to reconcile matters, and thought they 
 had succeeded, as the Defenders on their part had agreed to go 
 away, and the Protestants to return to their houses. I believe 
 both parties were sincere at that time in their wish to separate, 
 and that they were going to their respecftive homes. [A few 
 questions further on, he says: "I have already stated that the 
 parties (plural) who were^zrs^ at variance Aai separated"^ . At that 
 time, as I understand, a large body of Defenders, not belonging 
 to the county of Armagh, but assembled from South Mona- 
 ghan, and, / believe, Cavan and Tyrone, came down, and were 
 much disappointed at finding a truce of this kind made, and 
 were determined not to go home without something to repay 
 them for the trouble of their march. In consequence, they 
 made an attack upon the house^^ of a man named Winter, at a 
 place called the Diamond : it is a meeting of cross-roads, where 
 there are three or four houses. Word was brought to the 
 Protestants, who were on their way home, of what had taken 
 place. They returned to the spot, attacked the Defenders, and 
 killed a number of them." The attack was moreover delivered, 
 according to Mr. Blacker, without remonstrance, parley, or 
 warning. The Peep-o'-Day party, he says farther on, " counter- 
 marched at once, they returned in haste, and the road led them 
 to the top of this hill that overlooked the part where the De- 
 fenders were [as he had heard] at full work, and they imme- 
 diately fired on them'' [the Defenders] . 
 
 Thus, as far as Col. Blacker's evidence goes, {a) the Peep- 
 o'-Day Boys made the first bodily attack, fired (without warn- 
 ing) the first shots, and drew the first (and apparently the only) 
 blood shed at the Diamond on the 21st September, {b) He (or 
 rather his informant) nowhere inculpates the Defenders who 
 were parties to the truce with the violation of it, or with any 
 complicity in the proceedings which subsequently took place 
 at the hamlet of the Diamond on the 21st. {c) He does not 
 state, but only surmises or " understands" that the other body 
 of Defenders who subsequently came up from a distance (after 
 
 *6No mention is made of attack on any individual, but only on a house 
 The nature of the attack is not specified, nor of the injury done (if any), 
 nor of the provocation (if any), or other incidents which led immediately 
 to the alleged attack on this particular house alone in the hamlet. McNevin 
 says (vide infra) that, after the preliminary skirmish, when the first body of 
 Defenders had gone home, armed bodies of the Peep-o'-Day party still 
 remained about the Diamond. "M.P." quotes the narrative of an eye- 
 witness, who states that the attack on Winter's house consisted in the 
 breaking of a window. 
 
 52 
 
ANOTHER VERSION.' 
 
 the first Defenders had gone away), either knew anything of 
 the truce, or deliberately set it aside." 
 
 ANOTHER VERSION. 
 
 McNevin's account of the affair (published in 1807) runs 
 as follows : 
 
 " After this [the first skirmish] , in consequence of the 
 interference of a Catholic priest, and of a country gentleman, 
 a truce between both parties was agreed upon, which was 
 unfortunately violated in less than 24 hours. The two bodies 
 that had consented to it for the most part dispersed ; the dis- 
 tricft, however, in which the battle was fought, being entirely 
 filled with Orangemen*^ ; some of them still remained em- 
 bodied, but the Catholics [Defenders] returned home. In the 
 course of the next day, about 700 Defenders from Keady, in a 
 remote part of the county, came to the succour of their friends, 
 and, ignorant of the armistice, attacked the Orangemen who 
 were still assembled. The associates of the latter, being on 
 the spot, quickly coUecfted again, and the Defenders once more 
 were routed. Perhaps this mistake might have been cleared 
 up, and the treaty renewed, if the resentment of the Orange- 
 men had not been fomented and cherished by persons to 
 whom reconciliation of any kind was hateful. The Catholics 
 after this transaction never attempted to make a stand, but the 
 Orangemen commenced a persecution of the blackest dye."*^ 
 
 According to Col. Blacker's informants, the Peep-o'-Day 
 party fired the first shots on the 21st of September. The 
 witness was asked . " Was there firing from the other side 
 too?" He replied: "/ believe there had been, but I do not 
 know of my own knowledge." We have already seen that the 
 chief weapons of the Defender party were pitchforks, etc. If 
 they fired or fought at all, their efforts must have been of a 
 very harmless nature. The engagement, according to our 
 Orange witness, did not last above fifteen minutes. He reached 
 
 *'''Col. Verner, in his account of the Diamond affair (Q. 82), makes no 
 mention whatever of the two different bodies of Peep-o'-Day Boys, and 
 thus contrives to leave the wrong impression that the Defenders who had 
 agreed to the truce were the very ones who afterwards violated it. He 
 admits (Q. loS) that his information is altogether from hearsay. Lecky 
 apparently accepts Col. Blacker's version of the Diamond encounter and of 
 the circumstances that led to it, to the utter exclusion of the other author- 
 ities referred to above. Several points referred to above regarding the 
 Colonel's evidence, and to his untrustworthiness as a witness, seem to have 
 quite escaped the notice of the distinguished Unionist writer, whos^ 
 political creed is so much in accord with that of the Orange brethren 
 Ireland in the Eighteenth Centiay, iii., 426; of. p. 421. 
 
 *8See chap, ii., supra, note 76. 
 
 ^^ Pieces 0/ Irish History, New York, 1S07, pp. 114-115. 
 
 53 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 the field as the last " dropping shot or two" from the Peep-o 
 Day Boys were being fired, and this is what he saw : The 
 Defenders in full flight ; the dead bodies of (at most) thirty of 
 their number lying on the field — others were being conveyed 
 away upon carts; not a Peep-o' -Day Boy that he could hear of was 
 killed, and he mentions no wounded on their side.^ Besides 
 their dead, a very large number of Defenders must have 
 been more or less seriously wounded by the "considerable 
 quantity of lead" which our witness had " run into bullets" and 
 conveyed to the Peep-o'-Day Boys of his neighbourhood " who 
 were going to fight the battle of the Diamond ?"^^ 
 
 On the day of this encounter — September 21st, 1795 — the 
 first Orange lodge was formed, " in the village of Diamond," 
 as Colonel Verner positively states (Q. 82). His friend, Colonel 
 Blacker, says he " understood it was formed in the house of a 
 man named Sloan, in the village of Loughgall," close to the 
 scene of that day's red strife. 
 
 TO SUM UP. 
 
 With our present knowledge of the facfts surrounding the 
 Diamond Village encounter, the following points may be taken 
 as sufficiently established : 
 
 I. The affray took place between Peep-o'-Day Boys ana 
 Defenders/^ 
 
 soMusgrave, the Orange writer, says that forty-eight Defenders were 
 slain, "and a great number were wounded" {Memoirs of the Different 
 Rebellions, ed. 1801, vol. i., p. 68.) See also Haverty's History of Ireland, 
 p. 731, note; ICillen's Eccles. Hist, of Ireland, ii., 359. 
 
 511s Colonel Blacker tripping here? His whole evidence bears the 
 traces of the verbal revision permitted in such circumstances. Taken 
 literally, the words quoted above would be curiously significant of deliber- 
 ate preparation for massacre. In another part of his evidence he describes 
 the Peep-o'-Day party from Portadown as suddenly returning from their 
 homeward march, "to fight the battle of the Diamond." Here— if his 
 (evidently revised) statement is to be taken literally — they went "to fight 
 the battle of the Diamond" only after the grim and slow preparation of 
 having large quantities of lead turned into bullets. What he terms "the 
 battle of the Diamond" took place on the 21st of September. In his 
 evidence he carefully distinguishes this from the preliminary skirmishing 
 already described. 
 
 5 2See Plowden; McNevin (Pieces of Irish History, p. 113); Walpole 
 (Kingdom of Ireland, p. 456); Killen (Eccles Hist, of Ireland, ii., 359, 363); 
 Miss Martineau's History of the Peace : Barry O'Brien {Thomas Drutnmond, 
 and Fifty Years of Concessioris) ; Lecky {Leaders of Public Opinion, p. 21C); 
 Froude {English in Ireland, in., 177); Bouverie-Pusey {The Past History of 
 Ireland); the evidence of Mr. Christie and of Deputy Grand Chaplain 
 ^O'SulUvan before the Parliamentary Seledl Committee of 1835 (see note 41, 
 supra). There is nothing in the evidence of Cols. Blacker or Verner that 
 can set aside the praftically unanimous verdidt of every reliable writer of 
 note who has dealt with this subjeft. The two last-mentioned witnesses 
 use the word "Protestants" instead of " Peep-o'-Day Boys," being, like 
 
 54 
 
TO SUM UP. 
 
 2. The Peep-o'-Day Boys' movement, as known in history, 
 was originally an aggressive organisation direcrted against 
 Catholics. The Defender movement was originally called into 
 existence as an association of defence against the depredations 
 of the Peep-o'-Day Boys, Both associations arose and reached 
 their highest degree of violence in Armagh county, where the 
 Protestant population was numerically, socially, and politically, 
 in a decided ascendency. ^^ 
 
 3. The events which led up to the " battle" of September 
 21, 1795, followed upon a period during which there had been 
 a lull in the Defender and Peep-o'-Day disturbances. Our 
 Orange witnesses gave no account of the causes which led to 
 so marked and apparently sudden a change in local feeling, 
 and sent neighbours out to slay each other on the hillsides. 
 Plowden and Christie trace it mainly to certain serious outrages 
 committed on the Catholic minority in and about the districfts 
 where the Blackers and the Verners resided, and in which the 
 Diamond is situated.^* Their accounts are circumstantial and 
 sufficient. Plowden's has been in possession since 181 1, and it 
 is in no important particular contradicfled either by McNevin 
 or Christie, or our two Orange witnesses. 
 
 4. There is no evidence that the first party of (local) 
 Defenders either intended to, or did, disarm any part of the 
 district ; or that they took part in what is known as the battle 
 of the Diamond ; while there is positive evidence — which is 
 nowhere contradidted — that they did not violate the truce 
 entered into on their behalf. 
 
 5. There is no evidence to show that the second party of 
 outside Defenders either knew anything of the armistice, or 
 deliberately violated it.^^ 
 
 6. The first shots in the encounter of the 21st were evidently 
 fired by the well-armed Peep-o'-Day Boys, and " at sight." 
 There is no evidence to show that the shots were returned, 
 that anything in the nature of a " battle" took place, that any 
 resistance whatever was offered by the Defenders, or that the 
 affair was anything more than a mere slaughter of fugitives. 
 The suspicious one-sidedness of the encounter has led many 
 persons to refer to it as the " massacre" of the Diamond. 
 
 "later Orangemen" generally, ashamed of the undoubted connedion of 
 their society with the Peep-o'-Day movement. Cf. Lecky's Eighteenth 
 Century, vol. iii., pp. 428 note, 444, 445. See chap, iv., infra. 
 
 s^See chap, ii., supra. 
 
 s*McNevin, whose words have been quoted above, states that the 
 hostilities which led to the Diamond affair were provoked by the Peep-o'- 
 Day Boys. 
 
 ssMcNevin, quoted above, states positively that the second party of 
 Defenders were "ignorant of the armistice." 
 
 55 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 7. The " battle" of the Diamond was not fought for the 
 defence of "the Protestant reUgion," nor for an " open Bible," 
 nor for the maintenance of the laws or Constitution, nor for any 
 of the principles set forth in the " basis" of the Orange society. 
 These were afterthoughts. " Their [the early Orangemen's] 
 successors have added [to the original Orange platform] the 
 principles of the Reformation." So says Grand Chaplain 
 Heathershaw (Vicftoria), in the course of a lecture on the 
 Orange society, which was reported in the Vi(^ovian Standard 
 of August 31, i8g6. 
 
 8. The Diamond encounter and the incidents leading to it, 
 no matter how they may be viewed, afford no justification for 
 the wholesale proscription carried out immediately afterwards 
 against the Catholic minority in Armagh county, or for the 
 enacftment of similar scenes in the coimties round about ; much 
 less for the extension of a somewhat similar policy to the rest 
 of Ireland ; less still for the perpetuation of a guerilla warfare 
 against the Catholic body in the British Isles and in the 
 colonies of the Empire down to the present day. In 1837, 
 Lieutenant-Colonel Verner, at an elecftion dinner, gave as a 
 toast, ''The Battle of the Diamond." He was sternly repri- 
 manded by Under-Secretary Drummond, and dismissed from 
 the magistracy, for having commemorated such "a lawless and 
 most disgraceful conflicSl:." ''" The matter was ventilated in 
 the House of Commons. The Under-Secretary's acftion was 
 supported by the House. No one ventured to defend Colonel 
 Verner's toast, and the incident only served to show that, in 
 the opinion of Parliament, it was an indefensible and discredit- 
 able proceeding to commemorate such a disgraceful encounter.^' 
 And yet this was the conflicfl out of which Orangeism, in its 
 present shape, direcftly arose. " In commemoration of that 
 [the Diamond] vidtory," says the Orange historian, Musgrave, 
 "the first Orange lodge was formed in the county Armagh."*^* 
 
 s^Letter to Col. Verner, August 22, 1837, given in full in Barry 
 O'Brien's Thomas Drummoml. See note 24, supra. 
 
 S'^Hansard, 3rd Series, vol. xxxix., pp. 634, 687. 
 
 ^^Memoirs of the Different Rebellions, vol. i., p. 70, ed. 1801. Colonel 
 Blacker, in his evidence before the Parliamentary Seledl Committee of 
 1835, describes the Diamond battle as "the transaction that led to the 
 origin of the Orangemen." Various lodges are named in honour of this 
 " battle," massacre, or fadion-fight, as, for instance, the Diamond lodge (No. 
 62), North Melbourne. 
 
 56 
 
A NEW NAME. 
 
 Chapter IV* 
 
 PEEP-O'-DA Y BOYS. ALIAS ORANGEMEN— AN OAT /I 
 OF BLOOD— THE INAUGURAL REVELRY OF TH!: 
 LODGES: "SWORD, FIRE AND FAGGOT; WILL 
 THRESHAM AND JOHN THRUSTOUT ••—THE ROLL 
 CALL— THE CHARTER TOAST. 
 
 " For the purpose of taking off the stigma of delinquency, the 
 appellation of Peep o'-Day Boys was changed to Orangemen." 
 So writes Plowden. The alias was assumed — if Col. Verner's 
 statement is true — on the blood-stained field of the Diamond.' 
 
 iMusgi;ave, the Orange historian and apologist, would lead the reader 
 to suppose that the particular society now under consideration, bore the name 
 of Orangemen before the battle of the Diamond. His statement is not 
 supported by a scrap of proof, and is contradiifted by all the evidence we 
 have regarding its history. Musgrave's Memoirs of the Different Rebellions in 
 Ireland appeared in 1801. The Protestant writer, Lowndes — himself a man 
 of strong sedlarian prejudices — describes it as "a party work, abounding in 
 misrepresentations" [Bibliographer's Manual of E?iglish Literature; Bohn, 
 1S57-1864). Webb (a Protestant author) says in his Compendium of Irish 
 Biography, (p. 356) : "He [Musgrave] displayed such animosity against the 
 Catholics, and outraged public decency so much by his defence of flogging 
 and free-quarters, that, according to a long notice of the work in the 
 Annual Biography, 'the Irish Government at length deemed it necessary to 
 disown all connexion with the author, and publicly disclaimed the idea of 
 affording him either patronage or protedlion in future.' " In the Cornwallis 
 Correspondence appears a letter written by Musgrave (November ist, 1799) 
 to Secretary Cooke, hinting that if a place were secured for him, he would 
 vote for the Legislative Union. His venality was rewarded by his appoint- 
 ment to the lucrative position of Colleftor of the City of Dublin Excise 
 (Plowden's Ireland from its Union, vol. i., Introd. p. 107). Musgrave's 
 Memoirs of the Different Rebellions were dedicated to Lord Cornwallis (the 
 Viceroy). On the appearance of the work. Lord Cornwallis (March 24th, 
 1801) strongly condemned "the contents and nature of the work," and 
 repudiated the dedication. His communication to Musgrave is given by 
 Plowden, loc. cit., p. loS. Sir Jonah Harrington, in his Personal Sketches, 
 says of Musgrave that he was " generally in his senses" "except on the 
 abstradt topics of politics, religion, martial-law, his wife, the Pope, the 
 Pretender, the Jesuits, Napper Tandy, and the whipping-post." Plowden 
 describes his Memoirs of the Different Rebellions as "an undigested heap of 
 acrimonious falsehood and obloquy" {Ireland from its Union, vol i. 
 p. 107). Lecky refers in strong terms to Musgrave's "usual violent 
 and evident partisanship" {Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, iv., 457, 
 note), to his "malevolent partiality" {ibid., v., 55), and (iii., 286 
 
 57 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 This favourite device of the wrongdoer was not inappropriate 
 in the present instance, as the extent of the slaughter might 
 naturally be expecT:ed to rouse even the partisan Government of 
 the day from its state of masterly ina(ftion with regard to the 
 doings of the rival facftions in Armagh. The change of name, 
 however, 
 
 1 . Brought no change in the membership of the association ; 
 
 2. It brought no such alteration in its guiding principles or 
 methods of action as would constitute it a new association. 
 All the charadteristic features of the Peep-o'-Day association- - 
 raiding for arms, house-wrecking, plundering, etc. — continued 
 without intermission, but on a vaster scale and in a more 
 thorough-going fashion than before. This was effeifted by the 
 institution of the lodge system, which was originated on the 
 night of the Diamond affair. It linked together into a united 
 and formidable whole the hitherto scattered or loosely knit units 
 of the Peep-o'-Day association. Briefly : Orangeism and Peep- 
 o'-Dayism had the same membership, the same principles and 
 condudl. They differed in certain details of organisation, and 
 in the extent of their depredations. 
 
 In his examination before the Parliamentary Select Com- 
 mittee of 1835, Mr. Christie, a venerablemember of the Society 
 of Friends, who was born in 1771, and was an eye-witness of 
 what he relates, says that the Break-of-Day party merged into 
 Orangemen^; as far as he knew, the title " Break-o'-Day [or 
 Peep-o'-Day] Boys" " completely subsided" after the forma- 
 tion of the Orange society. " I never heard it," said he, 
 " appHed to any people after the Orangemen had lodges, as 
 they termed it." The early Orangemen, he added, were 
 of the same class as the Break-o'-Day Men. " The same 
 people," said he, " that made use of intemperate language 
 towards the CathoHcs whilst the Break-o'-Day business 
 existed were the same people that I saw afterwards walking in 
 the Orange processions."'' Plowden, a contemporary historian, 
 describes the Orange institution as "but an extension of the 
 society of Peep-o'-Day Boys."^ Mr. Sinclair, a Church of 
 England magistrate of Tyrone county, who remembered the 
 time of the battle of the Diamond, deposed on oath before 
 
 note) says that he "represents the extreme anti-CathoHc spirit produced by 
 the rebellion of 1798." Rev. James Gordon, the Protestant historian of 
 that rebellion, in the second edition of his work, uncompromisingly exposes 
 the unreliabilitv of Musgrave's Memoirs. Gordon frankly admits his own 
 partiality for his creed and political party, and states in the preface to his 
 second edition (p. x) that his sons were Orangemen. 
 
 '^Minutes of Evidence, Q. 5576-7. Cf. chap, iii., sitf^ya. note 41. 
 
 ^Ibid, Qq. 5165, 5578. 
 
 *Hist. oj Ireland from its Union, vol. i., Introd., p. 85. 
 
 58 
 
THE EARLY ORANGEMEN. 
 
 the Selecft Committee of 1835 that he always understood the 
 Peep-o'-Day Boys to have merged into the Orange associa- 
 tion.^ Even Col. Verner admitted to the Sele6l Committee of 
 1835, that, after the formation of the Orange society, the Peep- 
 o'-Day Boys did not continue as such.^ " On that day" 
 [of the battle of the Diamond], says Plowden, "the Peep-o'- 
 Day Boys dropt that appellation, and assumed the denomina- 
 tion of Orangemen ; and then was their first lodge formed."' 
 According to the testimony of Deputy Grand Chaplain 
 Rev. Mortimer O'Sullivan, referred to above*^, the fadlions 
 who opposed each other in the Jirst encounter of the Diamond 
 were the Defenders and the Peep-o'-Day Boys ; while 
 Lieutenant-Colonel Blacker, as we have seen, distin(ftly states 
 that it was the same body of Protestants who fought at the 
 Diamond in both engagements with the Defenders. Plowden 
 points out "that as late as 1799, the Irish Grand Lodge 
 adopted the following rule (the fifth of the ' Secret Articles'), 
 which is charadleristic of the Peep-o'-Day movement : ' We 
 are not to carry away any money, goods, or anything else from 
 any person whatsoever, e^^ept arms and ammunition, and those 
 only from an enemy. ""^ McNevin in his Pieces of Irish History 
 (p. 113) states that the Peep-o'-Day Boys "adopted the name 
 of Orangemen." He regards the two associations as identical, 
 and in common with many other writers, frequently applies 
 the name " Orangemen" to the Peep-o'-Day Boys.'" William 
 Sampson, an Ulster Protestant and barrister, another con- 
 temporary witness, in one of his speeches, given by Madden," 
 refers to the oaths " of those called ' Peep-o'-Day Boys,' 
 afterwards * Orangemen.' " In November, 1796, Bernard Coile, 
 of Lurgan, presented a memorial to the Lord Lieutenant. In 
 the course of that document he referred to his efforts in " pro- 
 moting the printed resolutions of the Roman Catholics of his 
 and the adjoining parish, and enforcing by all his influence the 
 observance of these resolutions, in hopes, by setting an example, 
 of goodwill and moderation, to disarm the animosity of a fadfion 
 denominated Peep-o'-Day Boys, and since called Orangemen, 
 whose only objecfl was the persecution of the Catholics. "^'■^ A 
 
 ^Minutes of Evidence, Q. 5165. 
 
 ^Ibid, Q. 161. 
 
 ''Ireland from its Union, vol. i., Introd., p. 19; cf. his Historical Review, 
 vol. ii., p. 539, ed. 1803. 
 
 ^Chap. iii., note 41. 
 
 ^The rules of 1799-1800 are given in full in Plowden's History of Ire- 
 (and from its Union, vol. i., after Introdudlion ; also in Appendix to 7"/u>i 
 Report of Seledl Parliamentary Committee of 1S35. 
 
 ^°See chap, ii., supra, note 76. 
 
 ''■'^United Irishmen, Second Series, vol. ii., p. 378. 
 
 i^This document is given in Plowden, and in "M.P.'s" History of Orange- 
 
 59 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 work published in 1797, and which, according to Lecky, was 
 " written with considerable knowledge," details the proceed- 
 ings of "a party of Orangemen having assumed this new 
 designation."^^ 
 
 SOME LATER WRITERS. 
 
 In his Ireland in the Eighteenth Century,^* the Protestant 
 historian, Lecky, says : " At first, as we have seen, Orangeism 
 was simply a form of outrage — the Protestant side of the 
 fa(5tion which had long been raging in certain counties of the 
 North among the tenants and labourers of the two religions — 
 and the Protestants in Armagh being considerably stronger 
 than the Catholics, Orangeism in that county had assumed the 
 character of a most formidable persecution." In another part 
 of the same work he states that "the Orange disturbances" in 
 Ulster, in 1795 and 1796, "were a continuation or revWal of the 
 war between the Peep-o'-Day Boys and the Defenders,"^® and 
 that "the Peep-o'-Day Boys ultimately merged into Orange- 
 men."^" He points out that " the later Orangemen have been 
 extremely anxious to disclaim all connection with the outrages 
 of 1795 and 1796, which they at*ibute to the Peep-o'-Day 
 Boys;" but he adds, " on the other hand, the depredators 
 called themselves, and were called by others, Orangemen, and 
 the Peep-o'-Day Boys rapidly merged into Orangemen, and ceased 
 to exist as a separate body."^'' Mr. Bouverie-Pusey, who describes 
 himself as a Protestant of strong convicftions, writes: "We 
 have spoken before of the ' Peep-o'Day Boys' and the ' De- 
 fenders.' At this jundture the former, Jiow called Orangemen, were 
 employed iu expelling every Catholic in three or four of the 
 Ulster counties. "^^ A similar account of the connecftion 
 between the two associations — or rather, between two phases 
 in the development of the same association — is given by the 
 writer of the article on " Orangemen" in Chambers' Encyclopaedia 
 (ed. 1865). Killen also takes it for granted that the early 
 Orangemen were simply Peep-o'-Day Boys under a " new 
 designation."^^ Barry O'Brien, in his Eifty Years of Concessions 
 
 ism, pp. 53-54. The purport of the resolutioria referred to is given in chap, 
 iii., supra. 
 
 ^^A View of the Present State 0/ Ireland, and 0/ the Disturbances in that 
 Country, quoted by Madden, United Irishmen, Third Series, vol. ii., Appendix 
 5, p. 331. See chap, ii., note 68, supra, p. 28. 
 
 i*Vol. iv., p. 47. 
 
 ^^Ibid., vol. iii., p. 445. 
 
 ^^Ibid., vol. ii., p. 511. 
 
 ^''Ibid., vol. iii., p. 429, note. 
 
 ^'^The Past History of Ireland, p. 106. 
 
 ^^Eccles. Hist. Ireland, vol. ii., p. 360. 
 
 60 
 
"AN ATROCIOUS BANDITTI." 
 
 to Ireland,"^ describes Orangeism as " the final development of 
 the Peep-o'-Day Boys' movement." Rev. William Nassau 
 Molesworth, a Church of England clergyman, says in his well 
 known work that the Orange society" gradually took the place 
 of another Protestant confederacy, the members of which were 
 called Break-of-Day Men."^^ It would be easy to multiply 
 quotations to the same effedt from the works of both Protestant 
 and Catholic writers. 
 
 "an atrocious banditti." 
 We have already seen, from the evidence of our old Quaker 
 friend, Mr. Christie, who was an eye witness of what he relates, 
 that the same class that had previously been Peep-o'-Day 
 Boys were precisely those who swelled the ranks of the 
 organisation after it had assumed the title of Orange. In a 
 previous chapter I have shown that the Peep-o'-Day Boys 
 were recruited from the lowest class of Protestants. It will 
 follow from what has been said that the rank and file of the 
 early Orangemen likewise belonged to the lower strata of 
 society. Musgrave, the Orange historian and apologist, grants 
 
 20Chap. v., p. 115. 
 
 ^^History of England from the Year 1830-1874, vol. i., p. 376: Against 
 this pradlically unanimous finding of competent authorities, it has been 
 urged that the Peep-o'-Day Boys were Presbyterians, while the first 
 Orangemen were exclusively Episcopalians. To this we reply: i. Many 
 Presbyterians joined the Peep-o'-Day movement, especially in the counties 
 of Cavan, Down, etc., but the association was nowhere exclusively 
 Presbyterian. 2. The Presbyterians who had become Peep-o'-Day Boys 
 were reconciled to the Defenders in the middle of 1792, more than three 
 years before the battle of the Diamond (Memoirs of Theobald Wolfe Tone, i., 
 97; ii., 392). 3. According to Killen (ii., 356), the first Peep-o'-Day Boys 
 who began the plunder and wrecking of Catholic houses were " Protestants 
 of the Established Church." Musgrave admits that Lurgan and its 
 vicinity "abounds with Protestants of the Established Church." Memoirs, 
 vol. i., p. 55. 4. Armagh was the most Episcopalian county in Ireland 
 (see chap, ii., supra, p. 23). Plowden states that the Armagh Peep-o'-Day 
 Boys were largely members of the State Church — he habitually uses the 
 word "Protestant" in this sense. (Ireland from its Union, Introd., p. g; 
 cf. chap, v., infra). Atkinson, the leader, and the Blackers, the abettors, 
 of the Peep-o'-Day Boys who fought at the Diamond, all belonged to the 
 Established Church. The rank-and-file of their followers also evidently 
 did; [a) because Col. Blacker, in his evidence before the Parliamentary 
 Committee of 1835, described them as "Protestants," a word commonly 
 used then, and even still, in Ireland, to distinguish Episcopalians from 
 Presbyterians (see this chapter, infra) ; (&) because the first Orange lodge, 
 formed *'to commemorate that viftory" was composed exclusively of 
 members of the State creed: it is unlikely that Anglicans would thus 
 celebrate a vidtory won by Presbyterians, and exclude the latter from such 
 celebration; [c) Musgrave, the Orange writer, says that "the lower class 
 of Protestants of the Established Church stood forward at this perilous time ' 
 — the period of the Diamond affray (Memoirs, vol. i., p. 69. See chap. iii. 
 note 52, supra. Cf. chap, v., infra). See Irish Report, Q. 4089. 
 
 61 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 so much. Writing of the Diamond period, he says that " the 
 lower class of Protestants of the Established Church stood 
 forward at this perilous time."^^ The Protestant statesman, 
 Grattan, in his oft- quoted speech to the Irish Parliament on 
 the early Orange outrages, describes the brethren as "a banditti 
 of murderers," " a violent mob," " an atrocious banditti."-* 
 Lord Gosford (a Protestant, and Governor of the county of 
 Armagh, where they first arose), calls them "alawlessbanditti," 
 "an ungovernable mob." The well-informed contemporary 
 author of A View of the Present State of Ireland (1797), quoted 
 above, includes both Peep-o'-Day Boys and Orangemen under 
 the sweeping title of " a banditti of plundering ruffians." 
 Plowden states that the small proportion of Presbyterians who 
 were sworn into the Orange society were " chiefly of the 
 lower orders," and that " few, if any Presbyterians of inde- 
 pendence entered the [Orange] societies."^* 
 
 Killen, the Presbyterian historian, says: " Nothing can be 
 more evident than that the original Orangemen were the very 
 scum of society, and a disgrace to Protestantism."^ Lecky, 
 
 ^^Memoirs of the Different Rebellions, vol. i., p. 69, ed. 1801. 
 
 23This speech is given in Killen (vol. ii., pp. 364, 365); and in full in 
 "M.P.'s" History of Orangeism, pp. 46-49. 
 
 ^'^Irelatid from its Union, vol. i., Introd., p. 66. Cf. chap. v. infra. 
 
 "^^Eccles. Hist, of Ireland, vol. ii., p. 359, note; cf. p. 363. Froude has 
 been apparently understood by some to say that the original Orangemen 
 were "all that was best and noblest in Ireland." But even Froude does 
 not commit himself to such a daring statement. His words are: "The 
 same evening [of the battle of the Diamond] was established the first 
 lodge of an institution which was to gather into it m succeeding years all 
 that was best and noblest in Ireland" f English in Ireland, vol. iii., p. 177, 
 ed. 1877). Subsequent chapters of this publication will show how far this 
 statement is in accord with fadt. On the very same page (177) Froude 
 refers to the Diamond as "a village in Tyrone." Lecky says that this work 
 of Froude's (The English in Ireland) ' ' is intended to blacken to the utmost the 
 character of the Irish people, and especially of the Irish Catholics^' (Eighteenth 
 Century, vol. i., p. 13, note. Cf. pp. 46, 307, 375, 376, 378, etc.). Lecky 
 has also said of this work of Froude's: "His book [The English in Ireland] 
 has no more claim to impartiality than an election squib" (quoted by Justin H. 
 McCarthy in his Outlines of Irish History, p. 78). Judge Morris, in his 
 valuable work, Ireland: 1642-1868, (Cambridge: University Press, 1896) 
 dismisses Froude's English in Ireland with the brief remark: "This must 
 be called a bad book." Froude, in the work of his here referred to, states 
 that the rebels on their march to Arklow, in 1798, "halted at every mile to 
 hear Mass" (iii., 480) ! This author's deep-seated antipathy to Catholics so 
 affedted his every statement regarding them, that, as a reviewer says, he 
 "leaves us hopelessly struggling to distinguish between his history and his 
 hysteria" (Athenaum, February 22, 1896). This is the number which 
 described him as " a fashionable preacher gone wrong"). For fuller and 
 more detailed proof of his hopeless unreliability as a historian, the reader 
 is referred to W. A. O'Conor's History of the Irish People, vol. ii., pp. 
 180-187; Father Burke's Lectures; to Prendergast's Cromwellian Settle- 
 
 62 
 
"AN ATROCIOUS BANDITTI." 
 
 in his Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, thus refers to the 
 membership of the early Orange movement : " The upper 
 classes at first generally held aloof from the society" ; ^^ for a 
 considerable time it appears to have been almost confined [like 
 the Peep-o'-Day movement] to the Protestant peasantry of 
 Ulster."^® " It was," says he again, "a popular and demo- 
 cratic movement, springing up among the lowest classes, and 
 essentially lawless.'" " What he terms " the Orange disturbances 
 in Ulster," were begun " after the battle of the Diamond by the 
 Protestant rabble of the county of Armagh."^ Elsewhere^'* he 
 describes them as a " tumultuous rabble," and refers to the 
 spirit of bigotry which animated them.^" The writer of the 
 article on " Orangemen" in Chambers' Encyclopaedia (eds. 1865, 
 1879) says that the association " began among the ignorant 
 peasantry." The society, which, left to itself, might have gone 
 the way of the Whiteboys, the Hearts of Oak, the Hearts of 
 Steel, etc., received a fresh lease of life from the use which 
 Pitt made of it in effe6ting the great projecfl of his later policy 
 — the Legislative Union between Great Britain and Ireland. 
 In days of peace, or with a united people, such a projecft was 
 sure to end in failure. Disunion was a condition essential to 
 success and an unsuccessful rebellion, highly favourable to it. 
 The reader will learn, as we proceed, a few of the sad details 
 of the manner in which the Orange party carried out the 
 hateful work of setting creed against creed, and of goading the 
 unhappy people into insurrecflion. Under the favouring smile 
 of a friendly Government, the worst crimes of the " banditti 
 of plundering ruffians" were either connived at or openly 
 
 mcnt; to Mitchel's 1641 : Reply to the Falsification 0/ History by James Anthony 
 Froude (Glasgow, Cameron and Ferguson) ; Killen's Ecclesiastical History oj 
 Ireland (ii., 357, etc.) ; the stridluresof Professor Goldwin Smith and others 
 on his Henry VIII. (e.g. in the North American Review ior December, 1894) • 
 the strong and general condemnation of his Lectures on the Council of Trent 
 (e.g. Athenaum, April 11, 1896, and Dxiblin Review, Odtober, 1896). See, 
 especially, the article in the Contemporary Review for March, 1878, in which 
 the distinguished scholar. Dr. Freeman (Regius Professor of History, 
 Oxford University), exposes, in scathing fashion, Fronde's "fanatical 
 hatred" of the Catholic Church, his "constant inaccuracy of reference 
 and quotation," his "endless displays of ignorance," and — to use no 
 stronger term — his general historical blundering and thoroughgoing un- 
 reliability. 
 
 "^^Irelandin the Eighteenth Century, vol. iii., p. 428. Rev. W. Nassau 
 Molesworth, in his History of England (vol. i., p. 376), says: "At first the 
 Orangemen all belonged to the lower orders." 
 
 "^"^ Ibid., vol. iv., pp. 47-48. 
 
 ^^Ibid., vol. iii., pp. 429, 445. 
 
 ^^Ibid., vol. iv., p. 54. 
 
 ^°Ibid., vol. iii., pp. 428, 429. The narrative of the early Orange 
 outrages occupies pp. 429-446. 
 
 6:1 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 encouraged by Aifts of Indemnity. Henceforth — till Pitt's 
 policy was effe(5led — the way to favour, place, and power lay 
 through religious strife and persecution. In spite of what 
 Killen terms "its discreditable origin," persons in the higher 
 walks of society joined the ranks of the Orange organisation in 
 1797, and still more in 1798, and the work of forcing the people 
 into insurrecftion went merrily on.**^ 
 
 AN OATH OF BLOOD. 
 
 The early Orange society was, as we have seen, simply the 
 Peep-o'-Day association with a new name and a more complete 
 organisation. Its characfter may be gauged from that of the 
 class who filled its ranks, but still more from the wild orgie of 
 violence, plunder, outrage, and proscription with which the 
 reign of Orangeism was inaugurated. Plowden gives the 
 following, on the authority of others, as the original oath of 
 the Orangemen : 
 
 " I, A.B., do swear that I will be true to King and Govern- 
 ment, and that / tvill exterminate the Catholics of Ireland, as far as 
 lies in my power.'" ^''^ 
 
 Killen, the Presbyterian historian, says : " The accuracy 
 of this representation has been denied ; but there are strong 
 grounds for believing that it is substantially true; and the 
 condudt of the Orangemen during the first year of their exist- 
 ence under the new designation, abundantly justified the 
 suspicion that they had entered into some such horrid 
 compacSt."^^ The evidence for the existence of an oath of 
 extermination against Catholics may be summarily stated as 
 follows : 
 
 I. Bernard Coile, of Lurgan (county of Armagh), declared 
 to the Irish Under-Secretary, Cooke, that such an oath was 
 taken. ^* 
 
 2. Bernard Cush, of the 5th Dragoons, swore before a 
 
 =*iCompare Killen, Eccles Hist, of Ireland, ii., 365, 367. Lecky dis- 
 tinguishes between the earlier and "the later Orangemen" (iii., 428, note); 
 and says (p. 448) that it was "at a later period" that the country gentry 
 joined its numbers. The noted Orange family of the Beresfords, and their 
 connedlions and dependents, are said to have held at least one-fourth of all 
 the positions in Ireland (Lecky, Eighteenth Century, iii., 273-274). The 
 accession of the gentry in no wise changed the violent characfler of the 
 society [Ibid., iv. 49). 
 
 ^"^Historical Review of the state of Ireland, vol. ii., part i., p. 537; Hist, of 
 Ireland from its Union, vol. i., Introd., p. 54. The dedication of both these 
 works was accepted by the then Prince of Wales. 
 
 '^^Eccles. Hist, of Ireland, vol. ii., pp. 359, 360. 
 
 3*Plowden's Hist, of Ireland from its Union, vol. i., Introd., p. 58. 
 Killen describes Coile as "a respedtable Roman Cathohc merchant of 
 Lurgan, against whose life a conspiracy had been formed" (ii., 361, note). 
 
 64 
 
AN OATH OF BLOOD. 
 
 magistrate, and also deposed on oath before Under-Secretary 
 Cooke at Dublin Castle, " not only that such was the form ol 
 the Orangeman's oath, which was tendered to him, and which 
 he refused to swear, but which five others concerned in the 
 conspiracy had adlually subscribed to in his presence.""^ 
 
 3. In the course of the examination of Arthur O'Connor 
 (a Protestant) before the Committee of the Commons, August 
 16, 1798, the witness referred to the countenance shown by 
 Government to the fanaticism of the Orangemen. One of 
 the Committee repHed: "Government had nothing to do 
 with the Orange system, nor their oath of extermination.'" 
 O'Connor rejoined: "You, my Lord [Castlereagh] , from the 
 station you fill, must be sensible that the Executive of any 
 country has it in its power to colledl a vast mass of informa- 
 tion ; and you must know from the secret nature and the zeal 
 of the Union, that its Executive must have the most minute 
 information of every ac5l of the Irish Government. As one of 
 the Executive, it came to my knowledge that considerable 
 sums of money were expended throughout the nation in 
 endeavouring to extend the Orange system, and that the Orange 
 oath of extermination was administered. When these facfts are 
 coupled, not only with the general impunity which has been 
 uniformly extended towards all theacfts of this infernal associa- 
 tion, but the marked encouragement its members have received 
 from Government, I find it impossible to exculpate the 
 Government from being the parent and protecflor of these 
 sivorn extirpators.''^^ In this challenge to Lord Castlereagh, 
 O'Connor takes it for granted that the Irish Government was 
 fully cognisant of the Orange oath of extermination. The 
 remark of a member of the Committee, quoted above, implies 
 such knowledge on their part. This supposition is still further 
 strengthened by the facSt that the witness's positive statements 
 on the subjedl were allowed to pass uncontradicfted by the very 
 member of the Committee whom they most concerned, and to 
 whom they were pointedly and defiantly direcfted — namely, 
 Lord Castlereagh. In the thirteenth chapter of this volume 
 the reader will find abundant evidence of the truth of the 
 statements made by O'Connor regarding the alliance between 
 the Government and the Orange society. 
 
 4. The authoritative contemporary pamphlet already 
 referred to — A View of the Present State of Ireland — published 
 in 1797, gives the following as the form of early Orange 
 " purple" oath : " In the awful presence of Almighty God, I, 
 A.B., do solemnly swear that I will, to the utmost of my 
 
 •'' 5 Plowden , loc. cit. 
 
 ^^Madden, United Irishmen, Second Series, vol. ii., p. 320. 
 
 65 E 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 power, support the King and the present Government ; and 1 
 do further swear that I will use my utmost exertions to exter- 
 minate all the Catholics in the kingdom of lyelaud.'"'^'' 
 
 5. William Sampson, an Ulster Protestant barrister, in his 
 Memoirs (published in 1807), gives also what he terms the 
 " purple oath" of extermination, which, he says, was taken by 
 the early Orangemen.^^ In a speech, delivered at Phila- 
 delphia, he refers to the " exterminating oaths" of the 
 Orangemen.^^ 
 
 The reader who takes an interest in this grim subjedl: may 
 find, in the following words of contemporary authorities, 
 evidence corroborative of what has been stated above : 
 
 6. About three months after the battle of the Diamond, 
 Lord Gosford, Protestant Governor of this same county of 
 Armagh, wrote to Secretary Pelham regarding the outrages of 
 the early Orangemen. In the course of his letter he says : 
 *' The Protestant and Catholic inhabitants were inflamed to 
 the highest pitch of animosity ; but the former were greatly 
 superior in strength, and made no scruple of declaring, both hy 
 words a7id adions that could not he misunderstood, a fixed intention to 
 exterminate their opponents." The writer is referring to the month 
 of Ocftober, 1795, a few weeks after the formation of the first 
 Orange lodge. ^° 
 
 7. Brigadier-General Knox was an Ulster Protestant, and, 
 
 •■^■^Quoted by Plowden, Historical Review, vol. ii., p. 537, ed. 1803. The 
 author of the pamphlet referred to above was, according to Madden, an 
 Ulster magistrate. See chap, iii., supra, note 68. 
 
 38Sampson, though professionally, as barrister, in the secrets of the 
 United Association, was not a regular sworn member (Madden's United 
 Irishmen, Second Series, pp. 348-349, 358). He also gives an "amended 
 oath," attributed to Thomas Verner, which concludes as follows; "that I 
 will not make, or be at the making of a Roman Catholic an Orangeman, 
 or give him any offence, unless he offends me, and then I mill use my endeavours 
 to shed the last drop of his blood." The conclusion of the "amended test" 
 runs as follows : 
 
 "Can you write your name? I can. 
 
 "With what sort of a pen? With the spear of life, or Aaron's rod, 
 that buds, blossoms, and bears almonds in one night. 
 
 "With what sort of ink? Papist blood." 
 
 s^Madden, United Irishmen, Second Series, vol. ii., p. 378. 
 
 *°Quoted by Lecky, Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, vol. iii., p. 431, 
 note. The fifth rule of The early Ordinances of the Armagh Orangemen (printed 
 in 1801 by King, of Westmoreland Street, Dublin) concludes as follows: 
 
 "Our first principle, shall be, therefore, an open Bible, at the 68th 
 Psalm thereof, and the second, a short notice and a sure coming to all our 
 enemies." The 68th Psalm contains the following verse: "That thy foot 
 may be dipped in the blood of thine enemies, and the tongue of thy dogs in the same." 
 Rule 4 of the same pamphlet binds the brethren to "defend an Orange- 
 man against the insult of a Papist with the last drop of his blood." Quoted 
 in "M.P.'s" History ofOrangeistn, p. Si. Cf. note 38, supra. 
 
 66 
 
AN OATH OF BLOOD. 
 
 like Lord Gosford, was resident in that province during the 
 early days of the Orange association. Writing to the Chief- 
 Secretary in May, 1797, he says: "The Orangemen were 
 originally a bigoted set of men, who were ready to destroy the 
 Roman Catholics. ''^^ 
 
 8. We may quote in this connecftion the significant words 
 written by the distinguished contemporary Protestant noble- 
 man, Lord Holland, in his Memoirs of the Whig Party. 
 Describing the various methods by which the unhappy 
 Catholic people were goaded into the insurredlion of 1798, he 
 says of the courts-martial of the period : " It often happened 
 that three officers composed the court, and that of the three 
 two were under age, and the third, an officer of the yeomanry 
 or militia, who had sworn in his Orange lodge eternal hatred to the 
 people [Catholics] , over whom he was thus constituted as 
 judge. ""^ 
 
 9. Plowden, in his Ireland from its Union,^^ teWs how Giffard, 
 the father of the Orange system, declared, in the presence of 
 five well-known persons, whose names are given, that " he 
 would forgive Cromwell everything but one thing" — " his not 
 having exterminated the Catholics from Ireland, and con- 
 cluded with the most solemn avowal of his own efficient and 
 most ardent wishes to effedtuate that objedl." In a letter 
 concerning the Ascendency faction, which guided the policy of 
 the lodges in 1798, the Marquis Cornwallis says: "Their 
 conversation and condu6t points to no other way of concluding 
 this unhappy business [the rebellion] than that of extir- 
 pation ;" and, again, that they " would pursue measures that 
 could only terminate in the extirpation of the greater number 
 of the inhabitants, and in the utter destrudlion of the 
 country."" Since that period occasional isolated cries for the 
 extermination of the Irish Catholics have gone up from the 
 mouths of members of the Orange fraternity. Of the 
 instances which have come under my notice, it will suffice to 
 mention two, the one a voice from Ulster, the other an echo 
 from Victoria. According to the Right Hon. Lalor Shiel, 
 such a cry was raised in 1826 by a Rev. Dr. Robinson at an 
 
 *iQuoted by Lecky, Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, vol. iv., pp. 50, 
 
 55- 
 
 ^^Memoirs of the Whig Party, vol. i., p. 113, ed. 1852. In a work before 
 me I find the words given in italics above quoted as follows: "had sworn 
 in his Orange lodge to exterminate the people," etc. The words may 
 possibly be given thus in another edition of the Memoirs, that of 1852 being 
 the only one which I have been able to consult. 
 
 ^^Vol. i., Introd., pp. 21-22. 
 
 ■'^•'^Cornwallis Correspotidenee, vol. ii., p. 358; of. pp. 355, 360, 3O9, 377. 
 Murray's ed., 1859. 
 
 67 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 Orange meeting at Omagh, the proceedings of which were 
 subsequently pubHshed in the form of an authorised pamphlet. 
 "In the spirit of ferocious honesty," says Shiel, who had read 
 the pamphlet, " and with a bloodthirsty candour, he has 
 openly acknowledged that he and his party long for a general 
 massacre, and aspire at a universal extirpation of the Roman 
 Catholics of Ireland."^® Equally frank expression was given 
 to a similar wish by Brother E. Harkness at the Maryborough 
 (Vidtoria) Orange demonstration of 1887. Referring to the 
 Irish Catholics the speaker said that "the Orangemen only 
 ivanted to he let loose, and they would exterminate thcm.''^"^' 
 
 10. Grattan, another Protestant contemporary witness, in 
 his oft-quoted speech, delivered in the Irish House of Commons 
 on February 21, 1796, declared that "the objedt of the Orange- 
 men was the extermination of all the Catholics" of the county of 
 Armagh, and that they (the Orangemen) "had proceeded 
 from robbery and murder to extermination." The Dublin 
 Evening Post,oi September 24, of the same year, 1796, described 
 the Orange party (whose Reign of Terror was still in full 
 progress in the North) as " furious hordes, armed with sword, 
 fire, and faggot, to exterminate a people."" 
 
 The reader will observe that the authorities quoted in this 
 conne(ftion are — {a) all contemporary with the rise and early 
 progress of Orangeism ; that (b) they are of various creeds and 
 classes; and that (c) they either diredfly state that the oath of 
 extermination was taken by the early Orangemen, or that the 
 main purpose of the early Orangemen was the extirpation of 
 Catholics. Lecky, in the fourth volume of his Ireland in the 
 Eighteenth Century, proves how general and widespread, in 
 every part of Ireland, was the belief that the Orangemen took 
 the oath of extermination, as given above by Plowden.^- Add 
 to this the facil; that the character and condudt of the rude and 
 criminal pioneers of the Orange association was quite in 
 keeping with a sworn compacft of this nature. It is only fair 
 to state, with Lecky, that " at a later period,'' when persons of 
 high social standing were drawn into membership of the 
 society, they denied having taken the oath of extermina- 
 tion.*^ I can find no evidence that this oath has been repu- 
 
 ^s speeches, second ed., 1868, pp. 378, 383. 
 
 4r^ Maryborough and Dunolly Advertiser, July 13, 1887. Harkness resided 
 at Maryborough. His remarks evoked some comment at the time, but 
 the correftness of the report seems never to have been called in question. 
 The reporter, who is an accomplished pressman, and still a highly respefted 
 resident oi Maryborough, personally vouches for the accuracy of the words 
 quoted above from Harkness's speech. 
 
 ^''Quoted by "M.P.'s" Hist, of Orangeism. p. 44. 
 
 4RSee, for instance, p. 126; cf. pp. 136, 268, 347, 381. 
 
 *''The Dublin Orangemen issued a solemn manifesto in 1797, through 
 
 68 
 
WAS IT DEFENSIVE? 
 
 diated by the first Orangemen or their leaders. The reader 
 can judge for himself how far this denial by one class of 
 brethren of a later day will outweigh the cumulative force of 
 the body of contemporary testimony given above. 
 
 WAS IT DEFENSIVE? 
 
 The statement has been frequently made that the early 
 Orange organisation was altogether of a defensive characfter,'^" 
 The facfts of the case may be briefly stated as follow: 
 
 the press, as a reply to the "slanders" etc., which had been spread abroad 
 "to poison the public mind" against them. Now, the head and front of 
 all the crimes constantly imputed to them, ever since their foundation in 
 1795, had been the taking of the oath to "exterminate the Catholics of Ire- 
 land." The manifesto contains no express denial that the oath of exter- 
 mination was taken even then (in 1797), while it refrains altogether from 
 mention of the early members of the institution. In any case, repudiation 
 of the oath in question must be taken in connexion with one constant 
 element in the policy of this secret association: namely, the denial, on 
 occasion, of even the notorious official proceedings of the society. I have 
 already referred to Deputy Grand Master Blacker's garbling of the oath of 
 conditional loyalty. Compare the statements of the Earl of Enniskillen, in 
 the sixth chapter, regarding secret signs, pass-words, etc., and, in the 
 fifteenth chapter, the persistent denials, by the Duke of Cumberland, Lord 
 Kenyon, and others, of fadts with which they were personally mixed up in 
 connedion with the illegal formation of Orange lodges in the army. The 
 manifesto in question makes professions of kindly feeling towards Catholics 
 which were flatly contradidted by the current fads of Orange history, and 
 later on, in 1835, by the official evidence of Deputy Grand Secretary Swan, 
 to which reference will be made in the next chapter. The manifesto 
 referred to is given in full in Mitchel's History of Ireland, vol. i., ch. xxxii., 
 and in Plowden's Ireland from its Union, vol. i., Introd., pp. 77-79. The early 
 rules of the association were not laid before the Parliamentary Committee 
 of 1835, although they were called for, and were admitted to be at the 
 time in the possession of Deputy Grand Master Col. Verner, who was 
 himself a member of the Committee. We may fairly assume that Col. 
 Verner had sufficiently grave reasons for withholding those early rules from 
 even the eyes of a Parliamentary Committee of Inquiry into the Orange 
 system. 
 
 soLecky says (iii., 429, 448) that the society as "originally founded,^' and 
 "in its first conception," was defensive. This is a virtual admission that 
 after what he terms its "original foundation " — at the Battle of the Diamond 
 — it ceased to be defensive. The reader will note the following points in 
 Lecky's account of early Orangeism (iii., 426-446) : 
 
 (a) He nowhere states the nature of the alleged defensive purpose, 
 nor gives any evidence that the society, as founded at the Diamond or 
 Loughgall, was "essentially defensive." (b) Anyone reading his account 
 of what he and Froude term "the Orange disturbances" in Ulster, will see 
 that he regards the conduct of the early Orangemen as distinctly aggressive (cf. 
 Fronde's English in Ireland, iii., 197; Lecky, iii., 445). Lecky (quoted 
 above) admits that "at first Orangeism was simply a form of outrage," and 
 was "essentially lawless" (iv., 47-48); that the persecution of the Catholics 
 by the early Orangemen was "of a most formidable" character (47); and 
 that it began "immediately after the battle of the Diamond" and the first 
 foundation of Orange lodges (iii., 429.) Lecky is, like the Orangemen, a 
 strong Unionist in politics. 
 
 69 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 1. We have already seen that Orangeism in its early form 
 — the Peep-o'-Day movement — was distincflly aggressive. Its 
 illegal depredations, coupled with the criminal partiality of the 
 magistracy, provoked the formation of the (originally, at least) 
 defensive organisation of the Defenders. There is no evidence 
 to show that, at any period, the Armagh Peep-o'-Day Boys 
 became a purely defensive association. 
 
 2. Evidence has already been adduced to show that the 
 events which led to the Diamond affray were provoked by the 
 outrages of the Peep-o'-Day Boys and their sympathisers in 
 and about Portadown. 
 
 3. There is no evidence to show that, after the battle of 
 the Diamond, the originally aggressive Peep-o'-Day move- 
 ment suddenly changed its characSfer, and became simply an 
 association for self-defence. Such a supposition is, a priori, un- 
 likely ; it is, moreover, opposed to the known facSls of Orange 
 history. 
 
 (a) The easy and (to them) bloodless vidtory of the Dia- 
 mond, was a signal proof of the deadly superiority of the 
 Peep-o'-Day Boys in physical strength over even large bodies 
 of their ill-armed and leaderless opponents. This made a new 
 and wholly defensive organisation less necessary, and an 
 aggressive policy more secure and inviting, than ever. 
 
 (b) The early Orangemen were (as Lord Gosford, Governor 
 of Armagh, said, and as the events proved) "greatly superior 
 in strength," not alone to the Defenders, but to the Catholics 
 of the county or districfls generally.^^ 
 
 (c) After the battle of the Diamond, says Lecky,®^"the 
 rioters met with scarcely any resistance or disturbance " in their 
 work of plundering, persecuting, and banishing the Catholic 
 population of the county of Armagh. McNevin says that 
 "the Catholics after this transacftion [the battle of the Dia- 
 mond] never attempted to make a stand, but the Orangemen 
 commenced a persecution of the blackest die."^" The same is 
 implied in Lord Gosford's address to the magistrates of Armagh 
 county, December 28th, 1795 (three months after the Diamond 
 affair), where he says that '^the only crime" of the vi(ftims of 
 
 Rev. James Gordon, a Protestant contemporary writer, whose sons 
 were Orangemen, and whose History of the Rebellion was published in 1801, 
 reverses the contention of Lecky. He says (vol. ii., p. 358) that the later 
 or •'improved system" of Orangeism was "purely defensive," and implies 
 that "the outrages of the original Orangemen " showed that their associa- 
 tion was an aggressive one. 
 
 siLord Gosford's letter to Pelham, quoted by Lecky, vol. iii., p. 431, 
 note. 
 
 ^^Ibid., p. 429. 
 
 Bspieces of Irish History, pp. 114, 115. 
 
 70 
 
THE REIGN OF TERROR. 
 
 this inaugural Orange persecution was "simply a profession oi 
 the Roman Catholic faith." 
 
 (d) The undoubted fa(5ts of history show that the early 
 Orange association, from the first day of its existence under 
 the new designation, was of a distincftly aggressive chara(5ter. 
 This is proved by the whole course of its early policy towards 
 the Catholic body, which may be briefly summed up as follows : 
 (i) terrorising by threatening notices; (2) house-wrecking, 
 house-burning, and other forms of destrucflion of the property 
 of Cathohcs; (3) plundering and confiscation; (4) depriving 
 Catholic labourers and artisans of employment; (5) wholesale 
 banishment of Catholics ; (6) murder ; (7) outlawing, or 
 depriving Catholics of their civil rights. Be it noted that this 
 policy of the early Orange lodges was (i) carried out syste- 
 matically ; (2) against an unresisting minority of the population of 
 Armagh county; (3) on a vast scale; and (4) for a consider- 
 able period. What has come to be known as the Orange 
 Reign of Terror began with the foundation of the first lodge in 1 795. 
 This first phase of "the Orange disturbances," with which 
 alone we are at present concerned, continued till 1797. This 
 was succeeded by the systematic and still more cruel per- 
 secution and torture of the unhappy people, for the purpose of 
 provoking the ill-fated insurrec5tion which broke out in 1798. 
 With this later phase of the Reign of Terror of the lodges I 
 shall deal in the thirteenth chapter, when treating of the 
 "gallant Orange yeomanry."^* 
 
 THE REIGN OF TERROR. 
 
 Lecky, in his description of " the Orange disturbances in 
 Ulster," says that " a terrible persecution of the Catholics 
 immediately followed" the battle of the Diamond, and that " the 
 Protestant rabble in the county of Armagh, and of part of the 
 
 s*Some apologists of the Orange society represent it as having been 
 founded to combat the United Irishmen as well as the Defenders. The 
 statement is utterly void of foundation, (a) The Defender movement was 
 long hostile to the United Irishmen and non-political (Lecky Eighteenth 
 Century, iii., 223). {b) In 1795, the year of the foundation of the lodges, 
 the Government, after the most careful inquiry, failed to find any connec- 
 tion whatsoever between the Defenders and the United Irishmen {op. cit. 
 p. 387). {c) The Defender movement did not merge into the United Irish 
 society till 1796 (Madden, United Irishmen; Lecky, op. cit., p. 486; McNevin, 
 pp. 117, 121). ((/) Rev. Holt Waring deposed before the Seledt Committee 
 of the House of Lords that the United Irish society was not established in 
 Armagh county (where Orangeism arose) until after the starting of Orangeism. 
 {e) Rev. Holt Warring's testimony is practically corroborated by the Memoir 
 drawn up for the Government by Emmet, O'Connor, and McNevin, who 
 point out that the Armagh atrocities first drove the Catholics in great 
 numbers into the ranks of the United Irishmen (quoted in chap, ii., supra, 
 note 54, p. 26). 
 
 71 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 adjoining counties, determined by continuous outrages to drive 
 the Catholics from the country. "^^ I shall let Protestant 
 contemporary authorities describe the chief phases of the long- 
 drawn inaugural fury of the Orange lodges. The reader will 
 then be in a position to judge for himself how hopelessly 
 inconsistent the conducfl of early Orangeism is with the idea 
 of a movement that was altogether, or even mainly, of a 
 defensive charadl:er. 
 
 On the 28th of December, 1795, about three months after 
 what we shall agree to call the "battle" of the Diamond, some 
 thirty of the leading magistrates and grand jurors of the county 
 of Armagh attended, upon summons of the Governor, the Earl 
 of Gosford (a Protestant nobleman), to consider the state of 
 the country. In the opening sentence of his address. Lord 
 Gosford said he had called them together to devise a plan " to 
 check the calamities that have already brought disgrace upon 
 this country." He then proceeds : " It is no secret that a 
 persecution, accompanied with all the circumstances of fero- 
 cious cruelty which have in all ages distinguished that dreadful 
 calamity, is now raging in this county [Armagh] . Neither age, 
 nor sex, nor even acknowledged innocence as to the late disturb- 
 ances, is sufficient to excite mercy, much less to afford 
 prote(5tion. The only crime which the wretched objects of 
 this merciless persecution are charged with is a crime of easy 
 proof: It is simply a profession of the Roman Catholic faith. A 
 lawless banditti have constituted themselves judges of this 
 species of delinquency, and the sentence they pronounced is 
 equally concise and terrible : It is nothing less than a confiscation 
 of all property and immediate banishment. It would be extremely 
 painful, and surely unnecessary, to deta.il all the horrors that 
 attended the execution of 50 wide ajid tremendous a proscription, that 
 certainly exceeds, in the comparative number of those it consigns to ruin 
 and misery, every example that ancient and modern history can afford. 
 For where have we heard, and in what history of human 
 cruelties have we read, of more than half the inhabitants of a 
 populous county being deprived at one blow of the means, as 
 well as the fruits, of their industry, and driven, in the midst of 
 an inclement winter, to seek a shelter for themselves and their 
 helpless families where chance may guide them ? This is no 
 exaggerated pi(5i:ure of the horrid scenes now acfting in this 
 county. Yet, surely, it is sufficient to awaken sentiments of 
 
 s^hcland hi the Eighteenth Century, vol. iii., p. 429. Rev. W. Nassau 
 Molesworth, quoted in a previous chapter, states that the objed of the 
 early Orangemen was "to drive the Catholics out of the northern counties 
 of Ireland by wrecking and destroying their houses." Hist. 0/ England, 
 vol. i., p. 376. 
 
 72 
 
THE REIGN OF TERROR 
 
 indignation and compassion in the coldest bosoms. These 
 horrors are now acfling, and adting with impunity. The spivii 
 of impartial justice, without which law is nothing better than 
 tyranny, has for a time disappeared in this county, and the supine- 
 ness of the magistracy of this county is a topic of conversation 
 in every corner of this kingdom. "^"^ 
 
 " This terrible picfture," says Lecky, "appears to have been 
 fully acquiesced in by the assembled gentlemen."" Resolutions 
 were unanimously carried to the effedl " that the county of 
 Armagh is at this moment in a state of no common disorder," 
 and that the Catholics residing there were " grievously 
 oppressed by lawless persons unknown, who attack and plunder 
 their houses by night, nnless they immediately abandon their lands 
 and habitations.'' This resolution was signed by Lord Gosford 
 and by twenty-three Armagh county magistrates, of whom 
 twenty-two were Protestants. Among the signatures we find 
 the names of those pioneers of Orangeism, James Verner, 
 Stewart Blacker, and William Blacker, together with those 
 of three Protestant clergymen who subsequently became 
 bishops.'"^^ 
 
 On the 2ist of February, 1796, the Protestant statesman, 
 Mr. Grattan, said in the Irish House of Commons, that " the 
 objecfl of the Orangemen was the extermination of all the Catholics 
 of that county [Armagh]. It was a persecution conceived in 
 the bitterness of bigotry, carried on with the most ferocious 
 barbarity, by a banditti who, being of the religion of the State, 
 had committed with the greater audacity and confidence the 
 most horrid murders, and had proceeded from robbery and 
 murder to extermination. They had repealed, by their own 
 authority, all the laws lately passed in favour of the Catholics, 
 and established, in the place of these laws, the inquisition of a 
 mob resembling Lord George Gordon's fanatics, equalling them 
 in outrage, and surpassing them far in perseverance and 
 success. Their modes of outrage were as numerous as they 
 were atrocious. They sometimes forced, by terror, the masters 
 of families to dismiss their Catholic servants; they sometimes 
 
 ssThis speech is given in full in the Third Pari. Report of 1835, ^■Iso in 
 Plowden's Hist. Review, Appendix, xcix. Lord Gosford was a Government 
 man, but, says Plowden, "his honour and integrity were unassailable." 
 Eight years after this address, he said he might have made it "much 
 stronger." Hist, of Ireland from tts Ufiion, vol. i., Introd. pp. 36, 37. 
 
 ^''Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, vol. iii., p. 431. 
 
 ''swhen sending the resolutions to Secretary Pelham, Lord Gosford 
 wrote; "Of late no night passes that houses are not destroyed, and scarce 
 a week that some dreadful murders are not committed." As far back as 
 Oftober he had "found the country in a state of extreme disorder." See 
 note 24 and text, supra 
 
 73 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 forced landlords, by terror, to dismiss their Catholic tenantry." 
 He then describes the cruel treatment which the Catholic 
 weavers had received at the hands of " those insurgents, who 
 called themselves Orange Boys, or Protestant Boys — that is, a 
 banditti of murderers, committing massacre in the name of God, 
 and exercising despotic power in the name of liberty. "^'* 
 "to hell or connaught!" 
 
 Grattan continues: "They [the Orange Boys] had very 
 generally given the Catholics notice to quit their farms and 
 dwellings, which notice was plastered on their houses,"" and 
 conceived in these short but plain words: 'Go to Hell — Con- 
 naught won't receive you — fire and faggot — -Will Thresham 
 and John Thrustout.' They followed those notices by a 
 faithful and puncftual execution of the horrid threat, and soon 
 after visited the house, robbed the family, and destroyed what 
 they did not take, and finally completed the atrocious persecu- 
 tion by forcing the unfortunate inhabitants to leave their land, 
 their dwellings, and their trade, and to travel with their miser- 
 able family." He then refers to the murders committed by 
 "that atrocious and rebellious banditti"; declares that "the 
 Catholic inhabitants of Armagh have been adlually put out of 
 the protedlion of the law ; the magistrates have been supine 
 or partial ; and the horrid banditti [the Orangemen] have met 
 with complete success, and from the magistrates very little 
 discouragement," in this horrid persecution, this abominable 
 barbarity, and this general extermination."*^^ 
 
 Proceeding, Mr. Grattan remarked: " It has been said by 
 the mover of the resolution that, of the Defenders, multitudes 
 have been hanged, multitudes have been put to death on the 
 field, and that they are suppressed, though not extinguished; 
 but with regard to the outrages of the Orange Boys no such 
 boast could be made. On the contrary, they have met with 
 
 s^They seized the weavers and sent them, as deserters, to serve in the 
 fleet, unless they purchased their Hberty by money or drink. The magis- 
 trates and Lord Carhampton — presuming on the connivance of the Govern- 
 ment — sent multitudes on board the fleet on mere suspicion. An Aft of 
 Indemnity was passed, with retrospedlive effedt, to secure the ofiicial law- 
 breakers against prosecution. See Walpole, Kingdom of Ireland, ch. xvi. p. 
 
 458. 
 
 "oThis was a felony, punishable by death, by Adls of the 15th and 
 i6th George II. None of the Orangemen were prosecuted for this kind 
 of intimidation. 
 
 61 According to Grattan's speech, the resolutions of the Armagh 
 magistrates were forced upon them by the shameful excesses of the 
 Orangemen. Madden has colleded a number of the rude and sometimes 
 indecent notices affixed by the Orange "wreckers" to the houses of 
 Catholics in Armagh. They will be found in his United Irishmen, Third 
 Series, vol. ii., Appendix vi., p. 337, Duffy's ed. 1846. 
 
 74 
 
"TO HELL OR CONNAUGHT !" 
 
 impunity, and success, and triumph. They have triumphed 
 over the law ; they have triumphed over the magistrates ; they 
 have triumphed over the people. Their persecution, inquisi- 
 tion, murder, robbery, devastation, and extermination have 
 been entirely vidlorious." Grattan's account of the outrages 
 of the original Orangemen is borne out by other members of 
 the wholly Protestant Irish Parliament who spoke on the 
 subjecft at this time, e.g., by Maurice Fitzgerald, Knight of 
 Kerry, by William Smith, M.P., and by the Attorney-General 
 of the day.''" In the course of the same debate (on the Insur- 
 re(51:ion Bill), Sir Laurence Parsons referred to the manner in 
 which some of the Ulster magistrates "most cruelly perse- 
 cuted the Catholics" ; and Colonel (afterwards General) 
 Craddock admitted that the conducSl: of the Orangemen in the 
 county of Armagh was at that time atrocious, and that their 
 barbarous practices should be put down."^ 
 
 " The unanimous Address of the Sheriff, Governor, Grand 
 Jury, and Magistracy" of Armagh to Lord Camden, at the 
 Lent Assizes, 1796, also refers to "the outrages which, for 
 some time past, have disturbed the peace and interrupted the 
 prosperity of this prosperous county."''^ 
 
 Mr. James Christie, a member of the Society of Friends, 
 was, perhaps, the most venerable and remarkable of the 
 witnesses examined by the Selec51; Committee (Irish) of 1835. 
 He was twenty-four years old when the battle of the 
 Diamond was fought, had resided on the borders of Armagh 
 county since 1793, and was an eye-witness of what he 
 describes.*'^ The first disturbances he recolledted occurred 
 in the neighbourhood of Colonel Verner's residence. He gives 
 a vividly grim description of what was comprised under the 
 i.erm " wrecking" — breaking open the doors, smashing every- 
 thing that was capable of being broken ; destroying webs, 
 looms, furniture, and setting the house on fire. Twelve or 
 fourteen houses were thus " wrecked " in his distri(5l in a 
 single night. The poor Catholics left their houses in terror. 
 Some of them slept at night in his father's plantations. Many 
 murders were committed by the rioters, but, says Mr. Christie, 
 " no investigation took place; the magistrates were supine and 
 inactive." He personally saw three Catholic chapels burned 
 
 ^^Grattan's speech is given in Plowden's Historical Review of the State 
 of Ireland, vol. ii., part i., pp. 547-549; also in "M.P.'s" History of Orangeism, 
 pp. 46-48. Quotations from the speeches of the others named above are 
 given in Hansard, 3rd Series, vol. xxxix., pp. 654-655. 
 
 ^spiowden's Hist, of Ireland from its Union, vol. i., Introd., pp. 41, 42. 
 
 ^*This address is given in full by "M.P.," p. 42. 
 
 85See his evidence as to the Armagh outrages at Qq. 5566 sqq. of the 
 Minutes of Evidence, Irish Report. 
 
 75 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 down by the rioters/" but he never heard of " any Protestant 
 or Presbyterian places of worship being burned or injured " in 
 any part of the North of Ireland.''^ " My father," said he,®' 
 " received notices, which I saw — anonymous letters — com- 
 manding him to turn off his Catholic servants, and, not to 
 employ them in his work." The house-wrecking, he states, 
 continued for " two or three years." When, " five or six years 
 afterwards" (in 1800 or 1801), some of the exiled Catholics 
 ventured to return again, they found that " the property which 
 they [had] left was transferred, in most instances, to Pro- 
 testants, even in cases where the former occupants had held 
 life leases (Q. 5570). 
 
 " SWORD, FIRE, AND FAGGOT." 
 
 The Protestant Viceroy of Ireland, Lord Camden, describes 
 the disturbance of the early Orangemen as " a(5fs of the 
 greatest outrage and barbarity against their Catholic neigh - 
 bours.'"*^ The Dublin Evening Post, a Protestant newspaper, 
 in its issue of September 24, 1796, gives a fearful picflure of the 
 " bloody excesses " committed even then — twelve months 
 after the battle of the Diamond — by the Orangemen in Ulster : 
 " Murder in all its horrid forms, assassinations in cold blood, 
 the mutilation of members without respecft to age or sex, the 
 firing of whole hamlets, so that when the inhabitants have 
 been looked after, nothing but their ashes were to be found ; 
 the atrocious excursions of furious hordes, armed with sword, 
 fire, and faggot, to exterminate a people."™ McNevin, in his 
 Pieces of Irish History, '^''^ states that the Orange rioters frequently 
 fired into the coffins of the dead at funerals, and otherwise 
 interfered with the religious observances of their Catholic 
 fellow-countrymen . 
 
 The Orange leader, Mr. Verner, in 1796, during the course 
 of a debate in the Irish House of Commons, admitted that 
 
 ^^Ibid.. Q. 5587 ; see Q. 5585. 
 
 ^"^Ibid., Q.. 5589. 
 
 <is/bid., Q., 5596. 
 
 69Letter to Portland, January 22, 1796, quoted by Froude, En<;Ush in 
 Ireland, vol. iii., p. 178. Froude admits that Camden refers to the Orange- 
 men. 
 
 'OQuoted by Mitchel, Hist, of Ireland, vol. i., ch. xxx., p. 238. 
 
 ■^iP. 113. I have quoted mainly from contemporary Protestant 
 testimony as to the outrages of the early Orangemen. The author of A 
 View of the Present State of Ireland (1797) might be added to the list. He 
 enters into full details of many fearful outrages, and is extensively quoted 
 by Madden (see chap, ii., note 68, p. 28). The two Catholic contemporary 
 authorities, Plowden and McNevin, confirm the accounts given by the 
 Protestant witnesses quoted above. Historical Review, vol. ii., pp. 539, sqq. ; 
 Ireland from its Union, vol. i., Introd. ; Pieces of Irish History, pp. 113 sqq. 
 
 76 
 
COUNTING THE VICTIMS 
 
 outrages had been committed by the Orangemen.'^ Lecky 
 says that " the most conspicuous document" written at the 
 time in the Orange interest draws a picfture of the Reign of 
 Terror which is "sufficiently dark," He adds that, neverthe- 
 less, the authority of its author (a Mr. Alexander) " cannot 
 compete with that of Lord Gosford and the magistrates who 
 assembled at Armagh ; and the correspondence in the posses- 
 sion of the Government [some of which he quotes] appears to 
 me to do little or nothing to attenuate the pidture."'^ 
 
 There is one signal feature in this initial Reign of Terror 
 of the lodges which, by itself alone, fully establishes the purely 
 aggressive character of the early Orange institution. It is 
 this : The Orange outrages thus described were not alone 
 pradlised upon large bodies of people who were guiltless of 
 any crime save the profession of the Catholic faith, but they 
 were carried out for a period of over two years, throughout 
 a large area of Ulster, against an unresisting population. 
 McNevin distincftly states that after the battle of the Diamond 
 the Catholic party in Armagh never raised their heads again." 
 And Lecky — whose testimony has been already quoted — admits 
 that, after that encounter, " the rioters met with scarcely any 
 resistance or disturbance."''^ But perhaps the most scandalous 
 feature in the lawlessness of the lodges was the connivance of 
 the magistracy and of the Government in their excesses, for 
 party and political ends.'*^ 
 
 THE ROLL CALL. 
 
 It is obviously impossible to estimate the number of 
 Catholics that were killed, forced on board transports, sold, or 
 sent "to Hell or Connaught" during the three feverish years 
 of proscription and outrage with which the lodge era of 
 Orange history was ushered in. We have already seen Lord 
 Gosford's statement that as early as December 28, 1795, a 
 great portion of the population of Armagh had been driven out 
 of their homes. On the 26th of 0(5tober, 1796, the illus- 
 trious orator, Curran (a Protestant), offered, in the Irish 
 House of Commons, to produce sworn evidence that not less 
 than 1,400 Catholic families had been barbarously expelled 
 
 '''^Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, vol. iii., p. 434; see also Minutes of 
 Seledl Pari. Committee of 1835, First Report, p. 19. 
 
 '^Lecky, op. cit., p. 434. 
 
 ''^Pieces of Irish History, p. 115. 
 
 ''^Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, vol. iii., p. 429. 
 
 ■^6 Further evidence of the partiality of the magistracy will be found in 
 Lecky, op. cit., pp. 432, tiote, 446, 449; also in Plowden's Ireland from its 
 Union, vol. i., Introd., pp. 41, 42, 48; Walpole's Kingdom of Ireland, ch .w., 
 p. 457; Bouverie-Pusey, The Past History of Ireland, p. 107. See also ch. 
 xiv., infra. h& to the Government, see Lecky, op. cit., pp. 437, 438, 441, etc. 
 
 77 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 from their houses, or murdered, or burned in their cottages, or 
 had died of fatigue or famine in the fields or highways ; and 
 that the same fearful scenes were still being enacfled in open 
 day, without any effecftual interference." 
 
 Rev. James Gordon, a Church of England clergyman and 
 contemporary historian, whose sons were members of the 
 fraternity, gives the number of Catholic families who were 
 forcibly expelled by the Orangemen as " fourteen hundred, 
 according to the most probable account."''® This estimate is 
 confirmed by two well-known Protestant eye-witnesses — Mr. 
 Stuart, of A(5lon, and Rev. Mr. Stuart, of Armagh — who made 
 out a list which brought the vicftims of the Orange Reign of 
 Terror to over 7,000 persons.''^ This is likewise the estimate 
 made by what Lecky terms the " evidently truthful Memoir,'" 
 presented to the Government in 1798 by the United Irish 
 leaders, Emmet, O'Connor, and McNevin.®" The well informed 
 contemporary writer, " Observer," whose View of the Present 
 State of Ireland appeared in 1797, states that in Armagh county 
 alone seven hundred families " were driven to poverty and 
 desolation, their houses burned, and their property destroyed 
 by Orangemen."®^ 
 
 Lord Moira (a Protestant nobleman), in a letter to Secretary 
 Pelham, Ocftober 19th, 1796, enclosed a list of ninety-one 0] 
 his own tenants who had been expelled from their homes. " Most 
 of them," he says, " have had their little property either 
 destroyed or taken; many of them have been cruelly wounded." 
 All this occurred in a very small districfl of " only four town- 
 lands," in a parish which " «i an inferior degree has felt the 
 effe(fts of that licentious barbarity." He further states that 
 "the persecution is even now [at the date of his letter] con- 
 tinuing with unabated adlivity." ®"- 
 
 Lord Altamount's brother (November 5, 1796) gave an 
 
 '■'Mitchel, Hist, of Ireland, vol. i., chap, xxx., p. 239. 
 
 ''^Hist. of Ireland, vol. ii., p. 348 (Dublin, 1806). 
 
 ''^Plowden, Hist, of Ireland from its Union, vol. i., Introd., p. 50, note. 
 According to Plowden, this list was delivered to Under-Secretary Cooke 
 and ought to be found in Dublin Castle. "The person who delivered it to 
 Mr. Cooke . . . assured the author that he knew the country so de- 
 populated, which covered an extent of thirteen miles by eleven, had ex- 
 amined the list and had every reason to give full credit to its accuracy." 
 Ibid.; cf. Molesworth's Hist, of England, vol. i., p. 376. 
 
 ^oMetnoir of the Union, p. 14, also in McNevin's Pieces of Irish History, 
 p. 186. Lecky's opinion of the Memoir is given in Leaders of Public Opinion, 
 p. 140 (ed. 1871). 
 
 siQuoted in Madden's United Irishmen, Third Series, vol. ii., p. 333, 
 ed. 1846. 
 
 82Lord Moira to Pelham, 0&.. 19, 1796, quoted by Lecky, Ireland in 
 the Eighteenth Century, vol. iii., p. 439. 
 
 78 
 
COUNTING THE VICTIMS. 
 
 incomplete list of 950 of the fugitives who were on the Altamount 
 estate alone, near Castlebar (county of Mayo).®^ Lord Alta- 
 mount estimated that some 4,000 of these unhappy people had 
 taken refuge from the barbarity of the Orangemen in the one 
 county of Mayo alone, besides a number which he cannot take 
 upon himself to compute in other parts of Connaught.®* The 
 Dublin Evening Post of August 27, 1796, states that " a single 
 gentleman (Col. Martin, of the county of Galway) has given 
 asylum to 1,000 souls on his own estate, all peaceable, inoffen- 
 sive, and living by the labour of their hands." ^ Others took 
 refuge in other parts of Ireland, some penetrating as far south 
 as the county of Kerry. ®^ In their new homes the unhappy 
 fugitives struck the Protestant gentry and officials as being, in 
 their bearing and conducSt, loyal, peaceable, and industrious 
 people.^'' 
 
 THE LONE RAY. 
 
 Almost the only bright spot in the dark surroundings of 
 this woful period, was the kindness extended to the persecuted 
 Catholics by the Presbyterians of Ulster, especially by those 
 of the counties of Down and Antrim. Through the friendly 
 help of the Presbyterians of Belfast, a large number of the 
 fugitives were enabled to settle in Glasgow and Paisley, forming 
 there the first Irish colony, which, in 1810, was computed to 
 number nearly 20,000 people.^^ All things considered, it 
 does not seem to the present writer that the estimate of 7,000 
 refugees is by any means excessive. 
 
 " It is no exaggeration to say," writes Lecky, " that the 
 exiles may be numbered by thousands, and it is impossible to 
 resist the conclusion that some of the magistrates shamefully 
 tolerated or connived at the outrages. Nothing of this kind 
 had occurred in Ireland since the days of Cromwell, and the 
 consternation, the panic, the widely exaggerated rumours it 
 produced, exercised an enormous influence on Irish politics."®" 
 
 TH€ CHARTER TOAST. 
 
 Orangemen, and especially Irish Orangemen, have to this day 
 
 8 ^Quoted by Lecky, loc. cit., p. 441. 
 ^^Ihid., p. 442. 
 ^^Ihid., note. 
 
 ^'^Op. cit., pp. 440, 444; cf. Lord Gosford's evidence before the Parlia- 
 mentary Committee of 1835, Q. 3671. 
 
 88McNevin's Pieces of Irish History, p. 117; Plowden's Ireland from its 
 Union, vol. i., Introd., p. 67. We shall see, in chapter v. [infra] that the 
 original Orangemen were exclusively, or almost exclusively, members of 
 the Established Church, and that the Presbyterians, as a rule, held aloof 
 from the society. 
 
 ^^Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, vol. iii., pp. 445-446. 
 
 79 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 a warm corner in their hearts for Oliver Cromwell, who, after 
 William of Orange, did most to impoverish, persecute, and 
 degrade their Catholic fellow-countrymen. ''° Reference has been 
 already made to the sympathy expressed by Giffard, the father of 
 the Orange system, for the policy of banish ment, proscription, and 
 extermination pursued by Cromwell during and after his wars 
 in Ireland. The reader has already seen how the early lodges 
 adopted, and carried out as far as lay in their power, the 
 Protedlor's policy of confiscating the property of Catholics, and 
 sending its rightful owners to " Hell or Connaught." ^^ In the 
 Charter Toast, Cromwell's name occupies a place of honour 
 second only to that of the chief tutelary deity of the association, 
 William, Prince of Orange. This toast is a literary curiosity. 
 It is given by Sir Jonah Barrington, who, writing in 1827, says 
 that it existed before the foundation of Orangeism, but that it 
 was " afterwards adopted by the Orange societies generally, 
 and [is] still, I believe, considered as the Charter Toast of 
 them all." ^^ Sir Jonah had special opportunities for verifying 
 his statements regarding this toast. He was the intimate 
 friend of the noted Dr. Duigenan, and as early as March, 1798, 
 was, with him, a member of Orange Lodge No. 176 (Dublin), 
 according to the official evidence laid before the Parliamentary 
 Committee of 1835."^ What he terms the " Orange toast," 
 was originally taken on the bare knees, and ran as follows : 
 
 " The glorious, pious, and immortal memory of the great 
 and good King WilHam — not forgetting Oliver Cromwell, who 
 assisted in redeeming us from Popery, slavery, arbitrary power, 
 brass money, and wooden shoes.®* May we never want a 
 Williamite to kick the . . of a Jacobite l''^ and a . . for 
 
 9 "Orange lodges are frequently named after Cromwell. For instance, 
 a lodge in Echuca (Vidloria) bears the title " Cromwell's Ironsides." 
 
 blunder the Protedlorate, Irish Catholics were deprived of several 
 millien acres of land which had escaped the confiscations of previous reigns, 
 and a great part of them were banished to the poorest province, 
 Connaught. By a rigorous passport system, fhey were forbidden, under 
 pain of death without trial, to approach within two miles of the 
 Shannon or four miles of the sea. Great numbers were massacred, as at 
 Drogheda, Wexford, etc., and thousands were sold as slaves to American 
 and West Indian planters. The exercise of the Catholic religion was for- 
 bidden almost as completely as it was later on during the regime of William 
 of Orange. See Prendergast's Cromwellian Settlonent, pp. 89 sqq., 96-185. 
 
 ^"^Personal Sketches and Recollections of his Own Times, first published in 
 1827 (Cameron and Ferguson's ed. of 1883, pp. 131-132). 
 
 ^'^Mintites of Evidence, Q. 9522. 
 
 9*" The brass money refers to James's finance, and the wooden shoes 
 to his French allies." Encycl. Brittannica, 9th ed , art. "Orangemen." 
 
 9 5This part of the Charter Toast finds curious confirmation in Lecky's 
 Ireland in the Eighteenth Centioy (vol. i., ch. ii., pp. 321-322), in his descrip- 
 tion of Dublin city in that century. Lecky says: "A bust of the same 
 
 80 
 
THE CHARTER TOAST. 
 
 the Bishop of Covk.^'' And he that won't drink this, whether 
 he be priest, bishop, deacon, bellows-blower, grave-digger, or 
 other of the fraternity of the clergy, may a north wind blow 
 him to the south, and a west wind to the east ! May he have 
 a dark night, a lee shore, a rank storm, and a leaky vessel to 
 carry him over the River Styx ! May the dog Cerberus make 
 
 a meal of his r p, and Pluto a snuff-box of his skull ; may 
 
 the devil jump down his throat with a red-hot harrow, with 
 every pin tear out a gut, and blow him with a clean carcass to 
 hell ! Amen !" 
 
 Several writers-''' assert that some Orangemen rounded off 
 the conclusion of the Williamite sentiment in the following 
 fashion : " May he be rammed, crammed, and jammed into 
 the great gun of Athlone, and blown on to the hob of hell, 
 where he'll be kept roasting for all eternity, the devil basting 
 him with melted bishops, and his imps pelting him with 
 priests." 
 
 The fa(5^s of the Orange Charter Toast are, that it con- 
 sisted of {a) invariable, {b) slightly variable, and {c) very 
 variable, elements, {a) The first thirteen words given by Sir 
 Jonah Barrington have undergone no alteration, and are 
 retained by the lodges to this day. {b) The next following 
 nineteen words of the first sentence (as quoted above) have 
 been subjecfted to slight modifications. The Encyclopedia 
 Bvitannica gives the following as the " commonest form " of the 
 Orange toast : (a) " The glorious, pious, and immortal memory 
 of the great and good King William, (h) who saved us from 
 Popery, slavery, knavery, brass money, and wooden shoes." 
 {c) The authority just quoted states that the Toast concluded 
 " with grotesque or truculent additions according to the orator's 
 taste." Mr. Charles Phillips, a distinguished Protestant 
 barrister, quotes the following " loyal toast " as " handed 
 down by Orange tradition" at Derry. In a footnote to his 
 Speeches, Phillips gives the following toast, and evidently 
 refers to it as the one proposed by the Derry Recorder, Sir 
 
 Sovereign [William III., Prince of Orange] bearing an insulting distich 
 reflecting on the adherents of James, was annually painted by the [Dublin] 
 Corporation. The toast of the ' glorious, pious and immortal memory ' was 
 given on all public occasions by the Viceroy." This — -which took place 
 long before the foundation of the Orange Society— confirms in so far the 
 statement of Barrington. The "insulting distich" is given by Lecky in a 
 footnote (i., 322): 
 
 "May we never want a Williamite 
 To kick the breech of a Jacobite! " 
 
 ^^ In allusion to Bishop Peter Browne of Cork "who in 1715 wrote 
 cogently against the pradice of toasting the dead." Encyclo. Britannica, 
 9th ed., art. "Orangemen." 
 
 9^See, for instance, "M.P.," Hist, of Omngcism, pp. 28-29. 
 
 81 P 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 George Hill, early in the present century, at a public dinner 
 which was given to celebrate the return of one of the 
 Ponsonbys to Parliament : 
 
 (a) " The glorious, pious, and immortal memory of the 
 great and good King William, (b) who saved us from Pope 
 and Popery, James and slavery, brass money and wooden 
 shoes ; [c) here is bad luck to the Pope, and a hempen rope to all 
 Papists ."»8 
 
 Here I end the story of the rise and early progress of the 
 Orange society. It is no pleasant tale to unfold. None the 
 less, it must needs be told if the reader is to grasp the spirit 
 out of which the association grew, and the principles which 
 guided its budding adliivities. In the records of its stormy 
 youth we seek in vain for any indication that the society was 
 a purely defensive one, or that its chief purpose was the 
 maintenance of the open Bible, the Protestant religion, the 
 laws of the land, and the cultivation of virtue— the principles 
 on which, we are assured, the foundations of the Orange 
 institution are laid. The following chapters — which treat of 
 the society's relations with its members, with the Protestant 
 Churches, the Catholic body, and the civil authorities — will 
 bring out in still clearer light the broad lines of a policy which 
 it has steadily pursued ever since the wild times when the 
 deeds of the " atrocious banditti " of the North brought back 
 to the Irish mind the memory of the days of Cromwell. 
 
 ^^The Speeches of Charles Phillips, p. 121, published in 1817 by Long- 
 man, Hurst, Rees, Orme and Browne, London. Phillips gives this toast 
 in a footnote, and evidently leaves it to be inferred that it was the one, the 
 public proposal of which ledindirecftly to the case of O'Mullan v. McKorkill, 
 in which he was engaged, and which excited considerable public interest at 
 the time. Phillip's Speeches, pp. 120 sqg. 
 
 The following are said to have been favourite Orange toasts: "The 
 Pope in the pillory, the pillory in hell, and the devil pelting him with 
 priests." "May the ears of all the Papists be nailed to the chapel, and 
 the chapel transplanted into hell." During the debate on Drummond's 
 Constabulary Bill, instances were alleged in the House of Commons of 
 these toasts having been given by Orange policemen. Barry O'Brien's 
 Thomas Drummond, p. 219. 
 
 82 
 
PROTESTANTS ONLY 
 
 Chapter V* 
 
 MEMBERSHIP: ITS LIMITATIONS — •• NO PAPIST 
 NEED APPLY''— THE QUEEN, THE RITUALISTS, 
 AND OTHER " WISHY-WASHY," "SHILLY-SHALLY,' 
 "NAMBY-PAMBY" PROTESTANTS — A MARRIAGE- 
 LAW OF THE LODGES— WHO ARE ELIGIBLE? 
 
 There are three features in connecftion with the membership 
 of the Orange institution which call for more than passing 
 notice. 
 
 I. Admission to membership is open to Protestants only. 
 "No Papist need apply." 
 
 II. The Protestants that are ehgible for membership are 
 only those of "the right kind" — that is, those who are 
 prepared to adopt an aggressive attitude towards the Cathohc 
 Church, its principles, its members, and its institutions. 
 
 III. These are admitted only under terms which place 
 their membership and their political acftion at the beck and 
 call of the Grand Lodge, or of the autocrat of the lodges — the 
 Grand Master. 
 
 I, Protestants Only. 
 
 The Orange society is, and has ever been, exclusively 
 Protestant in its membership. The Early Ordinances of the 
 Armagh Orangemen, published in 1801 by King, Westmoreland 
 Street, Dublin, have the following: "3rd. That our association 
 being an exclusively Protestant association, meant for Protestant 
 purposes, all Papists are not only to be excluded from our 
 community, but we pledge ourselves that we will not sell to 
 such or buy from such; neither will we drink with them, talk 
 with them, or walk with them, but we will treat them as 
 enemies to our religion, and traitors to the good Protestant King 
 who holds the succession of the throne in the noble House of 
 Hanover." The purely Protestant charadter of the Orange 
 institution, if not the same spirit of exclusive dealing, was 
 steadfastly maintained throughout the frequent alterations 
 which were forced upon it by external influences in 1799, 1814, 
 1821, 1825, 1828, 1834, 1845, 1849, 1869, 1872, and on to the 
 present hour. In the "General Declaration" of the Rules 
 
 83 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 and Regulations of 1800/ the Grand Oransre Lodge of Ireland 
 says: "We further declare that we are exclusively a Protestant 
 association; yet, detesting as we do any intolerant spirit, we 
 solemnly pledge ourselves to each other, that we will not 
 persecute, injure, or upbraid any person on account of his 
 religious opinions, provided the same be not hostile to the State." 
 This saving clause was retained in the Irish revised rules of 
 1814. Mr. Swan, Deputy Grand Secretary of the society, was 
 questioned by the Parliamentary Committee of 1835 as to 
 whether he considered the Roman Catholic religion "hostile to 
 the State." He frankly replied: "I do."^ 
 
 By the rules of 1800, every Orangeman, on his initiation, 
 was required to take a lengthy oath, of which the following 
 was a part: "I, A.B., do solemnly and sincerely swear, of my 
 own free will and accord . . . that I am not, nor ever was, 
 a Roman Catholic or Papist."^ 
 
 By the same rules, the Master, Deputy Master, Secretary, 
 Deputy Secretary, Treasurer, and the five Committee-men were 
 furthermore required to take, upon their appointment, a special 
 "obligation," in which, among other things, they severally swear 
 
 ^RuUs and Regulations for the use of all Orange Societies: revised and 
 corrected by a Committee of the Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland, and adopted by 
 the Grand Orange Lodge, Jan. 10, 1800. They are given in full in Plowden's 
 Hist, of Ireland from its Union, vol. i., after Introdudion, and in Appendix 
 to Report of Seleft Parliamentary Committee of 1835 on Orange lodges. 
 
 ,'^Minntes of Evidence, Q. 1207. 
 
 =^The full oath ran as follows: "I, A.B., do solemnly and sincerely 
 swear, of my own free will and accord, that I will, to the utmost of my 
 power, support and defend the present King George the Third, his heirs 
 and successors, so long as he and they support the Protestant ascendency, the 
 Constitution and laws of these kingdoms, and that I will ever hold sacred 
 the name of our glorious deliverer, William the Third, Prince of Orange; 
 and I do further swear that I am not, nor ever was, a Roman Catholic or 
 Papist; that I was not, am not, nor ever will be, a United Irishman; and 
 that I never took the oath of secrecy to that or any other treasonable 
 society; and I do further swear, in the presence of Almighty God, that I will 
 always conceal and never will reveal either part or parts of what is now 
 to be privately communicated to me, until I shall be authorised so to do 
 by the proper authorities of the Orange institution; that I will neither 
 write it, nor indite it, stamp, stain, or engrave it, nor cause it so to be done, 
 on paper, parchment, leaf, bark, stick, stone, or anything, so that it may 
 be known ; and I do further swear that I have not, to my knowledge or 
 belief, been proposed and rejedled in or expelled from any other Orange 
 lodge, and that I now become an Orangeman without fear, bribery, or 
 corruption. So Help me God." Appendix to Report of Seleft Committee, 
 
 p. 3- 
 
 The English Parliamentary Committee's Report says that it was "dis- 
 tindtly proved to the Committee that every member admitted prior to 
 1821" took this particular oath, which, with the other Rules of 1800, was 
 placed in evidence. The reader will note the oath of conditional loyalty 
 therein. Cf. Appendix B, infra. 
 
 84 
 
PROTESTANTS ONLY. 
 
 "that I was not, nor am not [s?V], a Roman Catholic or Papist." 
 In addition to this, the Master and Deputy Master swear " that 
 I will not knowingly admit, or consent any person for me shall 
 admit, anyone into the society of Orangemen who was, or is, a 
 Papist." Each of the five Committee-men takes a similar oath : 
 " That whenever I may be called upon to adt in the absence 
 of the Master or Deputy Master, I will not knowingly admit 
 anyone into the society of Orangemen who was, or is, a 
 Papist." The ninth of the Secret Articles of 1800 runs briefly 
 thus : " No Roman Catholic cart be admitted on any account." 
 The same rule holds good to the present day. 
 
 This exclusiveness is kept up in the Rules and Constitutions 
 adopted by the Grand Lodge of Victoria in 1878 and 1893.^ 
 In all the Orange codes it is part of the " basis of the institu- 
 tion" that it should be " composed of Protestants resolved to 
 support and defend, to the utmost of their power, the Protestant 
 religion." By rules 2 and 59 of Vicftoria (ed. 1893) Catholics 
 are as rigidly excluded as ever from membership. By the 
 Ritual of Introduction to the Orange Degree, every candidate for 
 membership is required to this day to kneel down before the 
 assembled brethren, and, holding the Bible in his hands, to 
 make what purports to be a solemn declaration, but which, as 
 we shall see in the next chapter, is in effecft either a true oath, 
 or at least (as the English Parliamentary Selecft Committee 
 declare) the equivalent of an oath. Part of this declaration 
 (which is given in full in Appendix B) runs as follows : 
 
 '* I do solemnly and sincerely declare that ... I am 
 not, nor ever was, and never will be, a Roman Catholic, and 
 that I am not married to one, nor will I marry one, or willingly 
 permit any child of mine to marry one." 
 
 This abiding dread of Catholics, or of persons suspecfled of 
 being well disposed to Catholics, gaining admission to member- 
 ship to the Orange institution, finds amusing expression in the 
 proceedings of the Irish Grand Lodge for May 28 and 29, 1859, 
 as published in the Report of the Royal Commission on the 
 Belfast riots of 1857.* The Limerick Orange lodge (No. 1080) 
 
 ^The Laivs and Constitution of the Loyal Orange Institution of Victoria, as 
 passed at a Special Grand Lodge Meeting held at the Protestant Hall, Melbourne, 
 on the 3rd April, 1878, and confirmed at a Grand Lodge Meeting held at Geelong 
 on the 7th June, 1878, and Resolutions passed by the Grand Lodge. Daylesford : 
 Cross and Co., Machine Printers, Albert Street East, 1885 (20 pages) — 
 The Laws and Constitution of the Loyal Orange Institution of Victoria, as adopted 
 at the Annual Grand Lodge Meeting, held at the Protestant Hall, Melbourne, 
 Wednesday, 8th November, 1893. Melbourne: Bro. C. \V. Burford, Printer, 
 548 Flinders Street, Melbourne, 1893. — Both these books of Rules are in 
 the possession of the writer of these pages. Those of 1893, which are 
 now (1897) current in the lodges, are given in Appendix C. 
 
 ^Appendix 14, p. 284. 
 
 85 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 made application to have one Patrick Flanagan admitted to 
 membership. There was apparently nothing against Patrick 
 except the rank odour of Popery which arose from his name. 
 The Grand Lodge, however, declared that, for motives of 
 " prudence," they could not " meet the wishes" of the brethren 
 in the city of the violated treaty. 
 
 WHAT PROTESTANTS? 
 
 What do Orangemen mean by the somewhat vague term, 
 " the" Protestant religion ? Originally they meant the Estab- 
 lished Church of England, and that alone. In 1795, when 
 Orangeism originated in Armagh, the term "Protestant" was 
 used to designate exclusively the estabhshed " Protestant 
 religion." ^ The members of the other non-Catholic denomi- 
 nations were not termed " Protestants," but " Presbyterians," 
 etc., and, generically, " Dissenters." This will be made abun- 
 dantly evident by reading the works of contemporary writers, 
 and, for a still later period, the Minutes of Evidence taken by the 
 Parhamentary Committee of 1835 O" Orange lodges.'' Even 
 at the present day the word " Protestant" is still habitually 
 used in every part of Ireland, but especially in the North, to 
 distinguish Anglicans from Presbyterians, Methodists, etc. 
 The reader who has had no experience of Irish life is referred 
 to answers given regarding their religion by some of the 
 witnesses examined by the Royal Commissions on the Belfast 
 riots of 1857 and 1886. 
 
 The second rule of the Boyne society — one of the earliest 
 of the Orange associations — says : " We are exclusively a 
 Protestant association." In a subsequent rule (No. 9) they 
 
 ^Killen, Eccles. Hist, of Ireland, vol. ii., p. 363, note 3. 
 
 •'For instance, the Seled Committee ask Mr. Christie (Q. 5589): 
 "Were any Protestant or Presbyterian places of worship burned or injured ? ' ' 
 Plowden and other writers of his day habitually use the word "Protest- 
 ant" to designate the Church of England, and the words "Protestant 
 religion" were long understood to mean the same Church exclusively. 
 One of the witnesses called by the Royal Commission of 1S57 said he was 
 not a Protestant but a Presbyterian. One of the early rules of the Orange 
 society is said to have'run as follows: "3. Resolved, that no member is 
 to introduce a Papist or Presbyterian, Quaker or Methodist, or any per- 
 suasion hut a Protestant:' This was published in the closing years of the 
 last century. Musgrave denies its authenticity; Plowden affirms it 
 (Introd., pp. 87, 88); Killen inclines to believe it (ii., 363). At any rate, it 
 was largely afted upon. Authentic or not, it will serve equally well to 
 illustrate the point in question. Cf. Lecky, Eighteenth Century, iii., 448. 
 Mr. J. Coleman, M.R.S.A.I., tells of an Irishman who was a member of a 
 public body in England, and who "created considerable merriment by 
 stoutly denying that Dissenters were Protestants." London Tablet, Decem- 
 ber 26, 1896. See chap. iv.. supra; see also Madden, United Irishmen, 
 Third Series, vol. iii., p. 31S, where Emmet addresses himself to Protest- 
 ants, Presbyterians, and Catholics. 
 
 86 
 
WHAT PROTESTANTS? 
 
 explain the meaning they attach to the word " Protestant," 
 when they refer to King WilUam, Prince of Orange, "who 
 bravely supported our rights, and established the Protestant 
 religion."® By the declarations of the Loyal Boyne and Orange 
 Association, passed at Lisbellaw, June 4th, 1797, the members 
 pledge themselves to " maintain the true Protestant religion 
 and ascendency, as established and declared at the glorious 
 Revolution of 1688."^ In their declaration of February ig, 
 1798, the Orangemen of Ulster proclaim their steady attach- 
 ment " to our valuable constitution in Church and State." ^° And 
 the society's amended and unconstitutional oath of 1800 pledged 
 the members to allegiance to the King and his heirs only 
 "so long as he and they support the Protestant ascendency." 
 The rules of 1800 have the following under the heading of 
 " General Declaration" :" 
 
 " We also associate in honour of King William the Third, 
 Prince of Orange, whose name we bear, as supporters of his 
 glorious memory and the true Religion by him completely established 
 in these kingdoms." 
 
 The meaning of the phrase, " Protestant ascendency," was 
 clearly explained in 1792 in an address of the Protestant Lord 
 Mayor, sheriffs, commons, and citizens of Dublin to the 
 Protestants of Ireland. In the course of this document they 
 declare that the words mean a Protestant Crown and Parlia- 
 ment, a Protestant hierarchy, and Protestants in every position 
 of honour and emolument under the State. ^'^ 
 
 " The early Orangemen," says the Presbyterian historian, 
 Killen, "were professedly organised in support of the existing 
 Protestant ascendency in Church and State, so that no Presby- 
 terian who respecfted himself and the principles of the religious 
 community with which he was connedled could join the asso- 
 ciation. It was asserted by persons living at the time, who 
 were furnished with the best means of obtaining information, 
 that those who constituted their earliest lodges were all 
 Episcopalians."'^ The Orange historian, Musgrave, bears 
 out this statement." The Anglican clergyman, Rev. Mortimer 
 
 sMusgrave's Strictures on Plowden's Hist. Review, p. 228. 
 
 ^Annals and Defence of the Loyal Orange Institution, by O. R. Gowan, 
 late Grand Secretary. Dublin, 1825, quoted in "M.F.'s" History of Orange- 
 ism, p. 30. 
 
 lOQuoted by Musgrave, the Orange writer, in his Strictures on Plowden, 
 p. 227. 
 
 iiSee tiote i, supra. 
 
 i^Musgrave, Memoirs of the Different Rebellions, Appendix, p. 12. The 
 reader will find the words quoted textually in chapter xii., infra. 
 
 ^^EccJes. Hist, of Ireland, vol. ii., pp. 363, 364. 
 
 ^^Strictures, p. 148; Memoirs, vol. i., p. 74. Cf. note 21, ch. iv., supra. 
 
 87 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 O'SuUivan, Deputy Grand Chaplain of the society, says in 
 his evidence before the Padiamentary Committee of 1835 on 
 Orange lodges : " I believe the first Orange lodge consisted 
 exclusively of members of the Church of England. "^^ Mr. Verner, 
 an Orange M.P., in his speech before the Irish House oi 
 Commons, 7th November, 1796, says: "That body of men 
 called Orange Boys, to whom so many wanton and unprovoked 
 cruelties had been attributed, were Protestants of the Estab- 
 lished Church." ^^ And Lord Gosford says in his evidence 
 before the Committee of 1835 : " I think that the original 
 institution of Orangemen was confined to the Church of 
 England."" Mr. Alexander, an Armagh Protestant magis- 
 trate, writing to the Government in November, 1796, said : 
 "The Orangemen are almost entirely composed of members of 
 the Established Church." ^^ Grattan, in his speech in the Irish 
 House of Commons, February 21st, 1796 (quoted in chapter 
 iv.), stated that the Orange " banditti" of the time were " of 
 the religion of the State." Plowden, writing in 1810, describes 
 the Orangemen of his day as " a very small portion of the 
 population, professing the religion of the State.'"^-' The county of 
 Armagh, where Orangeism originated, was "a species of 
 Enghsh colony" — the most Episcopalian county in Ireland — 
 and the Peep-o'-Day Boy movement there was, at least to a 
 very great extent, before the battle of the Diamond, carried on 
 by the (nominal) adherents of the favoured creed. 2° A large 
 portion of the members of the Ulster lodges to this day consist 
 of the lower orders of the Episcopalian Church,^^ which, per 
 contra, has given to the Irish nation — with the exception of 
 O'Connell — all the great leaders she has chosen to voice her 
 aspirations during more than a hundred years of her history. 
 
 The English Selecft Committee of the House of Commons 
 on Orange lodges say in the Report, which they presented to 
 Parliament (p. xvi.) : 
 
 " Your Committee have to observe that the clergymen of 
 the Church of England appear to have engaged, to a considerable 
 extent, in the affairs of the Orange institution. The Right 
 Reverend Thomas, Lord Bishop of Salisbury, is Lord Prelate 
 and Grand Chaplain of the order. There are also twelve or 
 thirteen Deputy Grand Chaplains of the institution. Some 
 
 ^^Firsi Report, Minutes of Evidence, Q. 584. 
 
 isQuoted by Froude, English in Inland, vol. iii., p. 169. 
 
 ^''Minutes of Evidence, Q. 3656. 
 
 isQuoted by Lecky, Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, vol, iii., p. 433. 
 
 ^^Hist. of Ireland from its Union, vol. i., Introd., pp. 82, 83. 
 
 ^oibid., p. 9. Cf. chapter iv., note 21, supa. 
 
 21T. P. O'Connor, The Parnell Movement, ch. xii., p. 261 (popular ed 
 
 1887). 
 
 88 
 
THE PRESBYTERIANS. 
 
 clergymen have warrants as Masters of lodges, and condudl 
 their affairs. No dissenting clergyman in England, and only two 
 clergymen of any persuasion in Scotland, appear to have joined 
 the institution. The reverend functionaries of the institution 
 are direcfled to appear in the Grand Lodge in canonicals ; 
 their insignia consist of a purple velvet scarf, with gold binding, 
 gold fringe at the ends, and lined with orange silk." 
 
 THE PRESBYTERIANS. 
 
 Considering that one of the chief avowed objecfls of the 
 Orange society was to perpetuate the political ascendency of 
 the members of the established creed, at the expense of the 
 remainder of the population of the country, it is not a matter 
 of surprise that the Presbyterians (who formed the great bulk 
 of the Protestant Dissenters in the North) should, as a body, 
 long hold aloof from membership of the association. The 
 authoritative statements of the many witnesses quoted above 
 quite preclude the idea that any considerable number of them 
 could have joined the early Orange society. Their earliness in 
 the field of religious toleration in Ulster, the friendly feeling 
 that had long subsisted between them and the Catholic body, 
 their pracftical sympathy for the sufferings of the helpless 
 vi(5tims of the " lawless banditti" — all go to prove the truth of 
 Plowden's words, that " the Presbyterians generally abhorred 
 the principles of the Orangemen."'^ At a subsequent period — 
 when the first wild phase of the Ulster Reign of Terror had 
 passed by — many Presbyterians joined the fraternity. Plowden 
 says they were " chiefly of the lower orders."^ Killen asserts 
 that they were " not very warmly attached to their Church," 
 persons " of little weight and intelligence," etc.^^ However 
 this may be, the fadt remains that the Presbyterians, as a body, 
 have never been in sympathy with the Orange movement in 
 Ireland, and, as far as I can find, the members of their com- 
 munion who joined the fraternity have never been permitted to 
 sit within the mystic portals of the Grand Lodge. The Rev. 
 W. McClure and Rev. Richard Smith, D.D, — two Presbyterian 
 clergymen of Derry, whose names are hallowed by many sacred 
 memories — refused to give their meeting-house for the demons- 
 trations of the Apprentice Boys. The clergy and committee 
 of the first Presbyterian Church in Derry also declined to 
 
 "^^Hist. of Ireland from its Union, vol. i., introd., p. 66. He is combat- 
 ing Musgrave's exaggeration of the number of the Presbyterian yeomanry 
 at a later date. 
 
 ^■^Eccles. Hist, of IreLind, vol. ii., pp. 363, 364; cf. pp. 367, 368, 464. 
 Cf. chap, iv., supra. 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 permit the Orange brethren to use it for the typical celebration 
 of their anniversary, on the twelfth of July, 1896.^" Ulster 
 Presbyterians will remember how, in many cases, as Rev. Mr. 
 Armour, in one of his speeches before the General Assembly in 
 Belfast, reminded them that they had been required to pay 
 for leave to bury their dead in the sepulchres of their fathers. 
 The Burials BUI (Ireland), which was intended to remedy 
 this old-standing grievance, was introduced into the House of 
 Commons by the Catholic representative of Limerick. It had 
 the warm support of every Irish Catholic member of the 
 House. The Duke of Abercorn, whom Orangemen regard as 
 a warm sympathiser, always cast his vote against the Bill, 
 when he was a member of the House of Commons.'*^" Lord 
 Claude Hamilton, whose sympathies with Orangeism were 
 most pronounced, when member of Parliament for Tyrone 
 county, publicly advocated the burial of Presbyterians at low 
 water mark. 
 
 In England, the Dissenters were stricftly exchided from 
 membership of the Orange lodges.'^' The English Orangemen 
 were strongly opposed to the admission of members of other 
 Protestant Churches to political rights and privileges. In a 
 Grand Committee meeting held in April, 1832, Brother Eedes 
 hotly condemns the " repeal of the Corporation and the Test 
 A(ft" (1828) as "an acfl: of political dislocation, tending to 
 political dissolution." The Imperial Grand Master, the Duke 
 of Cumberland, was in the chair, and the sentiment seems to 
 have met with the concurrence of all those " champions of civil 
 and religious liberty" who were present. ^^ 
 
 "a common platform." 
 
 Times have changed. The Orange society, that railed 
 against the extension of equal civil rights to Dissenters, now 
 takes them to its bosom. The wolf and the lamb lie down 
 together at last, in the face of the common foe — the Scarlet 
 Woman of Babylon. In the Australian colonies a broad 
 spirit of toleration and of friendly feeling towards Catholics 
 exists among the better class of Protestants. The Anglican 
 and the Presbyterian Churches are largely disassociated from 
 
 s^The Deny Journal, July 3, 189G; also Dublin Freeman's Journal ol 
 previous days. 
 
 2iSee Dr. Kinnear's speech at Carndonagh, reported in Derry Standard, 
 April, 1880. 
 
 '^"^Pict. Hist, of England, vol. vii., p. 488 ; Miss Martineau's Thirty Years 
 Peace, vol. ii., p. 274. 
 
 2**Appendix to Report of English Seledt Parliamentary Committee on 
 Orange lodges. 
 
 90 
 
"A COMMON PLATFORM." 
 
 the Orange movement here.^^ It has, none the less, proved its 
 capacity, in these colonies, for producing acute forms of local 
 irritation. The membership rolls of the lodges are carefully 
 guarded from profane eyes ; but from all I have been able to 
 discover, the Orange institution of Vidloria (and, presumably, 
 of the other colonies as well) is a thing of shreds and patches, 
 a Joseph's coat of many colours, mainly composed ^pi the 
 adherents of the minor Protestant Churches. Primitive 
 Methodist clergymen take a leading part in Orange demon- 
 strations. One of their number has long been Grand Chaplain 
 of the institution in Vicftoria. Another is its recognised press 
 champion. Since the beginning of 1897, the Orange institution 
 of Vicftoria has been coquetting with officers of the Salvation 
 Army, and has made the conquest of several of its "captains."^ 
 All that is now needed in these colonies is a profession, real or 
 nominal, of some or any of the many " persuasions" that are 
 comprised under the generic term " Protestant," and the 
 requisite degree of pious fury against the Catholic body, their 
 do(51:rines, pradlices, and institutions. A tracfl: that circulates 
 extensively among the lodges of Vicftoria says : " We embrace 
 all sedlions of the Protestant Church. Orangeism is a common 
 PLATFORM, on which all Protestants can meet without danger 
 of collision on account of minor difficulties."®^ That "common 
 
 29Members of the Melbourne Caledonian Snciety and the Thistle 
 Club may be interested in the following attempt made to draw them 
 within the mystic circle of the L.O.L. The following is a true copy 
 (pundtuation included) of a lithographed circular now in the writer's 
 possession : 
 
 Melbourne July 12th, 1S95 
 
 Dear Sir, As the Pope and his followers are doing everything possible 
 to neutralize the effecfls of the Reformation, a number of citizens of Scottish 
 birth or descent think it is time that we should rouse up the spirit which 
 prompted the old Covenanters, our fore-fathers to lay down their lives for 
 the cause of freedom. We have therefore decided to call a meeting of 
 those in sympathy with this movement and who are Scots, or of Scots 
 descent at the Protestant Hall Exhibition Street (Upper Lodge Room) on 
 Friday i6th day of August 1895 ^t 8 p.m. for the purpose of forming a 
 Scottish Orange Lodge, to be called the "Black Watch," suggested 
 colours: — 42nd Tartan — motto "Scotland for ever" with the "Caledonian 
 Society" and the "Thistle Club" as recruiting grounds. I may inform 
 you that about 50 names have been sent in, including the Pipers who are 
 anxious to form a Pipe Band. Yours fraternally 
 
 "Gang Warily." 
 
 The "Black Watch" lodge is numbered 163. 
 
 ^°Victoria?i Standard, February 27, 1897; April 30, 1897. The members 
 of the Walhalla lodge (Vidoria) attended, in full regalia, a Salvation Army 
 service conduced by one "Captain" Glithroe, who had joined their ranks. 
 Victorian Standard, June 30, 1897. 
 
 ^''■Twenty Reasons for being an Orangeman. 
 
 91 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 platform " is set forth in the "General Qualifications" of an 
 Orangeman, namely : 
 
 Strenuous opposition to the Roman Church ; 
 
 Discountenance of its worship ; 
 
 Resistance to the " extension of its power." 
 
 In one word, the "common platform" which Orangeism 
 offers ^o all "Protestants" is simply this— an aggressive 
 attitude towards Catholicism and Catholics."'^ This will 
 appear more fully when we further consider the limits of 
 membership in this chapter, and the acftion of the Orange 
 body in succeeding ones. The Orange institution in the Aus- 
 tralian colonies reminds one of the cages of " happy families " 
 that one sees about Paternoster Row, where the cat, the 
 mouse, the hawk, and the canary, live together in domestic bliss. 
 To one Orangeman Christ may be the Living God ; to his 
 Unitarian or Socinian " brother," He may be a mere man, of, 
 perhaps, not much account. To one Orangeman the Bible 
 may be inspired in whole ; to another only in part ; to a third 
 not at all. To some, the Sacraments may be means of grace, 
 to others, mere empty mummeries. The Christian ministry 
 may be to some a priesthood ; to others a mere set of lay 
 delegates ; to others still, eternal punishments and eternal 
 rewards, and the existence of a personal God or a personal 
 Devil, may be alike myths. It matters not. All these things 
 are, apparently, classed as " minor difficulties." There are, 
 nevertheless, two articles of faith which no true Orangeman 
 will venture to doubt : {a) that the Pope is the Man of Sin ; 
 and {b) that the Church of Rome is the Scarlet Woman of 
 Revelations^ Here, at least, we have order amidst chaos ; light 
 in darkness. Here we have a bond of union that clamps together 
 a thousand lines of cleavage. In this brief creed is summed up 
 the whole Law and the Prophets. 
 
 No Papists need apply. 
 
 THE WRONG SORT. 
 
 Membership of the Orange institution is thus restricfted 
 severely to such as can style themselves " Protestants." But 
 it would be a great mistake to suppose that a profession of 
 faith in, say, the Thirty-nine Articles, or in the Westminster 
 Confession, is sufficient — that any Protestant of the requisite 
 age (over i8), and of known good chara(fter, has merely to 
 apply for membership, and be admitted as a matter of course. 
 
 «2The methods of arousing, expressing, and perpetuating this hatred 
 of persons and things Catholic will be dealt with in chapters viii., and 
 following. 
 
 •^•'See chapter viii., infra. 
 
 92 
 
THE WRONG SORT. 
 
 As a matter of facft Orangemen entertain towards large classes 
 of Protestants feelings of undisguised animosity. This 
 hostility has its origin remotely in two cardinal principles of 
 the association : 
 
 (a) Orangeism is the only genuine form of Protestantism ; 
 
 (b) " He who is not with us is against us."''^ 
 
 " Orangeism is identical with Christianity," said Rev. Brother 
 Madgwick at Sydney."^ Another reverend orator declared at 
 the Ararat (Vidloria) demonstration in 1892, that "Orangeism 
 is synonymous with Protestantism."'"' In a tradt issued to the 
 lodges/' Orangeism is defined as " Protestantism pure and 
 simple, but thoroughly in earnest" ; and again (in italics) as 
 " the essence and embodiment of British Protestantism." Similar 
 expressions abound in the literature of the lodges. Any 
 Protestant, therefore, or any form of Protestantism, that is not 
 in harmony with the Orange society in its general policy of 
 guerilla warfare against the Catholic body, would be dealt 
 with in accordance with the motto of the lodges : " He who 
 is not with us is against us." As a matter of fa(5t : 
 
 (i) A large body of Protestants are deemed as ineligible for 
 membership as if they were Papists. They are variously 
 termed on the Orange platform ",the wrong sort," the "shilly- 
 shallies," the " wishy-washies," and the " namby-pambies."^® 
 
 2. The eligible ones — " the right sort" — are initiated only 
 on terms which place their membership and their political 
 atflion at the beck and call of the autocrat of the lodges, the 
 Grand Master. 
 
 I. Four classes of Protestants are excluded from member 
 ship of the Orange lodges, namely : 
 
 (a) Ritualists ; 
 
 (/;) Protestants who have at any time been Catholics ; 
 
 (c) Protestants who have married Catholics ; 
 {d) Liberal-minded Protestants. 
 
 The purpose of these rules is sufficiently evident. It is to 
 debar from the society all persons who are open even to 
 suspicion of entertaining friendly feelings towards Catholics. 
 This system of exclusion pracflically makes membership of the 
 Orange institution possible only to the most bigoted sedtion of 
 the community. 
 
 ^*In the Ritual of the Orange degree this is expressly laid down as the 
 motto of the Orange association. See Appendix B. 
 
 ^''Victorian Standard, August 3, 1885. 
 
 ^^Ararat Advertiser, July, 1892. 
 
 ^''Definition of Orangeism. 
 
 ssThe epithets quoted above are taken from reports of Orange 
 demonstrations published in the Victorian Standard. 
 
 93 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 RITUALISTS. 
 
 {a) Ritualists. — An Orange tradl already referred to'Meclaies 
 that part of the " reUgious basis" of the society is to offer 
 " a firm and Christian resistance to the encroachments of 
 Scepticism, Ritualism, and Romanism." The fervour of the 
 brethren's hatred of the Ritualistic body is only surpassed by 
 their glowing antipathy to CathoHcs. On the 12th of July, 1891, 
 the " Grand Master, Loyal Orange institution of England," 
 issued an address to the fraternity under his jurisdicStion. In 
 the course of this manifesto (the full text of which is given in 
 the Belfast Weekly News), he says : "In religion, let the true 
 principles of the Reformation be your guide, avoiding as a curse 
 all semblance to Ritualism f. the unmistakeable stepping-stone to 
 Popery." Ritualism is described by the Victorian Standard as 
 "bastard Popery," and "Romanism in disguise." Rev. J. 
 Cowperthwaite, at the Richmond (Melbourne) demonstration, 
 1893, referred contemptuously to the Ritualists as " half Pro- 
 testants, half Romanists."*" At the Maryborough (Vicftoria) 
 demonstration in the previous year. Rev. Mr. Mathieson 
 (Wesleyan) referred sorrowfully to the " Romanising" ten- 
 dency of the Church of England." According to the same 
 paper,*^ Rev. Mr. Hart, at another Orange meeting in the same 
 town, denounced the " lot of rubbish" that there was in the 
 Episcopalian Church. Ritualism was also strongly condemned 
 by Rev. T. Shanks and Rev. J. Caton at Orange meetings in 
 Portland and Melbourne.*^ Additional evidence of the hostility 
 of Orangemen towards Ritualists is given by "Ulsterman's" Rise 
 and Progress of Orangeism (p. 87), published at the Vidorian 
 Standard office in 1895, "with the sandlion and approval of the 
 R.W.G.M., Bro. Hon. Simon Eraser, M.L.C.," to whom it is 
 likewise dedicated. The Orange author of this literary curiosity 
 writes : " It is certainly painful to all true Protestants (more 
 especially to Orangemen) to hear of the spread of Ritualism 
 amongst a secftion of the Anglican Church at the present time, 
 particularly in Protestant England. The clerical lights (or, as 
 we might very appropriately call them, candle-bearers) of such 
 Churches might blush for shame when they look over the 
 records of some of the early Protestant defenders. ... It 
 is not beyond the range of probability to state that, were it not 
 for the combined union of the Orange institution, the very 
 foundation of Protestant freedom, though so ably prote(5ted by 
 
 ^^Definittoyi of Orangeism. 
 
 ■^° Victorian Standard, July, 1893, p. 8. 
 
 '^'^Maryborough and Dunolly Advertiser, July 15, 1892. 
 
 '^■^Ibid., July 13, 1883. 
 
 ^'^Victorian Standard, July 31 and August 31, 1896. 
 
 94 
 
THE WRONG SORT. 
 
 the British flag, would once a<;ain be undermined, and that too 
 by the assistance of many professing Protestants of the Ritual- 
 istic class." *^ In the files of the Orange organ, the Vi6tovian 
 Standard, our Ritualistic friends are described in letters and in 
 fiery articles, original and copied, as renegades to the religion 
 of the Reformation, traitors to the Protestant cause, Papists 
 and Jesuits in disguise, trucklers to Rome, etc. 
 
 Ritualists are not unreasonably suspedfed of entertaining 
 friendly feelings towards Catholicism. 
 
 No Ritualists need apply. 
 
 EX-CATHOLICS. 
 
 {h) Protestants who have at any time been Catholics. — To this 
 day every Orangeman, at his initiation, has to kneel down, 
 and, holding the Bible in his hands, to take an oath, or a 
 solemn protestation that is equivalent to an oath : *' That I 
 am not, nor ever was, and never will be, a Roman Catholic."^ 
 The following, which is a universal rule of the Orange society, 
 appears in the laws, etc., of the Vicflorian institution of 1878, 
 1885, and 1893 : 
 
 "2. No person who has at any time been a Roman Catholic, 
 or has married one, shall he admitted into the institution 
 except by the vote of the Grand Lodge (one vote in seven to 
 exclude), founded upon testimonials of good character and a 
 certificate of his having been duly elecfted by ballot (pursuant 
 to Rule i) in the lodge in which he is proposed; such certificate 
 to be sent to the Grand Secretary. Any member marrying a 
 Roman Catholic shall be expelled." 
 
 The saving clause in the first part of the rule quoted above 
 ("the vote of the Grand Lodge") permits the privilege of 
 membership to ex-Catholics of the type of the pro es clonal 
 slanderers who from time to time have visited our shores. 
 Their attacks on the Catholic body are, apparently, 
 sufficient " testimonials of good charac5ter." I need only refer 
 to the eager haste with which Grand Lodges took up this 
 class of adventurers, and helped to swell the financial success 
 of their tours by furnishing audiences and special " funds,"''" 
 vmdeterred by the repeated exposures, and the not infrequent 
 and successful criminal prosecutions which have followed the 
 career of many of these unhappy men and women in England, 
 Scotland, and the United States." One of the coarsest of 
 
 ^^Rise and Progress of Orangcism, p. 87. See chap, i., supra, note 24, p. 14. 
 *'^See Ritual of Orange degree, Appendix B. 
 ^^Victorian Standard, 2nd June, 1885. 
 
 *''The business of slandering Catholic institutions has, under the 
 auspices of Exeter Hall, the Orange society, and oi the A.P.A. in America, 
 
 95 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 these caluminators was made a member of the institution in 
 Australia. His pamphlets (containing reports of his lecftures) 
 circulate freely to this day in the lodges of Vicftoria, and have 
 been offered as premiums to Orangemen who procure fresh 
 subscribers for the Victorian Standard. The nature of one of 
 them may be inferred from the facfl that it has been repeatedly 
 offered for sale in the advertising columns of a certain daily 
 paper among a list of books which many people deem unfit 
 reading for any respedlable household. The " Escaped Nun," 
 Mrs. O'Gorman Auffray, on account of her sex, was not 
 admissable to membership of the Orange society, but "the 
 services which the lady has rendered to the cause of Protest- 
 antism wherever she has ledlured " were duly appreciated by 
 the Vicftorian Grand Lodge. At a meeting of the Grand 
 Committee (29th Sept., 1886) it was resolved that : " In order 
 to have Mrs. O'Gorman AufFray's lecftures fully reported, a 
 weekly issue of the Vidtorian Standard [it is a monthly publi- 
 cation] should be printed and circulated among the lodges."*^ 
 This was accordingly done. 
 
 "marrying papists." 
 
 (c) Protestants who Marry Catholics. — Portion of Rule 2 
 (quoted above) runs as follows : " No person who . . . 
 has married one [a Catholic] shall be admitted into the insti- 
 tution. . . . Any member marrying a Roman Catholic 
 shall be expelled." This rule prevents the class of Protestants 
 referred to from being either candidates for, or members of, the 
 Orange institution. The rule is rigidly enforced. Mr. G. 
 Gwynne, an Orangeman, who, at his own request, and on 
 behalf of the Irish Grand Lodge, gave evidence regarding the 
 rules, etc., of the institution before the Royal Commission of 
 Inquiry into the great Belfast Riots of 1857, said : " Whenever 
 a charge is brought against a member of marrying a Roman 
 Catholic, he is uniformly expelled."'^^ They apparently do not even 
 wait for proof of the charge. Mr. Gwynne was high in the 
 
 proved so exceedingly lucrative that the profession has been for the past 
 few years uncomfortably crowded. The adtion of the law courts in 
 England, Scotland, and America has somewhat reduced the congestion, 
 and resulted in a considerable number of "ex-priests" and "ex-nuns" — 
 many of whom were proved to be members 0/ various Protestant Churches — being 
 placed in locum suum, under lock and key in jail. Among these were sundry 
 favourites of the American Orange association, the A.P.A., which has, iii 
 consequence, recently sent a circular to its lodges to have nothing further 
 to do with'"ex-priests," "ex-nuns," etc. The writer has in his possession 
 a large amount of information dealing with particulars of the cases here 
 referred to in general terms. 
 
 ^^Victorian Standard, ist November, 1886. 
 
 *^Minutes of Evidence, etc., Q. 8404. 
 
 96 
 
THE WRONG SORT 
 
 confidence of the Grand Lodge, and he declared, moreover, 
 that he knew the private lodges " minutely and extensively in 
 every part of the kingdom."^" The promptness with which a 
 mere accusation of marrying a Papist is a(5ted upon in the 
 Orange society, is further evidenced by what took place at a 
 meeting of the " Chosen Few" lodge (No. 2), Melbourne, 
 November 12, 1896, as reported in the Vidlovian Standard : " A 
 report was received in the matter of a member who was stated 
 to have married a Roman Catholic. The report tended to con- 
 firm the statement, and the secretary was instrudled to com- 
 municate with the alleged offender, summoning him to appear 
 and say why he should not be recommended for expulsion." ^^ 
 
 The reports of the proceedings of the Grand Lodge of 
 Ireland for May, 1855; November, 1855; May, 1856; and 
 November, 1856 (which lie before me),^^ contain an endless 
 number of entries like the following : " County Antrim — 
 Expulsion — Thomas Baird, lodge 654, for marrying a Papist." 
 The Royal Commissioners say in their Report ^^ : "Similar 
 expressions are very numerous in the proceedings handed to 
 us. This strongly expressed feeling against so large a class of 
 their fellow-countrymen seems a perilous bond of union for a 
 virtually secret society, embracing within it so largely the 
 uneducated classes of society." During the debate on the 
 Party Processions A(ft, Mr. M'Carthy Downing, on the 30th 
 March, 1870, referred to the printed proceedings of the Irish 
 Grand Lodge for 1869, which showed that, in Armagh county 
 alone during that year, twenty-three Orangemen were expelled 
 for the crime of marrying Papists.^* 
 
 We have already seen how candidates, on their initiation 
 to the Orange degree, have to take what is tantamount to an 
 oath that they will not marry a Catholic, or permit any child 
 of theirs to do so. The determination of Orangemen to exclude 
 from the lodges, at all costs, everything which savours of 
 friendly feeling towards their " Roman Catholic brethren," finds 
 vigorously frank expression in the two following rules of the 
 Vicftorian society (1893). Rule 14 runs thus: 
 
 "14. Any member guilty of an offence of an aggravated 
 character against religion or morality, or of habitual drunkenness, shall 
 be [only] liable to expulsion." Rule i peremptorily orders : 
 
 ^°Ibid., Q. 8347. 
 
 ^'^Victorian Standard, November 30, 1896. Deputy Grand Ma-stei- R 
 T. Vale presided at the meeting with the Master of the lodge. 
 
 s^Appendix to Report of Royal Commission ot Inquiry, 1857. 
 
 fisPp. 9, 10. 
 
 ''^Hansard, vol. ii., of first session, 1870, p. 953. 
 
 97 G 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY, 
 
 " Any member marrying a Roman Catholic shall he expelled." 
 
 Comment is quite unnecessary. 
 
 The feeUng of Orangemen with regard to Protestants who 
 
 marry Papist wives is strongly, if inelegantly, expressed in an 
 
 Ulster lodge ditty, given in the Contemporary Review for August, 
 
 1896: 
 
 " Let no loyal Protestant e'er have it said, 
 That he to a Papist wife e'er should get wed, 
 She's hateful, deceitful, she'll prove false to thee, 
 She's worse than the devil, if worse there can be." 
 
 A Protestant Edwin who marries a Papist Angelina lays 
 himself open to the suspicion of entertaining kindly feelings to 
 Catholics. 
 
 No Protestant that " marries a Papist" need apply. 
 
 LIBERAL-MINDED PROTESTANTS. 
 
 [d) By the term " liberal-minded Protestants," I mean 
 those who were known to have a kindly feeling for their 
 Catholic neighbours ; who advocated the extension of equal 
 civil rights to four-fifths of the population of Ireland ; who, as 
 magistrates or police officers, tried to prevent illegal Orange 
 processions, or to protedt Papists from insult, violence, or 
 outrage ; or who disapproved of the scandalous partiality of 
 Orange magistrates and juries, which has been sternly 
 denounced by successive judges, from Fletcher in 1814 to 
 Day in 1886, and which forms such a dark blot on the 
 administration of justice in Ulster to the present day. All 
 down the course of Orange history these classes of liberal 
 Protestants have been pursued by Orangemen with a vindi(51:ive 
 hatred of scarcely less intensity than that which they have 
 shown to Catholics themselves. " Papist" is the favourite 
 term which Orangemen have ever applied to liberal-minded 
 Protestants. I need only refer to a few out of the endless 
 instances which were deposed to on oath before the Parlia- 
 mentary Seledl Committee of 1835 on Orange lodges : 
 
 Two Protestant Viceroys, Lords Wellesley and Anglesey, 
 were vilified, and termed " Papist Wellesley" and " Papist 
 Anglesey" for having dared to entertain opinions favourable to 
 Catholic Emancipation. The former was violently assaulted, 
 a bottle and other missiles being flung at him, amidst Orange 
 cries, by brethren of lodge 1612, on the 14th December, 
 1822.®^ This event is still known in Dublin history as " the 
 bottle riot." The Grand Lodge of Ireland expelled two clergy- 
 men and others who had dared to vote for the Reform candi- 
 
 ^^ Minutes oj Evidence. Cf. History of Orangcism, pp. 157, 158. 
 
 98 
 
THE QUEEN'S CROWN. 
 
 dates in the eledTiions of 1831.^^ The "loyal" Orange yeomanry 
 of Lurgan mutinied against a Presbyterian officer whose only 
 fault was that he had signed a petition in favour of Catholic 
 Emancipation. The conducft of the mutineers was so out- 
 rageous, even in the presence of Lieutenant-General Mac- 
 kenzie, that the corps had to be disbanded." Lord Caledon 
 was assailed and hooted as a " Papist " for having refused to 
 preside at an Orange demonstration at Dungannon, 19th 
 December, 1834. The Ulster Protestant magistrates. Hand- 
 cock, Wilson, Brownlow, Strong, Lord Caledon, and many 
 others, the Protestant Police Inspec5lors, Sir Frederick Stoven, 
 Captains Duff", Crofton, etc., were termed " Papists," vilified, 
 shot at, burned in effigy, etc. ; while in some instances their 
 property was destroyed, because they had issued warrants 
 against Orange rioters or murderers, attempted to stop illegal 
 processions of armed brethren, endeavoured to do justice to 
 Catholics on the bench, etc.*^ Ex-SherifF Scott, of Dublin, 
 was termed a " Papist," and expelled from the society by the 
 Grand Lodge, for having invited O'Connellto breakfast. ^^ The 
 present Anglican Primate of Ireland was, in 1887, insulted on 
 the occasion of his inviting the distinguished author^ Justin 
 M'Carthy, M.P., to dine at his palace in the city of Derry, 
 when he was bishop of the united Anglican sees of Derry and 
 Raphoe.™ Many Ulster men will remember the angry corres- 
 pondence that took place in the Belfast morning papers, in 
 1882, when Weir, Marshall, and other Orange farmers, of 
 Kinego and Bondhill, in furtherance of the interests of their 
 class, joined the Land League, and became thereby " rebels" 
 and " Papists," and were expelled from the society as traitors 
 to the Orange cause.^^ 
 
 THE QUEEN AND HER CROWN. 
 
 Orangemen will not permit even the Sovereign of the 
 Realm to manifest a friendly feeling towards his or her Catholic 
 subjedls. Witness the uproar of the lodges against the signing 
 of the Emancipation Bill in iSag,'^-' the condemnation of which 
 
 ^^Minutes of Evidence. Qq. 1939, 1940. 
 
 ^''Ihid. Qq. 3773-4 ; 7913 sqq., and Appendix B. 9. 
 
 ^^Minutes of Evidence. Qq. 3938, 4522, 4526, 5641, 7920, 8157, 8160, 
 and Appendix C.6 c, p. 139. 
 
 s^The resolution of the Grand Lodge is given in the Minutes of 
 Evidence, Q. 1943. 
 
 ^oThe following words were chalked on the walls of his palace on the 
 occasion: " Ichabod ! Thy glory is departed." See Derry Journal o{ that 
 date. 
 
 siPortion of the correspondence on the subjedt is quoted b) " M.P.' 
 in History of Orangeism, p. 268. 
 
 •'■'The riots and uproar continued well on into the thirties, and evoked 
 the Party Processions Adt of 1832. Threats of armed insurredlion were 
 
 99 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 finds a vigorous echo to this day in the official organs of the 
 Orange society/^ 
 
 The still more vigorous outcry of the brethren against theii 
 Queen on the occasion of the Disestablishment of the Irish 
 Church, and the death of party ascendency, in i86g, is a matter 
 of history. A clergyman, Rev. " Flaming" Flanagan, declared 
 at an Orange meeting at Newbliss (county Monaghan), March 
 2oth, 1868, that if the Disestablishment Bill received the Royal 
 assent they would " kick the Queen's crown into the Boyne." 
 This saying became a watchword among Orangemen during 
 the remainder of the agitation. 
 
 A favourite contention of the Orange platform was this : 
 That the signing of the Emancipation and Disestablishment 
 Bills would be a violation of the Sovereign's coronation oath. 
 Rev. Mr. Flanagan bluntly declared at Newbliss that, by 
 signing the latter Bill, the Queen would "perjure herself." 
 " We must," said he, "tell our most gracious Queen that, ij 
 she break her oath, she has no longer a claim- to the Crown." ®^ A 
 large body of Orange clergymen, la'.vyers. Grand Lodge 
 officers, etc., whose words lie before me, made use of language 
 scarcely less forcible than that of Mr. Flanagan, during the 
 Disestablishment agitation in 1868 and 1869. 
 
 A faint echo of the platform thunders of '68 and '6g 
 has penetrated even to this remote colony of the Empire. 
 Should the files of the Vidiorian Standard (the lodge organ) ever 
 reach the royal reading desk, Her Majesty will undoubtedly be 
 deeply concerned to learn that her Protestantism will not pass 
 muster with some, at least, of her Orange subjects in Vicfloria. 
 A Worshipful Master, at the Rochester demonstration in 1893, 
 condemned the Queen and her daughter for having dared to be 
 present "at a Popish and idolatrous ceremony." ^^ At the 
 
 made as frequently as in 1868 and 1869. As far back as 1810, during the 
 trial of Howard, an Orange yeoman, for murder, at the Kilkenny assizes, 
 the prosecutor elicited from another yeoman (a witness) that he felt him- 
 self absolved from his allegiance, should the King grant Emancipation to 
 the Catholics (" M.P.," p. 139. Cf. Minutes of Evidence, Irish Report). 
 
 s^For instance, in Victorian Standard, editorial paragraph. May, 1893, 
 p. 6, col. I. Cf. chap, ix., infra, near end. 
 
 6*An extended report of this speech is given in the Northern Whig, 
 March 21, 1868. The files of the Daily Express (the chief Dublin organ cf 
 the lodges) for 1868 and 1869, abound in similar language. 
 
 ^^ Victorian Standard, July, 1893, p. 10, first column. Is her Majesty 
 the Queen a Papist — or still worse — a Jesuit, in disguise? At any rate 
 her whole condudt is a daily and hourly outrage on Orangeism, which, we 
 are assured, is simply "Protestantism in earnest." A recent list of her 
 Privy Councillors contains the names of six Catholics. She — without 
 protest — allows her Catholic Generals, Butler, Dillon, etc., to win battles 
 tor her, a Catholic admiral (White) to help to "rule the Queen's navee;" 
 
 1 00 
 
THE QUEEN'S CROWN. 
 
 Kyneton Orange anniversary, in 1888, Rev. Mr. Johnson is 
 reported by the Vidiovian Standard to have read a letter, in 
 which " the facfl [was] deplored that their Protestant Queen 
 had sent presents to her own and God's enemy [the Pope] — had 
 sent him the very vestments to celebrate that idolatrous 
 service, the Mass, and exchanged with him compliments and 
 good wishes."^ In its editorial matter, the Vidiorian Standard 
 has held up to the odium of the brethren the Prince and 
 Princess of Wales, and other members of the Royal Family, 
 for " dallying with the dragon " — that is, for the evidences of 
 the friendly spirit whioh they have from time to time displayed 
 towards the Catholic Church."'' The Queen and her family 
 are evidently not Protestants of "the right sort." 
 
 The editor of the same lodge organ thus applies his cat-o'- 
 nine tails to those " namby-pamby " Protestants who believe 
 in living at peace with their Catholic neighbours : " The 
 aggressiveness of the harlot Church [of Rome] is apparently 
 too irresistable for the paltering />5^«rfo- Protestants of the 
 present age, whose unstrung backbones collapse at the mere 
 though of resisting the domination of Rome."''^ Numberless 
 other instances of the intense bitterness of Orangemen towards 
 liberal-minded Protestants will be found in the Reports of the 
 Parliamentary Committees of 1835 ; in the histories of the 
 
 and a Catholic statesman (Lord Ripon) to rule India better than any of 
 his predecessors. Her Lord Chamberlain is a Catholic. Cardinal 
 Vaughan is invited by her and the Prince of Wales to royal garden parties ; 
 and she purchases pidtures from the Catholic artists, Mr. Herbert, R.A., 
 and Miss Alice Havers. She has been guilty, in 1895, and 1896, of pre- 
 senting vestments to a Catholic church, and linen to Nazareth House, 
 Hammersmith, besides allowing her grand-daughter to be married, by the 
 Pope's dispensation, to a member of the Catholic House of Hohenzollern. 
 The marriage was followed by a solemn High Mass, at which the Prince 
 of Wales and numerous members of the Royal Family were present. 
 Princess Maude, also, accepted a present of a valuable antique gold brace- 
 let from the Man of Sin. According to the Daily Chronicle, Queen Vidoria 
 sent a cordial reply to the Pope's congratulations on her attaining the 
 longest reign in English history. 
 
 ^^Victonan Standard, August, 1888, p. 7, col. 2. 
 
 ^''See, for instance, Victorian Standard for May, 1893, p. 3., col. i. The 
 Prince is condemned in strong terms for the marked esteem in which he 
 holds " the apostate Manning." The Princess and her son are likewise 
 ledtured for having visited " the head of the Popish Church in Rome." 
 The "editor's notes" continue: "Will the English, Scotch, Irish, and 
 colonial Protestants open their eyes to this fraternising with Rome, and 
 denounce the adts as they should before it is too late ?" On September i, 
 t86o, the Prince of Wales refused to accept the "proflered hospitahty" of 
 the Mayor and Corporation of Kingston, Toronto, " on account of the 
 extent to which they had permitted their Orange zeal to interfere with the 
 invitation." Irving's Annuals of Our Times, 1837-1S7I, p. 583. Cf. Chambers' 
 Encyclopcedia and McClintock's Cyclopadia, arts. " Orangemen." 
 
 ^»Ibid, p. 6. 
 
 lOI 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 Emancipation, Reform, Education, Repeal, Franchise, and 
 other movements, and in the Reports of the Royal Commissions 
 of Inquiry into the Belfast and Derry sectarian riots of 1857, 
 1864, 1869, 1883, and 1886. Kindly feeling towards Catholics 
 disqualifies from membership of the Orange association. 
 No liberal-minded Protestant need apply. 
 
 " BANEFUL AND UNCHRISTIAN." 
 
 To the average Orangeman, liberal-minded Protestants are 
 " Papists," or little better than Papists. It may be interesting 
 to know what some of these latter think of the peculiar form of 
 Christianity which passes for Protestantism in the lodges. 
 
 The Seledt Committee of the House of Commons, appointed 
 in 1835 to inquire into Orangeism in Great Britain and the 
 colonies, was composed of twenty-three members, only two ol 
 whom (Mr. Finn and Hon. Lalor Sheil) were Catholics. In their 
 Report to Parliament (p. xxvi.) they express themselves as 
 "anxiouslydesirous of seeing the United Kingdom and the colon- 
 ies of the Empire freed from the haneful and tinchristian infiuence 
 of the Orange societies." The following extradl from the same 
 Report will sufficiently determine what, in their eyes, constituted 
 one fadtor in the " unchristian influence" of the lodges : 
 
 "The obvious tendency and effecft of the Orange institution 
 is, to keep up an exclusive association in civil and military 
 society, exciting one portion of the people against the other ; 
 to increase the rancour and animosity too often unfortunately 
 existing between persons of different religious persuasions — to 
 make the Protestant tne enemy of the Catholic, and the Catholic 
 the enemy of the Protestant." The truth of this official utter- 
 ance will become apparent as we proceed. 
 
 Dr. Killen, the Presbyterian historian, describes the early 
 Orangemen as " the very scum of society, and a disgrace to 
 Protestantism."^^ On the 5th July, 1832, Lord Caledon (a 
 Protestant), wrote to Col. Verner denying the Colonel's asser- 
 tion that " the word Orangemen means Protestants generally," 
 and concluding thus : " I consider the Orange system as tend- 
 ing to disunite us [Protestants] , when our religion alone should 
 be a sufficient bond for union." ™ Miss Harriet Martineau 
 says that, in one of the English Grand Lodge circulars," 
 " the position of the [Established] Church in the eyes 
 of Orangemen of the period is described in language too 
 mdecent for publication," and she wonders what " theory of 
 
 ^^EccUs. Hist, of Irelatid, vol. 2, p. 359, note. 
 
 'OQuoted by him in full before Pari. Committee of 1835 ; Q. 5473 ; cf. 
 Ql- 3535' 3885, 3992. 
 
 ''i Appeal to the Conservatives of England, given in Appendix 5, p. 92, to 
 English Report: cf. Q. 2S62. 
 
 102 
 
A BAD LEAVEN. 
 
 Christianity " such men can hold.''^ The Earl of Gosford, who 
 had witnessed the progress of Orangeism since 1795, declared 
 before the Parliamentary Committee of 1835, that, so far from 
 being necessary for the defence of Protestantism, it rather 
 weakened it.^^ Sir Frederick Stoven a Protestant, and 
 Inspedtor-General of Constabulary, deposed before the same 
 Committee that Orangeism was the cause of religious dissen- 
 sion, and was absolutely injurious to the cause of religion.'^ 
 Mr. James Sinclair, an Ulster Protestant magistrate, stated 
 that the society was producftive of very injurious consequences 
 to the Protestant religion.''^ The Edinburgh Review of January, 
 1836, dealing with the evidence placed before the Parlia- 
 mentary Committees of the previous year, says : " There can 
 be no doubt that Orangeism has been, and continues to be, 
 hurtful to the very cause and principles which it professes to 
 support. Our charges against it are : That it has rendered 
 Protestantism weaker than it found it ; that it has fomented 
 hostile and intolerant feelings between co-secSts of the Christian 
 religion," etc. In 1820, the rules of the society were revised, 
 pursuant to a resolution which stated that pra(5lices had been 
 adopted in the order " offensive to common decency."'® 
 
 I must end somewhere. The difficulty consists in 
 choosing extracfts out of the abundant materials available 
 under this head. The reader will note that here, as throughout 
 the rest of these pages, the strongest condemnation of the 
 principles and pracftices of the Orange association is that 
 which comes, not from Catholic, but from Protestant, sources. 
 
 In all its records I have failed to find a single instance in 
 which — even at the height of its wealth and power — the 
 Orange society ever turned aside from the cherished task of 
 fomenting secftarian strife, to found or endow even one 
 solitary hospital, one home for the aged, one orphanage, one 
 free school, one college, one university ; or that it ever sent a 
 missionary to the heathen, or a voice to speak of Christ to the 
 dwellers in the slums. Where are the trophies of its 
 Christianity ? To sum up : 
 
 1. The Orange society rigidly excludes Catholics from 
 membership. 
 
 2. It excludes from membership all Protestants who are 
 open to even the suspicion of entertaining kindly feelings 
 towards Catholics. 
 
 ''^The Thirty Year's Peace, vol. ii., pp. 273, 274. 
 ''^Minutes of Evidence. Q. 3535. Cf. Qq. 3474, ^885, 3992. 
 '^i/hid.. Qq. 4627, 4630, 4651, 4700, 4703. 
 ''^Ibid., Q. 4967. 
 '^Healey's Word for Ireland, p. 148. 
 
 T03 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 3. Membership is thus pracftically limited to the more 
 intolerant classes of Protestants. The reader has already seen 
 that Orangeism is recruited very largely from the " lower 
 orders" and " the uneducated classes of society."" 
 
 4. Their intolerance must be acflive. They are required by 
 their " qualiiications " to "resist," and to "strenuously oppose" 
 the Church of Rome. In the eighth and following chapters 
 we shall see that this antagonism includes press and platform 
 attacks of a peculiarly gross nature on the whole Catholic 
 body, and an incessant warfare against their religious and 
 political rights and liberties. 
 
 Here we have the crude materials of intolerance in, so to 
 speak, the nebular state. The next two chapters will 
 deal with the forces which mould them ir^io shape; 
 the gviiding minds which diredl their adlivities along their 
 appointed course. 
 
 '■'Sillen and others, quoted above, chap. iv. 
 
 104 
 
SECRECY. 
 
 Chapter VL 
 
 WHEELS WITHIN WHEELS— HOW THE SECRET IS 
 GUARDED : OATHS, TESTS. SIGNS, AND PASSWORDS 
 —A MESSAGE FROM THE KING—ORANGEMEN IN 
 THE WITNESS-BOX AND AT THE BAR OF THE 
 HOUSE: LODGE LAW V. CIVIL LAW. 
 
 *< A THING that will not bear the Hght of investigation, has no 
 right to live." So spoke Grand Chaplain Rev. H. Heather- 
 shaw to the brethren at Kew (Vicftoria), as reported in the lodge 
 organ, the Vidiorian Standard, oi August 31, 1896. In treating 
 of the organisation of the Orange institution, we must ever 
 bear in mind that we are dealing with " a thing that will not 
 bear investigation" — with a secret society which has success- 
 fully baffled the attempts made, even by the British Parlia- 
 ment, to penetrate into certain dark corners of its hidden policy 
 and methods. Such secrecy furnishes, by itself, and a priori, 
 grounds of distrust. Poisonous fungi and woodleeches hug 
 the deep shade of the lonely forest. We not unreasonably 
 suspe(5t associations of our fellow-men when their operations 
 — like those of the thief, burglar, and assassin — must be 
 condudled under a cloak of secrecy. "Woe," said the 
 prophet, " to them that are deep of heart, whose works are in 
 the dark, and who say : Who seeth us, and who knoweth 
 us ?"^ St. Paul reminds us that we are " light in the Lord," 
 and bids us walk as children of the light. ^ But, above all, the 
 Saviour of mankind spoke words so distincfl that one might 
 almost suppose they were directed against such unlawful 
 associations : " Everyone that doeth evil hateth the light, and 
 cometh not to the light, that his works may not be reproved."' 
 This a priori suspicion that attaches to mystery of this 
 kind is increased by even a moderate acquaintance with the 
 recorded doings of secret societies, such as the lUuminati, 
 the Sons of Satan, the Carbonari, the Know-nothings (the 
 Orangemen of the United States), the Communists, the Inter- 
 national, the Nihilists, the bomb-throwing Anarchists, the 
 
 i/s., xxxix., 15. 
 
 ^Thess., v., 5 ; Eph., v., 8, etc. 
 
 ^St. John, iii., 20. 
 
 105 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 Luciferians, the Mala Vita, and the rest.* Their records prove 
 that they have almost uniformly masked their real aims and 
 methods by fair-sounding phrases and by fine professions, like 
 the "qualifications" and the "basis" of Orangeism, which 
 the Parliamentary Committees of 1835 and the Belfast Royal 
 Commission of 1857 proved to be as empty as the bubbles 
 blown by schoolboys. 
 
 M. Hamon has recently written a book® to prove that the 
 " qualification?" of the anarchists who are scattering explosives 
 all over Europe are "love of liberty," "tender-heartedness," 
 "a sense of logic," "a feeling of justice," "love of others," 
 and "a thirst for knowledge !" Such fair professions are but 
 the decent drapery with which dark-lantern associations conceal 
 ultimate aims and methods of work which, if exposed to the 
 light of day, would shock all friends of peace and order. In 
 1835, when the secrets of the Orange institution were for the 
 first time laid bare to the world, the association was in the 
 zenith of its power, numbering 20 grand lodges, 80 distridl 
 lodges, 1,500 private lodges, and — in England and Ireland 
 alone — from 340,000 to 360,000 members, of every class in 
 society up to the Imperial Grand Master, the Duke of 
 Cumberland. The result of the exposure was that the English 
 lodges were dissolved, the " respedfability" of the Irish lodges 
 gradually diminished, until at the present time their member- 
 ship is mainly confined to "the very lowest classes in the 
 North of Ireland."" 
 
 SECRECY. 
 
 Secrecy was from the outset, and is to the present day, a 
 vital rule of the Orange institution. The Early Oydinances oj 
 the Armagh Orangemen (King: Dublin, 1 801) say: "Our society 
 /'t'ing a secret me . . any Orangeman introducing same 
 [Papists] , or making known the secrets of our body to such 
 Papists, will be treated by us as a renegade and a perjurer, 
 and in all respecfls like to a Papist."' The English Parlia- 
 mentary Committee of 1835 term it in their Report a secret 
 society. Colonel Verner and Rev. Holt Waring admitted 
 before the Parliamentary Committee of 1835 that secrecy was 
 one of the first rules of the Orange institution. The Dublin 
 
 4The reader is referred to Frost's Seci'et Societies of the European Revo- 
 lution, The Secret War/are, etc., English edition (Burns and Oates) ; The 
 Wars and Revolutions of Italy, etc., by Count Lubienski. 
 
 ^Psychologiede I'Anarchiste-Socialiste, Paris, 1896. 
 
 ^Chambers' Encyclop., art. "Orangemen." Compare Killen's Eccles. 
 Hist. Ireland, vol. ii., p. 465 ; Report of Royal Commission, Belfast, 1S57, 
 pp. 9, 10. 
 
 ''Quoted by "M.P.", History of Orangeism, p. 81. 
 
 106 
 
SECRECY 
 
 Daily Express — the friend of the Orange party — declared it to 
 be still, in 1857, " a secret political society, unfit for an age 
 such as this ; " and again, that " the Orange institution is a 
 secret one, unknown to the law, antagonistic in principle to the 
 larger portion of the people," etc. A second article by the 
 same paper on the same subjecT; says : " There is one thing 
 connecfled with Orangeism which we hold to be utterly 
 unworthy of a free country, nurtured by Protestantism and 
 the British Constitution, and that is its secrecy. What should 
 Protestants have to say to each other which they must whisper 
 in private lodges, as if they dwelt in a land cursed by despotism 
 and espionage, dogged by gens d'armes ? Why should honour- 
 able, high-spirited gentlemen and brave-hearted yeomen stoop 
 to the self-imposed necessity of communicating with each other 
 by secret signs and passwords?"^ According to the Ararat 
 [Vicftoria] Advertiser of July 19, 1892, Rev. (afterwards Grand 
 Chaplain) Heathershaw, speaking at a demonstration in that 
 town, said : " If people chose, it might be said that it was a 
 secret society;" and the Orange tracft before referred to admits 
 and justifies its secrecy, as a means "to secure united acStion 
 and a vote on all important occasions." ^ 
 
 The principal means adopted for safe-guarding the secrets 
 of the lodge are the following : 
 
 1. The division of members into various orders or "degrees" 
 — Orange, Purple, Black Preceptory, etc. — each having its own 
 set of jealously-guarded secrets, signs, passwords. 
 
 2. Oaths, tests, secret signs, and passwords ; "tyling" or guard- 
 ing the lodge doors during the deliberations of members, etc. 
 
 3. Concealment of the books and documents of the lodge. 
 
 I. Colonel Verner admitted before the Parliamentary Com- 
 mittee of 1835 that the Purple or higher degree of the private 
 lodges was instituted expressly "for the purpose of excluding 
 improper persons."^" This is a well-known device of secret 
 societies. It keeps the criminal schemes of the lodges, which 
 would not bear the light, within the power of a small clique of 
 leaders, and safe from the great body of the associates, to whom 
 it might not be prudent to commit them. The revised rules of 
 1845 require absolute secrecy from all, and add " that a Purple- 
 man, before being initiated, should be distincftly known to be a 
 man who would not reveal things confided to him, even to an 
 
 ^Quoted in " M.P.'s" History of Orayigeism, pp. 237-238. The articles 
 appeared in consequence of Lord Chancellor Brady's order, refusing the 
 Commission of the Peace to Orangemen, in 1857. 
 
 ^Definition of Orangeism. 
 
 ^°Mtnutes of Evidence, Q. 471. He would not reveal the Purple signs 
 (Q. 511), which, he stated, were unknown to mere Orangemen (Qq. 476,492). 
 
 107 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 Orangeman." " An oath to this effeifl appears in the rules of 
 1800. It is termed the Purple Marksmai/s obligation. Part 
 of this oath runs as follows : "I, A.B., of my own free will 
 and accord, in the presence of Almighty God, do hereby most 
 solemnly and sincerely swear that . . . . / will keep this 
 part of a Marksman from an Omngeman, as well as from the 
 ignorant." ^'^ 
 
 In the Irish revised rules of 1849, the following are laid 
 down as the qualifications of a Purple-man : " He should be 
 one who may be depended on to keep all matters and all things 
 conjided to him, as a Pnrple-man, even from an Oravoeman, as well 
 as from a stranger to the Orange institution."^^ Purple-men 
 have to this day a series of secret signs and passwords which 
 are unknown to the mere members of the Orange degree. 
 
 OATHS, ETC. 
 
 2. The rules of 1800 contain two oaths of secrecy, the one 
 referred to above, and the following : " And I do further swear, 
 in the presence of Almighty God, that I will always conceal, 
 and never will reveal, either part or parts of this that I am now 
 about to receive, neither write it. indite it, stamp, stain, nor 
 engrave it, nor cause it so to be done on paper, parchment, 
 leaf, bark, brick, stone, or anything, so that it might be 
 known.'' " Oaths of secrecy were retained in the revised rules 
 of 1814 and 1824.^^ 
 
 After the " bottle riot," which took place in Dublin on the 
 14th ot December, 1822, the Orange assailants of the Protes- 
 tant Viceroy, " Papist " Wellesley, were placed upon their 
 trial. There were general and serious charges that the jury 
 was packed with those who were known to be " good men 
 in bad times." A Committee of the House of Commons 
 was appointed to investigate the matter. Sir Abraham B. 
 King — who had been an Orangeman since 1797 — was ques- 
 tioned as to the signs and oaths of the fraternity. He 
 declined to divulge them ; threatened with the displeasure of 
 the House, he still persisted in his refusal. The Report of 
 the English Parliamentary Seledl: Committee copies from the 
 records of the English Grand Lodge of June i6th, 1823, a vote 
 
 iiRules of 1845, in Ma.dden's Lives attd Titnes, etc.; also published as 
 separate pamphlet, Dublin, i86r. 
 
 i2In Appendix to Parliamentary Report of 1835. The Purple signs are 
 not revealed to Orangemen. Minutes of Evidence, Qq. 476, 492. 
 
 i^The Irish rules of 1849 are given in full in Appendix 14 to Report of 
 the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Belfast riots of 1857, q.v., p. 275. 
 
 1* English Parliamentary Committee's iJ^/ori of 1835, p. 6; Plowden, 
 loc. cit., supra. 
 
 ^^Ihid. Barry O'Brien's Thomas Drummond, p. 183, note 2 (113). 
 
 108 
 
OATHS, ETC. 
 
 of thanks passed by that body to Sir Abraham, for the 
 " gentlemanly, firm, and conscientious condudl: he displayed at 
 the bar of the House of Commons" on the occasion referred to. 
 These oaths, signs, and tests have been made illegal by 
 50th George HI., cap. 102 ; the 4th George IV., cap. 87; 2nd 
 and 3rd Vicftoria, cap. 64 ; 8th and 9th Vicftoria, cap. 55. The 
 only apparent efFe(5t of these Acfts was to remove the oaths and 
 tests from the books of rules, etc., of the Orange institution. 
 In 1813 the state of the law made it prudent to alter the printed 
 rules of the English Grand Lodge. On the 4th of August of 
 that year a committee was appointed for the purpose of enabling 
 the brethren (as the Grand Secretary frankly put it) " to elude 
 the grasp" of the law. Under no circumstances, however, 
 could they see how the secret signs and passwords " can be dis- 
 pensed with." '^ In December, 1821, the English Grand Lodge 
 consulted Mr. Sergeant Lens as to the legality of the institution 
 in the existing state of the law. In the course of his reply, he 
 said : " The secret signs and symbols, which may be changed 
 from time to time, I cannot help thinking, are objecftionable, 
 and if any question were hereafter to arise on the legality of its 
 [the society's] proceedings, might be urged as a circumstance of 
 great suspicion.'^ " 
 
 The use of secret signs, by means of which Orangemen 
 may recognise a brother in a crowd, continues in full force to 
 the present day. The wearing of a five-pointed metallic star as a 
 watch-guard pendant is, at the present time (1897), one means 
 to that end in VicStoria.^^ Canon D. M. Berry, incumbent of 
 Trinity Church, East Melbourne, in a speech which he is 
 reported to have delivered at a meeting of his lodge (No. 33, 
 Duke of Sussex) said: "He (the Canon) desired to add that he 
 had but a poor memory for faces and names, and if he should 
 meet any of them out of the lodge, and fail to recognise them, all 
 they had to do was to give him the grip, and then recognition 
 would take place. "^^ Grips and such-like secret signs are 
 among the many items of lodge ceremonial which find no place 
 in the printed rules or ritual of the institution. 
 
 In 0(ftober, 1826, in consequence of the disclosure of the 
 signs and passwords of the time, a number of the brethren were 
 
 i^Appendix to Report of English Pari. Committee, p. 179, and Mr. R. 
 Nixon's letter to the Earl of Yarmouth. 
 
 1'^ Appendix to English Committee's Report. Cf. Minutes of Evidence 
 (Lord Kenyon's), Qq. 2, 6, 7, etc. 
 
 18 After their annual eledlions in November, 1896, a number of these 
 ornaments were presented by various lodges to their retiring officers. 
 Victorian Standard, November 30, 1896. 
 
 ^^Ibid., p. II. The same paper, in its issue of June 30, 1897, tells how 
 a candidate, on his initiation, "received the signs, password, and grip." 
 
 109 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 expelled : new rules and a new system of signs were adopted, 
 which continued in force until 1834, Up till 1835 (the year of 
 the Parliamentary inquiry into Orangeism) oaths and declara- 
 tions — all of which were decidedly illegal — continued to be 
 administered in the lodges on the initiation of members.^" The 
 oath of secvecy had been — in consequence of the pressure of the 
 law — excised from the printed rules. Secrecy was, however, as 
 effecftually secured as ever by methods to which further 
 reference will be made in the course of this chapter. 
 
 In consequence of the grave charaifter of the disclosures 
 elicited by the Parliamentary Committees of 1835, the House 
 of Commons, on the 23rd of February, 1 836, «ma«w«0H5(y prayed 
 the King (on the motion of Lord John Russell), to put down 
 Orange societies. In his reply, the King called upon all his 
 "loyal subjecfts " to aid him in his efforts for "the efFedlual 
 discouragement of Orange societies, and generally, of all 
 political societies excluding persons of different religious 
 faith, using signs and symbols, and acfting by associated 
 branches." '^^ In consequence of the acftion of the King and of 
 Parliament, a Treasury Minute was issued, dated March 13, 
 1836, ordering that all Civil Servants who should become or 
 continue members of the Orange association, should be dis- 
 missed. I shall deal more fully with this subjedl in a later 
 chapter. 
 
 IN THE WITNESS-BOX. 
 
 In spite of the known illegality of oaths, tests, etc., there is 
 abundant evidence to show that they were in use in the 
 Orange lodges long after their disappearance from the printed 
 rules and rituals of the association. The revised Irish rules 
 of 1849 provide for " a test " (not specified), which is deemed 
 " important and desirable." A wide scope for illegal pradlices 
 of this kind is, perhaps not undesignedly, furnished to the 
 society, by the rule which entitles all private lodges to make 
 by-laws for themselves, with no other restri(flion than that 
 such by-laws shall not be " inconsistent with the [printed ?] 
 laws of the institution," and that they shall be confirmed by 
 the Grand Lodge.^^ In his examination before the Belfast 
 Royal Commission, Grand Master the Earl of Enniskillen 
 professed total ignorance of the existence of secret signs, etc., 
 in the Orange society. The Commissioners, however, dechned 
 to accept his statement, and referred to the evidence of Mr. 
 George Stewart Hill and others as positive proof that these 
 
 ^^Report of English Committee. 
 
 21 See Hansard, Third Series, vol. xxxi., pp. 332, 345, 779, 859. 
 
 29Rule 68 of the Laws and Constitution of the Viftorian Lodges, 1893. 
 
OATHS, ETC. 
 
 things " still exist in the very classes of society where they are 
 most dangerous."^' Mr. George Stewart Hill was a Sub- 
 Inspedlior of constabulary. He swore that he knew, " from 
 his experience as a police officer," that the Orange society had 
 "secret signs." ^^ Robert Blair, an Orangeman (member of 
 lodge No. 553, Dundrod), after the usual hedging and loss of 
 memory so charaefteristic of the brethren when in the witness- 
 box, swore that he had received the signs and passwords "from 
 the Master " [of the lodge] .^^ He was further asked by the 
 Royal Commissioners of 1857 • 
 
 " Q. 7767 : You were sworn when you entered the lodge ? 
 Of course I was sworn when I entered the lodge." 
 
 " Q. 7772 : What were you sworn on ? / was sworn on the 
 Neiv Testament.'' (He repeated this statement at Q. 7775). 
 
 William John Cleland — another Orangeman — was ex- 
 amined by the Belfast Royal Commission of 1857. ^^ 
 admitted having taken an oath in the Orange lodge, hut 
 absolutely refused to divulge what it bound him to."^^ He granted 
 that he would know an Orange sign if he saw it.^' He, how- 
 ever, positively refused to give any further information as to 
 the signs, passwords, etc.-® When urged by the Com- 
 missioners to answer the questions put to him, he said : " I 
 would be very sorry, honourable gentlemen, to refuse to 
 answer you any question ; but if you knew anything about the 
 [Orange] system, you know I shotdd not answer that." 
 
 Similar evidence was elicited from equally unwilling 
 witnesses at the inquiry held in Magherafeit, in April, 1874, 
 regarding the riots of Bellaghya,ndCastledawson. John Martin, 
 who had been " fifteen years an Orangeman," admitted, 
 under great pressure: "There are secret signs and pass- 
 words in connecflion with the Orange institution, and that is all 
 I will tell you." Martin Davidson, Master of lodge 151 1 — when 
 at length prevailed upon by the court to answer — corroborated 
 Martin's evidence by saying : " Of course there are secret signs 
 and passwords in connedliion with the Orange society." 
 
 ^^Report, pp. 10, II. 
 
 ^^Mmutes of Evidence, Qr[ 7281-728''. His uncle was, according to the 
 evidence, Master of a lodge. 
 
 •^^lUd., Qq. 7739, 7759. 
 
 ^^Ibid., Qq. 7818-7819. In this same year — 1857 — the Dublin Daily 
 Express (the mouthpiece of the Orange party), in a leader on Lord 
 Chancellor Brady's order, asks the pregnant question: "By what right 
 does the Orange society impose an oath to bind the consciences of Christian 
 men?" Quoted by " M.P.," History of Orangeism, p. 238. 
 
 '■^''Minutes of Evidence, Q. 7811. 
 
 ^^Ibid., Qq. 7804, 7S06. Mr. W. S. Tracy, a magistrate, and Head- 
 Constable Henderson had both reason to believe in the existence of secret 
 signs, etc. Qq. 448, sqq. 
 
 Ill 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 Andrew Kennedy, a member of lodge g6 (Castledawson), said 
 he was not aware that he " ever knew an Orangeman who had 
 not the signs and passwords." His evidence also shows that 
 he took an oath as an Orangeman. William Gray, another very 
 unsatisfacftory Orange witness, admitted the existence of secret 
 signs and passwords in the lodges. He believed they always 
 came from Dublin. They were given to him by the Master 
 of the lodge. His evidence also shows that he likewise took 
 an oath at his initiation as member of the Orange associa- 
 tion.^" The free-and-easy manner in which the brethren 
 coquette with the Oaths Acfl is illustrated by a "scheme" 
 issued in 1884 by the Master of Dyan lodge "for the better 
 organization of the Orange society as a fighting force." It is 
 given in full in the first two pages of Healy's Loyalty plus Murder, 
 and contains the following: "That on enrolment each man 
 should be re-attached (as in the case of militia reserve men), 
 and sworn to obey the orders of the Districft Master or Council." 
 Apart from their general policy of secrecy, there are other urgent 
 grounds for the blushing relucftance of the loyal brethren to con- 
 fess, in courts of justice, the soft impeachment of the initiation 
 oath : under British law, persons who take or administer such un- 
 lawful oaths are liable to penal servitude for seven years.*"* In 
 Ireland the signs and passwords are altered (I think) annually 
 by the Grand Lodge ; in the federated lodges of Australia they 
 are changed at the triennial meetings of the Grand Council.^' 
 In Canada, in 1882, the Supreme Court judges {in re Grant v. 
 the Mayor of Montreal) decided that the Orange society "is an 
 illegal body, and its members may be prosecuted and found 
 guilty, for the reason that the Orange oath enjoins secrecy."*^ 
 Some readers may find a significance in the declaration made, 
 according to the Victorian Standard, by a prominent speaker at 
 the Melbourne Orange anniversary of 1893 • " We [Orangemen] 
 have taken a solemn oath to do our best to follow the example and 
 
 2 ©The verbatim report of the evidence referred to above will be found 
 in "M.P.'s" History of Orangeism, pp. 261, 263. 
 
 soHarris's Principles of the Criminal Law, 6th ed., pp. 53, 54. 
 
 siThe Victorian Standard of April 30, 1897, has the following in the 
 course of a brief report of the triennial meeting of the Grand Council ol 
 Australasia: "The Signs and Passwords Committee, consisting of Bro. 
 Edwards, G.M., S.A.; Bartlett. D.G.M., Vic; and Mathews, D.G.M.. 
 Tas., reported as to the seledion of passwords for the next three years, 
 and the same was adopted." In the course of a speech made at the Grand 
 Lodge luncheon in Melbourne, in November, 1896, Grand Secretary J. A. 
 Baker " regretted . . that while Vidloria, Queensland, Tasmania, and 
 South Australia had one common password, New South Wales should 
 have a different one. He thought all the Australian lodges should admit 
 on one common password." Victorian Standard report, November 30, 1896. 
 
 32Quoted in "M.P.'s" History of Orangeism, p. 297. 
 
 112 
 
GUARDING THE SECRET 
 
 teaching of Christ." ^^ It is needless to say that there is not a 
 hint about the Irish pracflice of taking foyiiml oaths at initiation 
 in any of the rule-books or rituals since 1835, nor in those now 
 current among the lodges of Austraha. But it by no means 
 follows that oaths are, therefore, not in use among the colonial 
 lodges. As in 1813 and 1834, the brethren know how to avoid, as 
 well as how to bend before, a storm. When some feature of the 
 Orange rule-book becomes illegal, or if, when known (as in the 
 case of the VicTtorian elecflion rules of 1885),'^* it is likely to 
 create a feeling against the society, it is quietly excised from 
 the printed Laws and Constitution, and is retained, unrepealed 
 and under added safeguards, in one or other of the following 
 forms : 
 
 (a) In the printed or written rituals of the order ; 
 
 (b) In the written instrucSf ions of the Grand Lodge ; 
 
 (c) In the by-laws, in the framing of which private lodges 
 are allowed the widest scope, subjecfl to the approval of the 
 Grand Lodge (Rule 68). 
 
 In the two last-mentioned forms there is pracfticaily no risk, 
 in the ritual (as I can testify from personal experience) very 
 little risk, of the public getting into the secret. The rituals 
 are (a) " printed exclusively under the direcftions of the Grand 
 Lodge" (Rule 18) ; {b) only one ritual is issued by the Grand 
 Lodge to each private lodge ; (c) all rituals " are the property 
 of the Grand Lodge," which has at any time the power to 
 withdraw them (Rule 26) ; (d) the secretary of each lodge has 
 to take an oath, or to " solemnly and sincerely declare," that he 
 will neither give a copy of it nor lend it out of the lodge he 
 belongs to. A glance at the current Vicftorian ritual in 
 Appendix B reveals certain facfls in connecflion with the work- 
 ing of Orangeism, which justify the precautions taken to keep 
 this document in the hands of a few selecfl and *' safe" men. 
 
 GUARDING THE SECRET. 
 
 On his initiation into the society, the candidate for the 
 Orange degree, after sundry exhortations, readings from Scrip- 
 ture, and other religious or mock-religious ceremonies,''^ holds a 
 Bible in his hand, kneels doimi before the Worshipful Master and 
 the assembled brethren, and solemnly makes a lengthy declara- 
 tion, of which the following forms a part: " I do solemnly and 
 sincerely declare . . . that I will not in any manner com- 
 municate or reveal, by word, acft, or deed, any of the proceed- 
 ings of my brother Orangemen in lodge assembled, nor any 
 
 ^^Victorian Standard's own report, July, 1893. 
 3*See chapter vii., infra. 
 "^Sce Appendix B. 
 
 in 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 matter or thing therein communicated to me, unless to a 
 brother Orangeman, well knowing him to be such, or until 1 
 shall have been authorised so to do by the Grand Lodge.'' The 
 reader will note the sweeping characfter of this part of the 
 " solemn declaration" (or oath) which the Grand Lodge requires 
 every Orangeman to take, (i) He is solemnly bound not to 
 reveal to outsiders in any manner, any proceeding that he wit- 
 nesses, nor " any matter or thing" communicated to him. (2) 
 This solemn promise (or oath) extends, by force of its wording, 
 to courts of justice, and Parliamentary or other forms of official 
 inquiry, no exception being made in their favour. The natural, 
 and presumably intended, eflfedl of this part of the " obligation" 
 is as follows: Unless the Grand Lodge accords an Oiange 
 witness, under seal, written permission to give evidence on 
 lodge proceedings, he must, by force of his solemn promise or 
 oath, either (a) refuse to give evidence, and thus commit con- 
 tempt of court; or {b) give false evidence, and thereby be 
 guilty of perjury. As we proceed we shall see that both the 
 leaders and the rank-and-file of the Orange society have 
 uniformly adopted either the one or the other of these two 
 means of defeating the ends of official inquiry. 
 
 Regarding the printed declaration of secrecy, I may 
 remark : 
 
 {a) Fear of legal penalties would be sufficient to deter the 
 leaders of the Orange association from inserting formal oaths 
 in their printed ritual, even where, as in Ireland, such oaths 
 have been admittedly administered and taken. 
 
 (b) Apart from legal requirements, which are not in question 
 here, the form of words used in being sworn is of little moment, 
 so long as one intends to take an oath, and is understood to do 
 so by those who are present. 
 
 Touching the Bible was an old form of taking an oath. In 
 the course of a recent letter to The Times, Sir Sherston Baker, 
 Recorder of Barnstaple, said : " In ancient times a large folio 
 Bible, containing the Gospels, was placed upon a stand in the 
 view of. the prisoner. The jurymen, who occupied a space set 
 apart in the court, came forward one by one, and placed their 
 hands upon the Book, and then the prisoner had a full view of 
 the ' peer ' who was to try him. This was called the ' corporal 
 oath,' because the hand [corpus, body] of the person sworn 
 touched the Book. Probably, out of reverence, the Book may 
 have been kissed sometimes, as a Catholic priest now kisses 
 the Book in the Mass ; but I strongly doubt the kiss on the 
 Book to be, or ever to have been, essential to the [legal] 
 validity of the corporal oath." As a matter of facft, the Oaths' 
 Ac5t of 1888 allows witnesses to be sworn in English courts in 
 
 114 
 
GUARDING THE SECRET. 
 
 the Scotch fashion, with uplifted hand. A similar provision is 
 made in the law-courts of Ireland and most, if not all, of the 
 Australian colonies. The candidate for the Orange degree not 
 merely touches the Bible, but holds it in his hand, when, on 
 bended knees, he makes his "solemn declaration" at initiation. 
 
 (c) Referring to this subjecft of the declaration of secrecy re- 
 quired of candidates for the Orange degree, the English Parlia- 
 mentary Committee of 1835 say in their Report to the House of 
 Commons : " TheefFecft of the religious ceremonies and forms has 
 been to enforce, with the apparent sanation of an oath, secrecy on 
 the members admitted ; as the Deputy Grand Master of 
 England and Wales, and all the Orangemen examined by the 
 Committee (with one exception), refused to communicate the 
 secret signs and passwords ; and it appears that a disclosure of 
 the system by a member would subjecA: him to expulsion." 
 
 We now understand one reason why an Orange witness at 
 the Melbourne Post Office Inquiry of 1896 refused to give 
 evidence."" He did not dare to do so without the special 
 authorisation of the Grand Lodge. " I am not going to tell 
 you," said the witness referred to, " what was done at a lodge 
 I belong to, or anything of that sort." Said he again : " affairs 
 are spoken of at lodge meetings, which neither I nor any other brother 
 would tell you.'' Lodge law thus calmly sets aside the civil 
 law, which Orangemen solemnly declare themselves "resolved 
 to support and defend to the utmost of their power." 
 
 The secretary's printed "obligation" at the present day is 
 almost word for word the same as the oath taken by that 
 funiftionary by the rules of 1800. It runs as follows, as 
 will be seen by refer^^nce to Appendix B : "I, A.B., 
 do solemnly and sincerely declare that I will, to the utmost of 
 my power, keep safe the papers belonging to the lodge, and that 
 I will not give any copy of the articles, or lend them to make 
 an Orangeman out of the lodge I belong to, or lend the seal, 
 so that it may be affixed to any forged papers, or irregular 
 Orangeman's certificate." By Rule 26 all seals are " the pro- 
 perty of the Grand Lodge," by whom they are issued to the 
 private lodges, and by whom they may be recalled at anytime. 
 " All communications from any lodge shall have the seal 
 affixed" (Rule 63.) 
 
 The Master and Deputy Master are required to " solemnly 
 and sincerely declare" (in the words of the oath of 1800), that 
 they have not " a sitting" in their houses for which they "hold a 
 license to sell beer, spirits, or any other intoxicating liquor." 
 Licensed vicftuallers have never been considered sufficiently 
 " safe," by the reason of the nature of their business, to be 
 
 3^ See Preface. 
 
 "5 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 entrusted with the hij^'her secrets of even the private lodges. 
 By the sancftion of the Grand Lodge, the brethren may meet 
 in public-houses, but only under the most stringent safeguards 
 as to the secrecy of their proceedings."' The Grand Lodge, at 
 least in Vi(5toria, thus provides expressly in its rules for the 
 constant violation of an A(5l of Parliament which forbids the 
 holding of the meetings of such societies on the premises of 
 licensed vi(51uallers."* Pressmen were excluded from the Irish 
 organisation during the fury of the anti-Disestablishment agita- 
 tion in laGS."*^ When King Midas's servant had learned that 
 his royal master had the ears of a donkey, the luckless wight 
 knew no peace till he had unbosomed his dangerous secret to 
 a hole in the earth. But, say the poets, out of the spot there 
 sprung a thicket of reeds which whispered the tale to all the winds 
 of heaven. It is doubtful if the mobile tongue of gentle and 
 confiding woman could long retain the secret of the hidden 
 deformity of the Orange society. Efforts were made from time 
 to time to introduce female Orange lodges in Vi(5toria. The 
 Vidorian Standard'^'' briefly informs us that the proposal "met 
 with its usual fate" — a short shrift and a long drop — at the 
 hands of the Grand officials, who best know the reasons why 
 the secrets, and especially the higher secrets, of the institution, 
 should be in the possession of those only whose tongues would 
 
 3''See Rule 17, Appendix C. 
 
 3«Sedlion 145 of the Licensing Aft of 1890 (Vidoria) is evidently 
 intended, both by inclusion and by exclusion, to apply specially to the 
 Orange society. The sedtion runs as follows: "No licensed vidtualler shall 
 permit any body union society assembly of persons declared to be illegal, 
 or any body union society or assembly who require from persons on or before 
 admission thereto any illegal oath test declaration or affirmation, or who 
 observe on the admission of members or at any other proceeding any 
 religious or pretended religious ceremony not sandlioned by law, or who 
 wear carry about or display on assembly any arms flags colours symbols 
 declarations or emblems whatsoever, to meet or assemble on any occasion 
 or pretence whatsoever in the house premises or other place of sale of the 
 vidualler so licensed ; nor shall the licensed vidtualler display or suffer to be 
 displayed on from or out of any part of such premises any sign flag or symbol 
 declaration or emblem whatsoever of any such body or society as afore- 
 said. And if any such licensed vidtualler offend against any of the pro- 
 visions in this sedion contained, he shall forfeit and pay for every such 
 offence any sum not less than Two pounds nor more than Five pounds. 
 Provided that nothing herein shall apply to the societies or bodies of men 
 called Freemasons Foresters Free Gardeners Ancient Druids Odd Fellows 
 or to any benefit or friendly society." The holding of such meetings on 
 licensed viduallers' premises was also forbidden by sec. 109 of the 
 Licensing Ad of 1885. It is also illegal unider the Unlawful Assemblies 
 and Processions Ad of 1890, sec. 10. 
 
 89" M. P.," History 0/ Orangeism, p. 109. 
 
 ♦''May 31, 1897, p. 10. 
 
 116 
 
STRANGE CEREMONIES 
 
 not move even at the command of a Parliamentary Committee 
 of Inquiry. 
 
 The Tyler is the guardian spirit who keeps watch and ward 
 outside the lodge door. On his inducSlion into office he has to 
 take the following "obhgation": "I, A.B., do solemnly 
 declare that I will be faithful to the duties of my office, and I 
 will not admit any person into the lodge without having first 
 proved him to be in possession of the financial password, or without 
 sandlion of the W.M. of this lodge." The "duties of Tylers" 
 are thus laid down in the ritual now used in Vicftoria : " The 
 duty devolves on the D.M. of seeing that the lodge is properly 
 tyled, who when diredled to do so by the W.M. shall address 
 the Tyler thus : * Worthy Tyler, what is your duty to this 
 lodge ? ' To which the Tyler shall reply thus : ' To prevent 
 the intrusion of improper persons into the lodge, to take the 
 names and passwords from brothers previous to admitting them, and 
 to obey the commands of the W.M. in the admission of brethren 
 and candidates for memberslnp of the lodge.' "^ 
 
 STRANGE INITIATION CEREMONIES. 
 
 Incidents not infrequently come to light which serve to 
 show that, in other respecfls also, the printed rules and the 
 jealously guarded rituals of the Orange society by no means 
 represent what takes place in the secret conventicles of the 
 brethren. A ludicrous instance in point was furnished by a 
 Vicflorian Orange clergyman, Rev. C. H. Hammer. Speaking 
 at the anniversary of the "True Blue" lodge, No. 96, Port- 
 land, on the 14th of July, 1893, he is reported to have said 
 that " he joined the institution in Tasmania, and when he was 
 initiated they gave him a ride ott a billy-goat, which he enjoyed 
 very much. (Laughter). Since then he had made rapid 
 strides, and now stood before them as Past Deputy Grand 
 Master of the Loyal Orange Lodge of Vi(ftoria."^^ 
 
 A writer in the Contemporary Review for August, 1896 
 (p. 226), tells how a candidate for Orangeism was shot dead at 
 his initiation — a bullet from a revolver which was used in the 
 ceremony having penetrated his brain. The British Hansard 
 of 1895*^ gives an account of two other curious initiation 
 ceremonies which are nowhere provided for in the Orange 
 ritual, and which had a tragic ending for two aspirants for the 
 Purple degree. A question asked by Mr. McCartan,M.P.,in the 
 House of Commons, elicited from Lord Advocate J. B. Balfour 
 the following information: On the 27th of April, 1895, one Joseph 
 
 *iSee Ritual, Appendix B. 
 
 *'^Portla)td Observer, July 17, 1893. 
 
 ^'^Parl. Debates, vol. xxxiii., 4th Session of 1S95, p. 1051. 
 
 117 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 Rankine, of Airblies, was being initiated into the Purple degree, 
 at the Motherwell Orange lodge. He was blindfolded, and tossed 
 so violently in a blanket, or a net hammock, that his spine was 
 broken or dislocated at the neck." The Lord Advocate 
 added : " The witnesses refused to describe the ceremonies pradised on 
 the occasion, on the ground that it is against the rules of the society to 
 do so." In reply to a further query, Lord Advocate Balfour 
 told how, on the 7th of July, 1893, one David Blair, while 
 being initiated into the Purple degree at an Orange hall in 
 Belfast, was likewise blindfolded, and while in the adl of 
 mounting a table (or ladder) in this condition, fell backwards 
 and was killed. A unique case, arising out of an Orange 
 initiation ceremony, came up in 1896 before Judge Luce, at 
 the Distridt Court, Waltham, Massachusetts. The particulars 
 are given in the New York Freeman's Journal, of September 5, 
 1896. Evidence was given on oath that Frank A. Preble, 
 when being initiated into membership of an Orange lodge, was 
 compelled to discard nearly all his clothing. He was then 
 (like Rankine and Blair) blindfolded, obliged to repeat the 
 Lord's Prayer on his knees, and to clamber over a lot of rough 
 blocks. He was struck with whips, posed on a ladder, thrown 
 off it, and tossed in a blanket (like Joseph Rankine at the 
 Motherwell lodge). After this, he had to carry a large bag of 
 stones around the lodge-room. The initiation ceremonies con- 
 cluded by his being burned on the breast with a branding iron, 
 the wounds from which were raw for some ten days afterwards. 
 Preble sought legal satisfatftion for the cruel treatment he had 
 received, and Judge Luce fined six officers of the Orange lodge 
 thirty-five dollars each. At a ruder period in the history of 
 Orangeism (in 1820), the Irish rules were revised because (as 
 stated in a resolution already quoted) pradtices had been 
 adopted in the institution which were " offensive even to 
 common decency." Blindfolding evidently and very appro- 
 priately forms a leading feature in the ceremony of initiation 
 to the Orange or Purple degree. This, and the other 
 ceremonies referred to above, are nowhere provided for in any 
 of the printed rituals ever issued by the Orange society. In 
 well-regulated families, children indulging in such rough and 
 dangerous horse-play would be soundly thrashed and sent 
 supperless to bed. 
 
 FURTHER PRECAUTIONS. 
 
 No new lodge can be opened in any place until the Grand 
 Lodge is satisfied as to "the suitabihty of the place of 
 
 **The incident was reported at the time in the Belfast Irish News, the 
 Dublin Fnetnan's Journal, etc. 
 
 118 
 
FURTHER PRECAUTIONS. 
 
 meeting."^^ This is the first inquiry which the Grand 
 Secretary is direcited to make when application is made for the 
 formation of a new lodge. There was a time when "the usual 
 place of meeting was the public-house."*'^ This custom still 
 prevails to a considerable extent in Ulster, and, though 
 illegal, it has the sancftion of the Grand Lodge of Vicftoria, but 
 only when " a suitable room cannot be obtained elsewhere," 
 and when due precautions are taken to keep the proceedings of 
 the brethren safe from the eyes and ears of the profane.*^ 
 
 To this day, the "outside tyler" (who must be a Purple- 
 man) is an indispensable officer of every Orange lodge. No 
 meeting is " open" until he has taken his place outside the 
 lodge door, to guard the brethren's secrets against prying 
 eyes and eavesdropping ears. In addition to the " outside 
 tyler," there is also (Rule 54) the " inner guard," also composed 
 of Purple members. The Grand Lodge has its tried and true 
 " Grand Tylers," who keep watch and ward during the 
 deliberations of the supreme council, the inner circle, of the 
 Orange institution. 
 
 From the rise of Orangeism to the present day, elaborate 
 precautions have ever been taken to prevent rule-books, rituals, 
 minutes of proceedings, and lodge documents generally, from 
 falling into the hands of persons outside the society. The 
 following are the chief methods which have been adopted to 
 effeiSl this purpose : 
 
 1. Oaths, etc. — The Rules of 1800 required the secretary 
 and deputy secretary of every lodge to swear, " upon their 
 appointment," " that I will, to the utmost of my power, keep 
 safe the papers belonging to the lodge, and that I will not 
 give any copy of the Secret Articles, or lend them to make an 
 Orangeman out of the lodge I belong to," etc.*® We have 
 already seen, in the course of this chapter that, at the present 
 day, the secretary makes the self-same promise, with religious 
 ceremonies which " have the apparent obligation of an oath." 
 
 2. The rituals and records of the private lodges are held 
 exclusively in the possession of Purple-men, who, as we have 
 seen above, are not permitted to divulge the secrets of their 
 degree to the brethren of the lower, or Orange, order. The 
 records of the Grand Lodge are kept by the small inner circle 
 of Purple-men who guide the destinies of the association. 
 Their special secrets — oral and written — are jealously guarded, 
 
 *5See rule 50 in Appendix C. 
 
 ^sRev. W. Nassau Molesworth, Hist. 0/ England, vol. i., p. 378. 
 *''See Rule 17, Appendix C. 
 
 *8 Appendix to English Pari. Committee's Report; Plowden's Ireland 
 from its Union, vol. i., after Introd. 
 
 119 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 not alone from members of the Oranae degree, but even from 
 the great body of Purple-men who are not entitled to sit within 
 the mystic portals of the well-" tyled" Grand Lodge. The 
 Grand Lodge is, in turn, the only authority^^ in the society 
 which can permit a private lodge, or a lodge-member, to reveal 
 or publish any Orange secret or document of whatsoever kind. 
 Deputy Grand Secretary Swan revealed the annual password 
 of the Irish society to the Parhamentary Selecft Committee of 
 1835. He, however, produced a Grand Lodge warrant author- 
 ising him to do so, and declared that without it he could not 
 have given even this triflijig bit of information.*" In this matter 
 no discretion is left with the members of a private lodge, either 
 singly or in council assembled, even when the document, etc., 
 in question are neither of a private nor compromising charadler. 
 The following is a case in point. It is taken from the proceed- 
 ings of the Irish Grand Lodge, May 28 and 29, 1856:*^ 
 
 " Resolved — That Lodge 168 be at Whexty to publish an address 
 of condolence to Mrs. Maxwell." 
 
 A similar regulation is in force in the lodges of Vicfloria, as 
 will appear by the rule quoted hereunder. 
 
 3. Printing of Documents, etc. — All rule-books, rituals, and 
 documents relating to the working of the society at large, are 
 printed by Orangemen only, and under the diredtion of the 
 Grand Lodge. The Irish rules of 1800 bear on their title page 
 the imprint : "Dublin: Printed by an Orangeman." ^^ The 
 Vi(5torian rules are printed by Brother C. W. Burford (1893). 
 Rule 18 contains the following : 
 
 " All documents necessary to the working of the institution, 
 including rule-books and rituals, warrants, certificates, and all 
 other forms shall he printed exclusively under the diredions of the 
 Grand Lodge ; and no private lodge or member shall present to any 
 person or body, or publish or print any address or other documents, 
 
 49The Irish (revised) rules of 1849 require of the ordinary Orangeman 
 (of the lower degree) the following 'additional qualifications": "That he 
 is one who will not in any mamier communicate or reveal any of the proceed- 
 ings or counsels of his brother Orangemen in lodge assembled; or any matter or 
 thing therein communicated to him, unless to a brother Orangeman, well knowing 
 him to be such, or until he shall have been authorised to do so by the proper 
 authorities of the Orange institution." [Report of the Belfast Riots Royal 
 Commission of 1857, Appendix 14, p. 275). In a footnote the Royal Com- 
 missioners say: "The proper authority is the Grand Lodge of Ireland ; its 
 permission to be given in writing, under its seal, and signed by the Grand 
 Master and Grand Secretary, or Deputy Grand Secretary." 
 
 soMinutes of Evidence, Qq. 1146-1148. 
 
 siAppendix 14 to Report of Royal Commissions of Inquiry into the 
 Belfast Riots of 1857, p. 284. This Appendix contains the proceedings of 
 the Irish Grand Lodge from 1855 to May, 1857. 
 
 52See copy of Rules in Plowden's Ireland from its Union, vol. i., after 
 Introd 
 
 120 
 
COOKED PROSPECTUSES, 
 
 or be a party to any a (ft which may in any way involve the 
 institution, or any members thereof as such, without the sancftion 
 of the Grand Lodge. Any member violating this rule shall be liable 
 to expulsion." 
 
 COOKED PROSPECTUSES. 
 
 4. Another method to which the Orange society has resorted 
 for the purpose of conceahng the true chara(5ler of its proceed- 
 ings, is the distribution of specially prepared, or — as they would 
 be termed on the Stock Exchange — " cooked," books of rules. 
 In 1813, in consequence of the excessive violence of the Orange 
 societies, large numbers of petitions were sent to the House of 
 Commons, both by Protestants and Catholics, praying for their 
 suppression. In June of that year Mr. William Wynne, a Pro- 
 testant M.P., gave notice that he would direcfl the attention of 
 the House to the existence of illegal societies of the kind. The 
 debate on the subjedt opened on the 29th June, 1813. In 
 the meantime, however, a new book of rules was distributed to 
 members in the lobby. It differed from the one then in use 
 in many important particulars. For instance, it altogether 
 omitted the great feature of the Orangeism of the time — the 
 illegal oath of conditional loyalty, which bound the brethren 
 to support the king and his heirs only " so long as he 
 and they shall support the Protestant ascendency."^'* Later 
 on, under stress of the law (1821, 1828), these oaths were 
 omitted from the printed rules, and a declaration against 
 Transubstantiation substituted for it. This was likewise 
 illegal. In 1834 — at a time when the Orange question 
 was occupying a good deal of the attention of the people 
 and of Parliament — another pamphlet, professing to contain 
 the rules of the Orange society, was again distributed among 
 the members of both Houses. When compared with those 
 a(5tually in circulation among the Orange body, it was found 
 that the illegal declaration against Transubstantiation had 
 been omitted. The Dublin Grand Lodge had, by special 
 resolution, ordered the circulation of the rule-books containing 
 this declaration through all the lodges in Ireland. They 
 endeavoured to get rid of the evidence of their acft by erasing 
 the order from one of the Grand Lodge books — leaving it, how- 
 ever, intacT: in another, which fell into the hands of the 
 Parliamentary Seledl: Committee of 1835.^* In like manner, 
 the notorious ten Secret Articles of 1799 and 1800 were quietly 
 dropped from the revised rules of 1828, but the records of the 
 Grand Lodge, as submitted to the Parliamentary Committee 
 
 ^^Parliamenfarv Debates, quoted by " M.P.," History 0/ Orangeism, p. 144 
 ^^Mintttes of Evidence, Qq. 2505, 2525 sqq., and Append, ist Rep. p. 29 
 
 121 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 of 1835, contained no indication that they had ever been 
 repealed. For all we know to the contrary, they may be in 
 force in the lodges at the present day." Reference has already 
 been made to the large degree of liberty allowed to lodges, in 
 the matter of making by-laws, by rule 68 of the Orange 
 institution of Victoria (ed. 1893). The printed gencyal rules 
 issued by the Grand Lodge by no means represent, therefore, 
 the full facSls of the laws and usages of the private and districft 
 lodges. We have seen, in confirmation of this, how illegal 
 oaths and tests, secret signs, and certain initiation ceremonies 
 which are nowhere provided for in the printed rules and 
 rituals, are retained to our day among the members of the 
 Orange organisation. 
 
 MUTILATING AND CONCEALING DOCUMENTS. 
 
 5. The dismay of the Orange leaders at the prospecTt of 
 lodge documents l)eing dragged into the light of day was never 
 more clearly manifested than during the great crisis of 1835, 
 when the institution — which lay under the stigma of a treason- 
 able conspiracy to alter the succession to the throne — was the 
 subject of a protratled inquiry by Select Committees appointed 
 by the British Parliament. Orange lodges had been held in 
 England, under Irish warrants, before 1808. The English 
 Selecft Committee complain that the proceedings of these lodges 
 were not placed before them,^" The Select Committees also 
 failed to get possession of the early rules of the Orange associa- 
 tion, which were admitted to be in the possession of Colonel 
 Verner, one of the Irish leaders of the society." Three leaves 
 — rightly or wrongly supposed to refer to the Cumberland 
 conspiracy — were missing from the minute-book of the Grand 
 Lodge for February, 1834.'^'' They have never since been 
 
 "^'Ivcference is made to "the articles" in the ritual now current in the 
 lodges. The sixth of the "Secret Articles" ran as follows: "We are to 
 appear in ten hour's warning, or whatever time is required (provided it be 
 not hurtful to ourselves or families, and that we are served with a lawful 
 summons from the Master), otherwise we are fined as the company think 
 proper." The English Seled Committee, in their Report, dwelt in strong 
 terms on this plan of calling out, and concentrating on short notice, large 
 bodies of armed men. 
 
 '''^Report, 3rd paragraph. 
 
 "''See Minutes of Evidence, Col. Vernc-r's (also Col. Blacker's) evidence. 
 The rules of 1800 were a confirmatitm of the draft rules drawn up by a 
 cornmittee on November 20, 1799. Thomas Verner (Grand Master) was 
 chairman of the committee. Certain earlier rules were largely followed, 
 "except," say the committee, "where we had to encounter gross violations 
 of language and grammar." These earlier rules were sought for by the 
 Seledl Committee, but on one pretext or other were withheld. Qq. lySsqq 
 
 ^"^Minutes of Kvidenie, Pari. Committee of 1835 (evidence of Messrs 
 Ward, Swan, Blacker, and Verner). 
 
 122 
 
CONCEALING DOCUMENTS. 
 
 accounted for. In the second paragraph of their Report the 
 EngHsh Selecft Committee of the House of Commons say: 
 
 " Your Committee have also examined several of the books 
 and papers belonging to the institution, but they regret that 
 their inquiries have been much narrowed by Lieutenant-Colonel 
 Fairman^^ withholding the Book of Correspondence since 
 February, 1834, and also the numerous documents of the 
 institution remaining in his possession." In examination 
 before the English Seledl Parliamentary Committee, Fairman 
 admitted that the letters in the Book of Correspondence were 
 " principally" connected with the Orange institution.*^" On two 
 different days he, however, positively refused to submit the 
 book to the inspeiftion of the Committee. His refusal was 
 duly reported to the House of Commons. On the igth of 
 August, 1835, he was called before the Bar of the House and 
 severely reprimanded. He still persisted in his refusal. It 
 was thereupon moved " that the witness [Fairman] be called 
 in and informed that it was the opinion of the House he is 
 bound to produce the book which has been alluded to in his 
 evidence." The Orange party in the House opposed the motion. 
 The following day (August 20, i'835) the recalcitrant Deputy 
 Grand Secretary was again called before the English SeleiH; 
 Committee. Then ensued the following scene, which has ever 
 been typical of Orange witnesses when questioned regarding 
 the secrets of their order : 
 
 " The Committee have assembled, agreeable to the order 
 of the House, to receive that book which you have been 
 dire(5ted to bring, in order to their prosecuting their inquiries. 
 Have you brought the book ?" Fairman replied : " I shall 
 endeavour to extort the approbation of the Committee, though 
 I may incur their hatred. I have not brought the book." 
 
 " Have you brought the book with you ? I have not. 
 
 " Do you intend to bring it ? I should consider myself 
 the veriest wretch on the face of the earth if I did. 
 
 " Do you intend to bring it, agreeable to the order of the 
 House, or not ? I cannot. 
 
 " Will you ? I have already said that I will not, and must 
 adhere to the resolution I have before expressed. 
 
 s^He was Deputy Grand Secretary of the Imperial Grand Lodge, 
 London. For a fuller account of him, see chap, xv., infra. 
 
 ^'^Minutes of Evidence, Q. 1073. Fairman admitted also, that the book 
 in question might show many documents in connedtion with army lodges ; 
 "it might also (he said) contain letters to Lord Kenyon [Deputy Grand 
 Master] upon Orange business interspersed here and there with references which 
 he would not make knoivn to the Committee^ Many have supposed that these 
 jealously guarded "references" regarded the Cumberland Plot. See chap. 
 XV., infra. 
 
 123 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 " Will you or not ? I have stated that I adhere to my 
 former resolution. 
 
 " Will you produce the book — yes or no ? No." 
 On the same day (August 20th, 1835) the English Com- 
 mittee again reported to the House of Commons Deputy Grand 
 Secretary Fairman's refusal to produce the letter-book. The 
 House ordered him to be committed to Newgate; but, before 
 the sentence could be carried out, the gallant colonel had 
 ahsconded.^^ The contents of the lettfer-book have ever since 
 remained a mystery to all but the inner circle of conspirators 
 who guided the destinies of Orangeism in the fateful year of 
 1835- 
 
 THE SECRET. 
 
 What is the secret which must at all hazards be safe- 
 guarded from Catholics, and from all Protestants who may be 
 reasonably suspe6ted of being well disposed to Catholics ? which 
 must be kept from the great bulk of Protestants ? which may 
 not be told to mere Orangemen ? which can only be revealed 
 to a seledt coterie of the ruling caste, the Purple-men ? which 
 must be protecfted by illegal oaths, tests, signs, and mock- 
 religious rites? which defies the authority of courts of law, and 
 snaps its fingers in the face of Parliament ? There must be a 
 proportion between the secret and the means taken to guard it. 
 On philosophical grounds we cannot fall back on the supposi- 
 tion that large bodies of grown men, in various stations of life, 
 and in different countries, have for a hundred years, from sheer 
 boyish caprice, conspired to a(5t as Orangemen have done. 
 The Orange, secret must then, be of grave moment. It is 
 manifestly something which it is neither safe nor politic to 
 openly avow. All the surrounding circumstances point to 
 it as being of criminal nature, since men who boast of their 
 undying loyalty prefer to break the law, to commit perjury, 
 to defy courts of justice, and to fliout the authority of 
 Parliament, rather than reveal it. 
 
 It is an undoubted loss to the historian of the lodges, and, 
 generally, to English-speaking people living under the British 
 flag, that so many and such valuable Orange documents were 
 not dragged into the light of day in 1835. They would 
 undoubtedly have laid bare many of the secret aims and 
 workings of that strange association, which are known only to 
 the little inner ring of Purple-men who sit around the Grand 
 Lodge table. There is, however, a vast body of fadts which, 
 taken in the mass, all too clearly indicate certain broad aims, 
 tendencies, methods, and effedts of the Orange association. 
 
 "iRev. W. Nassau Molesworth, Hist, of England, vol. i., p. 380. 
 
 124 
 
THE SECRET. 
 
 The circumstances attending its rise, its methods of organisa- 
 tion, the documents which it has not succeeded in conceaUng 
 from the pubHc eye, its uniform policy down the whole course 
 of its history — all proclaim that (whatever local or temporary 
 purposes it may also have served), the Orange society has ever 
 given these two objecfls the chiefest place in its thoughts: 
 
 1. The political ascendency of the Orange party; 
 
 2. The political and social degradation of Catholics — in 
 other words, the revival and perpetuation of civil disabilities 
 for members of the hated creed. 
 
 1. The first mentioned purpose is sought to be attained by 
 the well-known Orange principle of physical force, and by the 
 formation of a compacft and highly plastic political body, 
 pledged to secure place and power for the members of their 
 own party, or their sympathisers, exclusively. With this I 
 shall deal in the next chapter. 
 
 2. The attainment of the other chief purpose referred to 
 above is sought for mainly in the following ways : 
 
 (a) Excluding Catholics (as far as lies in their power) from 
 public life; from Parliament, from Municipal and other public 
 bodies, from the Civil Service,'^^ and (as in Belfast and Derry) 
 from offices of honour and emolument in the gift of the munici- 
 pality. To this we may add the Orange principle of exclusive 
 dealing in private and commercial life. 
 
 {h) Inflaming the minds of the public against the Catholic 
 body. This is the evident purpose of the coarse, violent, and 
 often inflammatory attacks made in the Orange press and on 
 the Orange platform against the whole Catholic body — clergy, 
 laity, religious orders; of the systematic dissemination of shock- 
 ing, not to say indecent, distortions of Catholic docflrines and 
 practices; of the marked encouragement given (especially in later 
 years) to a class of adventurers who were thereby enabled to 
 reap a golden harvest out of sensational or prurient tales of 
 Rome's supposed "abominations." In a later chapter I shall 
 return to the utterances of the Orange press and platform. 
 
 ^i^See chap, viii., infra, and Appendix A. 
 
 125 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 Chapter VIL 
 
 ORGANISATION OF THE ORANGE SOCIETY: TBE 
 RULING CASTE; THE SUBJECT CASTE; THE 
 INNER CIRCLE AND ITS WAYS — THE GRAND 
 LODGE " MAINTAINS ITS A UTHORITY"—HOW THE 
 BRETHREN "MAKE THEIR INFLUENCE FELT": 
 RULES FOR PARLIAMENTARY AND MUNICIPAL 
 ELECTIONS— THE AUTOCRAT OF THE LODGES 
 AND THE POLLING-BOOTH. 
 
 In the light of what has appeared in the last chapter, the 
 reader will not expecft to find in the printed rule-books, rituals, 
 and circulars of the Orange organisation, a full and fair state- 
 ment of the aims, methods, and proceedings of the seledl and 
 narrow inner circle which controls the policy of the institution. 
 Nevertheless, there is much in the two copies of The Laws and 
 Constitution of the Loyal Orange Institution of Vidoria,^ now before 
 me, which will give an insight into the organisation of this 
 strange survival of the spirit of a day that is happily long gone 
 by. The rules here referred to possess more than a merely 
 local importance : they are in almost every respecft similar to 
 those in use in Orange lodges everywhere, large portions of 
 them being almost verbatim transcripts of the Laws and Ordin- 
 ances of the Orange Institution of Ireland, printed at Belfast in 
 1872, These, in turn, contain no substantial alterations on the 
 Irish rules of 1869, 1849, 1845, 1828, 1824, 1814, and 1800. 
 The general principles of organisation set forth in the Rtdes and 
 Constitution of the Vidtorian lodges are, therefore, simply those 
 which have long prevailed in every country in which the Orange 
 society has gained a footing. The portions of the Constitution 
 with which I am at present concerned may be summed up as 
 follow : 
 
 I. " The Loyal Orange Institution of VicStoria" consists of 
 " private" lodges, the most recently opened of which was num- 
 bered, at the date of this writing, 169.^ These are under the 
 
 iSee chap, v., note 3, supra. 
 
 2 For the purposes of Orange organisation the colony of Vidtoria is 
 divided into the following seven distrids, each of which is presided over 
 by a Deputy Grand Master: (a) Melbourne and Metropolitan Distrift: 
 {b) Ballarat and Western Distrift ; (c) Castlemaine, Sandhurst, and 
 
 126 
 
THE RULING CASTE. 
 
 supreme control of the Grand Lodge,* which holds at least two 
 meetings every year in Melbourne.^ 
 
 2. The members of the society are divided into various 
 " orders " or '* degrees " — Orange, Royal Arch Purple, and 
 the various rings of the Black Preceptory lodges.* The 
 Orange and Purple members, with whom I am at present 
 concerned, meet in the private lodges. 
 
 3. The members of the Orange, or lower, degree are 
 elecfted by ballot in the private lodges. One black ball in seven 
 excludes." This rule has been in constant operation in the 
 Orange society since, at least, the year 1800. The candidate 
 must, moreover, be " proposed and seconded in open lodge at 
 least one month previous to such ballot." 
 
 THE RULING CASTE. 
 
 4. The Purple members form the ruling caste of the private 
 lodges. They are appointed after a probation of not less than six 
 months, and then only by the consent of their lodge, and on a 
 written application made to the Grand Lodge by the secretary of 
 the private lodge. The Purple degree can be conferred only by 
 a person authorised to do so by special certificate of the Grand 
 Lodge suchcert\fica.terema.imng"in(ovceforthecurrentyearonly."'' 
 
 The following are among the privileges of Purple members: 
 
 (a) No new lodge can be founded without a written appli- 
 cation to the Grand Lodge, signed by at least three Purplemen.^ 
 
 (b) No lodge meeting can be held unless at least three 
 Purplemen are present. These, with two brothers of the lower 
 degree (Orange), form a quorum.^ 
 
 (c) No candidate can be admitted to the Orange degree 
 except by a Purple member, especially authorised by the 
 Grand Lodge to confer that degree.'" 
 
 (d) Only those Purple members who are qualified by the Grand 
 Lodge to confer the Orange degree are eligible to be ofiiccrs of the 
 private lodges}^ It will be thus seen that the Grand Lodge 
 largely, or altogether, controls the officership, and thereby the 
 policy, of the private lodges. 
 
 Northern Distrid ; (i) North-Eastern Distridt ; [e] Geelong and South 
 Western Distridl ; (/) Gippsland Distridl ; {g) Wimmera Distridl (Rule 33 ; 
 cf. Rule 32). 
 
 sRule 32. See Appendix C. 
 
 4Rule 36. 
 
 "Rule 67. This whole chapter should be read in connexion with 
 what appears on pp. 399-401. 
 
 sRule I. 
 
 fRules 3, 16, 67. 
 
 *Rule 50. 
 
 loRule 54 
 
 127 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 (e) The Purple officers of private lodges may (subjecft to 
 the approval of the Grand Lodge) make such by-laws as they 
 think fit, provided that such by-laws shall not be " inconsistent 
 with the laws of the institution."^^ 
 
 (/) ^^ have already seen from other sources that the 
 Purple members hold the high secrets of the private lodges, 
 which they are not permitted to divulge even to a brother of 
 the Orange degree. During the deliberations, a reliable 
 Purple " Tyler " stands outside to guard the door from prying 
 eyes. There is also an " inner guard " of Purple officers.'" 
 
 (g) Purple members alone are entitled to send delegates 
 (one delegate for every 25 members) to the two meetings of 
 the Grand Lodge, which take place every year in May and 
 November." Members of the Orange (or lower) degree are 
 not represented at these meetings. 
 
 (A) The Grand Lodge (which rules the lodges of the colony 
 and direcfls their policy) is ele6t:ed from among the Purple and 
 other delegates, etc., at the November meeting in each year.^* 
 Members of the Orange degree have no voice in the elecftion of 
 the Grand Lodge officers (the supreme council of the institu- 
 tion), and are rigidly excluded from the Grand Lodge meetings. 
 Even Purple members who do not belong to the Grand Lodge 
 are excluded, unless by express permission.'^ " Grand 
 Tylers " keep watch and ward outside the Grand Lodge doors 
 during the deliberations of the inner circle of the Orange 
 organisation. 
 
 The Grand Lodge exercises pracftically complete control 
 over both the membership and the policy of the Orange 
 institution. It controls the membership in the following ways : 
 (a) By warrant ; (b) by appointment ; (c) by veto ; (d) by re- 
 ballot ; (e) by suspension, expulsion, etc. 
 
 (a) Warrant. — Rule 27 says : " No lodge shall be held 
 without the authority of a warrant under the seal of the Grand 
 Lodge of Vicftoria. Such warrants are the property of the 
 Grand Lodge, and may at any time be suspended, cancelled, 
 or withdrawn by the Grand Master or the Grand Lodge." 
 
 (b) Appointvient. — We have seen (i) that the Grand Lodge 
 holds exclusively in its hands the appointment of the members 
 of the ruling caste of the private lodges. (2) It empowers a 
 certain number of these to confer the Orange degree." (3) 
 
 i2Rule68. 
 "Rule 54. 
 i*Rules 32, 36. 
 i6Rule32. 
 i«Rule40. 
 iTRule54. 
 
 138 
 
THE RULING CASTE. 
 
 Those so empowered are the only persons in the whole institu- 
 tion who are eligible to be officers of private lodges. Moreover 
 (4), by rule 54, the Purple-men who are elected to be lodge 
 officers are not allowed to adi as such, or to he installed, until their 
 appointment has been ^'' co7ifirmed by the Grand Lodged This will 
 enable the reader to judge of the unlimited and absolute 
 control which the Grand Lodge exercises, by virtue of its 
 power of appointment, over the personnel and the policy of the 
 private lodges. 
 
 {c) Veto. — By rule 58, every lodge secretary is required to 
 furnish the Grand Lodge annually with a list of "all persons 
 who have resigned, been rejecfted, or expelled, with the reasons 
 for such rejection, suspension, or expulsion."^® This " black 
 list" furnished by all the lodges is printed every year by the 
 Grand Lodge, soon after the November meeting, and a copy 
 sent to the secretary of every lodge in the colony. ^^ The same 
 pra(5tice is followed in every colony and country in which the 
 Orange organisation is established. The objedt of this rule is 
 to exclude from the society all but men of the "right sort." 
 The following further regulations on the subjecSt, from the 
 Vi(5torian printed ritual,^" make this sufficiently clear : 
 
 (i). Every Orangeman, at his initiation, is, after various 
 ceremonies, required to kneel, and, holding the Bible in his 
 hands, to make (among others) the following solemn declara- 
 tion : "I do solemnly and sincerely declare . . . that I 
 have not, to my knowledge or belief, been proposed in and 
 reje(5led by, nor suspended or expelled from, any other Orange 
 lodge." (In the last chapter evidence has been adduced which 
 goes to show that, at their initiation, candidates for the Orange 
 society in Ulster, are, at least sometimes, formally sworn, as a 
 matter " of course," on the New Testament). 
 
 (2). Resigned members are (by rule 9) not permitted to rejoin 
 the society unless their application for re-admission is approved 
 of by the lodge from which they resigned, and not even then without 
 the special writien permission of the Grand Lodge. 
 
 (3). Rejedcd candidates cannot "be re-balloted for in any 
 lodge Vix\t\\ after the expiration of twelve months from the date oi 
 such rejecftion, and then only by the special permission of the Grand 
 Lodge. Any person who has been rejecfted by one lodge, and 
 has obtained admission into another without informing the 
 members of the fadl, shall, on proof thereof, be expelled the 
 institution."^^ 
 
 isCompare Rule 4. 
 
 isRule 46. 
 
 20See Appendix B. 
 
 2iThis rule provides for the case in which rejedled candidates might 
 
 129 1 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 We have already seen that the Grand Lodge has the power 
 of veto in connecftion with admission to the Purple degree, and 
 with the appointment of officers of private lodges. 
 
 (d) Re-Balloting. — Rule 8 is of a sweeping charadler. It 
 runs as follows : " In order to guard the institution against 
 the possibility of improper persons continuing members thereof, it 
 shall be competent for the Grand Lodge, upon the application 
 of a private lodge, to order a re-ballot for any member or members 
 thereof; and, should it be deemed expedient that all or any 
 members of the Institution should undergo a new ballot, a re-ballot 
 shall be taken in such a manner as the Grand Lodge shall 
 prescribe. Any member being rejected can only be re-admitted into 
 the Institution with the sandiion of the Grand Lodge, after notice 
 to the lodge by which such member was rejec5led." In the 
 Irish rules of 1849 the re-ballot was started with five members, 
 who were themselves selected by ballot beforehand. ^^ 
 
 A CLEAN SWEEP. 
 
 (e) Suspension — Rule 26 is about the most drastic of the 
 printed Orange code.' It enables the Grand Lodge, or even 
 the Grand Master, to suspend, nay, to suppress any lodge, or as 
 many lodges as they may " see fit." By rule 27 (already 
 referred to) no lodge can be held without the authority of a 
 warrant from the Grand Lodge. Rule 26 runs thus : "All 
 warrants, seals, and rituals issued to lodges are the property oj 
 the Grand Lodge, ivhich has the power of cancelling, suspending, or 
 withdrawing any warrant ks it may see fit, and of again issuing 
 the same to any othev lodge ; but on all such re-issues of 
 warrants the charge shall be los. 6d.; and the Grand Master 
 shall have full power to suspend, take, or authorise possession to be 
 taken of, any warrant, subjecft to appeal to the Grand Lodge ; 
 and erery warrant, while so cancelled, suspended, or withdrawn, shall 
 be wholly void and inoperative ; and every member who shall 
 knowingly acfl upon, or sit under, any such warrant during such 
 period, shall be suspended for a term not exceeding two years." 
 The suspension or expulsion of a member takes effeCt at once. 
 
 Rule 5, although printed before, is a sequel to rule 8. It 
 has the effect of expelling or suspending from the society every member 
 of a lodge the warrant of which has been cancelled or withdrawn. 
 The rule runs as follows : 
 
 " Any member of the institution, the warrant of whose 
 lodge has been surrendered or cancelled, may, with the consent of 
 
 seek admission to other lodges previous to the publication of the annual 
 "black list." 
 
 2 2 The revised rules of 1849 are given in Appendix 14 to Report of Bel- 
 fast Riots Commission of 1857, q.v. pp. 271-272. 
 
 1^0 
 
A CLEAN SWEEP. 
 
 the Grand Lodge, be received as a rejoining member by any other 
 lodge, on payment of two shillings and sixpence, a ballot to be 
 taken for his admission." 
 
 To realise the full extent of the authority vested in the 
 separate Grand Lodges of each country or colony, the reader 
 must bear in mind that their control over the membership and 
 policy of the lodges under their several jurisdidtions, is supreme, 
 arbitrary, and irresponsible. Despite the existence of an 
 " Imperial Grand Council," there has been, I think, no appeal 
 from their decisions ever since the fateful day when the Imperial 
 Grand Lodge of London — which had exercised control over the 
 national and colonial Grand Lodges — was dissolved in 1836, in 
 consequence of the damaging revelations which had been 
 brought to light during the previous year by the Parliamentary 
 Seled^ Committees of Inquiry into the Orange system. The 
 Grand Lodge is thus practically the final court of appeal on all 
 subjects. It decides what is, and what is not, " consistent 
 with the principles of the institution." It rewards and 
 punishes, it makes and suppresses lodges " as it sees fit." It 
 opens, and no man shuts ; shuts, and no man opens. 
 
 In all this, the organisation of the Orange institution is in 
 complete accord with that of other secret societies whose consti- 
 tutions have been brought into the light of day. The whole 
 objec5l and effedt of the Orange " laws and constitution" is to 
 place the members, as far as possible, under the complete 
 control of the Grand Lodge — to bind them to support the 
 political programmes or other schemes of their leaders, under 
 such penalties as fines, suspension, or expulsion. Anyone 
 acquainted with the history and proceedings of secret societies 
 need not be reminded that these punishments— and especially 
 the last-mentioned — are but relatively light. What with the 
 well-known Orange principle of exclusive dealing, and the 
 system of harrying " Papist" Protestants, circumstances 
 might frequently arise in which expulsion from the society 
 might lead to a form of social ostracism, or to financial loss or 
 ruin. 
 
 "GOOD MEN IN BAD TIMKS.'^ 
 
 A tracft^^ which has a wide circulation among the lodges 
 gives the following as a " further definition" of Orangeism : 
 "It is a religious and political society." It justifies its being 
 " a secret society" in this way (p. 3) : " We need an organisa- 
 tion to ensure united action and a vote on all important occasions.^' 
 In their Report to the House of Commons, the English Parlia- 
 mentary Seledt Committee of 1835 say : " The Orange lodges 
 
 "^'^ Definition of Orangeism, Bro. C. W. Burford, Printer, Melbourne. 
 
 131 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 have also interfered in various political subjeiftsof the day, and 
 made Orangeism a means of supporting the vieivs of a political party. '"^^ 
 In his letter of July 5, 1834, to the Deputy Grand Secretary, 
 Mr. Randel E. Plunket, M.P. (Deputy Grand Master of Ireland) 
 states that the Orange body is capable of being rendered 
 eminently " available at elecftions."^^ He also refers to the 
 value of its physical force," and to " its peculiar and unique 
 application to purposes of communication between persons of 
 all grades, and to large bodies, whether the intent of such 
 application he for insuring an eledion etc."^'^ The English Com- 
 mittee's Report continues : " Your Committee could not keep 
 out of sight the incidents that took place in Ireland at that 
 gentleman's [Mr. Plunket's] elecftion, by the interference of 
 large bodies of armed Orangemen, as detailed in the evidence 
 on the table of the House." This form of lodge violence 
 reached its climax in the old days of open voting — during the 
 Emancipation and Reform agitations, in the course of which 
 several eledl;ions were influenced by the intimidation and out- 
 rages of armed brethren. I need only instance the elecftions of 
 Drogheda and Trim, in 1834.^' The Irish Orange body steadily 
 and violently opposed the Bills for Catholic Emancipation, 
 National Education (Ireland), Reform, the Repeal of the 
 Tithes A6i, the Extension of the Franchise, Church Dis- 
 establishment^ the Land A6ts, and, generally, all legislation 
 in the direcftion of equal justice to the Catholic body, or for the 
 advancement of popular liberty. -** 
 
 "FREE AND INDEPENDENT ELECTORS," 
 
 On the occasion of Municipal or Parliamentary eledtions, 
 
 2*Cf. Deputy Grand Secretary's words to the Duke of Gordon, Grand 
 Master for Scotland, August 11, 1833, chap, i., supra, p. 3. 
 
 2 5guoted in Report of EngUsh Seledt Committee. This Mr. Plunket 
 was also Grand Master of the county of Meath, and a member of the 
 Imperial Grand Lodge of London. Ibid. 
 
 "^^Ibid. See note 27, infra. 
 
 '^''Minutes of Evidence, Seledl Pari. Committee, Qq. 6101, 6088, 6203, 
 6212, etc. Several hundred armed Orangemen marched into Trim/;wM the 
 neighbouring counties, on the eledlion day. They were led by a clergyman 
 Rev. Mr. Preston, who, according to the evidence, "held a pistol in his 
 hand." On their return march, they killed a Catholic named Henry, at 
 Kells. Mr. Plunket, M.P. (mentioned above), thanked them "for their 
 services" on the occasion of the eledion. 
 
 28See Molesworth's Hist, of England, vol. i., pp. 378-379. In its issue 
 of June I, 1886 (p. 3) the Victorian Standard (the organ of the lodges of 
 Vidloria), quotes a speech of the noted Orangeman, Lord Rossmore, who 
 was deprived of the Commission of the Peace for his extreme sedlarian 
 spirit. He said: "To Englishmen, then, I would say: Disfranchise Ireland." 
 See also Killen's Eccles. Hist, of Ireland, vol. ii., p. 456; Wyse's History of 
 the Catholic Association, Barry O'Brien's Thomas Drummond, pp. iii, 112, 
 etc. 
 
 132 
 
RULING THE VOTERS 
 
 the Grand Lodge will recognise in no Orangemen the right 
 to exercise the franchise otherwise than according to its 
 di(5lation, " The Orange lodges," say the English Parlia- 
 mentary Committee of 1835, "have also interfered with the 
 elecftive franchise by expelling members of their body, as at 
 Rochdale, in 1835, for voting for the Liberal candidate." 
 Other instances of interference with voters are given in the 
 same Report, and in the Minutes of Evidence. The venerable 
 Mr. Christie, in his examination before the Selecft Committee 
 of 1835, says:^^ " I have seen and known instances in which 
 the Orangemen have heen collecfted and stimulated to assemble 
 and march in order to the church. I saw them go into one 
 church to sign a petition against Catholic Emancipation, and 
 the church was kept open, and they marched in procession, 
 and I was myself in a gig with an Orangeman, who repri- 
 manded them for so doing. He said they were ordered in, but 
 not to go in a procession. They were ordered in by the Districft 
 Masters, as I understand." Similar cases occurred in other 
 parts of Ulster during the same period.*° 
 
 In the Minutes of Evidence of the Parliamentary Committee 
 of 1835, instances are given of clergymen and others having 
 been punished by the lodges for entertaining liberal sentiments 
 towards Catholics. In 1831, two Protestant clergymen were 
 expelled from the society for having voted for the Reform 
 candidate.**^ The following resolution of the Irish Grand Lodge 
 is given at Question 1940 of the Parliamentary Seleefl Com- 
 mittee's i?^/)o>'Z'.- " That it is the recommendation of this Grand 
 Lodge that the lodges [in the Dublin districft] do remove from 
 any official situations which they may occupy, such persons, 
 being freemen of the City of Dublin, or freeholders, who voted 
 for the Reform candidates at the late elecflion, or who refrained 
 from voting against them." 
 
 At its meetings of May 28 and 29, 1856, the same Grand 
 Lodge drew up and imposed upon the brethren throughout the 
 country a plan of operations for the coming Parliamentary 
 eledtions. One of the resolutions ordered that the brethren 
 " should in all cases vote for the support of those candidates 
 who will oppose the Maynooth Grant and the endowment of 
 Popery." ^^ In its meetings of November 27 and 28 of the same 
 
 ^^ Minutes of Evidence, Q. 5691. 
 
 30The Belfast News-Letter of January 27, 1829, contains an address to 
 the "Orangemen of Derry," giving details of similar meetings of brethren 
 to sign anti-Emancipation petitions. Quoted by "M.P." p. 168, note. 
 
 »i-Report of Pari. Seled Committee, Minutes of Evidence, Q. 1939. 
 
 ^^Appendix 14 to Report of the Roval Commission on the Belfast Riots 
 of 1857, p. 284. 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 year, the Irish Grand Lodge sent out petitions to be signed by 
 the lodges, praying for the repeal of the Maynooth Grant."* 
 In the minutes of their proceedings for May 27 and 28, 1857, 
 I find the following : 
 
 " Resolved unanimously — That the Grand Lodge feel called 
 upon to express their strongest dissatisfadlion with the condu(5t 
 of those Orangemen who, at the recent general elecflion, voted 
 and exercised their influence in favour of candidates who 
 refused to pledge themselves " to oppose the endowment of 
 Maynooth College. They recommend the lodge officers to 
 make "stridl inquiry" into the condudt of the offending 
 members, "and report to this Grand Lodge at next meeting, 
 in order that steps may be taken by this Grand Lodge to 
 maintain its authority orer those who may, on such occasions, forget or 
 violate their duties as Orangemen."^* 
 
 The minutes of the Irish Grand Lodge, given in the Belfast 
 Riots Report of 1857, contain even more extreme instances of 
 the bullying and intimidation of Orange voters, in the interests 
 of individual members of the ruling inner circle of Purple men. 
 The proceedings of the meetings of November, 1857, giue an 
 idea of the extent to which the free exercise of the franchise is 
 interfered with in the lodges. A large number of members 
 were expelled " for voting at an eledtion against a dignitary of 
 the institution." The records of the fourth day of this Grand 
 Lodge meeting (November 6th, 1857, Deputy Grand Master 
 Waller in the chair) contain a list of some fifty members 
 belonging to Derry county, who were "expelled for voting 
 against their Grand Master, Sir R. H. Bruce, Bart., at the 
 late Parliamentary elections." Some fifty others in the same 
 county were suspended for seven years " for using their in- 
 fluence against their Grand Master at the elecftions." This 
 was in the good old days of open voting, when such intimida- 
 tion was comparatively easy. The reader will now see 
 how the supreme guides of Orange policy have adapted their 
 
 ^^Ibid., pp. 290, 291. By the Adl of 1845 (8th and gth Vic, chap. 
 XXV.) the Grant to the Catholic College, Maynooth, for the training of 
 Irish priests, was, amidst a great outcry from the lodges, raised to ;if 26,000 
 a year. This was the only "endowment of Popery" in Ireland of which 
 the English Government had been guilty. In 1868, the revenue of the 
 Established Church amounted to ^616,840 (Irish Church Directory for 1833 • 
 p. 145). In the same year the Regium Donum given to the Presbyterians 
 and Unitarians amounted to about ^^40,000 (Killen's Ecchs. Hist, ii., 5870, 
 The lodges made no objedions to the endowment of the Protestant 
 Churches. On the contrary, they, in 1868 and i86q, openly threatened 
 armed rebellion if the Queen would sign the Bill lor disestablishing the 
 Protestant Episcopal Church in Ireland. 
 
 s*Appendix 14 to Report of Royal Commission on the Belfast Riots ol 
 1857, p. 294. 
 
 134 
 
RULING THE LODGES. 
 
 ele(5lioneering methods to meet the new set of conditions created 
 by the Ballot A6i. 
 
 On the i2th of July, i8gi, the "Grand Master, Loyal 
 Orange Institution of England," issued an address'^ to the 
 brethren of his jurisdicftion. In the course of this manifesto he 
 broadly indicated the " stridt course of adlion" which was to be 
 adopted by English Orangemen "individually and colledtively." 
 " In party politics," said he, " you are to be guided by the 
 instrucftions which from time to time may be given you from 
 me, through your provincial ordistricft officers; in no case taking 
 any party side until the fiat has gone forth from myself, indi- 
 cating the course you are to take," 
 
 TIED TO THE CHARIOT WHEELS. 
 
 Four principal methods are adopted by the members of the 
 Grand Lodge to mould the policy of the Orange body into 
 subservience to their political views or aspirations. These 
 will be sufficiently exemplified by the rules adopted in the 
 lodges of Victoria, which are a sufficiently faithful reflex oi 
 those in force in every country where the Orange society is 
 established. These methods are as follow: 
 
 1. By dire(5ting the business-sheet, etc., of the lodges at 
 any time. The following dicftatorial rule is No. 25 of the 1885 
 edition: "Every private lodge shall hold a special meeting 
 when requested by the Grand Lodge by order under seal, and 
 shall consider such business as may be direcfted by such order. "^® 
 
 2. By largely or altogether controlling the vote of the 
 private lodges on the matters which they are required to 
 discuss. Rule 51 of the Vicftorian lodges (ed. 1893) ^^^^ ^s 
 follows : 
 
 "All elecftive officers of the Grand Lodge are ex cj^icio 
 members of all private lodges, and are entitled to preside therein^'' and 
 vote on all subjeds save and except the distribution of funds, the 
 election of officers, and the formation of by-laws." It is thus 
 in the power of the Grand Lodge to send to any private lodge 
 a sufficient number of its members to outvote the lodge officers 
 on any question of party policy that may arise. The members 
 of the lodge are bound to accept a majority vote secured even in 
 this way."- 
 
 3. Another and ever-ready expedient by which the Grand 
 Lodge, or even the Grand Master, can compel submission to 
 
 ssThis address appeared at the time in full, in the Belfast Weekly 
 News, from which these extraifts are taken. 
 
 s^See Rule 30, ed. 1893, in Appendix C. 
 
 sTThe Purple man who presides at an Orange meeting has a delibera 
 tive vote and a casting vote. 
 
 ^^Rules of Order, No. 26, Viftorian ed., 1893. 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 the order of the inner circle, is the infli(ft:ion of the punishments 
 referred to above: Suspension or expulsion of recalcitrant 
 members, and suspension or complete suppression of the 
 stubborn lodge. The last-mentioned penalty is equivalent, as 
 I have shown above, to the expulsion of all the members of the 
 particular lodge affet5\ed by it. 
 
 4. It is, however, in Parliamentary and Municipal elecftions 
 that the lodge members— Orange and Purple — are bound 
 hand and foot to the political schemes, and the personal likes, 
 dislikes, and ambitions of the Grand Master, as they were in 
 the days when they were driven, as unresisting as flocks cf 
 sheep, to sign petitions against the Emancipation of their 
 Catholic fellow-countrymen. The extracfts given above from 
 Grand Lodge records sufficiently indicate the ia.6i that the 
 free exercise of the franchise by members is visited with the 
 extremest penalties which it is in the power of the Orange 
 society to inflicft. It is not, however, so generally known that 
 candidates are admitted into the society on the express condition 
 that they must not, on any account, vote for a Catholic, either 
 at Parliamentary or Municipal elecftions, and that their votes 
 and influence are to be at all times placed blindly and uncon- 
 ditionally at the beck and call of the Grand Master or the 
 officers of the Grand Lodge. According to the printed initiation 
 ceremony now in use, the "Worshipful Master" thus addresses 
 the candidate for the Orange degree: 
 
 "Friend, . . . it is also required of von that, should you 
 now, or at any future period, be in the possession of the 
 elecftion franchise, you will support by your vote and interest Orange 
 and Protestant candidates ot^hy , and in no wise refrain from voting, 
 remembering our mottoes : ' Measures, not men,' and ' He 
 who is not with us is against us.' Your neglediing to fulfil these 
 conditions will render you liable to expulsion. "^^ 
 
 But this is not all. " Abyss calleth to abyss." According 
 to the printed ritual now (nominally, at least) in use, promises 
 of a still more far-reaching characfter are exacfted from the 
 candidate for the Orange (or lower) degree. Kneeling before 
 the assembled lodge, and holding the Bible in his hands, he 
 makes a solemn declaration, having (says the English Report) 
 "the apparent obligation of an oath" (or, not improbably, as we 
 have seen in the sixth chapter, he takes a formal oath) to '^ abide 
 by ALL rules made for the government of the Orange Institution in 
 Vi(floria."^° By this sweeping " obligation" he delivers over 
 his will to blindly obey the unknown orders ot the irresponsible 
 
 s^See Ritual in Appendix B. 
 
 136 
 
RULING THE LODGES. 
 
 ring of secret conclavists who locally guide the destinies ot 
 the Orange organisation. 
 
 The writer of these pages has in his possession an 
 elaborate summons issued to a certain " brother" (a police- 
 man) by the King William Lodge, No. 92 (Melbourne), and 
 dated March 17, 1892. The '* brother" in question is required 
 to attend, on the 2ist, a " summons meeting." The third item 
 on the business-sheet of the meeting is thus stated : '* To 
 consider matters in connecftion with the forthcoming General 
 Elecftion." During the Australian Federal Convention campaign 
 of 1897, ^^ organ of the Orange lodges, the Victorian Standard, 
 of February 27, published a list of candidates, which was 
 headed by the names of the " Most Worshipful Grand 
 Master" of the colony, the Hon. Simon Fraser, Deputy Grand 
 Master R. T. Vale, and another member of the fraternity. A 
 printed slip, containing the same list of names, was also circulated 
 among the lodges. From the same issue of the Victorian 
 Standard (p. 12) I learn that an acftive canvass of the Mel- 
 bourne and suburban lodges was made, previous to the Federal 
 eledl:ions, by the Grand Master, Mr. Vale, and other officers of 
 the Grand Lodge. " A course of acftion was decided on," and 
 every brother was called upon in an editorial to " register his 
 vote on the 4th [of March, 1897] according to the dicftates of 
 his conscience and the laws of the Orange institution." There 
 is an air of guileless innocence and sweet simplicity about this 
 appeal, which conveys to the casual reader no idea of the 
 Draconian methods by which elecftioneering matters are 
 " considered" and " decided on" within the guarded portals of 
 the Orange lodge. The following " Rules for Elecftions" are 
 not merely a literary curiosity. They are substantially carried 
 out in every place where a lodge is established, and thus afford 
 an instru(5tive insight into the searching form of political slavery 
 which exists, even in Ballot A(5t days, under the fair profes- 
 sions of the Orange organisation. These elecftion rules are 
 given word for word as they appear on p. 18 of the Laws and 
 Constitution of the Loyal Orange Institution of Victoria, which were 
 printed by Cross and Co., Daylesford, Vi(51:oria, in 1885. They 
 will indicate the means adopted by the Grand Lodge " to 
 secure [as a favourite Orange tracft, already quoted, states] 
 united acftion and a vote on all important occasions,"" or (to 
 use the words of the Grand Master at the opening of the Mel 
 bourne Protestant Hall) " to make their influence felt on the 
 public affairs of the colony. "^'■^ 
 
 ^^Definition of Oranf^ehm. 
 
 *'^Arqu$ Report, November 11, 1882. 
 
 137 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 "rules for elections: 
 " municipal and parliamentary.'" 
 
 " I. Lodges and individual members are not to pledge them- 
 selves to any party or candidate until the Institution has decided. 
 
 " 2. The names of all candidates desiring the vote of the Insti- 
 tution, or of any candidate the brethren may think worthy of 
 the vote, shall be forwarded to the Grand Master, or, in his 
 absence, to the Grand Committee, who shall make inquiries as 
 to their fitness, and the probabilities of their success, and shall 
 obtain from them pledges as to their condudl on questions affeCting the 
 welfare of the Institution, a7id the ohjeCi of its existence. He shall 
 then forward the result of his inquiries, with his recommendations, 
 to the different lodges in the elecftoral distriifts interested. 
 
 " 3. With his recommendations shall be sent a list of all the 
 names of candidates that have been submitted to the Grand Master, in 
 the order of preference. If the lodges concur with his recommen- 
 dations, energetic steps must be taken at once to give effedt to 
 them. Should the lodges, however, not concur, the Master 
 shall at once proceed by ballot or show of hands to determine 
 which of the candidates on the list shall have the vote." 
 
 "4. Where there is more than one lodge in any town or 
 locality, the Grand Master shall cause a joint meeting of the 
 lodges to be summoned, when his recommendations shall be con- 
 sidered, and, if not concurred with, a vote shall be taken by 
 ballot or show of hands, as hereinbefore provided. In each 
 case a majority of votes to determine the issue. 
 
 "5. The vote so taken to be binding on all members of the Order. 
 Should, however, any individual member have a conscientious 
 objedtion to vote for any candidate so accepted by the brethren, 
 and who shall have stated his obje6lion in the lodge previous to the 
 
 *sThe italics and capitals, which do not occur in the original, are 
 inserted for the purpose of diredting the reader's attention to the more 
 flagrant points of these rules. The eledtion rules, being of a compromis- 
 ing nature, were quietly omitted from the edition of 1893. They are, how- 
 ever, still in force in the lodges. In the previous chapter we have seen 
 that it is part of the settled policy of the Grand Lodges to excise, with- 
 out repealing, oaths, tests, secret signs, and printed Orange rules that have 
 become illegal, or that, when known to the public, would involve an ex- 
 posure of its methods, or create a feeling against the institution. The by- 
 laws of the private lodges (Rule 68) afford a convenient receptacle for 
 rules, customs, etc., which it would not be prudent to commit to the 
 relative risk of print. 
 
 **The list referred to here is that submitted by the Grand Master to 
 the lodges. (See first two sentences of this rule). The lodges are thus 
 absolutely precluded by these Rules from going outside the list of candi- 
 dates furnished them by the Grand Master. The same is provided for in 
 the next following Rule. 
 
 138 
 
ONE REASON WHY. 
 
 taking of the z;o^^,** the decision shall not be binding on him, 
 nevertheless, the vote shall hind such member not to vote at any election 
 against the Order, nor against any candidate supported by it. 
 
 " 6. No objedlion on personal grounds will justify any brother in so 
 withholding his vote. Should the grounds of such obje<51:ion be 
 questioned, the case shall be referred to the Grand Master, whose 
 decision shall be accepted. 
 
 "7. The claims of candidates who are members of the Order shall 
 be considered first. 
 
 "8. The decision arrived at, and the acStion determined on, 
 to be carried out with the secrecy necessary to ensure success. 
 
 " 9. Copies of all letters written, or recommendations 
 made, afFe(51;ing any public man by which the Order is pledged, 
 i?nplicated, or interested, shall be kept, and no politician outside the 
 Order shall, by letter or recommendation, secure the influence 
 of the Order for his own political advancement, until it has been 
 sandlioned officially.'" 
 
 ONE REASON WHY. 
 
 Such are the methods by which the voting power of the 
 Orange lodges is brought to bear on Municipal and Parlia- 
 mentary elecftions. Orange candidates — without reference to 
 fitness — must not alone get a preference, but the brethren are 
 not permitted to extend their support to any respedtable Pro- 
 testant " politician outside the order" without the special 
 sandtion of the autocrat of the lodges, the Grand Master. 
 Reference to the Orange Ritual in Appendix B will show that 
 voting for a Catholic candidate is visited with prompt expul- 
 sion from the Orange society. Lodge schemes are thus made 
 paramount to the interests of the country at large. The 
 whole voting power of the bre;thren is handed over bodily to 
 
 *sThe reader will note, perhaps with some amazement, the force of 
 this and the following rule. Briefly, they amount to this: 
 
 (a) " Conscientious objedlions " to the lodge candidate hold good only 
 when declared in the meeting before the vote is taken. 
 
 (b) Even when the "conscientious objedlion" has been so stated, the 
 scrupulous Orangeman is bound to give the lodge candidate a negative 
 support by not voting against him. 
 
 (c) When the "conscientious objedlion" to the lodge candidate arises 
 or is stated after the vote of the lodge has been taken, the "conscientious" 
 Orangeman is, by force of this rule, bound to vote for the lodge candidate, 
 even against his (the voter's) conscience. The voter whose scruples arise too 
 late must learn to swallow them. He is not even privileged, like the other, 
 to abstain from voting. 
 
 (d) The next following rule (6) practically nullifies the saving clause 
 mentioned under {a) and {b) of this note. If the Orange voter's (personal) 
 grounds of objedtion against the lodge candidate are "questioned" (as they 
 are sure to be by somebody), the matter is "referred to the Grand Master, 
 whose decision shall he accepted" 
 
 139 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 the irresponsible and arbitrary control of the Grand Master for 
 the time being, and made subservient to his personal schemes 
 and ambitions. The reader can now form a shrewd guess as 
 to why certain politicians fly the Orange flag. 
 
 The well known American raconteur, Mr. Chauncey Depew, 
 is, I believe, responsible for the following story, which will 
 serve to illustrate my point : 
 
 The teacher of a country school in the United States found 
 one morning a woodchuck which had been shot and lost by a 
 passing sportsman. He offered the bird as a prize to the boy 
 who could give the best reasons for his political opinions. 
 After a pause for refledlion the first boy stood up. 
 " I am a Republican." 
 " Why are you a Republican ?" 
 
 " Because Abraham Lincoln was one, and he freed the 
 slaves." 
 
 " Next boy. What are you ?" 
 " Sir, I am a Prohibitionist." 
 "Why?" 
 
 " Because the insane asylums are filled with the vicHiims of 
 strong drink. Because it makes widows and orphans and 
 criminals." 
 
 "That will do. Next boy stand up. What are your 
 politics ?" 
 
 "I am a Democrat." 
 " Why are you a Democrat ?" 
 " Because I want the woodchuck .'' 
 
 The whole conducfl of L.O.L. politicians, the position 
 which they occupy on the Grand Lodge, the manner in which 
 that position is habitually, and by virtue of the rules of the 
 society, used for their personal benefit at elecftion times, all lay 
 them open to the not unreasonable suspicion that they adopt 
 the Orange platform for the sake of the woodchuck — in other 
 words, for the ever-organised, ever-ready, ever-obedient vote 
 of the brethren in the day of need. 
 
 After recounting, in their Report to the House of Commons, 
 the many disastrous results of Orangeism, the English Parlia- 
 mentary Committee of 1835 say: "AH these evils have been 
 proved by the evidence before the House in regard to Ireland, 
 where the system has long existed on an extended scale, 
 rendered more prejudicial to the best interests of society by the 
 patronage and protection of so many wealthy members, high in 
 office and in rank, taking an adlive part in the proceedings of these 
 lodges."^® The same Report says, a few paragraphs before : 
 
 *^Since the collapse of 1835 comparatively few of what are termed the 
 upper classes in society have joined the Orange institution. In the 
 
 140 
 
A RED SIGNAL. 
 
 " In the printed proceedings of the Grand Lodge, 4th 
 June, 1833, the Duke of Cumberland [Imperial Grand Master] 
 is reported to have stated that ' if the Grand Lodge have not 
 confidence in the Grand Master, it is better, perhaps, that I 
 should know it ; but if it have confidence, its members must 
 be aware that it is my wish to simplify the proceedings of the 
 institution as much as possible. Individual opinion [these are 
 the Duke's words] is not to be consulted npon vital and important 
 arrangements, involving the welfare and best interests of the 
 institution.' " Here the Grand Master dicftates, not merely to 
 the private lodges, but to the Grand Lodge as well. 
 
 A PUBLIC DANGER. 
 
 " It must always be kept in mind," continues the same 
 Report, "that the power of calling out the members of all the 
 Orange lodges in Ireland rests with the Grand Master and 
 his Deputy, on the application of twelve members of the com- 
 mittee; that the same person is Grand Master of Great Britain 
 and of Ireland, having the same powers, which are stated to 
 be uncontrollable and arbitrary, of bringing together large 
 bodies of armed and unarmed men, to make a demonstration 
 of physical force which might prove highly dangerous."^' 
 
 Such a power is apparently as consistent with the Laivs and 
 Constitution of the Loyal Orange Institution of Victoria, as it was 
 with those of the Irish or English Grand Lodge in 1835. The 
 English Seledt Parliamentary Committee say farther down in 
 their Report, that when they " consider the possible use that 
 might be made of such an organised power, its suppression becomes, 
 in their [the Committee's] opinion, imperatively necessary.'' A 
 similar warning was raised in the House of Commons as far 
 back as June 29, 1813, by Mr. Wynne, a Protestant M.P. 
 He said that the Orange institution "is capable of being 
 diverted to the worst purposes." A similar admission was 
 made by Mr. Stewart Blacker, Assistant Grand Secretary of 
 the Irish Grand Lodge, in reply to the following question put 
 to him by the Parliamentary Selecft Committee of 1835: 
 " Would a body of Roman Catholics, united together in a similar 
 manner as the Orange body is, be, in your opinion, dangerous to 
 the State ? " Stewart Blacker frankly answered : " I think a 
 Catholic body, organised as the Orange institution is, would be 
 highly injurious and detrimental to a Protestant country, as this, 
 
 Australian colonies the leaders of the society belong principally, if not 
 altogether, to a certain class of politicians who are keenly alive to the value 
 of the voting powers of the lodges at eledtion times. 
 
 *''See also Rev. W. Nassau Molesworth's Hist. 0/ England, vol. i., p. 
 383, and chap, xv., infra. 
 
 141 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 by the blessing of God, still is."^^ It is a bad principle that 
 does not work both ways. Here we find the Orange system 
 of organisation condemned by the mouth of one of its 
 acknowledged leaders,*^ 
 
 ^^^Mmutes of Evidence, Q. 2138. 
 
 *9Cf. quotation from the Orange historian, Musgrave, in chap, xi., 
 infra, near end. 
 
 14V 
 
SOME SIGNBOARDS. 
 
 Chapter VIIL 
 
 ORANGE DEMONSTRATIONS : FINE PHRASES AP- 
 PRAISED—THE ORATORICAL CARNIVAL: A FEW 
 WHIFFS FROM BILLINGSGATE— THE SECRET OUT: 
 CATHOLICS AND THE PUBLIC SERVICE — THE 
 SCARLET WOMAN AND THE GRAND OLD ENEMY 
 —CAIN AND ABEL AND THE PEOPLE WHO WEAR 
 HORNS. 
 
 The veiled prophet of Khorassan^ Hved a double part. In 
 public, before the prostrate crowd, he was the tall, kingly 
 form, who spoke as a god, and veiled the majesty of his 
 features from the gaze of the vulgar eye. In the secret of his 
 chamber, when the friendly veil was cast aside, he was the 
 deformed Mokanna, whose soul was as black as his face was 
 hideous. 
 
 Secret societies may be termed the Mokannas of our 
 day. Before the world they, as a rule, veil their inner guilt 
 under a fair disguise of fine professions. These usually take 
 the shape of watchwords or mottoes. The motto of the Reds 
 of 1789 was : " Liberty, Equality, Fraternity (or Brotherhood)." 
 It was, unhappily, no mere play of words, but a melancholy 
 truth which gave to these words the following interpretation : 
 — " Liberie — de mal faive ; Egalite — de misere ; Fraternite — comvie 
 Cain avec son frerey It was Liberty to do evil ; Equality in the 
 wretchedness which evil produces ; Brotherhood, such as Cain 
 •showed towards Abel. The motto of the Anarchist-Socialist 
 (according to M. Hamon)^ may be reduced to the triple one : 
 " Love of liberty," " love of justice," " love of others." Your 
 Anarchist may blow up unoffending people, at Paris and 
 Barcelona, with picrine shells and infernal machines; but none 
 the less he poses before the world as an ethereal being, with a 
 nimbus round his head, and his heart overflowing with emotions 
 of the most expansive philanthropy. 
 
 The Orange society differs materially from Anarchism 
 and Red Republicanism in both its aims and methods. It 
 resembles them in the disguise of fair professions which it 
 
 ■^Moore's Poems; The Veiled Prophet 0/ Kkorassan. 
 ^Psychologie de I'Anarckiste-Socialiste. Paris; 1896. 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 assumes. These professions were (after the manner of those 
 of the Sansculottes) reduced by Mr. Gwynne, an agent of the Irish 
 Grand Lodge, to a triple motto: "Protestantism, Loyalty, 
 Organisation."^ The professed objecfts of the association are 
 more definitely stated by Grand Chaplain Rev. H. Heather- 
 shaw, at an Orange demonstration at Kew (Vicfloria). " The 
 supreme objecSt of Orangeism," said Mr. Heathershaw, " may 
 be summed up in very few words : The glory of God and the 
 welfare of man, the honour of the Sovereign and the good of 
 the country."^ These words are but a repetition of a favourite 
 portion of what may be termed the official text of the sign- 
 board of the lodges. The full text is contained in the follow- 
 ing extracfts, which are placed before the public on all possible 
 occasions, and serve as a sort of preface to the rule -books of 
 the society : 
 
 " Basis of the Institution. — ^The Orange Institution, 
 so named in honour of King William, Prince of Orange, is 
 composed of Protestants resolved to support and defend to 
 the utmost of their power the Protestant religion, the laws oj 
 the colony, the rightful Sovereign, being Protestant ; and to maintain 
 the connedlion of this colony with Great Britain and Ireland. 
 It is exclusively an association of those who are attached to 
 the religion of the Reformation, and ivill not admit into its Brother- 
 hood persons whom an intolerant spirit leads to persecute, injure, or 
 upbraid any man on account of his religions opinions. 
 
 " General Qualifications. — The Master and Members 
 of any lodge in which a candidate is proposed must satisfy 
 themselves previous to his admission, that he possesses the follow- 
 ing qualifications : 
 
 " An Orangeman should have a sincere love and veneration 
 for the Triune God — the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit ; an 
 humble and steadfast faith in Jesus Christ, the Saviour of 
 mankind, believing him to be God and man, and the only 
 mediator between God and man. He should cultivate truth 
 and justice, brotherly kindness, charity, devotion, piety, concord, 
 unity, and obedience to the laws ; his deportment should be gentle, 
 compassionate, kind, and courteous ; he should cultivate the society 
 of the virtuous, and avoid the company of the evil ; he should 
 honour and diligently read the Holy Scriptures, and make them 
 the rule of his faith and pracTiice ; he should love, uphold, and 
 defend the Protestant religion, and sincerely desire and en- 
 deavour to propagate its docftrines and precepts; he should 
 
 ^Mr. Gwynne, at his own request, gave evidence on behalf of the 
 Orange society before the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Belfast 
 Riots, 1857. See their Report. 
 
 ■^Victorian Standard, August 31, 1896, p. 6. 
 
 144 
 
THE QUALIFICATIONS: 
 
 strenuously oppose the fatal errors and do6trines of the Church 
 of Rome, and scrupulously avoid countenancing, by his pre- 
 sence or otherwise, any adt or ceremony of Roman Catholic 
 worship;^ he should, by all lawful means, resist the ascendency 
 of that Church, its encroachments, and the extension of its 
 power, ever abstaining from all uncharitable words, a6tions, or senti- 
 ments towards its adherents f he should remember to keep holy the 
 Sabbath Day, and attend the public worship of God ; and 
 diligently train up his offspring and all under his control in the 
 fear of God, and in the Protestant faith; he should never take 
 the name of God in vain, but abstain from all profane language, 
 and use every opportunity of discouraging these and all other 
 sinful pracftices in others. His conducfl should be guided by 
 wisdom and prudence, and marked by honesty, temperance, 
 and sobriety. The glory of God, the welfare of man, the honour of 
 his Sovereign, and the good of his country should be the motives oj his 
 aclions." 
 
 ALL THAT GLITTERS 
 
 The extradfs just given are the only portion of the Orange rule 
 books which are published to the world. The remainder is jealously 
 guarded, as we have seen, by elaborate precautions, and severe 
 penalties, from the eyes of the day-lit world that lies outside 
 the lodges. The " basis" and the " qualifications" serve, in a 
 manner, {a) to conceal the real aims of the institution ; (b) to 
 impress the public with a sense of the loyalty, piety, etc., of 
 the organisation, and thus to attracft new members, and 
 conciliate the sympathy, and, on occasion, the acftive support, 
 of Protestants who do not ieel called upon to make formal 
 profession of the peculiar theory of Christianity which is held 
 in the lodges, {c) The "basis" and " qualifications" serve a 
 still further purpose : On every occasion on which it becomes 
 necessary to defend the charadler or proceedings of the Orange 
 society, they are triumphantly advanced as a self-contained 
 and "complete reply" to every charge which might be urged 
 against it.' But it should be pointed out that : 
 
 5The minutes of the Irish Grand Lodge for November 28th and 29th, 
 1855, confirm the expulsion of an Orangemen from the society "for attend- 
 ing Mass." Appendix 14 to Report of Belfast Riots Commission of 1857. 
 The italics in the questions given above are mine. 
 
 6" Our Roman Catholic brethren" are the words given in certain other 
 versions of the "qualifications." 
 
 ''For instance, Grand Master Hon. Simon Fraser, M.L.C. (Vidloria) 
 terms the "qualifications" "a complete reply" to stridures made against 
 the society {Ararat Advertiser, July 7, 1896). Many other instances in point 
 will be found in the Orange organ, the Victorian Standard, especially in the 
 July and August numbers of each year, which are mainly devoted to 
 reports of the annual demonstrations. See, for instance, the issue for June 
 30, 1897. 
 
 145 I 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 1. These "qualifications," etc., prove nothing, except thai 
 the assertions contained in them are made and pubUshed. 
 They are not axiomatic statements, and do not contain the 
 evidence of their ow^n truth. 
 
 2. ParUamentary Committees, Royal Commissions, Protes- 
 tant statesmen, judges, historians, etc., who are best acquainted 
 with the history of Orangeism have, with practical unanimity, 
 condemned these professions of piety and loyalty as misleading. 
 
 3. The century-old contrast between the official pro- 
 fessions and the official practices of the Orange body furnishes 
 the most cogent grounds for assuming that these professions 
 serve to cloak designs which the leaders of the association 
 find it inconvenient to openly avow. 
 
 IS NOT GOLD. 
 
 Lord Gosford, a Protestant, who for forty years had wit- 
 nessed the proceedings of the Orange society in Armagh and 
 Tyrone,® said, in his examination before the Parliamentary 
 Selecft Committee of 1835: " There was no doubt of the facfl, 
 if what he had seen of the rules of the society was corredl, ht 
 could say that their pra6lices differed greatly from their rules in 
 several instances, and that their condiiCl had been diametrically 
 opposed to those rules in many instances."^ This was the opinion 
 of most of the witnesses examined by the same Committee. 
 Lord Gosford said later on that in the " qualifications," etc., of 
 the Orangemen, " there appears a great deal which is good 
 Christian charity ; but they are not always adhered to in 
 pradlice."'" The opinion of the Parliamentary Seledt Com- 
 mittee of 1835, formed after long and exhaustive inquiry, 
 was expressed in the following terms in iheu Report : 
 
 " If the objedts of the Orange lodges were to be judged 
 by the moral qualification required by any person before he 
 can be admitted a member, there would be little objecftion to 
 them. [The 'qualifications' are here given.] But your 
 Committee are of opinion that the charadier and proceedings of the 
 Orange society ought not to be tried by a mere reference to their 
 professions, inasmuch as the conduct of that society, and the results 
 which have ensued from their measures, are at variance with the 
 OSTENSIBLE objeCts held out by their rides and ordinances.'"^^ Sir 
 Frederick Stoven, Inspecftor-General of Constabulary, and a 
 Protestant, deposed before the Parliamentary Committee of 
 
 8He was son of the Earl of Gosford, whose speech on the early Orange 
 outrages is given in chap, iv., supra, pp. 72-73. 
 
 ^Minutes of Evidence, Q. 3546. CT. Qq. 3713,3945. 3961, 4000,4519,4630. 
 
 ioibid.. Q. 393S. 
 
 ^i Report of Seled Committee (English) on Orange lodges. 
 
 146 
 
THE QUALIFICATIONS. 
 
 1835, that the conducft of Orangemen was "the reverse of 
 their professions."'^ 
 
 The Royal Commission of Inquiry into the great Belfast 
 riots of 1857 confirmed the opinion formed by the Parliamentary 
 Committee of 1835, and proved that in the meantime Orangeism 
 had not changed its spots, " In pracftice," said the Commis- 
 sioners' Report, " it [the Orange Society] is not as in the letter 
 of its constitution."'^ A practically similar verdicft was 
 reached by the other Royal Commissioners who were appointed 
 to inquire into the scenes of secftarian riot, plunder, bloodshed, 
 and loss of life, which drew the eyes of the astonished British 
 world on the two great centres of Orange life and adiivity, 
 Belfast and Derry, in 1864, i86g, 1883, and 1886. 
 
 The Edinburgh Review of January, 1836, has the following, 
 in an article based on the evidence laid before the Parliamentary 
 Committee of the previous year; " Never did any society ex- 
 hibit such a glaring inconsistency, rather such a positive contradic- 
 tion between its professed principles and its adiual practice. The 
 pracftice of the society was to resort to every contrivance to 
 insult, to domineer over, to offend, to irritate their Roman 
 Catholic neighbours." The "basis of the institution," quoted 
 above, declares that they will not admit anyone to membership 
 who would " upbraid any man on account of his religious 
 opinions." " That is ridiculous," said an Ulster Protestant 
 magistrate, Mr. James Sinclair, D.L., before the Irish Selecft 
 Committee of 1835." 
 
 An English Protestant writer of some note, Rev. William 
 Nassau Molesworth, deals as follows with the pious professions 
 of the Orange association : " Nothing, apparently, could be 
 more unobjecflionable than the rules of this vast organisation. 
 They breathed a spirit of moderation and toleration that was 
 quite edifying. The members of the association were required 
 to swear to ' defend the king and his heirs 50 long as they support 
 the Protestant ascendency.' The objecfts of the association are 
 stated to be 'exclusively Protestant, but at the same time most 
 tolerant in spirit,' An Orangeman's qualifications are ' faith, 
 piety, courtesy, and compassion.' He must be 'sober, honest, 
 wise, and prudent.' He must love rational society, 'and hate 
 swearing.' Such was the ideal Orangeman, as portrayed by 
 the founders of the institution. But the adtual living Orange- 
 man was a widely different creature. The usual place of 
 meeting was the public-house, where political prayers were 
 
 '^^Minutes of Evidence, Qq. 4628, 4630. 
 ''■^Report, pp. 10, II. 
 ^^Mimites of Evidence, Q. 4973. 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 offered up, and various religious ceremonies gone through, in 
 a manner that the habits, education, and feehngs of the 
 majority of the members of these societies will enable the 
 reader to imagine." The same writer goes on to describe the 
 "stupid bigotry" of "these mischievious marplots;" their 
 fanatical hatred of, and senseless msults to, Catholics , the 
 fury with which they opposed " every attempt made by 
 English statesmen to apply to Ireland the most elementary 
 principles of civil and religious liberty;" and "the great 
 national scale" of the evils produced by their pernicious 
 association.^** 
 
 It would be easy to multiply expressions of opinions such 
 as those here given, but enough has been said to throw the 
 most serious a priori doubts on the truth and sincerity of the 
 professions which the leaders of the Orange society from time 
 to time plead as a set-off to the ugly array of serious crimes 
 and misdemeanours of which the Orange society has been found 
 guilty by such competent tribunals as Royal Commissions and 
 Selecft Parliamentary Committees of Inquiry. Such appeals to 
 the " qualifications of an Orangeman" must be regarded rather 
 as an effort to catch the crowd, than to convince people who 
 read and reason. The course of this chapter will show that 
 the language habitually used at such demonstrations furnishes 
 by itself alone conclusive evidence that Orangemen themselves 
 do not take their "qualifications" seriously. 
 
 DEMONSTRATIONS. 
 
 The typical twelfth of July Orange demonstration,^* as 
 contemplated by the society, and carried out in Ulster, consists 
 of two leading features : 
 
 1. The oratorical display, consisting of sermons, speeches, 
 toasts, etc. 
 
 2. What may be termed the theatrical display, which 
 consists mainly of public processions, with the use of party 
 emblems and colours, party tunes and cries, etc. In the course 
 of the next two chapters abundant reference will be made to 
 
 ^5 Hist, of England, vol. i., pp. 378-379- 
 
 i^The Orange rule books, etc., term the twelfth of July "the anniver- 
 sary of the battle of the Boyne." The battle was fought, not on the i2th, 
 but on the ist of July, 1690. Any celebrations of the event that may have 
 taken place must have been held on the ist of July, until 1752, the year in 
 which England tardily adopted Pope Gregory XIII. 's reformed Julian 
 calendar. According to the Gregorian calendar, 12th July, new style, 
 corresponds with ist July, old style. In seleding 12th July for their 
 anniversary, Orangemen are paying a perhaps unconscious tribute to the 
 memory of a great and good Pope, whom their orators would denounce as 
 the Man of Sin. Compare Lecky, Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, vol. 
 iii., char>. viii., p. 427, and note. 
 
 148 
 
ORANGE ORATORY. 
 
 the methods and the results of this chief feature in the celebra- 
 tion of Orange anniversaries.^' 
 
 The oratorical display of Australian Orangeism sufficiently 
 exhibits : 
 
 (a) The violent contrast that exists between the official 
 professions and the official practices of the lodges ; and 
 
 (b) The general spirit and drift of the institution. 
 
 The oratorical display is, practically in every instance, so 
 conducfled as to be to the last degree offensive to the most 
 cherished beliefs and sentiments of Catholics. And this it is 
 plainly intended to be. I purpose dealing with this feature of 
 the annual July carnival by itself alone, and apart from the 
 historic associations which, as the reader will see in the course 
 of the next chapter, form a chief ground of irritation to a large 
 and peaceable secflion of the community. 
 
 In the eighteenth chapter of his Vanity Fair, Thackeray 
 says : " One of the great conditions of anger and hatred is, 
 that you must tell and believe lies against the hated objecft, in 
 order to be consistent." This caustic remark of the great 
 satirist finds a telling illustration in the sermons and speeches 
 which are delivered from the Orange pulpit and platform each 
 succeeding July, and which generally find their way to a wider 
 public through the columns of the country press. The staple 
 of these discourses consists of: 
 
 I. Attacks, frequently of great virulence, on the Catholic 
 Church. Her dodlrines and pracSlices are every year seriously 
 misrepresented and held up to ridicule, contempt, and hatred. 
 
 II. Attacks on the Catholic body. The Catholic popula- 
 tion are set forth in globo, as being, by reason of their religion, 
 untrustworthy, rebellious, disloyal, bloodthirsty, and, generally, 
 highly undesirable citizens. Large classes of them — and 
 especially the parochial clergy and the religious orders of men 
 and women — are charged with the habitual commission of 
 crimes of the gravest, and frequently of the most revolting, 
 charaifler. 
 
 To gain an adequate idea of the vindidlive characfter of 
 these periodical onslaughts on the Catholic Church and the 
 Catholic body, one must perforce recur (i) to the sources of 
 their inspiration, as well as to (2) the lodge organs in which 
 they are gathered together from the four winds of heaven. 
 
 (i) The sources from which those platform invecftives are 
 drawn are almost invariably the demi-monde of the newspaper 
 press, and the lowest class of No-Popery literature : the leaflets, 
 tra(fts, treatises, controversial catechisms, " awful disclosures," 
 
 I'^See chapter x., infra, note 73 and text, for remarks on Orange pro- 
 cessions in the Australian colonies. 
 
 149 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 convent " horrors," " abominations," etc., which circulate 
 freely in the lodges, and serve to nourish and intensify the 
 fiery odium theologicuni of the Orange association. The particu- 
 lar forms of No-Popery "shockers" which find most favour in 
 the lodges possess the two characfleristics which distinguish 
 the literature of Exeter Hall : {a) the crude style, or, rather, the 
 complete absence of style, which marks the schoolboy's 
 "penny dreadful "j^*^ {b) a peculiarly fierce, and too frequently 
 coarse, virulence against the Catholic body. The pens which 
 wrote them might have been dipped in gall and assafcetida. 
 
 (2). We naturally turn to the reports of such papers as the 
 Vidtorian Standard when we wish to get an idea of the characSlei 
 of the utterances which fall from the Orange pulpit and plat- 
 form. The reader should, however, bear in mind the ia.61 that 
 many of these reports are the carefully expurgated versions 
 which have already appeared in the country press. Neverthe- 
 less, the July and August numbers of the Vi6torian Standard 
 give a good general effedl: of the temper of the mass of Orange 
 speakers. A perusal of the reports, notes, and articles, 
 which appeared in it since its inception, would enable the non- 
 Orange reader to form an idea — although a very inadequate 
 one — of the cornucopia of vituperation which has been poured 
 out upon the Catholic population of one small colony, by one 
 society, in the course of fourteen years. In estimating the 
 spirit and drift of the association, the utterances of the July 
 
 i^This lack of literary quality is peculiarly notable in the prose, and 
 still more in the "poetry" written by Orangemen for Orangemen. The 
 reader is referred to the columns of the Victorian Standard, to "Ulster- 
 man's" Rise and Progress of Orangeism, and to the various colledtions of 
 more or less doggerel Orange songs. The laureate of the lodges was one 
 Mr. Robert Young ("Old True Blue") who published a volume of Orange 
 "poems" in the sixties. Among the gems of his poetic fancy is one in 
 which he tunes his lyre to sing of the day 
 
 "When William's eighteen thousand men 
 Crushed ]3.mes' s five-and-twenty ." 
 
 Another of his "poems," I remember, had at the end of each verse 
 this soul-stirring refrain : 
 
 "Tow, row, row, row, row." 
 
 Through some high influence "Old True Blue" contrived to get a 
 pension of £i\o a year from the Literary Fund, and, of all others, from the 
 scholarly translator of Homer, Lord Derby, who must never have read a 
 line of the lodge laureate's songs. The grant in question led to a lively 
 little debate in the House of Commons in or about 1867. In anticipation 
 of the debate, all available copies of Young's poems were secured, by his 
 friends, so that the members of the House should not be able to procure 
 any. The London Morning Star of that date had some scathing articles on 
 the degradation to which the recipients of the Literary Fund, writers of 
 the highest eminence, had been subjeded. Lord Derby admitted that he 
 did not know the charader of Young's "poetry" when he granted the 
 pension. 
 
 150 
 
ORANGE ORATORY. 
 
 platform cannot be passed lightly over. It is, moreover, for- 
 tunate for the cause of truth that these annual displays betray 
 the members of this dark-lantern organisation into a public 
 avowal of its real character. Skolastikos, the Greek Joe 
 Miller, carried a brick to the market-place of Athens as a 
 sample of the house he wanted to sell. The limits of space 
 will permit me to give only such small scraps of July in- 
 ve(5live. I selecft, for preference, certain stock phrases or 
 ideas which have been used by scores of speakers and writers 
 besides those to whom they are here referred. 
 
 WHIFFS FROM BILLINGSGATE. 
 
 I. The Catholic Chuvch. — It is an article of faith in the 
 lodges that the Church of Rome is the Scarlet Woman of 
 Revelations. This view of the Catholic Church takes the place 
 of a first principle with the Victorian Standard, the organ of the 
 lodges of the colony of Vicftoria. Every succeeding July it 
 finds expression in Orange pulpits or on Orange platforms. At 
 the Beaufort demonstration in 1895 the subjedl: was handled 
 by a Primitive Methodist clergyman in what a Protestant 
 newspaper terms "very strong" language. The preacher 
 referred in terms of high panegyric to a book of a peculiarly 
 acrimonious charadler, the whole purpose of which is to 
 establish the identity of the Church of Rome with the Mistress 
 of Abominations. " Orangemen," said the speaker, " could 
 establish no better fund than for circulating this book 
 widely."'" He declared that " Romanism is nothing more 
 than baptised paganism" (this is a favourite expression in the 
 Orange pulpit) ; that it has "dethroned Christ;" that it is a 
 mass of idolatry, gross superstition, and of moral rottenness 
 "that can't be referred to." When Romanism is destroyed 
 off the face of the earth "a great shout of joy," said the 
 preacher, "shall go up, so that even the angels in heaven 
 shall join therein." A favourite text makes Rome — the 
 Scarlet Woman— "drunk with the blood of the saints."^" "She 
 is the Romish tiger,"^' "the Roman octopus, "^^ "the harlot 
 Church. "^'^ "Vampire" is a favourite epithet for Rome. 
 According to the Victorian Standard of July 31, 1896, it was 
 used at the Melbourne demonstration by Grand Chaplain 
 Heathershaw, coupled with another pretty title — " a vixenish 
 Jezabel." But there are deeper depths in Rome; for, say the 
 
 ^^The Riponshive Advocate (Beaufort, Vic), July 20, 1895. 
 "^^Ibid., and Victorian Standard reports, Jul)' and Kngusi, passim. 
 ^^Victorian Standard, July 3, 1SS5. 
 
 ^''Ihid., January i, 1886, p. 6; May, 1893, p. 6 (editorial). 
 •^^Ibid., May, 1893, p. 6 (editorial). 
 
 151 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 brethren, she is "a bad leaven in society ;"^^ she is Hkewise 
 "the Church of the Apostate, "^^ " the mother of ignorance, 
 superstition, and degradation i"^" and, like the monstrous odto- 
 pus that she is, her " suckers are draining the land of its 
 courage, its vitality, and its self-respecSt."^'' The full chorus of 
 the brethren cry, fortissimo, that she is " the harlot of Baby- 
 lon."-® At an Orange demonstration in Maryborough (Vic- 
 toria) a Rev, Bro. W. Burridge (the "strong" speakers are 
 generally " reverend") is reported to have charadlierised the 
 Catholic Church as " the deadly enemy of truth-speaking; she 
 made provision for falsehood;" and with her certain falsehoods 
 " are permissible and highly meritorious." Other speakers 
 and writers refer to the Catholic Church as " the bottomless 
 pit of Rome."^^ 
 
 At the Maryborough (Vidtoria) Orange anniversary of 1892 
 the Rev. Mr. Mathieson (a Wesleyan minister) is reported to 
 have said that the Catholic Church was " a corrupt system of 
 Christianity, and Orangemen would do all in their power to 
 prevent the advancement of that corrupt Christianity."^" Else- 
 where she is described as only "a nominally Chrisiidi-n Church."*' 
 These ideas of the Church of Rome are apparently not 
 sufficiently "advanced" for the large body of Orange orators 
 and writers who define Romanism as " nothing more than 
 baptised paganism." Rev. S. H. Ferguson essayed a still 
 bolder flight at the Melbourne Orange anniversary of 1891. 
 He said: "I deny that the Church of Rome is a se6t of the 
 Christian Church at all, and the Church of Rome denies it also. "■''■' 
 Deputy Grand Master R. T. Vale, M.L.A., is reported to have 
 said at an Orange demonstration in Ballarat that the principles 
 of the Catholic Church are confounded with pagan ones."' 
 The Grand Chaplain of Victoria — a Primitive Methodist 
 clergyman — vigorously denounced " the half-paganised Church 
 of Rome" at an anniversary celebration in Melbourne; while 
 at Ballarat another reverend brother, according to the 
 Victorian Standard, repeated the favourite platform didlum 
 that "Romish" Christianity positively "encourages licentious- 
 
 "i^Ibid., August, 1891, p. 4. 
 ^^Ibid., September i, 1885, p. 3. 
 "^^Ibid., August, 1891. 
 ■^Uhid., May, 1893, p. 6 (editorial). 
 
 '^^Ibid., July, 1892, p. 10, and Victorian Standard, passhn. 
 ■ 29See, for instance, Victorian Standard, January, 1894, p. 10. 
 ^"Ibid., July 15, 1892. See also Maryborough and Dunolly Advertiser^ 
 July 15, 1892. 
 
 ^'^Victorian Standard, March, 1894, p. 3. 
 
 ^•^Ibid. (own report), August, 1891. 
 
 ^^Ibid., August, 1887, p. 8. , 
 
ORANGE ORATORY 
 
 ness."^* Deputy Grand Master R. T. Vale, M.L.A., said at 
 an Orange banquet given to Grand Master the Hon. S. Fraser : 
 " Roman Catholicism is synonymous with ignorance and 
 squalor. "^^ At the Melbourne Orange anniversary, in 1893, 
 Dean Macartney said that the Church of Rome is " the enemy 
 of human liberty," and that she "brings slavery to mind and 
 body, to the individual and the nation."^'' Mr. Clements 
 improved on this at the Richmond (Vi(5foria) July demon- 
 stration. "Roman slavery," said he, "is worse than black 
 slavery."^' "The Papacy," said Mr. James Stewart, "is the 
 greatest curse that ever fell upon the human race."^® Another 
 Orange platform enthusiast, at Portland (Vi(ftoria), described 
 the Catholic Church as " setting at defiance all principles of 
 justice and good government ;"^^ while one of the limping 
 " poets" of the Vidorian Standard is satisfied that " Satan and 
 Popery walk hand in hand."''" The Contemporary Review for 
 August, 1896 (p. 227), gives the following extracfls from an 
 Ulster Orange ditty, in which the Catholic Church is thus 
 apostrophised : 
 
 "Scarlet Church of all uncleanness, 
 
 Sink thou to the deep abyss. 
 To the orgies of obsceneness. 
 
 Where the hell-bound furies hiss; • 
 Where thy father Satan's eye 
 
 May hail thee, blood-stained Papacy ! 
 
 " Harlot ! cease thy midnight rambles 
 
 Prowling for the life of saints, 
 Henceforth sit in hellish shambles 
 
 Where the scent of murder taints 
 Every gale that passeth by — 
 
 Ogre, ghoul of Papacy ! " 
 
 The columns of the Vicflorian lodge organ furnish many 
 specimens of this school of poesy. A Past Grand Master, 
 quoted by the Vi6iorian Standard of January 5, 1885, declare? 
 that the Catholic Church "breeds treachery" and that 
 "treachery is made duty" by her (p. 5). A thousand voices 
 proclaim that the Church of Rome is the sworn enemy of the 
 Bible, of popular education, of science, of progress, and that 
 
 ^^Ibid., July 31, 1896. 
 
 ^5 Ibid., May, 1894, p. 6. 
 
 3 6 Ibid.. July, 1893. 
 
 ^^Ibid. 
 
 sslbid., January, 1885. 
 
 ^^Ibid., August, 1892, p. 7. 
 
 ^'^Ibid., April 30, 1897, p. 14. 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 she is by nature and necessity a persecutor. We likewise 
 learn (vide infra) from the Orange press and platform that 
 Catholics are taught that it is no murder to kill Protestants; 
 that the Church of Rome lives on in hopes of one day "setting 
 her engines of death in motion" against them ; and that " all 
 her priests are sworn to use the sword" for their extermina- 
 tion. 
 
 " Wherever Catholicism exists," said a " Worshipful 
 Master" at Benalla, "there, no matter [in] what country, is 
 need for Orangeism, (Cheers). "^^ The effec5l of this declara- 
 tion was somewhat marred by a subsequent statement by the 
 same speaker, to the effedt that there were too many " Micks" 
 and "Pats" [Catholics] in the Public Service of the colony. 
 "At least we think so,'' said the speaker, "and this is the reason 
 ivhy Orangeism exists in Victoria. (Loud cheers)." The reader 
 will in due course see that the brethren's appreciation of what 
 is termed "an open Bible" is coupled in Victoria, as well as in 
 Belfast and Derry, with a peculiarly keen relish for the lion's 
 share of the offices of honor and emolument in the gift of public 
 bodies or of the Government of the day. 
 
 LOVE AND HATE IN HARNESS. 
 
 In the reports of Orange demonstrations, gushing profes- 
 sions of "love" for Roman Catholics are, with apologetic 
 intent, occasionally mingled with expressions such as the 
 following: "We hate Roman Catholicism," says the Rev. 
 Bro. Brown at Horsham ; ^^ " we hate the [Roman Catholic] 
 system," exclaimed Deputy Grand Master Wheeler at Pad- 
 dington (N.S.W.) ;^« "we hate Popery," said Rev. S. H. 
 Ferguson at the Melbourne Orange anniversary of 1891.^* 
 And so on of many others whose words lie before the writer of 
 these pages.- At the Kyneton demonstration in 1891 one of 
 the speakers said : " Orangemen firmly believe that it is their 
 duty to oppose the extension of that [the Catholic] Church."^-' 
 The same idea is stated to have been still more frankly 
 expressed at the Melbourne anniversary in 1893, by Deputy 
 Grand Master R. T. Vale, M.L.A. : " Is it not sheer 
 hypocrisy," this ex-Minister of the Crown is reported to have 
 said, " for us to try and hide the faiH: that the object of our exist- 
 ence is opposition to the Church of Rome ? "■"' "That organisation," 
 said Brother Baker, at Kyneton, "we Orangemen oppose ivith all 
 
 ^1-Ibid., August, 1888, p. 9. 
 
 ^■^Ibid. 
 
 ^^Ibid., September i, 18S5, p 5. 
 
 *^^Ibtd., August, 1891. 
 
 ^5 Ibid. 
 
 ^^Ibid., July, 1893. 
 
ORANGE ORATORY. 
 
 Ihe energy we possess." " The motto of a score of Orange speakers, 
 including Revs. S. H. Ferguson and D. Parker, runs thus : 
 " Our watchword is : ' No peace with Rome! ' "^* And so on and 
 on, through all the varied moods and tenses of insult and 
 vituperation. 
 
 ''L'Eglise: voila T etmemi! " This is the cry in which, with 
 heart and voice, the Orangeman joins with the French infidel 
 — content that revelation should suffer so long as Rome should 
 suffer too. 
 
 A devil's dance. 
 
 Creed and Ritual. — The speakers and writers who furnish 
 what passes current for literature in the Orange lodges have 
 evidently decided that it is not necessary to possess even a 
 rudimentary acquaintance with the Catholic dodtrines and 
 observances which they attack. To them, none the less, the 
 creed and ritual of the overwhelming majority of Christians 
 are a bottomless pit of seething " errors," " superstitions," 
 "abominations," and all uncleanness. This is a fundamental 
 article of faith which no Orangeman who is "in earnest" will 
 presume to doubt. Around these epithets there whirls and 
 eddies a devil's dance of fiery adjei5\ives — " abominable," 
 "monstrous," "detestable," "soul-destroying," "degrading," 
 "pestiferous," "ghoulish," "hellish," "devilish," "fiendish," 
 etc. A score of mouths denounce " the barbarous rites of 
 Rome."*" Past Grand Master Col. Evans assured his hearers, 
 with ungrammatical lips, that " the peculiar ethics of Rome 
 debauches (sic) human character, "^° The Vidorian Standard 
 says in a sub-leader :®^ " The Christianity of the Romanist 
 consists in incessant formalism . . and hatred of his 
 Protestant neighbours and the British Government." Rev. 
 S. H. Ferguson has apparently a very low estimate of the 
 sincerity of even devout Catholics. He is reported to have 
 said that their devotion "is simply paper devotion, and only 
 on the surface ; it is not from the heart. "^'^ 
 
 That consoling Catholic rite, the Sacrament of Penance, 
 fujrnishes a topic on which the imagination of certain un- 
 educated Orange clergy of the minor churches runs riot in 
 charges and innuendos of coarse vulgarity against the Catholic 
 clergy and laity. Under the thin pretence of protesting against 
 
 ^''IbiiL, August, 1 89 1. 
 ^^Ibid.. July 3, 1885; August, 1891. 
 *9See, for instance, Victorian Standard, January, 1885. 
 ^°Ibid. 
 
 ^^Ibid., January, 1894, p. 6. 
 
 52At the Melbourne Orange Anniversary, 1891 {Victorian Standard, 
 August, 1891). 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 certain treatises that are meant for, and restri(51:ed exclusively 
 to, private professional use, some of them dwell inordinately, 
 in public, and before mixed assemblies, on descriptions of what 
 they fancy would happen if the Sacrament of Penance were to 
 be grossly and flagrantly abused. A sense of common decency 
 forbids the transferring of extracfls on this subjedl to these 
 pages. I will only refer, in passing, to a series of prurient 
 " le(5lures" delivered in the colonies on this topic, under 
 Orange auspices, some years ago. They are, in effecft, an 
 attack of coarse brutality on the virtue of every Catholic 
 woman and girl who is faithful in the discharge of her most 
 sacred religious observances. The nature of these " lecflures" 
 may be inferred from the following facft : In the advertising 
 columns of a Melbourne paper, now before the writer, these 
 " ledtures" are offered for sale among a list of publications that 
 are considered by many persons who are competent to judge, 
 to be unfit reading for any respecftable man or virtuous woman. 
 In the advertising columns of a paper circulating extensively 
 among the lodges, and now before the writer of these pages, 
 the same disgusting attacks on the most sacred religious 
 practices of Catholics, have been offered as a premium to the 
 brethren throughout Vicftoria. The publication is of a kind 
 that one should handle only with a pair of tongs.'" 
 
 From the rank vulgarity of these press and platform out- 
 rages on the feelings of Catholics I turn to the "qualifications" 
 which every lodge candidate is (on paper) supposed to possess as 
 a condition for memhersJiip of the society. ^^ We read : " An Orange- 
 man should . . . cultivate truth and justice, brotherly kindness 
 and chanty . . . ever abstaining from all uncharitable words, 
 anions, or sentiments towards his Roman Catholic brethren.'" 
 Brethren! Here again we have " Fi'aternite comme Cain avec son 
 frere" — the brotherly love which Cain showed to Abel. 
 
 ^•'In 1867 serious disturbances were caused in England by a similar 
 series of coarse "leftures," which were delivered, under Orange auspices, 
 by an itinerant adventurer named Murphy. The mayor of Birmingham 
 refused Mnrphy the use of the town-hall for his tirades. The "ledlures" 
 were then delivered in a wooden building eredled for the purpose by the 
 Orange and other supporters of Murphy. The "ledlures" were printed 
 and sold in thousands. Serious riots ensued. The military were called 
 out, the Riot Adt read, and for two or three days Birmingham was in an 
 uproar. Murphy and the Orange party persisted in this "mischievous 
 agitation," and riots broke out in other parts ot England where he 
 appeared. "The pamphlet was ultimately seized under Lord Campbell's 
 Adl for suppressing indecent publications, and many thousand copies of it 
 were destroyed." Rev. W. Nassau Molesworth, Hist, of England, vol. iii., 
 pp. 325-327- 
 
 •''*The Rules of all the Orange societies say: "The Master and 
 members of any lodge must satisfy themselves, previous to his [the candi 
 date's] admission, that he possesses the following qualifications." 
 
ORANGE ORATORY. 
 
 THE GRAND OLD ENEMY. 
 
 II. The Catholic body. — (i) The Clergy. — On the Catholic 
 priesthood Orange speakers launch forth the full-charged vials 
 of their wrath. It would appear, from the utterances of the 
 Orange press, pulpit, and platform, that all the deep and highly 
 variegated " abominations of the Church of Rome" exist in an 
 extremely concentrated and virulent form in the person of the 
 Pope. He is, par excellence, the Man of Sin. He is " a 
 spiritual tyrant," say a score of angry voices;^® "a tyrannical 
 Herod " quoth Grand Chaplain Heathershaw on the Mel- 
 bourne July platform.^^ At a July anniversary in Perth 
 (W.A.), a Rev. Mr. Dunstan is reported to have assured his 
 hearers that " the Pope not only sold his forgiveness for 
 sins committed in the past, but even [sold] his pevmission and 
 forgiveness for sins to be committed in the future, according to the 
 price paid."" At the Melbourne anniversary of 1895, ^ Rev. T. 
 J. Malyon — with the help of a few apocryphal extradfs — 
 made the Pope claim to be no less a being than Almighty God 
 Himself P^ According to the Victorian Standard, his efforts won 
 him "a salvo of applause. "^^ A year later, on the same plat- 
 form, Grand Chaplain Heathershaw averred that the Pope 
 claims equality with God, but that, nevertheless, the Man of 
 Sin somehow contrives to make the Almighty " take a back 
 seat."^° Catholics would deem it a shocking blaspemy to ad- 
 dress the occupant of the Roman See as "our Lord God the 
 Pope;" but the editor of the Vidlorian Standard, and quite a 
 little host of whooping orators who take their inspiration 
 from the same founts, are agreed that such a title is conferred 
 by those unspeakable Papists on " Signor Pecci" and his pre- 
 decessors.®^ The ancient ceremony of homage, kissing the 
 cross on the sandal of the " Son of Perdition" was made the 
 aubjedl: of strong invecftive by a Presbyterian clergyman, Rev. 
 M. G. Hart, at an Orange demonstration held in Maryborough 
 (Vidloria), in 1887. The speaker is reported to have said that 
 he " would sooner kiss a pig's toe than the Pope's.""^ 
 
 ssE.g., Rev. S. H. Ferguson, Vtctoriafi Stayidard, August, 1891. 
 
 ^^Victonan Standard, July 31, 1896. 
 
 ^''Victorian Standard, August, 1892. 
 
 S8A complete exposure of this extraordinary story will be found in 
 Rev. Sydney F. Smith's pamphlet, Does the Pope claim to be God? It is 
 published by the Catholic Truth Society, London. 
 
 ^^ Victorian Standard, July 30, 1895. 
 
 «°Ibid.. July 31, 1896. 
 
 ^iSee, for instance, Victorian Standard editorial, May, 1893, p. 6. The 
 "Signor Pecci" so often referred to by the Sta>idard is Pope Leo XIII. 
 
 ^^Maryborough and Dunolly Advertiser, July 13, 1887. Kissing of the 
 feet was an Oriental custom which spread to the West. It was given to 
 emperors, patriarchs, bishops, and the Pope. Late in the middle ages the 
 
 157 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 The use of the term " Papist" was expressly forbidden as 
 offensive by the 50th of Queen Elizabeth's Injundions of 
 1559. It is employed, as an insulting epithet, throughout the 
 whole Penal Code of William of Orange, Anne, and the 
 Georges. It is to this day the most opprobrious epithet in the 
 vocabulary of an Orangeman, and is used only when the dead- 
 liest insult is intended. "^^ One of the favourite party-tunes of 
 the Ulster lodges is: " We'll kick the Pope before us." Their 
 traditional cry is : " To hell with the Pope!" 
 
 The most shocking instance of coarse abuse of the Pope 
 which has ever come under the writer's notice is a paean of 
 rejoicing at the death of Pius IX. It is written, of course, by a 
 clergyman (a Rev. D. T. Taylor), is reprinted at the office of the 
 Victorian Standard, and circulated among the lodges, and 
 (occasionally at least) among public institutions, in Vicftoria. 
 It opens with the words : " The Pope is dead. Amen. 
 Hallelujah !" The writer describes the amiable and saintly 
 old Pontiff as a " huge impostor," a "gigantic humbug," " an 
 immoral fashionable fop," a libertine, "a spiritual tyrant," "an 
 endless beggar and ceaseless bore," a " cheat," " a miser," a 
 "conspirator," "a liar," a gambler, "a curse to mankind," 
 " this beast,'' " Antichrist," the " Man of Sin," " the mystery 
 of iniquity," "the Wicked One" [the Devil], " a producfl of 
 Satan's working," the " Abomination of earth," etc., etc. The 
 reverend writer states dogmatically that Pius IX. is gone to 
 "Hades," and concludes 134 closely-printed lines with the 
 prayer : " May a merciful Heaven rid the earth of the last 
 vestige of a Pope of Rome. Amen." Some of this clergy- 
 man's language is of so coarse a nature that I dare not transfer 
 it to these pages. 
 
 CLERGY, CONVENTS, ETC. 
 
 The remainder of the Catholic clergy are denounced as 
 rapacious, rebellious, traitorous, tyrannical, etc.;"^ they are " a 
 brutal and ignorant priesthood ;"''^ their pet policy to " to keep 
 the masses in ignorance ;"'''' they are " trading on the ignorance 
 of the people," said Mr. J. B. Patterson, M.L.A., and others.^' 
 In Ireland, in recent years, the Catholic priesthood have, 
 we are assured, given " a diredl encouragement" to murder. '^^ 
 
 custom fell gradually into disuse, and was at last confined to the Pope. 
 The cross on the sandal is kissed to show that "this honour was done, not 
 to the mortal, bnt to the Son of God." Kraus, Encyclopaedia of Archeology. 
 
 ^'^Contemporary Review, August, 1896, p. 226. 
 
 ^'^Victorian Standard, August, 1893; June, 1885, p. 7, o.nd passim. 
 
 '"'^Ibid., leader, August, 1893, p. 6. 
 
 ""'^Ibid., February, 1894, P- 6 (leader). 
 
 ''''Ibid., August, 1887, p. 5. 
 ^^Ibid., February, 1894, p. 5. 
 
 158 
 
ORANGE ORATORY. 
 
 Loyal Orange lodge No. 9 (Melbourne) showed its pra<ftical 
 sympathy with a priest's traducers when it voted £1 2s. 
 towards the costs of the Launceston Daily Telegraph, the 
 proprietors of which had been compelled to pay £\^o damages 
 for a serious libel on Father Coveney, of Dunmanway, Co. 
 Cork, Ireland."^ An editorial paragraph in the Victorian 
 Standard for January, 1895, i^eferred to priests as '^libidinous 
 brutes." The Boyne issue of the same paper for 1886 contains 
 (p. 4) the following outrageous statement : " Public celibacy is 
 private wickedness." It is aimed at the Catholic clergy ; but 
 it is, in effecft, a gross imputation on the virtue of every 
 unmarried man and woman — Catholic and Protestant, Jew 
 and Orange — from East to West, and from the North Pole to 
 the South, 
 
 (b) Convents. — The gross imagination of the Orange orator 
 and writer runs riot on what is termed the "conventual 
 system of the Church of Rome." Here the clergy have the 
 floor almost to themselves, and^before mixed audiences — they 
 fling themselves with the perspiring vigor of dancing dervishes 
 into all the wild and screaming gyrations of anti-convent 
 rhetoric. One of the itinerant Orange preachers, a certain 
 Rev. T. J. Malyon, is reported by the Maryborough Standard of 
 July 13, 1897, to have referred to English convents as places 
 where women " are kept prisoners at the mercy of a celibate 
 clergy, who have power, unless their behests are obeyed, 
 to inflicfl on these hapless and helpless vicftims torture 
 under the name of penance." I owe the reader an apology 
 for having inflicfted on him even this mildest of doses 
 of Orange anti-convent oratory. A sense of common 
 decency forbids my placing before him any of the more 
 highly- concentrated and nauseous samples which I have 
 met with in rank abundance in the course of my weary 
 
 ^^Ibid., August, 1891. The libel consisted in the publication, by the 
 Launceston Daily Telegraph, in 1891, of a statement that he had "prayed 
 that God Almighty might bless the hand that murdered Police-Inspedtor 
 Martin at Gweedore." Rev. George Clark, Congregational minister, Vice- 
 Chancellor of the University of Tasmania, and Very Rev. A. N. Mason, 
 Anglican Archdeacon of Hobart, testified that "such a charge, if true, 
 would unfit the accused for his sacred office, and, if believed, would 
 irretrievably damage the reputation of any minister in Christendom." An 
 apology was refused, even after the .proprietor of the Daily Telegraph had 
 seen the apology tendered in open court in Ireland, for the very same libel, 
 by the London Standard. An offer made by Rev. J. O'Mahony, on behalf 
 of his absent friend, to accept an ample apology, £2.^, and costs as between 
 solicitor and client, was also scouted. An exclusively Protestant jury 
 awarded Father Coveney ;^i5o damages, and costs. In these circum- 
 stances Orangemen showed their pradtical sympathy for the vilification of 
 the Catholic priesthood. Launceston Morning Star, July 11, 1891. 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 journey through the malodorous realm of Orange "literature.' 
 In the notices, circulars, and placards issued by the Irish 
 Orange leaders in the eighties, the whole Nationalist party, 
 both Catholic and Protestant, were flung together in one 
 promiscuous bundle, and labelled " liars," " slanderers," 
 " rebels," " Fenians," " Socialistic rebels," " rebel con- 
 spirators," " rebels and murderers," " murderous butchers," 
 etc. An entertaining series of these war-whoops ap- 
 peared at the time in the columns of the Daily Ex- 
 press, the chief organ of the Irish lodges. A further in- 
 stalment of them are enshrined in the now too rare phamplet, Mr. 
 Healy's Loyalty phis Murder. A chief feature of the " literature" 
 of the lodges consists of lecftures and romances which, jn coarse 
 language and limping style, launch the most disgusting and 
 wholesale charges of phenomenal immorality, systematic 
 cruelty, torture, infanticide, murder, etc., against the devoted 
 bands of women who have consecrated their lives, without fee 
 or reward, to the cause of education, or to the care of the 
 leper, the sick, the blind, the aged poor, and the orphan. A 
 peculiarly bitter anti-convent romance. Nightshade, was written 
 by the notorious Irish Orange leader, Mr. William Johnston, in 
 1857, ^nd reprinted in 1895. ^^ September 29, 1886, the 
 Grand Committee of the Melbourne Grand Lodge passed the 
 following resolution : That, " in order to have Mrs. O'Gorman 
 Aviffray's [anti-convent] ledtures fully reported, a weekly issue 
 of the Victorian Standard should be printed and circulated 
 among the lodges."'" Urgent circulars were sent out to the 
 lodges by Grand Secretary Waugh and by the publisher 
 [Burford] , appealing to them to take up the matter " in a 
 proper spirit," " as we know what signal service this heroic 
 lady has rendered the cause of Protestantism [Orangeism ?] 
 wherever she has lectured. "'^ To this day the Vidorian 
 Standard office circulates among the lodges the old and oft- 
 exposed anti-convent romance, the Awful Disclosures,'''^ that have 
 been attributed to a poor half-witted Presbyterian named 
 Maria Monk, who spent a notable portion of her unhappy 
 career — where she also ended it — behind the iron doors of a 
 Canadian jail. The foulness of some of the anti-convent ficftion 
 
 '''^Victorian Standard, November 1, 1886, p. 7. The Victorian Standard 
 is published once a month. 
 
 ''''■Ibid. A complete refutation of this woman's wild tales, consisting 
 in great part of her own letters, was published in America on the occasion 
 of her first appearance on the leduring platform, and again at Dunedin 
 and Geelong, in 1886. 
 
 '^The exposure of the Maria Monk fraud will be found in The True 
 Story of Maria Monk, mainly a re-print of what appeared in the Dublin 
 Review of May, 1836. Catholic Truth Society. One penny. 
 
 160 
 
ORANGE ORATORY. 
 
 circulating among the lodges of these colonies is such that no 
 pure-minded man who uses soap and water would handle them 
 except with a pair of tongs and disinfecftants. Those who 
 print such literary garbage, or who (like the Orange lodges) 
 circulate it among young men and women, should be debarred 
 from all intercourse with decent society. The writer of these 
 pages can furnish abundant grounds for the opinion to which 
 he has just given such frank expression. In pradlically every 
 case in which Orange lecfturers and romancists fling abominable 
 charges at monastic institutions, they discreetly refrain from 
 giving names of persons or places, so as to baffle inquiry and 
 avoid the clutches of the law of libel.''* Zolaism will not die 
 so long as an Orange press survives. 
 
 But, if we are to believe the " qualifications," the Orange 
 society " will not admit into its brotherhood persons whom an 
 intolerant spirit leads to persecute or upbraid any man on 
 account of his religious opinions"; and an Orangeman should 
 " ever abstain from all uncharitable words, a(5tions, or [even] 
 sentiments towards his Roman Catholic brethren." 
 
 PEOPLE THAT WEAR HORNS. 
 
 2. Among the thousand and one faults which the twelfth 
 of July orators attribute to the Catholic laity the two most 
 conspicuous are : 
 
 [a) Disloyalty ; 
 
 Ip) Murderous propensities towards Protestants. 
 
 {a) Disloyalty. — Catholics, especially Irish Catholics, are 
 habitually termed " rebels," " rebels of the West and South."'* 
 " Steeped to the lips in treason" is a favourite phrase.'^ At 
 the Melbourne Orange anniversary of 1886, a well-known 
 
 ''•''In his issue of January, 1895, the editor of the Victorian Standard 
 departed from his usual custom, and incautiously gave names of places and 
 persons, detailing a shocking calumny against the Convent of SS. Joseph 
 and Theresa, at Naples. The proprietor was compelled, besides paying 
 costs, to publish the following in seledted portions of three issues of his 
 own paper, and of three consecutive Saturday's issues of the Argus and the 
 Age, beginning with June 15, 1895: 
 
 "In the January issue of our Journal, the Victorian Standard, we re- 
 printed from one of our exchanges a report of an alleged scandal, said to 
 have occurred at the Convent of St. Joseph and Theresa at Naples. We 
 have since been assured that the statements made are utterly false and 
 without foundation. We regret that the offending paragraph appeared in 
 this journal, and trust that this explanation may remove any feeling of 
 annoyance to the parties concerned. 
 
 C. W. BuRFORD, Publisher Victorian Standard." 
 
 ''^See, for instance, the Victorian Standard reports, etc., December 9, 
 1884, p. 4; May 2, 1885, p. 5; June 2, 1885, p. g; July, 1886, p. 10 ; August 
 2, 1886; July, 1892; January, 1894, p. 6; May, 1894, p. 3; June 30, 1S97 
 etc. 
 
 ''^Ibid., May 2, 1885, p. 5. 
 
 161 K 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 clergyman said : " There was but one thing recognised as a 
 crime among the Irish [Catholics] , and that was loyalty."'^ 
 The " basis of the institution" in the amended rules of the 
 Irish Grand Lodge, 1814, contains the following : " We shall 
 not persecute anyone on account of his religion, provided that 
 the same be not hostile to the State.'''' The Irish Orange secretary, 
 Swan, when asked by the Parliamentary Committee of 1835 if 
 he thought the Catholic religion " hostile to the State," honestly 
 answered : " I do." " Like the oaths, signs, election rules, 
 etc., the phrase marked above in italics has been quietly 
 omitted from Orange rule-books. The old words are gone, but 
 the old spirit still remains. The profession of the Catholic 
 religion was a crime in the eyes of Vicftorian Orangemen in 1896, 
 as it was, according to Lord Gosford, among their forerunners 
 in Ulster in 1796. There, by lodge law, part of the punish- 
 ment for being a Catholic was expulsion from hearth and 
 home. Here, belief in Transubstantion and the Primacy of 
 St. Peter raises a cry for exclusion from employment in the 
 service of the State. I need only refer to the Post-Office 
 Inquiry revelations for proof of this statement. 
 
 The French Communist's first principle is: "La propriete c'est 
 le vol " (property is theft) ; and he proceeds to help himself to 
 his neighbour's goods. "Catholics are traitors" is a first 
 principle of the Orange institution ; and they carry it into 
 pra(5tice by doing what lies in their power to make Vidloria 
 what the Corporations of Belfast and Derry have been almost 
 to the present day, as far as Orangemen could make them, 
 close preserves where Catholics were pradtically excluded from 
 representation and from a share in the public funds. The old 
 spirit of exclusiveness and party ascendency finds many an 
 exponent to this day on the Orange platform in Australia.''^ 
 It is part of the settled policy of the lodges in ihese colonies, 
 the leaders of which have time and again given expression 
 to opinions such as the following : no CathoHc " can be 
 trusted in the service of a Protestant State."" An article in 
 the Vidtorian Standard for January, 1895 (p. 4), has the 
 following : 
 
 " The Papists seek to secure posts of influence for them- 
 selves and their devotees, from a seat in the Government of the 
 nation and Empire, down to the lowest and most retiring 
 
 7 6/fc?i. (own report), August 2, 1886, p. 5. 
 
 ''''Minutes 0/ Evidence, Q. 1207. 
 
 7 8See Report of Melbourne Post Office Inquiry, in Preface. 
 
 ''^Victorian Standard, July, 1894, p. 7. This is a favourite topic with 
 the Orange organ. Catholic appointments of note in the public service are 
 a subjeft of comment in its columns, as for instance, the late Mr. Dowden's 
 appointment to the office of Public Librarian, Melbourne. 
 
 162 
 
ORANGE ORATORY. 
 
 situation, ivheve they may exercise theiv baneful influence. Let us 
 imitate their example, in courage, perseverance, and eagerness to 
 obtain such posts for Orangemen.''' 
 
 Reference has already been made, in the course of this 
 chapter, to the declaration of a " Worshipful Master " at 
 Benalla, that the great reason why Orangeism exists in 
 Vidloria is simply this : that they think there are too many 
 Catholics in the Public Service of the colony. This is 
 confirmed by an amended, single-sheet version of what is 
 termed the " Definition of Orangeism " now before the writer 
 of these chapters. It gives the following reason for the society 
 being a secret one : " We need a common centre around which 
 Protestants may rally, . . . more especially as in Canada, the 
 United States, and these colonies, the Civil Service is in the hands of 
 Irish Catholics.'' According, therefore, to the declaration of the 
 L.O.L. press and platform, a chief, if not the chief, purpose of 
 the societies in these colonies is to drive Catholics from the 
 Public Service, and to fill their places with Orangemen. 
 With such incitements from press and platform, is it any 
 wonder that the rude members of Orange lodges should 
 attempt, by unfounded charges, to drive their Catholic fellow- 
 employes from the service of the State ? 
 
 In a later chapter we shall see how the Parliamentary 
 Seledf Committee of 1835, in the interests of public safety, 
 recommended the urgent and immediate dismissal from the 
 British Public Service, not of Catholics, but of Orangemen ; 
 and how, in 1857, a Lord Chancellor of Ireland was forced, by 
 the scandalous conducft of the Orange magistracy of Ulster, to 
 issue an order that none of the brotherhood were to be 
 admitted in the future to the Commission of the Peace. 
 
 On the establishment of the first Orange lodges, in 1795, 
 the brethren, by systematic intimidation and violence, forced 
 Protestants in Ulster to dismiss their Catholic employes.**" To 
 the present day the antipathy of the lodges pursues the 
 Catholic poor, even into their private employments. As a rule, 
 where there is a choice, " no Papist need apply" to an Orange 
 employer. In its issue of (I think) January, 1895, theVi(ftorian 
 Standard published uncomplimentary stridlures on Catholic 
 domestic servants. The following thinly veiled request to 
 Protestant employers to deal specially with their Catholic 
 employes, appeared in a leader in the Belfast News-Letter of July 
 8, 1886, commenting on tne return of Mr. Sexton, the Home 
 Rule candidate, for West Belfast : 
 
 " The second lesson [of the contest] is perJuips more important 
 
 8®See chapter iv., supra. 
 
 163 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 [than the first.] ®^ The large employers of labour, the manufac- 
 turers, merchants, and traders of this great commercial centre, 
 now know their friends. ... As a rule, when men in emi- 
 nent and influential positions have discovered their friends, they begin 
 to feel that it is their duty, as well as their interest, to take care of 
 them.'" 
 
 But Orangemen solemnly assure us that it is part of the 
 very " basis of the institution" to rigidly exclude from the 
 brotherhood all " persons whom an intolerant spirit leads to 
 persecute, injure, or upbraid any man on account of his 
 religious opinions." Moreover, the public are asked to believe 
 that before a candidate is admitted to the Orange society the lodge 
 officers " must satisfy themselves" that he possesses the 
 following " qualification" in addition to a whole litany of 
 private and public virtues : that he will " ever'' [even at Orange 
 demonstrations] abstain from all uncharitable ivords, actions, 
 or [even] sentiments towards his Roman Catholic brethren.'' 
 Orange practices have been for a century at daggers drawn 
 with Orange professions. Thus far not the slightest attempt 
 has ever been made to bring them into harmony. 
 
 ASSASSINS ALL ! 
 
 I now come to what is, perhaps, the worst feature in 
 this bad business of defamation of the Catholic body from the 
 Orange press and platform. The policy of the Orange leaders 
 seems to be : 
 
 {a) To excite their rude rank and file to halved of gullible 
 pitch against things and persons Catholic. This purpose is 
 effe(fted in the manner already indicated. 
 
 {b) Next, to play upon i\\e\x fears. 
 
 This latter portion of Orange policy is effeded by repre- 
 senting the Catholic body as being for ever plotting against the 
 rights, the hberties, nay, even the lives of their Protestant 
 neighbours 1 It may seem incredible that such statements 
 should be made in this new land, and in the last decade of the 
 nineteenth .century. But the evidence of it is simply over- 
 whelming. There are two circumstances which go to show 
 that the wholesale charge of murderous intent is not without 
 effedt. They are : 
 
 {a) The frequent resort made to this charge by Orange 
 speakers and writers in these colonies, especially by clergymen. 
 
 {b) The palliation or defence of these wild charges — by 
 clergymen, too — in the columns of the public press.*^^ 
 
 81" The first lesson is, that, outside the West Division . . the 
 
 Parnellites are powerless." 
 
 '32For instance, Rev. W. Parkes, in Waryagul Guardian, 14th July, 1896. 
 Some of the most sanguinary charges of this kind are contained in an 
 
 164 
 
ORANGE ORATORY. 
 
 " Roman Catholics have a superstitious hatred of everything 
 Protestant," said Rev. F. C. Hawkins, at Portland.^ Again he is 
 reported to have said : " Though neither an open nor a sworn 
 enemy of Protestantism, yet assuredly, Roman Catholicism 
 would at any time welcome its annihilation. What menace could be 
 greater ?" Grand Master J. C. Neild declared at Sydney that 
 the R.C. Church " works with incessant adlivity to undermine 
 not only the Protestant faith, but the civil authority."^ A 
 sub-leader in the Vicflorian Orange paper (already quoted) 
 states that " the Christianity of the Romanist consists in 
 incessant formalism . . and hatred of his Protestant neighbours." 
 " The one motto of Romanists," said Rev. Bro. D. Parker, 
 "is, ' Death and anathema to religious freedom.'" "Romanism 
 retains the principles of persecution, pradlices them whenever 
 she has an opportunity to do so, and only waits (sic) the power — 
 as she has the passion — to do as she has done in the past : to 
 light up other Smithfields, and originate another St. Bartholomew.''** 
 At the Melbourne Orange anniversary of 1887, ^ ^^^- H. A. 
 Langley excited his hearers by making the gentle Cardinal 
 Manning say that one of his main purposes in life was " to 
 stamp out Protestantism all over the world."®*' The following 
 year Dean Macartney told his hearers that "Rome" was 
 prepared for massacre.'*'' A feature of the lodge organ, the 
 Victorian -Standard, is the number of screaming articles, re- 
 ports, etc., which it publishes denouncing Catholics as ever 
 ready to imbrue their hands in the blood of Protestants.®^ An 
 Orange speaker (or writer) in the Vidorian Standard for July, 
 1885, speaks of Rome's " bitter regrets over the loss of power 
 to grind Protestants to powder. But Rome has not abandoned 
 the hope of some day setting her engines of death in motion. 
 . . . One of her priests has said : 'All her priests swear: We will 
 prosecute this cursed evangelical doCirine as long as we have a drop of 
 blood ill our veins, and we will eradicate it, secretly and publicly, 
 violently and deceitfully^ with words and deeds, the sword not 
 EXCEPTED.' "®® In the same speech (or article) occur the follow- 
 
 Orange leaflet, "in which," said "Brother" Rev. A. Madsen "fairly and 
 frankly are stated the aims of the L. 0. L." (Letter to Ararat Advertiser, 12th 
 July, 1895). Rev. A. Madsen appears to be the acknowledged Press 
 champion of Orangeism in Vidoria. 
 
 ^'■^Victorian Sldudard, August, 1892. 
 
 Si I bid. 
 
 B^'/bid., July. 1885, p. 8. 
 
 s^Ibid., August, 1887. 
 
 ^''Ibid., August. 1888. 
 
 ^^'See, for instance, Victorian Standard, Mav, 1^93, p- 7, and the 
 numberless articles on the Inquisition, etc. 
 
 ■"'The italics and capitals in the alleged quotation are given by the 
 Vidoyiun Standard. 
 
 165 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 ing words : " We know the Papacy is a tremendous conspiracy 
 against the liberties of mankind, and every man and woman who 
 refused to how the knee to the Baal of Popery is marked for destruc- 
 tion."^° The same paper publishes the following : " Roman 
 Catholics would murder them [Protestants] if they got Home 
 Rule. They are already smacking their lips in delicious anticipa- 
 tion. The operation has been recently referred to in one of 
 their own papers as cutting out the Protestant cancer. ''^^ Similar 
 shrieks of premeditated massacre came in a volley from the 
 Orange press and platform during the Home Rule agitation in 
 the eighties, as the reader can learn by reference to the 
 pamphlet. Loyalty plus Murder, and to the columns of the Dublin 
 Daily Express. 
 
 A tracft entitled Twenty Reasons for being an Orangeman, 
 circulates extensively among the lodges of Vicftoria. The 
 " twenty reasons " were written by a former Irish Grand 
 Chaplain, Rev. Dr. Drew, whose wild and inflammatory 
 harangues had so much to do with the riots and bloodshed 
 that occurred at Belfast in 1857. (It is significant that, both in 
 Ireland and the colonies, the clergymen who are promoted to 
 high positions in the Order are precisely those whose utterances 
 are most violent and outrageous to the feelings of their 
 Catholic fellow-citizens). The tradt referred to warns Protes- 
 tants that 
 
 [a) " The lives of Protestants are [present tense] endan- 
 gered by Catholics." 
 
 {b) " The Church of Rome teaches [present tense] in her 
 schools that heresy is not to be endured, nor heretics to be per- 
 mitted to live.''' 
 
 {c) " Popery annually breathes [present tense] denuncia- 
 tions at Rome against the existence of heretics (Protestants). "^- 
 
 The leaflet adds dark hints of a coming massacre of 
 Protestants, and concludes by saying "that if we be united 
 . . . the TIME, the man, and the deliverance will come."^^ 
 This tradl: also gives a bogus " Fenian oath," which breathes 
 throughout blood and slaughter against Protestants.^* Another 
 issue of the same tradt, in the writer's possession, makes the 
 Canon Law declare that it is no homicide to kill heretics from 
 motives of zeal ; " that the goods of heretics are to be confisca- 
 ted and applied to the Church ;" and that " no oath is to be 
 
 ^°/bid., July. 1885, p. 8. 
 ^^Ibid., July, 1892. 
 
 82The word "Protestant" is given as above in the oriojinal. 
 o-''The capitals are as in the original. 
 
 9*The oath in question bears no resemblance whatever to the genuine 
 Fenian oath, which is given in A. M. Sullivan's New Ireland. 
 
 r66 
 
WHAT CONCLUSION? 
 
 kept toward heretic princes, lords, and others." These latter 
 "extracts" formed the piece de resistance of a typical anti- 
 Catholic speech, delivered by a Rev. T. J. Malyon at an Orange 
 anniversary in Melbourne in 1895.^^ It is needless to say that 
 these alleged " extracfls " do not represent the teaching of any 
 Catholic Manual of Canon Law. 
 
 The writer of these pages has been assured by several 
 experienced pressmen that many of the most offensive and 
 inflammatory utterances of the Orange platform are studiously 
 suppressed in the country newspaper reports of the July 
 demonstrations, from which they are copied into the pages of 
 the Victorian Standard. Nevertheless, we sometimes stumble 
 across such gems of oratory as that in which an excited 
 brother at Maryborough (VicStoria) expressed a feverent desire 
 that the Orangemen of Ireland should be "let loose" for the 
 extermination of their Catholic fellow-countrymen.^^ In his 
 evidence before the Derry Royal Commission of 1869, the dis- 
 tinguished Presbyterian journalist. Dr. James McKnight, 
 utters a vigorous condemnation of the platform oratory of the 
 Orange association, and of its publication in the columns of 
 the press. ** As given in the journals attached to the particular 
 party," said he, " the speeches are in the very coarsest terms . 
 of the day; very strong Tory speeches; true Tory and No- 
 Popery speeches. That is the charac5ter of the oratory we are 
 regaled by."^' 
 
 WHAT CONCLUSION ? 
 
 Extra(5ts such as those given above could be multiplied 
 indefinitely. They are to be found in embarrassing profusion 
 in the reports of Orange demonstrations and in other printed 
 matter that circulates among the lodges. But no mere extracfts 
 will give an adequate idea of the malignity of the methods by 
 which the rude rank and file of the lodges are, from New Year's 
 Day to St. Silvester's, lashed into a frenzy of fine fury against 
 their Catholic neighbours. The brief quotations given will, 
 however, broadly indicate to the reader 
 
 1. The bitter hatred of Orangemen, and especially of the 
 Orange clergy, for their Catholic fellow-citizens ; 
 
 2. The grotesque contrast between the official professions 
 and the official pracftices of the fraternity ; 
 
 3. The outrage which the oratorical display of the Orange 
 
 ^^Victorian Standard, July 30, 1895. 
 
 s^See chapter iv., supra, p. 68. 
 
 ^''Minutes of Evidence, Q. 5342; cf. Qq. 5329, 5340 Dr. James 
 McKnight had had at the time forty-two year's experience of press work 
 in Belfast and Derry (Qq. 53^4-5325). He was editor of the Banner 0/ 
 Ulster (Belfast) and, subsequently, of the Derry Standard. ^ 
 
 167 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 platform (reported generally in the local press) inflicfts on the 
 most cherished feelings of the Catholic body. 
 
 The '* glorious twelfth" is followed by no truce. Evil tales 
 are treasured up and added to month after month by the muck- 
 rakes of the L.O.L. press ; and are too often dragged up, with 
 unfriendly intent, in places where Orangemen are associated 
 with Catholics in their daily employments. 
 
 Mopsa says in the Winter's Tale: " I love a ballad in print, 
 a' life, for then we are sure they are true." The superstition 
 of the printed page tives into our day. It is most rife among 
 the lower orders, the less educated and more gullible classes 
 of the community, such as constitute the great bulk of the 
 membership of the Orange lodges. With a view to forming, 
 from Orange sources, a just idea of Orange feeling towards 
 Catholics, I have, since July, 1896, waded through a great 
 part of the literature that circulates among the lodges of 
 Vi(floria, including the reports of every demonstration of note 
 that has been held in the colony since the beginning of 1884, 
 as well as of many that have taken place in other parts of 
 Australia, and in Canada and Ulster. The perusal of that mass 
 of printed matter has forced upon my unwilling mind the 
 following melancholy conclusion, every word of which has 
 been carefully considered : It is extremely difficult, if not 
 morally impossible, for the class who form the rank and file of 
 the Orange association to continue, year in year out, to hear 
 and read these persistent and ominous cries of treason, blood, 
 treachery, torture, and general massacre, without settling 
 down into the two following convi(5lions : 
 
 (a) That their Catholic fellow-citizens are only awaiting 
 the day of power, or other suitable opportunity, to rise at a 
 preconcerted signal and slay Protestants in their beds ; 
 
 {b) That the chief hope of " deliverance" of Protestants 
 from the impending doom, will lie in their being " united" and 
 organised beforehand in the serried ranks of the Orange insti- 
 tution. 
 
 It is difficult to resist the conclusion that such is not merely 
 the effecfl, but also the intended purpose, of these philippics, on 
 the body of the members of the Orange association. In all matters 
 regarding the general wickedness and perversity of Catholics, 
 the gobemoucherie of the lodges is well nigh incredible. The 
 briefest reference to the society's reading matter will show that 
 in these things L.O.L. writers and speakers are continually 
 putting the credulity of the brethren to the severest strain, 
 without by any means exhausting its wondrous capabilities. 
 " The daughters of the leech cry : More, more !" The pity of 
 this bad business is this : that the most extreme and persistent 
 
 168 
 
WHAT CONCLUSION ? 
 
 of those senseless — I had almost said criminal — alarmists, are 
 not, us a rule, the " lewd fellows of the baser sort," whose 
 words carry little or no weight with their hearers ; but the 
 Orange clergy — the men of all others, wrto, by reason of their 
 sacred calling, ought to endeavour to guide the hearts of the 
 brethren into the gentler paths of peace and goodwill. 
 
 Anyone who has noticed the springs of mob violence in 
 history needs not to be told that these persistent and intem- 
 perate Orange utterances are a distincft menace to the public 
 safety. They evoke among Orangemen, and especially among 
 the lower orders of Orangemen, a spirit w^hich a spark might 
 kindle into flame, and a passing breeze of political excitement 
 fan into a conflagration. The Gordon and Know-nothing riots 
 are cases in point. The Royal Commission of Belfast, in 
 1857, gave it as their opinion that the inflammatory utterances 
 of the lodge chaplains had a good deal to do with the scenes oi 
 riot, bloodshed, murder, and pillage which disgraced the capital 
 of Orangeism in that year.®* The Repori of the Derry Com- 
 mission of i86g bears similar evidence. And ever since 1795 
 the histories of these two great centres of Orange life and 
 adtivity furnish similar instances in melancholy profusior>. 
 They are prudent rulers -who learn lessons of pracftical wisdom 
 from the experiences which the pages of history place before 
 them. The Brunswick (Melbourne) L.O.L. demonstration ol 
 Sunday, July 19, 1896 ;^ the displays which took place in 1897 
 at the same place and at Prahran, Walhalla, and elsewhere ; 
 all prove that the Orange question is looming up in VicTtoria. 
 We have in our midst, fully organised and preparing, the forces 
 which, with pious phrase and in Christ's sweet name, have 
 crimsoned the streets of Belfast, Derry, Toronto, and so 
 many other places, with the blood of the very fellow-Christians 
 whom they call " brethren." 
 
 ^^Report, p. 10. Some of the sermons, etc., appear in Appendix to 
 Report. 
 
 ^^ArgHs and Age, July 20, 1S96, and July ig, 1S97. 
 
 169 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 Chapter IX> 
 
 LOOKING BACKWARD: ORANGE DEMONSTRATIONS 
 VIEWED THROUGH GREEN GLASSES— THE VIO 
 
 LATED TREATY— THE PENAL CODE: STRIKING 
 
 THE SHEPHERDS, DISPERSING THE FLOCK— A 
 WILLIAMITE MARRIAGE LAW— BEGGARY BY ACT 
 
 OF PARLIAMENT— '• A GREAT SYSTEM OF BRIBERY" 
 
 — " THE IGNORANT IRISH." 
 
 In the last chapter I have tested the sincerity of the 
 " quahfications of an Orangeman" by the touchstone of a 
 single fadl, namely, the language habitually used by the brethren 
 regarding Catholic persons, principles, and prac5tices, during the 
 oratorical portion of the twelfth of July celebrations. The 
 typical Orange demonstration is as Samson without his locks 
 when it is shorn of what I have termed the theatrical display 
 — the procession, with its accompaniment of party emblems 
 and tunes, party cries, etc. 
 
 No one who is acquainted with the past hundred years of 
 Ulster history needs to be told that these demonstrations 
 furnish, year after year, at least the occasion of many and 
 serious breaches of the peace. In the course of the next two 
 chapters abundant evidence will be adduced, chiefly of an 
 official kind, to show that they are a chief means of keeping up 
 that dangerous fever-heat of secftarian rancour which forms 
 the chronic disease of the Orange portions of Ulster, and of 
 them alone in all the land. The reasons which make these 
 unnecessary displays not merely impolitic, but, in a sense, 
 criminal, lie on the surface. They may be briefly stated thus : 
 
 1. They commemorate events which took place in civil 
 war, and which brought triumph and political and social 
 ascendency to a small minority of the population ; defeat, 
 humiliation, social and political degradation to the Catholic 
 majority. 
 
 2. The methods of conducfting the celebrations are highly 
 calculated to arouse secftarian feeling, to provoke resistance, and 
 thus imperil the public peace. 
 
 (a) Reference has been made in the last chapter to the 
 always offensive and frequently inflammatory character of the 
 platform attacks on the Catholic Church and its members. 
 
 170 
 
POINTS OF VIEW. 
 
 (b) Again, Orange anniversaries, processions, etc., have, as a 
 matter of facft, been traditionally made the occasion of studied 
 insult, menace, intimidation, outrage, and too often of strife 
 which has at times almost reached the dimensions of civil war 
 in portions of Ulster. The methods of these demonstrations 
 and their results will form the subjecft of the two next 
 chapters. 
 
 TRIUMPH AND HUMILIATION. 
 
 " The society," says Lecky, " took its name from William 
 of Orange, the conqueror of the Catholics."^ The Report of the 
 Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Derry sectarian riots of 
 i86g, says that these demonstrations are the commemoration 
 of events that were a triumph for one side, " a bitter humilia- 
 tion for the other." ^ Dr. James McKnight was an Ulster 
 Presbyterian of light and leading, and an ardent admirer of the 
 revolution which placed William of Orange upon the throne of 
 England. In the course of his examination before the Derry 
 Royal Commission of 1869, he said : " In the city of Derry and 
 throughout the North of Ireland, every celebration of that 
 kind, both historically and otherwise, is regarded by the 
 conquered party as a triumph of the representatives of the 
 opposite party over them."** "So far," he said, "as my 
 knowledge, either of ancient or modern history extends, there 
 is not, and has never been, any civilised State or Government 
 under the sun, ancient or modern, in which the vicftory of any 
 party over another in civil war was allowed, with the single 
 exception of poor Ireland itself . . . No statesman who 
 really understands the importance of national unity, and of 
 keeping up what I call the living defences, would allow it."* 
 Had such commemorations been permitted in England, the 
 country, he added, " would not have been civilized from the 
 days of William the Conquerer. The country would have 
 been broken up into facStions, and never would have become a 
 united nationality, as it now is. No community ever could, in 
 any part of the world. Neither Greeks nor Romans ever 
 tolerated the celebration of a civil war vi(51;ory, nor any other 
 Government that I know of."* 
 
 Judge Fletcher (a Protestant), in the course of his historic 
 charge to the W^exford Grand Jury, in 1814,'' said : " Gentle- 
 men, I do repeat that these are my sentiments, not merely as 
 
 ^Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, vol. iii., p. 427. 
 
 "^Report, p. 15. 
 
 ^Minutes of Evidence, Q. 5329. 
 
 ^3id., Q. 5327. 
 
 ^Minutes of Evidence, Q. 5375. 
 
 ^This was re-published by the Irish Press Agency, London, in 1886. 
 
 171 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 an individual, but as a man discharging his judicial duty. 
 With these Orange associations I conned; all commemorations 
 and processions, producing embittering recolledions, and in- 
 fli(5ting wounds upon the feelings of otherg; and I do 
 emphatically state it as my settled opinion that, until these 
 associations are effecftually pulled down, and the arms taken 
 from their hands, in vain will the North of Ireland expedl 
 tranquility or peace." 
 
 The Royal Commission appointed to inquire into the great 
 Belfast riots of 1857, say in their Report: "The rules and 
 proceedings of the Grand Lodge for the years 1855, 1856, and 
 1857 we shortly refer to, as showing the nature of that organi- 
 sation, and showing, we think, its evil tendencies as regards 
 the peace and good feeling which ought to exist amongst the 
 various classes of this country. It is an exclusive society of 
 Protestants ; a leading feature of it seems to be to keep up a brother- 
 hood to celebrate the triumph of their class over the Roman Catholics, 
 called in their proceedings. Papists, . . . This strongly 
 expressed feeling against so large a class of their fellow- 
 countrymen seems a perilous bond of union for a virtually 
 secret society, embracing within it so largely the uneducated 
 classes of society."' The same Royal Commission condemns 
 in its Report the "annual celebration of a festival which is used 
 to remind one party of the triumph of their ancestors over 
 those of the other, and to inculcate the feeling of Protestant 
 superiority over their Roman Catholic neighbours, and we 
 refer your Excellency to the sermon of Dr. Drew ... as 
 a sample of such Orange teaching."^ " Unfortunately," con- 
 tinue the same Royal Commissioners, " its celebration [that of 
 the Revolution of 1688] is now regarded in the North of 
 Ireland as the celebration of the triumph of one class over another, 
 and the establishment of a Protestant ascendency. . . . As cele- 
 brated, k is regarded as a studied insult by the Roman Catholics, 
 and as a triumph by the Orangemen, and a declaration of their 
 superiority over their Roman Catholic brethren."^ 
 
 The Encyclopisdia Britannica^° says : " By repeating irritating 
 watchwords, and publicly keeping anniversaries painful to 
 their neighbours, Orangemen have done much to inflame 
 sedarian animosity." 
 
 The events commemorated by the Orange anniversaries 
 are of too recent date to be forgotten by the bulk of the Irish 
 people. In the Orange portions of Ulster the bitter memories 
 
 ''Report, pp. lo-ii. 
 
 ^Ibid., pp. 8-9. 
 
 ^Ibid., p. 9. 
 
 ^oNinth ed., art. "Orangemen." 
 
 172 
 
THE PENAL CODE. 
 
 of persecution, degradation, and party ascendency are studi- 
 ously kept alive by what an Irish Chief-Secretary termed "the 
 annual specimen of civil war." The Royal Commissioners 
 appointed to inquire into the great Derry secflarian riots of 
 i86g, referring to the Catholics of that city, say in their Report 
 that they were "all more or less acquainted with the history 
 of events that cause them to look on the local anniversaries as 
 offensive to themselves. Here, then," they continue, " we find 
 the reason for the existence of increased discontent with these 
 celebrations."" 
 
 An inquiry into the nature of the triumph on the one side, 
 and of the humiliation on the other, will enable the reader to 
 estimate in some degree the feelings which the celebration of 
 " the glorious twelfth" arouses in the minds of different 
 secftions of the Irish people. 
 
 THROUGH GREEN AND ORANGE GLASSES. 
 
 To the Irish Orangeman and the Irish Catholic, the 
 Revolution of 1688, the battle of the Boyne, the fall of 
 Limerick, and the triumph of William of Orange, bring very 
 different — even opposite — sets of memories. The successful 
 rebel is ever, in the eyes of many, a hero. The rebels who 
 fought under the Prince of Orange against King James were 
 successful. The loyalist Irish Catholics who vainly fought for 
 a worthless, but hereditary sovereign — "to whom," says 
 Lecky, " all classes had sworn allegiance"^^ — suffered by the 
 Revolution, as they had suffered by the Restoration; they 
 were penalised for their fidelity to James as well as for their 
 fidelity to Charles. They have, moreover, suffered ever since. 
 
 The triumph which Orangemen celebrate did not consist in 
 any commercial advantage that it brought to the country at 
 large; for William III. did what lay in his power to ruin the 
 Irish woollen trade and cripple the resources of the country.^" 
 What the Orangemen set in the forefront, what they were long 
 sworn to maintain — even at the cost of their loyalty to the 
 throne" — what they still long to see revived, is the party 
 ascendency which the Willianiite vicflory conferred on the 
 triumphant minority. This ascendency placed in the hands 
 of members of the favoured creed the three following huge 
 monopolies : 
 
 I. A pradtical monopoly of the lands of Ireland; 
 
 ^''■Report, p. 17. 
 
 ^"^Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, vol. i., p. 141. 
 
 ^^English Statutes, 7 and 8 William III., c. 22 ; Irish Statutes, 10 William 
 III., c. 5. Consult Lecky, Leaders of Public Opinion, pp. 34-37; and the 
 present chap., infra. 
 
 i*Cf. chap, v., 7iote 3, supra, p. 84, and chap, xv., infra. 
 
 173 
 
IHE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 2. A monopoly in the making of the country's laws ; 
 
 3. A monopoly of all public offices of honour and emolu- 
 ment, civil and military, under the State, coupled with a 
 monopoly of the learned professions. 
 
 These privileges were secured to the dominant minority 
 
 1. By the violation of the Treaty of Limerick; 
 
 2. By the passing of the Irish Penal Code, the purpose 
 of which was to degrade and brutalise the great bulk of the 
 Irish people, and to crush out of their hearts every vestige of 
 their ancient faith. 
 
 THE BROKEN TREATY. 
 
 The Treaty of Limerick, which closed the revolutionary 
 war in Ireland, was signed in 1691 by the Lords Justices of 
 Ireland, on behalf of the Crown, and ratified later on by 
 William and Mary, under the Great Seal of England. ^^ "The 
 stipulations of the Irish," says Lecky, " in favour of religious 
 Hberty were given the very first place in the treaty that was 
 signed."^'' The very first of the " Civil Articles of Limerick" 
 guaranteed the Catholics of Ireland the free exercise of their 
 reHgion, such as they had enjoyed in the reign of Charles IL, 
 together with a promise of Acfts of Parliament to still further 
 "preserve them from any disturbance on account of their said 
 religion."" Article II. guaranteed the foUowers of King 
 James the peaceful possession of their estates, etc., and the 
 free exercise of their professions.^® Article IX. provided that 
 the oath to be taken by Irish Roman Catholics should be the 
 following oath of allegiance, ''and no other": "I, A. B., do 
 sincerely promise and swear that I will be faithful and bear 
 true allegiance to their Majesties King William and Queen 
 Mary. So help me God." 
 
 "Such a treaty," says Lecky, "was very reasonably 
 regarded as a solemn charter guaranteeing the Irish Catholics 
 against any further penalties or molestation on account of their 
 religion. "^^ "The public faith," he adds, "was pledged to 
 its observance."^" Yet, the treaty was shamefully violated by the 
 wholesale confiscation of the property of Irish Catholics, and 
 by the passing of the Penal Code. Lecky says: "The 
 imposition upon the Irish Catholics, without any fresh 
 provocation, of a mass of new and penal legislation 
 
 isMcGee's Htst. Ireland, vol. ii., chap, x., p. 196; Lecky, Ireland in the 
 Eighteenth Century, vol. i., p. 139. 
 i^Lecky, ibid. 
 -^■'Ibid. 
 
 i^Walpole, Kingdom of Ireland, chap, v., p. 323. 
 19 Lecky, Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, vol. i., p. 139. 
 "^^Ihid., p. 140. 
 
THE PENAL CODE. 
 
 was a direcft violation of the plain meaning of the treaty."^ 
 Walpole, another Protestant historian, refers to this great acfl 
 of public treachery in the following terms : " The perjured 
 Roman Senate, when their army had surrendered at the Cau- 
 dine Pass, could hardly have surpassed the Irish Government 
 in flagrant breach of faith. '"''^ 
 
 This, then, is the first memory which the Orange anniver- 
 saries of the Williamite vicftory bring to the minds of Irish 
 Catholics. William III,, says Lecky, "is identified in Ireland 
 with the humiliation of the Boyne, with the destrucftion of Irish 
 trade, and with the broken treaty of Limerick. "^^ Another 
 bitter memory recalled by Orange demonstrations is that of 
 one of the chief results of the battle of the Boyne and the 
 fall of Limerick : the long agony of suffering and wrong 
 inflidfed on Irish Catholics by the penal laws. This fearful 
 Code " began under William. "^^ Whatever may have been 
 his personal ideas of religious toleration, he certainly " never 
 offered any serious or determined opposition to the anti-Catholic 
 laws which began in his reign. "^ This is all the more remark- 
 able, since he possessed " the royal veto, which could have 
 arrested any portion of the Penal Code."^® While exercising it 
 in England, he failed to put it into execution as far as Ireland 
 was concerned, even though he was bound to it by the solemn 
 treaty to which he was himself a party. The penal laws 
 passed during the reigns of William and Anne were, says 
 Walpole, " of a charaifter quite unparalleled, and were in 
 flagrant violation of the treaty of Limerick.'"-^'' 
 
 A glance at the main provisions of the Irish Penal Code — 
 
 ^^Ibid., pp. 139-140. 
 
 ^"^KingdomoJ Ireland, chap, v., p. 324. Lecky blames the English Par- 
 liament for its share in passing the Penal Laws, and violating the Treaty 
 of Limerick. His grounds of censure are briefly as follow: (i) An English 
 Adt of Parliament made the Irish Parliament exclusively Protestant. (2) 
 The royal veto could have arrested part of the Penal Code, and did not. 
 (3) Poynings' Ad placed the Irish Parliament completely at the mercy of 
 the English. (4) No Irish Bill could be laid before the Irish Parliament 
 until approved by the English Privy Council. (5) No Irish Bill could 
 become law except in the precise form sanctioned by the English Privy 
 Council. Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, vol. i., p. 145. 
 
 ^^Leaders 0/ Public Opinion, p. 120, 
 
 ^^Ireland m the Eighteenth Century, vol. i., p. 141. 
 
 ^^Ibid. 
 
 ^^Ibid., p. 145. Lecky says (p. 141) that William repeatedly "refused 
 his assent to English [penal] Adts which he regarded as inimical to his 
 authority.'- In his Leaders of Public Opinion (p. 120) he says: "The cease- 
 less exertions of the extreme Protestant party have made him [William] 
 far more odious in the eyes of the people than he deserves to be ; for he 
 was personally far more tolerant than the majority of his contemporaries." 
 
 ''''Walpole, Kingdom 0/ Ireland, chap, vi., p. 332. 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 the fruit of the Williamite vi(ftory — will enable the reader to 
 enter to some extent into the feelings with which the celebra- 
 tion of the "glorious revolution" and the "glorious twelfth" 
 is viewed by Irish Catholics. This body of laws wasintended, 
 says Walpole, " to stamp out the Roman Catholic religion 
 altogether" in Ireland.^" It began in the Acfts of the seventh 
 and ninth years of William III.; was still further elaborated 
 in what the same Protestant writer terms the " savage A6is of 
 the second and eighth years of Queen Anne ;"^^ and culminated 
 in the A6i of the seventh year of King George II. These 
 statutes, published in full, would make a fair-sized volume. 
 Only the main provisions of this infamous Code shall be here set 
 forth, in a highly condensed form, the reader being referred for 
 more detailed information on the subjedl to the English and 
 Irish Statutes of the different periods, and to the works of such 
 Protestant writers as Hallam, Lecky, Walpole, Edmund 
 Burke, Young, Godkin, Sydney Smith, etc."" The reader is 
 requested to note the following features of the Irish Penal Code: 
 
 1. The circumstances of its enadlment and continuance: 
 It was inflicSfed not merely in defiance of treaty rights, but 
 without provocation, and continued in spite of the loyalty of 
 the Irish Catholic body during the rebellions of 1715 and 1745, 
 and the disturbances of 1719, 1722, and 1725.''^ 
 
 2. The prominent part which the spy and the informer 
 were made to play in this sad drama of a nation's sufferings."^ 
 
 3. The extreme severity of the penalties and other disabil- 
 ities provided against the pracftice of the Catholic religion. 
 The money fines alone represent, at the present day, sums 
 many times greater than the number of pounds stated in the 
 Statutes. 
 
 4. The nature of the bribes offered to the clergy, and to 
 undutiful wives and children, to allure them into apostacy from 
 the faith of their fathers. 
 
 ^^Ibid., p. 338. In 1795 King William assured the Irish Parliament 
 that he was intent on the firm settlement of Ireland on a Protestant basis. 
 Godkin, the Land War in Ireland, p. 236. 
 
 '^'''Kingdom of Ireland, p. 33S. 
 
 soLecky, Leaders of Public Opmioti. pp. 120. sqq.; Ireland in the Eighteenth 
 Cetttury, vol. i., pp, 139, sqq.; Walpole, Kingdom of Ireland; Burke, Tract on 
 the Popery Laws; Young, A Tour in Ireland, vol., ii. ; Hallam, Constitutional 
 History: Scully, Statement of the Penal Laws: Sydney Smith, Peter Plymley's 
 Letters (especially letter ix.); the same author's Ireland and England, and his 
 review of Moore's Captain Rock; Cobbett's Reformation, chap, xv.; Mitchel's 
 Hist, of Ireland, vol. i., chaps, iv., x. See also Scully's Penal Laws; 
 Beaumont's L'Irlande politique, sociale, et religieuse (Introdudlion historique); 
 and Godkin's La7id War in Ireland, pp. 234, sqq. 
 
 siLecky, Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, vol. i., pp. 139, 141-144. 
 
 ^'^Ibid., p. 152. 
 
 176 
 
PENAL CODE: THE CLERGY. 
 
 STRIKING THE SHEPHERDS. 
 
 The following provisions regarded the Irish Catholic 
 clergy : 
 
 • I. Banishment. — All unregistered Catholic clergy were 
 ordered " to depart out of this kingdom before the first day of 
 May, i6g8." This included all "archbishops, bishops, vicars- 
 general, deans, Jesuits, monks, friars, and all other regular 
 Popish clergy, and all Papists exercising ecclesiastical juris- 
 didlion." The penalty for non-compliance was imprisonment 
 without bail until such time as they could be transported 
 beyond the seas. Any Popish archbishop, etc., as above, 
 who came into the country after December 2g, 1697, was 
 liable to twelve months' imprisonment and transportation beyond 
 the seas. Those who, having been banished, returned to the 
 country again, were to be "judged traytors," and to "suffer, 
 lose, and forfeit, as in the case of high treason. "^^ The penalty 
 was this: They were half hanged, disembowelled while still living, 
 and then quartered. This, as Lecky truly observes, was "the 
 most horrible form of death known to British law."^* A similar 
 Act was passed in the reign of Queen Anne.^^ In 17 19 the 
 exclusively Protestant Irish House of Commons passed a Bill 
 ordering all unregistered priests found in Ireland to be branded 
 on the cheek with a red-hot iron. This was ratified by the 
 English ministry.'® 
 
 2. Abjuration. — For a time registered clergymen were per- 
 mitted, under very severe restricftions, to exercise a portion of 
 their ministry. TheAdt for registering the Popish Clergy^'' pro- 
 vides that " no Popish parish priest shall have any Popish 
 curate or assistant." According to the Protestant Archbishop 
 King, ^'■the design was that there should be no succession" of such 
 registered priests.^^ The Adl of 8 Anne, c. 3, took even this 
 small comfort from the people, as it required the clergy to 
 
 339 William III., cap. i, sees. 1-3. 
 
 ^'^Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, vol. i., p. 164. A Bill brought in by 
 the Irish Commons in 1723 requires all unregistered clergy to depart out 
 of the Kingdom before March 25, 1724, unless they had previously taken 
 the oath of Abjuration of Popery. The penalty was the same as for high 
 treason. "By another clause," says Lecky (i., 164) "it was provided that 
 all bishops, deans, monks, and vicars-general found in the country, should 
 be liable to the same horrible fate, and in their case their abjuration oath was 
 not admitted as an alternative.'^ The Bill contained other equally drastic 
 provisions. Lecky says that "Mr. Froude warmly supports this attempted 
 legislation" (p. 165, note). 
 
 ^^2 Anne, cap. 3. 
 
 s^Lecky, Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, vol. i., pp. 162-163. 
 
 ^''2 Anne, c. 7, sec 3 ; 8 Anne, c. 3, sec. 19. 
 
 ^^Letter to Sunderland, quoted by Lecky, op. cit., supra., p. 169, note. See 
 Mant, Hist, of the Church of Ireland, ii., 212, and Swift's Works, viii., 367. 
 
 177 L 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 renounce the Catholic faith. Contrary to the articles of the 
 Treaty of Limerick, it enacfted that, by March 25, 1710, all 
 the registered priests in Ireland must take the oath of 
 Abjuration of Popery, and subscribe the declaration against 
 Transubstantiation. Failing compliance with this adt of 
 apostacy from their faith, they were to suffer banishment for 
 life. If they returned, the death penalty awaited them.'^ 
 
 3. Suppression of religious houses. — Magistrates and mayors 
 were ordered to suppress all friaries, etc., and to apprehend all 
 unregistered clergy. Neglecft of this duty made them liable to 
 be fined /"loo (a vast sum in those days), and to be disqualified 
 from adting as magistrates for the remainder of their lives. ^° 
 Half of the fine went to the informer. One of the Williamite 
 A(fts, re-enad^ed in the reign of Queen Anne," forbids burial 
 of the dead in any suppressed monastery, abbey, or convent, 
 or in the precin(5ls thereof, under a penalty of ^10, half oj 
 which went to the informer, such sum to be recoverable from any person 
 present at such burial. 
 
 4. Priest -hunting. — Informers were offered the following 
 rewards for the "discovery" of Catholic ecclesiastics exer- 
 cising the functions of their ministry in Ireland : For an 
 archbishop, bishop, or vicar-general, £50; for each friar or 
 unregistered priest, ;^20.^^ These rewards, says Lecky, "called 
 a regular race of priest-hunters into existence."*^ Their opera- 
 tions were facilitated by the two following provisions of the 
 Penal Code: 
 
 (a) Any two magistrates could compel any Catholic over 
 eighteen years old to declare where and when he had last heard 
 Mass, the name of the celebrant, and of the persons who were 
 present at it, and the residence or hiding-place of any Popish 
 ecclesiastic. Any Papist refusing to be sworn, or to give such 
 information, was liable to be imprisoned for twelve months 
 unless he paid a fine of £20.^^ 
 
 (b) Any person relieving or harbouring an unregistered 
 Catholic clergyman after May i, 1698, was subje(5t to the 
 
 3 9(S Anne, cap. 3, sec. 22. The English Grand Lodge illegally adopted 
 the declaration against Transubstantiation, when compelled by law to 
 expunge the Orange oath from its printed rule-books. 
 
 40,2 Anne, cap. 7. 
 
 419 William III., c. i., sec. 6; 2 Anne, c. 7. 
 
 42S Anne, c. 3., sec. 20. 
 
 isLecky, Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, vol. i., p. 161 ; cf. pp. 254, 
 sqq. In 1719 the Irish (Protestant) House of Commons urged the magis- 
 trates to greater adlivity in enforcing the penal laws, and passed a resolu- 
 tion "that the prosecuting and informing against Papists was an honour- 
 able service to the Government." Lecky, ibid., p. 162. 
 
 44(S Anne, c. 3, sec. 21. Cf. Lecky, i., 161. 
 
 17a 
 
PENAL CODE: THE CLERGY. 
 
 following penalties : For the first offence a fine of £10 ; for 
 the second, a fine of £\o ; for the third, forfeiture of all his 
 lands, goods, and chattels — one-half (not to exceed /"loo) io go 
 to the informer, the remainder to the Crown. ^^ This was one of 
 the Williamite statutes. It was re-enadted in 2 Anne, c. 2. 
 
 5. Conversion oi Protestants, or their reconciliation to the 
 Catholic faith, was met by the following provisions : Any 
 person inducing a Protestant to become a Catholic, or to be 
 reconciled to the Church of Rome, and the person so reconciled 
 or converted, were both made guilty of the crime oi prosmunire,*^ 
 or contempt of the royal prerogative, as laid down in the 
 Statute of 76th Richard II. The penalty for this high crime 
 was imprisonment for life and forfeiture of all goods and 
 chattels. 
 
 6. Apostacy was encouraged among the persecuted Catholic 
 priesthood by the offer of a bribe, namely, an annuity of ;^20 
 (a large sum for those days.) This was later on raised to £2,0 
 a year, and in both cases was to be levied off the county in 
 which the priest had last resided.^'' 
 
 A WILLIAMITE MARRIAGE LAW. 
 
 7. If any Protestant woman, possessed of land to the value 
 of ^500 or more, married any person without a certificate 
 from a bishop, minister, or magistrate, that he was a " known 
 Protestant," both she and her husband would forfeit their 
 estates to the next Protestant heir. Any Protestant who 
 married a Catholic, or permitted his children to be brought up 
 as Catholics, was to be deemed a Papist, and to be subjecft to 
 all the disabilities of a Papist. Anyone giving them in 
 marriage was liable to a year's imprisonment and a fine of 
 £io}^ In the timeof George I. Parliament passed an ACt to prevent 
 
 457 William III., c, i., sec. 4. 
 
 *^2 Anne, c. 6, sec. i. 
 
 ^''2 Anne, c. 7 ; 8 A)ine, c. 3, sec. 18. Readers will remember the 
 encouragement given to this class, in their fall, by the Orange lodges, 
 which despise and vilify them while they hold an honoured place in their 
 ministry. See chap, viii., supra. 
 
 *89 William III., c. 3, An Act to prevent Protestants intermarrying with 
 Papists. Cf. Lecky, i., 152. Compare the rule of the Orange society (pp. 
 96-97, supra) which makes "marrying a Papist" a matter for immediate 
 expulsion. Howard's Popery Cases (p. 60) contain a judicial decision that 
 a Papist or " a Protestant who intermarried with Papists was incapable of 
 being a discoverer [of Popish clergy] , the Court holding that such a Pro- 
 testant is a more odious Papist within the Adts than a real and adtual 
 Papist by profession and principle." Howard's Popery Cases were compiled 
 for the use of lawyers. By the A&. of 19 George II. c. 13, every marriage 
 was legally invalid that was celebrated by a priest between two Catholics, 
 one of whom had been a Catholic less than twelve months, and the priest 
 performing such marriage was guilty of a felony. The statute 33 George 
 
 179 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 marriages by degraded Clergymen and Popish Priests.*^ One of its pro- 
 visions imposes the penalty of death without benefit of clergy on 
 any priest convicted of marrying two persons either of whom 
 was a Protestant.®" By virtue of a provision in an amending 
 A(5t of the eighth year of Queen Anne any priest prosecuted 
 for having celebrated such a marriage was deemed to be guilty 
 " unless the said Popish priest shall produce a certificate of the 
 minister of the parish where the parties so married resided, 
 certifying that they were not of the Protestant religion."®^ By 
 a subsequent A(ft of George II. all such marriages were 
 declared null and void.®^ 
 
 Such are a few of the memories which the annual cele- 
 bration of the Boyne vidtory brings to the minds of Irish 
 Catholics : the long and bitter war against their clergy and 
 creed, which was inaugurated, in the face of a solemn treaty, 
 after the triumph of the Prince of Orange. 
 
 BEGGARY BY ACT OF PARLIAMENT. 
 
 The laws against the Irish Catholic laity were of scarcely 
 less ferocious a chara(51:er than those which affecfled the lives 
 and liberties of the clergy. They ran mainly on the following 
 lines : 
 
 1. Restri(5tions as to the ownership of property, coupled 
 with temporal allurements to apostacy which struck at the 
 most sacred relations of social and domestic life. 
 
 2. Restricftions as to the education, etc., of the children of 
 Catholics. 
 
 3. Deprivation of all share in public representation ; 'the 
 closing of public employment, of the learned professions, etc., 
 to the Catholic majority in Ireland. 
 
 I. Restridions as to property. — "The Penal Code," says 
 Lecky, " as it was carried out, was inspired much less by 
 fanaticism than by rapacity. ... It was intended to 
 make them [the Catholics] poor, and to keep them poor, to 
 crush in them every germ of enterprise, to degrade them into 
 
 III. c. 27, removed the invalidating clause, but imposed the penalty of fine 
 or imprisonment. Mr. Gladstone's Government in 1870 had this law 
 repealed, and in 1871, by the statute 34-5 Vic. c. no, s. 38, made the Irish 
 law praftically similar to the law as it is in England. For fuller informa- 
 tion on^his subjeft, see the end of this chapter. 
 
 ^^72 George /., c. 3. 
 
 sofn 1726 a Catholic priest, Rev. Timothy Ryan, was e.xecuted at 
 Gallows Green, Limerick, for the offence mentioned above. Our Martyrs, 
 Kev. D. Murphy, S.J., p. 69, note. 
 
 518 Anne, c. 3, sec. 26. This Adt amends An Act to prevent the pitrther 
 Groivth of Popery. 
 
 ^^19 George II., c. 13. 
 
 180 
 
PENAL CODE : THE LAITY. 
 
 a servile caste, who could never hope to rise to the level of 
 their oppressors."^'' The restridtions as to property covered 
 (a) the purchase, holding, or enjoyment of property ; (b) the 
 devising or inheritance of property. 
 
 [a) Catholics were made incapable of holding either 
 direcftly, or through others in trust for them, any lands, tene- 
 ments, rents, or annuities either for a life or lives or for any 
 term of years. ^* They were also forbidden to buy any interest 
 in land, either in their own name or in that of others, save by 
 leasing. Every such lease was subjecft to these two conditions : 
 (i) It should not be for more than 31 years; (2) the rent should 
 not be less than two-thirds of the full annual value of the lattd,^^ 
 
 What Walpole terms the " ferocious statute" of the eighth 
 year of Queen Anne (c. 3) made it difficult, if not impossible, 
 for friendly Protestants to hold land in secret trust for 
 Catholics. A common informer could compel any person to 
 discover such secret trusts. All issues of fadt were to be tried 
 by a jury of " known Protestants." In the event of a decision 
 in favour of the informer, he was at once entitled to the lands 
 affected by the trust. ^^ " The whole country," says Lecky, "was 
 soon filled with spies, endeavouring to appropriate the property 
 of Catholics ; and Popish discoveries became a main business 
 of the law courts."" No Catholic could hold a mortgage on 
 land or receive an annuity chargeable on land.'® The lands of 
 the Catholic Irish were confiscated to the extent of 1,060,792 
 Irish acres.^^ Walpole, the Protestant historian, says : " So 
 wholesale and complete had been the transfer of the land from 
 the Roman Catholic proprietors to the Protestants, that at the 
 beginning of the eighteenth century, when the era of summary 
 confiscation by forfeiture may be said to close, the former [the 
 Catholics] were the owners of less than one-seventh of the 
 whole area of Ireland.""" 
 
 In reply to an address by the English Lords and Commons, 
 June 9, 1698, Xing' William said: " I shall do all that in me 
 
 ^'"^Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, vol. i., p. 152. 
 
 ^^8 Anne, c. 3, sec. i. See Young's Tour in Ireland, vol. ii., p. 141; 
 Godkin's Land War in Ireland, p. 237 
 
 5^2 Anne, cap. 6, sec. 6, Godkin, loc. cit. 
 
 ^^8 Anne. c. 3, sec. 27. 
 
 ^''Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, vol. i., p 152. 
 
 ^^2 Anne, cs.^ 6; 8Anne,c 3 
 
 s^Walpole. Kingdom of Ireland, chap, v , pp. 326, 327. Godkin, The 
 Land War in Ireland, p. 236. The Irish acre contains 7840 square yards, 
 the English, 4840. The reader will recall the wholesale plunder and con- 
 fiscation of the property of Catholics with which the Orange society was 
 inaugurated. See chap, iv., supra, pp. 71, sqq. 
 
 '"^ Kingdom of Ireland, p. 329; cf. Godkin, The Land War in Ireland, p. 
 236. 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 lies to discourage the woollen manufacfture in Ireland." This 
 was, as Lecky says, " the main industry of Ireland." It was 
 destroyed at one fell stroke by the Adt of 10 and 1 7 William III. 
 cap. X., which was passed in 1699, and which prohibited the 
 export of wool or woollens from Ireland to any country whatever, 
 under penalty of forfeiture of ship and goods and a fine of 
 ;^500 for every such offence." " So ended," says Lecky, "the 
 fairest promise Ireland had ever known of becoming a pros- 
 perous and a happy country. The ruin was absolute and 
 final, "^^ and fell upon Protestants and Catholics alike. The 
 Williamite law deprived vast numbers of people, without 
 warning, of the means of livelihood^among them some 42,000 
 Protestant families, who, according to a contemporary authority, 
 had been engaged in the woollen industry in Ireland."'^ Within 
 two years from the passing of this Adt, 20,000 to 30,000 
 workers in wool were reduced to beggary, and had to be 
 supported at the public expense.''* Great numbers emigrated 
 to the continent of Europe. Others fled to North America, 
 where in due course their descendants took a leading part in 
 the War of Independence.^ A promise made by William to 
 encourage the small Irish linen and hempen trade was never 
 fulfilled by him.''*' When, in the reign of Queen Anne, some 
 very slight encouragement was given to the Irish flax and 
 hempen industries. Catholics were to a great extent deprived 
 of a share in the trifling boom. No Catholic was permitted to 
 have more than two apprentices at a time, and these had to be 
 indentured for a term of not less than seven years, under a penalty 
 of ;^ioo, to be recoverable by the public prosecutor."' 
 
 Catholics were forbidden by law to purchase or lease a 
 house in the cities of Galway or Limerick, or their suburbs.^ 
 
 siSwift McNeill, English Interference with Irish Industries (Cassell, 
 1886), p. 33. Cf. Lecky, Inland in the Eighteenth Century, ed., 1S92, vol. i., 
 p. 177. 
 
 6 2Lecky, ibid. 
 
 o^Ibid., p. 180. 
 
 ^^Ihtd., note (Hely Hutchinson's figures). 
 
 «BArthur Dobbs, and Right Hon. Luke Gardiner, quoted by Swift 
 McNeill, Irish Industries, pp. 58-61. See Godkin, The Land War in Ireland, 
 pp. 249, sgg. 
 
 fi^Lecky, Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, vol. 1., pp. 178-179. "In 
 spite of the compadt of 1698," says Lecky, "the hempen manufadlure was 
 so discouraged that it positively ceased " (ibid., p. 179). "In 1700," says 
 the same author, "the value of the whole export of Irish linen amounted 
 to a little more than /■i4,ooo" (ibid., p. 178). 
 
 872 Anne, c 3, sec. 37. 
 
 688 Anne, c. 6, sec 23; 4 George I , c. 15, sec. i. They were likewise 
 excluded from Bandon, Enniskillen, Belturbet, etc. Lecky, Ireland in the 
 Eighteenth Century, i., 268-269 In Derry, the "nine o'clock bell," which 
 formerly warned the Catholics to leave the walled portion of the city, 
 continues to be rung to the present day. 
 
 182 
 
PENAL CODE: THE LAITY. 
 
 No Catholic was allowed to " have or keep in his possession, 
 or in that of anyone else for him, any horse, gelding, or mare 
 which shall be of the value of £^." Any Protestant was 
 empowered to obtain a search-warrant, break open doors, etc., 
 and, on tendering £^ to the owner or in his absence to the 
 magistrate, was entitled to the possession of the hunter or 
 carriage-horse belonging to a Catholic. Any Papist conceal- 
 ing, or aiding to conceal, such horse, was liable to be sent to 
 jail for three months, and to " forfeit treble the value of 
 said horse. "^^ This was one of the Williamite laws. O'Conor, 
 in his History of the Irish People (p. 209), gives an instance of 
 the working of this Acft : " A Protestant walked up to a 
 Catholic who rode a splendid horse on a racecourse, offered 
 him ^5, and arrogantly ordered him to dismount. The gentle- 
 man dismounted, drew out a pistol, and shot his horse through 
 the brain." By secftions 4 and 18 of 2 George I. the horses of 
 Papists might be seized and detained for ten days for the use 
 of the militia. At the end of that time the authorities had the 
 option of purchasing the animals at £^ each ; otherwise they 
 returned them, provided the oivners paid the sum demanded for their 
 seizure, removal and maintenance. 
 
 BRIBERY. 
 
 [b) Wills and Inheritance. — The penal laws that regarded the 
 devising and inheritance of property formed, says Lecky, " a 
 gigantic system of bribery, intended to induce the Catholics to 
 abandon or disguise their creed." Of all the subjecfts of the 
 Crown, Catholics alone were, by law, incapacitated from either 
 devising by will or inheriting by will. Few Catholic land- 
 owners remained after the confiscations. At their death their 
 estates were divided equally among their sons, unless the 
 eldest son became a Protestant, in which case he inherited the 
 whole.™ In this way Catholic landowners were either slowly 
 but surely impoverished, or their estates passed into the 
 hands of Protestants. In Lecky's words, " these measures 
 . . . appear to have rankled more than any others in the 
 minds of the Catholics, and they produced the bitterest and 
 most pathetic complaints. The law I have cited, by which the 
 eldest son of a Catholic, upon apostatising, became the heir- 
 at-law to the whole estate of his father, reduced his father to 
 the position of a mere life-tenant, and prevented him from 
 selling, mortgaging, or otherwise disposing of it, is a 
 typical measure of this class. In like manner a wife who 
 
 6^7 William III., c. 5, sec. 20; 10 William III., cc. S, g; 2 Anne, c. 61 
 8 Anne, c. i\ 2 George I., c. g; 6 George I., c. 10; 1 George II., c. g; 9 George 
 II., c. 3; 15 and 16 George III., c. tjl.. 
 
 '02 Anne, c. 6; 5 Anne, c. 3. 
 
 183 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 apostatised was immediately freed from her husband's control, 
 and the Chancellor was empowered to assign to her a certain 
 proportion of her husband's property. If any child, hoivever 
 young, professed to be a Protestant, it was at once taken 
 from its father's care. The Chancellor, or the child itself if an 
 adult, might compel the father to produce the title deeds of his 
 estate, and declare on oath the value of his property ; 
 and such a proportion as the Chancellor determined was given 
 to the child." Children were thus set against their parents, 
 and wives against their husbands, and jealousies, suspicions, 
 and heart-burnings were introduced into the Catholic home. 
 The undutiful wife, the rebellious and unnatural son, had only 
 to add to their other crimes the guilt of a feigned conversion, 
 in order to secure both impunity and reward, and to deprive 
 those whom they had injured of the management and disposal 
 of their property." '^ 
 
 The Penal Code, continues the same Protestant writer, 
 " blasted the prospecfts of the Catholic in all the struggles of 
 adlive life. It cast its shadow over the inmost recesses of his 
 home. It darkened the very last hour of his existence. No 
 Catholic, as I have said, could be guardian to a child ; so the 
 dying parent knew that his children must pass under the 
 tutelage of Protestants."'^ What Lecky terms this "atroci- 
 ously cruel" provision of 2 Anne, c. 6, sec. 4, diredled that the 
 dying Catholic parent could not leave his children to the care 
 of his wife or friends. " The Chancellor," says he, " was 
 bound to provide them with a Protestant guardian, whose first 
 duty was to bring them up in the Protestant creed." '^ The 
 same A(ft made any Papist who a(fted as guardian of a child 
 liable to a fine of ^^500.'^ 
 
 Such were some of the diredt or indire(ft results which, in 
 defiance of the Articles of Limerick, the Williamite vi(5tory 
 brought to the Catholics of Ireland ; such the associations 
 which the annual celebrations of that vidfory bring to the 
 minds of the descendants of those who were made to feel the 
 bitter brunt of that ferocious Code. 
 
 " THE IGNORANT IRISH." 
 
 " A second objecft of the penal laws," says Lecky, "was to 
 
 ''^Ibid. See Godkin, The Land War in Ireland, p. 237. The conform- 
 ing wife also received a jointure out of the estate. 
 
 ''^Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, vol. i , p, 153. Cf. Walpole, Kingdom 
 of Ireland, ch. vi., pp. 338-339; Young's Tour in Ireland, vol. ii., sec. vii., 
 (Bell and Sons' ed., 1892). 
 
 ■^ 3 Lecky, ibid., p. 154. The words of the sedtion are quoted in footnote 
 on same page. 
 
 ''^Ibid., p. 154. 
 
 ''^2 Anne, c. 6, sec. 4. 
 
 184 
 
PENAL CODE : THE LAITY. 
 
 reduce the Catholics to a condition of the most extreme and 
 brutal ignorance. . . . The legislation on the subjecft of 
 Catholic education may be briefly described, for it amounted 
 simply to universal, unqualified, and unlimited proscription."'^ 
 Some of the most shocking of these laws were passed during 
 the reign of William of Orange, who, by the exercise of the 
 royal veto, could have at any time arrested this or any portion 
 of the Penal Code. 
 
 I. Laws against Catholic Teachers. — No Catholic was allowed 
 to "mstrucfl a youth in learning," either " publicly or in private 
 houses." The penalty for infringement of this Acft was a fine 
 of £20 and imprisonment without bail or mamprize for three 
 months for every such offence." The Acft of the eighth year 
 of Queen Anne forbade Catholics to teach publicly or privately 
 in any capacity, even as under-masters or assistants to a 
 Protestant schoolmaster. Any Catholic found guilty of 
 contravening this provision of the Adt was to be deemed "a 
 Popish regular clergyman," and "to incur such penalties as 
 any Popish regular convicft." Any Protestant found guilty of 
 "entertaining" any such Catholic tutor was liable to a fine of 
 ^10, half of which went to the informer.'® 
 
 A reward of ;^io was offered for such information as would 
 lead to the apprehension and convicftion of "any Popish school- 
 master, or any Papist teaching in private houses as tutor, 
 usher, or assistant to any Protestant schoolmaster."'^ The 
 professional priest-hunter was scarcely less eager on the scent 
 of the Catholic schoolmaster than upon that of his higher 
 priced but better-guarded quarry. 
 
 In the seventh year of William III., the Irish Protestant 
 Parliament passed An A6t to Restrain Foreign Education.^ It 
 contained, among others, the following provisions : Any person 
 who sent a child abroad, or went abroad, to be trained in the 
 Catholic religion, suffered forfeiture of all real and personal 
 estate, was incapacitated from acfting as guardian, executor, 
 or administrator, from filling any public office, or from 
 receiving any legacy or deed of gift. Any common informer could 
 set the law in motion, and recover half the forfeiture, the other half 
 going to the Crown. The burden of proof of innocence was cast on 
 the accused. This provision was re-ena(fted by the 8 Anne, c. 3, 
 sec. 20. The Charter Schools were established by the 
 
 ''^ Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, vol. i. , p. 148. 
 
 '''^7 William III., cap. 4, sec. 9. The Irish Orangemen showed their 
 sympathy with this Wilhamite Adt by fiercely opposing Stanley's Irish 
 Education Bill. See Killen's Eccles. Hist. Ireland, ii., 436. 
 
 ''^S Anne, c. 3, sec. 16. 
 
 ''^Ibid., sec. 20. 
 
 807 William III., c. 4. 
 
 185 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 Protestant Primate, Boulter, in 1733. "These schools," says 
 Lecky, "which were supported by the public funds, were 
 avowedly intended for bringing up the young as Protestants, 
 to extirpate the religion of their parents. The alternative 
 offered by law to the Catholics was that of absolute and com- 
 pulsory ignorance, or of an education direcftly subversive of 
 their faith." ^^ 
 
 HELOTS IN THEIR OWN LAND. 
 
 Public Representation, Public Employment, etc. — Referring to 
 one of the earliest results of the Williamite vicflory, so 
 sedulously commemorated by Orangemen, the Protestant 
 historian, Walpole, writes : " The Government was now 
 absolutely in the hands of the Protestant minority. . . . 
 The English colony were the owners of nearly all the soil of 
 the island ; monopolised every office of trust and emolument. "^^ 
 
 The Williamite English Adf (J William and Mary, c. 2) 
 imposed on the members of both Irish Houses of Parliament 
 (contrary to the Articles of Limerick) the oath of Abjuration 
 of Popery, and a declaration against Transubstantiation. 
 Catholics were thus excluded from both the Irish House of 
 Lords and the House of Commons.®^ Atheists were not 
 excluded by the Adl. 
 
 No Catholic was allowed to vote at Parliamentary or 
 Municipal eledfions.®* 
 
 ^^Cf. Lecky, Ireland in the Eighteetith Century, vol. i., pp. 254, sqq. 
 Killen says these schools were "essentially eleemosynary and proselytis- 
 ing," and that Catholic children " were transplanted to schools faraway 
 from their relations." Eccles. Hist. Ireland, ii., 248. The Charter Schools 
 were largely endowed. They were carried on by the Incorporated Society, 
 who, in 1749, secured the passing of what has been termed the Kidnapping 
 Act, which constituted them guardians of all begging children, with power 
 to commit and convey them to the Charter schools {The Endowed Schools 
 Commission, by Dean West, pp. 18-19. Dublin : Hodges and Smith, 18S2). 
 Howard, the great philanthropist, made a visit of inspeftion to all the 
 Charter schools, in 1784, and published such an unfavourable report of 
 them that the Insped:or-General of Prisons had an investigation made 
 into their condition in 1786 and 1787. A Committee of Inquiry was 
 appointed by the House of Commons, and they reported of the schools 
 that " in many of the Charter schools, the clothing, cleanliness food, health 
 and education of the children had been shamefully negiedted." John 
 Wesley also gives a sad pidlure of the ragged and filthy condition of the 
 children in the Ballinrobe Charter School in 1785. There were only three 
 beds for fifteen boys, and five for nineteen girls, and, as far as he could 
 discover they were taught "just nothing." Wesley's Journal, p. 816. See 
 also Steven's Inquiry, pp. 35-58, 60, 107. 
 
 ^"^Kingdom of Ireland, chap, iv., pp. 331-332. 
 
 s^7 William III., c. 21 ; 9 William III., c. 9; 2 Anne, c. 13; 6 Anne, c. 
 II. Orangemen retained the declaration against Transubstantiation long 
 after its administration had become illegal. See chap, vi., supra, p. 121. 
 
 ^^2 Anne, c. 6, sec. 24; 2 George /., c. 19, sec. 7; 7 George II., c. 9, 
 sec. 7. Orangemen showed their sympathy with this measure by their 
 
 186 
 
PENAL CODE: THE LAITY. 
 
 No Catholic could hold any office, civil or military, under 
 the Crown. He could not be governor, head, or fellow of a 
 university ; nor barrister-at-law, attorney, or clerk in Chancery ; 
 nor professor of law, medicine, or any other science.®^ This 
 was another of the Williamite laws by which the treaty of 
 Limerick was violated. Another Williamite Acft imposed a 
 fine of ;^ioo on any Catholic who would dare to adl as 
 solicitor in any court in the kingdom after the first of March, 
 i6g8.*^ The fine was recoverable by any common informer. By this 
 Adt, even if a Catholic barrister renounced his faith by taking 
 the oath of Abjuration of Popery, etc., he was not permitted 
 to pra(5tice, unless he educated his children in the Protestant faith. A 
 supplemental A(5t of Queen Anne raised the penalty against 
 Catholic barristers to ^200 f while another section of the 
 same statute prevented any attorney from employing a Catholic 
 clerk. The A(5l of the first year of George H. was more 
 sweeping still : It prohibited anyone pradlising as an attorney, 
 etc., unless he proved that he had been a Protestant for tzm years 
 before applying to be called to the bar.^ 
 
 Catholics, says Lecky, were "deprived of the elecftive 
 suffrage, excluded from the corporations, from the magistracy, 
 from the bar, from the bench, from the grand juries, and from 
 the vestries. They could not be sheriffs or solicitors, or even 
 gamekeepers or constables. They were forbidden to possess 
 any arms ; two justices, or a mayor, or a sheriff, might at any 
 time issue a search-warrant to break into their houses and 
 ransack them for arms, and if a fowling-piece or a flask of 
 powder was discovered, they were liable either to fine or im- 
 prisonment, or to whipping and the pillory. . . In his own 
 country the Catholic was only recognised by the law ' for 
 repression and punishment.' The Lord Chancellor Bowes 
 and the Chief Justice Robinson both distincftly laid down from 
 the bench ' that the law does not suppose any such person to exist as 
 an Irish Roman Catholic' "^^ 
 
 A SUMMARY VERDICT. 
 
 Such were ihe main provisions of the Irish Penal Code. 
 
 violent opposition to Parliamentary Reform and the Franchise Bill, as 
 well as by their exclusion of Catholics from public life in Belfast and 
 Derry. See their eledtion rules, chap, vii., supra, pp 135, sqq^. See also 
 Appendix A. 
 
 857 William III., c. 13; 2 Anne, c. 6, sec. 16. 
 
 86i0 William III., c. 13. 
 
 ^''6 Anne, c. 6. 
 
 *8i George II., c. 20, sec. i. 
 
 ^^ Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, vol. i., p. 146. "The law did not 
 suppose any such person to exist as an Irish Roman Catholic, nor could 
 they breathe without the connivance of the Government." Bowes' words, 
 quoted by Scully, Stateutciit of the Penal Laws, p. 328 
 
 187 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 In the well-known words of Edmund Burke, " it was a com- 
 plete system, full of coherence and consistency, well digested 
 and well composed in all its parts. It was a machine of wise 
 and elaborate contrivance, and as well fitted for the oppression, 
 impoverishment, and degradation of a people, and the debase- 
 ment in them of human nature itself, as ever proceeded from 
 the perverted ingenuity of man." The Protestant historian, 
 Walpole, says that the penal AcTts of the reigns of William and 
 of Anne " were of a characfter quite unparalleled."^" Morrison 
 Davidson, another Protestant writer, describes the WilHamite 
 anti-Catholic laws, under summary heads, as a wai on 
 property, " war on religion," " war on education," " war on 
 marriage," and " war on commerce."''^ In his Land Way in 
 Ireland (p. 236), the Protestant writer Godkin thus refers to 
 that inhuman Code : " The plan adopted for degrading the 
 Catholics, and reducing all to one plebeian level, was most 
 ingenious. The ingenuity, indeed, may be said to be Satanic, 
 for it debased its vi(ftims morally as well as socially and 
 physically. It worked by means of treachery, covetousness, 
 perfidy, and the perversion of all natural affecftion. The trail 
 of the serpent was over the whole system." According to Lecky 
 the Irish Penal Code "was intended to degrade and to 
 impoverish, to destroy in its vicftims the spring and buoyancy 
 of enterprise, to dig a deep chasm between Catholics and Pro- 
 testants. These ends it fully attained. ... It was 
 direcfted not against the few, but against the many. It was 
 not the persecution of a secft, but the degradation of a nation. 
 It was the instrument employed by a conquering race, sup- 
 ported by a neighbouring Power, to crush to the dust the 
 people among whom they were planted. "^^ In another work 
 the same author writes : " It is impossible for any Irish Pro- 
 testant, whose mind is not wholly perverted by religious 
 bigotry, to look back without shame and indignation to the 
 Penal Code."^^ Enlightened and liberal-minded Protestants 
 deplore and condemn it quite as earnestly as Catholics do. 
 But among those we cannot enumerate the members of the 
 Orange society. 
 
 " The penal laws against the Roman Catholics," says 
 Lecky, " both in England and Ireland, were the immediate con- 
 sequence of the Revolution.'-'^" There are two results of the 
 Revolution in Ireland which have ever been dear to the hearts 
 
 ^^Ktngdom 0/ Ireland, chap, vi., p. 332. 
 ^''-Tlie Book of Erin, pp. 172-176. 
 
 ^^Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, vol. i., pp. 169-170. See also 
 foung's Tour in Ireland, vol. ii., sec. vii., pp. 59, sqq., 271. 
 "^^ Leaders of Public Opinion, p. 124. 
 ^■^Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, vol. i., p. 170. 
 
A STRANGE SURVIVAL. 
 
 of Orangemen, and which it is the main duty of their society 
 to celebrate. They are : 
 
 1. The ascendency of their party, which was so ruthlessly 
 exercised against the unhappy Catholics of Ireland ; 
 
 2. The defeat of the Catholic party, the " immediate con- 
 sequence" of which was the persecution, plunder, and social 
 and political degradation of the overwhelming mass of the 
 Irish people. 
 
 Were it not for the anniversary celebrations of the Orange 
 society, time would have mellowed the memory of those 
 events, and the bitter feeling caused by close on a century of 
 odious oppression would have, in due course, faded out of the 
 Irish Catholic mind. Charity, patriotism, the spirit of religion, 
 even the strong arm of British law, have all marked their 
 stern disapprobation of those foolish and irritating displays of 
 party vanity and setftarian hate. There are, however, certain 
 circumstances which aggravate the folly of the Orange anni- 
 versary celebrations. They are : 
 
 1. The extreme ofFensiveness at all times, and, too 
 frequently, the violent and sanguinary character, of these 
 demonstrations. The Royal Commission appointed to inquire 
 into the great Belfast riots of 1857, term the Orange celebra- 
 tions "idle displays merely of offence. ^^" Orangemen, never- 
 theless, continue to persevere in them, without even the 
 pretence of necessity, and in spite of, or rather because of, the 
 known ofFensiveness of such displays to Catholics. 
 
 2. The Orange society was founded, and Orangemen long 
 bound by oath, to maintain the hateful party ascendency that 
 was inaugurated by the William ite vicftory. 
 
 3. Orangemen have ever been, since 1795, the most violent 
 and facftious opponents of Emancipation, Reform, the Educa- 
 tion, Franchise, and Disestablishment Bills, and, generally, of 
 every measure intended to extend to Catholics even a modicum 
 of natural and political right. An English Protestant historian, 
 Rev. W. Nassau Molesworth, writes of them as follows : " Every 
 attempt made by English statesmen to apply to Ireland the 
 most elementary principles of civil and religious liberty was 
 encountered by these [Orange] societies with bitter hostility, 
 and fresh insults on their Catholic compatriots."^'^ Hundreds 
 of petitions were sent to Parliament by the Orange party 
 against the Emancipation Bill, and their opposition to the 
 repeal of the Penal Code soon reached a state of frenzy border- 
 ing on open rebellion. " They were absolutely furious," says 
 Molesworth, " and ready to ally themselves with any party 
 
 ^^ Report, p. 15. 
 
 ^^Hist. of England, vol. i., p. 378. 
 
 189 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 who would assist them in defeating the measure and wrecking 
 vengeance on its framers."^' The wise and witty Sydney Smith 
 thus refers to the violent opposition of the Orange fa(5tion to 
 the repeal of penal legislation against their Catholic fellow- 
 countrymen : 
 
 " In the name of Heaven, what are we to gain by suffering 
 Ireland to be rode by that facStion which now predominates 
 over it ? Why are we to endanger our own Church and State, 
 not for 500,000 Episcopalians, but for ten or twelve great 
 Orange families, who have been sucking the blood of that 
 country for these hundred years last past ? And the folly of 
 the Orangemen in playing this game themselves is almost as 
 absurd as ours in playing it for them. They ought to have 
 the sense to see that their business now is to keep quietly the 
 lands and beeves of which the fathers of the Catholics were 
 robbed in days of yore ; they must give to their descendants 
 the sop of political power; by contending with them for names, 
 they will lose realities, and be compelled to beg their potatoes 
 in a foreign land, abhorred equally by the English who have 
 witnessed their oppression, and by the Catholic Irish who 
 have smarted under them."^® Elsewhere in his writings the 
 same witty divine thus refers to the disloyal threats which the 
 Orange party habitually utter against the Crown and the 
 Government whenever there is a question of repealing a penal 
 enadtment, or of enlarging the political rights of the Catholic 
 body: " It is better to have four friends and one enemy than 
 four enemies and one friend ; and the more violent the hatred 
 of the Orangemen, the more certain the reconciliation of the 
 Catholics. The disaffedtion of the Orangemen will be the 
 Irish rainbow; when I see it I shall be sure that the storm is 
 over.""'' 
 
 4. The same spirit endures in the lodges to this day. 
 While the world has been moving on, Orangemen still clothe 
 themselves in the fierce spirit of the penal days; still frighten 
 themselves with the same old bogies; still speak the anti- 
 quated language of the Williamite Code;'™ and — like a voice 
 
 ^''Ibid., p. 29. 
 
 ^^ Peter Plymley's Letters, Letter iii. 
 
 ^^Ibid., Letter ix. 
 
 looOrangemen habitually use the offensive terms "Papist," ■' Popish," 
 " Romish," and such-lilve theological slang. Elizabeth's Injunctions forbade 
 the use of the word "Papist," as being offensive. Catholics, in the laws 
 of her day, were termed "Recusants," or "persons in communion with 
 the Church of Rome." In the days of William III., from 1692 onwards, 
 and during the remainder of the penal times, the words "Papists," " Popish 
 people," were used in the Statutes. The legal designation is now, and has 
 long been, "Roman Catholics." Scully, Penal Laws, p. i. 
 
 iqo 
 
A STRANGE SURVIVAL. 
 
 from the dead past — call, and ever call, for the imposition 
 of legal disabilities against those who profess the Catholic 
 creed. When we hear their " accredited organ," the Vidiorian 
 Standard, refer in an editorial to " that fatal error, the 
 Emancipation Act of 1829,"^"^ we can understand the force of 
 the rhetorical question of Lord Palmerston: " Is it an organi- 
 sation which belongs to the age in which we live?"^°^ To 
 appreciate the value of the "equal civil and religious liberty," 
 about which Orangemen talk so loudly as dating from the 
 "glorious revolution," it is enough to remember that till 1870, 
 it was a crime, punishable by two years' imprisonment, or by a fine of 
 £500, for a Catholic priest to celebrate a marriage between Catholics, 
 if one of the contvading party had not been a Catholic for fully twelve 
 months. It cannot be urged that this was an obsolete penal 
 statute. On the contrary, it was brought into force repeatedly. 
 Several instances occur to m.y memory. The Rev. Patrick 
 Campbell, Catholic curate of the Waterside, Derry, and sub- 
 sequently professor of Theology in the Irish College, Paris, 
 was brought up under this Adt before Judge Torrens, 
 at the Derry Assizes, somewhere in the fifties. He was 
 defended by Mr. Thomas O'Hagan (afterwards Lord 
 O'Hagan), whose speech did much to rivet attention on the 
 iniquity of this statute. In the sixties, the celebrated 
 Yelverton trial focussed the world's attention upon this 
 infamous law. Soon after the Yelverton case a priest of the 
 diocese of Clagher was tried before Judge Hayes, at the Ennis- 
 killen Assizes, for the crime of having married two Catholics. 
 In April, 1866, Mr. Sergeant Armstrong, M.P. for Sligo, 
 introduced a Bill to abolish the penalty ; but it was only in 
 1870, when Mr. Gladstone was Premier, that the infamous 
 law finally disappeared from the statute-book. Orange- 
 men still carry on a bitter, energising, far-reaching, and 
 generally secret crusade, not alone against the Catholic body, 
 but against their noblest charitable movements, and against 
 individual members of the hated creed. Many of my readers 
 will recall the violent antagonism of the Irish brethren to the 
 spread of Father Mathew's great temperance movement in 
 Ulster ; their screaming harangues ; their anti-temperance 
 riots, especially at Lurgan and Newtownhamilton ; and the 
 resolution of the Loughgall Orange farmers not to employ any 
 labourer who would dare to pledge himself to sobriety 
 at the preaching of a Catholic priest.^"^ Their system 
 
 10 ' Victorian Standard, May, 1893, p. 6, first column. 
 ^"2in his reply to a deputation of Ulster Orangemen, February 18, 
 [858. See chapter xiv., infra. 
 
 io3-\Y_ J. O'Neill Daunt, Eighty-five Years 0) Irish History, pp. 200-201 
 
 igi 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 of exclusive dealing loads the dice, to some extent, 
 against Catholics engaged in business pursuits. On their plat- 
 form, in their press, and in the secret of their lodges, they raise 
 obje(ftions to the presence of Catholics in the Civil Service. ^°^ 
 They use the franchise and the Ballot Acft as engines to keep 
 Catholics out of Parliamentary and Municipal bodies. ^°^ To 
 this day the two great Orange centres of Ulster prove how 
 deeply the fraternity are in sympathy with many of the 
 provisions of the Irish Penal Code — the Catholic majority of 
 Derry, and the Catholic minority of Belfast having been 
 almost to this hour systematically excluded from praiflically 
 any share in offices of honour and emolument in the gift of 
 the local public bodies.^"" The regrettable charadlier of the 
 language constantly employed at Orange demonstrations has 
 been sufficiently dealt with in the last chapter. The tenth, 
 eleventh, thirteenth, and fourteenth chapters will serve to 
 point out other well-known fadls and features of the Orange 
 organisation, which contribute additional elements of offensive- 
 ness to these unnecessary displays, and make them, in a way, 
 as direcft incitements to riot and disorder as the gabled trailing 
 of coat-tails at Donnybrook fair. 
 
 The Cootehill Orangemen issued a manifesto against the Father Mathew's 
 advent in Ulster: " Insuhed Protestants! will ye, can ye, bear it any 
 longer?" etc. It called on the sons of William to "let not the anti- 
 Christian apostle depart trom Cootehill in boasted triumph." Ibid. 
 
 lo^See chap. viii. supra. 
 
 lo^See chap, vii., p. 135, sqq. 
 
 losgee Appendix A, infra. 
 
 ig-z 
 
ORANGE PROCESSIONS. 
 
 Chapter X* 
 
 ORANGE DEMONSTRATIONS : THE THEATRICAL 
 DISPLAY AND ITS METHODS— ROVING AGITATORS: 
 THEIR WORDS AND THEIR WAYS— WHAT DOES 
 "LOYALTY" MEAN ?— THE MARCH PAST: GUNS. 
 BAYONETS, " SACKFULS OF REVOLVERS," BROKEN 
 HEADS, AND OTHER VALUABLE PROPERTY— SNIF- 
 FING THE ODOUR OF BATTLE. 
 
 On the loth of July, 1836, a high-minded and distinguished 
 EngHsh Protestant, Thomas Drummond, Under-Secretary for 
 Ireland, said in the course of a letter to his mother : '* I am 
 very busy with the arrangements for the 12th of July — the 
 day on which the Orange demons walk. It is very difficult to 
 allay their fiendish spirit." ^ He was preparing at the time for 
 the illegal Orange processions which were to take place two 
 days later throughout Ulster, in defiance of the provisions of 
 the Party Processions A(5t of 1832. Processions, with their 
 party emblems, party tunes and cries, etc., constitute what has 
 been termed, in a previous chapter, the theatrical portion of 
 the Orange demonstrations. To the average member of the 
 lodge they are as the apple of his eye. The frue " sons of 
 William" under the Southern Cross look forward to the day 
 when the streets of our Australasian cities and towns may 
 witness as brave a show as the brethren of the far North make 
 each succeeding July in Derry or Belfast or Toronto. This 
 phase of the Orange demonstration deserves attention, for the 
 following reasons : 
 
 (a) Because the methods adopted in these displays afford a 
 good insight into the spirit and policy of the institution. 
 
 (b) Because of the calamitous results which have followed 
 in the wake of these processions, from the inception of 
 Orangeism down to the present day. 
 
 To estimate the effecft which the introdu<5tion of such 
 processions would have upon the peace of the Australian 
 colonies if Orangeism ever became a power in our midst, we 
 
 ^Thomas Drummond, by Barry O'Brien. Drummond was an ofl&cer of 
 engineers on the Irish Ordnance Survey, 1824-1830. He knew Ireland 
 well, having studied its people, its history, and its politics on the spot. 
 
 193 M 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 must first consider the part they have played in the history 
 of Ulster, the cradle and home of the institution. The Orange 
 portions of that province have long enjoyed the unenviable 
 notoriety of being the only parts of Ireland where secftarian 
 riots are chronic ; where violence, bloodshed, pillage, and 
 wreckings are inflicfted upon the members of a religious 
 denomination who are in a minority. There alone we witness 
 what a former Chief Secretary for Ireland, Mr. Chichester 
 Fortescue, termed "the annual specimen of civil war."* Ulster 
 has the singular distincftion of being the only place in Ireland 
 where Royal Commissions have sat to inquire into religious 
 riots. It is to that province, and to it alone, that large bodies 
 of police and military have to be drafted, at enormous expense 
 to the ratepayers, when each circling year brings back its 
 anniversary of the " glorious, pious, and immortal memory." 
 "The I2th of July," says the Report of the Belfast Royal 
 Commission of 1857, " has always brought with it its Orange 
 gatherings, its party displays, its consequent riots." Mr. 
 Chichester Fortescue, Chief Secretary for Ireland, in opposing 
 the repeal of the Party Processions A(5l, July 12, 1870, said : 
 " The strange (he was going to say the scandalous) specftacle 
 still continued, that Government, at this time of day, should 
 find it necessary, summer after summer, to send down a large 
 force of military and police to a flourishing, happy, and pros- 
 per.ous part of the country, for the purpose of keeping the peace 
 between the two religious parties there."* 
 
 THE ROOT OF THE MATTER. 
 
 What is the cause of all this ? Parliamentary Committees, 
 Royal Commissions, Protestant statesmen, judges, etc., have, 
 with singular unanimity, attributed this distressful state of 
 Ulster to the party processions of the Orange institution. 
 The Belfast News-Letter of July 13th, 181 3, speaks in condemna- 
 tion of those "idle parades having enkindled those animosities 
 and heartburnings which should have for ever sunk into 
 oblivion." In 0(5lober, 1830, the Orange Grand Committee 
 (DubHn) consulted the two eminent barristers, Mr. Sergeant 
 Pennefather and Mr. Holmes, both of whom expressed their 
 decided opinion that even then, before any Party Processions 
 Acfl had been passed, " under existing circumstances, and the 
 present state of the law. Orange processions are not only 
 decidedly illegal, hit dangerous.'''* Mr. Stanley, in moving his 
 
 2In the House of Commons, 14th March, 1870. Hansard of date, p. 
 1888. 
 
 ^Hansard, vol. cciii., Third Series, col. 166. 
 
 4Given in Report of Parliamentary Select Committee (English) of 1835. 
 
 194 
 
CAUSES OF STRIFE. 
 
 Processions Acfl in 1832, said that the reason why it was 
 directed against the Orange party was that they alone persevered 
 in endeavouring to keep ahve religious animosity, which had 
 led to so many fatal consequences.* Mr. Christie, whose 
 testimony has been so often quoted in these pages, declared 
 before the Parliamentary Committee of 1835 : " There scarcely 
 has been a 12th of July, to the best of my recolledtion, in any 
 year from the commencement of Orangeism [1795] till the 
 present period [1835], when a breach of the peace has not 
 occurred, and frequently lives hive been lost, in consequence 
 of these processions."" William Stratton, an Ulster Protestant 
 constable, examined before the Parliamentary Committee of 
 1835, was of opinion that the country would be very quiet but 
 for Orange processions and drum-beatings, which were the 
 natural results of the institution, and which were calculated to 
 give offence to Catholics. The Right Hon. the Earl of Caledon 
 (a Protestant, and Lieutenant of Tyrone county) was asked by 
 the Committee : " What is your lordship's opinion as to the 
 effeifl of these processions, and drum-beatings, and party tunes, 
 as it affecSts the peace of the country ?" Lord Caledon replied : 
 " I think the processions are very mischievous."' In reply to 
 another question, he declared that whatever would prevent 
 party processions would be an advantage to the public peace.*^ 
 Sir Frederick Stoven, Inspecftor-General of Police, and like- 
 wise a Protestant, said before the same Committee that Orange 
 processions and drum-beatings were calculated to insult 
 Catholics,^ and that if Orangemen would only refrain from 
 their processions, etc., religious dissension would cease in the 
 community.'" Messrs. Richardson Bell, W. J. Handcock, J. P., 
 Randall, Kernan, Captain Duff, and many other witnesses 
 examined, all condemned the Orange society as promoting 
 lawlessness and animosity, and leading to outrage and 
 bloodshed. 
 
 The Parliamentary Committee (English) of the House of 
 Commons (1835), said in their Report: " The obvious tendency 
 and effecSi: of the Orange society is to keep up an exclusive 
 society in civil and military life, exciting one portion of the 
 people against the other; to increase the rancour and animosity 
 too often, unfortunately, existing between different religious 
 persuasions ... by processions on particular days, attended 
 with the insignia of the society, to excite to breaches of the 
 
 ^Pavl. Debates vol. xiii., p. 1035. 
 
 ^Minutes 0/ Evidence, Parliamentary Report of 1835, Qq. 5G00, 5634. 
 
 Ubid.. Q. 5473. 
 
 8/;«i.. Q. 5538; cf. Q. 5418. 
 
 ^Ibid., Q. 4651. 
 
 ^^Ibid., Qq. 4700, 4703. 
 
 IQ5 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 peace and to bloodshed," etc. The Edinburgh Review for 
 January, 1886, commenting on the evidence brought before 
 the Parhamentary Committees of the previous year, makes the 
 following charge (among others) against the Orange society: 
 " That, by its annual processions and commemorations of 
 epochs of party triumph, it has exasperated and transmitted 
 ancient feuds, which have led to riots, with loss of property and 
 life." 
 
 The Royal Commissioners appointed to inquire into the 
 great Belfast riots of 1857 say in their Report: " The Orange 
 system seems to us now to have no other practical result than 
 as a means of keeping up the Orange festivals and celebrating 
 them ; leading, as they do, to violence, outrage, religious animosities, 
 hatred between classes, and too often bloodshed and loss of life. These 
 opinions have been forced from us, and in giving them we feel 
 a hope that when the kindly and generous minds belonging to 
 the Orange society see the results attending their organisation — so 
 different from what they intended — they will think that it is 
 well to consider whether there is any controlling necessity to 
 keep it alive, notwithstanding the evils that, unfortunately, attend its 
 existence. '"'^'^ Elsewhere in their Report the Commissioners say 
 that the "happening of outrages at that period [July 12] was 
 a matter of usual occurrence, "^^ and add these emphatic words : 
 " The celebration of that festival [July 12] by the Orange party in 
 Belfast is plainly and unmistakably the originating cause of these 
 riots." And again : " As long as this festival continues to be 
 celebrated, it is essential, for the sake of peace and order, that 
 the arm of the Executive Government in Belfast shall be 
 strengthened, and a force kept up sufficient to at once put 
 down outrage on all sides. "^^ In his evidence before the Derry 
 Royal Commission of 1869, the distinguished Presbyterian 
 journahst, Dr. James McKnight, said of the people of Ulster 
 that " if their ill passions were not stirred up by those historic 
 memories, and displays connecfled with them, they would live 
 on perfecftly good terms."" 
 
 Lord Chancellor Brady, in his noted document of Odtober 
 6, 1857, o" Orange magistrates, declares that the party feeling 
 so prevalent in Belfast was " excited on the recurrence of cer- 
 tain anniversaries, which for years have been made the 
 occasion of irritating demonstrations, too often attended by 
 violations of the public peace, and dangerous, and sometimes 
 fatal, conflicfts. The Orange society is mainly instrumental in 
 
 ^''■Report, p. 11. 
 
 I'^Ibid., p. 8. 
 
 ^^Ibid., p. 9. 
 
 ^* Minutes of Evidence, Q. 5379. 
 
 ig6 
 
CAUSES OF STRIFE. 
 
 keeping up this excitement .... It is manifest that the 
 existence of this society, and the conduct of many of those 
 who belong to it, tend to keep up, through large distri(5ts of 
 the North, a spirit of bitter and fadtious hostility among large 
 classes of her Majesty's subjects, and to provoke violent ani- 
 mosity and aggression. "^^ 
 
 The Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the 
 Derry disturbances of 1883, said: "It must be admitted the 
 professed aim of the Apprentice Boys' society involves some 
 danger to the peace of Londonderry. "^"^ The Royal Commis- 
 sion of Inquiry into the great Belfast riots of 1886 said in its 
 Report that the Orange celebrations " are a fruitful cause of 
 rioting and disturbance;" and they recommend the conferring 
 on magistrates of a summary power to prevent all processions 
 of a kind calculated to bring about a breach of the peace." 
 
 i^The letter was published in the Northern Whig, Oftober, 1857. See 
 chap, xiv., infra. 
 
 '^^ Report, p. X. The Apprentice Boys of Derry are pradlically at one 
 with the members of the Orange association. They have the same general 
 organisation, the same aims and methods, the same deep and adlive hatred 
 of their Catholic fellow-citizens. Large numbers of Orangemen join in 
 their processions, and otherwise associate with them in furthering the pur- 
 poses which the two associations — or, rather, the two phases of the same 
 association — hold in common. The rules of the Apprentice Boys, and 
 evidence of their intercourse with the Orange society, will be found in the 
 Reports, Minutes of Evidence, and Appendices to Reports of the Derry Royal 
 Commissions of 1869 and 1883. The history of Apprentice-Boy ism, like 
 that of Orangeism, is stained with blood. The Reports of the Royal Com- 
 missions held in Derry tell us only of a few crimes of the "Boys." The 
 files of the Derry Journal (Catholic) and the Derry Standard (Presbyterian) 
 supply what the Reports omit. I seledt the following typical proofs of the 
 goodwill of the "Apprentices" to their Catholic fellow-citizens: (i) Loosen- 
 ing large coping stones on the city wall, in anticipation of a torchlight pro- 
 cession of Catholics passing underneath the same night. This occurred 
 after an elecftion petition, which the presiding judge had decided in favour of 
 Mr. Dowse, a liberal Protestant. (2) Placing a large vessel, filled with gun 
 powder and broken bottles, on the route of a Catholic procession 17th March, 
 1878, with a fuse attached, and the explosion timed for the procession passing. 
 (3) Throwing a bomb through the window on the roof of a hall where 
 Catholics were holding a ball, 17th March, 1879, with the result that a 
 girl was maimed for life. The perpetrators of these outrages were, in each 
 case, allowed to go scot free, the magistrates having made no attempt to 
 bring them to justice. The contempt of the "Boys" for authority, both 
 civil and ecclesiastical, has been very marked. The Government pro- 
 hibited their demonstration i8th December, 1869, and proclaimed the city 
 The "Apprentices," nevertheless, tried to carry out their customary pro- 
 cession, and discharged ordnance from the tower of the Protestant Cathe- 
 dral. The respedted Protestant Bishop of Derry, Dr. Higgin, forbade the 
 display of party flags from his cathedral, 12th August, i860, when Catholics 
 were so deeply roused over the Derrymacash murders the twelfth oi 
 July previous. The "Boys" replaced with violence the flags which the 
 courageous Bishop had ordered to be taken down. 
 
 '^•'Report, p. 16 
 
 197 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 An Orange testimony may not be amiss here. Mr. 
 Johnston, of Ballykillbeg, said, in the debate on the repeal of 
 the Party Processions Acfl in 1870, that he " did not maintain 
 that Orange demonstrations were a means of preserving the 
 peace." ^® When the Irish Grand lodge found that things had 
 gone too far in 1830, in its address of 26th June of that year 
 it recommended abstention, because " the public processions 
 were likely to lead to a great loss of life, and prove injurious 
 to the Orange association," and might, "in all likelihood, be 
 made the groundwork of some legislative enacftment for the 
 suppression of the Orange society. "^^ The Grand Lodge took 
 no acflion in the matter until the very existence of the society 
 was imperilled by the violence of its associates. 
 
 THE FOUNDATIONS OF STRIFE. 
 
 There are three features in connecftion with the typical 
 Orange processions, as carried out in Ulster, which, taken 
 together, constitute a serious menace to public tranquility. 
 They are : 
 
 1. The gathering together of large bodies of men, chiefly 
 of the lower orders, by command of the lodges. 
 
 2. These bodies of people are usually wrought to a high 
 pitch of excitement by inflammatory discourses. 
 
 3. A portion of them, at least, are usually armed with 
 deadly weapons. 
 
 I. The Report of the Selecft Parliamentary Committee 
 (English) of 1835 on Orange lodges says: "The power of 
 calling out all lodges rests with the Grand Master and his 
 Deputy, on the application of twelve members of the Grand 
 Committee ; the same person, the Grand Master of Ireland 
 and England, having the same powers, which are stated to be 
 uncontrollable and arbitrary, of bringing together large bodies 
 of armed aud unarmed men, to make a demonstration of 
 physical force which might prove highly dangerous." During 
 the early thirties, the correspondence of the Imperial Grand 
 Lodge of London lingers frequently on the recognised Orange 
 policy of physical force. -° I have already quoted Fairman's 
 letter in point to the Duke of Gordon, Deputy Grand Master 
 for Scotland,^^ and Deputy Grand Master Plunket's corres- 
 pondence with Fairman.^'^ The Dublin University Magazine 
 
 isHouse of Commons, 30th March, 1870. Hansard of date, col. 941. 
 19 Appendix to Report of Pari. Committee, 1835. 
 
 20See Fairman Letters in Report and Appendix; also, in Barry 
 O'Brien's Thomas Drummond. 
 2iSee p. 3, supra. 
 
 198 
 
ROVING AGITATORS. 
 
 (an Orange organ) for April, 1836, said: "The organisation 
 of Orangeism was designed simply for the concentration of 
 physical force. '"^^ The sixth of the Secret Articles of 1799 
 bound every Orangeman to " appear in ten hours' warning."^^ 
 According to the books of the Grand Lodge for June, 1835, 
 large bodies of people had assembled in various parts of Ireland 
 at the word of command, as many as 75,000 having come 
 together at Hillsborough alone. ^ Reference has already been 
 made to the vast numbers of Orangemen who were at the beck 
 and call of the Imperial Grand Master in the thirties, "^^ and 
 to the statements made in the Report of the English Seledl 
 Committee as to how dangerous such a society " might 
 become under possible circumstances of the country." The 
 Royal Commission of 1869 refers in warning tones to the 
 danger of " concentrating in Londonderry bodies of partisans 
 from considerable distances."" 
 
 ROVING AGITATORS. 
 
 2. The danger to the public peace from Orange processions 
 is notably increased by the facft that the large masses of the 
 lower orders of the people, brought together at these demon- 
 strations, have their feelings wrought up to a fine fury against 
 the Catholic body by what the Times terms the " inflammatory 
 addresses of roving agitators."^® In the eighth chapter of this 
 volume reference has been made to a peculiarly distressing 
 feature of this bad business, namely : that the most delirious 
 of those dangerous zealots are almost invariably clergymen, 
 whose platform utterances are strangely inconsistent, not merely 
 with their sacred calling, but with the elemental duty of loyal 
 citizens. 'Twas ever thus, from the days of Rev. Mr. Mansell's 
 fervid oratory in 1795. During the debate of March 23, 1835, 
 on Orange lodges, Mr. Finn, M.P., quoted some remarkable 
 extra(5ts from the inflammatory speeches of Rev. "Johnny" 
 McCrea, Chaplain and laureate of the Irish Grand Lodge. In one 
 of these speeches he pracflically urged the destru(ftion of the 
 Catholic churches in Dublin city.^^ A peculiarly outrageous 
 
 "^Quoted in "M.P.'s" History of Orangeism, p. 222. 
 
 "^Appendix to Pari. Report, 1835. 
 
 asparl. Report (English). 
 
 2 6See p. 45, supra. 
 
 '^''Report, p. 17. Considerable bodies of Orangemen from the country 
 attended the procession held at Brunswick (Melbourne), July 19, 1S97. 
 
 '^^Times, i6th August, 1870. 
 
 29Rev. Mr. McCrea was enraged at the number of Catholic churches 
 then being built in Dublin, and suggested, in the words of Knox, that "to 
 banish the crows, they should pull down their nests." He pledged him- 
 self to "raise such a spirit that no power in earth or in hell can resist it. 
 Every Popish altar must be pulled down, every Popish priest must be banished 
 . . . or fall a victim to the righteous indignation of the people," etc. 
 
 199 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 attack of his on the Catholic body, in the Dubhn Royal 
 Exchange (1835), so won the admiration of the Grand Lodge 
 that they presented him with a service of plate. ^° Mr. James 
 Sinclair, an Ulster Protestant magistrate, deposed before the 
 Parliamentary Committee of 1835 that some clergymen — 
 principally curates and recflors — of the Protestant Church, 
 " very violently" encouraged party animosity between Catholics 
 and Protestants, for their own ends.^^ Grand Chaplain Drew 
 was another militant cleric, somewhat after the type of Rev. 
 " Johnny" McCrea. The Belfast Riots Commissioners of 
 1857 strongly condemn him for having preached a singularly 
 acrimonious sermon " to a large congregation assembled for 
 religious worship, containing denunciations of a large class of 
 his fellow men."**^ The same Royal Commissioners likewise 
 condemn the offensive and " disturbing placards" addressed to 
 the Catholic body during the progress of the riots by Rev. Mr. 
 Mcllwine, and the inflammatory utterances of Rev. H. Hanna 
 to the excited Orange proletariat of Belfast. " Out of conflicft 
 our rights arose," said Mr, Hanna, " and by conflidl: they ought 
 to be maintained. "^^ Such language, to such people, at such 
 a time and place, was as the dropping of a spark into a powder 
 magazine. It had its acknowledged share in intensifying and 
 prolonging the scenes of riot, plunder, bloodshed, and con- 
 fusion which focussed the astonished eyes of British civilisation 
 on Belfast in 1857. The Royal Commissioners of Inquiry 
 throw serious blame on the intemperate utterances of one of 
 the Orange clergy, but for whom, they say in their Report 
 " matters might have easily passed off without further trouble." 
 Readers of a still later period of Irish history will recall 
 with a smile the bellicose utterances of reverend Orange 
 orators during the Disestablishment agitation in 1868 and 1869; 
 of Revs. Mr. Flanagan, W. H. Ferrar, T. Ellis, John Nash 
 Griffin, H. Henderson, L. Canter, C. Maginnis, and a score of 
 others whose names are lost to fame.**^ The fervid appeals 
 made by another clergyman to the passions of an Orange 
 audience at Rosslea (Monaghan), during the Home Rule agita- 
 
 30Cf. Report of Irish Seledl Parliamentary Committee of 1835, Appen- 
 dix X., p. 77. 
 
 ^^Minutes 0/ Evidence, Report of Pari. Committee, Qq. 5014, 5015. 
 
 Si Report. The sermon referred to is given in Appendix to Report. 
 Grand Chaplain Drew was the author of the tradt Twenty Reasons for being 
 an Orangeman, referred to near the close of chap, viii., supra. 
 
 ^^IbicL, and Appendix. 
 
 3*A highly entertaining series of extradts from the Orange speeches of 
 that period— copied mostly from the chief Irish mouthpiece of the Orange 
 party, the Daily Express— is given in The Orange Bogey, by J. J. Clancy, M.A., 
 M.P. (Irish Press Agency publications. No. 2, 18S6). 
 
UNDER ARMS. 
 
 tion, will be readily recalled by those of my readers who are 
 acquainted with the events of the period.^^ From the eighth 
 chapter of this book the reader can form an idea of the spirit 
 of fierce animosity towards Catholics which animates the 
 Orange clergy in Australia. 
 
 KEEPING THEIR POWDER DRY. 
 
 3. In a passage of his Personal Sketches, already quoted, Sir 
 Jonah Barrington, who was an Orangeman as early as 1798, 
 remarked that William of Orange ought to be a singularly 
 proud ghost — so many heads having been broken in his honour. 
 Orangemen contribute materially to this result by the offensive 
 characfter of their demonstrations, and by their old-standing 
 habit of carrying arms on the celebrationof their anniversaries. 
 In the good old days of the Orange yeomanry their favourite 
 weapons were the muskets and bayonets supplied them by the 
 Government. Sir Frederick Stoven, Inspedtor-General of 
 Police, declared to the Parliamentary Committee of 1835 that 
 for the past ten years the yeomanry were " quite useless, and 
 more than useless in my opinion ; I think they are dangerous. "^^ 
 Other witnesses gave expression to the same opinion.^' The 
 English Parliamentary Committee of 1835 on Orange lodges, 
 on page xxvii. oiiheir Report, warn the Government of the urgent 
 danger of large bodies of armed men being concentrated at a 
 given spot, at the beck of a Master of a lodge, and call for the 
 immediate suppression of the society. 
 
 The idea oi gun-clubs originated with the Orangemen during 
 the No-Popery fury which seized upon the Irish lodges after 
 the passing of the Emancipation Bill in 1829. At the Armagh 
 court-house, December 28, 1831, Viscount Mandeville spoke 
 to the brethren there assembled, of the necessity of arming 
 themselves to resist the encroachments of Popery. He added : 
 " You have your watch and clock clubs ; why not have youv 
 gun-clubs as well ?" Mr. W. Stratton, an Ulster Protestant 
 police-constable, in his evidence before the Parliamentary Sele<5t 
 Committee (Irish), diredlly attributes the formation of gun-clubs 
 to this speech. ''^ At this time, said the same witness, there 
 were no Catholic gun-clubs in existence. ^^ Sir F. Stoven was 
 asked : " Are the majority of the gun-clubs Protestant ?" He 
 
 •"*sThe Rev. orator made a violent attack on Mr. Biggar, M.P., and 
 Home Rulers generally, amid Orange cries of "shoot Biggar," "shoot 
 them," " we'll shoot them." Freeman's Journal, Odlober 17, 1883. 
 
 ^^Report, Minutes 0/ Evidence, Q. 4778. 
 
 ^''Ibid., Qq. 4211-4212, 7315-7317, 8799. At the time the yeomanry 
 were nearly all Orangemen. See Qq. 4340, 4341, 4550, 5349, 5628-5630, 
 qj86. 
 
 ssMinutes of Evidence, Qq. 5189, sqq., 5218, 5235. 
 
 ^^Ibid., Qq. 5330-533i- 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 replied: " As far as I have heard, they are. I have heard that 
 a great number of the landlords of the highest class are encou- 
 raging their tenantry to arm."^" Lord Gosford gave evidence 
 before the Sele(5t Committee showing that these gun-clubs 
 existed to an alarming extent in Ulster shortly after Lord 
 Mandeville's speech at Armagh. 
 
 Mr. Sinclair, an Ulster Protestant magistrate, testified as 
 follows before the Parliamentary Selecft Committee of 1835:" 
 
 "Who are more armed, the Catholics or the Orangemen? 
 The Catholics are never armed with deadly weapons, 
 
 " Are the Orangemen frequently armed? Yes, constantly." 
 
 Before the same Committee, our old friend Mr. Christie, an 
 Ulster Quaker, deposed that "the Orangemen always had 
 muskets and side-arms and pistols."*^ 
 
 A great number of firearms were distributed among the 
 Orange processionists who, after the famine years, took part 
 in the massacre of Catholics and the burning of their houses 
 at Dolly's Brae. 
 
 The Royal Commissioners appointed to inquire into the 
 Derry disturbances of 1869 say in tfieir Report that, during 
 these processions, " the disposition to use firearms becomes 
 general. One of the witnesses said : ' Every person who can 
 muster arms on that day carries them.' " During the debate on 
 the repeal of the Party Processions Adl (30th March, 1870) Mr. 
 Callan, M.P., a Louth man himself, living on the borders of 
 Ulster, strongly objedled to the firing parties at Orange proces- 
 sions.^* The Orange hero, Mr. Johnston, however, stoutly op- 
 posed the insertion of a clause in the proposed Government Bill 
 rendering it penal to carry firearms in a procession." In the 
 south of Ireland, as Mr. M'Carthy Downing pointed out, no 
 weapons are carried in processions.^^ Part of the Derry cele- 
 brations consist of the firing of cannon from the bastion which 
 overlooks the Catholic portion of the town.*'^ County Inspedlor 
 Stafford (a Protestant) deposed before the Derry Royal Com- 
 mission of 1869, that a number of cannon in the Apprentice 
 Boys' gun-room on this bastion were in charge of a body of 
 drunken men, and loaded with pounded jars, ready to be 
 
 "^'Ibid., Q. 4545- 
 
 *i/62^., Qq. 5055-5056. 
 
 *'^Ihid.. Q. 3635. 
 
 *^Hansard, vol. ii. of Session, p. 957. 
 
 **Hansard, vol. ccii., Third Series, p. 1682 (July 7, 1870). 
 
 *5Hansard, vol. ii. of Session, p. 954 (30th March, 1870). 
 
 ^^JReport, Derry Royal Commission of i86g, p. 10. Dr. James 
 McKnight, in his evidence before trte Derry Royal Commission of 1869, 
 strongly objedted to the seleftion of this portion of the city walls for the 
 purpose of "firing in pradical triumph over the heads and houses of these 
 people" [the Catholics]. Minutes of Evidence, Q. 5330. 
 
 202 
 
UNDER ARMS. 
 
 brought out to fire on the Catholic party passing underneath 
 on the night of Mr. Dowse's return for the city, in Novem- 
 ber, 1868." 
 
 During the Home Rule agitation in the eighties, Irish 
 Orangemen were, according to their organ, the Daily Express, 
 recommended, when going to demonstrations and counter- 
 demonstrations, to bring with them " their sweethearts and plenty 
 of stuff'' — in plain English, revolvers and ammunition. ^^ At 
 Lord Rossmore's reception, in Monaghan, in December, 1883, 
 one of the prominent speakers made use of the following 
 pregnant words : " Let there be no revolver pracftice. (Cheers.) 
 His advice to them about revolvers was : Never to use a 
 revolver except they were firing at someone. (Laughter and 
 cheers.) Firing squibs in the air was nothing." ^^ On the 
 i6th of OcStober, in the same year, a peaceable and 
 legal meeting of Nationalists was held at Rosslea, in 
 a parish where the Catholics numbered 4,394 out of a 
 total population of 6,o6g. The Orange party organised 
 a counter-demonstration, and came provided with an 
 abundance of both "sweethearts" and "stuff." They as- 
 sembled near the spot where the Nationalist meeting was in 
 progress. Their organ, the Daily Express, of the following day 
 describes how, at one part of the proceedings, " hundreds of 
 revolvers were produced throughout the [Orange] gathering, 
 and it is no exaggeration to say that the firing became general. 
 For fully ten minutes it was steadily maintained, notwith- 
 standing the efforts of the leaders to stop it."^° The Dublin 
 Freeman's Journal of the same date states that the revolver 
 practice of the Orange party was direcfed " towards the hill 
 where the Nationalist meeting was being held." 
 
 Mr. Trevelyan, Chief Secretary for Ireland, thus described, 
 in the House of Commons, the Orange counter-demonstrations 
 of the 8o's : " Unfortunately, however, the counter-demonstra- 
 tions of the Orangemen were, to a great extent, demonstrations 
 of bodies of armed vien. At their last meeting at Dromore sack- 
 fuls of revolvers were left behind close to the place of meeting. The 
 reason that they were so left was that a shrewd and energetic 
 officer who was present was seen to search the Orangemen as 
 they came along. The Orange meetings, therefore, were bodies 
 of armed men, many of whom came prepared to use their arms ; some of 
 them prepared to make a murderous attack upon the Nation- 
 
 ^"^ Minutes of Evidence, pp. 73, 74. 
 
 ^^Daily Express, November 6, 1883, in report of an Orange demonstra- 
 tion held in Pettigo on the previous day. 
 '^^Daily Express, December 8, 1883. 
 ^°Ibid., Odtober 17, 1883. 
 
 203 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 alists. So far as the Government knew, it was not the custom 
 of the Nationalists to go armed to their meetings until the bad 
 example was set by the Orangemen." ^^ In connecflion with 
 the death of the unfortunate Orange lad GifFen, who was shot 
 during the riot, evidence was adduced to show that many of 
 the brethren who attended this demonstration were paid 7s, 6d. 
 each, besides receiving return tickets, and being supplied with 
 revolvers. In 1884 the Master of the Dyan Lodge issued "A 
 Scheme for the better Organisation of the Orange Society as a 
 fighting Force." It was, in effecft, a revival of the gun club 
 idea of 1831. He suggested the formation of a picked body of 
 men, accustomed, where possible, to military discipline. They 
 were to be armed with Snider rifles ; " the arms to be kept in 
 a depot (the nearest Orange hall), or some sufficiently strong 
 place to ensure their safety ; " the Districfl: Council to meet 
 monthly, inspedt the weapons, "distribute ammunition," etc.^^ 
 
 The carrying of deadly weapons has been, ever since 1795, 
 and continues to be until the present day, a feature of Orange 
 processions in Ireland. The D err y Journal oi ]\i\y 3, 1896, and 
 the Dublin Freeman^s Journal report a tragic incident which 
 resulted from the preparations for an L.O.L. demonstration in 
 "ould Donegal." "The Orangemen of the districfl," says the 
 first-named paper, "were arranging for a display through 
 Mountcharles on the 12th." A number of the brethren went 
 into the town of Donegal for the purpose of "making arrange- 
 ments for the coming Orange celebrations." An important 
 part of these "arrangements" seems to have consisted of 
 loaded revolvers. One of these, through being incautiously 
 handled, went off. The contents of one of the chambers 
 shattered the hand of one of the fraternity, named Galbraith, 
 and then lodged in the head of one Cassidy, Master of the 
 Doorin-road lodge, killing him almost immediately. 
 
 In the Orange procession there are, then, three elements, 
 which, when combined, constitute a serious menace to public 
 tranquility. These are : (a) A large assemblage of people, 
 composed maiuly of the lower and less educated portion of the 
 community ; ^^ (b) this assemblage of people usually aroused 
 by inflammatory harangue to hatred or fury against their 
 
 siHansard, vol. cclxxxiv., p. 383. 
 
 '"^This "'fecheme" was published in the Freeman's Journal, with the 
 writer's name given in full. Imperial Grand Master, the Earl of Ennis- 
 killen, wrote to the same paper a letter bearing date January ist, 18S4, 
 admitting that the document, in his opinion, contained "proposals of an 
 illegal charadter," but adding that "the responsibility for the suggestions 
 contained therein . . rests with its author." 
 
 ^^ Report, Belfast Royal Commission of 1857, pp. 8, 9. 
 
 204 
 
DEFYING THE LAW 
 
 Catholic neighbours ; and (c) many of them carrying deadly 
 weapons. * 
 
 " AIDING THE CIVIL AUTHORITIES." 
 
 It requires but little knowledge of human nature to foretell 
 the probable behaviour of such an assemblage under such 
 circumstances. It will be sufficient to point out three direcft or 
 indiredt results of their acflion, which should deserve the 
 attention of every person who loves the reign of peace and 
 good-will among men. These are : 
 
 1. Holding of processions in defiance of the laws of the 
 land, and of the forces of the Crown. 
 
 2. Riot, bloodshed, destrucflion of property, and loss of life. 
 
 3. The formation of counter-associations by Catholics in 
 self-defence. 
 
 The two last-mentioned effecfts of Orange demonstrations 
 will form the subjedt of the next chapter. 
 
 I. We are all familiar with the way in which Orangemen 
 boast of their loyalty to the Throne, and their undeviating 
 fidelity and entire subjedtion to the law. Their acflions, in this 
 as in other particulars, are a curious commentary on their 
 professions. The Orange society has, down the course of its 
 history, persisted in holding its processions after they had been 
 
 (a) Condemned by Parliament ; 
 
 (b) Declared illegal at common law, and forbidden by 
 mayors, magistrates. Lords Lieutenant, etc, ; 
 
 (c) Made doubly illegal by the Anti-processions Adts of 
 1832, 1850, and i860. 
 
 (a) The Parliamentary Debates of 1813, 1814, 1815, 1823, 
 1824, and 1825 on the Orange society, arose mainly out of the 
 outrages, uproar, and confusion attending L.O.L. demonstra= 
 tions. In the debate of 2gth June, 1813, Canning said he 
 " thought that it was consoling to refledt that ... no one 
 had branched into any such anomaly as to stand up in defence 
 of the innocence of the Orange institution, nor had anyone 
 denied that those who entered into its full design were guilty 
 of an attempt against the peace of the Empire." Similar 
 condemnations were passed upon it in the following year (i8th 
 July, 1814), during the debate on Sir Henry Parnell's notice 
 of motion ; again on 4th July, 1815, when he moved for a 
 Commission of Inquiry into Orangeism in the North of Ireland; 
 and subsequently in the debates of 5th March, 1823, of 1824, 
 and of the following year, when, principally because of the 
 outrages attending its processions, the Irish institution was 
 suppressed by Adt of Parliament.®^ 
 
 ^'^Journals of the House of Commons; History of Orangeism, by "M.P.", 
 p. 182. 
 
 205 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 {b) Orange processions were frequently declared illegal at 
 common law. One of the weightiest of the pronouncements 
 on the subjedl was uttered by Baron Dowse, a Protes- 
 tant, at the Belfast Winter Assizes, December 4, 1883. It is 
 reported as follows in the columns of the Daily Express, 
 the chief organ of the Irish Orange party: 
 
 " It was needless for him to tell them that illegal assem- 
 blies were breaches of the common law. The law on the point 
 was well settled. Nothing could be clearer or more distindt, 
 but he was sorry to. say that many people seemed to be 
 ignorant of it. Recently, as judge of the Exchequer Division, 
 he had had an opportunity of considering that law in con- 
 necftion with the Lord Chief Baron and his late 
 brother, Baron Fitzgerald — who, he was glad to say, 
 was only 'late' in the sense that he was no longer on 
 the bench — and they had gone over the whole law in 
 connedlion with illegal assemblies in this country. That 
 was in the case of O'Kelly v. Rodolphus Harvey, in which 
 the Court of Exchequer decided that the magistrate was justi- 
 fied in the adtion he took, and he believed he was correcft in 
 saying that the decision was upheld by the Court of Appeal. 
 He did not say there was anything important in that decision 
 in his being a party to it himself, but it brought vividly before 
 his mind the law as it was, and as it had been, and as he hoped 
 it would continue to be. The law was laid down then by all the 
 judges of the Court of Exchequer, assisted by the wisdom and 
 experience of, probably, the most learned jurist that ever sat 
 upon the bench — the late Baron Fitzgerald. The law was laid 
 down in every book of authority on the subjecfl. In the well- 
 known book of the late Justice Hayes, it was laid down in 
 these terms: 'Any meeting of two or more persons, which, 
 from its characfter, and the circumstances under which it is 
 assembled, is likely, in the opinion of men of reasonable firm- 
 ness and courage, to prove dangerous to the peace of the 
 neighbourhood, or calculated to excite terror, alarm, or con- 
 sternation, is an unlawful assembly.' Being an unlawful 
 assembly, every one who takes part in it — not as an ordinary 
 sped^ator, but every one who is a member of it — is guilty of 
 taking part in an unlawful assembly, which is a misdemeanour 
 at common law, and may be punished by fine or imprison- 
 ment." 
 
 Neither the illegality of Orange processions in Ireland, nor 
 the proclamations issued against them from time to time, 
 seem to have exercised any restraining influence on the official 
 conducft of the organisation which professes to place loyalty in 
 the very forefront of its motives of acflion. This will appear from 
 
 206 
 
DEFYING THE LAW. 
 
 the following particulars, which have been taken more or less 
 at random from among many such that appear in the Reports 
 of the Parliamentary Seledt Committees of Inquiry into the 
 Orange society :^* 
 
 In 1819 the Orangemen of Liverpool held a procession 
 in spite of a proclamation by the mayor and magistrates. 
 Subscriptions were subsequently raised in the English lodges 
 to prosecute the mayor and magistrates for having interrupted 
 the processions in the interests of public peace. In 1829 the 
 Marquis of Donegal and the magistrates of Belfast forbade the 
 holding of Orange processions in that city. The brethren defied 
 the prohibition, and walked in procession as usual. In conse- 
 quence of the violence of the brethren at the Emancipation of 
 the Catholics in 1829, processions were forbidden in the North 
 of Ireland by proclamation of the Lord Lieutenant, the Duke 
 of Northumberland. The proclamation was defied. On the 
 13th July processions were held as usual, and the province of 
 Ulster was from end to end one scene of bloodshed and con- 
 fusion. In 1830 Grand Master the Duke of Cumberland had 
 ordered processions. Orangemen in Ulster obeyed the Grand 
 Master. The law was set at defiance all over the province. 
 Sharman Crawford tried to stop one of those illegal displays. 
 He and his forces were defeated by the armed brethren. At 
 Maghery they defied the Riot Acfl, and later on (if my memory 
 of the evidence serves me right) broke open a gaol and 
 released the prisoners. The following year processions were 
 again proclaimed, with the usual result : The official returns 
 published by the police authorities^" showed that in the pro- 
 vince of Ulster alone there were not fewer than fifty Orange 
 processions, representing in each case attendances of from 
 1,000 to 50,000 persons, headed and countenanced by Orange- 
 men in high civil station and authority, as well as by members 
 of the Irish Grand Lodge. The next year (1832) processions 
 were held all over Ulster, headed occasionally by magistrates 
 and by yeomanry officers (contrary to military regulations), 
 as many as 8,000 to 9,000 men, with 40 bands and 250 
 muskets, marching at Diuigannon under the leadership of one 
 so high in the society as our old friend Lieutenant-Colonel 
 Verner." 
 
 The Quaker witness, Mr. Christie, testified before the 
 Parliamentary Committee of 1835 that, when Orangemen were 
 
 55See Reports, Appendices to Reports, and Afi«M<«s of Evidence, Qq. 3476, 
 %qq., 3613, 4313, 4466, 4572-4580, 6088-6212, 7830, 8070, 8825, 8829-8833, etc 
 Appendices C6, pp. 90-124. 
 
 5 "In Appendix C4 a. to Parliamentary Report (Irish), pp. 98-99. 
 
 '^''Minutes of Evidence, Q. 7864 sqq. 
 
 207 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 prosecuted and fined for marching in illegal processions, the 
 fines were paid by coUecSlions taken up in the lodges, and that 
 on one occasion the name of a County Down magistrate figured 
 on a subscription list of this nature (Qq. 5674-6). According to 
 the Report of the Parliamentary Committee of 1835, the Grand 
 Lodge, at its meeting of February 29, 1832, voted ;^2o, and 
 subsequently other sums to the amount of over ^125, for the 
 defence of the lawbreakers.*® Sir Frederick Stoven, Inspecflor- 
 General of Police, detailed before the Committee how his men 
 had been hooted by the Orange processionists for having faith- 
 fully performed their task, and that he had received the greatest 
 resistance from Orangemen in the discharge of his duty.*' 
 Captain Duff, another Protestant witness, gave similar 
 evidence,^ and Lord Gosford deposed : " In the discharge of 
 my duty as lieutenant of the county Armagh, I have found 
 bodies of them [Orangemen] resist the law. . . I have found 
 them resist the law, and refuse to obey the law as Orangemen." 
 
 {c) Statute Law. — The Irish Orange Institution was, as 
 stated, suppressed by K€i of Parliament in 1825, chiefly 
 because of the riot, turmoil, and bloodshed that accompanied 
 its annual processions. Orangemen defied the Adl of Sup- 
 pression.^^ Lodges were kept open and processions held as 
 before, and, says the Report of the English Parliamentary 
 Committee of 1835, "the objec5fs and intentions of the law 
 were thus frustrated." The Irish Grand Lodge defiantly 
 declared, in its address to the Protestants of the Empire that 
 the Orange institution could not be surpressed but by means 
 which would subvert the Constitution of Great Britain.*^ 
 
 Orange processions had hitherto been illegal at common law. 
 Stanley's Processions A(5t of 1832 made them so by statute law 
 as well. The brethren, however, frankly disregarded the Adf of 
 Parliament. Grand Secretary Fairman, in his letter of August 
 II, 1832, wrote that the Irish Orangemen were "determined 
 to resist all attempts that shall be made by a Whig Ministry 
 to interrupt their meetings or suspend their processions."*^' 
 Lieutenant-Colonel Blacker, in a letter.given in Appendix to Irish 
 Report, and dated " Carrick, Portadown, July 18, 1833," declared 
 that if the Government would persist in enforcing this Atft, the 
 brethren would have three processions where they had held 
 
 5 8 Appendix 6 to Report. See chap, xiv., infra. Cf. Qq. 5674-5677. 
 ^"^ Minutes of Evidence, Qq. 3938, 4520, 4464 to 4490. 
 ''"'Ibid., Q. 4522. 
 
 ^'^Ibid., Q. 7063 ; also Report of Committee (English), p. vii. 
 "^Appendix to Report of Seledl Committee. 
 
 ^^Fairman Letters in Appendix to Report of Seledt Committee (English), 
 and in Barry O'Brien's Thomas Drummond. 
 
 208 
 
DEFYING THE LAW. 
 
 but one before. As a matter of ia.6i,the evidence brought before 
 the ParHamentary Committee of 1835 proves that Orange 
 processions were held just as before. On July 12, 1834, some 
 3,000 turbulent Orangemen marched, in spite of the reading of 
 the Riot Acft, to Portglenone, and other large bodies of the 
 brethren at Stewartstown, Dungannon, and elsewhere.** These 
 illegal demonstrations were countenanced by the Irish Grand 
 Lodge. Under date November 12, 1834, it offers "its heart- 
 felt thanks and congratulations to our brethren" who had 
 paraded in their thousands " through the various parts of 
 Ireland." ^ In the following July the illegal processions trebled 
 the number of the previous year. Details of the fa(5ts thus far 
 summarily stated will be found in the Minutes of Evidence taken 
 by the Selecft Parliamentary Committees on Orange lodges. 
 Several Orangemen were brought up before Judge Pennefather 
 on serious charges arising out of one of these illegal and danger- 
 ous displays. They were asked, on convicflion, to express 
 regret for their conduct;. For reply they whistled " The Pro- 
 testant Boys" in the dock, and were sentenced to three weeks' 
 imprisonment.^" 
 
 The same tale runs on from 1845 onwards. Orange pro- 
 cessions, with their attendant disturbances, were kept up soon 
 after the ghastly horrors of the famine years. In 1865 and 
 the three following years the armed processionists violently 
 opposed the forces of the Crown. A prominent place among 
 the disorderly " loyalists " must be accorded to the notorious 
 Killyman " Wreckers," who were stated to have been able to 
 put into the field about 5,000 men.^' On the twelfth of July, 
 1867, Deputy Grand Master Johnston led a long procession of 
 Orangemen to Bangor, in defiance of the civil authorities.®* 
 On this occasion the brethren carried 67 flags, were accom- 
 panied by bands, and provided with firearms and ammunition, 
 " in case the worst came to the worst." All this was contrary 
 to the express provisions of the Party Processions Adl of i860. 
 For his share in these proceedings Mr. Johnston was, with 
 others, tried at the Down Assizes, February 28, 1868, and 
 sentenced to a month's imprisonment. He at once became the 
 idol of the lodges of Ulster. His portrait found an honoured 
 place in almost every Orange home, along with that of the 
 hero of the Boyne ; and, at the next ele(5\ions, he was returned 
 to Parliament. In 1871 the Canadian Orangemen likewise 
 
 ^^Minutes of Evidence, Qq. 4466, 4572-4580 ; Appendices C. 6, pp. go-124. 
 ssAppendix to Report of Seleft Committee (Irish), p. 77. 
 6 6Hansard, Third Series, volume xxx., p. 292 ; Minutes of Evidence, Irish 
 Report, Qq. 3561-3569. 
 
 ^''Hist. of Orangeism, by " M.P." 
 ^^Ibid., pp. 256-257. 
 
 209 N 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 defied the proclamations ot Government, marched in proces- 
 sion through the streets, and resisted the pohce and miUtary, 
 with the result that some thirty lives were immolated to the 
 memory of William of Orange. Montreal was again and 
 again the scene of such riots as people have long been 
 accustomed to witness in the Orange centres of Ulster. 
 From 1871 to 1878, every succeeding twelfth of July witnessed 
 its scenes of bloodshed and confusion in the centres of Orange 
 activity in Canada.^'' Deputy Grand Master Mr. Johnston, in 
 moving the repeal of the Party Processions A6i on March 30, 
 1870, said: "The effecft of the continuance of this Adt has 
 been to double the number of processions. It excited the feelings of 
 the Orangemen ; its technicalities zvere evaded, and the demonstra- 
 tions went on all the same.'"''° He added that " outrage and 
 bloodshed had prevailed in Canada while an Adt similar to 
 this was on the Statute Book."" The Times of July 14, 1870, 
 describes how a monster procession of 30,000 to 50,000 
 Orangemen took place at Lisburn, with banners and sashes 
 displayed all along the route, in defiance of the Party 
 Processions Acfl. According to the newspaper reports of the 
 time, a leading spirit in these proceedings was our old 
 friend, Mr. Johnston, M.P. In the course of his speech on the 
 occasion, he commended the Apprentice Boys of Derry for 
 having "refused, at the bidding of any man or any Government," 
 to give up their party displays.'^ It is needless to further 
 multiply instances of the brethren's disregard of A6ts of Parlia- 
 ment, and of the forces of the Crown, on the occasion of their 
 anniversary celebrations. 
 
 The events connecfted with the celebration of Orange anni- 
 versaries in Australia go to show that the Australian lodges 
 are true to the traditions of the parent society in Ulster. This 
 is especially true of Vicftoria, where, from 1894 to 1897, P'^o- 
 cessions have been held at which not alone were the society's 
 regalia worn, but party banners were displayed, or deadly 
 weapons carried, or party tunes played, in defiance of the most 
 generous interpretation ever put upon the local Party Proces- 
 sions Acft.'^ The society is beginning to feel the strength of 
 
 ^^Ibid., p. 260. Cf. Chambers' Encyclo., Art. "Orangemen." 
 
 ■^ "Hansard, vol. ii. of Session, p. 940. 
 
 ''^Ibid. 
 
 '2This speech was reported in the Times, from which this extrad has 
 been taken. ' 
 
 ■^^For instance, at Ararat (Vidoria), in 1894; at Walhalla and Prahran 
 (Melbourne) in 1897. See Ararat Advertiser, Walhalla Chronicle (July 2. 
 1897), and Melbourne Argus and Age of June 28, 1897. The Crown 
 Solicitor for Vidtoria, Mr. Finlayson, gave it as his opinion that Orange 
 processions are unlawful in the colony, if arms are carried, or party banners 
 
 210 
 
DEFYING THE LAW. 
 
 its pinions, and has been essaying its trial flights against the 
 law. Judging by the experience of Ulster and of Canada, we 
 may not unfairly assume that, should the brethren ever attain 
 to sufficient physical force of numbers in Austraha, they will 
 here also raise their heads against the representatives of law and 
 order, and set at calm defiance statutes intended to spare the 
 country the pernicious results of those unnecessary displays 
 which are, which are known to be, and which, as we have 
 likewise seen, are intended to be, highly offensive to the most 
 cherished feeUngs of a large sedlion of the community. Enough 
 has, however, been said to show that the steady policy of the 
 lodge has ever been, and still is, defiance of the law, and even 
 armed opposition to it, from the moment that it stands in the 
 way of those criminally foolish displays which make the Orange 
 portions of Ulster a warning specStacle to the English-speaking 
 world. 
 
 displayed, or party tunes played, but not otherwise. This opinion has 
 been received with much surprise, and has met with strong dissent. Mr. 
 Box and other eminent counsel declare that such processions are unlawful 
 assemblies even if Orange regalia are worn. 'M.eVbovLvne Age, Argus, and 
 Herald, July i6 and 17, 1897. As these pages go through the press the 
 daily papers announce that the legality of such processions is to be tested. 
 A. riot was reported from Coolgardie in the gold-land. It arose out of an 
 Orange procession, with its usual display of offensive party emblems. 
 Ararat Advertiser, ]u]y 13, 1S97. 
 
 SIX 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 Chapter XL 
 
 ORANGE DEMONSTRATIONS: THE FORCES MAR- 
 SHALLED AND GETTING TO WORK— PARTY TUNES, 
 PARTY CRIES AND EMBLEMS. AND THE BIG, 
 3IG DRUM— AN ORANGE HOLIDAY: HOW THE 
 BRETHREN DO THEIR MERRYMAKING IN ULSTER 
 — WHO PAYS THE RECKONING ?— SOME FORMS OF 
 OPPOSITION. 
 
 In the Orange processions that take place in Ulster we have 
 two sets of opposing forces brought face to face, namely : 
 
 1. The Orange party ; 
 
 2. The Catholic party. 
 
 1. The Orange Party. — (a) The 'Orange processionists cele- 
 brate, in the midst of a Catholic population, a triumph of their 
 party over the Catholics ; (b) they are usually excited to a high 
 pitch of animosity against Catholics, partly by old traditions of 
 strife and mutual reprisals, partly by the violent No-Popery 
 literature of the lodges, but chiefly through the intemperate 
 harangues of their leaders ; (c) many, if not all of them, bear 
 deadly weapons about them. 
 
 2. The Catholic Party. — These processions and other public 
 displays of the Orange society are, and are publicly known to 
 be, irritating to the Catholic party, 
 
 (a) Because of the offensive speeches and sermons delivered 
 on sue. I occasions ; 
 
 (b) Because of the associations which they bring to the 
 minds of Catholics : namely, the ascendency of an intolerant 
 minority, a long and bitter religious persecution, the political 
 annihilation and social degradation of the members of their 
 creed, and that, too, till a comparatively recent period of 
 history; 
 
 (c) Because of the methods which have been traditionally 
 adopted to enhance the triumph of the Orange party: namely, 
 the display of party emblems, the playing of party tunes, the 
 utteringof offensive party cries, intimidation, violence, outrage, 
 and bloodshed. I think it is the Philosopher of the Sandwich 
 Islands who says that there is a great deal of human nature in 
 the average man. Now it requires but little knowledge of 
 the average man to foresee the results which will ensue when 
 
 2ia 
 
ORANGE PROCESSIONS 
 
 two large and opposing forces of excited citizens are brought 
 together under circumstances of this kind. From a perusal of 
 the last chapter the reader has gained an idea of the extent to 
 which Orange processionists flouted the symbol of constituted 
 authority, defied the Executive of the country, resisted the 
 forces of the Crown. It is, a priori, unlikely that their 
 demeanour would be milder or more gentle towards their 
 Catholic fellow-citizens, against whom their passions are 
 inflamed, and to celebrate their triumph over whom these 
 processions are primarily intended. 
 
 Lord Camden (Viceroy of Ireland, and, of course, a Pro- 
 testant), said that, though not aimed against the Government, 
 he regarded the Orange combination " as more dangerous 
 than diredt conspiracy." They "justly irritated the Catholics," 
 said he, " and gave a pretence to the disaffedted."^ The Royal 
 Commission of Inquiry into the great Belfast riots of 1857 
 says in its Report : " Hitherto we find by the evidence that, 
 except in the month of July, the inhabitants of these distridts'^ have 
 met in peace ; in business there were ordinarily no distindtions 
 made, and Protestants, Catholics, and Orangemen lived 
 together in friendship. The feeling which leads to the 
 separation of these districts in July is merely a class feeling — 
 it is a feeling of dominancy and insult on the one side, and of oppo- 
 sition to its display on the other^^ " Lord Enniskillen,"* the 
 same Report continues, " no doubt condemns the violence and 
 outward manifestation of insult to the Roman Catholics 
 exhibited by the Sandy-row [Orange] mob, yet it is seen that 
 they are diredtly the effeCts on vulgar minds of the celebrations that are 
 kept alive and in offensive activity by the Orange society."^ 
 
 I have, in previous chapters, detailed the offensive and 
 inflammatory character of the speeches made at Orang.- 
 demonstrations, as well as the nature of the historic associa- 
 tions which impart an added sting to the celebration of these 
 anniversaries. It only remains to point out certain features of 
 these displays, which are intended to heighten the triumph of 
 the one side, and to aggravate its ofFensiveness to the other. 
 These are the display of party colours and emblems, the 
 
 ^Letter to Portland, 6th August, 1796, in Froude's English in Ireland, 
 vol. iii., p. 197. 
 
 2The Pound and Sandy-row distrid : The Pound distrid, in Belfast, 
 is mostly inhabited by Catholics; tht Sandy-row distridt is the great 
 Orange quarter. They adjoin each other. {Report, p. 2). 
 
 ^Report, p. 2. 
 
 *The Orange Grand Master. 
 
 ^Report, p. II. See also evidence of Dr. James McKnight, in chapter 
 X., supra. 
 
 ai3 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 playing of party tunes, the uttering of party cries, acfls of 
 intimidation, violence, outrage, etc. 
 
 TUNES, CRIES, AND EMBLEMS. 
 
 Mr. Thomas McKnight, an Ulster Protestant, whose 
 sympathies are by no means with the Catholic party, says of 
 the Orangemen in a recent work : " In comparison with the 
 liberty to walk in processions with fifes, drums and banners 
 . . . they cared little for ' our Protestant institutions,' and 
 for a professedly Conservative Government."^ The party 
 tunes played at these processions include such as " Croppies 
 Lie Down," " We'll Kick the Pope Before Us," " The Boyne 
 Water," " The Protestant Boys," " The Protestant Drum," 
 " More Holy Water," etc.'' Mr. Handcock, an Ulster Pro- 
 testant magistrate, was asked by the Parliamentary Selecft 
 Committee of 1835 on Orange lodges : 
 
 " Are those tunes deemed offensive by the Catholics, and 
 evidently intended to give offence to them, by the party who play the 
 tunes ?" " Certainly they are,'' was the witness's reply. ^ 
 Evidence to the same effecft was given by the well-known 
 Presbyterian journalist. Dr. James McKnight, before the Royal 
 Commission of Inquiry into the Derry riots of i86g. This 
 distinguished witness declared that he was " decidedly" in 
 favour of prohibiting at demonstrations all band-playing which 
 would "give offence to the other side."^ 
 
 These party tunes are usually, in Ulster, either played on 
 fifes, or are rapped out in conventional fashion on drums. 
 According to Mr. Saunderson, a Protestant Ulster M.P., the 
 drum-beating is meant to be offensive to Catholics. An 
 Orangeman told him that they practised it " because those 
 large drums drove terror into the Papists."^" Sir Frederick 
 Stoven testified before the Parliamentary Committee of 1835 
 that these drum-beatings and processions were calculated to 
 insult Catholics." Mr. James Sinclair, J. P., Mr. Stratton (a 
 police-constable), and many other Protestants, gave similar 
 testimony. The Belfast Royal Commission of 1886 fully 
 recognises the offensive charadter of those party tunes, and 
 
 ^Ulster as it is; or. Twenty-eight Years' Experience as an Irish Editor. 
 Macmillan; 1896. 
 
 'See article on "The Orange Society," in The Contemporary Review for 
 August, 1896, p. 224. "Croppy" is an offensive term still applied bv 
 Orangemen to Catholics. For the origin of the word, see Lecky's Ireland 
 in the Eighteenth Century, vol. iv., p. 272. 
 
 ^Minutes of Evidence. Qq. 5698, 7973. 
 
 ^Minutes of Evidence, Q. 5370. 
 
 loRansard, 3rd Series, vol. cc , p. 960. 
 
 1^ Minutes 0/ Evidence, Q. 4651-4654, 4657. 
 
 214 
 
PARTY EMBLEMS. 
 
 recommends either the complete prohibition, or the severest 
 regulation, of bands likely to play them.^^ A common cry at 
 Orange processions is : " No Pope, no priests, no holy water!" 
 The traditional and favourite cry is : " To Hell with the 
 Pope!" The Report o( the Selecfl Committee on the Belfast 
 Corporation Bill of 1896 shows that this expression is in 
 constant use in the head-centre of Orangeism to the present 
 day.^^ Grand Master the Earl of Enniskillen deposed before 
 the Belfast Royal Commission of 1857 that he never knew of 
 a case in which an Orangeman was expelled from the society 
 for having uttered this offensive party watchword." It is 
 needless to point out that the playing of such tunes and the 
 utterance of such cries must be a source of galling insult to 
 Catholics, and doubly so when we consider the deep attach- 
 ment and veneration of the Irish people for the visible head of 
 their Church on earth. 
 
 The Orange emblems most in use in Ireland are sashes, 
 flags, lillies, ribbons, handkerchiefs, etc. In Australia wattle- 
 blossom, yellow ribbons, handkerchiefs, etc., are displayed. 
 Yellow chrysanthemums are frequently substituted for the 
 Orange lily, which at the Antipodes refuses to disclose its 
 spotted petals in July. 
 
 ' National and party emblems are as purely conventional 
 signs as the handshake of friends, the Queen's crown, the 
 judge's wig, the mourner's band of crape. But they enter far 
 more intimately into public life and feeling, than the conven- 
 tions that are purely social. They place before the eye, in 
 concrete form, the traditions, associations, aspirations, triumphs 
 of a nation, party, or society, written in a shorthand which the 
 most illiterate has learned to read. Such emblems as flags, 
 brazen eagles, crescents, Phrygian caps, the white cockades of 
 the Stuarts and Bourbons, etc., have been the rallying points 
 of regiments, parties, and'nations. The records of history show 
 that they are highly capable of exciting in the popular breast 
 the passions of enthusiastic love or hate. At Fort Sumter a 
 shot is fired at a piece of canvas covered with stars and 
 stripes. The acfl is indignantly resented as an outrage on a 
 nation's honour, and leads to the greatest civil war of the 
 nineteenth century. Another shot fired at another canvas 
 emblem in a South American forest leads to a diplomatic 
 difficulty, and brings England and Venezuela to the verge of 
 war. The historians of the Peninsular, Crimean, and Franco- 
 German wars tell with pride how soldiers died to save their 
 
 ^^ Report, Appendix F2. 
 
 ^'•^Minutes of Evidence, Qq. 5559, 6354, 6357, 6359. 
 
 i4/Z)/rf., Q. 860=;. 
 
 215 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 regimental colours. And men have been prepared to follow 
 and die for such incongruous party emblems as a leather 
 apron, and an old shoe tied upon a staff. 
 
 ^Emblems are not less powerful to excite hate than love. 
 Through a long and stormy epoch of English history, the 
 Lancastrians hated the white rose of York, just as cordially as 
 those of York detested the red rose of Lancaster, and the 
 display of either emblem often stained the streets with citizens' 
 blood. The Bourbon lillies were as hateful to the Sansculottes 
 as the Phrygian cap to the fallen aristocrats. The Greeks 
 hated the crescent flag that floated so long over the Acropolis ; 
 Orangemen hate the Pope's tiara and crossed keys ; British 
 naval officers were roused to indignation, and British sailors to 
 fury, by the sight of a broom lashed to the masthead of 
 Admiral Van Trompfs flagship. In the same way, Irish 
 Catholics objecft to the display of certain emblems at Orange 
 anniversaries. The objecflion is not a capricious one, direcfted 
 against the mere material emblems in thepKelves. It is 
 grounded on the associations which they bring, and are intended 
 to bring, to the minds of Catholics : memories of the triumph 
 of an intolerant minority, memories of the political ruin, social 
 degradation, bitter persecution, and humiliation of five-sixths 
 of the population of the land of their hearts' love. The display 
 of emblems and colours, and the other features of the typical 
 L.O.L. demonstration, are, as the Belfast Royal Commission 
 of 1857 says, "regarded as a studied insult by the Roman 
 Catholics, and as a triumph by the Orangemen, and a declara- 
 tion of their superiority over their Roman Catholic brethren."" 
 
 ^^Report, p. 9. See beginning of chapter x., supra. There is only one 
 party colour known in Ireland, namely, orange. Green is the national colour, 
 and is officially recognised as such. It appears on the uniform of the Irish 
 regiments, and, if my memory serves me right, forms part of the colour 
 scheme in the ceiling of the House of Commons. Grand Master the Earl 
 of Enniskillen, admitted before the Belfast Royal Commission of 1857 that 
 green was the national, and not a party colour (I quote from memory). 
 During the debate on the proposed repeal of the Party Processions Ad in 
 1870, Mr. W. Verner, one of the officers of the Irish Grand Lodge, said in 
 the House of Commons, "he was not disposed to view the green as a party 
 colour, for he had often worn the shamrock [the Irish national emblem] 
 on the 17th March, in order to show that he was not ashamed of his 
 nationality." Hansard, vol. cc. (second vol. of Session, 1870), p. 947. He 
 added that he was "an upholder of the principles of the Orange society" 
 (ibid.). The Williamite army wore emblems of the national colour in their 
 hats when crossing the Boyne in 1690. " Every soldier," says Macaulay, 
 "was to put a green bough in his hat." Hist, of England, vol. iii., p. 629. 
 McCann, in his Battle of the Boyne, says that William's soldiers, as tbey 
 crossed, were "almost hidden beneath flashing arms and green boughs" 
 (quoted in Sullivan's Story of Ireland, chap. Ixv., p. 419). Each of James's 
 French and Irish troops, according to Macaulay, "had a white badge in 
 
 216 
 
THE CRIMSON STAIN. 
 
 Such displays are justified by no plea of necessity or utility. 
 They are simply offensive, and are meant as such. We have 
 seen in the last chapter how they stand condemned by the 
 almost unanimous voice of British Protestant statesmanship 
 as inimical to the cause of loyalty and peace. 
 
 Grand Master the Earl of Enniskillen, in his evidence 
 before the Belfast Royal Commission of 1857, disapproved of 
 the display of Orange scarves even in a church. A strong 
 condemnation of the system of wearing Orange emblems was 
 contained in the General Orders issued by General Cockburne, 
 an Irish Protestant, in 1810, when he vainly attempted to put 
 down the lodges which existed among his troops at Chelmsford 
 in violation of military regulations. He direc51;ed the officers 
 of all regiments "to confine any man who dared to wear any 
 riband or emblem which might create dispute among the men." 
 " It must be evident," he continues, " that this order applies 
 chiefly to the Irish soldiers. The mischief which all such 
 party divisions occasion to the State is, unfortunately, too 
 severely felt in Ireland. Nothing of the kind can be allowed 
 here. Soldiers have no concern with such matters. They 
 should serve his Majesty and their country with unanimity, 
 which it is impossible for them to do if the spirit of party be 
 allowed in a battalion.""' What would bring about such evil 
 effedls among men living under the restraint of military 
 discipline might naturally be expedled to produce either worse 
 results, or like results in an aggravated form, among the civil 
 population, the expression of whose feelings is not subje(5led to 
 the iron curb of camp or barrack-room. 
 
 THE CRIMSON STAIN. 
 
 Orange demonstrations would still be a serious menace to 
 the public even if they consisted only of offensive and inflam- 
 matory addresses from pulpit and platform, the use of party 
 colours and emblems, party cries, etc. Unfortunately, they 
 have not stopped here ; they have left a broad track of outrage 
 and bloodshed along the course of Irish history, from the rise 
 of the institution in 1795 down to the present day. The causes 
 of this blood-guiltiness are to be sought in the following three 
 circumstances, two of which have been already noted : 
 
 I. The strong seflarian feeling aroused by their leaders, 
 and by lodge literature and traditions in the rank and file of 
 the Orange body. 
 
 his hat. That colour had been chosen in complimer>t to the House of 
 Bourbon." Hist, of England, vol. iii. , p. 62. 
 
 ^^ Given in full in Plowden's History of Ireland from its Union, vol. i., 
 Introd., pp. 125-126. 
 
 217 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 2. The habitual use of arms in Orange processions. 
 
 3. The opposition frequently aroused among Catholics by 
 the insults, outcries, challenges, threatening and overbearing 
 demeanour, and outrages of the processionists. 
 
 Three circumstances have combined to make the Catholic 
 body in the Orange portions of Ulster (whatever the strength 
 of their feelings may have been) slow to offer an a(51;ive physical 
 opposition to L.O.L. processions : 
 
 (a) Centuries of persecution, subjecStion, and helplessness 
 had instilled into them a long-suffering patience under insult 
 and injury. 
 
 (b) Even if they had felt disposed to repel or punish insult 
 or violence by physical force, there were two things which 
 mitigated against such a proje(ft : (i) Through what may, in 
 the circumstances, be deemed a happy lack of organisation, 
 they could seldom or never assemble in such numbers as the 
 well-organised members of the lodges ; (2) owing to the unfair 
 operation of the Arms A6ts against Catholics, and to other 
 causes, they were never so well armed, or so skilled in the use 
 of weapons, as the large bodies of men whom the lodge cele- 
 brations concentrated annually in the great Orange centres of 
 Ulster. In most cases, as Dr. Robert Mullen pointed out to 
 the Parliamentary Committee of 1835, resistance to Orange 
 violence on the part of Catholics would, in the circumstances, 
 have led to the annihilation of the latter." 
 
 (c) With Catholics, a third restraining influence is supplied 
 by the efforts of their clergy to prevent collisions between the 
 opposing parties. The exertions of Bishop Crolly and his 
 clergy at Crossgar, etc., in 1830 were testified to before the 
 Parliamentary Committee of 1835. Mr. Stanley (a Protestant, 
 and Chief Secretary for Ireland), condemned in the House of 
 Commons the menacing attitude of Orangemen in 1832, and 
 admitted that the peace was kept owing to the praiseworthy 
 conducft of the Catholics, and to the manner in which they 
 followed the advice of their spiritual guides. The Royal Com- 
 missions of 1857, 1869, and 1886, and many of the witnesses 
 examined by them, bore willing testimony to the'efforts made 
 by the Catholic clergy in the interests of public peace. A 
 procession of about a thousand Orangemen, decked out in full 
 regalia, took place at Brunswick (Melbourne), on Sunday, 
 July 18, 1897. On all hands serious riots were anticipated, but 
 the forebodings were happily not fulfilled. The Argus of the 
 following day, in an editorial, attributes the freedom from 
 
 ^''Minutes of Evidence, Q. 6141. Further evidence on the superior 
 armament of the Oranjcje party was given by Messrs. Christie, Sinclair 
 J. P., Stratton, and othera. See chap, x., supra, 
 
 218 
 
THE CRIMSON STAIN. 
 
 grave disturbances mainly to the pacific admonitions of the 
 Catholic clergy of Melbourne. In its issue of July 20, 1897, 
 it states that " the Chief Commissioner of Police [a Protes- 
 tant] considers the force were greatly aided in their work by 
 the appeal made by the Catholic clergy, by the diredtion of 
 Archbishop Carr, to the members of that denomination 
 to absent themselves from the procession." A cloud 
 of Protestant witnesses have testified to the usually 
 peaceable demeanour of Ulster Catholics, under great provoca- 
 tion, on the occasion of Orange anniversaries. Sir Frederick 
 Stoven, Mr. Richardson Bell, J. P., Mr. W. J. Handcock, J. P., 
 Mr. James Christie, of the Society of Friends, Mr. James 
 Sinclair, J. P., and many other Protestants gave diredt or 
 indirecft evidence of the patience of Catholics under grave 
 exasperation, before the Selecft Parliamentary Committee of 
 1835. Referring to the Derry disturbances of 1870, the Times 
 said that the majority of the Roman Catholics "had shown the 
 most laudable forbearance."^® During Lord Carlisle's Vice- 
 royalty, the Lord Chancellor (Maziere Brady) declared, in his 
 letter of Odtober 6, 1857, to the Lieutenant of Down, that 
 the Orange society was mainly responsible for the breaches of 
 the peace then constantly occurring. ^^ On February 18, of 
 the following year. Lord Palmerston supported Chancellor 
 Brady in replying to a protesting deputation of Ulster Orange- 
 men. "Is it," he said, "an organisation which belongs to 
 the age in which we live ? Is it not rather one that is suited 
 to the middle ages — to those periods of society when anarchy 
 has prevailed ?" He ridiculed the idea that they were a defensive 
 association, and concluded by recommending the dissolution of 
 the society. " I am sure," said he, " that there is nothing 
 that they could do which would more materially contribute to 
 the peace of Ireland, and to the obliteration of ancient 
 prejudices ... It would be an essential advantage to 
 the country at large. . . I can but repeat that nothing 
 could be more desirable for the real interests of Ireland than 
 the complete abandonment of the association."^ 
 
 The Royal Commission of Inquiry into the great Belfast 
 
 secftarian riots of 1886 — one of the most volcanic years in later 
 
 Orange history — said in their Report : " For a considerable 
 
 period — at all events from the 8th June to the 19th September 
 
 the principal adors in the riotins; were what is known as 
 
 ^^Times, July 16, 1870. 
 
 i^The letter was published in the Northern Whig. See chap, xiv., in/ya. 
 2" A report of this deputation appears in the London morning papers 
 of February ig, 185S 
 
 2iq 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 the Protestant Mob."^^ Later on in their Report the Commissioners 
 say : " Unquestionably, however, a main cause of the pro- 
 longed continuance of the disturbances was the wild and 
 unreasoning hostility exhibited by a large sei51:ion of the 
 Protestants of Belfast against the police."^^ Mr. Miller, a 
 Protestant magistrate of Belfast, deposed before the Com- 
 missioners that " the Catholic mob were more amenable to 
 reason" than the "Orange mob."^^ Mr. M'Clelland, another 
 Protestant magistrate, stated that "the Catholic party were 
 well behaved," and that " the endurance and patience of the 
 Catholics during the riots was simply wonderfid."^* This he largely 
 attributed to the pacific efforts of the Catholic bishop and 
 clergy. As evidence of the more peaceable characfter of the 
 Catholic minority on this occasion, the Commissioners point 
 out that the amount of damage done to the property of the 
 latter was far greater than that done to the property of 
 Protestants. Twenty-nine publichouses, for instance, be- 
 longing to Catholics, and only two belonging to Protestants, 
 were wrecked and looted ; while twenty out of the twenty-nine 
 private houses wrecked belonged to Catholics,-^ who, it may 
 be added, were in igSi only 26-3 per cent, of the Belfast 
 population. 
 
 It may be generally stated that the reprisals of Catholics 
 were made under the bitter stimulus of such provocation as 
 should never be needlessly given in any well-ordered com- 
 munity, and least of all by a society which professes to be 
 guided in its whole policy by love of religion, loyalty to the 
 Throne, and obedience to constituted authority. 
 
 THE DANCE OF DEATH. 
 
 One of the most reprehensible features in the condu(ft of 
 Orange processionists is their habit of unprovokedly invading 
 Catholic quarters of the same town or city (as very often in 
 Belfast), or marching under arms on CathoHc villages or dis- 
 tri(51:s at a distance. The great riots of Belfast, in 1864, began 
 in the invasion of the Pound (Catholic quarter) by the armed 
 Orangemen of Sandy-row, and their attempt to desecrate the 
 Catholic cemetery by the mock burial of a hideous effigy of 
 Daniel O'Connell.^^ The Protestant historian, Mitchel, tells 
 
 ^^Report, p. II. 
 
 "^"^Ibid., p. 16; see Mr. McKnight's opinion, infra. This hostility to 
 the guardians of law and order found a vigorous echo in the Victorian 
 Standard of December i, 1886. 
 
 •^■■■iMinutes 0/ Evidence, Q. 6452. 
 
 ^"^Ibid.. Q. 8870. 
 
 ^^Repori, p. 11. 
 
 8 6 See Report of Royal Commission of 1864. 
 
 220 
 
THE DANCE OF DEATH 
 
 how, on the 12th of July, 1808, Fr. Duane, parish priest of 
 Mountrath, was barbarously murdered by armed Orange pro- 
 cessionists from a distance. 2' An even worse outrage took 
 place in the same town on the following 12th of July.^® On 
 the first of this same July, at Bailieborough (Co. Cavan), a 
 body of armed Orange yeomanry marched on the house of the 
 parish priest, fired several shots at him, and left him for dead.-^ 
 " None of the persons guilty of these outrages was ever 
 punished, or even questioned," says Mitchel. A similar result 
 followed the massacre of twenty-four men and two women, 
 by armed Orangemen, at the fair of Shercock (Co, Cavan) in 
 1814.*'^ 
 
 All, or almost all, of the following facfls — among many 
 others of a similar kind — will be found in the Minutes oj 
 Evidence taken by the Sele(ft Parliamentary Committee of 
 
 1835: 
 
 The Catholic village of Carrowkeel was burned in 181 3 by 
 
 two bodies of armed Orange processionists, who had come 
 from a distance of some ten miles. Nine lives were lost on 
 the occasion. The affair was ventilated in the House of 
 Commons by Sir Henry Montgomery, when not a voice was 
 raised in defence of the methods of the Orange society. A 
 similar outrage was perpetrated at Caledon. During the 
 Emancipation agitation. Catholic villages and districfts were 
 frequently invaded by the loyal " sons of William." In 1830, 
 after the Emancipation Bill was passed, a number of Catholic 
 villages in Ulster were burned, or otherwise wrecked, and 
 many of their inhabitants shot, by Orangemen who had come 
 from a distance of many miles away. I need only mention the 
 sanguinary invasion and destrudlion of Crossgar and Maghery, 
 which have become historic throughout the North. ''^ In the 
 following year (18 31) Banbridge was a scene of riot, wrecking 
 and bloodshed. As many as 400 shots were said to have been fired 
 on the occasion by the armed Orange processionists. In the 
 same year occurred the massacre of Tullorier, in the County 
 Down. The Orange processionists shot an old woman in her 
 house, pursued four Catholic men, fired upon them, drove 
 them into the river and drowned them. On mid- 
 summer eve, 1830, some children were murdered by Orange- 
 men at Tanderagee. After having served a term of imprison- 
 
 2'^Mitchel's Hist. Ireland, vol. ii., c. xv., p. 136. 
 
 2 8/Jj^. 
 
 •^^Ihid. 
 
 ^°Life and Times of 0' Conn ell, vol. ii., p. 120. 
 
 ^^Cf. chap, iii., supra, notes 19 and 20, pp. 42, 43. For Crossgar sea 
 Minutes 0/ Evidence, Qq. 4313, etc. 
 
 221 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 inent only, two of the four murderers were escorted from 
 prison, with bands and banners, by their fellow Orangemen,^^ 
 In 1834, outrages of a serious kind were carried on for ten 
 consecutive months by the notorious " Black Lodge," until at 
 last the Irish Grand Lodge was provoked into condemning and 
 disavowing them. The Catholic village of Annahagh was 
 invaded from a distance on June 17, 1835, by large bodies of 
 armed brethren, and sixteen Catholic houses in it burned to 
 the ground. ^^ As usual, no Orangeman was ever punished for 
 his part in that outrage. These and such like outrages drew 
 the attention of Parliament to the necessity of investigation 
 into the Orange system, and led to the appointment of the 
 Committees of Inquiry of 1835. A summary list of the prin- 
 cipal Orange outrages committed during the years 1836- 1839 
 will be found in Barry O'Brien's Life and Letters of the di 
 stinguished Irish Under-Secretary, Thomas Drummond.^^ On 
 the twelfth of July, 1849, while the country was still reeling 
 from the effecfts of the great famine, some 2,000 Orange pro- 
 cessionists invaded and wrecked the Catholic village of 
 Dolly's Brae, in the County Down. They were on their way 
 from Ballyward to Castlewellan, and had their choice of two 
 roads. One of these, says the Edinburgh Review for January, 
 1850, was " the natural one." It was, moreover, as Com- 
 missioner Berwick said in his official Report, " a comparatively 
 good and level road." It was the route which, as Grand Master 
 Beers admitted, the processionists had followed in peace the pre- 
 vious year. The other, or old road led by the village of Dolly's 
 Brae. It was, says the sams Government Commissioner, " bad 
 and hilly," so that, as the Edinhuygh Review stdiies, it was "rarely 
 used," and " a procession going from Ballyward to Castle- 
 wellan would avoid Dolly's Brae, unless, indeed, they went out 
 of their zmy on ptirposey In consequence of a murder com- 
 mitted in their midst by Orangemen many years before, and 
 of certain house-wreckings by local Oragemen in the previous 
 year, the villagers determined to oppose the procession. The 
 civil authorities endeavoured to have the route altered, but 
 Grand Master Beers declared that " no power on earth would 
 prevent the Orangemen going by Dolly's Brae." Mr. Berwick 
 declared in his Official Report (p. 10) that the Orangemen who 
 
 ^"^Ibid., Qq. 6388, sqq.; also App. D2, and Sup. 3 to Appendices. 
 
 3^ An idea of the riotous conduft of these armed processions, the 
 terrorism which they caused, and their disregard for the Uves and property 
 of Catholics, may be gathered from the evidence of Lord Gosford, Sir F. 
 Stoven (Inspedlor-General of Police), Captain Duff, and other Protestant 
 witnesses on the burning of Annahagh. See Minutes of Evidence. Qq. 3363- 
 3474, etc., etc.; also Hansard, Third Series, vol. xxvii., p. 1074. 
 
 «*Pp. 347-351- 
 
 222 
 
THE DANCE OF DEATH. 
 
 •' assembled in numbers, with display of arms and an avowed 
 determination to proceed through a Roman CathoUc distri(5t by 
 a particular road, where resistance was anticipated and a 
 collision expedted," constituted " an unlawful assembly," 
 which "ought to have been discountenanced in the outset, 
 warned of the consequences of such conducfl, and, if necessary, 
 prevented altogether ; certainly, at the very least, hindered 
 from passing along the road where danger was apprehended." 
 Some 800 to 1,200 of the Catholic party, many of them 
 armed, assembled to oppose the procession. Owing to the 
 exertions of two priests, the brethren were permitted to march 
 through the village in undisturbed triumph. Beers was not 
 satisfied with this vi(flory. Despite the earnest remonstrances 
 of Mr. Fitzmaurice, the stipendiary magistrate, he marched 
 his men back again through Dolly's Brae. The evidence sub- 
 sequently adduced made it clear to Mr. Berwick that they 
 were determined to provoke a breach of the peace. The 
 Orangemen were, as Sub-Inspedtor Hill, Mr. Berwick, and 
 others testified, heavily armed, some five hundred of their 
 number carrying guns, bayonets, etc. Party cries rang out, 
 and feeling ran high. At a critical moment, according to the 
 evidence of Major White, Sub-Inspecflor Jann, and other wit- 
 nesses, a shot or squib was fired from the head of the procession. 
 It was answered by shots from the villagers and their 
 sympathisers, who were posted on a hill, about a hundred 
 yards from the Orangemen. Then the firing became general. 
 The police charged and promptly dispersed tlie Catholic or 
 Ribbon party. Some two hundred Orangemen pursued them, 
 firing as they went, their bullets whistling indiscriminately 
 among police and Ribbonmen. And here the fighting ended. 
 Whilst the rear of the procession was thus engaged, those 
 in front — a considerable distance away — fell furiously on 
 the village of Magheramayo, where they had met with no 
 opposition, wrecked, plundered, and burned the houses, 
 spread devastation in the fields round about, and murdered 
 defenceless and unoffending persons in cold blood. Mr. Ber- 
 wick, a Protestant, who was subsequently sent down as 
 Commissioner to inquire into the massacre, says in his official 
 Report: "Whilst this was going on above, I lament to say 
 that the work of retaliation, both on life and property, 
 by the Orange party, was proceeding lower down the hill and 
 along the side of the road in a most brutal and wanton manner, 
 refledting the deepest disgrace on all by whom it was per- 
 petrated or encouraged. One little boy, ten years old, was 
 deliberately fired at and shot while running across a field. Mr. 
 Fitzmaurice [.stipendiary magistrate] stopped a man in the 
 
 223 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 adl of firing at a girl who was rushing from her father's house. 
 An old woman of seventy was murdered, and the skull of an 
 idiot was beaten in with the butts of their muskets. Another 
 old woman was severely beaten in her house, while another, 
 who was subsequently saved by the police, was much injured, 
 and left in her house, which had been set on fire. An inoffensive 
 man was taken out of his house, dragged to his garden, and 
 stabbed to death by three men with bayonets, in the sight of 
 some of his family. The Roman Catholic chapel, the house 
 of the Roman Catholic curate, and the National school-house, 
 were fired into and the windows broken ; and a number of 
 the surrounding houses of the Roman Catholic inhabitants 
 were set on fire and burnt, every article of furniture having 
 been first wantonly destroyed therein ; and had it not been foi 
 the a(5live interference of magistrates and the troops, much 
 more loss of life and property would undoubtedly have taken 
 place." The chief fury of the Orange party seems to have 
 been direc^led against the women of Magheramayo. Besides 
 those who were killed, a young girl and an old woman 
 of seventy (Rose King) were seriously wounded, and at 
 least three more were, with difficulty, rescued by the police 
 from their burning houses, or from various forms of brutal 
 illtreatment at the hands of men who are (on paper) 
 required — as a condition of membership of their society 
 — to be "gentle, compassionate, kind, and courteous." Sub- 
 Inspe(5lor Ponsonby Hill described the a(5lions of the Orange 
 processionists as " disgraceful outrages." Sub-Inspedlor Jann 
 writes of them to his superior officers : " The gross outrages 
 committed [by the Orangemen] are nearly beyond the power 
 of description, and demand a searching investigation." "No 
 language," he continues, " can describe the scene of horror 
 that has been enacfted in the neighbourhood." During the 
 course of the investigation subsequently held by Commissioner 
 Berwick, Grand Master Beers, the ringleader of the Orange 
 party, said of the outrages of his followers : " I call it a very 
 serious blot, and deplore it deeply, as a man of humanity and 
 as a gentleman, or any man." The " vi(5tory" of Dolly's Brae 
 was speedily celebrated by a banquet to the hero of the day, 
 Mr. Beers, whereof Mr. Berwick thus writes in his official 
 Report (p. 9) : " Considering the recent calamity, the occur- 
 rence of this dinner at such a time, presided over by the High 
 Sheriff, who is the officer by law appointed to selecft the panel 
 of jurors before whom all parties charged with offences in that 
 county must be tried, and accompanied by the utterance of 
 such sentiments, in his presence, must be lamented as highly 
 tending to shake public confidence in the administration of 
 
 224 
 
THE DANCE OF DEATH. 
 
 justice, and to increase the exasperation which existed." Such 
 was the " battle " of Dolly's Brae, which Grand Chaplain 
 Drew termed a " vicftory"; and which has many a time and 
 oft furnished a theme for the halting couplets of the laureates 
 of the Orange society."*^ 
 
 On July 12, i860, a large body of armed brethren who 
 were celebrating their anniversary under the thin disguise 
 of a "musical festival" — such as took place at Richmond 
 (Vidloria) in 1895 — used their weapons to such purpose that 
 some fourteen persons were killed or wounded at the village of 
 Derrymacash. This sanguinary riot led to the Processions 
 A(51: of August 20, i860, amending that of 1850, and forbidding 
 the use of weapons and party emblems in processions,^*' The 
 Ulster brethren greeted the new measure with threats of 
 armed resistance, and with a fierce salvo of vituperation 
 direcfted against the Queen, Parliament, the judges, and th^ 
 dignitaries of the Established Church. 
 
 Referringto an Orange demonstration in County Monaghan, 
 which led to a riot, the Times of July 16, 1870, has the following : 
 " The Northern Whig observes that the inhabitants of the 
 distri(5l are nearly all Roman Catholics, so that the propriety 
 of having any Orange celebration was strongly questioned." 
 The Northern Whig is a Protestant paper of a very pronounced 
 anti-Nationalist type. 
 
 The Derry riots of 1883 began by the Apprentice Boys 
 storming and taking possession of the Town Hall that had 
 been hired by the National Registration Committee for Alder- 
 man Dawson, M.P., Lord Mayor of Dublin, for a lecture on 
 the Elecftoral Reform Bill, which became law in the follozving year. 
 According to the Report of the Royal Commission of In- 
 
 ^^See Berwick's official Report on the massacre, issued as a Govern- 
 ment Blue Book by order of the House of Lords, bearing date February 
 18, 1850. Incorporated with it are the Reports of the Police officials, and 
 minutes of the court proceedings at Castlewilliam. See also Edinburgh 
 Review for January, 1850. Regarding the firing of the first shot or 
 squib, the Edinburgh Review states positively that it "was fired from 
 the head of the procession." It says: "The evidence is conflidting, 
 whether the squib came from the road or the hill. There are seven 
 or eight witnesses in support of each opinion; but where there is 
 plainly a general leaning towards the Orangemen, the agreement against 
 them of the three commanding officers, Major White, of the Ennis- 
 killens, Captain Fitzmaurice, the stipendary, and Mr. Hill, the Inspedor 
 of Police, is to our judgment conclusive." Berwick's Report on the Dolly's 
 Brae massacre was so strong that Grand Master Beers, J. P., and Lord 
 Roden — the leaders of the Orange party — were deprived of the Commiss- 
 ion of the Peace. 
 
 ^^Hist. of Orangeism by "M.P.", p. 241. 
 
 225 O 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 quiry,^' this adl of illegality was perpetrated under the very 
 eyes of a large force of police that stood around the building. 
 No attempt was made by them to stop the disorderly crowd 
 of Apprentice Boys,^** who discharged their firearms from the 
 windows of the City Hall against the Catholic crowds gathered 
 around. The Report of the Derry Commission (1883) is 
 founded almost entirely on Protestant evidence. The Catholics 
 protested against what they called a mere Kid-glove method of 
 inquiry. They demanded a sworn investigation, with sum- 
 mary powers vested in the Commissioners. The Government 
 having refused to accede to their demand, the representative 
 Catholics of Derry declined to recognise the Commission, and 
 pracSlically boycotted it. 
 
 RIOTING THROUGH LOYALTY. 
 
 In referring to the invasion of Catholic distridlis, mentioi 
 should be made of the persistent series of counter-demonstra- 
 tions organised by the Orange party for the purpose of inter- 
 fering with, intimidating, or breaking up Nationalist meetings 
 during the Home Rule agitation in the eighties. The Lord 
 Chancellor had declared such Nationalist demonstrations to 
 be perfecftly legal. "Parties," he continued, "who assail 
 such a meeting would be common disturbers of the public 
 peace, but parties who, after organising a counter- meeting, 
 bring their forces in close proximity to the place of the meeting 
 which is obje(5tionable to them, particularly when in doing so 
 they exhibit indications of defiance, or a challenge, incur 
 responsibility of a most serious characfter — that of endangering 
 the public peace in the very highest degree.'"*^ These counter- 
 demonstrations were organised in every case, as far as I know, 
 by the officers of the Orange institution, were fed by great 
 numbers of the brethren from a distance, and took place for 
 the most part in districfts where the Catholic population were 
 in a majority.^" Subscriptions were raised by the leaders of 
 
 ^''Report, p. vii. See also the report of the Orange organ, the Dublin 
 Daily Express, November 2, 1883. 
 
 ^^Ibid. The Apprentice Boys of Derry are to all intents and purposes 
 Orangemen under a different name. See chap, x., supra, note 16. 
 
 39Letter to Sir John Leslie, ex-M.P. for Monaghan, dated December 
 in, 1883. Mr. George Scott, County Grand Master for Dublin, admitted 
 that the Orange counter-meeting summoned by him for Kill-o'-the-Grange 
 "might be interpreted as inciting to illegal ads" (Dubhn Evening Mail, 
 January 26, 1884, last ed.). Captain Hamilton signed a placard intimating 
 that the proposed meeting would be "illegal." The placard is quoted in 
 Mr. Healy's Loyalty plus Murder, p. 62. In spite of their known illegality, 
 Orange counter-demonstrations continued to be held throughout Ulster. 
 
 ■toNationalist meetings were allowed and Orange counter-demonstra- 
 
 22b 
 
RIOTING THROUGH LOYALTY. 
 
 the Orange party " to defray the expenses of securing the 
 attendance of loyal men."" Wildly inflammatory placards, 
 signed by the leaders of the organisation, were printed in the 
 Orange press, and posted up in the distridiis where the 
 Nationalist meetings had been previously announced. From 
 press, platform, or dead-wall the brethren were urged to be 
 " ready with their sweethearts and plenty of stuff;'"*'^ to " bring 
 refreshments ;"*^ to provide themselves with " plenty of 
 material;"** to "never use a revolver except they were 
 firing at someone."*^ " Keep the cartridge in the rifle," said 
 a gallant colonel to the brethren at Rathmines, January lo, 
 1884. " Keep your powder dry," was the advice of an agitator 
 at Derry/^ " Keep a firm grip on your sticks," said another at 
 Dromore on New Year's Day, 1884. And so on and on. I 
 have already quoted the statement made by Chief-Secretary 
 Sir George Trevelyan regarding the " sackfuls of revolvers" 
 taken by the police from the Orange party on the occasion of 
 their counter demonstration at Dromore, January i, 1884.'*' 
 He thus describes the condition to which Ulster had been 
 brought by the seditious incitements of the Orange leaders : 
 " In spite of the facfl that Ulster was full of armed men, who 
 were excited to an extreme degree by the violent speeches of 
 their leaders ; that every hand brandished a cudgel ; that tens 
 
 tions took place in 
 
 the foil 
 
 owing distrifts 
 
 in the end of 1883 and 
 
 up to Fe 
 
 ruary 1884: 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Parishes. 
 
 Tot. Pop. 
 
 R.C. 
 
 Prot. 
 
 Presb 
 
 Strabane 
 
 
 . 4.196 . 
 
 . 2,720 . 
 
 693 • 
 
 • 685 
 
 Pomeroy 
 
 
 • 5.231 
 
 • 3.537 • 
 
 7S4 ■ 
 
 . 892 
 
 Aughnacloy 
 
 
 • 1.333 . 
 
 624 . 
 
 566 . 
 
 210 
 
 Dungannon 
 
 
 4.109 
 
 • 2,312 
 
 836 . 
 
 • 933 
 
 Castlederg 
 
 
 • 5.452 . 
 
 • 3.748 . 
 
 940 . 
 
 • 505 
 
 Drumquin 
 
 
 . 4.109 
 
 2,312 
 
 836 . 
 
 933 
 
 Omagh . . 
 
 
 4,126 
 
 • 2,424 . 
 
 922 . 
 
 ■ 580 
 
 Rosslea 
 
 
 6,069 
 
 • 4.394 
 
 1.357 ■ 
 
 • 258 
 
 Total . . . . 34,625 . . 22,071 . . 6,884 • • 4.996 
 
 This table is given in preface to Loyalty plus Murder, by Mr. T. M 
 Healy, M.P. A thousand ship-carpenters were announced, by plentiful 
 posters, to attend a counter-meeting at Dungannon — 100 miles away — on 
 September 27, 1883. Daily Express, September 24, 1883. 
 
 *iThe Dublin Freeman's Journal of December 26, 1883, published a 
 circular calling for subscriptions in the above terms. It was issued by the 
 Tyrone Grand Lodge, and was signed by the Deputy County Grand 
 Master, and three others. 
 
 ^^Daily Express, November 6, 1883. 
 
 *3From circular issued to the lodges of Londonderry. 
 
 ^^Daily Express. November 6, 1883. 
 
 *^Daily Express, December 8, 1883. 
 
 *^Daily Express, Odober 11, 1883. 
 
 ♦''See chap, x., supra. 
 
 227 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 of thousands of revolvers were being carried about ; and that 
 the leaders of the men were telling them to take a firm grip of 
 their sticks, and not to fire their pistols except when they were 
 certain of hitting somebody, the winier had so far passed with 
 no great or striking disaster. "^^ 
 
 In Derry, towards the close of 1883, riots of so serious a 
 nature were originated by the Orange party, that a Royal 
 Commission was appointed to inquire into them. In December 
 of the same year the Apprentice Boys defied a proclamation 
 forbidding their annual celebration of the siege of Derry. ^^ On 
 New Year's day, 1884, a large body of Orangemen assembled, 
 armed with revolvers, etc., in the proclaimed distridt of 
 Dromore, and attacked a legal meeting of Nationalists. The 
 Riot A(ft was read a first and second time ; the police and 
 mihtary charged the brethren twice with lance and bayonet, 
 wounded several, and killed an unfortunate Orange youth 
 named Giffen.^" In its comment on the inquest of GifFen, the 
 chief organ of the Irish lodges said : " The men may have 
 misbehaved ; they may have deserved what they got ; but it is 
 very painful to the feelings of all people to find the Queen's 
 troops charging and cutting down even rioters who are urged on 
 to riot by loyalty." ^^ 
 
 At Belfast the passions of the Orange proletariat were 
 wrought up to a high fury by screaming placards and by the 
 perfervid oratory of itinerant agitators. Among the stirring 
 incidents of the time, I may mention the following : A large 
 body of Orange torch-light processionists attacked and 
 smashed the windows of the convent of Ballynafeigh. The 
 Superior, Mother de Chantal, had been in a delicate state of 
 health for some time. The cheers and cries of the procession- 
 ists, the noise of the falling stones, and the crash of the 
 smashed glass caused such a shock to her system that she 
 died in a few hours after the attack.®^ Further serious damage 
 was done to property in other parts of Belfast. The police 
 were violently set upon with stones and broken bottles by the 
 Orange rioters; some twenty of the " loyalists " were fined or 
 imprisoned ; and the Resident Magistrate, Mr. Hamilton (a 
 Protestant), referred in terms of strong condemnation to the 
 *' objedliionable proceedings" and the *' disgraceful behaviour" 
 of the culprits who had been brought before him.^* For over 
 
 *8Hansard, vol. cclxxxiv., p. 384. 
 
 *9The Daily Express commends their adion in its issue of December 
 19. 1883. 
 
 soFreeman's Journal, January 2, 1884. 
 
 ^^Daily Express, January 3, 1884. 
 
 s^See Freeman's Journal of date. 
 
 6» Freeman's Journal, Odtober 10, 18S3, and previous issues. 
 
 228 
 
AN ULSTER HOLIDAY. 
 
 two years the embers of religious hate smouldered on, until 
 they broke forth into the historic coniiagration which has been 
 termed the Belfast civil war of 1886. Whereof, more anon. 
 
 These are but samples, taken more or less at random from 
 the recorded doings of Orange processionists. The list of 
 outrages published in 1797 by an eye-witness, in A View of the 
 State of Irelajid,^^ makes quite a bulky pamphlet, although it 
 deals with a comparatively small distri(5t, and with only a little 
 over one year of Orange history. The scope of the present 
 chapters makes it necessary to adduce only a few leading 
 instances, covering a wide period of the society's annals, to point 
 out (a) the spirit that animates the July processionists ; {b) a 
 peculiarly reprehensible feature in their celebrations ; and (c) 
 to show what may be expecfted in these new lands if ever the 
 institutions should become a power among us. The history 
 of Canada from 1871 to 1878, and the wreckings of Catholic 
 houses, churches, and convents in the Dominion,®^ furnish an 
 example and a warning to legislators in other portions of the 
 British Empire. 
 
 AN ULSTER HOLIDAY. 
 
 Writing on the subjecft of the massacre of Dolly's Brae 
 and the invasion of Catholic districts by the brethren, John 
 Mitchel — an Ulsterman and Protestant — quotes with approval 
 the following description of what he terms " the usual Orange 
 style" of celebrating the '* glorious twelfth." " It is written," he 
 says, " by one who knew the North of Ireland well : " 
 
 " In some districfts of that country Protestants are the 
 majority of the people. The old policy of the Government had 
 been to arm the Protestants and disarm the Catholics. The 
 magistrates at all sessions are Orangemen, or high British 
 loyalists. In those districts, therefore. Catholics lead the lives 
 of dogs — lie down in fear, and rise up in foreboding. Their 
 worship is insulted, and their very funerals are made an occa- 
 sion of riot. One of the July anniversaries comes round — the 
 days of Aughrim and the Boyne : the pious Evangelicals must 
 celebrate those disastrous but hard fought battles, where 
 William of Nassau, with his army of French Huguenots, 
 Danes, and Dutchmen, overthrew the power of Ireland, and 
 made the noble old Celtic race hewers of wood and drawers of 
 water even unto this day. Lodges assemble at some central 
 point, with drums and fifes playing ' The Protestant Boys.' 
 At the rendezvous are the Grand Masters, with their sashes 
 and aprons — a beautiful show. Procession formed, they walk 
 
 ^''See chap, ii., note 68, supra, pp. 2S-29. 
 
 sfiChambers' Encyclopedia, ed. 1867, art. "Orangemen." 
 
 229 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 in lodges, each with its banner of orange or purple, and 
 garlands of orange lilies borne high on poles. Most have 
 arms, yeomanry muskets or pistols, or ancient swords whetted 
 for the occasion. They arrive at some other town or village, 
 dine in the public-house, drink the ' glorious, pious, and 
 immortal memory of King William,' and ' To Hell with the 
 Pope' ; re-form their procession after dinner, and then comes 
 the time for Protestant aeftion. They march through a Papist 
 townland ; at every house they stop and play ' Croppies, Lie 
 Down!' and the ' Boyne Water,' firing a few shots over the 
 house at the same time. The doors are shut, the family in 
 terror ; the father, standing on the floor with knitted brow and 
 teeth clenched through the nether lip, grasping a pitchfork (for 
 the police long since found out and took away his gun). Bitter 
 memories of the feuds of ages darken his soul. Outside, with 
 taunting music and brutal jests and laughter, stand in their 
 ranks the Protestant communicants. The old grandmother 
 can endure no longer ; she rushes out, with grey hair stream- 
 ing, and kneels on the road before them. She clasps her old, 
 thin hands, and curses them in the name of God and His Holy 
 Mother. Loud laughs are the answer, and a shot or two over 
 the house or in through the window. The old crone, in frantic 
 exasperation, takes up a stone and hurls it with feeble hand 
 against the insulting crew. There, the first assault is com- 
 mitted ; everything is lawful now ; smash go the unglazed 
 windows and their frames ; zealous Protestants rush into the 
 house raging ; the man is shot down at his own threshold, the 
 cabin is wrecked, and the procession, playing ' Croppies, Lie 
 Down !' proceeds to another Popish den. So the Reformation 
 is vindicated. The names of Ballyvarly and Tullyorier will 
 rise to the lips of many a man who reads this description."®" 
 
 And so on and on. Year after year the Orange centres of 
 Ulster — and they alone of all the land — are the scenes of 
 sedlarian riot and confusion. July after July police and military 
 are drafted thither to keep the peace, and the ratepayers suffer. 
 The reader has already seen how Mr. Christie, an eye-witness, 
 and member of the Society of Friends, deposed before the 
 Parliamentary Committee of 1835 that every 12th of July, 
 from the rise of Orangeism in 1795 down to that date, had 
 been marked by riot and outrage." From 1835 down to the 
 present day there had been little or no change for the better. 
 The Belfast Royal Commission of 1857 says in its Report {^. ^) : 
 " The I2th of July has always brought with it its Orange 
 
 BSMitchel's His/. Ireland, vol. ii., c, xxvii., p. 250, note. (Cameron and 
 Ferguson's ed.). 
 
 5 7 See note 5, f^hap. x. 
 
 230 
 
PAYING THE PIPER. 
 
 gatherings, its party displays, its consequent riots. In different 
 degrees the rioting was serious or but slight in different years, 
 but differing only in degree— riots, disorder, the firing of shots 
 in one districfl, with answering shots from the other — all these 
 things were annually displayed in a town like Belfast, so 
 improved and so plainly improving, threatening at any moment 
 outbreaks and riots which might imperil the safety of property 
 and of life in the entire town." Some of the greatest disturb- 
 ances caused or occasioned by Orange demonstrations were 
 those of 1857, 1864, 1869, 1S72, 1883, and 1886 — the cyclonic 
 area being in each of these instances one or other of the twin 
 capitals of L.O.L. life and acSlivity, Belfast and Derry. The 
 Belfast riots of 1886 lasted over four months. During that 
 time firearms were freely used, steady firing being kept up for 
 davs together, as during the great disturbances of 1857.^* 
 What the Royal Commissioners term in their Report " fast 
 firing" went on " without intermission" at times, and even 
 women were shot at in the streets.*^ Mr. T. McKnight, an 
 eminent Belfast Protestant journalist, already referred to, de- 
 scribes in his recent work, Ulster As It Is, the deadly antipathy 
 of the brethren to the police who were drafted into Belfast to 
 quell the disturbances. The riots of 1886 had the following 
 results : 
 
 At least thirty-two lives were lost.'"* 
 
 Three hundred and seventy-one policemen were injured by 
 the rioters. ^^ 
 
 Thirty-one public houses were wrecked, looted, etc.^^ 
 
 Twenty-nine private houses were wrecked, twenty of them 
 belonging to Catholics. '''* 
 
 The value of the property destroyed by the rioters was 
 estimated at ;^go,ooo,^^ which had to be made good by the 
 ratepayers. 
 
 Four hundred and forty-two arrests were made, and the 
 number of the police alone in the city (the military not counted 
 here) amounted to close on 2000.^^ 
 
 PAYING THE PIPER. 
 
 All this is but one specimen of what is witnessed in the 
 " loyal and prosperous North." The Derry procession of 
 
 ■'^Report of Royal Commission of 1857, p. 6. 
 
 59P. 6. 
 
 ^^ Report of Royal Commission, Supplement B2. 
 
 ^^Ibid., Appendix B. 
 
 e'~Ibid. 
 
 ^■^lUd. 
 
 •■'' Report of Royal Commission, p. 4 
 
 '^^Ibid., pp. 20, 21. 
 
 231 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 December, i86g, cost the ratepayers at least ;^i 2,000. That 
 of August, 1870, was computed to cost the city a like 
 sum.^^ The ratepayers have not merely to defray the expenses 
 of these large extra forces of police and military which are 
 drafted to Ulster every year, but also to make compensation 
 for the malicious injury done to property during those periods 
 of religious war which so often disgrace the Orange centres of 
 Ulster — and which are happily unknown in other parts of 
 Ireland. Reports for 1896 show that in Belfast, Newry, 
 Paisley (Scotland), and elsewhere, the Orange society is still 
 maintaining the traditions which befit an Association for the 
 Perpetuation of Religious Rancour. 
 
 It is easy to judge from these few sample fadts and figures 
 the disastrous inroads which these foolish demonstrations make 
 every year upon the pockets of the ratepayers of Belfast, Derry, 
 Armagh, Portadown, and other centres of Orange life in Ulster. 
 The total cessation of these displays, besides the happy effedt it 
 would have of allaying sedlarian rancour, would permit of 
 large sums of money to be spent on works of public utility. 
 It is no wonder, therefore, that the Times'^'' advocated, even on 
 economic grounds, the total prohibition of Orange processions. 
 Such a prohibition, it declared, would have been "the 
 shortest, cheapest, and surest method of preserving order. '"'^ 
 
 AS OTHERS SEE THEM. 
 
 The Belfast Royal Commission of 1857 characfterises as a 
 public scandal, the disorder and confusion in Belfast, arising 
 out of these demonstrations. " And all this," said their Re- 
 port, " resulting from the foolish anxiety of some of the inhabitants to 
 keep alive scenes that are, in later days, idle displays merely of offence. '''^^ 
 Similar language (quoted in the last chapter) was used in the 
 House of Commons, in 1870, by the Chief Secretary for Ire- 
 land, Mr. Chichester Fortescue.™ Elsewhere in their Report, 
 the Royal Commissioners of 1857 declare: ^^ The celebration of 
 that festival (72th Jtdy) by the Orange party in Belfast is plainly 
 and unmistakably the originating cause of these riots. "'^ A similar 
 conclusion was arrived at by the Royal Commissions of 
 1864, i86g, 1883, and 1886. One and all of them recom- 
 
 6^The Derry Journal, quoted by the Times, i6th August, 1870. The 
 Tivies of 13th December, i86g, refers to the fierce anti-DisestabHshnient 
 Orange displays of that year as "the explosion of Protestant feeling in 
 Belfast and Dublin, and the violent expression of Orange bitterness." 
 
 ^''Times, August 16, 1870. 
 
 ^^Ibid., August 15, 1870. 
 
 e^Report, p. 15. 
 
 'OHansard, vol. cciii., Third Series, p. iS5. 
 
 ''^Report, p. 9, etc. 
 
 232 
 
AS OTHERS SEE THEM 
 
 mended the suppression of party processions of all kinds. The 
 Belfast Royal Commissioners of 1857 say in their Report : "The 
 Processions Acft, and the steps taken to repress these celebra- 
 tions, are legislative declarations of their impropriety and 
 dangerous consequences."'^ They express a hope that " the 
 reasonable and calm-thinking of all parties" will "exercise 
 their influence in preventing the future public celebrations of the 
 twelfth of July in a manner to excite the population around 
 them, even if good sense, good feeling, and the love of order and peace 
 zmll not induce them to effect a more thorough cure by its non- 
 celebration in future."''^ Similar advice was given by Mr. 
 Berwick, the Commissioner appointed to inquire into the 
 Dolly's Brae massacre of 1849. In his Report, he strongly 
 urges upon the Government the necessity of putting down 
 Orange processions with a strong hand. The curious reader 
 will find a strong and very general condemnation of Orange 
 processions, by Protestant Government officials, in the 
 Minutes of Evidence of the Selecfl Committee appointed by the 
 House of Lords in 1839 to inquire into the state of Ireland 
 with respecft to crime. Among the witnesses who gave evi- 
 dence before that Committee, there was probably not one 
 whose knowledge of the country was so intimate and exten- 
 sive as that of its distinguished Under-Secretary, Mr. Thomas 
 Drummond. He testified to the beneficial effecfls which had 
 followed the energetic efforts put forth by the Executive in his 
 time to suppress the Orange processions in the North." " It 
 has led," said he, " to a diminution of those riots which took 
 place at fairs and other places where the hostile parties met, 
 as well as on other occasions."'* " The efFe(5t of the proces- 
 sions," he continued, " was not confined to the days on which 
 they took place. The spirit excited on those days remained 
 for a long period afterwards ; and on every succeeding fair, or 
 wherever the people were brought together, disturbances 
 followed. The suppression of the processions has put a stop 
 to those disturbances.""' Similar evidence was laid before the 
 Selecft Committee appointed by the House of Lords in 1852 to 
 inquire into outrages in Ireland." 
 
 ''^Report, p. 9. 
 
 "J s Ibid. 
 
 ''^Minutes op Evidence, Qq, 12291, 12326. 
 
 ''^Ibid., Qq. 12327-1232S. 
 
 ''^Ibid., Q. 12328. See also the strong evidence of Mr. G. Warburton, 
 Deputy Inspeftor-General of Police (Qq. 807-813), of Mr. Hamilton (Qq. 
 9137-9164), etc. 
 
 '^''Sessional Papers, House of Lords, Session 1852-1853, vol. Ixx. Seledt 
 Committee on outrages (Ireland). See evidence of Mr. Kirk, an Armagh 
 manufadturer, Qq. 4385-43S6. 
 
 233 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 The Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Derry disturb- 
 ances of 1869, refers in strong terms to the " exasperation " 
 caused by these celebrations, recommend the prevention of all 
 open-air party processions, and declare that the Catholics are 
 quite willing to accept such a general prohibition.''^ Events 
 soon proved that the Orange party were not so amenable to 
 reason, even in the interest of public peace. During the 
 course of this inquiry thirty-six witnesses, representing every 
 phase of religious and political thought, declared against all 
 party processions in Derry. The Royal Commission of Inquiry 
 into the Belfast riots of 1886 urged the Government to confer 
 summary power on the local authorities to prevent all proces- 
 sions of a kind calculated to produce a breach of the peace.'" 
 
 To the list of statesmen and politicians who have con- 
 demned Orange processions, I may add the following : Mr. 
 Chichester Fortescue, Chief Secretary for Ireland, in opposing 
 the repeal of the Party Processions Adt in 1870, said, on 
 behalf of the Government : "They (the Government) were not 
 prepared, in the present condition of Ireland, to do that which 
 would appear to be a proclamation on their part that these 
 party processions were harmless or inoffensive, and without 
 danger to the peace and prosperity of Ireland."^" During the 
 debate on the same Bill, Mr. Saunderson (who was then a quasi- 
 Liberal, but subsequently an Orangeman) said in the House of 
 Commons that, " in the present disturbed state of Ireland, all 
 processions, of whatever charadter, were a great misfortune 
 and ought to be avoided, and the Grand Jury of the county 
 where he resided had adopted a memorial to the Government 
 to that effedt."®^ The testimony of Mr. Johnston of Bally- 
 kilbeg (an Orangeman) on this subjecft, and that of the Irish 
 Grand Lodge, have already been quoted. It only remains to 
 add that the suppression of Irish Orangeism in 1825, and the 
 Party Processions Adls of 1832, 1850, and i860 (which were 
 occasioned by the violence of the lodges), are so many pracftical 
 expressions by the British Parliament of its convidlion that 
 
 ''^Report, pp. 16, 19. 
 
 ''^Report, p. 16. 
 
 soHansard, vol. cciii.. Third Series, p. 165. On March 30, he said 
 that such peace as existed in Ulster was "in spite of these party pro- 
 cessions." (Hansard of date, p. 943). 
 
 81/6/if., vol. cc. Third Series, p. 960. Mr. Saunderson was Major, and 
 is now Colonel, in the Cavan Fusiliers. At the Roselea Orange counter- 
 demonstration, Odober 16, 1883, he moved a resolution beginning: "That 
 we, the loyal Orangemen of Newtownbutler," etc. (Freeman's Jouynal, Odlo- 
 ber 17, 1883). He also signed a placard addressed "to the Orangemen of 
 Cavan," calling upon them to make a counter-demonstration at Cootehill 
 on New Year's day, 1884. His speeches at this period were of the shrillest 
 kind. See, for instance, the Daily Express, January 11, 1884. 
 
 234 
 
CATHOLIC OPPOSITION. 
 
 the public proceedings of the society are inimical to tlie peace 
 of the country. 
 
 The Grand Lodge has repeatedly confirmed the expulsion 
 of Orangemen for such high crimes as "marrying a Papist," 
 voting against their Grand Master, supporting candidates that 
 favoured Catholic Emancipation, etc. I have yet to find in 
 the annals of Orange history a single instance in which a 
 member of the society was expelled for taking part in illegal 
 processions, defying the forces of the Crown, or destroying the 
 property, shedding the blood, or taking the lives of his 
 " Roman Catholic brethren." In a subsequent chapter I shall 
 have occasion to consider, in some detail, the methods by 
 which lodge criminals or misdemeanants have been glorified 
 as heroes, or systematically shielded by Orange magistrates 
 and jurymen from the legal consequences of their misdeeds. 
 
 GETTING THEIR BLOOD UP. 
 
 In estimating the efFedl of Orange demonstrations on the 
 public peace, we must take into account not merely the nature 
 of the feelings, but likewise the characSter of the opposition, 
 which they are calculated to evoke in the Catholic body. In 
 doing so we must not form our judgment from the effecfls which 
 they produce in the minds of the more staid, pious, or patient 
 portion of the Catholic laity : we must take people in the mass, 
 as they acftually are, and not as they would be if living under 
 ideal conditions. 
 
 The average human being is easily aroused by personal 
 insult — still more, when such insult is uncalled-for, deliberate, 
 unprovoked, and oft-repeated. The sense of wrong, and the 
 resulting provocation, are, perhaps, only aggravated when the 
 offensive adtion or display touches certain cherished feelings 
 that are not simply and purely personal, such as religious 
 sentiment, national pride, party honour. Here you touch the 
 nation, creed, or party, on the quick, and arouse elements 
 which make for riot, party strife, or war. The reader has 
 already seen how all these grounds of high offence to Catholics 
 are contained in what the Times terms those public "exhibitions 
 of seiftarian rancour"®-^ — Orange demonstrations, with their 
 inflammatory discourses and outcries, their adfs of insult and 
 violence, and, running through all, the bitter associations that 
 they bring of the betrayal, impoverishment, persecution, and 
 long-attempted degradation of a people. It is not to be won- 
 dered at, therefore, that, in the course of a century, the deep 
 sense of brooding wrong and resentment of the Catholic masses 
 in Ulster has at times found expression in adls of resistance 
 
 ^^Times, Aug;ust 15, 1870. 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 or of retaliation. Happily, these provoking displays of party 
 triumph have not evoked their full natural measure of retali- 
 ation. This, however, is due to no forbearance on the part of 
 the brethren, but (as has been shown above) to circumstances 
 which are quite external to their organisation. The expression 
 of the resentment of the Catholic masses has taken, at various 
 times and places, one or other, or both, of the following 
 shapes : 
 
 1. Against Orange displays: Attempts to prevent or to 
 disturb processions, or invasions of Catholic quarters or 
 villages, etc. ; counter-demonstrations. 
 
 2. Against Orange outrages : The formation of counter- 
 associations in self-defence. 
 
 The reader will bear in mind that I am not defending these 
 expressions of Catholic discontent. My purpose is to give a 
 record of warning incidents which deserve to be more widely 
 known, in the hope that these new lands may be spared some 
 of the heart-burnings which have been the bane of Ulster ever 
 since 1795. 
 
 A LOSING BATTLE. 
 
 I. The story of ill-advised attempts to prevent, disturb, or 
 interfere with the full course of the brethren's periodical proces- 
 sions, raids, or invasions in Ulster, has been already pradlically 
 told. In most instances the opposition has been feeble ; in 
 nearly every case disastrous to its promoters. The story 
 of the unprovoked Orange raids on Derrygonnelly (181 1), 
 Carrowkeel (1813), Maghery (1830), Banbridge (1831), 
 Annahagh (1835), Dolly's Brae (1849), Derrymacash (i85o), 
 and many other such, has proved the folly of the ill-armed 
 and unorganised Catholic party flinging themselves — even in 
 defence of their hearths and lives — against compacft and well- 
 organised masses of from 1000 to 50,000 men, most of them in 
 the prime of life, and armed, altogether or in part, with rifles, 
 shot guns, revolvers, swords, bayonets, etc. The great Belfast 
 sectarian riots of 1857 and 1886 were cases in point, and 
 proved, by their results, how disastrous it was for the small 
 Catholic minority there to attempt to " fight it out" with what 
 Rev. Dr. Johnston (a Protestant clergyman) termed that 
 *' very riotous and ill-disposed set," the Orange mob of Sandy- 
 row.^ 
 
 The Belfast Royal Commission of 1857 condemned Orange 
 demonstrations altogether, as being direcft incitements to 
 breaches of the peace. Such being the case, they said in their 
 
 ^^Report of Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Belfast Riots o 
 1886, p. 20. 
 
 236 
 
COUNTER-ASSOCIATIONS. 
 
 Report : " We think it a matter of little moment by whom the 
 first blow was struck, or the first stone was thrown."^* The 
 Edinburgh Review of January, 1836, dealing with the Report of 
 the Parliamentary Committee of 1835 on Orange lodges, 
 says : " Admit all the recriminations against the Catholics for 
 violent obstrucflion of the Orange processions, for severe and 
 often savage retaliation of wrongs, for party spirit in the 
 witness-box — they seldom reach the jury or the bench — and 
 for all the secret working of their Ribbon societies ; yet, if 
 proved to the fullest extent, to what do all these charges 
 amount ? They make out no case or excuse for the existence 
 of Orangeism. On the contrary, these offences of the Catholics are 
 the necessary consequences of the Orange insults and outrages. Thus, 
 the heavier the charges which the Orangemen substantiate against the 
 Catholics, the stronger is the recoil upon themselves."^ 
 
 COUNTER-ASSOCIATIONS. 
 
 2. Another serious outcome of the proceedings of the 
 Orange society has been frequently brought under the notice 
 of the British public. This is, its tendency to give rise to 
 counter-demonstrations of a defensive characfter. In Ulster 
 this tendency is increased by the notorious difficulty which 
 Catholics experience in obtaining legal redress from Orange 
 magistrates or jurors. The Orange writer, Musgrave, suffi- 
 ciently indicates this effedl of the Orange system in the 
 very book which he wrote as the apology of the society. 
 " However useful," said he, " the Orange institution may 
 be in a country where the members of the Established Church 
 are numerous, it must be allowed that it must have been 
 injurious where there are but few, because it only tended to 
 excite the vengeance of the Romanists against them ; and they 
 could not unite in sufficient numbers for the defence. It should 
 not be admitted in our regular army, or militia, consisting of 
 both, as it would be likely to create party zeal and discord. "^"^ 
 
 While the society was still in its infancy — in 1796 — it dis- 
 played its capacity for forcing its vicftims to betake themselves, 
 for self-defence, to other secret and illegal associations. Abun- 
 dant proof of this is published by the authors of what Lecky 
 terms the " evidently truthful Memoir'' written for the Govern- 
 ment in 1798. They say : " We will here remark, once for 
 all, what we solemnly aver, that wherever the Orange system 
 was introduced, particularly in Catholic counties, it was uni- 
 formly observed that the numbers of the United Irishmen 
 
 » ^Report, p. 6. 
 
 ssQuoted by "M.P.," Hist, of Orangeism, p. 211. 
 
 ^^Memoirs of the Different Rebellions, ed. 1801, vol. i., p. 74. 
 
 237 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 increased most astonishingly. The alarm which an Orange 
 lodge created among the Catholics made them look for refuge 
 by joining together in the United system."^' 
 
 In the great debate on the Orange society that took place 
 in the House of Commons, June 2gth, 1813, Mr. William 
 Wynne, a Protestant M.P., said that " certainly it was impos- 
 sible to conceive an institution more ill-timed in itself or more 
 mischievous in its operation, (Hear, hear.) Everyone could 
 see that, if these societies were permitted, they should give rise 
 to others of a similar charader, and thus one part of the country 
 would be arrayed against the other, with all the jealousies of 
 political facflion and hatred. "®® In the following year (1814) 
 Judge Fletcher said, in the course of his historic charge at the 
 Wexford Summer Assizes: " I have observed, too, as the con- 
 sequence of those Orange combinations and confederacies, 
 men, ferocious in their habits, uneducated, not knowing what 
 remedy to resort to, in their despair, flying in the face of the 
 law, entering into dangerous and criminal counter-associations, 
 and endeavouring to procure arms, in order to meet, upon equal 
 terms, their Orange assailants. "*'* An illustration of this was 
 furnished by the great Belfast riots of 1857. After the blood- 
 shed and incendiarism of July 12th and 13th of that year, some 
 ill-advised members of the Catholic body— finding the local 
 forces unable or unwilling to protecft them^° — formed a gun 
 club,^^ so as to cope on more equal terms with the Orangemen, 
 who had been previously armed at the lodges. ^^ On the 4th 
 of May, 1824, during a debate on Orange lodges, Sir John 
 Newport drew the attention of the House of Commons to 
 judicial remarks made to a grand jury during the last circuit : 
 " That if they allowed Orange societies, they must be prepared 
 for Ribbon societies, one of which created the other." As a 
 matter of fadf, the Orangemen called into existence the Ribbon- 
 men of Ulster, who first made their appearance about 1812."''' 
 
 ^''Memoirs, p. 6; also given in full in McNevin's Pieces of Irish. History, 
 p. 178. See chap, ii., supra, note 45, p. 24. 
 
 ssQuoted by "M.P.," p. 144. 
 
 89Judge Fletcher's Charge was published in pamphlet form, by the 
 Irish Press Agency, in 1886. 
 
 9 "The local forces and the constabulary were (oraniously enough) 
 under the control of Captain William Venter, Captain Thomas Verner, Mr. 
 Getty, and Mr. Thompson. See chap, xiv., infra. 
 
 ^^Report of Royal Commission of 1857, p. 8. 
 
 92" M. p./' Hist, of Orangeism, p. 234. 
 
 f -'Wyse, Hist, of the Catholic Association, vol. i., p. 409. Mr W. Kirk, 
 a manufacturer residing in Armagh county, deposed before the Seled; Com- 
 mittee of 1852 on outrages (Ireland) that in Ulster the Ribbon system of 
 twenty years before, was a purely defensive organisation as against the 
 Orangemen (Minutes of Evidence, Q. 4381). Similar evidence was given by 
 
 238 
 
COUNTER-ASSOCIATIONS. 
 
 '• But the latter" [the Ribbonmen] , says Molesworth, " had been 
 brought into existence by the provocations of the former [the 
 Orangemen] ; and though they greatly damaged the cause they 
 were intended to serve, and helped by their crimes to keep 
 alive the bitter feeling that existed on the other, yet the mis- 
 chief they did was not on the same great national scale as 
 that inflicfled by the Orange lodges. They were very serious to 
 individuals, but they did not materially retard the pacification 
 of Ireland, and were sure to disappear when its condition was 
 sensibly ameliorated."''^ 
 
 The English Sele(5t ParHamentary Committee of 1835 on 
 Orange lodges have the following in their Report to the House 
 of Commons: " The obvious tendency and effecl: of the Orange 
 institution is [among many other evils indicated] . . . 
 to raise up secret societies among the Catholics in their own defence, and 
 for their own protection against the insults of the Orangemen.''' With 
 their Report they incorporate that of Mr. Innes, a Protestant, 
 who was sent by the Lord Advocate of Scotland to inquire into 
 the Orange riots which had taken place in Glasgow and else- 
 where in Scotland during the course of that year. " Mr. Innes 
 states," says the Report, " on authority on which your Com- 
 mittee place confidence, that the existence of the Orange 
 lodges, their meetings, processions, and proceedings have 
 roused an opposition on the part of Catholics to protect themselves from 
 the insults offered by the Orangemen, and that secret societies have 
 been formed for the purpose, by which the members can be 
 called forth at any time, when occasion shall require their 
 meeting, to protect themselves against the insults of the Orangemen, 
 or be revenged on them." Referring to the scenes of riot and 
 bloodshed of 1848, in which various Ulster lodges bore a 
 leading part, a writer in the Edinburgh Review of that year 
 remarks: "The evil of these exclusive associations is the ill- 
 will Avhich they engender, the resistance which they provoke, and the 
 counter -associations which they infallibly call into existence ."^^ In 
 his evidence before the Derry Royal Commission of i86g, Dr. 
 James McKnight told how in the County Down "the Orange 
 
 Fathers McMeel and Lennon (Qq. 2681-2683, 2883-2S84, 3070-3072, 3084- 
 3088, 3174-3176, 3512-3517, 3731-3745, etc.). Various Protestant witnesses 
 testified to the efforts made by the Catholic clergy to suppress the Ribbon 
 society. See, for instance, Qq. 561-569, 2893-2896, 2913-2921, 2935, 3269. 
 3270, 3281, 32S3, 3287-3288, 3446-3453. Father McMeel stated that the 
 Ribbonmen did not attend mass or their religious duties (Qt, 3 137-3 140), 
 Captain Fitzmaurice pointed out that there was no sedtarian feeling against 
 Protestants among the Ribbonmen in Limerick and Tipperary (Q. 457), 
 and that the juries there did their duties fearlessly (Q. 559). 
 
 ^^Hist. 0/ England, vol. i., p. 27S. 
 
 ^''Quoted by "M.P-."' Hist, of Orangeism, p. 225. 
 
 239 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 processions were very prevalent, and they invariably ended in 
 collisions, and bloodshed frequently; and very terrible atroci- 
 ties were committed by parties breaking and firing into houses. 
 In facfl, the existence of one organisation provokes a defensive 
 organisation on the other side."^" "I think," said he, "it is 
 the duty of a Government to put down every celebration, 
 imperatively, of the historic nature I have described."" Nay, 
 more: he considered it "essential to public safety" to make 
 their suppression a matter of " imperial policy."^® The eflfedls 
 produced by the Orange society on the public peace are thus 
 summed up by the Royal Commission appointed to inquire 
 into the Belfast riots of 1857: 
 
 " Mr. Gwynne, speaking for the Grand Orange society, 
 and expressly sancftioned by the Earl of Enniskillen, announced 
 the great principle of the society to be ' Protestantism, loyalty, 
 and organisation,' . . . but that this organisation tends 
 direcftly to interfere with the peace of this part of the kingdom, 
 we think that the history of the transadlions in the North of 
 Ireland during the past few years abundantly evidences. And 
 these late transcftions in Belfast are a later lesson, making it 
 clear to the least observer."^^ Further evidence of its disas- 
 trous effedts on the peace of the community will appear as we 
 proceed. 
 
 ^ ^Minutes of Evidence, Q. 5378. 
 
 ^''Ibid., Q. 5339. He refers to the Orange demonstrations. 
 
 ^^Ibid., Q. 5374. 
 
 ^^Reiort, p. 10. 
 
 ^240 
 
WHAT LOYALTY MEANS 
 
 Chapter XIL 
 
 IHE LOYALTY OF THE ORANGE SOCIETY— CLEAR- 
 ING THE GROUND: A DEFINITION OF TERMS— 
 OFFICIAL PROFESSIONS AND OFFICIAL PRACTICE . 
 FIVE ••OBLIGATIONS" OF AN ORANGEMAN— HOW 
 THE BRETHREN AID THE CIVIL AUTHORITIES— 
 WHAT •'A SLIGHT EXUBERANCE OF LOYALTY" 
 MEANS— LOYALTY IN THE MARKET: ITS SELLING 
 PRICE. 
 
 In legal pracflice, and in discussion generally, a good deal often 
 turns on a right understanding of the meaning of words. The 
 long dispute between Great Britain and the United States 
 over the Alabama case hinged on the meaning of the word 
 " equip" in the expression used in international law, "to equip 
 a ship of war." He was, then, a wise old logican who said 
 that, in dealing with certain disputed points, the first essential 
 is right definition of terms; the second, right definition; the 
 third, right definition. This necessity is forcibly - brought 
 home to the student of history in dealing with the 'mottoes, 
 etc., which profess to enunciate the scope of party acflion in 
 the sphere of politics. In the case of secret societies, 
 especially, watchwords are not infrequently selecfted which are 
 in themselves ambiguous (as, for instance, the " dio e il 
 POPOLo"^ of an Italian political association) ; in other cases, 
 private or party meanings are forced upon the words of the 
 motto, as in the case of the " Liberty, Equality, Fraternity" 
 of the great French Revolution, or the title, " American 
 Protective Association," applied to a secret organisation — the 
 Orangemen of the United States — whose objeift is a guerilla 
 warfare upon the civil rights of their Catholic foUow-citizens.^ 
 The reader has already seen how, among secret associations, 
 
 '^This motto, printed in capitals, may either mean "God and the 
 People" or "God is the people" or, conversely, "The people is God." 
 The word "E" with an accent (so-called) over it (thus e) means "is"; 
 without the accent [e) it means "and." In capitals, inscriptions, etc., the 
 accent is often omitted, and the public are thus left to judge for themselves, 
 in the case before us, whether the basis of the association is theistic or 
 atheistic. 
 
 'See pp. II-I2, supra. 
 
 241 P 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 fine phrases are all too frequently used to cloak designs which 
 'it -would be impolitic on their part to openly avow. 
 •< 1. 1/, In preceding chapters I have shown that certain of the 
 watchwords or " qualifications" of the Orange society are at 
 daggers drawn with both the past and current facfts of its 
 history. This induces a reasonable suspicion as to the truth 
 or sincerity of the remainder of its professions. In dealing 
 with the question of Orange loyalty, therefore, nothing can 
 be taken for granted. I shall naturally use the term 
 " loyalty" in its ordinary accepted meaning, and then proceed 
 to examine the claim in the light of the evidence which the 
 pages of L.O.L. history place before us. The reader will 
 then be in a position to decide whether, and to what extent, 
 the oft-repeated Orange claim of undying loyalty is justified 
 by facfts. If it is not, it matters little whether Orangemen 
 apply a special party meaning to the term in question, or 
 whether they use it dire(51:ly to cloak designs which it would 
 not be prudent to reveal. In either case, the deception of the 
 uninitiated public would be wilful and of set purpose. 
 
 'Archbishop Trench, a standard authority on the history 
 and meaning of English words, says : "Loyalty . . . being 
 derived from [Fr.] loi, expresses properly the fidelity which one 
 owes according to law, and does not necessarily include that 
 attachment to the royal person which, happily, we in England 
 have been able to throw into the word." Standard didiiionaries 
 give to the word both the original and the derived meanings 
 referred to by the distinguished Anghcan divine. Webster's 
 dictionary has the following in point under the word " loyal": 
 
 " I. Devoted to the maintenance of the law; disposed to 
 uphold the constituted authority ; faithful to the lawful Govern- 
 ment. ..." 
 
 " 2. Faithful to the Sovereign, either as the maker of the 
 law, or as the personal representative of the Government." 
 
 The Orange society — nominally at least — accepts this 
 description of loyalty, to its full extent, in the portion of its 
 rules which it ventures to place before the pubhc eye. The 
 "basis of the institution" has the following: "The Orange 
 institution ... is composed of Protestants resolved to support 
 and defend, to the utmost of their power, the Protestant religion, 
 the laws of the colony, aftd the rightfid Sovereign, being Protes- 
 tant." 
 
 Briefly, then, " loyalty" means, primarily, due subjedtion to 
 law and to constituted authority in the State. Its secondary 
 meaning is fidelity or attachment to the person of the Sovereign. 
 When, therefore. Orange speakers and writers refer to the 
 " loyalty" of their association they must, by the very force of 
 
 242 
 
ORANGE LOYALTY. 
 
 the word, be understood to mean that, first, and above all, their 
 society, as such, has been and is obedient to the law of the 
 land and the civil authority; and, secondarily, that it is, and 
 has ever been, faithful and attached to the rightful Sovereign. 
 
 If there is one thing in the association that the brethren 
 are proud of, it is the unswerving loyalty which, we are told, 
 has ever been its chief charadleristic. It is one of the brightest 
 jewels in the circling diadem of the score or more of domestic, 
 social, and civic virtues which the society professes to cultivate. 
 The very title of the association is the " Loyal Orange Insti- 
 tution." One of its favourite emblems is the royal crown and 
 sceptre over the Bible, with the motto: "These we will main- 
 tain."^ At all their demonstrations the dominant note is 
 vehement protestations of the undying loyalty which, we are 
 assured, permeates the flesh and bone, the life and soul, of the 
 whole Orange system. " We [Orangemen] are a law-abiding 
 people," said the " Most Worshipful" Grand Master of Vidtoria, 
 the Hon. Simon Fraser, M.L.C., at the Melbourne demonstra- 
 tion of 1893.* And on the same platform the previous year 
 Deputy Grand Master Mr. R. T. Vale, M.L.A., declared: 
 " There is no getting away from the facft that we [Orangemen] 
 are not only law-abiding, but we insist that everybody else 
 shall be law-abiding."^ In good and evil, say the brethren, in 
 sunshine and in storm, the society has ever kept one eye fixed 
 upon the Crown, the other on the Constitution. The torture 
 and massacres of 1797-1799, the uproar against Emancipation, 
 Disestablishment, and Parliamentary Reform, the violence and 
 bloodshed of the thirties, the armed riots and counter-demon- 
 strations of the eighties : these were merely the bubbling over 
 of that " exuberance of loyalty" which fills the great throbbing 
 heart of the Orange system to the brim. So speak the 
 leaders.'' And the multitude of the lesser voices of the Orange 
 platform in every land swell the rising chorus of " loyalty, 
 loyalty." 
 
 RATHER SUSPICIOUS. 
 
 A priori, there is something suspicious in the mere superfluity 
 and vehemence of these unnecessary protestations of loyalty. 
 " The lady doth protest too much, methinks," says Queen Ger- 
 trude to Hamlet in the play. Such eager reiteration of self-lauda- 
 tory asseverations has been charadf eristic of Ambrose, the pseudo- 
 
 ^This emblem and motto occupy the middle space in the title of the 
 Victorian Standard, the organ of the Orange lodges of Viftoria. 
 
 ^Victorian Standard report, July, 1893, p. 3. 
 
 ^Ibid., July, 1892. 
 
 ^See chap, xi., supra, note 51 and text, and the present chap., notes 24, 
 25 and text. 
 
 243 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 devout sharper Gil Bias, of the Tartuffes, the Stigginscs, 
 the Pecksniffs, and the whole company of those whose hearts 
 do not beat time with their hps. Teufelsdrock's old servant, 
 in Sartor Resartus, " scoured and sorted, and swept in the 
 kitchen, with the least possible violence to the ear." So, too, 
 loyal people are quietly loyal, as brave people are unostenta- 
 tiously brave. Sir Henry Lawrence and his fellow-heroes of 
 Cawnpore were not the type of men who are given to vapour- 
 ing. Your braggart is ever a coward at heart — like evergreen 
 old Falstaff, or Captain Terrible, or Don Valiant, or Captain 
 Bluff, who (at the village pot-house) won campaigns in 
 Flanders, and disdained the acquaintance of any but men of 
 courage. There were heroes before Achilles, and there were, 
 before the rise of the Orange institution, and still are, untold 
 millions — in fadt the vast majority — of law-abiding citizens, 
 who do not find it necessary to air their loyalty in the press or 
 on the public platform. Loyal submission to constituted 
 authority is, perhaps, the most elemental condition of good 
 citizenship. It is the partition wall which divides the law- 
 abiding subjed: of the Crown from the criminal classes of the 
 community. Plain, unromantic, every-day citizens feel them- 
 selves bound to so much by the laws of God and man alike. 
 They neither demand nor deserve any special credit for it. 
 The persistent protestations of the Orange body imply, there- 
 fore, one of two things: either (a) that there are elements in 
 their loyalty which elevate it to a far higher and nobler form 
 than that which makes average good citizens of the great bulk 
 of English speaking humanity; or (b) that they alone are loyal 
 in the midst of abounding disloyalty. A perusal of the reports 
 of the July anniversaries will alone enable the curious reader 
 to realise how grateful the brethren are that in this, as in many 
 other respe(5ts, they are not as the rest of men.' 
 
 GREAT EXPECTATIONS. 
 
 There are three circumstances which — assuming the 
 society's professions of loyalty to be well grounded — entitle us 
 to expedl that the pages of L.O.L. history should be teeming 
 with evidence that the brethren always did " support and 
 defend to the utmost of their power " the laws and Constitution 
 of their country; 
 
 I. From 1797 to 1835 the Orange society enjoyed great 
 political privileges, power, and influence — everything, in a 
 word, which made the duty of loyalty easy and pleasant. Its 
 adherents found their way into the highest positions in the State. 
 Its Imperial Grand Master was, from 1828 to 1836, none other 
 
 'See chap, viii., supra, pp. 151, sqq. 
 
 244 
 
ORANGE LOYALTY. 
 
 than H.R.H. the Dukeof Cumberland, whom the Grand Lodge 
 termed, in a draft address, " the next to the Throne."® 
 
 2. Orangemen admittedly have no grievances. It is the 
 boast of their press and platform that the brethren of the pro- 
 vince of Ulster — the cradle and home of the society — are con- 
 tented, prosperous, educated, and loyal. ^ Ulster Orangemen 
 must, therefore, be comfortable under existing laws. Loyalty 
 under the two sets of conditions just named is a very simple 
 matter indeed. Disloyalty would, in the circumstances, be the 
 extreme of criminal folly. Our sympathy for Rasselas would 
 be very much diminished, had he risen in fa(51:ious and violent 
 revolt against the authorities of the Happy Valley of Amhara. 
 And it is an ungrateful dog that bites the hand which provides 
 him with a warm kennel and good meals, with choice mutton 
 bones to gnaw between. 
 
 3. Again, the conditions of membership of the institution 
 entitles us to expecfl numerous and signal displays of loyalty 
 on the part of the brethren during the society's long history of 
 over a hundred years. These conditions have been dealt with 
 in some detail in the course of the seventh chapter. It will be 
 sufficient to recall to the readers recollecftion the following 
 points : 
 
 (a) Members are eletfled by a particularly severe form of 
 ballot, already described. 
 
 (b) They are subje(5^ to re-ballot, either singly or in whole 
 
 sDraft of address to Carlton Club, 1834, in Report of Pari. Committee 
 (English) of 1835. 
 
 ^The alleged superiority of Ulster in wealth, prosperity, education, 
 contentment, etc., is a favourite theme with Orange writers and speakers. 
 See, for instance, the speech of Hon. Mr. Patterson at the Kyneton demon- 
 stration, July, 1885 (in Victorian Standard, August, 1885, p. 6); of Rev. R. 
 Kane (in Victorian Statidard, 1st May, 1886, p. 10); of Rev. J. J. Browne, 
 at the Melbourne demonstration of 1886 (in Victorian Standard, 2nd August, 
 1886); the manifesto of the Irish Grand Lodge (in Victorian Standard, 
 July, i885); the speech of Deputy Grand Master W. Blackburne at the 
 Benalla demonstration, 1892 (reported in Victorian Standard, August, 1892); 
 of Grand Master the Hon. S. Eraser, at the Melbourne demonstration, 
 July, 1893 (in Victorian Standard of same month); of Past Grand Master 
 Bro. Richardson at the Orange banquet to Hon. S. Fraser (in Victorian 
 Standard, May, 1894); and so on of many others. It is worthy of note 
 that, in every case, the brethren carefully abstain from the use of figures. 
 The figment of Ulster's superior wealth has been rudely shattered by the 
 ParHamentary returns of 1SS2 and following years. Most of these will be 
 found in the Financial Reform Almanac and the Constitutional Year Book ior 
 1885. They are carefully analysed in the Contemporary Revieiv for June, 
 1893; in the able series of articles written to the Dublin Freeman's Journal 
 by a Scotch writer, Mr. Galloway Rigg; in Mr. Clancy's Ulster; in Mr. T. 
 M. Healy's Word for Ireland (pp. 155, sqq.); and in a pamphlet by Rev. P. 
 O'Doherty, M.R.I. A., The Truth about Ulster (Verga, Melbourne). 
 
 245 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 lodges or districfts, at any time and in any way that the Grand 
 Lodge may determine. 
 
 (c) The Belfast Royal Commissioners of 1857 asked the 
 Earl of Enniskillen, Grand Master of the Inish Orangemen : 
 " Do you cause the members, when they commit a breach of 
 the rules, to be called before the lodge and expelled from th^e 
 society ? " He replied : '^Frovi the lodge, I do, in every instance 
 that covies before me.''' ^'^ Orangemen are not alone dismissable, 
 but are acflually dismissed, as I have shown, for such apparent 
 trifles as " marrying a Papist," " voting against the Grand 
 Master," "and other matters which do not seem to be violently 
 subversive of the alleged scope of the institution. If the 
 cultivation of loyalty be, as it is alleged to be, an essential part 
 of the " basis of the institution," we should naturally expedt, 
 first, to find that every breach of such a fundamental principle 
 of the society is visited with prompt expulsion ; and, secondly, 
 that the eledt and dismissable body left should be as sele(5l as 
 the noble three hundred who clung to Gideon at Gilead — a 
 sort of glorified Quakers, an abstrac5t and example of all that 
 is law-abiding in English-speaking humanity. 
 
 {d) The society, which is supposed to admit and retain men 
 of tried loyalty only, has existed in its present shape ever since 
 September 21, 1795, and must have counted in the course of 
 its history many millions of adherents. In the one year, 1835, 
 there were scattered throughout the British Empire close on 
 half a million of Orangemen. ^^ 
 
 In the circumstances, it is curiously significant that Orange 
 speakers and writers so carefully shun all appeal to the 
 acknowledged fa(5ts of the society's history in support of this 
 oft-repeated claim. ^'^ The reason of this is not far to seek. It 
 is simply this : (i) That the evidence of the brethren's loyalty 
 is not merely lacking, but that it is lacking just where (if 
 credit is to be given to their professions) it ought to be found 
 in greatest abundance ; and (2) that the hard facfts of the 
 history of this strange survival of the spirit of a past day are 
 altogether inconsistent with this claim of constant respedt for 
 the law, and attachment to the person of the Sovereign. To 
 
 ^^Minutes of Evidence, Q. 8608. 
 
 ^^See chaps, v. and vii., supra, pp. 96, sgg., 134, sqg. 
 
 i^Cf. Report of Selecft Parliamentary Committee (English), near end. 
 
 i-'iln the course of a somewhat extended reading of the reports of 
 Orange demonstrations and other lodge literature, including the files of the 
 Victorian Standard for some thirteen years of its life, the writer cannot 
 recall a single attempt by any L.O.L. speaker or writer to prove the loyalty 
 of the brethren by an appeal to the vouched fads of history. The same 
 statement is true as regards the professions contained in "the qualifications 
 of an Orangeman." 
 
 246 
 
ORANGE LOYALTY. 
 
 judge from the vehemence and frequency of its protestations, 
 Orangeism stands or falls by its loyalty. The prime import- 
 ance of the subjedt, when dealing with this association, will, I 
 trust, be a sufficient apology for the extended space which has 
 been devoted to clearing the ground, and setting the whole 
 question in its proper light. 
 
 THE PROMISE 
 
 In the course of this chapter I purpose to briefly glance at 
 the leading professions of the Orange society which have a direcfl 
 or indire(5t bearing on the subjecft of loyalty. The remaining 
 chapters of this volume will be devoted to an examination of 
 the manner in which three leading and responsible classes of 
 the brethren have supported the law and upheld their allegiance 
 to the rightful Sovereign. Orangemen bind themselves bv 
 oath, or by solemn declarations which are pracftically equiva- 
 lent to an oath, or by the penalty of expulsion, to five chief 
 " obligations" which touch the question of loyalty, as defined 
 above. 
 
 1. Two of these five " obligations" enforce elementary civic 
 duties to which every man is already bound, apart from, and 
 independent of, oaths, promises, or protestations. They are 
 as follow :" 
 
 [a) When called upon, to assist magistrates and the civil 
 authorities in the lawful discharge of their duties. 
 
 (b) To avoid secret associations whose objecft is to "subvert" 
 the " just prerogatives of the Crown," " the established rights 
 of property," etc. 
 
 2. The remainder of the " obligations" entered into by 
 the brethren have a rank flavour of disloyalty. They are : 
 
 (a) To bear allegiance to the Sovereign [only] so long as he 
 (or she) supports the Protestant ascendency, or so long as he 
 (or she) remains Protestant (in the Orange sense of the word). 
 
 (b) To never, in any circumstances, vote for a CathoHc at 
 Parliamentary or Municipal elections ; to never vote for a non- 
 Orange Protestant unless by the express sancftion of the 
 Grand Master or the Grand Lodge ; in all other circumstances 
 to vote for Orange candidates only ; and to be ready, on 
 occasion, to support them even against the voter's con- 
 scientious convidtion — in a word, to be disposed, on all occa- 
 sions, to sacrifice the public good to the private jealousies or 
 personal ambitions of the Grand Master, or to the secret 
 schemes of the Grand Lodge. ^^ 
 
 (c) Not to communicate or reveal "in any manner" "a«_yof 
 
 i*See Appendix B, i?ifr.u 
 
 i^See chap, vii., supra, pp. 136, sqq. 
 
 247 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 the proceedings" of the brethren in lodge assembled. In the 
 sixth chapter the reader has seen that this " obligation " 
 applies to proceedings in courts of justice, and to other forms 
 of official inquiry." Orangemen thus solemnly, and with 
 religious ceremonies, provide beforehand for future violations 
 of the law — after the manner of the old Duke, mentioned by 
 De Quincey, who used to say: "On next Friday, by the 
 blessing of Heaven, I purpose to be drunk." 
 
 AND THE PERFORMANCE. 
 
 I. The first "obligation" given above — to aid the civil 
 authorities, etc., when called upon — is one which every law- 
 abiding citizen accepts and a(51:s upon as a matter of course. 
 This plain civic duty is, moreover, in many cases (such as 
 felony, riot, affray, etc.), enforceable by fine or imprison- 
 ment." Law-abiding citizens need no such oath or pro- 
 testation. Orangemen have habitually disregared it. It is no 
 easy task to find cases in which the brethren, as such, have 
 aided the civil authorities in the lawful execution of their duties. 
 On the other hand, the instances in which large bodies of the 
 brethren, of every degree, have resisted the law and the officers 
 of the law, are present in such monotonous profusion as to 
 make atflive disloyalty a part of settled policy of the Orange 
 association.^® Mr. Sinclair, an Ulster Protestant magistrate, 
 deposed as follows before the Parliamentary Selecfl Committee 
 of 1835 O" Orange lodges: "I never knew the Orangemen 
 of the North of Ireland, or any portion of them, as Orangemen, 
 assist in the preservation of the peace, or in the execution 
 of the laws. That is my opinion. "^^ The Earl of Gosford, 
 another Ulster Protestant witness, testified before the same 
 Committee that in the discharge of his duty as Lieutenant of the 
 County Armagh, "I have found bodies of them [Orangemen] 
 resist the laws. ... I have found them resist the laws, and 
 refuse to obey the laws as Orangemen."^" Similar testimony, 
 by other Protestant officials, such as Sir Frederick Stoven, 
 Captain Duff, Mr. Handcock, J,P,, and others, as well as the 
 verdicfts of five Royal Commissions of Inquiry, have been given 
 
 i^See p. 114, supra. 
 
 '^''The Justice's Note-book 6th ed. (1892), pp. 97, 100; Yia-rns's Principles 
 of the Criminal Law, 6th ed. (1892), p. 336. It is, for instance, an indidable 
 offence to decline, when called upon, to assist a constable in difficulties, 
 with anyone in his custody. Rewards are offered, in English law, for the 
 arrest of certain classes of criminals by civilians (Harris, pp. 338, 339). 
 
 i^See chaps, x., xi., supra, pp, 205, sqq., 217, sqq., and chaps, xiii., xv., 
 infra. 
 
 ^^ Minutes of Evidence, Q. 5 181. 
 
 "^^Ibid,, Q. 3289. Cf. Mr. Handcock's evidence, Q. 8799. 
 
 248 
 
ORANGE LOYALTY. 
 
 in the tenth and eleventh chapters of this volume. The nature 
 of the " aid" given to the civil authorities by the lodges may be 
 briefly summed up as follows :~^ 
 
 (i) Hooting at, and applying offensive epithets to, police, 
 police officers, and magistrates, who had dared to do the duty 
 required of them by law.-^ 
 
 (2) Defying proclamations by magistrates, mayors, governors 
 of counties, and Lords Lieutenant ; organised and long- 
 continued violation of A6ls of Parliament, such as the Party 
 Processions Adts of 1832, 1850, and i860 ; committing, and 
 provoking others to commit, breaches of the peace ; armed 
 terrorising of voters at eledtion contests ; organised armed 
 resistance to the forces of the Crown : house-wrecking, arson, 
 murder ; refusing to give evidence at magisterial or Parlia- 
 mentary inquiries; giving false verdidts, etc., in courts of 
 justice, etc. In the course of the last two chapters I have 
 shown that most, if not all, of these varied forms of law-break- 
 ing were connived at or encouraged by the Orange magistracy, 
 and were either passed over, or positively commended, by the 
 great funcftionaries of the Grand Lodge. Some high officials 
 of the order have even discovered that the crimes and mis- 
 demeanours of Orangemen are, after all, but evidences of their 
 loyalty! One of the most noted members of the fraternity, 
 Dr. Duigenan,^ declared in the Irish Plouse of Commons, in 
 1798, that what he terms the " excesses" of the early Orange- 
 men, although they " could not be justified," "might be ex- 
 tenuated by the spirit of loyalty from which they sprung. ''"^ At a 
 later date, two grandees who spoke on behalf of the Irish 
 institution coo'd even more gently to a stiffnecked House over 
 the "loyalty" of the armed Orangemen who, in Ulster, year 
 after year, had defied the forces of the Crown, and driven 
 coaches-and-four through the provisions of the Party Process- 
 ions A(5t. It was the 7th of July, 1870. There was a debate 
 in the House of Commons on a Bill introduced by Government 
 to restrain all party processions in Ireland. Viscount Crichton 
 declared that the Bill " cast an undeserved insult on the 
 Orangemen of Ireland — men ivhose only faulty if it were a faulty 
 
 2iSee Reports of Pari. Committees and Royal Commissions, passim, 
 and chaps, x., xi., xiii., xv. of this volume. 
 
 ■^'-See chap, v., supra, p. 98, and chaps, x., xi. 
 
 2-'»Dr. Duigenan was, early in 1798, a member of lodge No. 176 (Dub- 
 lin) of which Sir Jonah Barrington was also a member. Minutes of Evi- 
 dence, Pari. Committee of 1835, Q. 9522. In his Rise and Fall of the Irish 
 Nation (2nd ed., chap, xv., pp. 229-233), Sir Jonah details Duigenan's lack 
 of principle, and his "outrageous" and "unreasonable" bigotry against 
 Catholics. See also Curran and his Contemporaries, by Charles Phillips. 
 
 24Plowden, Ireland from its Union, vol. i., Introd , p. 8;: 
 
 249 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 was a slight exiihevance of loyalty.''"^ During the same debate 
 Lord Claude Plamilton, one of the leading sympathisers of 
 the Irish institution, objecSted to the bill on behalf of the 
 Orangemen of Ireland : it was, said he, " an insult to those 
 who, however injiidicioits, were still loyal. "^'^ I rtave already 
 quoted the bitter complaint made by the Daily Express, the 
 chief organ of the Irish lodges, against the Queen's troops for 
 " charging and cutting down [Orange] rioters who are urged on 
 to riot by loyalty.'"'^'' To the present day the Orange portions of 
 Ulster witness, July after July, that " slight exuberance of 
 loyalty" which an Irish Chief Secretary termed " the annual 
 specimen of civil war"^^ : they become an armed camp, into 
 which great forces of police and military are drafted, at 
 enormous expense to the ratepayers, to minimise, if they 
 cannot altogether prevent, the disastrous conflidfs and wreck- 
 ings which result from those ill-timed celebrations of party 
 triumph. 
 
 ih) A further word as to the Orangeman's " obligation" 
 to avoid secret associations whose objedl is to subvert the 
 established rights of property, etc.: There is nothing in this 
 pledge which entitles the society to even the small distin(5lion 
 of an "honorable mention" for loyalty, (i) Every citizen is 
 bound to avoid such associations, by the law of conscience, 
 and by the gentle suasion of the hangman's rope or of the 
 
 25Hansard, Third Series, vol. ccii., p. 16S4. In 1884 Viscount Cnch- 
 ton had risen to the dignity of Deputj' Grand Master for Ireland. 
 
 "^^Ibid., p. 1690. It has been stated that arms were "very secretly' 
 issued by the authorities of Dublin Castle to some of the Belfast lodges 
 in anticipation of the abortive rising of 1848. This has been advanced by 
 an Orange writer who published a pamphlet at Ballarat in 1867 or 1868 as 
 conclusive proof of the recognition of the loyalty of the association by the 
 Government of the day. But" (i) there is no conclusive evidence that the 
 authorities at Dublin Castle issued arms, as stated. (2) Lord Clarendon, 
 the viceroy, "denied all knowledge of the shipment of muskets to the 
 Belfast Orangemen" (Mitchel, Hist. Ireland, vol. ii., chap, xxv., p. 262. 
 note). (3) Even had such an incident occurred, it would not necessarily 
 imply an official recognition of the loyalty of the lodges, but rather a dis- 
 position to make use of their well-known fanaticism, as was done in 1796- 
 1798. (4) Reference to chaps, vi., x., xi., xiv., xv. of this volume will suffi- 
 ciently indicate to the reader the idea which the British Parliament and 
 Government officials entertained of the "loyalty" of the Orange associa- 
 tion. (5) Lord Clarendon refused to acknowledge the Orangemen as such 
 in 1848, or to supply them as such, with arms when Dublin was supposed 
 to be threatened by the Young Ireland party. Such of the brethren as 
 chose joined the volunteers then being raised by Captain Kennedy. Their 
 weapons had to be afterwards paid for out of Captain Kennedy's own 
 pocket. {Inis-Owen andTirconnell, by William James Doherty, pp. 377-378). 
 
 '^''Daily Express, January 3, 1884. 
 
 2 8Mr. Chichester Fortescue in the House of Commons, debate on 
 Party Processions Bill, March 14, 1870. Hansard of date, p. 1888. 
 
 250 
 
LOYALTY FOR SALE. 
 
 convi(5l's ball and chain. (2) Catholics are, moreover, for- 
 bidden to join any secret society, under serious ecclesiastical 
 penalties, which include that of excommunication. (3) The 
 Orange society is, as we have seen, a secret one. (4) I have 
 shown, in the fourth chapter, that it was inaugurated by a 
 wholesale violation of the " established rights of property." 
 The wrecking, destrudtion, and plundering of the property of 
 Catholics were carried on over a large area of Ulster from 1795 
 to 1797 ; they were renewed in other parts of Ireland in 1798 ; 
 they have been continued ever since on a smaller scale, and at 
 frequent intervals, in the wrecking of Catholic houses, vill- 
 ages, etc., some details of which have been given in the 
 eleventh chapter. The events which took place at Dolly's 
 Brae in 1849; at Derrymacash in i860; at Derry so late as 
 1869 and 1883 ; in Toronto and other parts of Canada from 
 1871 to 1878 f^ the state of civil war which desolated Belfast 
 in 1857, 1864, and 1886; all prove that the wild spirit which 
 animated the first lodges in 1795- 1797, still exists, in fierce 
 potential energy, in the centres of Orange life and acfiivity. 
 
 LOYALTY IN THE MARKET. 
 
 2. There is, perhaps, no loyalty echo of the July platforn 
 so constant and far-resounding as that of the unswerving 
 devotion of the brethren to the occupant (for the time being) of 
 the British Throne. This is the Koh-i-noor in the circlino- 
 diadem of the society's graces. To one who, with a faith that 
 is simple and child-like, can accept the "basis of the institution" 
 and the " qualiiications of an Orangeman," the contrast 
 between the official professions and the official pracftices of the 
 society must present a series of riddles as unreadable as the 
 y^lia Lcelia Cvispis of Bologna, The claim of loyalty to the 
 Throne presents, perhaps, the crowning enigma of them all, for 
 it touches the two following fundamental principles of the 
 Orange association : 
 
 (rt) A main purpose of the society is to glorify a successful 
 revolution which dethroned a de jure English king (James IL), 
 and placed the British crown on the head of a Dutchman. 
 
 (&) The Orange oath or solemn protestation of allegiance 
 to the Sovereign has ever been, and is to the present day, 
 expressly conditional and temporary. 
 
 In his charge to the Wexford Grand Jury in 18 14, Judge 
 Fletcher (a Protestant) puts the following words in the mouth 
 of the typical Orangeman of his day, whom he describes as a 
 " mere pretender to loyalty " : " ' I am a loyal man in times of 
 tranquility ; I am attached to the present order of thing?; so 
 
 '^^See chap, i., supra, pp. 10, 12 and chap, xi 
 
 25 T 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 far as I can get any good by it ; I malign every man of a 
 different opinion from those whom I serve: I bring my loyalty 
 to market.' Such loyalty has borne higher or lower prices, 
 according to the different periods of modern times. He [the 
 Orangeman] exposes it for sale in open market, at all times, 
 seeking continually for a purchaser." The price demanded 
 for this pinchbeck loyalty, by the Orange society's rules of 
 1800, was expressed in the following terms : 
 
 " I, A.B., do solemnly and sincerely swear, of my own free 
 will and accord, that I will, to the utmost of my power, 
 support and defend the present King, George the Third, his 
 heirs and successors, so long as he or they support the Protestant 
 ascendency. "^° 
 
 " He who serves queens may expecfl: backsheesh." Thus 
 speaks Darkush in Disraeli's Tancred. Orangemen stipulated, 
 and still stipulate, for backsheesh as a condition previous to 
 service. The upset price which they placed on their con- 
 ditional allegiance in 1800 was a distindTily high one, as may 
 be seen by reference to the definite meaning attached at the 
 close of the last century to the words " Protestant ascend- 
 ency." It was clearly explained in a manifesto issued in 
 1792 by the Protestant Lord Mayor, sheriffs, commons, and 
 citizens of Dublin to their co-religionists in Ireland. It is 
 given in a work by the Orange writer, Musgrave, and contains 
 the following lines : 
 
 " And that no doubt may remain of what we understand 
 by the words Protestant ascendency, we have further resolved 
 that we consider the Protestant ascendency to consist in : 
 
 " A Protestant King of Ireland, 
 
 " A Protestant Parliament, 
 
 " A Protestant Hierarchy, 
 
 " Protestant elecflors and Government ; 
 
 " The benches of justice, 
 
 " The army and the revenue, 
 
 " Through all their branches and details, Protestant ; 
 
 " And this supported by a connexion with the Protestant 
 realm of Great Britain. "'^^ 
 
 Orangeman, briefly, bound themselves by a solemn oath, 
 taken on their knees, not to exchange their " loyalty " at a 
 less price than the following : 
 
 I. A stridf and/^T/jf/^rt/monopoly of place, power, and pelf 
 
 »oAppendix to Report of Parliamentary Committee (Irish) of 1S35 on 
 Orange lodges. 
 
 3iMusgrave, Memoirs of the Different Rebellious, Appendix, p. 12. Cf. 
 Godkin, The Land War in Ireland, pp. 261, sqq. For the meaning then, and 
 even still, attached to the word "Protestant" in Ireland, see p. SC, supra. 
 
 252 
 
LOYALTY FOR SALE. 
 
 for themselves and their co-religionists. This included a 
 monopoly of the elecftoral roll ; of the making and administration 
 of the law ; of the army, navy, and civil service ; and generally, 
 of every position of honour and emolument in the State. 
 These conditions of sale necessarily involved the following : 
 
 2. That the penal laws should be kept in force against 
 their Catholic fellow-countrymen till the end of time ; that all 
 Catholics and Dissenters — that is to say, over five-sixths of the 
 population — should be deprived of a place on the eledloral roll, 
 and on the bench ; denied any share whatever in the making 
 or administration of the law ; and be absolutely excluded from 
 every office of honour or emolument under the State : their 
 chief use, to pay taxes, to furnish funds for Orange placemen, 
 to be helots and serfs, hewers of wood and drawers of water, 
 in their own land, until the crack of doom. 
 
 Conditions such as these would turn Ireland into an Orange 
 El Dorado, where a very small investment of " loyalty " would 
 bring in wholesale returns of power, place, and shining shekels, 
 guaranteed in perpetuity by the State. Such conditions exist, 
 to a certain extent, in the two chief centres of Irish Orangeism 
 — Belfast and Derry- — where the brethren and their co- 
 religionists enjoy pra(5tically a monopoly of positions of emolu- 
 ment in the gift of public bodies, and where Catholics have 
 been, almost up to the present hour, systematically deprived 
 of some of the benefits of the Emancipation A(ft. Never- 
 theless, the Royal Commissions of Inquiry into the great riots 
 of 1857, 1864, i86g, 1883, and 1886, have failed to find that the 
 Orange brethren of Belfast and Derry have been at any time 
 conspicuous for either patriotism or loyalty. In Derry city, in 
 i8gi, the Catholic population numbered 18,346; the Protestants, 
 14,860 ; yet, owing to the facfl that the registration and revision 
 of voters' lists are largely m the hands of officials who are, 
 themselves, either Orangemen or of most pronounced Orange 
 sympathies. Catholics have been excluded, almost to the 
 present hour, from representation in the Corporation, and 
 from any participation in salaried offices that are in the gift of 
 its elective public bodies. An almost exadlly similar state of 
 things has existed at Belfast, where the Catholics were in 1891 
 over a fourth (26.3 per cent.) of the population. ^^ These two 
 hoary public scandals existed until the close of i8g6, when 
 Parliament at last passed special AcSts for the purpose of giving 
 members of the proscribed creed in the two chief centres of 
 Orange a(5tivity some small voice in the Corporations, and of 
 putting a limit to a traditional exhibition of intolerance such 
 
 3'^See Appendix A, infra. 
 
 253 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 as is happily quite unknown in tlie portions of Ireland where 
 Catholics are in the ascendent. Orangemen undoubtedly lay 
 themselves open to the charge of making their association the 
 means of securing for themselves an undue share of the loaves 
 and fishes that are in the gift of the State or of elecflive 
 public bodies. In the course of the eighth chapter extracts 
 have been given to show that the narrow and exclusive spirit 
 which prevails in Derry and Belfast has found an echo in the 
 Orange press and on the Orange platform in Australia.^ 
 Reference to the seventh chapter of this book will show that 
 there is, perhaps, no class of members of the institution so 
 open to the suspicion of axe-grinding as the politicians of the 
 order.*** The following extradi: from the Report of the English 
 Parliamentary Seledl Committee of 1835 will give some idea 
 of the extent to which even the rank and file of Orangemen 
 have regarded the society as a means of personal advancement: 
 
 '" It appears by the correspondence [of the Grand Lodge] 
 that the institution has been considered by some Orangemen 
 as a source of patronage, and there are various applications 
 from the brethren for the influence and assistance of the 
 dignitaries of the Imperial Grand Lodge (which influence and 
 assistance appear frequently to have been used) to procure 
 licenses for public-houses, pensions in the artillery, and situ- 
 ations in the police and in the docks ; and these applications 
 appear to have increased to such an extent that the Deputy 
 Grand Secretary intimates in the printed circular of the 
 proceedings of the Imperial Lodge, held on the i6th April, 
 1833, 'that the duties of the Deputy Grand Secretary are so 
 irksome and onerous as compels him {sic\ to notify that his 
 labours will not admit the additional toils imposed by applica- 
 tions for patronage and places, which are pouring in upon him 
 daily. To so oppressive an extent have such importunities 
 been carried as to be sufficient to engross the whole attention 
 of one individual to read (far less to investigate the merits of) 
 memorials and petitions, with the prayers of which neither the 
 illustrious Grand Master nor the Deputy Grand Master has the 
 power of complying.' " Miss Martineau tells how even clergy- 
 men were invited by circular to join the association, because 
 their doing so might lead to patronage and preferment/"' 
 
 The old cry of " Protestant ascendency" is not even yet 
 quite dead. It was kept up by the Irish lodges — mingled 
 with seditious threats to the Queen — until the Disestablish- 
 ment Bill was passed in i86g. To this day such allegiance as 
 
 s^See chap, viii., supra, pp. 162-163, ^^'^ preface. 
 
 ^*See pp. 134, sqq. 
 
 ^'^Thc Thirty Years' Peace, vol. ii. , p. 274. Cf. Irish Report, Qq- 3536-3537, 
 
A FAIRY TALE. 
 
 Orangemen offer to the throne is conditional on the Queen and 
 her successors "being Protestant"*' — in the Orange sense of 
 the word ; for the reader has already seen, in the course of the 
 fifth chapter, that mere belief in the Thirty-nine Articles, or in 
 the Westminster Confession, is not sufficient to constitute 
 Protestantism as it is understood in the lodges.^' Orangemen, 
 then, not only demand a price, or condition, for their allegiance 
 to the Throne ; but their oath or declaration of loyalty is so 
 worded as to indicate in them a frame of mind which, in given 
 and very possible circumstances, is ever ripe for another and, 
 perhaps, not very "glorious revolution." The Cumberland 
 conspiracy was a case in point. Detailed reference to it will 
 be found in the closing chapter of this volume. 
 
 A STORY FOR THE MARINES. 
 
 Briefly : No one acquainted with the early history of the 
 Orange movement will pretend that either a law-abiding or a 
 religious spirit was the motive of its foundation, or of the wild 
 orgie of plunder, wrecking, and bloodshed with which it was 
 inaugurated. It would be a severe strain upon our faith to ask 
 us to believe that loyalty was the guiding motive of the acflions 
 of a violent mob, composed of the lowest orders in Armagh 
 county in 1795, who were variously described by Protestant 
 officials, statesmen, and writers, in such terms as the follow- 
 ing :*^ " Crowds of miscreants," "the very scum of society, and 
 a disgrace to Protestantism," "a lawless banditti," "a 
 banditti of murderers," " a banditti of plundering ruffians," 
 "a violent mob," "an ungovernable mob," "insurgents," 
 " northern rebels whose barbarity exceeded that of modern 
 times, and brought back the recollec5tion of ancient ferocity and 
 bloodshed," etc. The early Orangemen were not exacftly the 
 class of men to whom we should look for a high degree of 
 loyal submission to law, or of allegiance to the head of the 
 State. It matters not what view the reader may take as to the 
 aggressive or defensive attitude of the Peep-o'-Day Boys, or of 
 the first Orangemen, at or before the so-called "battle" of the 
 Diamond— to them as bloodless as a French duel, to the 
 Defender party so sanguinary. No sane person will hint, and 
 no writer — Orange or otherwise — that I am acquainted with, 
 has hinted that the " papering," intimidation, house- wrecking, 
 arson, plunder, persecution, bloodshed, and extermination of 
 the Cathohcs of Armagh county by the first Orangemen, had 
 their source in loyalty — in respecfl for law or order, or in regard 
 
 =^6See ritual and Rules in Appendices B and C. 
 3'7Pp. 99-101, supra. 
 ^^See pp. 61-63. 
 
 255 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 for the constitutional, or even natural, rights of their fellow- 
 citizens. Only the most extreme partisan of the lodges will 
 venture to contend that the outrages of the Orange proces- 
 sionists of a later day, their defiance of proclamations, Acfts ot 
 Parliament, and violent resistance to the forces of the Crown, 
 are evidence of their conspicuous loyalty. On such matters 
 there can be prac5lically no dispute. Here, then, I part com- 
 pany with the rude rank and file of the lodges of a later day, 
 as well as with the " lawless banditti" and the " scum of 
 society" that first bore the name of Orangemen. I now fly for 
 higher game, and come to three highly selec51: secftions of the 
 Orange body, namely : 
 
 1. The Orange soldiery, and especially the yeomanry, who 
 were enrolled, armed, and paid by Government to (ostensibly 
 at least) " support and defend to the utmost of their power" the 
 laws and Constitution of their country. 
 
 2. Orange magistrates and jurymen, whose duty it was and 
 is to administer even-handed justice according to law. 
 
 3. The officers of the institution, and more especially the 
 members of Grand Lodge, who had, and have, supreme 
 control over the membership and policy of the Orange society. 
 
 Assuming Orange professions of loyalty to be sincere, the 
 position of these three classes of members, and the nature of 
 their duties, would entitle us to expet51: from them, of all others, 
 quite an exceptional degree of dutiful subjecftion to law, orc'er, 
 and constituted authority, and a deep, devoted, and unfailing 
 attachment to the person of the Sovereign of the realm. 
 
 In dealing with the question of lodge loyalty, one naturally 
 turns to the Orangeism of Ulster as the model and exemplar of 
 the true spirit and pracflice of the association. In Ulster 
 Orangeism arose. There, amidst congenial surroundings, it 
 reached its highest development. It has existed there ever 
 since 1795. The days of its first glory are over, but Orangemen 
 throughout the world still look to Ulster, as the pious Moslem 
 turns his head to the East. Armagh is the cradle of their 
 institution ; Belfast is its capital ; Derry its holy city. Ulster 
 Orangeism may be fairly taken as a test and earnest of what 
 its Australasian offshoots may, under favouring circumstances, 
 come to be. The reader has already seen that the Canadian 
 association has proved itself a worthy child of the parent from 
 which it sprung. 
 
 256 
 
THE ORANGE YEOMANRY 
 
 Chapter XIIL 
 
 LOYALTY OF THE ORANGE SOCIETY—ORANGE 
 SOLDIERY: " THE GALLANT ORANGE YEOMANRY." 
 —MARTIAL LAW, FREE-QUARTERS, AND OTHER 
 '•WELL-TIMED MEASURES"— THE GENTLE SEX: 
 LOYALIST V. REBEL GALLANTRY— THE ORANGE 
 INQUISITION AN DTTS WAYS— HOW REBELS WERE 
 MADE— THE REIGN OF TERROR; THE REIGN OF 
 LAW; THE REIGN OF PEACE. 
 
 One of the heavy-fisted, blood-letting old Ossianic heroes 
 called to his bard : 
 
 " Sing me a song : a song 
 With a sword in every line." 
 
 This spirit of strife finds an echo in some of the books of songs 
 and ballads that are issued for the use of Orangemen. Almost 
 every page of them smells rank of blood and slaughter. Several 
 lodge " poets" found a theme to inspire their limping measures 
 in the shocking massacre committed by armed Orangemen at 
 Dolly's Brae, in 1849, while the stricken people were still 
 reeling from the effecfts of the great famine.^ Another bard 
 devotes six verses to the glories of "the gallant Orange 
 yeomanry," who fought in the insurrecftion of 1798.^ The first 
 and fourth stanzas run as follow : 
 
 Air : " Partant pour la Syrie." 
 " I am an humble Orangeman — 
 My father he was one ; 
 The mantle which the sire once wore 
 
 Has fallen to his son : 
 He ranked with those who quelled their foes — 
 
 The foes of Church and State — 
 The gallant Orange Y''eomanry 
 Who fought in Ninety-eight 1 
 
 iSee chap, xi., supra, pp. 222-225. Two verses of the song on Dolly's 
 Brae are given in "M.P.'s" History of Orangeism, p. 231. Grand Chaplain 
 Drew termed the massacre a " victory. " Ibid., p. 230. Another rhymster 
 sings the glories of Dolly's Brae, with the inspiring refrain, " Derry down, 
 down, down, Derry down," in the Victorian Standard, April 30, 1897. 
 
 2From a volume of Orange songs, etc., edited by D. G. M. William 
 Johnston of Ballykilbeg. 
 
 257 Q 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 " To guard the faith which Luther preached — 
 
 The rights which William won, 
 The Orangeman relies upon 
 
 His Bible and his gun.^ 
 He prays for peace, yet war will face, 
 
 Should rebels congregate ; 
 Like the brave Orange Yeomanry 
 
 Who fought in Ninety-eight." 
 
 Such is the Orange yeoman of the lodge poet. The 
 purpose of this chapter is to see him as he was in life ; to find 
 out how far a sense of religion, of loyalty to the State, of 
 dutiful obedience to its laws, were the guiding motives of his 
 condu(fl in the days of peace, as well as in the stirring times 
 of war. 
 
 The Irish yeomanry forces, long since disbanded, played in 
 their day a leading, if not an altogether creditable, part in the 
 drama of the social and political life of their country. This 
 force was organised in the end of 1796, under the following 
 ominous circumstances: 
 
 1. The extermination policy of the early Orange lodges 
 had not as yet spent its first fury in Armagh, Tyrone, and the 
 neighbouring counties. The North was, mainly in consequence 
 of these outrages, in a state of great disturbance. 
 
 2. Government had entered upon a policy which, in the 
 words of Lecky, was " strongly anti-Catholic."^ {a) Emanci- 
 pation and Parliamentary Reform had been definitely refused. 
 \b) Steps were being taken to effecSt Pitt's pet projecft of a 
 Legislative Union between Great Britain and Ireland. The 
 two first-named measures could not for long be safely refused, 
 nor could the third be easily carried, in the face of a nation 
 so strong in its unity of creeds and classes as Ireland was at 
 the fateful period when the foundation of the first Orange lodge 
 was laid in blood. 
 
 3. The policy of the Government required that the growing 
 union between Protestants and Catholics in Ireland should be 
 replaced by a strife of creeds or parties. This was an indis- 
 pensable condition of success. Hence, as the contemporary 
 historian, Plowden, remarks, " great efforts were made [by the 
 Government] to fester the soreness of the Catholics, and to 
 inflame the differences between the Protestants and them." 
 
 sThis line recalls Cromwell's advice to his soldiers, when crossing a 
 river in Ireland: "Put your trust in God, but mind to keep your powder 
 dry." Colonel Blacker (mentioned in chap, iii., supra) wrote an Orange 
 song with Cromwell's words as a refrain. Irish Minstrelsy, p. 326 ("Canter- 
 bury Poets" Series). 
 
 *^Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, vol. iii., p. 473. 
 
 258 
 
THE ORANGE YEOMANRY. 
 
 Pitt's projecfl of a Legislative Union would, moreover, have 
 been notably facilitated by an unsuccessful rebellion in Ireland. 
 He, therefore, took effecflive measures to provoke it. The 
 reader will see, as we proceed, that the Orange yeomanry were 
 his chief instruments in goading the people into insurredlion. 
 
 4. The elements of disunion and secftarian strife lay ready 
 and waiting among the lodge brethren who, ever since September 
 21, 1795, had been carrying on a war of wholesale proscription 
 against the Catholic population in Armagh, Tyrone, and the 
 counties round about. The Government of the day entered 
 into relations with the Orangemen in the following ways : 
 
 (a) By conniving at, or (as Lord Altamont and others 
 declared at the time) dive6lly encouraging the Orange outrages in 
 Ulster.'^ 
 
 [h) By supplying the brethren with money and arms. This 
 had begun as early as the spring of 1796,® while the Orangemen 
 were in the full career of their early outrages on the Catholic 
 population of the North. 
 
 THE LODGES UNDER ARMS. 
 
 The formal enrolment of the yeomanry took place in the 
 end of 1796. Three features of the movement are deserving of 
 particular attention, namely : 
 
 1. The enrolment was carried out principally in Ulster ','' 
 
 2. Those enrolled in the yeomanry corps were mostly 
 Orangemen ; 
 
 3. This " alliance" (as Lecky terms it) between the 
 Government and the Orange party " added greatly to the 
 anarchy of the North, and had ultimately a most serious 
 influence on the remainder of Ireland,"® which was at the time 
 in a comparatively peaceful state. ^ 
 
 Under the favouring smile of the Government, country 
 gentlemen now began to join the hitherto discredited Orange 
 association. This accession of fresh blood to its ranks, how- 
 ever, effecfled no change in the violent and distinctively anti- 
 Catholic chara(5ter of the society. It still, says Lecky, 
 " included in its ranks all the most intolerant and fanatical 
 Protestantism of the province [of Ulster] , and it inherited 
 from its earlier stage traditions and habits of violence and 
 
 ^Ibid., vol. iii., pp. 441, 446, etc. 
 
 ^Vloviden, Ireland from its Union, vol. i., Introd., pp. G9-70. One of 
 the printed resolutions of a meeting of Orangemen in the town of Armagh 
 declared that the two guineas per man allowed them by the Government 
 were not sufficient to purchase clothes and accoutrements. 
 
 ''Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, vol. iii., p. 474. 
 
 ^Ibid., vol. iv., p. 47. See also chap, ii., supra, p. 26, note 54. 
 
 ^Ibid., vol. iii., p. 474. See also chap, ii., supra, pp. 24-25. 
 
 239 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 outrage, which its new leaders could not wholly suppress, and 
 which the anarchy of the time was well fitted to encourage."" 
 The situation was still further aggravated by the following 
 facfl : The undisciplined facftionists, now armed, paid, and "let 
 loose," as Lecky says, upon the homes of Ulster, were for 
 the most part members of the very organisation (the Orange 
 society) which was at that moment, and had been for over 
 a year beforehand, engaged in a furious persecution of 
 Catholics, such as, according to Lecky, had never been known 
 in Ireland since the days of Cromwell." The early Ulster 
 yeomanry, says the same Protestant writer, consisted " to a 
 large extent of the most violent Protestants," who " had been 
 inflamed to the highest pitch of animosity against their Catholic 
 fellow-countrymen."^^ Lord Downshire, who was engaged in 
 enrolling the new force near Newry, wrote to the Government 
 that the yeoman infantry " are chiefly Orangemen, and all agree 
 in not admitting a Papist, however recommended."^" From the 
 very beginning the force was, according to Lecky, "largely com- 
 posed of men with Orange sympathies."^* Some large bodies 
 of yeomanry were made up exclusively of avowed Orangemen. ^^ 
 The Orange writer, Musgrave, says that "in the counties of 
 Fermanagh, Tyrone, Derry, and Armagh, there were 14,000 
 yeomen, and most of them Orangemen."" In his Stridiitres on 
 
 ^°Ibid., vol. iv., p. 49. Referring to its "new leaders" Plowden says 
 that several magistrates who had "connived at and encouraged" the 
 Armagh outrages, " were rewarded with commands in the yeomanry corps." 
 Ireland from its Union, vol. i., Introd., p. 63. 
 
 ^''Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, vol. iii., p. 446. 
 ^^Ibid., p. 473. 
 
 i3Quoted by Lecky, ibid. Lord Downshire says "their condition 0/ 
 service is, that no Papist should be enrolled with them " (ibid.). A few 
 Catholics at first joined the ranks, and Catholics in the South and West, 
 during the French invasion scare, formed Volunteer corps to meet the 
 temporary need. The enlistment of Catholics in the Government yeo- 
 manry forces was, however, from the first distindtly discouraged. Some 
 Catholics waited on Secretary Pelham, the friend of the Armagh Orange 
 wreckers, and requested permission to form a Catholic yeomanry corps. 
 Permission was refused : they were told to join the Protestant corps then 
 in course of formation. The reludlance with which the few Catholic 
 yeomen were received, coupled with the Orange and violently anti-Catholic 
 charadter of the new force, deterred members of the persecuted creed 
 generally from joining (Plowden's Ireland from its Union, vol. i., Introd., p. 
 70). In the circumstances, it is no wonder that, as Lecky says, the 
 Catholic Committee strongly discouraged their co-religionists from enlist- 
 ing (Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, iii., 473). A few Catholic yeomen, 
 however, remained and fought during the insurredlion (ibid., iv., 331, 337). 
 In Wexford they were disarmed and disgraced (Mitchel Hist Ireland, vol. i., 
 chap. xxxv). 
 
 '^^ Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, vol. iv., p. 48. 
 
 ^^Ihid., p. 55. 
 
 ^^Memoirs of the Different Rebellions, p. 194. 
 
 260 
 
FORCING A REBELLION. 
 
 Plowden (p. 155) he says the Orangemen from the very first 
 "formed by far the most considerable part of the yeomanry." 
 Plowden, likewise a contemporary writer, says that the 
 yeomanry corps (except that of the lawyers) were " composed 
 of the most acflive and prominent members of the society of 
 Orangemen," and that "by far the greatest and most mis- 
 chievous part" of that force belonged to the same association." 
 Referring to the period immediately preceding the insurrecftion 
 of 1798, the Protestant historian Walpole says that the 
 yeomanry " was composed almost entirely of Orangemen."^® 
 Froude— who is as violent a partisan of the Orange society as 
 was Musgrave — states that " by the spring of 1797 they could 
 place twenty thousand men at the disposition of the authori- 
 ties. In 1798 they filled the ranks of the yeomanry,"^'' 
 According to a return presented to Parliament by Lord 
 Castlereagh just after the Acft of Union was passed, the 
 various yeomanry corps in Ireland, in the year 1800, num- 
 bered 53,557 men. 
 
 NINETY-EIGHT. 
 
 I. In the Irish mind, the Orange yeomanry will be ever 
 chiefly associated with the part they took in first provoking, 
 and afterwards suppressing, the memorable insurredlion of 
 1798. The course of this chapter will show how far in this, 
 as in subsequent events up to the date of their supression, 
 their condudt was consistent with a loyal submission to law or 
 constituted authority, or with a due regard for the legal and 
 natural rights of their "Roman Catholic brethren." The 
 history of that dark period of crime and woe has brought into 
 clear light the three following fadls : 
 
 1. The promoting of this abortive rising was not merely 
 the predicfted and calculated effed; of Pitt's Irish policy. It 
 was its set and deliberate purpose. 
 
 2. The insurredtion of 1798 was but a means to a further 
 end : namely, to smooth the way towards effecfting the great 
 purpose of Pitt's later years, the securing of a Legislative 
 Union between Great Britain and Ireland. 
 
 3. The Orange yeomanry were the chief instruments in the 
 crime of goading the people into insurrection. Painful as must 
 be the tale of the slow and uniform agony of a people, in every 
 true history of the Orange yeomanry such a tale must hold a 
 conspicuous place. 
 
 Writing of Pitt's Irish policy, the Protestant Unionist 
 historian, Lecky, says: ^^ The steady object of his {PiiV s) latev 
 
 ^'' Ireland from its Union, vol. i., Introd., pp. 70, 73. 
 
 ^^Kingdom of Ireland, chap, xvii p. 467. 
 
 ^^EngUsh in Ireland, vol. iii., pp. 178-179 (ed. 1887). 
 
 261 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 Ivish policy was to corrupt and to degrade, in order that he ultimately 
 might destroy, the Legislature of the country. . . . By raising 
 the hopes of the Catholics almost to certainty, and then dash- 
 ing them to the ground, by taking this step at the very 
 moment when the inflammatory spirit engendered by the 
 [French] Revolution had begun to spread among the people, 
 Pitt sowed in Ireland the seeds of discord and bloodshed, of 
 religious animosities and social disorganisation, which paralysed 
 the energies of the country aud rendered possible the success 
 of his machinations. The rebellion of 1798, withall the accumulated 
 miseries it entailed, was the direct and predidled consequence of his 
 policy. Lord Fitzwilliam had solemnly warned the Government 
 that to disappoint the hopes of the Catholics ' would be to 
 raise a flame in the country that nothing but the force of arms 
 could keep down.' Lord Charlemont, though on principle 
 opposed to the Catholic claims, declared that the recall of 
 Lord Fitzwilliam would be ruinous to Ireland, and foretold 
 that by the following Christmas the people might be in the 
 hands of the United Irishmen."^ 
 
 Sir Jonah Barrington, a member of the ascendency party, 
 bears similar testimony. Writing of the insurredliion of 1798, 
 he says : " Mr. Pitt's end was answered. He thus^^ raised the 
 Catholics to the height of expedtation, and by suddenly recall- 
 ing their favourite Viceroy he inflamed them to the degree of 
 generating the commotions he meditated, which would throw 
 the Protestants into the arms of England for protedlion, whilst 
 the horrors would be aggravated by the mingled conflidl: of 
 parties. "^^ A little further on in the same work he writes : 
 " Mr. Pitt, having sent Lord Fitzwilliam to Ireland, with un- 
 limited powers to satisfy the nation, permitted him to proceed 
 until he had unavoidably committed himself both to the 
 Catholics and the country, when he suddenly recalled him, 
 leaving it in a state of excitement and dismay. The day Lord 
 Fitzwilliam arrived, peace was proclaimed throughout all 
 Ireland ; the day he quitted it she prepared for insurrecftion. 
 . . . Within three months after Lord Fitzwilliam's dis- 
 missal, Lord Clare had got the nation into training for military 
 execution'"^ "Mr. Pitt," says the same author, "counted on 
 the expertness of the Irish Government to effe6i a premature 
 explosion. Free quarters were now ordered, to irritate the 
 Irish population. Slow tortures were inflidled under the 
 
 20Lecky, Leaders of Public Opinmt, ed. 1871, pp. 146-147. 
 2iBy sending Lord Fitzwilliam to Ireland as Viceroy, with a promise 
 of Catholic Emancipation. 
 
 ■^■iRise and Fall of the Irish Nation, ed. 1844, pp. 345-346- 
 ^^Ibid., pp. 346-347- 
 
 262 
 
FORCING A REBELLION. 
 
 pretence of forcing confessions. The people were goaded and 
 driven to madness. . . . Mr. Pitt's objecft was now 
 effedted, and an insurre(5tion was excited. "^^ 
 
 At the examination of Dr. McNevin in 1798, Lord Castle- 
 reagh remarked: " You acknowledge the Union [United Irish 
 Society] would have been stronger hut for the means taken to 
 make it explode.''^^ 
 
 Lord Camden, who succeeded Lord Fitzwilliam as Viceroy, 
 and who carried out the policy of forcing the people into 
 insurre(5lion, admitted in the House of Lords that " the 
 measures of the Government caused the rebellion to break out 
 sooner than it otherwise would. "^^ The Secret Committee of 
 the House of Lords, which subsequently inquired into 
 all the circumstances of the rising, said in their Report: 
 " It appears from a variety of evidence laid before your Com- 
 mittee that the rebellion would not have broken out as soon as 
 it did, had it not been for the well-timed measures adopted by 
 the Government."^'' The chief measures referred to were the 
 following : 
 
 1. Putting into operation the provisions of the Insurrecftion 
 and Indemnity Acfts. These A6\.s conferred on magistrates 
 unlimited powers to search houses for arms, to arrest, imprison, 
 or transport men on board tenders, without any proper form of 
 trial. The justices were, moreover, protecfled by the Indem- 
 nity Acfi: from theconsequencesof such outrages and illegalities 
 as they had committed, or might in future commit. These 
 AcTts were passed, as Grattan said in the Irish House of 
 Commons, " to legalise outrage, to barbarise law, and to give 
 the law itself the cast and colour of outrage."-** 
 
 2. The suspension of the Habeas Corpus Acft. When this 
 took place, " Ireland," says Mitchel, " stood utterly stripped 
 naked of all law and ^vernment."'-'^ There was likewise a 
 Curfew Aa.^ 
 
 ^^Ibid., p. 351. The capitals are Barrington's. 
 
 2 •"> McNevin, Pieces of Irish History, p. 203. 
 
 36Quoted in The Truth about Ninety-eight, London, 1886, p. 8. 
 
 ^'Lecky, Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, vol. iv., p. 289. 
 
 28Mitchel, Hist. 0/ Ireland, vol. i., chap, xxxix., p. 226. 
 
 ■2^ Ibid. 
 
 soThe Curfew Adt required people, under penalty, to be in their 
 houses and to have all lights extinguished soon after sunset every night. 
 Lights were not permitted to persons watching with the sick. The Orange 
 yeomanry and other troops, by their nightly raids, their burning of cottages, 
 and their habit of calling people to their doors and shooting them, made it 
 unsafe to comply with the first provision of the Curfew Ad: mentioned 
 above. At the same time they punished the violation of it with burning, 
 torture, or death. The following is from a proclamation by General 
 Derham in Belfast, /my to the insurrection : "This is to give notice, that ii 
 
 263 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 3. The proclamation of martial law, and the placing of 
 mihtary at free quarters among the people. These were, of all 
 others, the special " well-timed measures" referred to in the 
 Report of the Secret Committee. They resulted in the out- 
 break of outrage, torture, and bloodshed, which drove the 
 unhappy people into the ill-starred insurrecftion of 1798. In 
 the midst of these scenes we frequently come across the 
 Orangeman with a uniform on his back, and a flintlock in his 
 hand. It will be interesting, as well as instrucftive, to watch 
 his condudf under arms. The ordinary Tommy Atkins is 
 required, as a sheer matter of course, to obey the civil law, plus 
 the military regulations. He does not rave upon the stage 
 about his loyalty, but is satisfied to prove it by his fidelity to 
 the quiet duties of barrack or camp, and by his bravery on the 
 blood-stained field. The Orange yeoman boasted of his loyalty 
 quite as much as the Orange civilian. Assuming his profes- 
 sions to have been sincere, we should look to him for a signal 
 display of devotion to law and authority, and to the Sacred 
 Word of Truth, which it was ever his chief duty to maintain. 
 His corps was pracftically an Orange lodge — a picked body of 
 sworn loyalists — held in the iron grip of military regulations. 
 His officers were frequently the elite of the Purple Order, with 
 power, not merely to expel for the high crime of " marrying a 
 Papist," but also to compel respecfl to civil law, and obedience 
 to military regulations, by the gentle suasion of the triangle 
 and the cat-o'-nine tails. Such a combination of circumstances 
 ought to have made the Irish Orange yeomanry models of 
 every soldierly grace and virtue, the joy of their officers, the 
 pride of Parliament and the nation — in a word, uniformed 
 embodiments of the " qualifications of an Orangeman." 
 
 CHIEF ACTORS IN THE TRAGEDY. 
 
 It is the misfortune, if not the fault, of the Orange soldiery, 
 that they have left few traces of their virtues in the period of 
 which I write. Their vices, on the other hand, were many, 
 and worked in deep grooves, which have left their mark upon 
 their country's history to this day. The worst terrors of this 
 dark period of crime and woe will be ever chiefly associated in 
 the Irish mind with the names of the following military 
 organisations : 
 
 1. The Orange yeomanry ; 
 
 2. The Welsh regiment known as the Ancient Britons : 
 
 any person is taken up by the patrols after ten o'clock, he will be fined five 
 shillings for the benefit of the poor. If the delinquent is not able to pay 
 five shillings, he will be brought to a drum-head court-martial, and will 
 receive one hundred lashes. — James Derham, Colonel-Comtnandent." 
 
 264 
 
THE ORANGE YEOMANRY 
 
 3. The North Cork mihtia,^^ and certain Ulster militia 
 regiments ; 
 
 4. Two regiments of German troops from Hesse. 
 
 THE YEOMANRY. 
 
 I. Evidence has already been adduced to show that, before 
 the insurredlion of 1798, the Irish yeomanry corps were mostly 
 composed of Orangemen. In Wexford county, however, eighteen 
 months before the outbreak, Catholics had loyally united with 
 their Protestant fellow-citizens in forming yeomanry corps for 
 the defence of the country against the attempted French in- 
 vasion of December, 1796.^^ According to their papers, Wex- 
 ford county was never "organised" by the United Irishmen.'^'' 
 Its name does not appear in the list of " places to be relied 
 upon," drawn up by Lord Edward Fitzgerald in February, 
 1798. Nevertheless, Catholics and liberal-minded Protestants 
 were driven from the yeomanry there. As a result, the force 
 in question "became almost exclusively Protestant.""* Thence- 
 forward, says Myles Byrne in his Memoirs, the Wexford 
 yeomanry were to be " upon the true Protestant, or Orange 
 system." They were recruited mainly from the same class as 
 the yeomanry of Ulster, and of the neighbouring county of 
 Wicklow. Hay, in his History of the Insurredlion in Wexford, 
 describes them as the " lowest and most uninformed vulgar." 
 
 ^'iLecky says: "The North Cork mihtia, the Welsh regiment of 
 Ancient Britons, and two Hessian regiments, which were sent over just 
 before the rebelHon, appear to have been those which left the most bitter 
 recolledlions in Ireland " [Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, vol. iv., p. 275 ; 
 cf. p. 343)- His statements regarding the Orange yeomanry place them 
 amongst the most furious persecutors of the people at this period (vide 
 infra). Mitchel describes the Hessian troops as " German mercenaries 
 . . who had tor some time been favourite instruments of the British 
 Government for dragooning any refradtory population" {Hist. Ireland, vol. 
 i., chap, xxxii., p. 266). 
 
 32Mitchel, History 0/ Ireland, vol. i., chap, xxxiv. 
 
 3 3Walpole, Kingdom of Ireland, chap, xx., p. 489. Nothing, certainly, 
 appears to have been done to impart military training, appoint officers, 
 form regiments, etc. Lecky, Ireland tn the Eighteenth Century, vol. iv.. p. 
 345, note. This is confirmed by Hay and Gordon. See Kavanagh's Hist, 
 of the Rebellion, Appendix, 4th ed., p. 261, note. Mitchel says of the Wex- 
 ford insurredion that "scarcely any of its leaders were United Irishmen," 
 and that Father John Murphy and the other clergymen who took part in 
 it "had done their utmost to break up that society, in some cases even 
 refusing the sacraments to those who were members." History of Ireland, 
 vol. i., chap. XXXV., p. 303. 
 
 3*Lecky, op. cit., vol. iv., p. 346. By diredtions from Dublin Castle, 
 the Wexford yeomanry — or some corps of them — were (nominally) required 
 to take an oath that they were neither United Irishmen nor Orangemen, 
 " but pradtically," says Mitchel, "the measure was so executed as to disarm 
 none but Catholics, or such Protestants as were known to be liberal in 
 their opinions," Hist, of Ireland, vol. i., chap, xxxiv., p. 282. 
 
 265 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 They were largely controlled by what one contemporary 
 author terms an " Orange magistracy," whose harsh treatment 
 of the Catholic population is admitted by a local and contem- 
 porary Protestant historian, Rev. James Gordon. ^^ Sir Jonah 
 Barrington, who was at that period an Orangemen,''- says: "A 
 portion of the gentry of the county of Wexford were Ijoister- 
 ous, overbearing, and devoid of judgment. Their Christian 
 principles were merged in their Protestant ascendency. The 
 frenzy of an exterminating principle seemed to have taken root 
 amongst them ; and they acfted as if under the impression that 
 burning every cottage, and torturing every cottager, were a 
 meritorious proof of their faith and loyalty."^'' This was before 
 the insurrecftion. The head-quarters of the various corps of 
 Wexford yeomanry were at Wexford, Enniscorthy, Ferns, and 
 Gorey. In each of these places, previous to the outbreak of 
 the insurrecftion, they were associated with the North Cork 
 militia, who, as we shall see, were ardent proselytisers for the 
 Orange association. The Protestant writer Taylor is compelled 
 to admit that, at the outbreak of hostilities in 1798, there were 
 Orangemen in the towns where the detachments of the North 
 Cork militia were stationed.''^ Hay, another contemporary 
 historian, says that many, "finding themselves supported by 
 the military," now joined the Orange association, and — follow- 
 ing the Ulster custom— wore its colours.''^ Hunter Gowan, 
 
 ^^Hist. of the Rebellion, vol. ii., p. 360. Lecky admits that "some of 
 the Wexford magistrates obtained during the rebellion, and in the weeks 
 of martial law that preceded it, a reputation for extreme violence." Ireland 
 in the Eighteenth Century, vol. iv., p. 343. Cf. Mitchel, vol. i., chap, xxxiv., 
 p. 287; chap. XXXV., p. 297; and Hay, Hist, of the Insurrection, pp. 61-63. 
 
 "^See p. I, snpra, note 1. 
 
 ^''Rise and Fall of the Irish Nation, 2nd ed., p. 353. 
 
 ^^History of the Rebellion in the County of Wexford, p. 15. The author, 
 a clergyman, habitually applies to Catholics the offensive designation of 
 "Papists." An idea of the extremely partisan charadter of his little book 
 may be gained from the fadt that it has been republished at the office of 
 the Victorian Standard, and advertised in that paper in the same column 
 with The Aitful Disclosures of Maria Monk, for circulation among the Orange 
 lodges of the colony. Taylor's references to "priest Murphy," "priest 
 Kearns," etc., are quite in the style affedled by the Orange press. 
 
 ^^Hist. of the Insurrection, ed. 1803, p. 57. The custom of Orangemen 
 and Nationalists wearing distindtive colours (orange and green) was in vogue 
 in Ulster in 1797 (cf. Lecky, Eighteenth Century, iv., 98). The custom had 
 found its way to Wexford county before the insurredtion, both among the 
 militia and the yeomanry. At the battle of Enniscorthy, May 28, 1798, 
 two days after the rising, when the fortunes of the fight fludluated in favour 
 of the yeomen, "many in the town," says Lecky, are said to have displayed 
 orange ribbons; when the insurgents prevailed, green ribbons (the national 
 colour) were exhibited (Lecky, ibid., p. 359). This statement is made by 
 other historians, and is borne out by well attested and constant local 
 tradition. Taylor, the local Protestant writer already quoted, states in his 
 
 266 
 
THE ORANGE YEOMANRY. 
 
 for instance, and his Black Mob, marched through the town 
 of Gorey displaying "all the devices of Orangemen."*" "The 
 sooiety," he continues, "soon after became prevalent through- 
 out the county," and "was forwarded by the received 
 prejudice that no man could be loyal who was not an 
 Orangeman. Dr. Jacob, a captain of a yeomanry corps, did 
 not at first deem Orangeism an essential to loyalty, and refused 
 to become a member, but he was soon induced to alter his 
 opinion. By a resolution entered into by a majority of the 
 corps, that they would resign if he did not join the association, they 
 absolutely compelled the captain to take the oath." Hay, 
 Byrne, Cloney, Mitchel, and others unite in describing the 
 most ferocious of the Wexford yeomanry as being Orangemen 
 just before and during the insurrecftion ; and in the popular 
 mind at that period they were regarded as such.*^ After the 
 capture of Wexford, as also at Vinegar Hill and elsewhere, the 
 insurgents carefully distinguished between other Protestants, 
 whom they spared, and those who "were known as Orange- 
 men," or who (as Lecky says), after a "form of trial," "were 
 pronounced by the rebel tribunals to be Orangemen."*^ 
 
 Rebellion in the County of Wexford (p. 36. Dublin: Curry, 1S29) that the 
 town was defended by the Enniscorthy and Scarawalsh yeomanry and by 
 fifty men of the North Cork militia. Two or three days after the capture 
 of Enniscorthy (May 30th and 31st, 1798), when Wexford had also fallen 
 into the hands of the insurgents, the inhabitants hung out green; "but," 
 says Lecky (iv., 369) "banners of all colours, except the hated orange, now 
 appeared." A further instance of the fury excited in the popular mind by 
 supposed Orange emblems is given by the same writer (iv., 453). Even at 
 this early period the people of Wexford had learned to hate the Orange colour. 
 
 *oHay, Hist, of the Insurrection, p. 70; cf. pp. 272, 278. 
 
 *iCf. Lecky, Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, vol. iv., pp 347, 351; 
 Mitchel, vol. i., chap, xxxiv. 
 
 4-^Mitchel, ibid., chap, xxxv., p. 296; cf. Lecky, vol. iv. pp. 369, 381. 
 Cf. Hay's Hist, of^ the Insurrection, Appendix X. Musgrave . perhaps unin- 
 tentionally, contributed evidence that in Wexford the popular resentment 
 was diredted mainly against Orangemen. He gives the following as a copy oi 
 a certificate or passport signed by a Catholic priest of the town: "A of B, 
 in the parish of C, has done his duty, and proved himself a Roman Catholic^ 
 and has made a voluntary oath that he never was an Orangeman, nor took 
 the Orange oath. F. J. Broe, Dated, Wexford, June 21, 1798." Another 
 proof of the resentment of the insurgents against Orangemen is furnished 
 by the same writer in the case of Thomas Hall (Memoirs Appendix xix.. 
 No. 14, vol. ii., p. 120, ed. 1801). His alleged Journal of Father Murphy 
 would furnish further proof in point, but that it is so manifestly a hoax or 
 a forgery (cf. Gordon's Hist, of the Rebellion, 2nd ed., p. 412). Kavanagh, 
 in his Hist, of the Rebellion (4th ed., p. 161), shows that the fury of the in- 
 surgents was direfted chiefly against Orangemen. Cf. Hay, p. 59. Gor- 
 don relates how, in Wicklow county, Orangemen, or persons charged with 
 being Orangemen, were singled out for special vengeance by the insurgents. 
 Lecky, iv., 443; cf. p. 451. The many Quakers settled in the disturbed 
 distridts in Wexford county were not molested in any way. 
 
 267 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 In the neighbouring county of Wicklow, says Lecky, it 
 became necessary "to fill the ranks [of the yeomanry] with 
 Protestants of the lowest order." Hence the organisation 
 there took "a peculiarly secftarian characfler."*^ The Wicklow 
 yeomanry were associated with the Antrim militia/^ and with 
 the Ancient Britons, who, as we shall in due course see, were 
 " mostly Orangemen." Miles Byrne, in his Memoirs, expressly 
 states that the Wicklow yeomanry were Orangemen, and as 
 such they were held to be in the public estimation, ^^ In his 
 Memoirs,^'^ Musgrave records the singularly precise rumor 
 prevalent in the Rathdrum distridl (Wicklow county) that all 
 but four members of the local yeomanry corps were Orange- 
 men. Their confreres of the adjoining county of Carlow, as 
 well as those of Meath and Kildare, are described by the 
 Protestant writer, Walpole, as being "Orange yeomanry 
 corps," just before the insurredlion broke out in 1798." The 
 Carlow yeomanry were associated in the work of provoking 
 the rebellion with portion of the North Cork militia and the 
 Tyrone militia. The latter were in the habit of "wearing 
 ostentatiously Orange ribbons among the Catholic peasantry, 
 and plundering alike the loyal and disloyal."^*' 
 
 THE ANCIENT BRITONS. 
 
 2. Early in the year 1797, the Ancient Britons were 
 stationed at Newry, in the heart of one of the most Orange 
 distri(5\s of the North. The Newry Orange yeomanry had 
 
 ^^Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, vol, iv., p. 342. 
 
 4*Despatch of Lord Camden, May 26, 1798, given by Mitchel, Hist, oj 
 Ireland, vol. i. , chap, xxxiii., p. 281. 
 
 *5Cf. Lecky, loc. cit., and p. 347. Taylor's statement that there was no 
 Orange organisation in Wicklow county at the outbreak of hostilities, is 
 quite opposed to the probabilities of the case, and cannot set aside the 
 popular verdicft and the positive statement of Byrne and other contem 
 porary writers. As events proved, the rumour of a massacre by Orange 
 yeomanry was not, unhappily, altogether devoid of foundation. There is, 
 on the other hand, no evidence to show that the Wicklow yeomanry, unlike 
 their confreres, stood aloof from the Orange organisation. General Sir John 
 Moore, speaking of Wicklow, says the people there "would certainly be 
 quiet if the gentry and yeomen would only behave with tolerable decency, 
 and not seek to gratify their ill-humor and revenge upon the poor." Mit- 
 chel, vol. i., chap, xxiii., p. 272. See also Cornivallis Correspondence, vol. ii., 
 pp. 385-386, Murray's ed., 1859. 
 
 46Vol. i., p. 306. 
 
 ^"^Kingdom of Ireland, chap, xix., p. 487. The Irish Magazine of 1811 
 credits the Carlow Orangemen with the chief share in the tortures inflidted 
 on the people in that county in 1798. Quoted in Kavanagh's Hist, of the 
 Rebellion, 4th ed., p. 261. 
 
 ^^Lecky, Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, vol. iv., p. 275; cf. vol. iii., 
 p. 464, and Mitchel's Hist, of Ireland, vol. i., chap, xxxiii., p. 279. Cf. note 
 39, supra. 
 
 268 
 
NORTH CORK MILITIA. 
 
 their head-quarters in the same town, and the two forces 
 seem to have cordially fraternised, at least in crime. In May 
 of that year — twelve months before the rebellion — the Newry 
 yeomanry and the Ancient Britons joined hand in hand in the 
 shocking and wholly unprovoked massacre of inoffensive men, 
 women, and children at Ballyholan, This event, says Lecky, 
 " left an ineffaceable impression of horror and resentment on 
 the popular mind.""*^ Judging from their associations, and the 
 eager propaganda of Orangeism which we know was soon 
 afterwards carried on in English militia regiments in and out 
 of Ireland, it was but natural to expedf that, as Plowden 
 positively states, the Ancient Britons were "mostly Orange- 
 men," and that they were given to Orange toasts over their 
 cups.^° They were placed at free quarters among the hapless 
 peasantry of Wicklow before the insurrection of 1798, and 
 vied with the local yeomanry and the Antrim militia in the 
 perpetration of the maddening atrocities which finally sent the 
 people out of their homes to sell their lives upon the hillsides.^^ 
 
 THE NORTH CORK MILITIA. 
 
 3. The North Cork militia were under the ominous leader- 
 ship of Lord Kingsborough. He was the friend of the 
 notorious Orange Grand Secretary, John Claudius Beresford, 
 and his accomplice in the inhuman tortures inflicSled by the 
 latter on the unhappy people previous to the outbreak of 
 hostilities in 1798.^^ Lord Kingsborough had evidently to a 
 
 *^ Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, vol. iv., pp. 274-275; cf. p. 99. A 
 description of this massacre, from the pen of an Orange eye-witness, is 
 given in this chapter, in/ra. 
 
 ^^ Ireland from its Union, vol. i., Introd., pp. 91, 96. Plowden says that 
 at this time (1797) "by far the greater part of the Newry cavalry and 
 infantry yeomen were also Orangemen" (ibid., p. 92). The same writer 
 gives (ibid., pp. 115-118) an instance of Orangemen proselytising among 
 the Cambridgeshire militia, together with a copy of a regimental order by 
 its commanding officer, the Earl of Hardwicke, stridtly forbidding his 
 officers and men to join the society. The order was dated Dublin, April 
 17, 1799. A similar order was issued by Major-General Cockburn to the 
 nth Infantry at Chelmsford, Essex, in 1810. Plowden, ibid., 124, 126. See 
 chap. XV., infra. 
 
 siCf. Lecky, Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, vol. iv. , p. 343. 
 
 s^piowden, ibid., pp. 103-104. Cf. pp. 120, 124, notes. Two men, 
 John Flamming and Francis Gough, after having been inhumanly flogged 
 in Beresford's yeomanry riding-school, to extort confessions, were sent 
 adrift through the streets, naked and streaming with blood, and with 
 melted pitch and feathers on their heads. "Cough's flagellation was 
 superintended by Lord Kingsborough, who, almost at every lash, questioned 
 him how he liked it ; it was so severe as to have confined him [Gough] 
 six months to his bed." These facfls were related to Plowden "by the 
 spedlator and the sufferer." Lord Kingsborough was captured by the insur- 
 gents in Wexford, and was treated by them with great consideration. 
 Mitchel, vol. i., chap, xxxv., p. 297; Lecky, iv., 450, 456, 459, 460, sqq. 
 
 269 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 great extent filled the ranks of the North Cork militia regi- 
 ment with men after his own heart, before they were drafted 
 to Wexford to take a hand in the work of torturing the people 
 into armed resistance.*'* 
 
 Three contemporary historians, who lived on the spot — 
 one a Protestant, and the others Catholics — agree in stating 
 that the Orange system was first publicly and openly introduced 
 into Wexford county by this regiment, shortly before the 
 insurredtion. Hay, in his History of the Insnvre6tion, teWs how 
 there were found in the Wexford military barracks occupied by 
 the North Corks, a pitch-cap " and an Orange commission or 
 warrant, appointing a sergeant of the North Cork militia to 
 found an Orange lodge in the town."*^ He states that the 
 regiment in question contained *' a great number of Orange- 
 men," who made a public display of their ribbons, devices, 
 etc.** Myles Byrne,*" who lived inside Wexford county, 
 
 ^ '^T wo years helore the insurredlion, according to an authority quoted 
 by LecKy, one-third of the North Cork miUtia was composed of Protestants. 
 This proportion was probably very largely increased by Lord Kings- 
 borough and his fellow-officers. Lecky adts as the apologist of the North 
 Cork militia. He is prepared to admit that the officers of the regiment 
 were Orangemen (iv., 351). He, however, hazards the extraordinary state- 
 ment that a regiment recruited in the Catholic county of Cork could not 
 possibly "have consisted largely of Orangemen" {ibid). But (a) Lecky 
 advances nothing in support of this statement, which is moreover contra- 
 dided by the positive evidence of contemporary historians and eye-wit- 
 nesses, [b) The detachment of the North Cork regiment stationed in 
 Wexford, numbered at most 600 men (Lecky, iv., 354-355); {c) far greater 
 numbers of avowed Orangemen subsequently joined the yeomanry in the 
 "essentially Catholic" and much smaller county of Wexford. \d) The 
 character, conduct, and anti-Catholic associations of Lord Kingsborougli 
 (which Lecky apparently does not take into account) make it very probable 
 that he would endeavour to exclude members of the hated creed from his 
 regiment, and fill its ranks, as far as possible, with men of a strongly anti- 
 Catholic stamp, or who, when once under his command, could be made so, 
 or compelled to aft as such, (e) The behaviour of the North Cork militia 
 among the Catholic population of Wexford is in singular accord with that 
 of the Tyrone and other Orange regiments elsewhere, and contrasts 
 forcibly with what Lecky terms "the excellent condudt" of the King's 
 county militia in the adjoining county of Carlow (Lecky, iv., 275). I can 
 find no instance in which a Catholic militia regiment systematically tor- 
 tured and outraged their co-religionists, before the insurredtion, as the 
 North Corks did. (/) What Lecky terms the "alliance" between the 
 Government and the Orange society gave a great impetus to the spread of 
 Orangeism among all classes. A large body of the Irish militia-men were 
 undoubtedly Catholics, but of many of the Ulster regiments, at least, 
 Plowden's statement was true, that at a later date (1810) " a large portion 
 [of them] were Orangemen." Ireland from its Union, vol. i., Introd., p. 
 124. Cf. note 33, supra. 
 
 6*P. 175. 
 
 65P. 57. 
 
 6^ After the insurredtion he entered the French army, "served with 
 
 270 
 
THE YEOMANRY IN '98. 
 
 and took an acftive part in the insurred^ion, says in his 
 Memoirs that the North Corks were " distinguished for making 
 Orangemen, hanging, picketing, putting on pitch-caps, etc." 
 Taylor, the Protestant writer referred to above, admits that 
 there were Orangemen in the towns where the North Cork 
 militia was stationed/'' " This corps," says Plowden, 
 another contemporary, " superabounded in Orangemen, who 
 were encouraged by their colonel [Lord Kingsborough] in 
 displaying the triumphant insignia of their institution, such as 
 medals and Orange ribands at their breasts, and in proselytis- 
 ing for their order. "^® On their arrival in Wexford, the North 
 Corks promptly set about the task of provoking a rebellion. 
 With the willing help of the kindred spirits of the yeomanry, 
 with whom they were quartered, they quickly turned a peace- 
 able and prosperous county into a pandemonium, filled with 
 the smoke of burning homes and the shrieks of vidliims under- 
 going, untried, the agonies of slow torture. 
 
 THE BREAKING OF THE STORM. 
 
 One must view the proceedings of the Orange soldiery in 
 1798 in the light of the lodge outrages of 1795, 1796, and 1797. 
 The proceedings which immediately led to the insurredliion 
 fv^ere but the crowning achievement of the war of proscription 
 which had been waging during the three previous years. It 
 needs but a slight acquaintance with the seamy side of human 
 nature to gauge what would happen when martial law was 
 proclaimed, on the 30th March, 1798 ; when the safeguards of 
 personal right were abolished ; when a hostile magistracy were 
 protecfted by special Adls of Parliament from the consequences 
 of illegalities and outrages perpetrated, or to be perpetrated, 
 by them on a people from whom they differed in religion, in 
 politics, and frequently in race ; when an undisciplined Orange 
 soldiery, recruited mainly from the lowest classes of the popu- 
 lation, were let loose, at free quarters, among a people whom 
 they regarded with feelings of deadly hatred, for the purpose 
 of forcing them into insurrecStion by harsh treatment. 
 
 It is but natural to expecft that, in the circumstances, con- 
 science would be drugged, the " qualifications of an Orange- 
 
 distindion in Spain, the Low Countries, and Germany," and became Chef- 
 de-Bataillon and officer of the Legion of Honour. Webb's Irish Biography, 
 p. 65. Mitchel sets a very high value on Byrne's Memoirs. 
 
 ^''The Rebellion in the County of Wexford, p. 15. Cf. this chapter, 
 supra. It is significant that the yeomanry in the towns referred to — Wex- 
 ford, Enniscorthy, Ferns, and Gorey — vied with the militia in the infliftion 
 of torture, etc., upon the people before the rising. 
 
 ^^Ivcland from its Union, vol. i., Introd., pp. loo-ioi ; Hay, Hist, of the 
 Rebellion, ed. 1S03, p. 57. 
 
 271 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 man" embalmed, and that the sole guide of personal conduct 
 would be the passion of the hour. The proclamation of martial 
 law and free-quarters, says Lecky, " was undoubtedly a proxi- 
 mate cause of the rebellion."^" "Free-quarters," says Sir 
 Jonah Harrington, "rendered officers and soldiers despotic 
 masters of the peasantry, their houses, food, property, and, 
 occasionally, their families. This measure was resorted to, 
 with all its attendant horrors, throughout some of the best 
 parts of Ireland, previous to the insurrecflion, and for the pur- 
 pose of exciting it." ^ " Martial law," says Lecky, " is always 
 an extreme remedy of the State. . . . But few things are 
 more terrible than martial law when the troops are undiscip- 
 lined, inadequate in numbers, and involved in the facflions of 
 the country they are intended to subdue."''^ I have already 
 shown that the Irish yeomanry forces were composed mainly 
 of Orangemen. They were recruited principally from the 
 lower and more ignorant strata of the community. " It [the 
 yeomanry] was," says Lecky, " recruited chiefly in districfts 
 which had been for years the scene of savage fadlion fights 
 between the Defenders and the Peep-o'-Day Boys, between 
 the United Irishmen and the Orangemen."®^ The same 
 writer adds : " In great distridls which were torn by furious 
 fa{51:ions, it consisted exclusively of the partisans of one fadfion, 
 recruited under circumstances well fitted to raise party ani- 
 mosity to fever heat. Such men, with uniforms on their backs 
 and guns in their hands, and clothed with the authority of the 
 Government, but with scarce a tinge of discipline, and under 
 no stridl: martial law, were now let loose by night on innumer- 
 able cabins." '^^ Elsewhere in the same volume Lecky states 
 that the yeomanry forces were " demoralised by a long course 
 of license." ''* Such a force, he says again, was " perfecff ly 
 sure to be guilty of gross violence." "^ While claiming that 
 the employment of armed fanatics was successful as a piece of 
 military strategy, he remarks : " The Irish yeomanry have 
 been much and justly blamed by historians for their want of 
 discipline, for their extreme recklessness in destroying both 
 life and property, and for the violent religious passions they 
 too frequently displayed."^'' One looks in vain among the 
 records of this woful period for any action of the Orange 
 
 ^^Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, vol. iv., p. 265. 
 
 ^"Rise and Fall of the Irish Nation, 2nd ed., p. 351, note. 
 
 ^'^Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, vol. iv., p. 39. 
 
 ^■^Ihid., p. 38. 
 
 ^'•^Ibid., p. 39. 
 
 ^"^Ibid., p. 268. 
 
 ^^Ihid., p. 38. 
 
 ^^Ibid., p. 341. Cf. Killen, Eccles. Hist, of Ireland, vol. ii., p. 369, nott 
 
 272 
 
THE YEOMANRY IN '98. 
 
 soldiery, the whole and sole guiding motive of which was 
 clearly a loyal adherence to the laws or Constitution of their 
 country. Their conducl before, during, and after the insur- 
 redtion, was marked by the vindidtive and promiscuous inflicftion 
 of cruel punishments, which were outrages on personal right, 
 which were criminal in their kind or in the method of their 
 inflidtion, and which were directed against the innocent as 
 well as the guilty. These outrages were committed either 
 from sheer wantonness, or under the pretence of extorting 
 confessions, or of searching for arms in districfts that were, or 
 were supposed to be, disaffected. The outrages referred to 
 may be grouped under the following heads : 
 
 I. Outrages diverted against property : (i) Plunder ; (2) the 
 burning of houses, and other forms of destruction of property. 
 
 II. Outrages against the person : (i) Outrages on women; 
 (2) the systematic inflidtion of slow torture ; (3) murder or 
 massacre. 
 
 SMOKE AND FLAME IN ULSTER. 
 
 I. These varied forms of illegality and outrage began soon 
 after the formation of the Orange yeomanry in Ulster. They 
 were reduced to a system while the country lay helpless and 
 writhing under martial law. They reached their greatest 
 height during and shortly after the insurreclion of 1798. In 
 Ulster, military excesses were perpetrated on the people in 
 the spring and summer of 1797, over a year before the out- 
 break of the rebellion. On the 17th and 19th March of that 
 year, General Lake wrote to Pelham that the yeomanry " are 
 under little control, either officers or men ;" and that such 
 excesses as had occurred in that province may have been 
 committed "chiefly by the yeomaury," for the purpose of 
 " gratifying their party spirit and private quarrels."" An 
 Orange eye-witness, Captain Giffard of the Dublin militia, in 
 a confidential letter to the Government, describes the pro- 
 ceedings of the Ancient Britons and the Orange yeomanry 
 in Ulster, after they had made numerous unsuccessful expedi- 
 tions among the people under the pretence of searching for 
 concealed arms. The reader has already seen that the Ancient 
 Britons were " mostly Orangemen." The Britons, Giffard 
 wrote, " burned a great number of houses, and the objedl of 
 emulation between them and the Orange yeomen seems to be, who 
 shall do the most mischief to wretches who certainly may 
 have seditious minds, but who are at present quiet and 
 incapable of resistance." In the course of this letter Captain 
 Giffard describes the historic and unprovoked massacre of 
 
 ^'^Quoted by Lecky, Ireland in the Eigliteenth Century, vol. iv., p. 40 
 
 273 R 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 Ballyholan. " I was direcSled" [to the Ancient Britons] said 
 he, " by the smoke and flames of burning houses, and by the 
 dead bodies of boys and old men, slain by the Britons, though 
 no opposition whatever had been given to them ; and, as I shall 
 answer to Almighty God, I believe a single gun was not fired 
 but by the Britons or yeomanry. I declare there was nothing to 
 fire at, old men, zvomen, and children excepted. From ten to 
 twenty were killed outright ; many wounded, and eight houses 
 burned." Sixteen prisoners were taken. " The next day," 
 continues Captain Giffard, " they were all proved perfeiflly 
 innocent . . . But the worst of the story still remains ; 
 two of the Britons desiring to enter a gentleman's house, the 
 yard gate was opened to them by a lad, whom, for his civility, 
 they shot and cut in pieces."^® This atrocious massacre, says 
 Plowden, " has always been considered to have mainly con- 
 tributed to the rebellion, which took place in the next year."^^ 
 Giffard's letter, says Lecky, " throws a ghastly light on the 
 condition of Ulster, and the levity with which those things 
 appear to have been regarded is even more horribly significant. 
 There are frequent allusions to the multitude of prisoners who 
 thronged the gaols, and many of them were sent, without trial, 
 to the fleet."'" Lord Dunsany, in the Irish House of Lords, 
 
 68Quoted by Lecky, ibid., pp. 41-42. Cf. Plowden, Historical Review, 
 vol. ii., p. 626-627, and Ireland from its Union, vol. i., Introd., pp. 92-96. 
 Plowden says, "it happened, however, on this, as on many such occasions, 
 that the searchers made free with articles of dress or furniture, as their 
 fancies suggested." Among the murdered were a woman and an old man 
 of seventy. A woman "far gone with child" was fired at, and two boys 
 were shot, one of ten years old, the other of six. The murder of the latter 
 by two Ancient Britons, is thus described by Plowden in his Ireland from 
 its Union : "Near the gate stood a boy named Ryan, about six years of age, 
 whom they ordered to open it : the child said he would, if they would not 
 hurt him. Before he could open it, one of them struck at the child with 
 his sabre over the gate, and broke his arm. They still insisted upon his 
 opening it, which the child did with his other hand, and they rode through 
 and cut up the boy with their sabres, and one of them made his horse 
 (though with much difficulty) trample upon him." They then entered the 
 cellar of the house and gave Orange toasts. The Orange yeomanry who 
 took a leading share in this day's work, were those of Newry. 
 
 The Captain Giffard mentioned above is described by Plowden as "the 
 great apostle of Orangeism." Ireland from its Union, vol. i., Introd., p. 91; 
 cf. Madden's United Irishmen, ii., 291-296. An account of the Ballyholan 
 massacre is also given by "Observer," quoted in Madden's United Irishmen, 
 Third Series, vol. ii., Appendix 6, p. 336. 
 
 fispiowden, op. cit., p. 92, note. This writer adds (p. 96. note) that the 
 Britons afterwards "never came into contaft with the rebels without being 
 reminded of Ballyholan, and they were generally refused quarter . . . 
 They exceeded one thousand effedlive men, and it is generally computed 
 tbat not nearly one-tenth of the privates, who first came over, survived the 
 contest." 
 
 '"^Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, vol. iv., pp. 42-43. Particulars of 
 
 274 
 
ORANGE REGIMENTS: LEINSTER 
 
 told a grim tale of house-burnings and cold-blooded murders 
 by the military, of transportations without trial, etc." Dr. 
 Browne, of the Dublin University, offered, in the Irish House 
 of Commons, to give proof of " numerous instances" of the 
 same classes of outrages having been committed by the mihtary 
 and yeomanry.''" A meeting of Dublin city freeholders, held in 
 July, 1797, declared by resolution that great numbers of 
 persons "have had their houses burned, or been themselves 
 transported or put to death, without even the form of accusa- 
 tion or trial."''' The Protestant statesman, Grattan, refers at 
 the same time to " barbarities committed on the habitations, 
 property, and persons of the people."''* Lord Moira, an Ulster 
 Protestant landlord, told a similar tale of capricious house- 
 burning, torture, and wanton destrucflon of property in 
 one of the most peaceable portions of his province, before 
 the insurrecftion.'^ " We have," continues Lecky, " abundant 
 evidence that great numbers of poor men's* houses were, 
 at this time [in Ulster before the insurrecStion] burnt on 
 slight reasons and without a shadow of legal justification ; and 
 there is much reason to believe that in the midnight raids 
 many persons were shot by soldiers, or move probably by yeomen, 
 in a manner that differed little, if at all, from simple murder. 
 All these things naturally tended to stir up fierce and enduring 
 animosities."'® 
 
 LEINSTER GETS ITS INNINGS. 
 
 " The burnings of houses," says Lecky, " which had been 
 well known in the North, was now carried on upon a yet larger 
 scale in Leinster, and the free quarters formed a new and 
 
 cases of this kind are given by Plowden in his Hist. Review, vol. ii., pp. 
 623-624. 
 
 ''iQuoted by Lecky, op. cit., p. 46, note. 
 
 ''^Ibid. 
 
 ■'^Ibid., p. 43. 
 
 ''^Grattan's Life and Times, by his son, vol. iv., p. 301. 
 
 'SMorrison Davidson, The Book of Erin, p. 200. Godkin, The Land 
 War in Ireland, p. 267. 
 
 '^Lecky, Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, vol. iv., pp. 44, 45-46. Lord 
 Carhampton, who was commander-in-chief in Ireland, originated the 
 system of summarily transporting people without any or proper trial. He 
 came to Ireland as Colonel Luttrell, to mend a broken fortune, and joined 
 the powerful Beresford party in their policy of coercion. Free-quarters, 
 picketing, pitch-capping, half-hanging, etc., were introduced under his 
 regime. Junius said of him : " He has discovered a new line in human 
 charadler ; he has disgraced even the name of Luttrell." According to 
 Bowles Daly, " Luttrell was regarded with such awe and hatred by the 
 peasantry, that many supposed he was possessed with the devil, and he 
 was known by the name of ' Satanides,' owing to the cold-blooded atrocities 
 which he committed." Ireland in Ninety-eight, pp. 64-65. 
 
 275 
 
Tin*: oRANCii': socji<:ty. 
 
 terrible feature in the system of military coercion."" " The 
 houses of the [Leinster| peasantry were burning in all direc- 
 tions," says Walpole.'" Many houses were burned down simply 
 because their owners were absent, and villages were deserted 
 by the terror-stricken inhabitants.'" All this took place before 
 the outbreak of the rebellion of 1798. The counties of Wex- 
 ford, Wicklow, Carlow, and Kildare were the portions of 
 Leinster which suffered most from the unrestrained brutality 
 of the soldiery. The wholesale destru(5tion of the homes of 
 the people was authorised by no civil law ; it was justified by 
 no plea of military necessity ; it was carried out under the 
 pretence of searching for concealed arms, or from sheer 
 caprice, or secSlarian hate, or private malice. The yeomanry, 
 etc., frequently burned houses, the owners of which had fled 
 in great numbers in terror of the murders and torturings which, 
 as we shall see, were the ordinary accompaniments of the 
 military raids;"' Wexford, one of the most prosperous, con- 
 tented and peaceable counties in Ireland,*" was made to bear 
 the chief brunt of military lawlessness. The North Cork 
 militia and the yeomanry corps, ivho were stationed in the same towns, 
 joined hand in hand in the gruesome work of goading the 
 people to insurrection. The most infamous of the Wexford 
 yeomanry were known as the Black Mob. Myles Byrne, in 
 his Memoirs, says that this corps was composed of "low 
 Orangemen." Hay, another contemporary and local writer, 
 says, in a passage of his History already quoted, that they 
 publicly wore all the devices of Orangemen .*''^ They were 
 organised and led by the notorious Hunter Gowan, " who," 
 says Lecky, "now became famous for the multitude of houses 
 he burnt."**" The Black Mob were stationed at Gorey, where 
 a detachment of the North Cork militia was also quartered on 
 the people."* Referring to the criminal destruction of the 
 homes of the people in Leinster, the Protestant historian, 
 Lecky, says : " Horrible abuses and horrible sufferings in- 
 evitably accompanied these things. Many who resisted, and 
 not a few it is said who did not resist, were shot dead on their 
 
 ''''Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, p. 268. 
 
 ''^KinRdom of Ireland, chap. ,\viii., p. 478 ; cf. Lecky, iv., 269. 
 
 TOLucky, Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, vol. iv., pp. 46, note, 349, 
 296; of. Walpole, xvii., 4O7 (for UlsUn). 
 
 eoLecky, op. cit., p. 2(19. 
 
 »^Ibid.. p. 343-344 . Walpole's Kingdom of Ireland, chap, xx., p. 488. 
 
 s'iHist'. of the Insvnecthin. cd. iHo^, p. 57. ^ ,,. , , 
 
 f^-^/relami in the Eighteenth Century, vol. iv., p. 276. Cf. Mitchel, vol. 1., 
 char, xxxiv p. 284 ; Hay's Hist, of the Insurrection, pp. 69-71, ed. 1803. 
 
 *^*Milch'el. Hist of Ireland, vol. i., cluip. xxxiv., p. 284 ; Musgrave, 
 Memoirs of the Different Rebellions, p. 326 ; Hay, p. 71. 
 
 276 
 
TREATMENT OF WOMEN. 
 
 thresholds, while countless lainilics wore deprived of all they 
 possessed, and were driven homeless into the world. Farm 
 horses were seized and carried away. Stores of provisions 
 were broken into and shamefully wasted or destroyed, and adls 
 of simple robbery and pure wanton violence were of daily 
 occurrence.""'^ Mrs. Leadbeater, a Quaker authoress, who 
 resided at the time in Carlow county, contrasts the excellent 
 conducTt of the Kinf^'s County militia, who were quartered 
 upon the people in her distridl, with that of the Tyrone militia 
 who succeeded them. The latter made an ostentatious display 
 of Oranf,'e ribbons, and indiscriminately plundered both the 
 loyal and the disloyal.'"'' Lecky testifies to the terror which the 
 yeomanry of Leinster, generally, inspired in the people during 
 the agonisinf,^ weeks which ])reccded the rising of 1798.*' 
 " Orange yeomanry," says another Protestant writer, " . . . 
 as full of cruel fanaticism as destitute of the very elements of 
 military discipline, revelled in every conceivable form of rapine 
 and outrage.""" What the i^rotestant historian, Walpole, had 
 said of the close of 1797 was still more true of this short peri<;d 
 of concentrated woe. The yeomanry forces, which, said Wal- 
 pole, were " composed almost entirely of Orangemen," were, 
 with the Ancient Hritons and others, "encouraged to play 
 havoc with the miserable inhabitants of the proclaimed dis- 
 tridls. . . . Houses were plundered and burnt, women 
 outraged, and children brutally ill-treated and murdered. Men 
 were seized and sent on board lenders, untried. They were 
 flogged, ' picketed,' and hall-hung, to extort confessions as to 
 concealed arms. They were hunted df)wn and sabred. 
 Villages and whole districts were devastated, and the inhabit- 
 ants turned out of their homes into the ditch."™ The reader 
 is once more rerjuested to bear in mind that the writers quotfd 
 above are describing the condut'l of the Orange soldiery in the 
 days of peace. 
 
 " THE GALLANT OKANGK YHOMANKY." 
 
 II. — (i) R(!spe(5l for, and chivalrous defence of, female 
 honour was so characteristic of Christian soldiery at their best 
 period that the word "gallantry," in its best sense, has come 
 to be synonymous of personal bravery and of courtly respedt 
 for women. There is, perhaps, no other form of military 
 barbarity which arouses such deep and lasting feelings of 
 
 f^^' Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, vol. iv., p. 271 
 
 »'>Leadbeater Papers, vol i , ])\>. 223, 224, quoted by L. cky, iv., 275, 
 See note 38, supra. 
 
 ^''Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, vol. iv., p. 27G. 
 ^^'MorriHon Davidson, The Book of lirin, p. 200. 
 ""Walpole, Kinf't/nm of Ireland , chap, xvii., p 467 
 
 277 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 revenge, and which leads to such fierce reprisals, as outrages 
 on defenceless females. The "qualifications" of the Orange 
 body would naturally lead us to expecft that their soldiery 
 would be beau-ideals of Christian chivalry — modern counter- 
 parts of the fearless and reproachless knights whose highest 
 glory, next to fighting the battles of the faith, was to shield 
 the defenceless ; and who saw in every good woman the image 
 of the spotless Virgin-Mother, whom the Protestant laureate 
 Wordsworth styled "our tainted nature's solitary boast," 
 Nevertheless, search as you will the annals of lodge 
 history from Dan to Beersheba, you will find them barren of 
 any display of conspicuous respecft for women on the part of 
 the Orange military forces. On the contrary, military history 
 furnishes few, if any, worse examples of cool, calculated, 
 coarse brutality towards the female sex, than were displayed 
 in the days of peace towards their own country-women, by the 
 Irish Orange soldiery in 1797 and the two following years. 
 One pretext for outrages of this kind arose from the then 
 recently developed hatred of Orangemen for green, which has 
 long been officially recognised as the n^'^ional colour of 
 Ireland.™ This antipathy arose, as we have seen, among the 
 Orange yeomanry of Ulster. It rapidly extended to their 
 confreres, the Ancient Britons, and the Orange yeomanry of 
 Leinster. It was then the custom of many women of every 
 creed, class, and shade of politics in South and North to wear, 
 quite innocently, articles of apparel bearing sundry shades of 
 the forbidden hue.'*^ Referring to a period preceding the insur- 
 redtion, Lecky says ; 
 
 " Outrages on women were very common. Peasant girls 
 had often thrown themselves enthusiastically into the United 
 Irish movement, and attested their sentiments by their green 
 ribbons, while many others who knew or cared nothing about 
 politics wore something green in their dress. Every person 
 who did so was tolerably sure to be exposed to insults which 
 planted far and wide, among a peasantry peculiarly susceptible 
 on such matters, the seeds of deadly, enduring hatred." ^^ The 
 Ancient Britons and the low class of yeomanry organised in 
 Wicklow, were ferocious scourges of the people."" These 
 military ruffians cut the petticoats off women with their sabres. 
 The offending garments contained a tinge of green, "a colour 
 certainly with them [the wearers] innocent of disaffecflion," as 
 
 s^See chap, xi., supra, p. 216, note. 
 
 siMitchel, Hist, of Ireland, vol. i,, chap, xxxiii., pp. 271-272. 
 
 ^'^'Lecky, Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, vol. iv., p. 273. 
 
 9sSee General Sir John Moore's opinion of the Wicklow yeomanry, 
 quoted above, note. For the Ancient Britons, see Lecky, op. cit., vol. iv., 
 P- 343. 
 
 278 
 
TREATMENT OF WOMEN. 
 
 a local Protestant magistrate declared. ^^ Wexford county was 
 held by 600 North Corks and a large body of yeomanry. They 
 also, in the days of peace, tore petticoats, handkerchiefs, 
 ribbons, and caps off women of even "enthusiastic loyalty."^' 
 The same thing was done in Ulster by the Tyrone Orange 
 yeomanry, and by the Ancient Britons, as early as 1797. In 
 the case of the latter, the outrage was, on at least one occasion, 
 accompanied with circumstances of scandalous indecency.^" 
 In the same year (1797) the Protestant bishop of Down, Dr. 
 Dickson, assured Lord Holland that " he had seen families 
 returning peaceably from Mass assailed without provocation 
 by drunken troops and yeomanry, and the wives and daughters 
 exposed to every species of indignity, brutality, and outrage, 
 from which neither his remonstrances nor those of other Pro- 
 testant gentlemen could rescue them."" It was stated at the 
 same time that, during this period, women were dragged from 
 their beds in Ulster, to see their houses burned — presumably 
 by the Orange soldiery, who were then indulging freely in this 
 latter form of amusement. Walpole, in a passage already 
 quoted, mentions barbarities committed on women as one of 
 the forms of systematic cruelty pradticed by the Orange 
 yeomanry and the Ancient Britons. The Viceroy, Lord Corn- 
 wallis, in a sentence of his correspondence which singles out the 
 atrocities of the yeomanry for special reprobation, stated that, 
 on his arrival in 1798, free-quarters "comprehended universal 
 rape and robbery throughout the whole country."^® During 
 the insurrecflion, says Mitchel, "the treatment of women by 
 these Hessians and the yeomanry cowards was truly horrible 
 and the less capable of any excuse, as, in this matter at least 
 there could be no pretence for retaliation.'"'^ The contempo 
 rary writer, Plowden, says, in his Review of the State of Ireland 
 " It has been boasted of by officers of rank that, within certain 
 large distri(51:s, a woman had not been left undefiled ; and upon 
 observation, in answer, that the sex must then have been 
 complying, the reply was, that the bayonet removed all 
 squeamishness." The leading share in these, as in every 
 other form of atrocity, was taken by the Hessian dragoons 
 
 8*Quoted by Lecky, ihid., p. 274, note. 
 
 95Mitchel, Hist, of Ireland, vol. i,, chap, xxxiv., p. 284; Gordon's 
 History of the Rebellion, p. 59. 
 
 s^Lecky, Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, vol. iv,, p. 99. 
 
 ^''Lord Holland, Memoirs of the Whig Party, Longman's ed. of 1852, vol. 
 i., p. 114. See also Lecky, op. cit., p. 274. 
 
 ^^Letter to Major-General Ross, April 13, 1799, Compare extradl 
 from Barrington, given over note 60, supra. 
 
 ^^Hist. of Ireland, vol. i., chap, xxxv., p. 300; cf. Major-General 
 Napier's words, quoted by Mitchel, vol. i.,chap. xxxiii., p. 272. 
 
 279 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 and the Orange soldiery. Among a people who so highly 
 prized the priceless jewel of female honour, these outrages, 
 says Plowden, " produced an indignant horror in the country, 
 which went beyond, but prevented retaliation." Lecky, 
 while condemning the excesses of the insurgents, says that 
 " it is acknowledged on all sides that they abstained to a most 
 remarkable degree from outrages on women, while on the 
 other side this usual incident of military license was terribly 
 frequent."^** A similar verdidt is given by Bouverie-Pusey, 
 another Protestant historian. ^°^ Rev. James Gordon, who 
 lived in Wexford during the insurrecflion, says : " In one 
 point I think we must allow some praise to the rebels : amid 
 all their atrocities, the chastity of women was respected. I 
 have not been able to ascertain one instance to the contrary 
 in the county of Wexford, though many beautiful young 
 women were absolutely in the power of the rebels. "^°^ Even 
 the Orange writer, Musgrave, admits that " on most occasions 
 [the insurgents] did not offer any violence to the tender 
 sex."^°^ Sir Jonah Barrington, who was then an Orangeman, 
 says : " It is a singular fa(5l that, in all the ferocity of the con- 
 fli(5l, the storming of towns and of villages, women were 
 uniformly respecfted by the insurgents. Though numerous 
 ladies fell occasionally into their power, they never experienced 
 any incivility or miscondudt."^"^ The military outrages on 
 women went far to arouse in the breasts of the insurgents a 
 hatred of Orangeism, and that spirit of revenge which found 
 expression in the fierce, but unauthorised, reprisals of Wexford 
 Bridge, Vinegar Hill, and Scullabogue Barn. 
 
 THE ORANGE INQUISITION. 
 
 (2) One of Queen Elizabeth's deputies for Munster received 
 
 i^^Lecky, Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, vol. iv., p. 471 ; cf. p. 36G. 
 The same author records how, while Wexford town was in the hands of the 
 insurgents, Protestant women were not imprisoned or otherwise molested ; 
 that they there were treated "with great respedt," and that sentinels 
 were placed at the houses of several Protestant ladies, " to protedl them 
 from insult" (p. 450). 
 
 loi" f he rebels seldom or never outraged women, whilst the Royalists 
 often did." The Past History of Ireland, p. no. 
 
 ^^'^Hist. of the Rebellion, p. 213. Gordon says in his History (p. 217) : 
 "Women and children were not put to death by the insurgents, except in 
 the tumultuous and hasty massacre of Scullabogue." See Walpole's 
 statement infra, regarding the murder of women and children by the 
 Orange yeomanry and the Ancient Britons in the time of peace. 
 
 ^o^Memoirs of the Different Rebellions, p. 428. 
 
 ^°^Rise and Fall 0/ the Irish Nation, 2nd ed., p. 362, note. Barrington 
 (ibid.) tells how one of Hompesch's German soldiers shot a Mrs. Stringer, 
 the wife of a Royalist attorney, at Enniscorthy. The insurgents subse- 
 quently took some of those Germans prisoners, and piked them all, as they 
 told them, "just to teach them how to shoot ladies." 
 
 280 
 
THE ORANGE INQUISITION. 
 
 orders to torture her suspedted Irish subjedts whenever he 
 should "find it convenient." These instrucftions were in 
 accordance with the principles of judicial procedure then in 
 vogue. But the systematic use of torture as a means of 
 extracting evidence had disappeared in Great Britain and 
 Ireland before the rise of the Orange association. It was 
 reserved for the members of that society to illegally revive it 
 in the British dominions ; to carry it out on a vast scale, and 
 with circumstances of barbarity to which it would be, perhaps, 
 impossible to find a parallel in the authentic proceedings of 
 the worst days of the much-abused Spanish Inquisition. The 
 barbarity of the pradliice was aggravated by the following 
 further circumstances of hardship : 
 
 (a) The use of torture by the Orange soldiery (and magis- 
 tracy) was not the unauthorised adt of irresponsible individuals. 
 It was part of a settled policy. In due course we shall see that 
 it was stoutly advocated and defended in press and Parliament, 
 and pracftised under the eye of the Government, by the standard- 
 bearers of the Orange association. 
 
 (b) The pracftice was illegal. This circumstance might 
 fairly be expecfted to have counted with men whose avowed 
 purpose was to maintain and defend the laws of their country. 
 " What," exclaims Lecky, " could be more hideously repugnant 
 both to the letter and the spirit and the pradtice of English 
 law than this systematic employment of torture as a means of 
 extorting confessions?" 
 
 (c) The use of torture was begun, and long carried out, in 
 the days of peace. Its worst excesses were committed in two 
 of the most peaceable and prosperous counties of Ireland, 
 Wexford and Wicklow, upon a population which took " very 
 little interest in political questions. "^°^ 
 
 (d) Many innocent men, says Lecky, were " tortured on 
 the vaguest and most unfounded suspicion," and many others 
 for the gratification of private vengeance. The formality of a 
 trial was usually dispensed with.^"® 
 
 (e) As Lord Bedford declared in the English House of 
 Lords, these " cruelties had not been resorted to on the spur 
 of the moment, but had been deliberately resolved upon long before 
 for a certain purpose."^°'' That purpose was, as we have seen, to 
 
 lo^Lecky, Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, vol. iv., p, 342 ; cf. pp. 343, 
 
 344- 
 
 ^°^Ibid., pp. 272, 273, 284 ; Walpole, Kingdom of Ireland, chap, xviii., 
 p. 478 ; Mitchel, vol. i., chaps, xxxiii. to xxxv. 
 
 lO'^Quoted by Godkin (a Protestant writer) in The Battle-fields of Ninety- 
 eight (National Review, 1868) ; compare the same writer's Land War in 
 Ireland, pp. 267-268. 
 
 281 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 goad the people into an unsuccessful rebellion, and thus 
 " smooth the way for the Union." 
 
 Writing of the period that immediately preceded the rising 
 of 1798, the Protestant historian, Mitchel, says: "It is 
 notorious that the Orange yeomanry serving in Leinster were 
 amongst the most furious and savage torturers of the people."^"* 
 The Protestant Unionist writer, Mr, Goldwin Smith, formerly 
 Regius Professor of History at Oxford University, thus refers 
 to the same period in his Irish History and Irish Character : 
 
 " The Protestant gentry and yeomanry, as one man, became 
 8 Cromwellians again. Then commenced a reign of terror scarcely 
 less savage than that of the Jacobins. The suspecfted con- 
 spirators were intimidated, and confessions, or pretended con- 
 fessions, were extorted, by loosing upon the homes of the 
 peasantry the license and barbarity of an irregular soldiery, 
 more cruel than a regular invader. Flogging, half-hanging, 
 pitch-capping, picketing, went on over a large distridl, and the 
 most barbarous scourgings, without trial, were inflicfted in the 
 Riding-house, Dublin, in the very seat of government and 
 justice. This was styled ' exerting a vigour beyond the law,' 
 and to become the objeeft of such vigour it was enough, as 
 under Robespierre, to be suspecfted of being a suspecft." A few 
 pages further on, the same author writes : " The peasantry, 
 though undoubtedly in a disturbed state, might have been kept 
 quiet by lenity ; but they were gratuitously scourged and 
 tortured into open rebellion. . . . These were the crimes, 
 not of individual ruffians, but of a facflion — a facflion which 
 must take its place in history beside that of Robespierre, 
 Couthon, and Carrier. The murders committed by the 
 Jacobins were more numerous, and may have excited more 
 indignation and pity, because the vicftims were of higher rank ; 
 but in the use of torture the Orangemen seem to have reached a pitch 
 of fiendish cruelty which ivas scarcely attained by the Jacobins."^"^ 
 
 The following were the chief of the many modes of torture 
 to which the defenceless people were subjedled during the 
 second Orange Reign of Terror : 
 
 (a) Picketing ; 
 
 (b) Half-hanging ; 
 
 (c) The pitched cap ; 
 
 (d) Scourging. 
 
 ^^^Ilist. 0/ Ireland, vol. i., chap, xxxii., p. 269. 
 
 ^o^Msh History and Irish Character, 2nd ed., pp. 169, 174 (Parker, 
 Oxford and London, 1862). I find the following words quoted from the 
 same work, presumably from the first or other edition which I have not 
 been able to consult : " The dreadful civil war of 1798 was the crime — as a 
 candid study of its history will prove — not of the Irish people, but of the 
 Orange terrorists, who literally goaded the peopje into insurredtion." 
 
 282 
 
THE ORANGE INQUISITION. 
 
 These forms of torture are so constantly referred to by both 
 Protestant and Catholic writers in their accounts of the pro- 
 ceedings which led to the insurrection of 1798, that a few 
 details regarding them may not be out of place. 
 
 POINTED STAKE AND SLIP KNOT. 
 
 (a) Picketing and [b) half-hanging. The torture of picketing, 
 as pracTiised in the army in 1745, is thus described by a writer 
 in Chambers' Journal of 0(5tober 19, 1895 • " ^^ picketing, the 
 culprit's naked heel rested on a sharpened stake [termed 
 a " picket "] driven into the ground, his right wrist and right 
 leg being drawn up as high as they could be to a hook fixed in 
 an adjoining post. The whole weight of the body rested on 
 the sharpened stake, which, though it did not break the skin, 
 inflicfted exquisite torture ; the only means of alleviation was to 
 rest the weight on the wrist, the pain of which soon became 
 unendurable.""" Half-hanging was carried out as follows : the 
 suspecft or other vicftim was, usually without any form of trial 
 (as in the case of picketing), hanged by the neck till he was 
 half-dead, cut down again, allowed to come to his senses, and 
 then strung up again and yet again, until he died under the 
 torture, or made a real or pretended confession regarding con- 
 cealed arms, etc. This punishment brought the agonies of 
 death by slow strangulation, without that release from further 
 bodily suffering which accompanies death"^ 
 
 " Torture," says Lecky, " was at the same time [before 
 the insurredlion] systematically employed to discover arms. 
 Great multitudes were flogged till they almost fainted ; picketed 
 
 iioA similar description of this torture is gi\"en by Morrison Davidson 
 in The Book 0/ Erin, p. 200. 
 
 Ill" Lieutenant Hepenstall," says Bowles Daly, "presents a remark- 
 able instance of the brutality of the day." He was an ex-apothecary, a 
 giant in stature, a Sampson in brute strength. When he encountered a 
 peasant whose answers did not satisfy his somewhat capricious require- 
 ments, he felled him with a blow of his fist, and (in his own words) " used 
 some threats, and pricked him with a bayonet to induce him to confess." 
 Hepenstall then, "adjusting the noose round the prisoner's neck, drew the 
 rope over his own shoulders, and trotted about, the vidtim's legs dangling 
 in the air until death at last put an end to the torture." These details 
 were sworn to by several witnesses, and admitted by Hepenstall himself at 
 the trial of one Hyland, which took place at Athy, under the Whiteboys 
 Adt, in 1797. Hepenstall (or Hempenstall, as iladden calls him) was 
 known as "The Walking Gallows." An epitaph written for him runs as 
 follows : 
 
 "Here lie the bones of Hepenstall, 
 Judge, jury, gallows, rope and all." 
 
 Bowles Daly, Ireland in Ninety-eight, pp. 66-67. -^ similar account of 
 Hepenstall is given by Madden and Barrington, and by Lecky in his 
 England in the Eighteenth Century, vol. viii., p. 22. 
 
 283 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 and half-strangled to extort confessions.""' In a passage 
 already quoted, Sir Jonah Barrington says : " Slow torture 
 was infli(51ed under the pretence of extradling confessions : the 
 people were goaded and driven to madness.""^ Rev. James 
 Gordon, "^ Walpole,"^ Goldwin Smith, Morrison Davidson, 
 Godkin, and other Protestant historians write in a similar 
 strain of the same period. In November, 1797 — the year 
 before the insurrecftion — Lord Moira, an Ulster Protestant 
 landlord, said in the EngHsh House of Lords : " When a man 
 was taken upon suspicion he was put to the torture ; nay, if he 
 was merely accused of concealing the guilt of another. The 
 rack, indeed, was not at hand, but the punishment of picketing 
 was in pradiice, which had been for some years abolished as 
 too inhuman, even in the dragoon service. He [Lord Moira] 
 had known a man, in order to extort confession, of a supposed 
 crime, or of that of some of his neighbours, picketed till he 
 acftually fainted, picketed a second time till he fainted again, 
 and, as soon as he came to himself, picketed a third time, till 
 he once more fainted, and all upon mere suspicion.""^ These 
 things took place before the insurredlion, and (said the noble 
 Lord) " in a part of the country as quiet and free from dis- 
 turbance as the city of London." 
 
 The distinguished contemporary statesman and philan- 
 thropist. Lord Holland, writes as follows in his Memoirs of the 
 Whig Party :"' 
 
 " The fadt, however, is incontrovertible, that the people ol 
 Ireland were driven to resistance, which possibly they medi- 
 tated before, by the free quarters and the excesses of the 
 soldiery, which were such as are not permitted in civiHzed 
 warfare, even in an enemy's country. Trials, if so they may 
 be called, were carried on without number under martial law. 
 It often happened that three officers composed the court, and 
 that of the three, two were under age, and the third an officer 
 of the yeomanry or militia, who had sworn in his Orange lodge 
 eternal hatred to the people over whom he was thus constituted 
 as judge. Floggings, picketings, death, were the usual 
 sentences, and these were sometimes commuted into banish- 
 ment, serving in the fleet, or transference to a foreign service. 
 Many were sold at so much per head to the Prussians." 
 
 '^-'^'^ Ireland in the Eighteenth Centxtry, vol. iv., p. 271. 
 ^'^'■^Rise and Fall of the Irish Nation, 2nd ed., p. 351. 
 ^''■'^Htst of the Rebellion, pp. 65-76. 
 ^'^^Kingdom of Ireland, ch. xix., p. 478. 
 
 iisQuoted by Godkin, The Battlefields of Ninety-eight {National Review, 
 1868) ; see also his Land War in Ireland, p. 267. 
 'I'^Vol. i., pp. 113-114. 
 
 ^84 
 
THE ORANGE INQUISITION. 
 
 ILiy, the local and contemporary historian of the Wexford 
 insurreifiion, referring to the tortures inflicted on the people 
 by the yeomanry before the outbreak, says : " Many 
 unfortunate men, who were taken in their houses, were strung 
 up, as It were to be hanged, but were let down now and then 
 to try if strangulation would oblige them to become informers. 
 After these and the like experiments [scourging, etc., included] , 
 several persons languished for some time, and at length perished 
 in consequence of them.""'* According to the Mt-nioiys of Myles 
 Byrne, the Enniscorthy yeomanry "never marched out of the 
 town without being accompanied by a regular executioner with 
 his ropes, cat-o'-nine-tails, etc.," for the purpose, says Lecky , 
 of " flogging and half-strangling suspected persons.""-' 
 
 THE PITCHED CAP. 
 
 (c) The pitched cap was invented, or at least introduced 
 into Wexford county, by the North Cork militia, a large body 
 of whom were, as we have seen, Orangemen. According 
 to Hay and Lecky, this species of torture was principally 
 intended for persons who wore their hair " cropped" short, and 
 who were for that reason supposed to be in sympathy with the 
 United Irish movement. " The torture of these men," says 
 Lecky, "soon became a popitlcjy amiisfificiit among the soldiers."^* 
 When a "croppy" was seen, or pointed out by a "loyal" 
 neighbour, he was, says Hay, " immediately seized and [with- 
 out the formality of a trial] brought into a guard-house, where 
 caps, either of coarse linen or strong brown paper, besmeared 
 inside with pitch, were always kept ready for service. The 
 unfortunate vicftim had one of these, well heated, compressed 
 on his head, and when judged of a proper degree of coolness, 
 so that it could not be easily pulled oft', the sufterer was turned 
 out amidst the horrid acclamations of the merciless torturers, 
 and to the view of vast numbers of the people who generally 
 crowded about the guard-house door, attracted by the cries of 
 the tormented. Many of those persecuted in this manner 
 experienced additional anguish from the melted pitch trickling 
 into their eyes. This afforded a rare addition of enjoyment to 
 these keen sportsmen, who reiterated their horrid yells of 
 exultation on the repetition of the several accidents to which 
 their game was liable from being turned out ; for, in the 
 confusion and hurry of escaping from the ferocious hands of 
 
 ^^^Hist. of the Insurrection, p. 64. Hay, (pp. 64-66) gives some harrow- 
 ing instances of the infli(5tiug of this form of torture. 
 
 ^i"Cf. Lecky, Ireland in the Eighttvnth Century (vol. iv., p. 349, cf. p. 
 34S) ; Mitchel, Hist, of Ireland, vol. i., chap, xxxii., p. 266; Hay. Hist, of 
 the Insurrection, p. 71. 
 
 ^ -" Lecky, Ireland in the Eighteenth Centuty. vol. iv., p. 272. 
 
 28 5 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 these more than savage barbarians, the bhnded vidlims fre- 
 quently fell, or inadvertently dashed their heads against the 
 walls in their way. The pain of disengaging this pitched cap 
 from the head must be next to intolerable. The hair was 
 often torn out by the roots, and not unfrequently parts of the 
 skin were so scalded or blistered as to adhere and come off 
 along with it. The terror and dismay that these outrages 
 occasioned is inconceivable. A sergeant of the North Cork, 
 nicknamed Tom the Devil, was most ingenious in devising new 
 methods of torture. Moistened gunpowder was frequently 
 rubbed into the hair, cut close, and then set on fire. Some, 
 while shearing for this purpose, had the tips of their ears 
 snipped off. Sometimes an entire ear, and often both ears, 
 were completely cut off; and many lost their noses during the 
 like preparation. But, strange to tell, these atrocities were 
 publicly pracftised without the least reserve in open day, and 
 no magistrate or officer ever interfered, but shamefully 
 connived at this extraordinary mode of quieting the people." ^^^ 
 Lecky tells of "a man in Dublin who, maddened by the 
 pain of the pitched cap, sprang into the Liffey, and ended at 
 once his sufferings and his life."^'^^ The incident most probably 
 took place in what the same writer describes as "the chief 
 scene" of the worst forms of torture of this woful period — the 
 yeomanry Riding-house, which was kept close to the bank of 
 the Liffey by the notorious John Claudius Beresford, Grand 
 Secretary of the Orange society. ^^^ " The torture of the pitched 
 cap," says Lecky, "which never before appears to have been 
 known in Ireland . . . excited fierce terror and resent- 
 ment."^-* An idea of the horrible frequency of this form of 
 torture and of half-hanging before the insurredtion may be 
 gained by reference to standard works on this agonising period 
 of Irish history. 
 
 THE CAT-O'-NINE TAILS. 
 
 (d) Scourging was another "popular amusement" in which 
 the yeomanry forces took a leading share. Musgrave, the 
 
 i'2iHay, Hist, of the Rebellion, pp. 57-58. See also Lecky, Ireland in tks 
 Eighteenth Centuiy, vol. iv , pp 272, 349 ; Walpole, Kingdom of Ireland, chap. 
 XX., p. 489. The torture of burning gunpowder was inflided by " Tom the 
 Devil" on a Protestant gentleman of property, Anthony Perry of Inch (Co. 
 Wexford), who, says Walpole {ibid.) " is an instance of the way in which 
 the people of Wexford were driven to exasperation." See also Hay, p. 76. 
 
 ^'^'^Ireland m the Eighteenth Century, vol. iv. p. 276. 
 
 i23piowden, on the authority of one of the sufferers and of an eye- 
 witness, records two particularly barbarous instances of flogging, pitch- 
 capping and feathering, etc., perpetrated by Beresford and Lord Kings- 
 borough. See note 52, supra. 
 
 i'2ilre!and in the Eighteenth Century, vol. iv., p. 349. 
 
 286 
 
THE ORANGE INQUISITION. 
 
 Orange writer, in an Appendix to his Memoirs of the Different 
 Rebellions, admits that this punishment, as inflicfted, was 
 obviously repugnant to both tlie letter and the spirit of the 
 law. It was nevertheless inflicfled by men who boasted of 
 their loyalty. Floggings were, as Lecky states, ^^^ "very often" 
 inflicfled v/ithout any form of trial ; for the gratification of 
 private malice ; on persons who were " perfetftly innocent '."^^^ 
 frequently, with attendant circumstances of great barbarity ; 
 and before the outbreak of hostilities in 1798. 
 
 " No man was safe," says Walpole, referring to the south- 
 eastern counties of Leinster at this period. " Shopkeeper 
 and artisan equally had their backs cut to the bone ; farmer 
 and labourer were equally tortured on the pointed stake." ^^' 
 As indicating the severity with which this punishment was 
 administered, Lecky (in a passage already quoted) tells how, 
 through the province of Leinster, " great multitudes were 
 flogged till they almost fainted," and how blacksmiths, on the 
 suspicion of having made pikes, "were scourged almost to 
 death in the streets of the villages" to compel them to con- 
 fess. ^-^ " More than one viiftini," the same writer admits, 
 "died under the lash."^*-' Women are said to have been 
 publicly flogged in the streets of Gorey, which was garrisoned 
 by the yeomanry and the North Cork militia. Gordon, the 
 Protestant historian, who lived near the spot, describes the 
 terror which the floggings excited in the people in that neigh- 
 bourhood, and records a case which he personally knew, of 
 a working man who dropped dead through fear of this 
 torture.^''" Hay, referring to the inflidtion of torture by the 
 "yeomen and magistrates," previous to the outbreak, says: 
 " Some, too, abandoned their houses for fear of being whipped 
 and this inflicftion many persons seemed to fear more 
 than death itself." Reference has already been made to the 
 habit adopted l^y the Enniscorthy yeomanry, of bringing with 
 them, on their forays, an executioner with hanging ropes and 
 cat-o'-nine-tails. In an outing to Ballaghkeene, this fundlion- 
 ary plied the lash with such vigor that — to use the vigorous ex- 
 pression of an eye-witness — the spot of execution was covered 
 with blood "as if a pig had been killed there." ^'^^ The Riding- 
 house, where the notorious Grand Secretary, John Claudius 
 Beresford, exercised his Dublin yeomanry, "was" says Lecky, 
 
 ^^^/btd., p. 273. 
 
 ^"^^Ibid., p. 272. 
 
 '^'^'^ Kingdom of /re la fid, chap, xviii., p. 478. 
 
 ^"^^ Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, vol. iv., p. 271. 
 
 ^^^Ibid., p. 275. 
 
 ''■^'^ History of the Rebellion, ist ed., pp. 87-88. 
 
 I'^^See Lecky, Ireland in the Eighteenth Century vol. iv., p. 350. 
 
 287' 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 " well known as the chief scene of the torture." '^^ Walpole says 
 that the flogging was carried out " under the direction of John 
 Claudius Beresford."^"^ This and the other forms of torture 
 were practised publicly in Dublin, under the very eyes of the 
 Government of the day.^^'* (The Dublin garrison, says Mitchel, 
 consisted " chiefly of yeomanry. ")i^^ " In Beresford's Riding- 
 house," says Mitchel,^'"' " Sandys's Prevot,^^' the Old Custom 
 House, ^''^ the Royal Exchange,'^^ some of the barracks, and 
 other places in Dublin, there were daily, hourly, notorious 
 exhibitions of these torturings, as there were in almost every 
 town, village, and hamlet throughout the kingdom, in which 
 troops were quartered." All this took place before the people 
 rose in revolt. 
 
 In an Appendix to his Memoirs of the Different Rebellions in 
 Ireland, the Orange writer, Musgrave, stoutly defends the use 
 made of the cat-o'-nine-tails before the rebellion. Alfred 
 Webb, a learned Irish Protestant writer, thus refers to Mus- 
 grave : " He displayed such animosity against the Catholics, 
 and outraged public decency so much by his defence of flogging 
 and free quarters, that, according to a long noticein the. Annual 
 Biography, ' the Irish Government at length found it necessary 
 to disown all connedtion with the author : and publicly dis 
 claimed the idea of affording him either patronage or protecftion 
 
 132/Z);^., p. 276. In the English House of Commons, in March, 1801, 
 Beresford said that " it was unmanly to deny torture, as it was notoriously 
 pradised." Mitchel, Hist, of Ireland, vol. ii., chap, i., p. 17. Gordon says 
 that Dublin was noted for its scourging, etc., not alone of " the common 
 people," but of " some even in circumstances far superior to that class." 
 Hist, of the Rebellion, pp. 65, 76. A wag wrote the following inscription 
 over the entrance to Beresford's Riding-House : " Mangling done here by 
 J. Beresford and Co." Bowles Daly, Ireland in Ninety-eight, p. 63. 
 
 '^^'•^Kingdom of Ireland, chap, xxi., p. 501. 
 
 i34Madden, who is perhaps, the greatest authority on this period, 
 states that triangles were set up " under the very windows of Lord Castlereagh's 
 office;" that people were flogged to death at them; and that torture was 
 carried on "in the small vacant space adjoining the entrance to the Upper 
 Castle Yard." Mitchel, vol. ii., chap, i., p. 17. See Walpole, chap, xxi., 
 p. 501; Lecky, iv., 203, 293. Compare Barrington, Rise and Fall of the 
 Irish Nation, ed. 1844, p. 359. 
 
 ^^^Hist. of Ireland, vol. ii., chap, i., p. 15. 
 
 '^^'^Ibid., vol. i., chap, xxxiii., p. 279. Mitchel is here fully borne out 
 by Madden, and by Walpole (chap, xxi., p. 501). 
 
 I'i'^Major Sandys was, says Madden, "brother-in-law to Under Secre- 
 tary Cooke, Lord Castlereagh's chief official in the Secretary's office." He 
 was Brigade-Major to the Dublin garrison. 
 
 i^sxhe Old Custom House was the place where Beresford and Lord 
 Kingsborough infiidted the tortures described by Plowden. See note 52, 
 supra. 
 
 isflThe Royal Exchange, says Walpole "had been converted into a 
 military depot and was the head-quarters of the yeomanry." Kingdom of Ireland, 
 chap. XXI., p. '^01. 
 
 28a 
 
THE ORANGE INQUISITION. 
 
 in future.' ""° The Orange party of the time, both in and out 
 of Parliament, were in full accord with their apologist as to the 
 employment of torture for the purpose of " exploding the re- 
 bellion." 
 
 THE DEATH-ROLL. 
 
 (3) The outrages committed by the Orange soldiery before the 
 outbreak of hostilities in 1798, were not, however, limited to 
 house-breaking, robbery, outrages on women, and the illegal and 
 systematic inflicftion of torture. The crime of murder, on a 
 large scale, and with every circumstance of maddening barbarity, 
 must also be laid to thechargeof "the gallant Orange yeomanry 
 who fought in ninety-eight." 
 
 At a somewhat later period — June, 1798 — Lord William 
 Russell said from his place in the House that " a man's loyalty 
 was to be estimated by the desire he testified to imbrue his 
 hands in his brothers' blood. ""^ The same test of loyalty 
 apparently held good in the few feverish weeks which preceded 
 the insurrecff ion. Judged by this standard, the Orange soldiery 
 were beau-ideals of loyalty. We shall see that, in the opinion 
 of Lord Cornwallis, out of all the troops that were employed 
 in provoking and stamping out the insurrecffion, the pride of 
 place in mere murder rightly falls to the yeomanry. The crime 
 was carried out 
 
 (a) Frequently after a form of mock-trial; more frequently 
 without such a formality, principally 
 
 (b) By search or scouring parties, and 
 
 (c) By those in charge of prisoners. 
 
 Reference is here made exclusively or almost exclusively to 
 the murder of unarmed and unresisting persons before the people 
 went out from their homes to die upon the hill-sides. 
 
 (a) Mock-trials. — In his order of February 26, 1798, General 
 Sir Ralph Abercromby referred to " the very disgraceful fre- 
 quency of courts-martial.""^ Lord Holland, Walpole, and 
 others have already been quoted to show that the proceedings 
 of these courts were mere mockeries of justice: tortures and 
 death being commonly inflidfed without proof of guilt, for the 
 purpose of compelling suspecffs to incriminate themselves or 
 others, or for the gratification of private malice. 
 
 (b) Standard authorities on the period of martial law that 
 preceded the insurrecftion of 1798, are agreed that shooting 
 
 ^'^'^ Compendium of Irish Biography, p. 356. 
 
 ^*iQuoted by Godkin (a Protestant writer) in The Battlefields of Ninety - 
 eight (National Review, June, 1868, p. 14). See also the same writer's Land 
 Law in Ireland, p. 268. 
 
 I'l^'^ Walpole, Kingdom of Ireland, chap, xviii., p. 476; Mitchel, vol. i., 
 chap, xxxii., p. 265; Lecky, Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, vol. iv., p. 203. 
 
 289 S 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 people at their doors, or as they rushed for safety out of their 
 burning houses, formed one of the chief amusements of the 
 mihtary who were placed at free-quarters in the homes of the 
 peasantry in Leinster. Lecky, referring to the " horrible 
 abuses and horrible sufferings " inflicfted by the search-parties 
 on the unhappy peasantry, says : " Many who resisted, and 
 not a few, it is said, who did not resist, were shot dead on their 
 thresholds."^** Walpole, referring to the atrocities perpetrated 
 in Ulster, in 1797, by the Orange yeomanry and the Ancient 
 Britons, tells how people " were hunted down and sabred," 
 and "children brutally ill-treated and murdered.""* In the 
 Irish House of Commons, Dr. Browne, M.P. for DubUn 
 University, referring to the outrages of the military and yeo- 
 manry, offered to prove that persons had been shot in cold 
 blood."' Lecky, in a passage already quoted, is prepared to 
 admit that "in the midnight raids [in Ulster, before the 
 insurrecftion] many persons were shot by soldiers, or more 
 probably by yeomen, in a manner that differed little, if at all, from 
 simple murder.""" Reference has already been made to the 
 unprovoked massacre of men, women, and children, at Bally- 
 holan, in Ulster, by the Newry Orange yeomanry and the 
 " mostly Orange " Ancient Britons. Plowden and Madden 
 give particulars of many such cases of cold-blooded murder."' 
 In Wexford, Hunter Gowan's " Black Mob " of Orange yeo- 
 men shot people at their doors. They tied one man to a tree 
 and riddled him with bullets. This occurred on May 23, 
 1798, and contributed much towards the rising, which took 
 place three days later."® In the same county, and in the 
 neighbouring ones, " the inhabitants were generally called to 
 their doors, and shot without ceremony, their houses being 
 immediately burned or plundered.""^ It is impossible to form 
 an estimate of the numbers of persons who died under the 
 lash, or from the effecfts of the various forms of torture 
 inflidled on them during the Reign of Terror which preceded 
 the rising. 
 
 {c) Murder of prisoners. — Two horrible massacres perpe- 
 trated, the one in Wicklow, the other in Wexford, greatly 
 
 ti^lreland in the Eighteenth Century, vol. iv., p. 271. 
 
 i-'i^'^ Kingdom of Ireland, chap, xvii., p. 467. 
 
 ''■'^^ Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, vol. iv., p. 46, note. 
 
 1^6 Ibid., p. 46. 
 
 ^^''Flo'wden, Historical Review of the State of Ireland, vol. ii., pp. 623- 
 627; Madden, ii., 291-296. 
 
 i48Myles Byrne, in his Memoirs, mentions the names of some of the 
 I'idtims, whom he personally knew, he having been born near the spot, at 
 Monaseed. Cf. Mitchel, vol. i., chap, xxxii., p. 267. 
 
 lioMitchel, ibid. 
 
 290 
 
THE ORANGE INQUISITION. 
 
 increased the popular terror and resentment in the two counties, 
 and undoubtedly did much to precipitate the rebellion. On 
 May 24 — two days before the rising — thirty-four prisoners were 
 shot, without trial, at Dunlavin (County of Wicklow), "officers, 
 to their disgrace, presiding and san(5tioning the proceedings."^^" 
 The murderers in this case were, according to Musgrave, the 
 local yeomanry and the militia,^^^ the latter being, as Hay and 
 Madden testify, the Antrim militia, who, as we have already 
 seen, were quartered on the people in this part of Wicklow at 
 the time of the outbreak. On the following day — the eve of 
 the rising — " twenty-eight fathers of families, prisoners, were 
 shot and massacred in the Ball-alley of Carnew." " Many of 
 the men thus inhumanly butchered had been confined on mere 
 suspicion," says Hay. This dark deed of blood was likewise 
 the work of the yeomen and a party of the Antrim militia. At 
 Carnew, as at Dunlavin, the massacre was sancftioned by the 
 officers. ^®'^ The records of such atrocities as I have thus far 
 been describing, drew from Lecky — a witness not over-friendly 
 to the tortured and maddened people — the declaration that the 
 proclamation of martial law in Leinster was not only " a 
 proximate cause of the rebellion," but that it " opened a scene 
 of horrors hardly surpassed in the modern history of Europe. "^^ 
 
 TOO MUCH " CLEMENCY." 
 
 Evidence has already been given to show that the worst 
 excesses of the policy of slow torture were carried on through- 
 out the country, before the insurrecflion, with the full knowledge 
 of the Government of the day.^^* Yet they were permitted to 
 continue " without interference and without restraint. "^^^ 
 There is no evidence of any effort having been ever put forth 
 
 ^^'^Ha.y, History of the Insurrection, p. 78; Byrne's il/^mo/Vs. Cf. Lecky, 
 iv., 351-352. Musgrave (p. 243) admits that the massacre was resolved 
 upon by the officers. 
 
 '^^'^ Memoirs of the Dijfe^-ent Rebellions, p. 243. The rebellion did not 
 begin in any part of Wicklow until after this massacre. Musgrave's state- 
 ment to the contrary is made for an evident purpose, and is contradicted 
 by every historian who has written on the subjedl. A detailed account of 
 the Dunlavin affair appeared in The Irish Magazine in 181 1 (quoted in 
 Kavanagh's Hist, of the Rebellion, chap, vi., p. 76, 4th ed). 
 
 ^^^Hist. of the Insurrection, ed. 1803, p. 76. Further details are also 
 given in the Memoirs of Myles Byrne, whose home was not far from Car- 
 new, and who declares that he "knew several of the murdered men," 
 naming one, at whose wedding he had assisted two years before. Rev. 
 James Gordon also menticMis a massacre at Carnew, at which "fifty-four 
 [prisoners] were shot ... in the space of three days." Hist, of the 
 Rebellion, p. 222. 
 
 "^^'■^ Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, vol. iv., p. 265. 
 
 is*See tiote 134, supra. 
 
 ^s^Lecky, Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, vol. iv., p. 272. 
 
 291 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 by the authorities to mitigate the atrocities ^^^ perpetrated on a 
 people, a great part of whom, although disturbed, would never 
 (as in the case of Wexford) have risen in rebellion but for the 
 havoc wrought amongst them by bullet, bayonet, brand, lash, 
 picket, and the hangman's noose. On the contrary, some of 
 the worst barbarities committed by the Orange soldiery in 
 Ulster, long previous to the rising, were regarded by the 
 Viceroy, Lord Camden, with a levity which, as Lecky points 
 out, is " horribly significant."^®'' It was the spirit which led 
 Nero to " fiddle," as it is said, over the blackened ruins which 
 he had made in Rome, and which made the ISansculottes sing 
 and dance the Carmagnole amidst the terrors of 1789. 
 Walpole, in his Kingdom of Ireland (p. 477), and Lecky, in the 
 fourth volume of his Ireland in the Eighteenth Century (p. 330), 
 tell how, in 1797 — long before the rising — John Claudius 
 Beresford, the Orange leader, declared in the Irish House of 
 Commons, that " he wished they [the. people] were in rebellion, 
 tomeet themface to face." General Dundas's lack of ferocity, and 
 Sir Ralph Abercromby's order of February 26, 1797, against the 
 "irregularities" and "licentiousness" of the army, evoked a 
 fierce outcry from the Orange party. ^*® " General Abercromby," 
 says Barrington, "was not permitted to abate these enormities 
 [free-quarters and slow torture] , and therefore resigned with 
 disgust. Ireland was by these means reduced to a state of 
 anarchy, and exposed to crime and cruelties to which no nation 
 had ever been subjedl. The people could no longer bear 
 their miseries. Mr. Pitt's objecft was now effei51:ed, and an 
 insurrecflion was excited. "^"^ In his Memoirs of the Whig Party 
 Lord Holland says : "His [Abercromby's] recaW was hailed as 
 a triumph by the Orange fadion. . . . Indeed, surrounded as 
 they were with burning cottages, tortured backs, and frequent 
 executions, they were yet full of sneers at which they whimsi- 
 cally termed the ' clemency ' of the Government, and the 
 weakness of their Viceroy, Lord Camden."^™ They were 
 determined, says Walpole, to drive the people into open revolt, 
 so as to have an excuse for " crushing them more eflfecftually."^''' 
 During and after the insurrecftion, the new Viceroy, Lord 
 Cornwallis, was contemptuously nicknamed " Croppy Corney," 
 by the Orange party, for his attempts to mitigate the barbarities 
 of the troops, and especially of the yeomanry. 
 
 • ^^^Ibid., p. 269. 
 '^^''Ibid., p. 43. ^ 
 
 ^^^Walpole, Kingdoiu of Ireland, chap, xvin., p. 477: Lecky, op. cit 
 vol iv., p. 330. 
 
 ^^^Rise and Fall of the Irish Nation, ed. 1S44, p. 351 
 ^'''OMcmoirs of the Whig Party, vol. i., p. 112. 
 ^^'^Kingdom of Ireland, p. 477. 
 
 292 
 
THE ORANGE INQUISITION. 
 
 END OF THE REIGN OF LAW. 
 
 Two further circumstances contributed to aggravate a 
 situation that had already reached the farther verge of ordinary 
 human patience. They were : First, the suppression of inquiry ; 
 second, the impossibility of obtaining legal redress. 
 
 (i) There is little doubt, says Lecky, " that the authorities 
 did all in their power to prevent inquiry, and to hush up such 
 abuses as acftually occurred, "^''^ even before the insurredlion. 
 Grattan speaks, in 1797, of "barbarities aud murders such as 
 no printer will now dare to publish, lest he should be plundered 
 or murdered for the ordinary exercise of his trade. "^'^^ 
 
 (2) Legal redress for the inflitftion of torture, destrucflion 
 of property, murder, etc., was made "almost impossible" by 
 Indemnity Acfts, which shielded " loyalists " from prosecution 
 on account of any and every kind of barbarity which they may 
 have committed on the people before or during the insurrec- 
 tion.i'^* 
 
 The terror inspired by military severities before the out- 
 break of hostilities was extreme. " In the country," writes 
 Lecky, "it is said that whole villages were deserted, and the 
 inhabitants slept in the ditches and in the fields through fear 
 of outrages from the yeomen."^"' In Ulster, which was domi- 
 nated by Orange soldiery, the reign of terror began in 1797. 
 "Villages and whole distri(51:s," says Walpole, "were 
 devastated, and the inhabitants turned out of their homes 
 into the ditch. "^'^'^ In Wexford county people deserted their 
 homes in great numbers.^"' In the neighbouring county of 
 Wicklow, according to Plowden, " the Catholic inhabitants 
 abandoned their houses over a distridl: extending for thirty 
 miles, in terror of Orange outrages."''* 
 
 HOW TO'mAKE a REBEL. 
 
 The reader has already seen, in the course of this chapter, 
 that the immediate purpose of this unrestrained military 
 
 '^^'^Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, vol. iv., p. 45. 
 
 i^^Qrattan's Life and Times, by his son, vol. iv., p. 301. "Observers" 
 View of the Present State of Ireland, which gave an account of Orange out- 
 rages in a part of Ulster, was, for prudential reasons, printed in London 
 (1797). See note 68, pp. 28-29, supra. The office of the Northern Star was 
 wrecked by the military because the editor had published an account of 
 their outrages on the people. See Arthur O'Connor's letter in the Press, 
 January 2, 1798, on the use of torture by the military at that period. Mad- 
 den, United Irishmen, Second Series, vol. ii., pp. 299-304. 
 
 i^*Cf. Lecky, Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, vol. iv., pp. 2S2-287. 
 
 ^^^Ibid., p. 276; cf. p. 269. 
 
 ^^^ Kingdom of Ireland, chap, xvii., p. 467. 
 
 is'^Mitchel, Hist, of Ireland, vol. i., chap, xxxii., pp. 267, 284; Cloney's 
 Personal Narrative, quoted by Lecky, vol. iv., p. 358, 7iute. 
 
 ^^'^ Historical Review of the State of Ireland, vol. ii., pp. 714-716. 
 
 293 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 license was to goad the people into rebellion ; its ulterior 
 objedl, the Legislative Union between Great Britain and 
 Ireland. Both purposes were duly effedted. One of the first 
 results of the military outrages was to drive large bodies of 
 people, who had hitherto taken little or no interest in politics, 
 into the ranks of the United Irishmen. " The persecution," 
 says Walpole, " drove the lukewarm into their ranks, and 
 converted them into earnest spmpathisers."^® " It is only too 
 certain," says the same Protestant writer, " that numbers of 
 decent peasants and farmers, who had never troubled them- 
 selves with politics, were driven into the ranks of the United 
 Irishmen by the ferocity of the authorities.""," Martial law, 
 says Lecky, " undoubtedly turned into desperate rebels miilti- 
 tudes who, if they had been left unmolested, would have been, 
 if not loyal subjects, at least neutral specftators, or lukewarm 
 and half-hearted rebels.""^ The Report of the Secret Com- 
 mittee of 1799, according to the same writer, " does not make 
 sufficient allowance for the extent to which the rebellion was a 
 mere unorganised rising of men who were driven to desperation 
 by intolerable military tyranny.""^ The same Protestant 
 author says of the martial law and free quarters : "The tortures, 
 the house-burnings, and other manifold abuses that followed 
 it, soon completed the work, and drove the people in large 
 distridts to desperation and madness.""'' There is a horrible, 
 though not unexpecfted, significance in the statement of Lecky, 
 that the Irish Government looked "almost with gratification 
 at the outbreak of the rebellion.""* The same writer adds that 
 the method employed to force the people into open revolt "was 
 largely responsible for the ferocity with which the rebellion 
 was waged, and that it contributed enormously to the most 
 permanent and deadly evils of Irish Ufe.""^ 
 
 le^Klngdom of Ireland, chap, xvii., p. 469. Cf. 7wte 54, p. 26, supra. 
 
 i''0Walpole, op. cit., chap, xviii., p. 479. 
 
 'i-'''^ Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, vol. iv., p. 290. As far back as 
 1796, Under-Secretary Cooke, in a letter to Pelham, said that "the irritat- 
 ing c'ondudl of the Orangemen, in keeping up the persecution against the 
 Cathohcs, does infinite mischief. It has been made the handle for seducing 
 many of the militia," Quoted by Lecky, Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, 
 
 vol. iii., p. 455- 
 
 ^'^'^Ibid., vol. iv., p. 289. Joseph Holt, one of the insurgent leaders, is 
 a notable case in point. He was a loyal and prosperous Protestant farmer 
 in Wicklow county, until one day, on his return home, "he found his 
 house a smoking ruin, his effedls pillaged, and his wife and family turned 
 into the ditch. ' He himself fled for his life into the Wicklow mountains." 
 Walpole, chap, xx., p. 490. Cf. Lecky, Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, 
 vol. v., pp. 82-84. 
 
 I'sLecky, ibid., vol. iv., p. 291. 
 
 ^''^Ibid., p. 395. 
 
 ^''^Ibid., pp. 289-290; cf. p. 342. Holt, the insurgent leader, says in 
 
 294 
 
RETALIATION. 
 
 RETALIATION. 
 
 The outrag^es committed by the maddened people during 
 the course of that desperate struggle were, as might be expecfled 
 ill the circumstances, both numerous and dreadful. It should, 
 however, be remembered that in nearly every case 
 
 (a) They were committed by the humbler classes, who were 
 without regular military discipline, and fighting for the right to 
 live ; 
 
 (b) They were adts of retaliation for the outrages of the 
 mihtary, and especially of the Orange soldiery ; 
 
 (c) They did not extend, as we have seen, to outrages on 
 women ; 
 
 (d) They were not sandlioned by the leaders of the 
 revolt."" 
 
 Mr. Bouverie-Pusey, who describes himself as " a con- 
 vinced Protestant," writes that, in forming a judgment on this 
 subjecfl: of retaliation by the insurgents, "we ought also to 
 remember the cruelties committed on the disaffecfted peasantry 
 under the name of martial law, and the excesses of the Orange- 
 men mentioned above. About all that can be said in favour of 
 one side rather than another is that the rebels seldom or never 
 outraged women, whilst the Royalists did ; and that cruelties 
 committed by rebels belonging to the humblest class — com- 
 manded by leaders of no more education than themselves, with 
 no regular military organisation or system of punishment, and 
 almost necessarily joined by large numbers of lawless charac- 
 ters — are not altogether as deserving of censure as those of 
 regular or semi- regular troops, who ought to be kept under 
 fixed control by the Government they serve. Of course, 
 where the rebels have themselves constituted a Government, 
 the distincftion falls to the ground; but in Ireland, in 1798, this 
 was not the case." Having referred to the fearful cruelties 
 committed by the troops, the same writer concludes: "The 
 excuses which have been made for the acflions of the yeo- 
 
 his Memoirs (edited by Crofton Croker, 2 vols., 1838): "It was private 
 wrongs and individual oppression, quite unconnedted with the Govern- 
 ment, which gave the bloody and inveterate charadler to the rebellion in 
 the county of Wicklow " (p. 18). The same is true of the Wexford rising. 
 I'^^The first general proclamation issued to the rebel forces contained 
 the following; "Let it be proclaimed to the extremity of our land, that 
 insult to female honour, contempt of orders, pillage and desertion, shall be 
 punished with death." The general orders issued to the Wexford insur- 
 gents, June 6, 1798, declared: "Any person or persons who shall take 
 upon them to kill or murder any person or prisoner, burn any house, or 
 commit any plunder, without special written orders from the Commander- 
 in-chief, shall suffer death." Kavanagh's Hist, of the Rebellion. 
 
 295 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 manry, etc., were such as might with quite equal force be 
 made for the Reign of Terror in France.""' 
 
 Lecky, who cannot be accused of any bias in favour of the 
 insurgents, has the following in a critiqtie on Froude : 
 
 " Of the atrocities committed by the rebels during the 
 bloody month when the rebellion was at its highest, it is 
 difficult to speak too strongly, but an impartial historian would 
 not have forgotten that they were perpetrated by undisciplined 
 men, driven to madness by a long course of savage cruelties, 
 and, in inost cases, without the knowledge or approval of their 
 leaders ; that from the beginning of the struggle the yeomen 
 rarely gave quarter to the rebels ; that, with the one horrible 
 exception of Scullabogue, the rebels in their treatment of 
 women contrasted most favourably and most remarkably with 
 the troops ; and that one of the earliest episodes of the struggle 
 was the butchery near Kildare of 350 insurgents, who had 
 surrendered on the express promise that their lives should be 
 spared.""^ 
 
 No such atrocities had been perpetrated on the people who 
 later on joined the French invaders in Connaught. Although 
 a large range of country lay for many days at their mercy, the 
 Protestant Bishop of Killala (Dr. Stock), who was witness to 
 what he states, declares that " during the whole time of this 
 civil commotion not a drop of blood was shed by the Con- 
 naught rebels, except in the field of war.""^ 
 
 THE REIGN OF TERROR. 
 
 Thus far, reference has been made to certain phases in the 
 conduct of the Orange soldiery before the rising of 1798. This 
 chapter would be incomplete without at least a brief notice of 
 the methods by which they aided the regular troops in stamp- 
 
 i''"'Bouverie-Pnsey, The Past History of Irdand, pp. iio-iii. 
 
 I'^sQuoted in Justin H. McCarthy's Outline of Irish History, pp. 73-74. 
 On the question of retahation by the insurgents consult Lecky, Ireland in 
 the Eighteenth Century, vol. iv., pp. 394, 445, 456, 459, 468; History of the 
 Irish People by O'Conor, 2nd ed., pp. 256-257; Walpole, chap, xx., pp. 492, 
 497; Mitchel, vol. i., chap, xxxv., pp. 293, 296-298. See note 179, infra. 
 Cf. Bouverie-Pusey's Past History of Ireland, pp. iio-iii. 
 
 ^'''^A Narrative of what passed at Killala, p. 25, quoted by Lecky, vol. 
 v., p. 55. Lecky ascribes the good conduft of the Connaught rebels to 
 the fadl that " the people had not been dri\-en to madness by ilogging and 
 house-burning" (p. 54). Rev. James Gordon likewise attributes the differ- 
 ent behaviour of the Eastern and Western insurgents to the difference of 
 treatment meted out to the people in Leinster and Connaught. He re- 
 marks, in continuation, that free-quarters, house-burnings, torture, such 
 as " croppings, pitch-cappings, and half-hangings, must, whether necessary 
 or not, whether deserved or not, be expedled to kindle a spirit of revenge 
 in the sufferers and their party." See note 182, infra, and Sydney Smith's 
 Peter f'lyuiley's Letters, letter viii. 
 
 296 
 
THE REBELLION. 
 
 ing out the rebellion which they themselves had been chiefly 
 instrumental in bringing about. A few instances in point will 
 serve to indicate the temper with which the work of repression 
 was carried out. 
 
 Captain Bagot's and Lord Roden's yeomanry took the 
 chief part in the massacre of some 350 insurgents who had 
 surrendered their arms, under promise of protecftion, at what is 
 known to this day as the Place of Slaughter, on the Curragh of 
 Kildare.^*° According to Hay, the day after the outbreak in 
 Wexford, the yeomanry sallied forth in the northern part of that 
 county, " burned numbers of houses, and put to death hundreds 
 of persons who were unarmed, unoffending, and unresisting."^*'^ 
 The same writer records the massacre and mutilation of men, 
 women, and children by the Gorey yeomanry on the day that 
 is still remembered in North Wexford as " Bloody Friday. "^^^ 
 Rev. James Gordon states that the people in the districft where 
 these atrocities were perpetrated were the last to take part in 
 the rising, and the least violent of all the insurgents. ^^ A case 
 that - excited considerable interest at this period was the 
 barbarous murder of a sick youth, Thomas Doherty, in his 
 mother's arms, by a yeoman named Wollaghan. The case was 
 tried by Orange judges, presided over by the chief leader of 
 the Irish lodges, the Earl of Enniskillen. The fadt of the 
 
 i80]viitchel, Hist. 0/ Ireland, vol. ii., chap, i., p. 22, note ; cf. vol. i., 
 chap, xxiii., p. 280. Like the Verners, Blackers, and Enniskillens, the 
 Roden family were intimately associated with Orangeism from an early 
 date in its history (" MP.," pp. 185, 226, 230). For an account of the 
 barbarities pradised upon the Kildare people by the Orange yeomanry, 
 etc., see Madden's United Irishmen, Third Series, vol. ii.. Appendix 8, pp. 
 
 341-342- 
 
 ^^^Hist. 0/ the Insurrection, p. 8g. 
 
 '^^'^Ibid., pp. 133-135, 275-276: Mitchel, Hist, of Ireland, vol. i., chap. 
 XXXV., p. 301. Gordon admits that the Gorey yeomen shot some of their 
 prisoners. He does not specifically mention the massacre of Bloody 
 Friday. His silence on this subjedl may be accounted for (i) by the fad 
 that his son was Lieutenant in the incriminated corps ; (2) by his avowed 
 personal bias. He describes himself in his History as " wholly British by 
 descent," and with a natural bias on the side of Protestantism and loyalty." 
 In the preface to the second edition of his History of the Rebellion, he states 
 (p. X.) that his sons were Orangemen. His History of Ireland, published in 
 1S06, is described by the Protestant writer Lowndes as "a party work, 
 abounding in misrepresentation" {Bibliographer's Manual of English 
 Literature). (3). Motives of prudence might be assigned as a further 
 possible explanation of Gordon's silence regarding the affair of Bloody 
 Friday. He lived in the midst of the incriminated yeomen, and his History 
 oj the Rebellion was published in 1801, while the ferocious spirit engendered 
 by the insurre{flion was still abroad among his party. 
 
 183///5; of the Rebellion, p. 104 (ist ed.) The Protestant writer Taylor 
 refers to the address of loyalty presented by the Catholics of Ballycanew, a 
 small town near Gorey, on the 1st of April, 1798, a few weeks before the 
 rising. The Rebellion in Wexford, pp. 21-22. 
 
 297 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 murder was admitted. The defence only pleaded that it was 
 committed by Wollaghan under the following order from his 
 commanding ofificer: That if any yeoman on a scouring party 
 should meet with any whom he knew, or suspedcd, to be a rebel, 
 he need not be at the trouble of bringing him in, but was to 
 shoot him on the spot.^®'* This, together with another strikingly 
 similar case of yeoman barbarity, is also recorded in the 
 Memoirs and Corvespondence of Lord Cornwallis. Referring to 
 the yeomanry and militia of the period, the Memoirs say : 
 *' Among these corps an impression existed that it was perfectly 
 justifiable to put to death, without even the form of a trial, 
 any man who was known, or even suspected, to have been a 
 rebel," The writer adds that officers " sometimes joined in, 
 and frequently defended, these atrocious proceedings."^^ A few 
 brief extradls from the letters of this humane and distinguished 
 Viceroy will give the reader a grim idea of the ferocious spirit 
 which dominated the yeomanry and militia forces and the 
 Orange ascendency party of the day. In a letter to the Duke 
 of Portland, June 28, 1798, he refers to the " ferocity " of the 
 Irish troops, which, he added, " is not confined to the private 
 soldiers."^*'' He scouts the idea that " Catholicism " is the 
 cause of the rebellion.^®' In another letter he writes: "The 
 violence of our friends, and their folly in endeavouring to 
 make it a religious war, added to the ferocity of our troops, 
 who delight in murder, most powerfully countera(5t all plans 
 of reconciliation."^®^ In a subsequent letter to Major-General 
 
 i^^Plowden, Hist. Review of the State of Ireland, vol. iii., p. 810; Ireland 
 from its Union, vol. i., Introd., p. 113. Plowden adds {ibid.), "this order, 
 and the constant afting up to it by the corps, was proved by one private, 
 one sergeant, and two lieutenants of yeomanry." He also states that the 
 judges were Orangemen. Wollaghan was acquitted; but the Viceroy, 
 Lord Cornwallis, censured the court-martial, had Wollaghan discharged 
 from the yeomanry, and prevented Enniskillen and the other officers who 
 had tried the murderer from sitting any more on courts-martial. The 
 Viceroy's letter is dated Ocflober 18, 179S, and is given in full in Plowden's 
 Ireland from its Union, vol. i, Introd., pp. 114-115. 
 
 ^^^Memoirs and Correspondence of Lord Cornwallis, vol. ii., pp. 420-421. 
 
 '^^^Ibid., vol. ii., p. 355. 
 
 ^^'^Ibid. The commander-in-chief of the Wexford insurgents, Bagenal 
 Harvey, and others of their leaders, were Protestants. So were by far the 
 greater part of the leaders of the United Irish Society. See p. 26, supra, 
 note. Holt, the most daring and resourceful leader of the Wicklow insur- 
 gents, was likewise a Protestant. 
 
 ^^^Memoivs and Correspondence of Lord Cornwallis, vol. ii., p. 355 ; 
 cf. p. 377. Lord Cornwallis is referring to the insurreftion in Leinster, 
 which spread over four counties : Wicklow, Wexford, Carlow and Kildare. 
 The Irish militia regiments who were stationed in these counties before 
 the outbreak, and who signalised themselves most, both then and subse- 
 quently, for their cruelties, were : in Wexford the largely Orange North 
 Cork militia (see pp. 269-271, supra) ; in the other counties, certain regi- 
 
 298 
 
THE REBELLION. 
 
 Ross, July 24, 1798, he refers to " the innumerable murders 
 that are hourly committed by our people without any process 
 or examination whatever. The yeomanry are in the style oi 
 the loyalists in America, only much more numerous and 
 powerful, and a thousand times more ferocious. They take the 
 lead in rapine and muydcr." The Irish militia, he immediately 
 adds, " follow closely in the heels of the yeomanry in every 
 kind of atrocity. "^**^ An idea of one thing meant by Cornwallis 
 by " taking the lead in murder " may be gathered from his 
 letter of June 28, 1798, to Portland. He writes : 
 
 " The accounts that you see of the number of the enemy 
 destroyed in every adtion, are, I conclude, greatly exaggerated ; 
 for my own knowledge of military affairs, I am sure that a 
 very small proportion of them could be killed in battle, and I 
 am much afraid that any man in a brown coat that is found 
 within several miles of the field of acflion, is butchered without 
 discrimination* "^°° 
 
 The statements of the Viceroy are corroborated by Rev. 
 James Gordon, as regards Wexford county, which had suffered 
 most of all from the ferocity of the yeomanry, the North Cork 
 and the Ulster militia regiments, and the " mostly Orange " 
 Ancient Britons. In his History oj the Rebellion this author 
 says: "I have reason to think that more men than fell in 
 battle were slain in cold blood. No quarter was given to 
 persons taken prisoners as rebels, with or without arms. For 
 instance : fifty-four were shot in the little town of Carnew in 
 the space of three days."^^^ A grim idea of the ferocity of the 
 
 ments raised in the notably Orange distrifts of Ulster. The Armagh and 
 Tyrone militia, together with a detachment of the North Corks, were 
 stationed in Carlow county. Some of the proceedings of the Tyrone 
 Orange militia have been already referred to in this chapter (p. 268). The 
 Antrim militia were stationed in Wicklow. They took part with the local 
 yeonianry in the massacres of Dunlavin and Carnew. On the open plains 
 of Kildare the rebellion was suppressed almost as soon as it arose. In his 
 letter to Portland, July 8, 1798, Cornwallis says that the militia are cowards, 
 " but ferocious and cruel in the extreme when any poor wretches, either 
 with or without arms, come within their power ; in short, murder appears 
 to be their favourite pastime" (ii., 357). Cf. Lord Holland's Memoirs of the 
 Whig Party, vol. i., pp. 111-112. 
 
 ^^^Memoirs and Correspondence of Lord Cornwallis, vol. ii, p. 369. 
 
 ^^°Ibid., p. 355. See the account given in Byrne's Memoirs of the 
 murders committed by the runaway yeomanry after the battle of Oulart 
 Hill. The writer, as a boy, heard the details of these proceedings from a 
 venerable resident of the spot, John Cooney, who had witnessed the 
 battle. 
 
 i^ip. 222. Contemporary Catholic writers and constant local tradi- 
 tion in so far bear out Cornwallis's statements, by uniformly attributing 
 the principal share in cold-blooded massacre to the yeomanry, the militia 
 regiments mentioned above being, in sporting phrase, " a good second." 
 The stigma of blood-thirstiness is not attached to any notable extent to the 
 
 299 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 Orange yeomanry of the period is furnished by an incident 
 related by Under-Secretary Cooke in a letter to Wickhani, 
 dated July 28, 1798. Some seventy persons had been placed 
 on their trial on the capital charge of rebellion or disaffedlion. 
 There was no evidence against them, and they were liberated. 
 This adl of natural justice excited the indignation of the Orange 
 party and the yeomanry. " Our zealots and yeomen," Cooke 
 writes, " do not relish this compromise, and there has been a 
 fine buzz on the subjecfl:."^''^ 
 
 A spirit not less ferocious pervaded the ascendency party, 
 which included the whole Orange society, and was headed by 
 the notorious Beresfords, of Riding-house fame. Lord 
 Cornwallis says of them in his letter of July g, 1798, to the 
 Duke of Portland (already quoted), that they " would pursue 
 measures that could only terminate in the extirpation of the 
 greater number of the inhabitants, and in the utter destrutflion 
 of the country. The vvords Papists and Priests are for ever in 
 their mouths, and by their unaccountable policy they would 
 drive four-fifths of the community into irreconcileable rebel- 
 lion."^''^ Elsewhere, the same distinguished Protestant noble- 
 man tells how the conversation of the same party, even at his 
 table, reeked of blood, and how they rejoiced when news was 
 brought that a priest had been put to death. "^^^ Seventeen 
 months after the outbreak of the tortured and maddened 
 people had been quelled, he makes use of words which go far 
 to show that the ascendency fadlion had frankly entered upon 
 a war of proscription against Catholics, such as the first lodges 
 had inaugurated in 1795. He writes : " The greatest difficulty 
 
 English regiments drafted into Ireland to suppress the rising. Gordon (p. 
 136) recounts an incident which was witnessed by his son, a yeomanry 
 officer, after the encounter of Ballycanew, near Gorey. A yeoman,. after 
 having wounded a child with a musket shot, urged his companion, another 
 yeoman, to fire also. The incident, though trifling, is significant of the 
 temper of the men. An official Memorandum on Wicklow county, August 
 20, 1798, admits that even then, after the close of the rebellion, " adls of 
 violence and revenge from the lower orders of yeomen have excited great 
 alarm." Cornwallis Correspondence, vol. ii., pp. 385-386. General Sir John 
 Moore, like Lord Cornwallis and General Sir Ralph Abercromby, indig- 
 nantly protested against the barbarities committed upon the peasantry in 
 1798. " If I were an Irishman" said Sir John, " I would be a rebel." 
 
 i92incorporated with the Cornwallis Correspondence, vol. ii. p. 376. 
 
 ^^■^Ihid., p. 358. Compare the Orange use of the word Papist, supra, 
 p. 158. Arthur O'Connor, the anti-Catholic leader of the United Irish- 
 men, in his letter to the Press of January 2, 1798, describes the Orangemen 
 as "a lawless banditti of sviorn extirpators." Madden's United Irishmen, 
 Second Series, vol. ii. p. 300. 
 
 ift^Memoirs and Correspondence of Lord Cornwallis, vol. ii., p. 369, letter 
 to Major-General Ross, July 24, 1798. The insurredtion was at this time 
 over. 
 
 300 
 
THE YEOMANRY IN PEACE. 
 
 which I experience, is to control our loyal friends, who would, 
 if I did not keep the stri(51:est hand upon them, convert the 
 system of martial law (which, God knows, is of itself bad 
 enough) into a more violent and intolerable tyranny than that 
 of Robespierre. The vilest informers are hunted out from the 
 prisons to attack, by the most barefaced perjury, the lives of 
 all who are suspe6ted of being, or having been, disaffected ; and, 
 indeed, every Roman Catholic of influence is in great danger." 
 " I attempt," he adds, "to moderate that violence and cruelty 
 which has once driven, and which, if tolerated, will again drive 
 this wretched country into rebellion.'' ^^^ 
 
 It would be easy to multiply quotations of this character 
 from the letters of Lord Cornwallis, and from the works of 
 other Protestant writers, as to the temper of the Orange party 
 before and during the insurrection, and after the last fires of 
 the revolt had been quenched in blood. Even in those wild 
 days the leaders of the party threw over the workings of the 
 fierce spirit of the institution the thin drapery of " qualifica- 
 tions requisite for an Orangeman." The following is one of 
 the many estimable qualities which the society nominally 
 required of the Orange yeoman and civilian in those times : 
 " Of an humane and compassionate disposition, and a courteous 
 and affable behaviour, he should be an utter enemy to savage 
 brutality and unchristian cruelty." 
 
 THE PIPING TIME OF PEACE. 
 
 The Irish Orange yeomanry never quite lost the taste for 
 blood and outrage with which they had familiarised themselves 
 from 1796 to the close of 1799. The subsequent course of 
 their history is puncftuated at short and frequent intervals with 
 outbursts of their old passions, which recall the wild days 
 when they raged with sword, fire, lash, gibbet, and sharpened 
 stake, in Leinster and the North. A long-suffering people 
 fretted helplessly under their turbulence and disloyalty, until, 
 in the end, the force was suppressed in the interests of public 
 peace. A few fadts, selecfted out of many, will serve to give an 
 idea of the temper of the yeomanry forces from the close of the 
 rebellion onwards. I shall confine myself to three of the most 
 serious crimes of which a military body of professional loyalists 
 could well be guilty, namely : 
 
 1. Murder and manslaughter ; 
 
 2. Riotous behaviour ; 
 
 3. Mutiny. 
 
 7 and 2. On July 14, 1802, several unoffending people were 
 shot by the DubHn yeomanry. Their officers connived at the 
 
 ^^^Ibid., vol. iii., p. 145. 
 
 301 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 deed by declining all inquiry into it.^^® Four years later — in 
 1806 — one Alexander Bell, a private in Colonel (then Major) 
 Blacker's Orange yeomanry, made two brutal and very nearly 
 successful attempts — one with a bayonet, the other with a 
 hatchet — to murder a Catholic man named Birmingham. Our 
 old friend, Colonel Blacker (who had been an Orangeman 
 since 1795), allowed the would-be murderer to escape.^"' After 
 three years (in 1809) the culprit was brought to justice. Baron 
 McClelland, before whom he was tried, declared that the case 
 was "one of pecuHar atrocity," and that "the prisoner was 
 convicfted on the clearest testimony." Immediately after the 
 trial Mr. Blacker waited on the judge, and requested him 
 to commute the punishment to transportation, on the extra- 
 ordinary plea — amounting to a threat — " that the prosecutors 
 and those who had assisted in the prosecution would be 
 murdered by the friends of the prisoner, if the prisoner was 
 executed."^''* Bell was, nevertheless, hanged. And so little 
 faith did the Government of the day place in the loyalty of the 
 Orange yeomanry, that, in anticipation of an attempt on their 
 part to rescue their comrade, five hundred men of the 90th 
 regnnent, a troop of dragoons, and a detachment of the royal 
 artillery, with their field pieces, were drafted to Portadown 
 for the occasion. -^^^ 
 
 In 1806, an Orangeman was placed under arrest for the 
 murder of a diminutive tailor. He was rescued, on his way 
 to jail, by two of the Benburb Orange yeomen. One of them 
 with a drawn sword, and the other with a cocked pistol, 
 threatened the life of the constable unless he released his 
 prisoner. -°° Mr. Wilson, an Ulster Protestant magistrate, 
 who relates the incident, appealed to the commanding officer 
 of the Benburb yeomanry to apprehend the rescuers. The 
 officer san(5tioned their conduct by declining to interfere, and 
 neither they nor the murderer were ever brought to justice. 
 
 In April of the same year (1806), Colonel Verner's Orange 
 yeomanry burned and plundered the house of an unoffending 
 Catholic hatter named Constantine O'Neill, and fired several 
 shots at him and his wife. The culprits (who were said to 
 have included the Colonel's own sons) were never brought to 
 
 i96piowden, Ireland from its Union, vol. iii., pp. 760-761. 
 
 ^^"^ Minutes of Evidence, Pari. Seledl Committee of 1835, Q. 9300. 
 
 i98Letterof Baron McClelland to the Government, dated August i, 
 i8og, given in full in " M.P.'s" History of Orangeism, pp. 116-117. 
 
 i^spiowden says that iioo yeomen assembled in the neighbourhood 
 for the purpose of rescuing the murderer. Ireland from its Union, vol. iii., 
 p. 762. 
 
 2oo]y[i- Wilson was an English Protestant gentleman resident iu 
 Ulster. For further particulars regarding him, see chap, xiv., infra. 
 
 302 
 
THE YEOMANRY IN PEACE. 
 
 justice. The results of this miscarriaj^'e of justice are thus' 
 stated by Mr. Wilson, in a memorial addressed by him to the 
 Chief Secretary, bearinf^ date July i, iHoG : " Many daring 
 and atrocious violences have been committed against these 
 poor people [the Catholics] by a banditti calling themselves 
 yeomen and Orangemen, who, with arms in their hands, bid 
 defiance to the law and its ministers.'"'*^ 
 
 At the July demonstration in r8o8, I'\'ither Diiane, parish 
 priest of Mounlrath, was barbarously murdered in his own 
 house by a body of three hundred Orange yeomen. The 
 following year a Catholic man named Cavanagh was murdered 
 by the same body at the same place; and on the same first of 
 July a priest was shot at his own house by armed yeomanry 
 at Bailieboroiigh, in the county of Cavan. In none of these 
 instances were the murderers brought to justice.^'' At Corin- 
 shiga, near Nowry, eighteen yeomen " fully armed and 
 accoutred," without the slightest pretence at provocation, fired 
 into what fourteen local Prot(;stant magistrates termed a 
 defenceless crowd of " men, women and children, occupi(;d in 
 an innocent and usual recreation." One person — a youth 
 named McKeown — was killed; others were severely wounded. 
 Themurderers were never brought to justice. A few days later 
 their comrades, on returning from parade, fired a volley, by way 
 of bravado, over the house occupied by McKeown, the father 
 of the murdered boy.'"*" 
 
 In 1810 a man named Geehan, and a Quaker lady (Miss 
 Martin) were deliberately, and without the slightest provoca- 
 tion, done to death by the ICnniscorthy yeomanry. Such was 
 the demoralisation of the force that, although the murderers 
 were well known, no proceedings were taken against them.'-*"^ 
 On the eve of July I2lh, in the following year (iHi i), the local 
 yeomanry engaged in a street row at Derrygonnelly, in the 
 
 sofWilgQn's Letters, p. 31. Kev. Dr. Conwell, in pressing for a proficr 
 investic,'ation into this outrage, said to Mr, Sergeant Moore, one of the 
 law-officers of the Crown, that "he only wanted such an investigation as 
 might be the means of permitting his people [the Catholics] to live in 
 peace, but that it was well known that the inhabitants in Mr. Verner's 
 neighbourhood stood in such drear! of that gentleman and his yeomen and 
 his Orangemen, that they would not dare to state anything which could 
 affedl him or his party." Quoted by " Nil'.," p. 121. 
 
 ^"'''l-'lowden, Ireland from tin IJnion, vol. iii., pp. 7^2-703. 
 
 ^"'■'Ihid., pp. 712-714. i'lowdcn gives in fijll a copy of the reward 
 offered for such information as would lead to the convi(ition of the offenders. 
 Fourteen magistrates each contributed ^22 15s. towarrjs the reward. The 
 bond of lodge rule, however, coupled with the favour shown to the Orange 
 society by the anti-Catholic Richmond administration, defeated the ends 
 of justice. 
 
 :''•-* /bid., pp. 887-888. 
 
 303 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 county of Fermanagh. Finding themselves unequal to the 
 opposing facftion, they retreated to their barracks, seized their 
 muskets, returned, and fired upon the people. One man was 
 killed outright. Kitson, the yeoman who shot him, absconded 
 to America. On his return to the distri(5l, he was acquitted 
 by an Orange jury.^°® 
 
 On midsummer-eve, 1830, a body of armed Orangemen, 
 whose movements suggested the presence of yeomanry, sur- 
 rounded a field in which a number of young people were, with 
 the owner's permission, enjoying an innocent annual 
 festival.^"® One of the Orangemen killed a Catholic named 
 McGlade with a dagger. Several other members of the group 
 of merry-makers were also stabbed or otherwise wounded by 
 the Orange assailants. Through the friendly verdidl of a jury 
 of Orangemen, two of the attacking party, who had been put 
 on their trial for murder, got off with twelve months' imprison- 
 ment each. On their release, one of them was taken into the 
 police force, on the recommendation of Dean Carter, an 
 Orangeman noted for his violence in those days. The other 
 was admitted to membership of Dr. Patten's Orange yeomanry 
 of Tanderagee. Dean Carter — who was a magistrate — refused 
 to receive the informations sworn against the other accom- 
 plices of the midsummer-eve tragedy.""' It would be an easy, 
 if ungracious, task to multiply instances of yeomanry outrages, 
 which, through the criminal connivance of the officers, and the 
 acftive sympathy of the Orange magistrates, were allowed to go 
 unpunished. 
 
 In the course of the celebrated charge which he delivered 
 at the Wexford Summer Assizes in 1814, Judge Fletcher 
 tells of the demoralisation and turbulance which he had 
 
 205See Minutes of Evidence, Parliamentary Seledt Committee of 1S35, 
 Qq. 7313, sgg., p. 75. The local magistrates refused to take the necessary 
 depositions for Kitson's arrest. They were severely reprimanded for their 
 condudl by Judge Osborne at the ensuing assizes. I find in my notes a quo- 
 tation from the Times of June 14, 1813, telling how, on the 27th of the 
 previous month, "an honest, industrious tradesman" named Phil Mahon 
 was treacherously stabbed through the back, at Clones, with a bayonet, 
 by an "Orange yeoman," one Thomas Rooney. "Another loyal Orange 
 yeoman" came up and, with his bayonet, mangled the dead body of 
 Mahon. 
 
 206]V[r. McConnell, one of the witnesses examined by the Seledl Com- 
 mittee of 1835, says (Q. 6389) there was no distindion of party or sedl at 
 the little celebration, and believes that both Protestants and Catholics 
 took part in it. 
 
 '^^''Mmutes of Evidence, Pari. Seledl Committee of 1835. Qq. 6388, sqq.; 
 of. 3217, 3325, etc. Details of the McCuster outrage are given at Q. 7336. 
 Yeomen broke into McCuster's house, broke his arms and legs, and were 
 allowed to get off scot-free by an Orange jury. The matter was ventilated 
 in Parliament. 
 
 304 
 
NO-POPERY PLUS MUTINY. 
 
 himself witnessed among the Orange yeomanry ot Ulster. 
 " There," said he, " those disturbers of the public peace, who 
 assume the name of Orange yeomen, frequent the fairs and 
 markets, with arms in their hands, under the pretence of 
 self-defence, or of protecfting the public peace, but with the 
 lurking views of inviting attacks from the Ribbonmen, confi- 
 dent that, armed as they are, they must overcome defenceless 
 opponents and put them down. Murders have been repeatedly 
 perpetrated on such occasions, and, though legal prosecutions have 
 ensued, yet, such have been the baneful consequences of these 
 factious associations, that, under their influence, petty juries 
 have declined, upon some occasions, to do their duty. These 
 fa6is have fallen under my own view."^^ 
 
 NO-POPERY plus MUTINY. 
 
 3. The No-Popery cry and the anti-Emancipation agitation 
 were enthusiastically taken up by the Orange yeomanry, and 
 furnished the occasion for many acls of mutiny and violence on 
 their part. A few instances in point will suffice. During the 
 No-Popery agitation of i8og, the Bandon Orange yeomanry 
 (numbering 600 men) mutinied twice on parade — once on the 
 first of July, and again on the sixth. On the former occasion 
 they marched through the town, wearing Orange lilies, etc., 
 in their uniforms, contrary to military regulations. The 
 officers, " expecfling there would be some disturbance and 
 insult offered to the Catholic inhabitants," got before them 
 and gave them the order to dismiss. They refused to obey. 
 Their commanding officer, the Earl of Bandon — a strong sup- 
 porter of Orangeism — reported to head-quarters regarding 
 the subsequent parade, that, " to show their defiance, they 
 [the yeomen] all wore Orange lilies on parade on the 
 sixth." They were reprimanded for their conducft by 
 the Earl of Bandon and Colonel Oriel, and ordered either 
 to lay aside their Orange emblems or to ground their 
 arms. They threiv doivn their arms and accoutrements. By the 
 military laws then in force, the mutinous yeomen were guilty 
 of felony. The only punishment inflicfled on them was the 
 disbandment of the corps. The official correspondence of the 
 Earl of Bandon with the Commander-in-Chief of the Forces 
 in Ireland on the conducft of the Bandon and Ballyaneen corps 
 gives an interesting picfture of the bigotry and demoralisation 
 of the IMunster yeomanry at this period. ^°^ 
 
 "^^^Judge Fletcher's Charge, Irish Press Agency, 1886. 
 
 ^ospiowden, Ireland from its Union, vol. iii., pp. 763-765. See also 
 Minutes of Evidence, Irish Report oi 1835, and "M.P.'s'' History oj Orangeism, 
 pp. 137-138; also App. Bi, Irish Report, pp. iS sqq. 
 
 305 T 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 At the Kilkenny Summer Assizes in 1810, Edward Howard, 
 an Orangeman and member of Mathews' yeomanry corps, was 
 put upon his trial for the murder of a Catholic youth named 
 Wilham Butler. One of the witnesses for the defence — a 
 comrade of the prisoner's — admitted on cross-examination that 
 every man in the corps was a sworn Orangeman, and that 
 both he and all his fellows understood themselves to be 
 released from their oath of allegiance to the King, should his 
 Majesty consent to grant Catholic Emancipation.^^" 
 
 In the same year (1810) the Bann and Warringstown 
 Orange yeomanry threw down their arms and belts rather than 
 parade with the Scarvagh corps, because there were six Catholics 
 in its ranks. The Scarvagh (Upper Iveagh) corps joined in the 
 mutiny in the hopes of thus getting their six Catholic comrades 
 dismissed. Mutiny in this, as in most other similar cases, was 
 encouraged, and demoralisation fomented, by being permitted 
 to go almost wholly unpunished. Only one man in the three 
 rebellious corps was dismissed.'^" A similar a6l of mutiny 
 occurred in the Moira yeomanry corps. Their commanding 
 officer, Mr. W. S. Crawford, M.P., in his examination before 
 the Parliamentary Seledt Committee of 1835, declined to say 
 that the Irish yeomanry had any inclination for " supporting 
 the laws."^^^ 
 
 During the Emancipation agitation instances occurred in 
 which the Ulster yeomanry mutinied against officers who had 
 signed petitions in favour of the Catholic claims. Lieutenant 
 Barnes, a Presbyterian officer of the Armagh yeomanry, having 
 signed such a petition, the men under his command absolutely 
 refused to serve unless he were dismissed for his display of 
 kindly feeling towards his Catholic fellow-countrymen. The 
 mutineers were dismissed by Lieutenant-General Mackenzie. 
 The remainder of the corps were mustered again. They also 
 mutinied on parade. In a history of the city of Armagh, 
 James Stuart, an Orange writer, thus describes what took 
 place : '' The corps was re-assembled, and the officers used 
 
 2ioin the case of The King at the prosecution of Butler v. Howard. 
 Plowden, Ireland from its Union, vol. iii., pp. 756-757. Plowden's work 
 was published in 1811, and contains copy of verdidt, newspaper extradt, 
 etc., regarding the case. 
 
 2iiSee Plowden, op. cit., pp. 890-891; cf. Minutes of Evidence, Irish 
 Report of 1835 ; " M.P.," p. 138. The incident related above was made the 
 subjedt of an official report to the Government by Brigade-Major Wallace, 
 who details the efforts made by himself, and other officers and gentlemen 
 present, "to convince the men of the enormity of such behaviour as an 
 armed body, and the fatal consequences to the public service, as well as 
 the great illiberality and impolicy of entertaining such sentiments and 
 feelings for our Catholic fellow-subjedts." 
 
 ^'^^Minuies of Evidence, Q. 5803. 
 
 306 
 
NO-POPERY PLUS MUTINY. 
 
 every argument which prudence and loyalty could have sug- 
 gested to bring the malcontents to a due sense of their 
 misconducft. Every effort proved abortive. '"^^^ The rebellious 
 corps had to be disbanded. 
 
 In May, 1828, an anti-Emancipation riot took place at 
 Lurgan. The houses of many Catholics were wrecked. The 
 Riot A(5l was read by Mr. Handcock, a Protestant magistrate, 
 who subsequently narrated the day's proceedings before the 
 Parliamentary Sele(5l Committee of 1835. The magistrates 
 called on one Douglas, the permanent sergeant of the local 
 Orange yeomanry, to assemble his men, as in duty bound, to 
 suppress the riot. Douglas refused, and puncftuated his 
 refusal with a personal insult to Mr. Handcock. As a matter 
 of fa(ft, Douglas's men were at the time in the thick of the 
 tumult, and the magistrates found it necessary to remove the 
 yeomanry weapons from his custody. Nine of the rioters were 
 arrested. On their way to Portadown jail they were accom- 
 panied by the local Orange band, playing the party melodies 
 which the brethren love to hear.^" 
 
 Before the passing of the Emancipation Bill, and for some 
 time afterwards, by command of the Viceroy, the Duke of 
 Northumberland, stricSl orders were issued that the yeomen 
 were not to take part in Orange processions, even in the garb 
 of private citizens. Participation in such displays was sub- 
 sequently made illegal in Ireland by the Party Processions 
 Acft of 1832. The Killyman, Cameroy, and other Ulster yeo- 
 manry, officers and men, according to the official evidence of 
 Lord Gosford and others, flouted both the military regulations 
 and the Acfl of Parliament. ^^* Their turbulence, combined 
 with their skill in the use of weapons, made them the most 
 formidable element in the illegal and violent Orange assemblies 
 which for years defied the forces of the Crown, and spread 
 terror over the face of Ulster.^'*^ Their conducft from 1825 to 
 1835 led Sir Frederick Stoven, a Protestant Inspecftor-General 
 
 2i376j(f., Qq. 3334, 3773-3774 ; Appendix of Irish Report, pp. 80-81. 
 
 '^'^■^Minutes of Evidence, Pari. Seleft Committee of 1835, QQ- 79^3 ^??- 
 The riot arose in this way : A report had been spread in Lurgan that the 
 Cathohc Bill had been thrown out in Committee. Flags were hoisted on 
 the church of Rev. Holt Waring — an Orange clergyman noted for his 
 violence in those days ; an Orange mob paraded the streets ; and then the 
 house-wrecking began. Cf. Qq. 7922, 7937. 
 
 •''-^Minutes 0/ Evidence, Pari. Seleft Committee of 1835, Q. S070. Colonel 
 Blacker, our informant for the Diamond affair, was one of the offending 
 "loyalists." See Appendices B, Third Irish Report. 
 
 2i6Yeomanry muskets, swords, bayonets, etc., appear to have been 
 very frequently carried in processions or incursions of Orangemen not in 
 uniform. This was the case, for instance, at Annahagh, in 1835, at Dun- 
 
 307 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 of Constabulary, to thus refer to them before the Parhainentary 
 Committee on Orange lodges that for the past ten years they 
 were " quite useless, and more than useless in my opinion ; I 
 think they are dangerous."^" In August, 1835, Mr. Hume 
 declared in the House of Commons that the Irish yeomanry 
 were " all Orange." 
 
 WERE THEY LOYAL? 
 
 The history of the Orange soldiery presents few, if any, 
 acflions of which loyalty can be stated with certainty to be the 
 sole, or even the principal, guiding motive. Their conducft, as 
 a body, is wholly inconsistent with their claim or title of 
 loyalty. Their behaviour before, during, and for long after 
 the insurretflion which they did so much to provoke in 1798, is 
 quite in keeping with a cruel and vindictive hatred of four- 
 fifths of their fellow-countrymen, with a disregard of civil and 
 military law and natural right, and with a lack of common 
 human feeling which surpasses that of the Jacobins of France, 
 or of the troops whom the Duke of Alva let loose upon a 
 foreign people in the Netherlands. No friend of peace and 
 good order can regret the disappearance of the Orange 
 yeomanry corps from Irish public life. The mantle of their 
 spirit has happily not fallen on any military organisation that 
 now wears the uniform of the British army. If we seek for 
 their counterpart in the Europe of our day, we must look for 
 it among the Turkish irregulars who have repeated, in 
 Bulgaria and Armenia, the atrocities which desolated a portion 
 of Ireland at the close of the last century, and which led to the 
 bitter struggle that has left an enduring mark on Irish life and 
 charadter. 
 
 gannon, and many other places. Minutes of Evidence, Pari. Selefi: Com- 
 mittee of 1835, Qq. 3474, 3613, etc. 
 
 '^''■'^ Minutes of Evidence, Q. 4778. Cf. Qq. 4211-4212, 7315-7317, 8799. 
 See also Qq. 4340, 4341, 4550, 5349, 5628-5630, 9386, which show that at 
 that time the greater part of the yeomanry were Orangemen. 
 
 308 
 
AN EVEN KEEL. 
 
 Chapter XIV* 
 
 LOYALTY OF THE ORANGE SOCIETY : ORANGE 
 MAGISTRATES AND JURORS— BENCH. BAR, AND 
 PARLIAMENT SPEAK— •' POISONING THE FOUNTS 
 OF JUSTICE" : -THE LAW AN INSTRUMENT OF 
 TYRANNY'' — '• REFORM THE MAGISTRACY OF 
 IRELAND. MY LORD"— AN ULSTER ENDEMIC: A 
 CROP OF CASES AND A PRESCRIPTION. 
 
 In the course of his inaugural address on the American 
 Constitution, Thomas Jefferson said that one of the funda- 
 mental principles which had guided his country " through an 
 age of revolution and reformation" was, " equal and exa(5t 
 justice to all men, of whatever state or persuasion, religious or 
 political," Every well-regulated nation places the administra- 
 tion of justice, as far as possible, above the reach even of 
 suspicion; and there are few greater signs of loss of moral 
 fibre among a people than venality or partisanship seated shame- 
 lessly on the judicial bench or in the jury-box. The essence 
 of persecution is injustice, not cruelty. Cruelty is but an 
 aggravating circumstance, which deepens the wrong and the 
 sense of wrong, and stimulates to feelings of revenge. The 
 circumstances ordinarily surrounding the administration of 
 justice forbid this funcflion being regarded as a merely civic 
 duty, unrelated to a higher law. Even in the eyes of the 
 State, the justice on the bench fulfils a sacred office. He is 
 invested with it only after, and on condition of, the perform- 
 ance of a solemn aft of religion: to wit, an oath before high 
 Heaven that he will faithfully discharge the trust bestowed 
 upon him. Under the British Crown every justice is required 
 to "sincerely promise and swear" as follows: "I will at all 
 times and in all things do equal justice to the poor and to the 
 rich, and discharge the duties of my office according to law, 
 and to the best of my knowledge and ability, without fear, 
 favour, or affecftion. So help me God." Jurors, after having 
 been empannelled, are sworn to " well and truly try the issue, 
 and a true verdicft give according to the evidence."^ 
 
 iThere is a slight difference in the wording of the jurors' oath in cases 
 of felony, misdemeanour, and civil cases. See Harris, Principles of the 
 Criminal Law. 6th ed., p. 412. 
 
 309 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 It will be borne in mind that two chief elements in what is 
 termed the " basis" of Orangeism are the support, mainten- 
 ance and defence of the laws and constitution of the country. 
 An Orange newspaper, the Dublin Daily Express, thought it 
 " a libel on the British Constitution" that it should need the 
 services of a secret society to uphold it.^ The Melbourne 
 Argus — which no one will venture to accuse of undue leniency 
 to Catholics — found food for merriment in the idea of the same 
 organisation preparing to " defend" four-fiths of the popula- 
 tion of the colony from the " encroachments" of the remaining 
 fifth. The phrases "maintenance of the law," "defence of the 
 Constitution," are intended by the brethren principally tc 
 beguile the public ear.* There is nothing in the pradtice ol 
 the lodges which bears out these professions. There is very 
 much that contradidts them. This may be seen by reference 
 to the lodge proceedings which were brought to light by the 
 Parliamentary Committees of 1835, and by the Belfast Royal 
 Commission of 1857. The professions of loyalty just referred 
 to are but bits of fine declamation in which secret societies are 
 apt to indulge for the purpose of cloaking other objecfts. They 
 resemble the agreeable nonsense-talk or " patter" of the 
 professional conjurer, the scope of which is to tickle the minds 
 of the audience, and to turn away their attention from what the 
 " professor" and his assistants are really about. 
 
 In the course of the last four chapters I have dealt in 
 some detail with the manner in which the rank and file of the 
 Orange society, and many of its leaders, "maintained and 
 supported the laws of their country." The special purpose of 
 this chapter is to inquire into the conducfl of those members of 
 the association who were more especially charged with the 
 administration of the law, namely: Orange magistrates and 
 Orange jurors. In appraising at its true worth the loyalty of 
 the Orange organisation, it will be interesting to see to what 
 extent these two responsible classes of its members have been 
 guided in their official acftion by obedience to law, respecft for 
 personal right, regard for the sancftity of their oaths. 
 
 GUILTY- KNOWLEDGE. 
 
 The shadow of judicial crime has followed the steps of the 
 Orange society through every stage of its history. For over a 
 hundred years the disregard of Orange magistrates and jurors 
 for their oaths has been public and notorious. It constitutes 
 
 ^Quoted by " M. P.," History of Orangeism, p. 238. Lord Palmerston 
 gave utterance to almost precisely similar sentiments, in replying to a 
 deputation of Irish Orangemen. See note 66, infra. 
 
 3See pp. 143 sqq. 
 
 310 
 
ORANGE JUSTICES AND JURORS. 
 
 to this day a grave scandal in the administration of justice in 
 those portions of the province of Ulster in which Orangeism 
 still remains a power. The partiality of the brethren on the 
 bench and in the jury-box has been the theme of debates and 
 motions in Parhament ; it has been referred to, time and again, 
 in terms of scathing rebuke from the judicial bench, and of 
 indignant protest from the bar ; it has been the subjecft of 
 reports by magistrates, Royal Commissions, Parliamentary 
 Committees ; it has on several occasions compelled even a 
 partisan Executive to dismiss some of the most flagrant offenders 
 from the Commission of the Peace, and to make other attempts 
 to mitigate this grave and old-standing public scandal. Ex- 
 posure, protest, official adlion, have been alike in vain. The 
 evil continues rampant in Ulster to this hour. Nor can it be 
 pleaded in extenuation that the governing body of the Orange 
 association had no knowledge of the state of affairs. A matter 
 so notorious could not have failed to come time and again 
 within the searching cognisance of men whose care extends 
 even to the marriages, votes, and other intimately private 
 concerns even of their meanest members. In facfl, some of 
 the worst offenders on the bench were certain of the Ennis- 
 killens, Verners, Blackers, and other former members of the 
 Irish Grand Lodge. In the course of previous chapters of 
 this volume the reader has seen that Orangemen have re- 
 peatedly been expelled from the society for such enormities as 
 " marrying a Papist," " voting against their Grand Master," 
 favouring Catholic Emancipation, etc. But in all the private 
 lodge and Grand Lodge documents which were brought into 
 the light of day by the Parliamentary SelecTt Committees of 
 1835 and the Belfast Royal Commission of 1857, there is not 
 a single instance of an Orange magistrate or juror having been 
 even mildly rebuked for that partiality in the administration 
 of justice which must for ever remain a blot upon the 'scutcheon 
 of the institution. On the contrary, we find instances of offend- 
 ing justices being lionised as heroes,* of criminals being pro- 
 
 *Among the justices who were dismissed from the Commission of the 
 Peace, were Messrs. Greer, Blacker, Beers (the hero of Dolly's Brae), Lord 
 Rossmore, and many others. Beers was feted after the Dolly's Brae 
 massacre ; Col. Verner, after Constantine O'Neil had failed to get legal 
 satisfa6lion against his two sons. Readers of the Irish Times and the Daily 
 Express for December, 1883, and the two following months, and of the 
 Victorian Standard of the time, will recoiled the ferment created among the 
 lodges by Lord Rossmore being deprived of the Commission of the Peace. 
 Pie, too, was feted and lionised by the Orange party. Lord Roden, another 
 prominent Orange leader, was struck off the list of the magistrates of 
 county Down in 1850. On this occasion he also was made the recipient of 
 addresses, etc., by the brethren (Hansard, March 14, 1870, p. 1900). 
 Captain Coote also became a hero of the lodges after his dismissal from tha 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 tecfled and" defended, and of the Government being hampered 
 in its acftion by the society's leaders, when official efforts were 
 put forth by the Executive, for very shame's sake, to straighten 
 the ways of justice in the North. The Orange association 
 has, in fac5l, proved itself a great Tammany ring. Some of its 
 illegal adtivities have been already pointed out. Judged, as 
 we may fairly judge it, by its atftions and their naturally and 
 presumably intended results, it is hardly unjust to conclude 
 that, among the other objeifts referred to in previous chapters, 
 it has likewise the two following life-aims in view : 
 
 1. To shield Orange misdemeanants and criminals from 
 the legal consequences of their misdeeds. 
 
 2. To deprive Catholics, as far as lies in their power, of 
 the legal prote(5tion and the judicial rights guaranteed them 
 by the Emancipation Acft of 1829, the passing of which, says 
 the Presbyterian historian, Killen, drove them "almost to 
 madness."^ Such a course of adlion is, in efifecft, an attempt to 
 revive, at least on a small scale, and as far as circumstances 
 will permit, the good old days of the " glorious Constitution " 
 of William III., under which five-sixths of the Irish nation 
 were placed outside the protecftion of the law. 
 
 The evidence which favours these two conclusions exists in 
 melancholy profusion down the whole course of Orange his- 
 tory : so much so, that one experiences a real difficulty in 
 making a sele6lion of instances in point. 
 
 IN THE FIRST REIGN OF TERROR. 
 
 Disregard of the elements of legal, and even of natural, 
 justice, seems to have spread like a contagion to magistrates 
 who came within the influence of the society even in the early 
 stages of its career. In the course of the second chapter, 
 reference has been made to the partiality shown to the Peep-o'- 
 Day Boys, and to the cruelties illegally inflidted on Catholic 
 suspecfta by Lord Carhampton and by magistrates whose 
 sympathies lay with the first phase of the Orange movement. 
 The fourth chapter describes the Reign of Terror with which 
 the lodge era of the Orange society was inaugurated : the 
 frequent murders, the wholesale intimidation, banishment, and 
 plunder of the CathoHc population of Armagh and the neigh- 
 bouring counties. The Earl of Gosford, then Governor of 
 
 shrievalty of Monaghan, and his case was supported in Parliament by 
 Orange M's.P. (Hansard, ibid., pp. 1877, sqq). The same is true of Lord 
 Rossmore, who was deprived of the Commission of the Peace on November 
 24, 1884, for his condud in connexion with an Orange counter-demonstra- 
 tion at Rosslea. See Dublin Daily Express for December, 1883. and the 
 following months. 
 
 ''£ccks. Hist. Ireland, vol. ii., p. 463. 
 
 312 
 
JUSTICE: 1795-1796. 
 
 Armagh, after referring to the horrors of the Orange outrages on 
 the CathoUc inhabitants, said in his address to the assembled 
 magistrates of the county : " The spirit of impartial justice, 
 without which law is nothing better than an instrument of 
 tyranny, has for a time disappeared in the country, and the 
 supineness of the magistracy of Armagh is become a common 
 topic of conversation in every corner of the kingdom."" In the 
 Irish House of Commons, February 21, 1796, Grattan declared 
 that " the inhabitants of Armagh have been acftually put out 
 of the protecftion of the law ; the magistrates have been 
 supine or partial ; and the horrid banditti [the Orange- 
 men] have met with complete success, and from the 
 magistracy very little discouragement,"' Lord Camden, 
 the Viceroy, stated in January, 1796, that "acfls of the 
 greatest outrage and barbarity against their Catholic neigh- 
 bours" were being then perpetrated by the Orangemen. 
 " This," he continues, " has been owing to the magistrates in 
 that county [Armagh] having imbibed the prejudices which 
 belong to it."* The Memoir of the Union presented to the 
 Government by Emmet, O'Connor, and McNevin, also refers 
 to the encouragement which the Ulster magistrates, by their 
 policy of masterly inacftivity, gave to the rioters at this period. 
 In his Pieces of Irish History, McNevin tells of the prosecutions 
 instituted by the Executive of the United Irish Society 
 *' against some of the most notorious offenders, and some of the 
 most guilty magistrates."^ The prosecutions were un- 
 successful. Their only apparent result was, says McNevin, 
 "to redouble the outrages," and to leave the country more 
 hopelessly than ever at the mercy of a merciless mob. 
 
 In debating the Insurre(ftion Bill in the Irish Parliament, 
 Sir Laurence Parsons said of the Orange magistrates of 
 Armagh : " In that county it had been frequently proved on 
 oath that several magistrates refused to take the examinations 
 
 ^Lecky, Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, vol. iii., p. 431. 
 
 ''Killen, Eccles. Hist. Ireland, vol. ii., p. 365. Plowden gives abundant 
 evidence for Grattan's statement. Ireland from its Union, vol. i., Introd,, 
 pp. 41-42, 48. According to Plowden, not a single magistrate of Armagh 
 county was deprived of the Commission of the Peace, although many of 
 them were believed to have encouraged the perpetration of those Orange 
 outrages. Cf. Walpole, Kingdom 0/ Ireland, chap, xv., pp. 436-457, and note 
 9, infra. 
 
 ^Letter to Portland, January 22, 1796, quoted by Froude, English in 
 Ireland, vol. iii., p. 178, note. 
 
 "Plowden gives instances of Mr. Ford and " several other magistrates " 
 having disarmed their Catholic tenants, the arms thus secured being 
 almost immediately placed in the hands of Orangemen "to be employed 
 in the extermination of the disarmed owners." Ireland from its Union, vol. 
 i., Introd., pp. 25-26. 
 
 313 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 of the injured Catholics. By some of these magistrates they 
 had been most cruelly persecuted ; others would hear them 
 only out of the window, and some a(5tually turned them from 
 the door with threats. If such men were to be entrusted with 
 the power of transporting men at pleasure, what was to be 
 expecfted but the most gross and flagrant violation of justice ? " ^° 
 Reference to the doings of Messrs. Verner, Ford, Greer, and 
 other prominent Orange magistrates will supply abundant 
 proof in point." When, however, a number of the extermin- 
 ators were proceeded against at the Armagh Spring Assizes in 
 1796, the witnesses for the prosecution, although escorted by 
 dragoons, were intimidated, waylaid, maimed, or murdered. 
 Only eleven of the "atrocious banditti" were sentenced. Of 
 these one only — a Dissenter — was hanged. The remainder 
 were liberated at the solicitation of friendly magistrates.^^ 
 
 The Quaker eye-witness, Mr. Christie, testified to the 
 Parliamentary Committee of 1835 as to the murders and other 
 grave crimes committed against Catholics in his districfl by the 
 Orange party in r7g5 and 1796. The Committee queried: 
 " Did you ever hear of a man having been prosecuted or 
 punished for those attacks upon the houses by wrecking and 
 burning, and for the murders that were perpetrated ? " Mr. 
 Christie replied : " I do not, I think, recolledl: any instance of 
 a person being prosecuted at that period for those offences, for 
 no investigation took place ; the magistrates were supine and 
 inacflive ; they did not exert themselves in the manner that I, 
 and that many others who wished the peace of the country, 
 thought they should have atfted." Referring to this early 
 period of lodge violence, Lecky says: "It is impossible to 
 resist the conclusion that some of the magistrates shamefully 
 tolerated or connived at the outrages. "^^ 
 
 The same spirit followed the spread of Orangeism to the 
 South, where — as has been shown in the last chapter— lodge 
 law speedily turned the civil law into an instrument of the 
 worst tyranny. Early in 1798 — before the outbreak of the 
 rebellion — ^at the Queen's County Assizes, gentry and barristers 
 wore in court the emblems of the society ; and what Lecky 
 terms" " Orange fanaticism" had already invaded the temples 
 of justice in the South to such an extent as to call forth " an 
 earnest remonstrance" to the Government from the pen of a 
 
 if^Quoted by Plowden, Ireland from its Union, vol. i., Introd., pp. 41-42 
 
 ^^Ibid., pp. 25, sgq. 
 
 ^"^Ibid., p. 29. 
 
 ^^/reland in the Eighteenth Century, vol. iii., p. 446; cf. p. 437. 
 
 ^'*'Ibid., vol. iv., p. 240; cf. Jndp;e Fletcher's words, in/ru, 
 
 3H 
 
WILSON'S LETTERS. 
 
 paid informer, McNally/® regarding the shameful manner in 
 which the lives of the unhappy Catholic prisoners were being 
 gambled away. 
 
 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 
 
 In the course of the last chapter abundant reference was 
 made to the illegal inflicftion of torture, death, etc., frequently 
 without trial, by Orange or philo-Orange justices, and by 
 yeomanry officers (many of whom were magistrates) during 
 the wild times of the Inc^isition of 1797-1799. Perhaps the 
 most powerful indicftment extant of the partisanship of Orange 
 magistrates and jurors is contained in the correspondence 
 addressed to the Government by Mr. Wilson, to whom brief 
 reference has been made in the last chapter. Mr. Wilson was 
 an English Protestant gentleman, a former Member of the 
 British Parliament, and a relative of the Duke of Richmond. 
 He had long resided in Tyrone county, of which he was a 
 magistrate. His home lay close to the place where the first 
 lodge was founded; where the Reign of Terror of 1795-1796 
 was inaugurated; where lived the Blackers,Verners, Atkinsons, 
 and other Orange magistrates, whose freaks upon the bench 
 afforded him exceptional opportunities for observation. His 
 letters and narrative, published in 1807 and 1808, are 
 crowded with fadls and details of crying hardship. These 
 have never been set aside, and form one of the blackest records 
 of the judicial crime that stains the annals of Orange history. 
 Mr. Wilson's opinion of Orange magistrates and jurors, formed 
 after a personal experience of many years, is thus summed up in 
 a letter written to the secretary of the Lord Lieutenant (Mr. 
 Elliott) on the case of Constantine O'Neill : " It is with great 
 concern that I feel warranted to declare that, where an Orange- 
 man and a Roman Catholic are concerned, a most disgraceful 
 partiality in favour of the former governs the proceedings of 
 nine out of ten of the magistrates in the part of the kingdom I 
 reside in."'" In another portion of his correspondence he 
 states : " That there was scarce an outrage, however flagitious, 
 which could be committed in his [Wilson's] quarter of the 
 kingdom against a Roman Catholic by an Orangeman that, by 
 some means or other, did not generally pass unnoticed, but 
 
 i^Lecky, op. cit., pp. 239-240, 292. The Viceroy, Camden, admitted 
 that in the assizes referred to, " the juries were almost too anxious to con- 
 vi(ft." A great number of death-sentences, said McNally, were passed, 
 not so much from evidence, as for the purpose of " making examples" (pp. 
 23S, 240). 
 
 isQuoted by " M.P.," Hist, of Orajtgeism, p. 120. Some details about 
 Wilson will be found in Plowden's Ireland jrom its Union, vol. i., Introd., 
 p. 52, note. 
 
 3'3 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 always unpunished to the extent of its enormity ; that, in 
 matters of dispute between Roman Catholics and Orangemen, 
 a most disgraceful partiality in favour of the latter governed 
 the proceedings of nine in ten of the magistrates in his district; 
 that the murderer, the forger, and the felon were, when Orange- 
 men, protetfted and screened from justice by the Orange magis- 
 tracy, and bills of indidtment suppressed or smothered by Orange 
 officials ; and lastly, that the man who had hardihood sufficient 
 to proteift a Roman Catholic subjedled himself not only to 
 obloquy, but to personal danger."" Mr. Wilson applied to 
 have his Commission extended to the neighbouring county of 
 Armagh (on the border of which he lived), with a view to 
 protecfting the poor Catholics " who," as Mitchel says, " lived 
 in daily and nightly terror under the shadow of the original 
 Orange lodge, and in the neighbourhood which had been the 
 scene of the ' Hell-or-Connaught' exterminations ten years 
 earlier."'^ His application was refused. His well-meant 
 effi)rts only brought upon him the vengeance of the Orange 
 party. One solitary voice crying in the wilderness could not 
 stem the " wanton oppression and official connivance which," 
 says Mitchel, " made the North of Ireland itself a hell for the 
 Catholic people during many a year since, and which is by no 
 means over at this day."^^ 
 
 JUDGE FLETCHER SPEAKS. 
 
 In 1810 — two years after the publication of Wilson's last 
 pamphlet — Judge Fox, a Protestant, was on the North-West 
 circuit. He found it necessary to severely reprimand the 
 Orange, or mostly Orange, juries, for their display of sedlarian 
 animosity in court. About the same time Judge Johnson, when 
 in Donegal, had the courage to pass a strong censure on the 
 great supporter of the Orange party. Lord Abercorn, for a 
 serious ad: of peculation committed by him against the Govern- 
 ment and the ratepayers.^^ Four years later, in 1814, Judge 
 Fletcher delivered his great charge to the Wexford jury. In 
 the course of this remarkable pronouncement, while enumerat- 
 
 ^''Ihid., p. 123. 
 
 ^^Hist. of Ireland, vol. ii., chap, xii., p. 117. 
 
 ^^Ibid. Wilson was burned m effigy, with the sanAion of Col. Verner ; 
 he was almost beaten to death by Orange processionists ; his range of out- 
 buildings, filled with hay, was burned in one night ; and his importunities 
 to the Chief Secretary and the Lord Chancellor for Ireland on behalf of his 
 persecuted neighbours led to his being deprived of the Commission of the 
 Peace by the anti-Catholic administration of the day. The hostility of the 
 lodges finally compelled him to fly the country. 
 
 2 0For further particulars of Judges Fox and Johnson, and of the 
 attacks made upon them by the Orange party, see preface by Mr. Clancy, 
 M.P., to Judge Fletcher's Charge. Irish Press Agency, London, 1886. 
 
 316 
 
JUDGE FLETCHER. 
 
 ing the evils from which the country was at the time suffering, 
 he says : " In the next place, the country has seen a magistracy 
 over acftive in some instances, and quite supine in others. This 
 circumstance has materially afFecSted the administration of the 
 laws in Ireland. In this respedt I have found that those 
 societies called Orange societies have produced most mis- 
 chievous effecfts, and particularly in the North of Ireland. 
 They poison the very fount of justice ; and even some magis- 
 trates under their influence have in too many instances violated 
 their duty and their oaths." Referring to the riotous behaviour 
 of the Orange yeomanry at fairs and markets, Judge Fletcher 
 continues : " Murders have been repeatedly perpetrated [by 
 the armed yeomen] on such occasions, and though legal pro- 
 ceedings have ensued, yet, such have been the baneful 
 consequences of these associations, that, under their influence 
 petty juries have declined upon some occasions to do their duty. 
 These fa6ts have fallen under my own view. It was sufficient to 
 say such a man displayed such a colour, to produce an utter 
 disbelief in his testimony ;^^ or, when another has stood with 
 his hand at the bar, the display of his party badge has 
 mitigated the murder into manslaughter." " ' I am a loyal 
 man,' says a witness ; that is : ' Gentlemen of the petty jury, 
 believe me, let me swear what I will.' When he swears he is 
 a loyal man, he means : ' Gentlemen of the jury, forget your 
 oaths, and acquit the Orangemen.'" Judge Fletcher comments 
 strongly on the " highly indecorous, unfeeling, and unjust " 
 condudt of magistrates, and " the grievous mischiefs " arising 
 therefrom, and tells his hearers how he said to Lord Redesdale 
 (then Lord Chancellor): " Reform the magistracy of Ireland, 
 my lord. You have the power to do this ; and until you do it, 
 in vain will you expecft tranquility or content in the country." 
 In the twenties a series of able pamphlets were brought 
 out by the well-known publicist, W. J. Battersby, Winetavern 
 Street, Dublin. One of them — the second — was addressed to 
 the Orangemen of Ireland. It contains a list of some recent 
 murders by Orangemen, which had been allowed to go " unre- 
 quitted and unrevenged," because " the sheriff, the jurors, the 
 witnesses, were all Orangemen." " It is not alone," said the 
 writer, " that the Catholics are liable to be murdered by 
 Orangemen in their habitations ; but even in courts of justice, 
 as jurors, they are determined to show no justice to Catholics. "'^^ 
 
 2iMr. Kernan, a barrister of long experience in Ulster, deposed before 
 the Pari. Selecfl Committee of 1835 that Orange prisoners "frequently" 
 wore the emblems of the society (ribbons, etc.) in the dock. Irish Report, 
 vol. iii., Q. 7219. 
 
 22Quoted in "M.P.'s" Hist, of Orangeism, p. 156. 
 
 317 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 On the 30th March, 1824, on the 4th of the following May, 
 and on many other occasions the conducT: of the Orange 
 magistracy was brought under the notice of the House of 
 Commons. 
 
 ON ITS TRIAL : 1835. 
 
 The most noteworthy witness that appeared before the 
 Irish Seledt Parliamentary Committee of 1835 was undoubtedly 
 Mr. James Christie. He was at the time sixty-two years old, 
 and had watched the rise and progress of Orangeism ever since 
 the times of the Peep-o'-Day Boys. In his examination before 
 the Selecft Committee, he was asked :^^ " What is the effecft of 
 those Orange processions and lodges upon the minds of the 
 Catholic people with regard to the administration of justice, 
 both by magistrates and juries?" Mr. Christie replied: 
 " Where an Orange magistrate is sitting on the bench, the 
 Catholics consider that he is partial in his decisions. . . . 
 I have said before, with respecft to Orangemen being magis- 
 trates, in my opinion it is not fit ; but when magistrates, men of 
 respecStability and intelligence, well-informed and impartial 
 magistrates, cannot be got — and I believe there are some parts of 
 the cotintyy zvhere they cannot be got — -I believe that a stipendiary 
 magistrate, in such districfts of the country, would be absolutely 
 necessary." 
 
 Q. " For what reason do you believe they could not be 
 got ? " " Because there are so many completely Orangemen in 
 principle, although not professed Orangemen ; they are biassed 
 in their opinion against Catholics, so that justice cannot be 
 obtained at their hands." In reply to a following question, 
 regarding Orange magistrates, he said : "I think they are 
 unsuitable to try questions which originate in party feeling, 
 when they themselves belong to a party, and encourage party 
 feeling." 
 
 Q. " From whence do you derive your knowledge of the 
 magistrates ?" " From my observation of their condudt, and 
 their attending [Orange] processions when the law was not 
 against it ; and from their language to the people at these 
 processions ; from the feelings of the Catholics when they are 
 brought before them ; and, knowing the circumstances of the 
 case, a person of middling capacity can judge whether a 
 magistrate is doing right or wrong." In answer to a further 
 query, the witness deposed that his evidence regarding 
 magistrates was derived " from observations I have made upon 
 the cqnducft of the magistrates, what I have seeri, heard, and 
 known. I have sometimes attended the Quarter Sessions, an d 
 
 ^^^See Minutes of Evidence, Pari. Committee of 1835, Ql> S^QS^S^Q^. 5756- 
 
 318 
 
ORANGE JUSTICES AND JURORS. 
 
 I have seen Orange magistrates sitting, and I myself, and 
 many others, were not satisfied with their decisions." Ques- 
 tioned as to whether he had personally witnessed a(51:s of 
 partiality, he replied in the affirmative. " I think," said he, 
 " the principal thing was in the examination of witnesses; the 
 credit that was given to one witness above another. Where 
 two men of equally good chafa6ter were brought forward to prove 
 a thing, the one a Catholic, and the other a Protestant, the 
 Protestant evidence was admitted as good, and the other was 
 considered as doubtful." Replying to another question, he 
 said that the "feelings of irritation that exist between parties 
 in Ireland are rather between Catholics and Orangemen, than 
 between Catholics and Protestants." 
 
 In his evidence before the Parliamentary Selecft Committee 
 of 1835, Mr. W. Sharman Crawford, an Ulster Protestant 
 Member of Parliament, justified the marked distrust which 
 Catholics had in the administration of the law by Orange 
 magistrates and Orange jurors.-^ The Right Hon. the Earl of 
 Caledon (likewise a Protestant, and Lieutenant of Tyrone 
 county) observed before the same Committee that the adminis- 
 tration of justice would be very much improved if magistrates 
 were free even from the suspicion of being members of any 
 secret organisation.^^ Dr. Mullen gave instances of jury- 
 packing.^" Mr. John Gore, a Protestant, and stipendiary 
 magistrate in Ulster, when examined by theSeledt Committee, 
 described the Orangemen as violent opponents of the law in 
 the North ; blamed the Orange magistracy for thwarting the 
 forces of the Crown in the discharge of their duty; and 
 condemned their method of administering justice as leading to 
 well-grounded suspicion of partiality. Mr. James Sinclair, 
 another Ulster Protestant magistrate, after forty years' experi- 
 ence on the bench, deposed that the Orange justices were " a 
 very bad part" of the population of the North.^' From a long 
 experience of the ways of the brethren, he thus describes their 
 alleged readiness to assist in the maintenance of the law : " / 
 never knew the Orangemen of the North of Ireland, or any portion of 
 them as Orangemen, assist in the preservation of the peace, or in the 
 execution of the laws; that is my opinion."^ Mr. Kernan, a 
 barrister of note, with over thirty years' experience of Ulster 
 courts, testified that the Orange society had injured the 
 
 -^Minutes of Evidence , Irish Report, Q. 4374. 
 
 25//,/^., Qq. 5530, sqq. 
 
 '2'^Ibid., Qq. 6314, 6315, 6319, 6323, 6328. 
 
 '^■'Ibid., Q. 5182. 
 
 ^»Ibid., Q. 5181. 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 administration of justice ** very materially," and for the follow- 
 ing reasons :^^ 
 
 "In the first place," said he, "the returning ofBcer at the 
 assizes and sessions, the high-sheriff generally, the sub-sheriff 
 always, are both Orangemen, and I conceive that for the last 
 thirty years, to the best of my recollecftion, there has been no 
 jury (in Fermanagh at least) consisting of other persons than 
 Orangemen. I think the administration of justice has been 
 most materially injured in that respedf ; and the reason I think 
 so is, because the verdicfts were generally, in cases between 
 Orangemen and Catholics, contrary to the judge's charges, as 
 well as contrary to the evidence. That is my impression, and 
 I can state several cases in proof of the facft."^" The witness 
 then mentioned several peculiarly flagrant cases of partisanship 
 by Orange magistrates and jurors. We shall have occasion 
 later on in the course of this chapter to refer to one or two of 
 them. The following question, put to Mr. Kernan, and his 
 answer thereto, refers to Orange jurors, and puts the whole 
 situation in a nutshell : " What is your observation generally 
 as to the administration of justice?" ^^ In all cases, civil and 
 criminal, between Protestant and Catholic, justice is positively deniea 
 to the Catholic. "^^ 
 
 The English Seledl Parliamentary Committee of 1835 thus 
 sums up, in its official Report, its verdidl on the tendency of the 
 Orange association : 
 
 " The obvious tendency and effecft of the Orange institution 
 is to keep up an exclusive association in civil and military 
 society, exciting one portion of th® people against the other ; 
 to increase the rancour and animosity too often, unfortunately, 
 existing between persons of different religious persuasions — to 
 make the Protestant the enemy of the Catholic, and the 
 Catholic the enemy of the Protestant ; by processions on 
 particular days, attended with insignia of the society, to excite 
 to breaches of the peace and to bloodshed ; to raise up other 
 secret societies among the Catholics in their own defence, and 
 
 "^^Ibid., Qq. 7213, sqq. (vol. iii). In a subsequent portion of his evi- 
 dence, this witness shows that the exclusion of CathoUcs from the juries 
 was deUberate and systematic. The extent to which the most barefaced 
 jury-packing is carried on in Ireland to the present hour would seem 
 incredible to anyone not acquainted with the system on which " justice" 
 is administered in that country. See Mitchel, Hist, of Ireland, vol. ii., 
 chap, xxii., pp. 193-194. One Crown Prosecutor, still living, acquired such 
 a reputation for his systematic exclusion of Catholics from the juries, that 
 he is popularly known in Ireland to this day by the sobriquet of " Peter the 
 Packer." Cf. T. P. O'Connor's Parnell Movement (Ward and Downey's 
 popular ed. 1887), pp. 8, 13, 14, 48. 
 
 '^^ Minutes 0/ Evidence, Q. 7214. 
 
 ^^Ibid., Q. 7321 (p. 76). 
 
 320 
 
ORANGE JUSTICES AND JURORS. 
 
 for their own protecSlion, against the insults of the Orangemen; 
 to intercept the course of justice; and to interfere with the 
 discipline of the army, thus rendering its services injurious, 
 instead of useful, when required on occasions where Catholics 
 and Protestants may be parties. All these evils have been 
 proved by the evidence before the House in regard to Ireland, 
 where the system has long existed on an extended scale, 
 rendered still more prejudicial to the best interests of society 
 by the patronage and prote(51:ion of so many wealthy members, 
 high in office and in rank, taking an adlive part in the 
 proceedings of these lodges, though in Great Britain in a more 
 limited way." 
 
 The Edinburgh Review (a Protestant magazine), of January, 
 1836, sums up the evidence laid before the Parliamentary 
 Committee of the previous year, in seven charges or counts of 
 indidfment against the Orange society. The second, third, 
 and fourth counts run as follow: 
 
 "That it [the Orange society] has fomented hostile and 
 intolerant feelings between co-secfts of the Christian religion." 
 
 "That by its annual processions and commemorations of 
 epochs of party triumph, it has exasperated and transmitted 
 ancient feuds, which have led to riots, with loss of property 
 and life." 
 
 "That in consequence of the civil and religious antipathies 
 thus engendered, the administration of justice in all its depart- 
 ments, whether of the bench, the jury, or the witness box, has 
 become tainted or suspedted." 
 
 AGGRAVATING CIRCUMSTANCES. 
 
 The notorious partisanship of Orange magistrates and 
 jurors was by no means ended by the exposure, disgrace, and 
 pradlical downfall of the association in 1836. In Ireland it 
 continues unchecked to the present time, and has formed the 
 subjecft of condemnation in Parliament, and of vigorous protest 
 by public bodies, by the press, by the judicial bench, and the 
 bar. In the course of this chapter reference will be made to 
 the efforts of an Irish Lord Chancellor to mitigate the scandals 
 of the Orange bench and jury-box. During the debate on the 
 Party Processions Acft in 1870, Mr. McCarthy Downing, M.P., 
 dwelt in strong terms on the "partial administration of the 
 law" in Ulster, in cases to which Catholics and Orangemen 
 were parties.'''^ On the 17th of the same month reference had 
 been made to the same subjecft by Baron Dowse, when Attorney- 
 General for Ireland.^ In his evidence before the Royal 
 
 •''^Hansard, March 30, 1870 (vol ii of Session), p 953. 
 ^^Ibid; p. 1909. 
 
 321 U 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 Commission of Inquiry into the Derry Riots of 1869, Dr. 
 White, the leading medical pra(5titioner of the North-West of 
 Ireland, a gentleman who held the office of high-sheriff of the 
 County of Derry, stated that he had several times declined to 
 accept the Commission of the Peace for that city : he could 
 not, he said, conscientiously take his place on the bench because 
 of the strong bias displayed by the magistrates in party cases. 
 During the course of what has been aptly termed "the kid- 
 glove investigation" into the Derry riots of 1883, the Catholic 
 body (almost three-fifths of the population of the city) issued 
 a memorable document, from which I extracft the following 
 words: "It is notorious that the position of the Catholics of 
 Derry is little better than what it was before Emancipation. 
 We have neither the protecflion of the law from outrage, nor 
 hope of redress after its commission. On the other hand, an 
 insolent minority has controlling influence, not alone in civic 
 representation, but even in the appointment and removal of 
 resident magistrates and police officers."®^ The Report of the 
 Belfast Riots Commission of 1886 contains a memorial pre- 
 sented to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland by the Catholic in- 
 habitants of that chief centre of Orange acflivity. The 
 memorial in question maintained that one of the causes of the 
 Belfast riots was "a well-grounded convidtion on the part of 
 the Orangemen that law-breakers on their side would have 
 comparative immunity from punishment when brought before 
 the local justices."®^ 
 
 Herein lay one of the most hopeless features of the regime 
 of the lodges in Ulster: the paucity of Catholic magistrates, 
 and the fatfl that, at pradlically any time and place, a bench 
 could be packed with men whose principles and practice were 
 a sufficient guarantee that the law would not be impartially 
 administered. We shall see instances of this as we proceed. 
 An idea of the position of Catholics in courts of justice in 
 Ulster may be formed from the following facfls : 
 
 I. Till after the period of Emancipation there was in Ire- 
 land no Catholic judge. In Ulster there were scarcely any 
 CathoHc magistrates; and Catholics, though competent and 
 entitled by law to serve upon juries, were commonly and 
 systematically excluded from them. In large portions of the 
 province, even in Catholic Fermanagh and Monaghan, Orange 
 juries were the rule.'^'' 
 
 ^'^The memorial in question is given in full in Appendix A to the 
 Report of the Royal Commission appointed to inquire into the Derry 
 sectarian riots of 1883. For the condition of Catholics in Derry and Bel- 
 fast, see Appendix A, infya. 
 
 "^Appendix E to Report. 
 
 3*Mr. Kernan deposed before the Pari. Committee of 1835, that in an 
 
 322 
 
ORANGE JUSTICES AND JURORS. 
 
 2. " In 1833," says Lecky, " four years after Catholic 
 Emancipation, there was not in Ireland a single Catholic judge 
 or stipendiary magistrate."*'' 
 
 3. As recently as 1886, out of seventeen members of the 
 Belfast Corporation who were magistrates, not one was a 
 Catholic ; and out of nineteen members of the Police Com- 
 mittee of the Corporation who were magistrates, not one was 
 a Catholic.^^ A similar, if not worse, state of things, existed 
 in Derry. 
 
 4. From the rise of Orangeism until 1814, the Orange 
 yeomanry was practically the only police force in Ireland. 
 
 5. The Irish police were established in 1814. From that 
 date until 1836 they were all Protestants. In that year Under- 
 Secretary Thomas Drummond insisted on the introdu(5tion of 
 a considerable number of Catholics into the force.*^ Long 
 previous to this date, Orange lodges had been formed among 
 the Irish police.*" In Ulster the force was honeycombed with 
 Orangeism. In Belfast, as late as 1857, o^t of igo members 
 of the city police, only six or seven were Catholics." The 
 spirit with which they discharged their duty as officers of the 
 law may be estimated from the answer which one of them 
 (Robert Blair) made to a question put to him by the Royal 
 Commissioners who were sent to inquire into the great 
 Belfast sectarian riots of 1857. The query regarded his 
 sympathy with the Orange rioters : " You would not have the 
 slightest sympathy for a brother Orangeman [rioter] ?" 
 " Of course I would, and I will not deny it."*^ Evidence of a 
 
 experience of Fermanagh courts, extending over nearly thirty years, he 
 could recolledt only one or two Catholics having been placed on juries 
 there, either in the civil court or in the Crown court ; and that during the 
 same period pradically all the juries were Orange. Catholics were 
 competent, but were deliberately excluded by Orange sheriffs, sub-sheriffs, 
 etc. Minutes of Evidence, Third Irish Report, Qq. 7218, 7252, 7255, 7257. 
 See his evidence above. For jury-packing in Fermanagh, see Hansard for 
 March 14, 1870, p. 1909. See note 29, supra. 
 
 '^"^Leaders of Public Opinion, ed. 1871, p. 260. 
 
 ^^ Report of Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Belfast Riots of 
 1886, Appendix C. As a matter of fadl there was not at the time a member 
 of the Corporation belonging to the proscribed creed. In their Report (p. 
 14), the Commissioners recommend the appointment of more Catholic 
 magistrates. 
 
 ^^Memoir of Thomas Drummond, by J. F. McLennan, pp. 266, 274. 
 Edinburgh, 1867. 
 
 ^°Third Report, Pari. Seled Committee of 1835, p. 81. 
 
 ^''■Report of Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Belfast riots of 
 1857, P- 4- Cf. Reports of Royal Commissions of 1864 and 1886, Appen- 
 dices. 
 
 ^''Minutes of Evidence, Q. 7761. At that time the appointments to the 
 city police were made by the Corporation Police Committee, not one of 
 whom was a Catholic. 
 
 323 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 strongly-marked partiality for the Sandy-row rioters was, on 
 cross-examination, dragged from a typically unsatisfa(ftory 
 Orange witness, a head-constable who was examined by the 
 Belfast Royal Commission of 1886.^^ 
 
 In their Report (p. 4), the Belfast Royal Commissioners of 
 1857 show that many of the city police were Orangemen, and 
 give what they term " startling evidence" of the partiality of 
 the force for their brethren of the Sandy-row mob, A regula- 
 tion has long been in existence, and is, I believe, stricftly 
 enforced, forbidding Irish policemen from joining the Orange 
 association. Under-Secretary Drummond was, in his day, 
 inflexible in upholding his regulation that there should be no 
 Orangemen in the police force. ^' Such a course was, as we 
 shall see, urged upon the House of Commons by the English 
 Parliamentary Committee of 1835. It was pressed upon the 
 notice of a Committee of Inquiry into the police force of 
 Vi(ftoria in 1882. The matter seems, however, to have ended 
 there ; for, at the present time, according to the Vidlorian 
 Standard, Orangeism seems to be firmly estabHshed among the 
 police force of the colony. Reference to the lodge advertise- 
 ments in the organ just mentioned — for instance, in its issue 
 of November, 30, i8g6 — will show that members of the force 
 in question duSi as Masters, Deputy Masters, etc., of lodges ; 
 while the colony has furnished the perhaps unique example of 
 one policeman openly a(5ting as marshal to an illegal Orange 
 procession,^^ under the eyes of his superior officers, and of 
 another who has time and again taken such a prominent part 
 in the oratorical portion of Orange demonstrations, as to evoke 
 a letter of protest in the columns of the public press. ^^ It is 
 needless to state that the increased spread of the society in 
 this Department of the State could not fail to gradually but 
 surely undermine the confidence of the Catholic body of 
 Vicfloria in the administration of justice, in as far as it depends 
 upon the condudl and evidence of such violent partisans as 
 Orangemen are, and are required to be by the rules and 
 traditions of the order. 
 
 ^^Minntes of Evidence, 13537, sqq. This witness's evidence was so un- 
 satisfadory, and in some cases so contradiftory, that the President of the 
 Commission sternly reprimanded him: "You have given that portion of 
 your evidence — I will not say whether the rest is true or not — in a most 
 discreditable manner." Q. 13608. 
 
 **Barry O'Brien, Thomas Drummond, p. 242. 
 
 *5The procession was held at Prahran, Melbourne, on the occasion of 
 Queen Vidloria's Diamond Jubilee. Arms (drawn swords) were borne in 
 the procession, contrary to the Aft. See Argus, Age and Advocate of date. 
 
 ^^Portland Observer (Vidoria), July 26, 1894. A similar case of abuse 
 of Catholics by a policeman occurred at Warrnambool some years ago. 
 
 324 
 
ORANGE JUSTICES AND JURORS. 
 
 THE MODUS OPERANDI. 
 
 It would be obviously impossible to detail the varied means 
 which Orange magistrates and jurors have employed, during 
 the past hundred years and more, to poison the founts of justice, 
 and make law an instrument of tryanny. There were, how- 
 ever, three chief methods of work— some proper to magistrates, 
 others to jurors — which were adted upon with such frequency 
 and regularity that they may be fairly regarded as parts of a 
 settled plan. These were : 
 
 1. Refusing to receive informations or to issue warrants 
 against Orange misdemeanants and criminals ; permitting 
 them to abscond, and otherwise shielding them from arrest 
 or molestation. 
 
 2. Acquitting Orange misdemeanants and criminals in the 
 face of clear evidence of their guilt ; against the direc5lions of 
 judges, etc. ; in civil cases, giving verdicfls or entering 
 judgments in favour of the Orange parties to a suit, in the 
 face of evidence, law, and equity. 
 
 3. Condemning Catholics to imprisonment and other forms 
 of punishment, without trial, or without sufficient evidence of 
 their guilt, or in the face of clear evidence of their innocence; 
 in civil cases, giving adverse verdicls or judgments against 
 the Catholic party, where evidence and law alike required a 
 favourable judgment. 
 
 Abundant reference has already been made to the com- 
 parative impunity which accompanied the outrages of those 
 embryo Orangemen, the Peep-o'-Day Boys, in sharp contrast 
 with the savage and illegal punishments meted out to the 
 Defenders ; to the manner in which the Ulster magistrates 
 connived at, sympathised with, or openly encouraged the 
 excesses of the early lodges ; to the tortures, burnings, mur- 
 ders, committed on the unhappy people from 1797 to 1799, 
 not alone without protest from the magisterial body, but too 
 frequently with their positive sancftion and diredtion, and under 
 the personal supervision of Crown officials, such as a former 
 Earl of Enniskillen, John Claudius Beresford, and others who 
 held the highest positions in the Orange association," A few 
 typical instances, selecfted out of a vast number on record, are 
 here given of the methods by which the rills of justice were 
 fouled in more tranquil times. 
 
 BY WAY OF ILLUSTRATION. 
 
 During the first ten years of the century, when Mr. Justice 
 Fox was on the North-West circuit as Judge of Assize, he 
 found some Catholic peasants in prison without any charge 
 
 *''See chap, xiii., supra. 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 having been specified against them. One of the vicftims had 
 been kept in soUtary confinement by order of the great autocrat 
 of the Irish lodges, the Earl of Enniskillen. At a later period 
 the Attorney General, Mr, Blackburn, went in an official capa- 
 city to Enniskillen, examined the gaol, and found therein some 
 eighteen or twenty Catholics who had been imprisoned for 
 three weeks without any committal, or without any cause 
 whatever having been assigned for their detention. One 
 William Gabbett, an Orange magistrate, was responsible for 
 this outrage on the liberty of the subjecft (Q. 7265, etc.) He 
 was severely reprimanded by the Attorney-General, and the 
 vicftims of his tyranny were immediately set at liberty. In the 
 previous year this man Gabbett had signalised himself in the 
 case of the King at the prosecution of McCuster v. Alexander 
 Coulter and others, by discharging a party of Orange yeomen 
 who had been legally and formally committed by two other 
 magistrates on a charge of capital felony. In this case, as in 
 the'others, the aggrieved persons were Catholics. Comment- 
 ing on Gabbett 's acftion in the matter, the Edinhuvgh Review of 
 January, 1836, says : " For this he would have been removed 
 from the bench, but for his connecflion with the great Orange 
 chieftain, Lord Enniskillen." The Orange yeomen were after- 
 wards tried and acquitted by a jury of their brethren, the mis- 
 carriage of justice in this instance being so flagrant that the case 
 was brought under the notice of the House of Commons.** 
 
 During the course of a riot at Derrygonnelly (Co. 
 Fermanagh), a man named Murvanogue was killed by an 
 Orange yeomen named Kitson. The father of the murdered 
 man went from magistrate to magistrate, seeking for some one 
 to take the necessary depositions for Kitson's arrest. All 
 refused. The murderer was allowed to escape in a leisurely 
 way to America. At the ensuing assizes, Judge Osborne 
 administered a severe reprimand to all the magistrates who 
 had so flagrantly failed in the discharge of their duty. In the 
 meantime others of the rioters were tried by an Orange jury. 
 All the Catholics were convidled ; all the Orangemen acquitted. 
 After some time the absconder, Kitson, returned home. He 
 was tried, and in the face of the clearest evidence of his guilt, 
 acquitted by a jury of his Orange brethren.*^ 
 
 The disregard of Orange jurymen for their oaths finds a 
 further illustration in the case of the King at the prosecution 
 
 ^^Report, Pari. Seledt Committee of 1835, Minutes of Evidence, Qq. 
 7261 sqq., J ^8y sqq., Cf. Introd. to Judge Fletcher's Charge, edited by Mr 
 Clancy, M P. Irish Press Agency, London, 1886. For an instance of the 
 Earl of Enniskillen's method of administering justice, see chap, xiii., supra. 
 pp. 297-29S. 
 
 *'^Minutes 0/ Evidence, Pari. Committee of 1S35, Qq. 7310., sqq., p. 75. 
 
 326 
 
ORANGE JUSTICES AND JURORS. 
 
 of McCabe v. Robinson and others, which was tried by Chief 
 Justice Bushe and an Orange jury at the Omagh assizes. 
 Some five Orangemen were arraigned for the murder of a 
 Catholic man named McCabe, son of the prosecutor. Accord- 
 ing to the evidence, the prisoners went from the lodge-room in 
 Portadown — where the crime was stated to have been 
 determined on — to the house of the deceased, and there and 
 then, without the slightest provocation, deliberately took the 
 life of young McCabe. The evidence was direcft. The judge's 
 charge was so strong in favour of a verdidl of guilty that it 
 amounted pracSfically to a diredliion. The jury returned a verdicft 
 of not guilty. Mr. Kernan, a barrister who was present and 
 took a full note of the trial, testified before the Seledf Com- 
 mittee that " it was the clearest case for convidfion, and the 
 Chief Justice was of the same opinion, who recommended me 
 [for the sake of peace] not to publish it."^" 
 
 In 1821, Lieutenant Hamilton deliberately halted a turbu- 
 lent set of his " gallant Orange yeomanry" before the public 
 house of a man named Kelly, at Dromore, and ordered them to 
 fire into it. The order was promptly obeyed. The incident 
 occurred on a fair-day, in the presence of great numbers of 
 people. Several men were wounded, and one — Michael 
 McBrian — killed, by the murderous volley. The Edinburgh 
 Review for January, 1836, thus comments on the fadls of the 
 case, as given in the Report of the Irish Selecfl Parliamentary 
 Committee of 1835 : 
 
 " Here is a deliberate murder, in broad daylight, in the 
 presence of hundreds. The homicides scatheless, and roaming 
 the country. The friends of the murdered man fleeing for 
 justice to a noble lord [Lord Belmore] , who tells them he will 
 meet them in a day or two. . . . The principal offender, 
 [Lieutenant Hamilton] charged with murder and an attempt 
 to abscond, admitted to bail by two magistrates, on mere verbal 
 security. The principal [Hamilton] absconding from this bail 
 — the accessories to his crime [the yeomen] tried and found 
 guilty of the minor offence of manslaughter, on the plea of the 
 superior guilt of the principal. That principal returns [from 
 America] , and is not tried for felony, but made a ftistice of the 
 Peace in the very county in which the widow of Michael McBrian 
 lives under the protec5fion of the laws!" 
 
 The reader has already seen how, at Dolly's Brae, on July 
 12, 1849, a great body of Orange processionists burned eight 
 houses, plundered or wrecked many others, including the 
 school and the Catholic Church, wounded many people, and 
 
 Bojbid., Qq. 7273, sqq.. 7282. 
 
 327 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 barbarously murdered several unoffending persons, one of them 
 an old woman of seventy years. The deed was done in the 
 glare of day, in the midst of hundreds of witnesses, under the 
 eyes of several magistrates, some of whom had personally 
 seized certain of the criminals red-handed in the acSt, and who 
 had at their command seventy-five police, two companies of 
 infantry, and two troops of cavalry. Those who are acquainted 
 with the ways of Orange magistrates in Ulster will not be 
 surprised to learn that not one of the processionists was 
 arrested, or in any way interfered with. The gravity of the 
 scandal at length led to a debate in the House of Commons, 
 and moved the Government to interfere. The Crown Solicitor, 
 Mr. Ruthven, attended at the Castlewellan Petty Sessions and 
 tendered informations against six of the Orange heroes of 
 Dolly's Brae. Mr. Berwick was present to advise the magis- 
 trates as to the law, which had been officially laid down on the 
 point by the Attorney-General for Ireland. Five of the 
 magistrates were willing to receive the sworn informations, 
 and it seemed as if justice was at last about to take her first 
 tardy step against the blood-stained criminals who had raged 
 with bullet, fire, and bayonet on the heights of Magheramayo. 
 But the bench was packed at Castlewellan. Lord Roden and 
 other Orange justices, and their sympathisers — including two 
 or three clergymen — outvoted the others, and refused to receive 
 the sworn informations. Here an Orange bench raised a 
 barrier over which shackled justice failed to vault. It mattered 
 little in the end. Even had her course been smoothed at 
 Castlewellan, it would have been barred a little farther on by 
 the chevaux-de-fvise of an Orange jury-box. The noble Lord 
 and Grand Master Beers were deprived of the Commission of 
 the Peace. Thus was the curtain rung down on another 
 tragical Ulster court-house comedy, while the blood of the 
 little boy Hugh King, of unarmed and unresisting Patrick 
 King, of the harmless idiot John Sweeny, and of helpless, 
 wrinkled, grey-haired Anne Traynor, still stained their rude 
 coffins, and clotted on their shrouds, and called to man in vain 
 for vengeance.®^ 
 
 It would be a weariness to the heart to tell the endless 
 tales of Orange " justice" with which the history of Ulster 
 abounds. To this day the law has never or quite inadequately, 
 avenged the murders, burningSj or wreckings committed by 
 
 siSee chap, xi., supra, pp. 222-225. A bench composed of the two 
 Beers, of Lord Roden's agent, and two others committed some twenty of 
 the Ribbon party for trial. The reader is referred to Mr. Berwick's official 
 Report, and the other documents referring to Dolly's Brae, printed by an 
 order of the House of Lords bearing date February 18, 1850. 
 
 328 
 
ORANGE JUSTICES AND JURORS. 
 
 Orangemen at Bailieborough,^^ Carrowkeel/^ Banbridge,'^ 
 Crossgar, ^^ Tanderagee,^" Maghery," Derrymacash,^^ Anna- 
 hagh,*^ and many other places. In the few instances in which 
 the culprits were placed on their trial, the same party spirit 
 was displayed which furnishes a highly prac5tical incitement to 
 crime, and makes the administration of justice in the Orange 
 districts of Ulster, to this day, not so much a farce as a fearful 
 tragedy. 
 
 The following travesty of justice will, perhaps, scarcely find 
 a parallel in the whole history of the jury system. It is given 
 here as an instance of the high capabilities of an Orange jury, 
 It occurred in the case King v. Hall (an Orangeman), who was 
 charged with having entered a .Catholic church, and stolen 
 therefrom vestments, etc. The case was tried at Enniskillen, 
 by Judge Fletcher and an Orange jury. The prisoner (who 
 " wore an Orange ribbon on his breast") pleaded guilty. The 
 judge told the jury that they had nothing to try, as the 
 prisoner's admission was, in point of law, sufficient to warrant 
 his convi(ftion. The jury immediately returned a verdidt of " not 
 guilty.'" Well as he knew the ways of Orange juries, Judge 
 Fletcher was not prepared for this. "Thank God, gentlemen," 
 said he, " that is your verdicft, not mine. Gentlemen," he 
 continued, " I will not treat you in this case as my highly 
 esteemed departed friend. Judge Fox, treated a jury of this 
 country; I will not placard your names on the session-house 
 or grand jury room door ; you shall not have an opportunity 
 of dragging me before Parliament ; but I will immediately 
 order the sheriff to discharge you from doing any further duty 
 at these assizes." The jury was accordingly discharged ; so 
 was the self-convi(5ted thief. As soon as he reached the street 
 "he was hoisted on the shoulders of Orangemen, and carried 
 through the town of Enniskillen in triumph."^ 
 
 SOME LATER INSTANCES. 
 
 The notorious manner in which members of the lodges 
 have been not alone acquitted for taking part in illegal 
 processions, but aided, encouraged and led therein by Orange 
 
 5 2See chap, xi., supra, p. 221. 
 
 ^'Hbid. 
 
 ^^Minutes 0/ Evidence, Pari, Committee of 1835, Qq 4313, etc. 
 s^Pp. 221-222, supra. 
 STPp. 42-43, supra. 
 ''sp. 225, supra. 
 sap. 222. 
 
 ^">T\\\t A Report of the Irish Pari Committee of 1835, Minutes oj Evi 
 ienie, Qq., 72 16-7231. 
 
 329 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 magistrates, has been frequently brought under the notice of 
 Parliament from 1813 to the present day.°^ In 1869, for 
 instance, at the Monaghan assizes, a number of Catholics were 
 sentenced to terms of imprisonmeni ranging from twelve 
 months to two years, for such offences. On the other hand, 
 " seventeen Orangemen, against whom similar information 
 had also been laid, were not prosecuted. . . . The inform- 
 ation against the Orangemen was never a(51:ed upon. Party 
 processions were still carried on in the North, because 
 magistrates did not like to exert against their neighbours the 
 powers given them under the A(5t. . . . There had been 
 a partial administration of the law by the magistrates and by 
 the Government. ""^^ 
 
 In the seventies, a number of Orange rioters were placed 
 upon their trial before Lord Justice Barry at the Derry Assizes. 
 The evidence pointed plainly to a conviction. The jury, how- 
 ever, was composed of " good men in bad times." They 
 returned a verdidt of "not guilty." "Gentlemen," said the 
 Lord Justice, " that may be your verdicfl, but I venture to say 
 you will not find twelve sane men who heard the evidence in 
 this court to agree with you."^^ During the summer of 1886, 
 Orange disturbances broke out on a large scale in the county 
 of Tyrone. A Catholic policeman, named O'Neill, was subse- 
 quently brought up for trial before the county-court judge. Sir 
 F. Brady, and a jurv of "the right sort," charged with having 
 assaulted one of the -Orange rioters. The evidence was of such 
 a nature that the judge — Protestant and anti-Nationalist as 
 he was — diredled the acquittal of the accused. The jury, how- 
 ever, convicfted him. Whereupon Sir F. Brady remarked : " I 
 will accept that as the verdi(5t of the jury. I will say no 
 further. But I have not the slightest notion of punishing a 
 man on such evidence. Gentlemen, you are discharged." In 
 the same year, 1886, Lord Salisbury's Government took the 
 Orange party under its wing, for the sake of the support"^ 
 
 6iSee chap, x., supra. 
 
 fi^Hansard, March 30, 1870, vol. ii. of Session, p. 953. 
 
 s^Details of this and of the other cases mentioned in the course of 
 this paragraph will be found in the files of the Derry Journal, the Freeman's 
 Journal (Dublin), and the Belfast Examiner. 
 
 6*This support included the oft-repeated threat of armed rebellion. 
 The usual "100,000 Orangemen" were to "line the ditches" north of the 
 Boyne, and die fighting against the forces of the Crown. Similar empty 
 threats were made, in much stronger language, in 1868 and 1869, during 
 the Disestablishment agitation, and at frequent intervals during the 
 Emancipation agitation in the twenties. Some Nationalist newspapers 
 taunted the Orangemen of Ulster, in 1854 and 1857, with their frequent 
 threats of rebellion, and called on them to prove their loyalty by sending, 
 not 100,000 men, but a regiment, or even a batallion to the Crimea and to 
 
ORANGE JURYMEN. 
 
 which the lodges gave it on the then burning question of Home 
 Rule.^^ It proved its friendship to the brethren by sending the 
 Belfast rioters of 1886 to be tried by their confreres, the jurors 
 of Tyrone. Not a single Orange juror was challenged by the 
 Crown at those Omagh trials. The result was not calculated 
 to increase the respedt of the Irish people for the administration 
 of justice in Ulster. One or two facfts taken from the reports 
 of the trials will give an insight into the ways of the Orange 
 jury-box. Judge James Anthony Lawson, who tried the cases, 
 was in religion a Protestant, in politics a violent anti- 
 Nationalist. At the close of one of the cases he remarked of 
 the jury that "it was shocking to find men influenced by 
 prejudice, and paying such little attention to their oaths." On 
 one of the days of the trials, three of the Orange party were 
 placed in the dock on the charge of having wrecked a police- 
 barrack. The accused set up an alihi as a defence. The jury 
 disagreed. Next day the accused pleaded guilty, and the judge 
 declared : " I considered the case against you yesterday was 
 clearly proved. I look upon the evidence produced for your 
 defence as entirely false." In another case two Orangemen 
 were returned for the murder of a soldier of the West Surrey 
 Regiment, and of a head-constable of constabulary. One of 
 the prisoners was put upon his trial twice. The evidence on 
 both occasions pointed unmistakably to his guilt. At the close 
 of the first trial, Judge Lawson pra<5tically told the jurors that 
 they had violated their oaths. "You are bound," said he, 
 " to find a verdi(5t [of guilty] . And there is no question in the 
 case, or doubt, at all. You are bound to take the law from me. 
 The fadt has been proved before, and there is no alternative 
 but the one." The jury still refused to convicft. At the 
 second trial, Judge Lawson addressed the jury in even plainer 
 terms. "The juror," said he, "who would violate his oath 
 under circumstances such as surround this case, is a man I 
 look upon as second in guilt only to the man whose case he has been 
 investigating.'" Again the jury refused to convidt, and to this 
 day the foul murder of two faithful servants of the Queen, 
 struck down in the exercise of their duty by the hands of 
 assassins, remains unavenged. The Derry Journal of March 
 15, 1897, brings to hand another instance of the vagaries of a 
 jury in the same court-house of Omagh which ten or eleven 
 years previously had resounded to the stern denunciations of 
 Judge Lawson, In this latter case, the jury acquitted a man 
 who had been arraigned on a charge of a painful and shocking 
 
 India, to fight for the Crown The Ulster Orangemen did not send so 
 much as a corporal's secretary. 
 *5See chap, xi , supra. 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 nature. Judge Murphy, in addressing them, said : " It was a 
 great triumph to the success of the criminals, who, owing to 
 the condudl of a jury, got free in a case such as that, where 
 there was an honest seeking of justice by poor creatures who 
 were grossly outraged. The outrage committed had been as 
 clearly proved by the evidence as it was possible to have it 
 proved, and, if the jury had paid the slightest attention to the 
 evidence, they must have seen it as clearly as they could see 
 the noonday sun." Continuing, the Judge said : " Go home, 
 with the proud refle(5lion of what you have achieved by the 
 utter disregard of your oaths." Such conducft is a libel on the 
 jury system. The condemnation of it is, unhappily, as well 
 deserved in the Orange portions of Ulster to-day as it was 
 when an Irish Attorney-General thus referred to the scandalous 
 condudt of a packed jury who tried the Orange rioters of 1869 : 
 " It was," said he, " the greatest misfortune that could befall 
 the administration of the law, that religious considerations 
 should enter into the selecftion of juries.""'^ 
 
 ' As already mentioned, the instances of the mal-administra- 
 tion of justice here recorded are merely given as illustrations 
 of some of the methods of Orange magistrates and jurors. It 
 would be quite beyond the scope of this work to include in it, 
 even in a highly summarised form, the lengthy list of such 
 illustrative " cases" now lying before the writer. The curious 
 reader who may desire fuller information on this ungracious 
 topic is referred to the following sources of information*. The 
 works of Plowden, Madden, Mitchel, Lecky, Barry O'Brien, 
 A Vieiv of the Present State of Ireland (1797) ; Wilson's Letters and 
 Narrative, and the many pamphlets published by King, 
 Battersby, and others, from 1801 to 1830; various debates, 
 motions, and questions in the House of Commons, in 1813, 
 1814, 1820 to 1825, 1832 to 1836, 1852, i860, 1870, etc.; the 
 correspondence of Camden, Cornwallis, Drummond, Lord 
 Chancellor Brady, etc.; Shiel's Speeches; the Reports of the 
 Royal Commissioners of 1864, 1869, 1883, and 1886; the 
 special Reports regarding the affairs of the Maghery, Annahagh, 
 Dolly's Brae, etc.; the Irish newspaper press from 1795 to the 
 present time, passim; and finally, that monumental and 
 thorough-going condemnation of the whole Orange system, 
 root and branch — the voluminous Minutes of Evidence and 
 Reports of the Parliamentary Seledl Committees of 1835. In 
 the course of this chapter a few extracfts have been given from 
 some of the authorities just referred to, testifying to the prosti- 
 tution of the seat of justice, by Orangemen, to party and 
 
 ^"Hansard, March 14, 1870, p. 1885 
 
 332 
 
A SUGGESTED REMEDY. 
 
 se<fl:arian purposes, A few further extracfts, out of many that 
 might be given, will indicate one chief method which many 
 thoughtful people believe would at least mitigate the worst 
 features of that scandalous mockery of justice which, in the 
 already quoted words of Mitchel, has " made the North of 
 Ireland itself a hell for the Catholic people during many a 
 year" since the days of Richard Wilson. 
 
 PRESCRIBING A REMEDY. 
 
 "Clearing the fountain," says Junius, "is the best and 
 shortest way of purifying the stream." There tiave been many 
 thoughtful men during the past hundred years who have felt 
 that the tainted stream of Ulster "justice" could never be 
 cleansed until one chief source of its foulness — the Orange 
 magistracy — should be swept away. In a debate on the liberty 
 of the press in the Irish House of Commons in 1798, Mr. 
 Vandeleur (a Protestant) thus referred to the Armagh Orange- 
 men: "He (Mr. Vandeleur) was astonished they should be 
 countenanced and supported by Ministers, though the first law- 
 officer of the Crown held their excesses, and the condudt of 
 the magistrates who countenanced them, so much in hatred, 
 that he' declared, could they have found other men of suffi- 
 cient loyalty in the country to fill their places, he would have 
 removed everyone of them from the magistracy."^' 
 
 The opinion held by Mr. Wilson, a Protestant magistrate 
 of Ulster, as to the unfitness of Orangemen for the Commis- 
 sion of the Peace, is abundantly evidenced in his Letters and 
 Narrative, which have been already drawn upon in the course of 
 this chapter. In a letter to Lord Eldon, he stated that one of 
 the crying needs of the time was " that the magistracy shall 
 be placed in the hands of honourable, just, and independent 
 gentlemen.""® 
 
 In consequence of the continued confusion and uproar 
 caused by the Ulster lodges in the early twenties, Mr. Hume, 
 a Protestant M.P., called upon the Government to remove 
 from the Commission of the Peace those magistrates who had 
 encouraged Orange processions in Ireland."^ In 1836, in con- 
 sequence of the I'evelations elicited by the Parliamentary 
 Committees of Inquiry, Mr. Hume and Mr. Finn moved in 
 the House of Commons for the expulsion of all Orangemen 
 from every department of the Civil Service. A Treasury 
 minute, dated March 15, 1836, direcfted the dismissal of every 
 
 •'■'Quoted by Plowden, Ireland from its Union, vol. i., Introd., p. 62, 
 note. 
 
 ^sQuoted by "M.P.," History of Orangeism, p. 124. 
 ^^Parliamentary Debates, March 30, 1824. 
 
 333 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 Civil Servant who, after the date of that order, would remain 
 or become a member of the Orange society.™ 
 
 Reference has already been made to the evidence given by 
 the Quaker witness, Mr. Christie, before the Parliamentary 
 Committee of 1835, as to the unfitness of Orangemen for the 
 Commission of the Peace. Inreply to another question he ex- 
 pressed his opinion in still more sweeping terms. The Com- 
 mittee queried:" " What is your opinion of the effedl of the 
 Orange lodges upon the peace of society, and the good feeling 
 of the people of the country ?" " I think," replied the witness, 
 "they have a tendency to keep up a bad feeling, and if any- 
 thing could be devised to put them down, I think the country 
 would be much quieter. It is not the poor people who go into 
 the lodges [that do the most harm] ,'^ but the clergy and the 
 magistrates, and the gentlemen of the country; and so far as 
 Government can interfere, I think these are the people to lay 
 their hands on, / think no vian should hold a Commission of the 
 Peace, or any place of profit under the Crown, who is an Ovangeman.'' 
 A similar conclusion was reached by the English Parliamentary 
 Sele6l Committee on Orange lodges, as may be seen by the 
 following extradl from their Report : " Your Committee, 
 anxiously desirous of seeing the United Kingdom and the 
 Colonies of the Empire freed from the banefid and unchristian in- 
 fluence of the Orange societies, recommend the early attention of 
 the House to that important subjedl:, zvith a view to the immedi- 
 ate removal from office of all public servants who shall continue, or 
 become, members of any Orange lodge, or of any other association 
 bound together in a similar manner." 
 
 The warning voice of the British Parliament seems to have 
 fallen on unheeding ears in at least one colony of the Australian 
 group. In Vidloria, Orangeism seems to have found its way 
 into almost every Department of the Civil Service. Reference 
 to the advertising columns of the Vi6torian Standard of Novem- 
 ber 30, 1896, and other dates, shows that the Police, Railways, 
 Post Office, and Defence Departments furnish a quota of 
 officers to the society, while some lodges, if not composed 
 exclusively of public servants, are at least guided chiefly or 
 altogether by them. The same lodge organ urges the still 
 further extension of the association among State employes, 
 
 '"The minute is quoted near the end of chapter xiv., infra. 
 
 ''iThe whole of this part of Mr. Christie's evidence is well worth 
 perusal. Minutes of Evidence, Qq. 5559, sqq., 5689 ; cf. Q. 5677. 
 
 ''■^In the previous question, the witness states that " the lower class 
 of the society" are but the dupes of the "higher classes," who, for their 
 own advantage, urge them on to breaches of the law, violence, etc., and 
 thus do the greater harm. Cf. chap, vii., supra, p. 140. 
 
 334 
 
AN ATTEMPTED REMEDY. 
 
 while from the Orange press and platform comes the cry for 
 the exclusion of Catholics from offices of emolument in the 
 service of their country.''^ The reader may judge for himself 
 if, and how far, such language was connecfted with the fadts 
 elicited by the Melbourne Post Office Inquiry Board regarding 
 the case of James Sullivan.'^ For some unexplained reason, 
 the incident has never, to this hour, been cleared up. As it 
 stands, the whole circumstances surrounding it are highly 
 calculated to produce a feeling of uneasiness among Catholics 
 as regards the possible results of the spread of Orangeism in 
 the public Departments of the colony. 
 
 AN ATTEMPTED REMEDY. 
 
 The Anglican Bishop of Ballarat, Dr. Thornton, spoke as 
 follows at an Orange demonstration in that city in July, 1888. 
 His words are noteworthy as coming from a sympathiser of the 
 Orange association. " I should be sorry," said he, " tosuppose 
 that Vidtorian Orangeism had a word to say in defence of the 
 disorder and violence which led to the suppression of the Irish 
 lodge by Parliament in 1813, or the unreliability of Orange- 
 men in courts of justice in Ireland, which made the Lord 
 Chancellor for years refuse to make any Orangeman a 
 magistrate."^* He referred to the signal blow which was 
 struck at the notorious partisanship of the Orange bench in 
 1857. Lord Carlisle was Viceroy; Mr. Maziere Brady, Lord 
 Chancellor. English Orangeism had been blotted out by the 
 great exposure of 1835- 1836. The Irish society still clung 
 desperately to life, and continued to be a power in the North, 
 although deprived of much of its forniier physical strength of 
 numbers, and shorn of all show of outward respecftability. Its 
 rules were remodelled in 1845. Four years later the brethren 
 added a new chapter of blood to their history by the massacre 
 of Dolly's Brae, For ten years from that date, every twelfth 
 of July was marked with turbulence and outrage in the Orarige 
 centres of the North — culminating in the state of civil war 
 which devastated Belfast in 1557. In the volcanic period of out- 
 rage which opened at Dolly's Brae, Orange magistrates, and, 
 let it be added. Orange clergymen, played a prominent and by 
 no means creditable part. These circumstances will explain 
 the issue of the following order of the Lord Chancellor, which 
 Orangemen of the present day would wish to see buried as deep 
 
 '^^'See chapter viii., supra, pp. 162-163. 
 
 ■"^See Preface to the first edition, supra. 
 
 ''^Victorian Standard, August 1888, p. 8, first col. The speaker con- 
 tinues thus : " But I wish I saw among your laws one which decreed the 
 immediate expulsion of any mrembers proved guilty of insulting afls towards 
 opponents, or of boycotting in any shape or form." 
 
 335 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 as the chariots of King Pharaoh. The portion of the document 
 which is here quoted was pubhshed in the Northern Whig, 
 in Ocftober, 1857 : 
 
 " To the Editor of the Northern Whig. 
 " Sir, — The enclosed extracfl from a letter which I have 
 received from the Lord Chancellor, which I have his lordship's 
 permission to make public, is of sufficient moment to warrant 
 my asking you to give it a place in your columns. 
 " I am, sir, your obedient servant, 
 " Londonderry, 
 
 *' Lieutenant, County Down. 
 " Newtownstewart, Ocftober 6, 1857." 
 
 The published extradt from the Lord Chancellor's letter 
 runs as follows : 
 
 "In reference, generally, to appointments to the Commis- 
 sion of the Peace for the County of Down and some other 
 counties in the North of Ireland, I feel obliged, by recent 
 events, to introduce conditions which seem to me imperatively 
 called for, with the view to the maintenance of public tran- 
 quility. 
 
 " Your lordship is, no doubt, well aware of the success of 
 turbulence and riotous outrage which have so long prevailed 
 in the town of Belfast. Whatever party may have been to 
 blame for the acfts which more immediately led to these 
 disgraceful tumults, it is very manifest that they have sprung from 
 party feeling, excited on the recurrence of certain anniversaries which 
 for years have been made the occasion of irritating demonstrations, too 
 often attended by violations of the public peace, and dangerous, 
 and sometimes fatal, party conflicfts. The Orange society is 
 mainly instrumental in keeping up this excitement ; and, notwith- 
 standing the proceedings respecfting the association which are 
 now matter of history,™ and in consequence of which it was sup- 
 posed that it would have been finally dissolved, it still appears 
 to remain an extensively organised body, with but some 
 changes of system and rules, under which it is alleged to be 
 secure from a legal prosecution. However that may be, it is 
 manifest that the existence of this society, and the condu(51: of 
 many of those who belong to it, tend to keep up, through large 
 districfts of the North, a spirit of bitter and fadlious hostility 
 among large classes of her Majesty's subjecfls, and to provoke 
 violent animosity and aggression. It is impossible to rightly 
 regard any association such as this as one which ought to receive 
 countenance from any in authority zvho are responsible for the preserva- 
 tion of the peace ; and however some individuals of rank and 
 
 '^The Parliamentary Inquiry of 1835 on Orange lodges. 
 
 336 
 
AN ATTEMPTED REMEDY. 
 
 station, who hold her Majesty's commission," may think they 
 can reconcile the obligations of that office with the continuing 
 in membership with the Orange society, it does appear to me 
 that the interest of the public peace, at least in the North of 
 Ireland, now requires that no such encotirageinent should he given 
 to this society by the appointment of any gentleman to the Commission 
 who is, or intends to become, a member of it. 
 
 " Intending the rule to be of general application, I think it 
 right to ask from every gentleman the assurance that he is not, 
 nor will, while he owns the Commission of the Peace, become a member 
 of the Orange society. I think it right to inform your lordship 
 that, in expressing the foregoing opinions and determination, I 
 do so ivith the entire concurrence of his Excellency the Lord 
 Lieutenant.'' 
 
 But the order of Lord Chancellor Brady, the voice of 
 Parliament and of public opinion, the protests of judges and 
 barristers, even the suppression of the Orange society — (in 
 Ireland in 1825, in England in 1836) — all failed to produce 
 any appreciable efFedl: on the record of judicial partiality 
 perpetrated in the interests of the lodges. In the present 
 instance Lord Chancellor Maziere Brady's order was allowed 
 to remain without effetft, because a weak Government pre- 
 ferred the interests of party to the claims of justice.'** The 
 
 '^''The Lord Chancellor evidently refers to the Verners, Blackers. 
 Enniskillens, and other Orange leaders who were officers of militia. 
 
 ■^^A debate took place in the House of Lords, March 15, 1858, on the 
 Orange society and the Irish magistracy, with respedt to Lord Chancellor 
 Brady's letter. The Earl of Derby, while admitting that the Lord Lieu- 
 tenant had devoted much attention to the subjedl, and that there was no 
 man "who would wish to hold the balance more evenly between parties in 
 Ireland," nevertheless did not favour the "absolute disqualification" oi 
 Orangemen, on the ground that it "was a step beyond what the law 
 I'equired." Nevertheless, "looking upon the entire subjeft, he [the Earl of 
 Derby] was of opinion that no matter what may have been the advantages 
 of that [the Orange] society formerly, upon the whole the organisation of 
 the Orange association was rather a misery than a benefit to Ireland." In 
 the next sentence of his speech he added that "the [Orange] society was 
 one whose existence they regretted." Lord Palmerston, when memorialised 
 on the subjed of the Lord Chancellor's letter February 18, 1859, strongly 
 condemned the Orange association as being unfit " for the age in which 
 we live." He declared that " the very foundation on which it rests casts 
 a refledlion on the institutions of the Empire," and exhorted the meniorial- 
 ists to " dissolve the association, and to put an end to an organisation 
 which cannot answer any practical purpose." Nothing, he continued, 
 "would more materially contribute to the peace of Ireland, and to the 
 obliteration of ancient prejudices" than the dissolution of the society. 
 The report of the Orange deputation to Lord Palmerston appeared in the 
 London morning papers of February 19, 1858. An L.O.L. tradl, entitled 
 Definition of Orangeism, has the courage to say that " Lords Palmerston and 
 Derby . . . declared the [Orange] society was not only legal, bul 
 eminently loyal." 
 
 337 V 
 
THE ORANGE S0CII^:TY. 
 
 Peel, Disraeli, Salisbury, and many other ministries furnish 
 similar instances in point. Molesworth tells how, during the 
 anti-Emancipation fury of the lodges, '* the whole Liberal party" 
 detested the condutSt of the Orangemen ; " nor were the feel- 
 ings of Sir R. Peel and the wiser portion of the Conservative 
 party more favourable to them. They could not but feel how 
 much the Orangemen had done by their stupid bigotry to 
 disappoint the hopes they had entertained of the beneficial 
 results of Catholic Emancipation. They could not, however, 
 venture to manifest the contempt and dislike they felt for men 
 who formed the bulk of their supporters in Ireland, and were 
 therefore obliged to wink at, and even to palliate, the bigotry 
 of these mischievous marplots."'" The outcry of the Orange 
 party against Disestablishment was likewise a contributing 
 cause to the last desperate stand made by the Disraeli ministry 
 against th-at measure in May, 1868. " The Government," 
 says a recent historian of the House of Commons, " knew well 
 that they must be beaten ; but they decided that they must 
 have one more fight, lest the archbishops, bishops, and other 
 dignitaries of the Church, with the clergy, not to mention 
 those singular defenders of the faith, the Orangemen in the 
 North of Ireland, should say that her Majesty's ministers had 
 given up the cause. Singular defenders of the faith ! — garbed 
 in orange scarfs, armed with bludgeons, and chanting, not 
 psalms, but fierce political songs. O Religion ! what strange 
 things are done in thy name !""° 
 
 These repeated failures of ministries to deal with the dis- 
 loyalty of the Orange society only serve to emphasise the 
 difficulty of grappling with evils such as these, unless by the 
 complete and effectual suppression of the secret organisations 
 to which they owe their rise and continuance. Tammany 
 Hall still places its votaries above the statutes. It puts its 
 opponents, as far as it may, outside the protec5lion of the law. 
 But Tammany is founded on no stronger passion than that of 
 self-interest, as represented by the dollar-piece. The founda- 
 
 ''^Hist. of England, vol. i., p. 379. 
 
 ^°The Inner Life of the House of Commons, by William White, vol. ii., p. 
 115. London: 1S97. The Orange representatives have ever hcen notor- 
 ious for their lack of ability, and are to this day known to members as 
 "the deadheads of Ulster." An amusing instance of their low level of 
 mental capacity was furnished, on the occasion referred to above, by 
 Colonel Stuart Knox, M.P. for Dungannon, who caused a sensation in the 
 House of Commons by a long(iuotationfrom a supposed speech by Mr. Cxlad- 
 stone, theleader of theOpposition,«g'a7«sn)is-establishment. Mr. Gladstone 
 quietly pointed out that the speech attributed to him with such rhetorical 
 vehemence had been really made by Mr. Whiteside. The House fairly 
 collapsed in a fit of uproarious laughter at the expense of the gallant 
 Colonel. Ibid., pp. iii, sqq. 
 
AN ATTEMPTED REMEDY. 
 
 tions of Oranf^eism — the Irish Tammany — are laid broader and 
 deeper. It is built on private interest plus the sedulously 
 cultivated passions of racial, religious, and political hate, 
 which, mainly through its agency, have for over a hundred 
 years tainted almost every relation of public life in the Orange 
 portions of Ulster. The British Parliament believed in the 
 policy of laying the axe to the root when, in 1825, it suppressed 
 the Irish Orange institution. A Seledt Parliamentary Com- 
 mittee of English gentlemen earnestly urged the extension of 
 this policy to all the Orange lodges throughout the British 
 dominions. With the evidence of its "baneful and unchristian 
 inlluence" before them, they, in their Report, urgently called 
 on the Government "to take measures for the complete sup- 
 pression of such institutions," to " protedl: the country from all 
 such associations," the extiniftion of which had become, m 
 their minds, " imperatively necessary." 
 
 339 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 Chapter XV* 
 
 LOYALTY IN THE SUPREME COUNCIL OF THE 
 ORANGE INSTITUTION— THE GRAND LODGE. THE 
 PARTY PROCESSIONS ACTS, AND THE COURTS OF 
 JUSTICE— CORRUPTING THE LOYALTY OF THE 
 ARMY— HOW THE ACT OF SUPPRESSION WORKED 
 —THE CUMBERLAND CONSPIRACY. 
 
 Military officers set an example of bravery by going into 
 adlion in front of their troops. Proof of their greater devotion 
 to duty lies in the fadl that, in proportion to their numbers, 
 more officers than privates usually fall in battle. We naturally 
 look for the highest expression of soldierly devotion to duty 
 among the General Staff. Theirs is the tireless eye that takes 
 its sleep in snatches, as did Buonaparte, Wellington, Moore, 
 Moltke ; theirs the sleepless brain that thinks and plans while 
 the mere wisp of cannon-fodder, private Atkins, quietly 
 dreams, with his feet towards the camp-fire. When, at a 
 critical moment, the unsteady lines roll back before the storm 
 of iron hail, it is frequently an officer of the General Staff who 
 dashes to the point of danger, cheers up the failing ranks, and 
 leads them again into the fray, as Steinmetz did at Spicheren, 
 and Budritski at Le Bourget. 
 
 So much, in the matter of loyalty, should we — remember- 
 ing their professions — expecfl from the General Staff of the 
 Orange army : to wit, the officers of the Grand Lodge : that 
 they should, when the occasion calls for it, rush promptly to 
 the point where the weaker brethren show a disposition to 
 retrograde from the path of duty, even were that path to lead 
 in a few short paces to an honoured though untimely grave. 
 
 In estimating the loyalty of the Grand Lodge the following 
 points must be borne in mind : 
 
 I. The position that obedience to law and attachment to 
 the Throne are claimed to occupy in the Orange institution : 
 namely, as one of its two fundamental principles. It is, perhaps, 
 the only association of civilians that professedly makes the cul- 
 tivation of loyalty its chief business, that habitually boasts of 
 its unswerving loyalty, and sets itself up before the rest of 
 men as a bright example of all that ideally loyal citizens 
 should be. 
 
 540 
 
THE GRAND LODGE: ITS LOYALTY. 
 
 2. The grand Lodge exercises complete control over the 
 membership and policy of the lodges under its jurisdidliion. It 
 can at will not merely suspend or expel individual members, 
 but it can close temporarily, or altogether suppress, any lodge, 
 or any group of lodges, for any condudl which it may be 
 pleased to deem inconsistent with " Orange principles." It 
 is the supreme and irresponsible judge of what constitutes such 
 inconsistency. From its decisions there is no appeal.^ 
 
 Now, members and lodges may prove untrue to this alleged 
 fundamental objecft of the institution (loyalty) in two ways : 
 (a) negatively, by mere neglecl: or failure to " support and 
 defend to the utmost of their power " the laws of the country ; 
 and (b) by positive disobedience to, or defiance of, the law or 
 of constituted authority. 
 
 In the circumstances mentioned above (i and 2) we should 
 naturally exped: that the Gtand Lodge would visit with due 
 punishment even the negledl — and much more the habitual 
 neglecft — of what we are told is one of the essential bases of the 
 institution. As regards positive — and especially habitual — 
 law-breaking by members or lodges, the penalty should be the 
 severest in the power of the Grand Lodge to inflic*!:, namely, 
 expulsion of the guilty members, or suppression of the 
 unfaithful lodges. We are all the more entitled to look for 
 this when we refledl on the searching characfter of the control 
 which it exercises over the purely private concerns of the 
 members — on the prompt and unfailing expulsion of those 
 who dare to seledl Papist wives, or to exercise the franchise 
 as their judgment or conscience may direcl : two faults (if 
 they are faults) which, on the face of them, are not direcftly or 
 violently subversive of the alleged aims of the Orange society, 
 as set forth in the " basis of the institution." 
 
 THE GRAND LODGE AND THE LAW. 
 
 I pass over the mere negative ia.6i of neglecft to " support 
 and defend " the law of the land. That point has been 
 sufficiently dealt with in the twelfth and fourteenth chapters. 
 Neither shall I deal with mere isolated ac51:s of illegality which 
 may or may not have come within the purview of the Grand 
 Lodge. My sole concern here shall be with ; 
 
 (a) Habitual and systematic violations of law and order ; 
 
 (b) Which cover the whole or a great part of the course of 
 Orange history ; 
 
 (c) Which were brought prominently before the public 
 through repeated Crown prosecutions ; through the newspaper 
 Press ; through the Reports of the Parhamentary Committees 
 
 ^See pp. 127 sqq., supra. 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 of 1835 and 1852, and of the Royal Commissions of 1849, 1857, 
 1864, 1869, 1883, and 1886 ; through debates or questions in 
 Parliament in 1813, 1814, 1815, 1823, 1824, 1825, 1832, 1835, 
 1850, 1857,1858, i860, 1864, 1869, 1870, 1872, 1883, 1886, etc. 
 The following are the chief phases of law-breaking referred 
 to. They all come within the jurisdicStion of the Grand 
 Lodge : 
 
 1. Habitual and open defiance of orders, proclamations, 
 and A(5ls of Parliament against party processions. 
 
 2. The well-known partiality of Orange magistrates and 
 jurors, especially in cases to which Catholics and non-Catholics 
 were parties. 
 
 3. Establishing and maintaining lodges in the army, in 
 defiance of military regulations. 
 
 4. Administering oaths and tests, etc., in spite of their 
 known illegality ; defying the A61 of Parliament which sup- 
 pressed the Orange institution in 1825. 
 
 Now, if loyalty were to Orangemen all that it is asserted to 
 be, the records of the Grand Lodge should, in the circum- 
 stances mentioned above, contain strong and frequent admoni- 
 tions to law-breaking brethren and erring lodges ; such 
 admonitions to be followed either by 
 
 (a) A reformation in the condu6t of the members or lodges 
 implicated ; or by 
 
 {b) Suspension, expulsion, or suppression, as provided by 
 the rules for a(5tions which are not in themselves either legal 
 or moral delinquencies, and which must be, even on Orange 
 principles, of far less moment than open defiance of rightful 
 authority. Those who are guilty of this crime, according to 
 St. Paul, " receive to themselves damnation." 
 
 Unfortunately for the claim of unfailing loyalty advanced 
 on behalf of the Orange institution, all the records of the 
 Grand Lodge are barren of either protest against, or punish- 
 ment for, the public, serious, and notorious forms of illegality 
 which I am about to consider in some detail. On the contrary, 
 the Grand Lodge 
 
 (a) Knowingly allowed such illegalities to go on without 
 protest or punishment ; 
 
 (b) Positively encouraged certain forms of law-breaking 
 perpetrated by lodges under its jurisdicTtion ; 
 
 (c) Was itself guilty of long and systematic defiance 
 of the law. 
 
 PARTY PROCESSIONS. 
 
 I. Writing of the early thirties, when the disloyalty and 
 violence of the Orange society were rapidly hurrying it towards 
 the ruinous official exposure of 1835, the noted Protestant 
 
 342 
 
THE GRAND LODGE: ITS LOYALTY. 
 
 writer, Miss Harriet Martineau, says that from 1829, when the 
 CathoHc Emancipation Bill was passed, " the Orangemen 
 seem to have lost their senses, as they certainly lost their 
 loyalty."^ During the next few years their processions in 
 Ulster were charadlerised, as has been shown in a previous 
 chapter, by a singular degree of terrorism, violence, and out- 
 rage. It was this wild outbreak of riot and confusion that led 
 to the passing of the first Party Processions A6i. The Bill 
 was introduced in 1832 by the Chief Secretary for Ireland, 
 Mr. Stanley. He declared that it was direcfted against the 
 Orange party, because they alone persevered in endeavouring 
 to keep alive religious animosities in Ireland." In introducing 
 his Bill, Mr. Stanley made obedience to its provisions a test of 
 Orange loyalty. He called upon Orangemen, if they were the 
 loyalists they professed to be, to show it by their acflions ; 
 to prove that they "were not the blind and bigoted partisans 
 of an expiring facflion, which would be loyal just as far as it 
 suited their own interests or their own convenience." In the 
 course of the tenth chapter of this volume the reader has 
 already seen how the brethren responded to Mr. Stanley's 
 challenge or appeal. They openly and violently flouted the 
 Party Processions Acft of 1832, as they had previously defied 
 the proclamations of mayors, magistrates, and Lords Lieu- 
 tenant, and as they subsequently defied the amended and more 
 stringent Acfls of 1850 and i860. The acftion of the Irish 
 Grand Lodge in the circumstances which thus arose enables 
 us to accurately estimate the place which loyalty really occupies 
 in the Orange organisation. 
 
 {a) Reference has already been made to the many 
 apparently trifling matters — such as the conscientious exercise 
 of sundry undoubted legal rights — which have been visited by 
 prompt and unfailing expulsion from the Orange society. In 
 all the records of the Grand Lodge, which have come to light, 
 there is not a single instance in which any officer or member 
 was expelled, or any lodge suspended, or in any way reproved 
 or reprimanded, for riotous, disloyal, and armed defiance 
 of proclamations and Aifts of Parliament against party 
 processions. 
 
 (b) On the contrary, the highest officials of the Orange 
 institution either defended or approved of this open and 
 seditious defiance of constituted authority. 
 
 Reference has already been made to the boast made by 
 Deputy-Grand Master Colonel Blacker that the Anti-Proces- 
 
 ^The Thirty Years' Peace, vol. ii„ p. 268. 
 ^Parliamentary Debates, vol. xiii., p. 103; 
 
 1035- 
 
 343 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 sions A(5t of 1832 would only have the efFedl of producing three 
 times as many Orange processions as had been held before, 
 and to his threat of armed resistance in the event of any 
 attempt on the part of the forces of the Crown to "maintain 
 and support the laws" of the country. Quotations have also 
 been given from the speeches of Viscount Crichton/ Lord 
 Claude Hamilton,^ and Deputy Grand Master William 
 Johnston," who either positively justified the defiance of the 
 law by Orange processionists, or, at best, referred to their 
 seditious, and too often sanguinary, demonstrations of physical 
 force as being, at worst, only "a slight exuberance of loyalty," 
 History sometimes repeats itself. The same excuse had long 
 previously been offered in the Irish Parliament by the notorious 
 Dr. Duigenan for the excesses of the Orange party in 1797 
 and 1798.'' 
 
 The reader has already seen, in the course of a previous 
 chapter, how those illegal processions were in nearly every case 
 promoted or led by officers of the society, many of whom were 
 also members of the Grand Lodge. He will recall the case of 
 Deputy Grand Master Johnston, who in the face of procla- 
 mations to the contrary, marched through the country at the 
 head of a large body of Orange processionists, who carried fire- 
 arms and ammunition, "in case the worst came to the worst ; " 
 how he applauded the fraternity of Derry for having " refused, 
 at the bidding of any man or any Government," to give up 
 their offensive party displays;® and how Deputy-Grand Secre- 
 tary Fairman, in his letter of nth August, 1832, referring to 
 the A(5f of that year, boasted that the Irish Orangemen were 
 " determined to resist all attempts that shall be made by a 
 Whig Ministry to interrupt their meetings or suspend their 
 processions."^ 
 
 The Report of the English SelecSf Parliamentary Committee 
 contains the following paragraphs, which were taken from the 
 proceedings of the Imperial Grand Lodge (London), and were 
 intended for circulation among the lodges of Great Britain and 
 the colonies. The paragraphs in question were, says the 
 Report, " copied [by the Imperial Grand Lodge] from the pro- 
 ceedings of the Grand Lodge of Ireland:" 
 
 " The Grand Lodge of Dublin thought proper to thank 
 their Orange brethren for having assembled in large numbers 
 
 *Hansard, 3rd Series, vol. ccii., p. 1684. 
 
 ^Ihid., p. 1690. 
 
 ^Ibid., vol. ii. of Session, p. 940. 
 
 ''See p. 249, supra. 
 
 ^See pp. 209-210. 
 
 *£ee chap, x., p. 208. 
 
 344 
 
THE GRAND LODGE: ITS LOYALTY. 
 
 in one place, to the number of 75,000 Orangemen at Hills- 
 borough, and the Loyal Orange Institution of England, in the 
 same circumstances, calls the attention of their Orange 
 brethren by republishing the resolutions of the Grand Lodge 
 of Dublin, as follows : 
 
 " And, lastly, we [the Grand Committee] beg to call the 
 attention of the Grand Lodge, and through them return our 
 heartfelt thanks and congratulations to our brethren through the 
 various parts of Ireland who, in the late meetings of 3,000 in 
 Dublin, 5,400 at Bandon, 3,000 at Cavan, and 75,000 at 
 Hillsborough, by their strength and numbers, the rank, 
 respecftability, and orderly conducfl: of their attendance, the 
 manly and eloquent expressions of every Christian and loyal 
 sentiment, vindicated so nobly the character of our institution 
 against the aspersions thrown on it as 'the paltry remnant of 
 an expiring fa(flion.' And we ardently hope that our brethren in the 
 other parts of the kingdom who have not as yet come forward will 
 do so, and not forget the hint given to us in our Sovereign's 
 last most gracious declaration, ' to speak out.' "^° 
 
 In this resolution the Irish Grand Lodge sets the seal of its 
 formal approval on past acfls of illegality, and invites to a 
 repetition of this form of law-breaking in the immediate future. 
 It canonises defiance of the law by making it a subjecfl of 
 " heartfelt thanks and congratulations." 
 
 ADMINISTERING THE LAW. 
 
 2. Orange Magistrates and Jurors : The reader has seen in 
 the course of the last chapter how the conduc51: of Orange 
 magistrates and Orange jurors, in cases in which Catholics are 
 concerned, has been, from the very foundation of the society, 
 a grave blot upon the administration of the law in Ulster. It 
 has, moreover, been shown that these facfts were so frequently 
 brought under public notice that they could not have escaped 
 the attention of the Irish Grand Lodge, least of all when we 
 consider that some of the chief offenders in this respedl were 
 those whose names have been traditionally associated with the 
 leadership of the Irish organisation. 
 
 Now, the Grand Lodge is guardian and supreme arbiter oi 
 both the membership and policy of the institution. Assuming 
 its professions to be sincere, its first duty was to institute a 
 stricft inquiry into the frequent, serious, and authoritative 
 allegations of disloyal conducft which were made from the 
 
 10 This resolution forms part of the proceedings of the Irish Grand 
 Lodge for November 12, 1834, while the Party Processions Adl of 1832 was 
 still in full force. The meetings referred to above were formed and fed by 
 processions of the brethren. For resolution, see App. First Report, p. 77. 
 
 345 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 newspaper press, the judicial bench, and in Parliament — alle- 
 gations which point to nothing less than a widespread deter- 
 mination on the part of Orange magistrates and jurors to 
 defeat the ends of justice. The next step of the Grand 
 Lodge should have been either to compel the guilty brethren 
 to respe(5l the law of the land and the elementary principles of 
 justice, or, failing this, to promptly rid so eminently loyal a 
 society of such disloyal company. This uncompromising 
 attitude towards illegality would be rendered all the more 
 necessary by the fa(5t that the recalcitrant magistrates and 
 jurymen, on account of their social position or official status, 
 would, if permitted to remain in the society, help to contaminate 
 by their bad example the all-needful loyalty of the more humble 
 rank and file of the brethren, and thus frustrate one of the chief 
 aims for which (we are told) the Orange society was instituted. 
 
 It is, however, a significant facft that, in all the long records 
 of the Grand Lodge that have been dragged into the light of 
 day, there is not a hint of an inquiry having ever been held into 
 the statements made, officially and otherwise, reflecfting on the 
 condudt of Orange magistrates and jurors in cases in which 
 Catholics were concerned. There is not a solitary instance of 
 an Orange magistrate or juryman having been expelled, sus- 
 pended, fined, or even reprimanded, for unloyal disregard of the 
 sancftity of his oath. The Grand Lodge records bear no 
 evidence that any effort was ever made, by inquiry, circular, 
 resolution, penalty, or otherwise, to cope with the grave public 
 scandal with which the name of the Orange society has been 
 associated for over a hundred years. The serious form of law- 
 breaking referred to here has apparently no place among the 
 crimes that are recognised as punishable in the lodges. The 
 elementary citizen duty of " obedience to the law" is plainly a 
 matter of small moment in the eyes of the Grand Lodge com- 
 pared with the stern primary need of preventing members 
 " marrying Papists," and of holding in a firm grip the ever- 
 ready and obedient voting power of the lodges. 
 
 Another suggestive item in the policy of the Grand Lodge 
 is its habit of supporting Orange criminals and misdemeanants 
 against the officers of the law. Several instances of this are 
 recorded in the Report of the English Selecft Committee of 
 1835. The lodges, says the Report referred to, " have inter- 
 fered in the course of justice by subscriptions to defend and 
 protecft parties of Orangemen, and to prosecute the magistrates 
 for interfering with them, as in the case of Liverpool in i8ig, 
 when the Mayor of Liverpool interrupted the Orange proces- 
 sion on the i2th of July in that year." A number of lodges 
 contributed subscriptions for this purpose. The Grand Lodge 
 
 346 
 
CORRUPTING THE ARMY. 
 
 of England also entered cordially into the projecfl, as may be 
 seen from the following entry in the English Parliamentary 
 Committee's Report : 
 
 "Committee meeting, 13th Odtober, i8ig, Manchester — 
 Thanks to Lord Kenyon" for his subscription towards the pro- 
 secution in Liverpool, and to the lodges who have subscribed 
 and transmitted their subscriptions for the same purpose." In 
 1832, the records of Armagh, Cavan, Monaghan, and other 
 counties in Ulster were stained by many of the crimes which 
 led to the passing of Stanley's Party Processions Adt of that 
 year. For their share in those outrages, a number of Orange- 
 men were prosecuted in Cavan. Under date February 29th, 
 the Irish Grand Lodge voted a sum of ;^2o for " the defence of 
 our brethren about to be prosecuted at the ensuing Cavan 
 Assizes, in the case of King v. Beckett, Souddon, and others. "^^ 
 On two subsequent dates further amounts of ^59 17s. 9d.,and 
 ^47 5s. — making altogether ;^i27 2s. gd. — were voted for the 
 same purpose. In 1833 (according to the Irish Parliamentary 
 Report) the grant of a large sum of money was passed by the 
 Irish Grand Lodge for the defence of one of the brethren 
 named Beith, who was placed on his trial at the Dundalk 
 Assizes, for having murdered a Catholic by stabbing him with 
 an oyster-knife. ^'^ We have no evidence that the Grand Lodge 
 of Vidloria ever disapproved of the adtion of the brethren of 
 L.O.L., No. 9 (Melbourne), or disallowed the subscription of 
 £■2 2s. which they voted towards the expenses of a Tasmanian 
 newspaper, the Launceston Daily Telegraph, the proprietors of 
 which had been compelled to pay £1^^ damages for libel on an 
 Irish Catholic priest.^* 
 
 CORRUPTING THE ARMY. 
 
 In a passage of his Memoirs, already quoted, the noted 
 apologist of the lodges, Musgrave, frankly admitted that the 
 Orange society " should not be admitted in our regular army 
 or militia . . . as it would be likely to create party zeal 
 and discord. "^^ The incompatibility of its principles and con- 
 dudl with the loyalty and discipline of the troops was recognised 
 at an early date by British officers. The Earl of Hardwicke, 
 
 i^Lord Kenyon was Deputy Grand Master for England and Wales, 
 and, after the Duke of Cumberland, the leading light of the Imperial Grand 
 Lodge, the meetings of which were usually held at his London house. 
 
 12 Appendix to Irish Parliamentary Committee's Report. 
 
 i^Through the help of a friendly jury, the prisoner was acquitted of 
 the charge of murder, and found guilty of manslaughter only. 
 
 ''■^Victorian Standard for August, 1891, reports the subscription referred 
 to. See p. 159, supra. 
 
 ''■^Memoirs 0/ the Different Rebellions, vol. i., p. 74, ed. 1801. 
 
 347 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 who commanded the Cambridgeshire militia at Dublin in 1799, 
 issued a regimental order on the 17th of April of that year, 
 " stricftly forbidding" membership of " any such lodges or 
 societies."^® In 1810 Major-General Cockburne, an Irish 
 Protestant officer, issued general orders to his troops (the nth 
 Infantry, then stationed at Chelmsford, in Essex) forbidding the 
 display of Orange colours, and declaring that such party divi- 
 sions were inconsistent with their duty to their King and 
 country." These were particular orders, applying to particu- 
 lar regiments. On the ist of July, 1822, and again on 14th 
 November, 1829, General Orders were issued by the Com- 
 mander-in-Chief of the Forces, addressed to commanding 
 officers of regiments and depots, and to general officers, etc., 
 at home and abroad, strongly reprobating the holding of 
 Orange lodges in any regiments as ''fraught with injury to the 
 discipline of the army;'" '■'that, on military grounds, the holding of 
 Orange lodges in any regiment or corps is contrary to order and the 
 rules of the service ;" and " that a disregard of this caution will 
 subject: offending parties to trial and punishment for dis- 
 obedience to orders." In their Report the English Parlia- 
 mentary Sele(51: Committee of 1835 on Orange lodges showed, 
 on the evidence of Major-General Sir J. MacDonald, Adjutant- 
 General of the army, "that the confidential circular of July, 
 1822, was embodied in the edition, printed in that year, of 
 the General Regulations and Orders of the Army ; that it was 
 the duty (27) of the colonel or commander of every regiment 
 to have one of these books; that every regimental officer (31) 
 was diredted to supply himself with a copy of it ; and that 
 every regimental orderly room was required to have a copy 
 (31). Of the orders of the Duke of York," Sir J. MacDonald 
 adds, " no officer ought to be ignorant." So runs the official 
 Report. 
 
 Now — not to mention others — the Imperial Grand 
 Master, Ernest, Duke of Cumberland, was a field-marshal. 
 Fairman, the Deputy Grand Secretary, was a lieutenant- 
 colonel. The Enniskillens, Verners, Blackers, and other 
 grandees of the Irish Grand Lodge, were officers of militia. 
 The question of the criminal knowledge of the members of the 
 Imperial Grand Lodge (London) is thus disposed of by the 
 Report which the English Selecft Committee of 1835 sent to the 
 House of Commons : 
 
 " Your Committee have selecfted some letters received from 
 the non-commissioned officers and privates in the army, and 
 also the answers to them, which will satisfy the House that 
 
 i^Quoted by Plowden, Ireland from its Union, vol. i., introd., p. 117. 
 ^''Ibid., pp. 125-126. 
 
CORRUPTING THE ARMY, 
 
 the grand officers of the Loyal Orange Institution have given 
 assistance and encouragement to keep up and to estabhsh lodges 
 in the army, although these officers were made acquainted with the 
 orders of the Commander-in-Chief forbidding the attending or holding 
 them in regiments, and notwithstanding they were informed that some 
 commanding officers had a6iually suppressed the lodges in conformity 
 with the General Orders.'' 
 
 Now, if its professions of loyalty were sincere, the Grand 
 Lodge would have taken steps to prevent the formation of 
 Orange lodges in the army, and to withdraw the warrants of, 
 and suppress, such lodges as may have been surreptitiously 
 established among the troops. It is a singular comment on its 
 professions that, so far from doing so, this supreme council of 
 the society, and its chief officers, did all in their power to 
 interfere with the discipline of the army, and to corrupt its 
 loyalty, by dividing its allegiance between the King and 
 country on the one side, and the political aims of the Grand 
 Lodge leaders on the other. In spite of the known illegality 
 of their atflion, they deliberately and, as the lawyers say, with 
 malice prepense : 
 
 [a) Acftively pushed the formation of Orange lodges in the 
 army ; 
 
 {b) Positively encouraged disobedience to orders in the 
 army, and resisted all attempts to suppress the lodges formed 
 by them in defiance of military regulations. 
 
 The fadts here stated in connedtion with the spread of 
 Orangeism in the army are, except where otherwise stated, 
 taken exclusively from the Report of the Selecft Parliamentary 
 Committee (English) of 1835. This Committee, in their 
 Report, give a list of thirty-two " military warrants issued to 
 the following regiments to hold lodges under the Loyal Orange 
 Institution, and which was extracted from the printed register 
 of 1830, presented by Mr. Chetwoode [the English Deputy 
 Grand Secretary] ; and if the regiments and military corps 
 holding warrants under the Grand Lodge of Dublin, as stated 
 in the evidence before the House, are taken into account, it 
 will be seen how large a portion of the army has been at 
 different times imbued with Orangeism." [Here follows a 
 detailed list of the thirty-two military warrants issued by the 
 English Grand Lodge, in defiance of military regulations] . 
 
 On the loth of August, 1832, Mr. Nucella was sent as the 
 accredited agent of the Imperial Grand Master, the Duke 
 of Cumberland, and the English Grand Lodge, to the British 
 regiments stationed in Malta and the Ionian Islands. He 
 issued sundry new warrants for the formation of fresh lodges 
 (details of which appear in the Report). He was forbidden by 
 
 349 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 the Civil Governor of Corfu (Lord Nugent), and by the 
 commanding officer of the 42nd Regiment at Malta, to establish 
 lodges among the troops under their control ; but (says the 
 Report of the Parliamentary Committee) " he aftevwards attended 
 the meetings of other military lodges there, although he knew 
 they were being held contrary to the order of the Commander of the 
 Forces.'' All this time, the Report continues, " Mr. Nucella was 
 recognised openly by them [the officers and men] as a 
 commissioner from the Duke of Cumberland, the Imperial 
 Grand Master of the Loyal Orange association of England." 
 He was in constant communication zvith the Grand Lodge, furnished 
 full details of his work, and (say the Committee) " in every letter, 
 and in his evidence, seems proud of that duty. His warrant 
 [signed by the Duke of Cumberland] was hung up openly in 
 his chambers all the time he was in Malta." The i^^/jor^ states 
 that his letters " were read by the Grand Committee — were read 
 in the Grand Lodge — when the Duke of Cumberland and Lord 
 Kenyon were present, and the thanks of the Grand Lodge were 
 given to Mr. Nucella for his zeal." The following entry was 
 copied by the SelecTt Committee from the books of the Grand 
 Lodge : 
 
 "The zealous exertions o^ Brother Nucella, M.D.C., and 
 Grand Commissioner on the Continent for the advancement of 
 the institution, as detailed in his letters from Italy, Malta, and 
 the Ionian Islands, afforded high gratification, and called forth 
 the unanimous approbation of the Grand Lodge." This was 
 followed by a letter dated 6th June, 1834, conveying the warm 
 thanks of the Grand Lodge and of " our illustrious Grand 
 Master," and signed by Deputy Grand Secretary Fairman. 
 The same Report shows how Fairman followed the same 
 seditious course of acftion in Great Britain as Nucella had done 
 at Malta and in the Ionian Islands. 
 
 Referring to Canada, the English Committee of 1835 report 
 to Parliament that " considerable correspondence has passed 
 between the soldiers and non-commissioned officers of the 
 army there and the Deputy Grand Secretary of the Loyal 
 Orange Institution in England ; ?lx\(1 strong encouragement appears 
 to have been given at one time by the Imperial Grand Lodge in London 
 to the establishment of new lodges, and to the extension of Orange- 
 ism amongst the troops in those provinces."^" Not the least 
 
 isQgle Robert Go wan was sent as the emissary of the Grand Lodge, 
 to corrupt the fidehty of the army in Canada. He was at the same time 
 Grand Master of Canada. The Irish Grand Lodge objedted to Gowan's 
 appointment, partly on account of his degraded moral charadter, documen- 
 tary evidence of which they submitted to the Imperial Grand Lodge 
 (London). The other ground of their objedlion against Gowan's appoint- 
 
CORRUPTING THE ARMY. 
 
 interesting portion of the Parliamentary Report is devoted to 
 the spread of the society among the British troops stationed in 
 New South Wales and Van Dieman's Land. Referring to 
 several letters which had reached the Grand Lodge from the 
 two colonies just mentioned, the Report goes on to say : 
 
 " Your Committee consider it of importance to place promi- 
 nently before the House one letter, dated January, 1833, in 
 which it appears that the then Deputy Grand Secretary of the 
 institution in London induced the writer, a soldier, to disobey the orders 
 of his commanding officer, and did acflually exchange an Irish for 
 an English warrant to hold a lodge in the regiment, contrary 
 to the orders of the Commander-in-Chief, and at the time he knew 
 that the military orders were in force against such grant.'" The 
 letter is signed, " Wm. M'Kie, Corporal, 17th Regiment," and 
 is dated, "Sidney, 13th January, 1836." It contains the 
 following evidence of Orange loyalty, as the word was under- 
 stood in the Imperial Grand Lodge : 
 
 "I was ordered," said the loyal corporal, "previous to 
 embarkation, if I had or held a warrant of the Orange system, 
 to send it back to the Grand Lodge, which I did not think proper 
 to do. This, I must own, was diredt disobedience of orders to my com- 
 manding officer ; but I wrote to Mr. Chetwood Eustace, then Deputy- 
 Grand Secretary, and he informed me not to be the least afraid, for no 
 harm ivoidd be done me. I knew there was an order issued in 1829 
 prohibiting Orange lodges in the army." 
 
 PREVARICATION IN HIGH PLACES. 
 
 The position of the Imperial Grand Master, the Duke of 
 Cumberland, on the formation of lodges in the army, is so 
 redolent of Orange methods of a(ftion that it deserves more 
 than passing notice. In the course of the proceedings of the 
 Selecft Committees, scrap after scrap of evidence reached the 
 public showing the serious and menacing nature of the wide- 
 spread conspiracy which had been silently undermining the 
 loyalty of the British army. The public alarm was all the 
 more accentuated by the general and well grounded belief 
 (which found expression both in and out of Parliament) that 
 the Orange leaders were engaged in a huge armed conspiracy 
 to set aside the claims of the Princess Vicftoria to the British 
 Throne, and to set up in her stead the Imperial Grand Master 
 of the Orange society, the Duke of Cumberland. " The Next 
 to the Throne," as the brethren termed him, saw the storm 
 breaking which wrecked his hopes of the succession, tempor- 
 arily suppressed the Orange society, and exposed him to the 
 
 ment was, their own jurisdidlion over Canada. Gowan's services were, 
 aowever, retained. 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 danger of impeachment for treason. He consulted for his 
 personal safety in a manner thoroughly in keeping with his 
 characfter as it is known in history, (a) On the 5th August, 
 1835, he addressed a letter to the Chairman of the Parlia- 
 mentary Committee, in which he declares that "Ae knows of no 
 Orange lodge in any regiment." (b) On the 24th of the same 
 month, he wrote that "through the negligence or indiscretion 
 of the officers of the Orange institution, many grants of 
 warrants or renewals of former grants have, without the knowledge 
 of his Royal Highness, and contrary to his declared intention, been 
 issued from time to time, in contravention of the order of the 
 late illustrious Commander-in-Chief, his Royal Highness the 
 Duke of York." 
 
 To the first of the Duke's statements the Selecft Committee 
 reply with a touch of quiet irony : " It is satisfacTtory to know 
 that one result of the inquiry by the Committee has been to 
 bring to his knowledge, and to convince his Royal Highness, 
 that Orange lodges did, and do, exist in many regiments of the 
 army ; and that he has presided, as Imperial Grand Master, 
 over an institution which has for many years been acSling in 
 contravention of the orders of commanding officers of corps, 
 and of the Commander of the Forces. Your Committee submit 
 that it would have been very easy for his Royal Highness to have 
 published the document by ivhich, and the time and place where, he 
 issued any order, or made any declaration against Orange lodges in the 
 army, instead of a general disclaimer." It is needless to say 
 that the Committee's challenge was never accepted by the 
 Imperial Grand Master. Briefly put, the Seledl Parliamentary 
 Committee of English gentlemen declined to believe the state- 
 ment of the Imperial autocrat of the Orange lodges. They also 
 point out that the fa(5fs elicited during the enquiry prove that 
 the Duke not alone knew of the existence of lodges in the 
 army, but that the disloyal movement had his full sanation and 
 approval. 
 
 Reference has already been made to the mission on which 
 Brother Nucella was sent, tinder the Duke's zmrrant, to the 
 British troops stationed at Malta and in the Ionian Islands. 
 The English Committee's Report quotes from the minutes of 
 the London Grand Lodge the following instances in which the 
 Imperial Grand Master presided at meetings which transacted business 
 in connection ivith military lodges : 
 
 Meeting of March 17, 1829, the Duke of Cumberland, 
 Grand Master, in the chair : Five new warrants (specified in 
 the Report) were granted for the formation of lodges in the 
 army. 
 
 On February 17, 1831, the Duke of Cumberland presided 
 
 352 
 
CORRUPTING THE ARMY. 
 
 at a Grand Lodge meeting at which three warrants (specified 
 ^n the Report) were issued for holding lodges in the army. 
 
 The Duke presided at another meeting on June 4, 1832, at 
 which five letters (also specified in the Report) were received 
 from non-commissioned officers and privates in army lodges at 
 Bermuda, Corfu, Dublin, Malta, and Quebec. 
 
 The Imperial Grand Master again presided at a Grand 
 Lodge meeting on April 16, 1833, when the proceedings of a 
 Woolwich army lodge (No. 233) were considered. An Orange 
 artilleryman belonging to the lodge was examined, and a 
 private belonging to it suspended from membership. 
 
 There were likewise before his eyes the letters of his Grand 
 Commissioner, Nucella, some of which had been read in his pre- 
 sence ; the entries of dues received from military lodges ; the 
 printed lists of army lodges; the rule regarding the remission 
 of fees to soldiers and sailors, which (with other "laws and 
 ordinances of the institution") ims approved by his Royal High- 
 ness, as appeared from the printed report of the proceedings of 
 June 4, 1834. He likewise presided over the meeting which 
 passed a vote of thanks to Mr. Nucella for his zeal in spread- 
 ing Orangeism among the British troops at Malta and the 
 Ionian Islands. Many other details are added in the Report. oi 
 the English Committee, which plainly show that the Imperial 
 Grand Master and his fellow-officers of the London Grand 
 Lodge knowingly and deliberately tampered with the loyalty 
 of the British army. In her Thirty Years' Peace, Miss Marti- 
 neau points out how neither Lord John Russell nor the House 
 of Commons was satisfied with the Duke's disavowal of 
 guilty knowledge in the matter. ^^ The English Committee, 
 after detailing the facfls bearing upon the denials of the Duke 
 of Cumberland, Lord Kenyon,-" and other officers of the 
 Imperial Grand Lodge, frankly say in their Report: 
 
 i^Vol. ii., p. 276. 
 
 20Lord Kenyon, in his evidence before the English Selefl Committee, 
 at first denied all knowledge of the existence of lodges in the army. He then 
 admitted that Rule 47 (1821) referring to the regulation of regimental lodges, 
 had been inserted with his sanction (Q. 2736). A few questions further on 
 (Q. 2742) he admits his acquaintance with Rule 47, just referred to, but 
 " knowing that lodges in the army were forbidden, it occurred to his mind 
 that no lodges at the time did exist in regiments, and consequently that they 
 could not exist afterwards." But the rules were year after year revised and 
 sanftioned by Lord Kenyon up to 1834. These, one and all, included pro- 
 visions regarding regimental lodges, the latter rules containing privileges 
 dispensing soldiers from paying the regular fees, etc. Lord Kenyon was 
 also present at many meetings (some held in his house) when warrants 
 were issued to, and correspondence received from, army lodges. The 
 climax of Lord Kenyon's examination on oath was reached when a letter 
 was put into his hands, addressed to and endorsed by him, and coming from the 
 
 353 w 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 *' Your Committee, in reviewing all the facfls brought before 
 them, and taking into consideration the mode in which they 
 have been proved, are unable to reconcile these fads with the 
 ignorance of these proceedings on the part of Lord Kenyon and 
 by His Royal Highness the Duke of Cumberland." 
 
 The "qualifications of an Orangeman" require that a brother 
 should not alone be distinguished for his exceptional loyalty, 
 but that he likewise " should cultivate truth and justice," etc. 
 Here we have the Imperial Grand Lodge, both as a whole and 
 in its chief members, publicly convi(51:ed by a Parliamentary 
 Committee of English gentlemen, of having made upon oath, 
 in the interests of Orangeism, statements which were notori- 
 ously at variance with fadt, and of having, in defiance of 
 well-known military regulations, systematically, deHberately, 
 and on a large scale, tampered with the discipline of the army 
 — the nation's sole dependence in the day of foreign war and 
 of domestic strife. 
 
 The English Committee's Report likewise lays to the charge 
 of the Orange society " those evils which disturb both civil 
 and military life so much, and which threaten the most serious 
 consequences to the community of the United Kingdom, if 
 allowed to continue." " The obvious tendency and effecft of 
 the Orange institution," it continues, in a passage which has 
 been already quoted at length, " is to keep up an exclusive 
 association in civil and military society, exciting one portion 
 of the people against the other .... to interfere with 
 the discipline of the army, thus rendering its services injurious 
 instead of useful, when required on occasions where Protestants 
 and Catholics may be parties." 
 
 A CRY FOR SUPPRESSION. 
 
 At that time, according to the Report of the English 
 Committee, " the number of Orangemen in Ireland is 220,000, 
 as stated by the Deputy Grand Secretary for that country, 
 and these chiefly with arms in their possession ; and if the Orange- 
 men in Great Britain and the colonies amount only to half that 
 number, the House will judge how dangerous such an association, 
 hound together by religious ceremony and sandiion almost equal to that 
 of an oath, might become under possible circumstances of the country. 
 
 correspondent of a regimental lodge at Dover, enclosing a remittance ! This is 
 referred to in the English Committee's Report. Further details of Cumber- 
 land's and Kenyon's prevarication will be found in Miss Martineau's 
 Thirty Years' Peace, vol. ii.. pp. 273-274. In his examination before the 
 Belfast Royal Commission of 1857, Grand Master the Earl of Enniskillen 
 professed total ignorance of the existence of secret signs, etc., in the Orange 
 society. See p. no, supra. 
 
 354 
 
A CRY FOR SUPPRESSION. 
 
 A great political body thus organised in the ranks of the army, 
 and in every part of the British Empire, is a formidable power at 
 any time, arid under any circumstances ; hut when your Committee look 
 to the political tendency and measures of the Orange societies in England 
 and in Irekn.l,. and particularly to the language contained in addresses 
 to the public, and in the correspondence with the grand officers of the 
 institution, and consider the possible use that might be made of such an 
 organised power ^ its suppression becomes, in their opinion, imperatively 
 necessary.''^ 
 
 Elsewhere in the same Report we find the following : 
 
 " When every endeavour on the part of Government to put an end 
 to Orange lodges in the army has been met by redoubled efforts on the 
 part of the Orange institution, not only to uphold, but to increase them, 
 evidently violating military law, and aggravating its violation by 
 concealing from the officers of the different regiments, and from the com- 
 mander of the forces — frojn all, in fa6t, but Orangemen — the fixed 
 determination of fostering their institution ; when soldiers are urged in 
 official letters from the Deputy Grand Secretary of the society to hold 
 meetings, notwithstanding the orders of the Commander-in-Chief to the 
 contrary, but with instrudiions to a6i with caution and prudence, it is 
 surely time for Government to take measures for the complete suppres- 
 sion of such institutions.'' 
 
 After setting forth the General Order of August 31, 
 1835, peremptorily enforcing the prohibitions of 1822 and 1829 
 against lodges in the army, the Report urges upon the House 
 of Commons " the immediate removal from office of all public 
 servants who shall continue or become members of any Orange 
 lodge." 
 
 Thus far the Report. Such was the opinion unanimously 
 formed of the loyalty of the inner circle of the Orange society 
 after an exhaustive inquiry, and from its own zvritten and printed 
 records, by a Seledt Parliamentary Committee of English 
 gentlemen, who represented every shade of the political 
 opinions of their day, and all, or nearly all, of whom were 
 Protestants, It should be noted that the London Grand 
 Lodge, which is here referred to, was the supreme council and 
 direcftor, not merely of the lodges of Great Britain, but of the 
 whole world, and that its persistent spread of disloyalty and 
 disafFetflion in the nation's last resource — the army — cast a 
 blot upon the whole Orange organisation, and made it a stand- 
 ing menace to the peace of the Empire. 
 
 Replying to " an humble address" of the House of Com- 
 mons on the subjedl: of Orange lodges in the army, his Majesty 
 King William IV., in a reply read on August 15, 1835, made 
 use of the following words • 
 
 " 1 have received your dutiful address, submitting to me 
 
 355 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 certain resolutions on the subjecfl of Orange lodges in the 
 army. My attention has been, and shall continue to be, 
 diredled to the practices contrary to the regulations, and injurious to 
 the discipline of my troops. I owe it no less to the dignity of my 
 Crown than to the safety of the country, and the welfare of my 
 brave and loyal army, to discourage and prevent any attempts 
 to introduce secret societies into the ranks ; and you may rely 
 on my determination to adopt the most effediiual means for that 
 purpose." 
 
 On the motion of Lord John Russell, this answer of the 
 King was entered in the Journals of the House of Commons.^^ 
 
 SECRET ARTICLES, ETC. 
 
 4. There is one class of legal enacftments which the Grand 
 Lodges, all down the course of their history, have set them- 
 selves to defy, to ignore or to evade — namely, Acfts passed 
 with a view to minimise the evils inherent to the Orange 
 system. This has been sufficiently demonstrated by the 
 manner in which they not alone permitted, but applauded, the 
 systematic and open defiance by the brethren of the provisions 
 of the Party Processions Adts. All this is strangely inconsis- 
 tent with the professions of men whose motto is loyalty, and 
 who declare that one of the chief aims of their association is to 
 promote among their members a dutiful submission to the laws 
 of their country. The further we inquire into these professions 
 the more evident it becomes that the fount of Orange loyalty 
 is tainted at the source of its whole policy — the Grand Lodge. 
 This will become more manifest when we consider the acflion 
 of the Irish and English Grand Lodges in 
 
 (i) Retaining illegal articles, oaths, tests, etc. 
 
 (2) Defying or evading Adts of Parliament which declared 
 the Orange society to be an illegal association. 
 
 (i) The rules of 1800 were drawn up by a committee 
 appointed by the Irish Grand Lodge at a meeting held in 
 Dublin on the 20th of November in the previous year. These 
 rules were approved by the Grand Lodge and distributed to 
 the members. They contain, among other things, the ten 
 Secret Articles, which were safeguarded by special oaths, and 
 kept bidden from the public eye until dragged into the light of 
 day by Plowden m 181 1, and again by the Parliamentary 
 Sele(5t Committees of 1835.-^ Five of the ten Secret Articles 
 are given here, together with such bracketed comments as 
 they may call for : 
 
 " I. That we will bear true allegiance to his Majesty King 
 
 ^''■Journals of the House of Commons, 15th August, 1835, folio 559. 
 ■^^See p. 84, supra, note 3. 
 
THE SECRET ARTICLES. 
 
 George the Third and his successors, 50 lon<r as he or they support 
 the Protestant ascendency. . . ." [The reader's attention is 
 direcfted to what has been already said as to the price which 
 the Irish Grand Lodge here sets upon the loyalty of the 
 Orange body.^^ The same remarks apply to the Orange oath 
 of 1799, to which I shall presently refer] . 
 
 " 4. We must not give the first assault to any person whatever, that 
 may bring a brother into trouble.'' [This article evidently implies 
 that the " first assault" may be given in all other circum- 
 stances] . 
 
 5. " We are not to carry aivay money, goods, or anything from 
 any person zvhatever, except arms and ammunition, and tituse only fioni 
 an enemy." [This article is a recognition and adoption, by the 
 Irish Grand Lodge, of a leading item of the old plundering 
 policy of the Peepo'-Day Boys, out of whose association 
 Orangeism in its present shape arose. It is needless to say 
 that with Orangemen, as with Peep-o'-Day Boys, Catholics 
 were the " enemy." The reader will recall the declaration of 
 Mr. Swan, Secretary of the Irish Grand Lodge, to the effedt 
 that the Catholic religion is " hostile to the State. "■'■' The 
 Catholic is, then, the " enemy ;" the Orangeman, the judge 
 Translated into plain terms, the fifth article, as Plowden 
 remarks, simply means : " Whenever Orangemen assault a 
 Catholic, or break into his house, they shall not rob him of his 
 money or goods, but only of his arms and gunpowder."'^ The 
 Armagh outrages of 1795 and 1796, the Reign of Terror of 
 1797 and 1798, and the raids, etc., of a later day, proved that 
 Orangemen, even when wearing the Sovereign's livery, failed 
 in a vast number of instances to discriminate very carefully 
 between weapons and other portable property of value 
 belonging to the "enemy"]. 
 
 " 6. We are to appear in ten hours' warning, or whatever time is 
 required, if possible (provided i<t is not hurtful to ourselves or 
 family, and that we are served with a lawful summons from 
 the Master), otherwise we are fined as the company think 
 proper." [It is unnecessary to point out the danger and 
 illegality of large bodies of armed men being bound to appear 
 at a specified place on a few hours' notice, given by an irre- 
 sponsible, fanatical, and perhaps uneducated and intemperate 
 lodge Master. The Fairman correspondence, published in the 
 Report oi the English Parliamentary Committee of 1835, shows 
 that one of the uses which this article was intended to serve 
 was to overawe and intimidate ele(51:ors in the old days of open 
 
 2^See pp. 252-253, supra. 
 
 2*See p. 84, supra. 
 
 o^Plowden, Ireland from its Union, vol. i., Introd., p. 81, note 
 
 357 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 voting, and thus influence elecflion contests in a sense favour- 
 able to the poHtical schemes of the Orange leaders.^*^ Further 
 reference will be made in the course of this chapter to other 
 and still more treasonable purposes for which the Grand 
 Lodge was massing the physical strength of the association in 
 the period between 1829 and 1836] . 
 
 The eighth of the Secret Articles ran as follows : "8. An 
 Orangeman is to keep a brother's secret as his own, unless in case oj 
 murder, treason, and perjury, and that of his own free will." [This 
 article, as well as the oaths adopted by the leaders of Irish 
 Orangeism, place the secrecy of lodge proceedings above 
 many of the requirements of judicial procedure. The reader 
 has aleady seen how both the leaders and the rank and file of 
 the Orange association refused to divulge the secrets of the 
 lodge, either in the interests of justice, or at the bidding of the 
 nation's repesentatives in Parliament assembled].^' 
 
 The illegality of these Secret Articles was fully admitted by 
 the Irish Grand Secretary before the Parliamentary Committee 
 of 1835, but he was unable to show, by the books of the Grand 
 Lodge or otherwise, that they had ever been repealed The 
 acftion of the rulers of the society regarding illegal oaths, etc., 
 has been sufficiently dealt with in the sixth chapter of this 
 volume. 
 
 CONDITIONAL LOYALTY. 
 
 One of the most curious and constant features of the Orange 
 society— one which stands out in sharp contrast with its pro- 
 fessions — is its well-known principle of conditional loyalty, 
 which remains to this day an integral part of its settled policy. 
 The rules adopted in 1800 by the Irish Grand Lodge not alone 
 accept this principle ; they bind members to it by oath. Nay, 
 more: this oath requires of their Sovereign, as the price of 
 their loyalty, a condition to which no just, enlightened, or 
 liberal-minded ruler could give assent. This will be seen by 
 the following portion of the " obligation of an Orangeman," to 
 which reference has already been made in the course of this 
 volume :^® 
 
 "I, A.B., do solemnly and sincerely swear, of my own 
 free will and consent, that I will, to the utmost of my power, 
 support and defend the present King, George the Third, and 
 all the heirs to the Crown, so long as he or they support the Pro- 
 testant ascendency, the Constitution and laws of these kingdoms." 
 
 {a) The common law of the period required of each subjedl: 
 absolute, unqualified, and perpetual allegiance to the Sovereign 
 
 26See pp. 132, sqq., supra. 
 
 "'See pp. 110-112, 115, 122-124, sjtpra. 
 
 2 "See pp. 252-254, supra. 
 
CONDITIONAL LOYALTY. 
 
 of the realm. The oath imposed by the Irish Grand Lodge on 
 all Orangemen bound them to allegiance only so long as the 
 Sovereign would " support the Protestant ascendency." Such 
 an oath was conditional, qualified, temporary. It was therefore, 
 at the time, of a treasonable characfter. This oath continued 
 in full force among Orangemen all over the world until 1821, 
 when, in consequence of its known illegality, and the too marked 
 attention which the association had been receiving in Parlia- 
 ment since 1813, it w^as removed from the printed rule-books 
 of the English society. It does not follow that the use of this 
 oath was therefore discontinued. On the 8th of February, 
 1 82 1, the Duke of York had consented to become Grand 
 Master of the Orange society. In the following June a 
 question regarding his acceptance of the office was asked in 
 the House of Commons, and on the 22nd of that month the 
 Duke wrote that he had learned "that the law officers of the 
 Crown and other eminent lawyers were decidedly of opinion 
 that the Orange institution, Jinder the oath administered to their 
 members, was illegal." He therefore withdrew from the associa- 
 tion. Lord Hertford, Lord Lowther, and others followed his 
 example. 
 
 {h) The reader will bear in mind that the oath in question 
 does not merely stipulate that the Sovereign shall be a Pro- 
 testant. That was not sufficient for the "loyalists" of the 
 Irish Grand Lodge. He was required, moreover, to "support 
 the Protestant ascendency." Reference to the twelfth chapter 
 of this volume will enable the reader to realise the wide differ- 
 ence that exists between these two conditions, and to estimate 
 the high reserve which the Irish, and afterwards the English, 
 Grand Lodge set upon their loyalty, when, to use Judge 
 Fletcher's words, they exposed it for sale in open market.^ 
 
 Abundant reference has already been made to the scenes 
 of confusion and violence which marked the campaign of the 
 Irish Orangemen against Catholic Emancipation ; and to the 
 keen opposition which the English brethren offered to the 
 repeal (in 1828) of the Test and Corporation Adts, and the 
 admission of Protestant Dissenters to their full measure of 
 political rights and privileges.^" Even Orangeism would 
 seem to have turned upside down at the Antipodes. The 
 chief part of the membership of the lodges of Australia, the 
 most inflammatory speakers of the July platforms, are supplied 
 by those Dissenting Churches which the Orangeism of a 
 generation ago did all in its power to muzzle and fetter with 
 
 29See pp. 251-252, supra. 
 30See p. 90, supra. 
 
 359 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 civil and religious disabilities. If they now happily enjoy the 
 rights of free citizens, it is not because of, but in very spite of, 
 the Orangeism which they now profess. 
 
 THE SOCIETY SUPPRESSED. 
 
 (2) The reader has already seen that the Orange society 
 was plainly illegal at common law ; that it a(51:ed in direcft 
 opposition to the Horse Guards regulations ; and that its 
 processions and general policy were incompatible with the 
 preservation of public order. Parliament had, with no un- 
 certain voice, condemned the principles and policy of the asso- 
 ciation in almost every year from 1813 to 1825. During the 
 agitation for Emancipation, the association had become such 
 a serious menace to public tranquility that it was suppressed 
 in Ireland by an Acft of Parliament, passed in 1825. 
 
 To judge from their oft-repeated professions of attachment 
 to the Constitution and of unswerving obedience to the laws, 
 one should naturally expedl that the Irish Orange institution 
 would have loyally bowed its head to the Adt of Suppression, 
 passed by the nation's representatives in Parliament assembled. 
 The society was now distincflly illegal, not merely at common 
 law, but by statute law as well. The Irish Grand Lodge issued 
 a defiant circular to the brethren, and went through a farce of 
 " dissolving" the association, which was carried on as before 
 under an altered name.^ Their English brethren forthwith 
 stepped into the breach, helped them to violate the I'aw, and the 
 organisation continued with unabated vigor its violent agitation 
 against the civil rights of their Catholic fellow-citizens.®' In 
 the circular referred to, the Irish Grand Secretary says : 
 
 " Though from this day the Grand Lodge ceases to exist 
 as a body, yet we do most sincerely and truly pledge ourselves 
 . . . that, as individuals, we cherish the same principles 
 at heart . . . and we shall ever feel pleasure in inculca- 
 ting them to our neighbours and friends, and in instilling them 
 into the infant breasts of our children, so that they uiay grow 
 with their growth, and strengthen with their strength, and so 
 be handed down entire and unimpaired from generation to 
 generation.'"'- 
 
 Under stress of the law, many of the Irish brethren did as 
 their founders, the Peep-o'-Day Boys, had done in 1795 : 
 they assumed an alias. Henceforward, until 1828, a large 
 number of the Irish lodges were known under the designation 
 
 ■Ai-Minutes of Evidence, Irish Seledl Pari. Comrmiiee's Report, Q. 7063. 
 For other methods resorted to by the Grand Lodges to avert or delay 
 suppression, see pp. 121, sqq., supra. See English Committee's Report, p 
 vii., and Q. 2832-2838. 
 
 ^^Miiiutes of Evidence, Q. 17, Irish Seledl Committee's Report. A 
 promise of loyalty is made against " domestic treason or foreign invasion.' 
 
 360 
 
THE SOCIETY SUPPRESSED- 
 
 of Brunswick Clubs. Under this title the Orange leaders in 
 Dublin issued their orders and conducfted the affairs of the 
 association.^^ The writer of the article on Orangeism in the 
 Encyclopcedia Britannica (gth ed.) says that the Brunswick Clubs 
 were simply branches of the old Orange tree. The Parlia- 
 mentary debates of the period, and the opinions expressed in 
 the newspapers of the time, show that they were regarded 
 simply and purely as Orange lodges, under the thin disguise of 
 an alias. Their membership was the same, their policy the 
 same. The agitation against Catholic Emancipation went 
 merrily on ; processions were carried out by them as before ; 
 outrages continued and multiplied ; every distincSlive feature of 
 the principles, policy, and conducfl of Orangeism was con- 
 tinued, without break or intermission, by the lodges which had 
 now assumed the new title of Brunswick Clubs.^^ To use a 
 term much in vogue in ecclesiastical literature of late years, 
 the Brunswick Clubs were is stricfl: moral and physical " con- 
 tinuity" with the lodges of the Orange association. 
 
 This, however, was not the only expedient to which leaders 
 of the Orange association resorted for the purpose of defying 
 or evading the Adl of 1825. Another method was devised, 
 which is thus detailed in the Report of the English Selecft Com- 
 mittee of the House of Commons (p. vii.) : 
 
 " To evade the law, the word warrant was substituted for 
 lodge. The original form was to grant a warrant to hold a 
 lodge in a particular house or place ; and by the alteration it was 
 given to the person to hold a lodge wheresoever he pleased. It 
 has been a nde that Irish warrants cannot be a6ted upon in England, 
 or English warrants a6ied on in Ireland ; and a new warrant is 
 therefore given in exchange, as a matter of course, on appli- 
 cation. It is particularly deserving of notice that when the 
 Grand Orange Lodge was discontinued in Ireland in the years 
 1825 to 1828, the Loyal Orange Institution of England issued war- 
 rants, under which lodges were held in Ireland ; and the objects and 
 intentions of the law were thus frustrated.'" 
 
 In the cases where the brethren did not alter the title of 
 their lodges to that of Brunswick Clubs, or where they could 
 not, or would not, incur the expense of procuring English 
 warrants, they dispensed with such formalities, and held their 
 meetings as they had done before the IS.<St of Suppression was 
 passed. ''^ Mr. Richardson Bell, an Ulster Protestant magis- 
 trate, deposed before the SeletTt Committee of 1835 that during 
 the period of suppression (1825 to 1828) the Orange lodges 
 
 33"M.P.'s" History of Oyangeism, p. 162. 
 
 ^^Ibid., Cf. Minutes of Evidence, Third Irish Report, Qq. 7062-7072. 
 
 ^^Minutes of Evidence, ibid. 
 
 361 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 continued to be held in the neighbourhood of Dungannon with 
 the same frequency and regularity as before ; that the proces- 
 sions were of precisely the same characSler as before the passing 
 of the A(5t ; the brethren, on the usual occasions for these dis- 
 plays, "marching through the town and behaving in a most 
 ridiculous manner; so much so, that none but low Orangemen 
 would associate with them."'*'' The Belfast News-Letter (a Pro- 
 testant organ) of July, 1826, loth July, 1827, 12th July, 1828, 
 corroborates the testimony of Mr. Bell, and shows that what 
 it expressly terms " Orange lodges " still continued to be 
 illegally held over Ulster under their proper designation, and 
 that processions of " Orangemen" were held in great numbers, 
 just as if no A61 of Suppression had ever been passed. *" In 
 some places — as, for instance, at Dungannon — the processions 
 were headed by several Orangemen of rank, " dressed in 
 costumes suited to the occasion." The reader must solve for 
 himself the question as to how, in the face of the testimony 
 that has been here adduced, the Irish Orange Institution could 
 declare that it had "dissolved" in deference to the A(5l of 
 Parliament of 1825. 
 
 THE CUMBERLAND PLOT. 
 
 The period of most feverish and seditious acftivity in the 
 history of the Orange organisation extended from about 1828 
 to 1835. "Towards the close of the period before us," says 
 Killen, " the Orange institute suddenly collapsed. Notwith- 
 standing their loud professions of loyalty, its adherents had 
 been recently involved in treasonable designs. The passing of 
 the Roman Catholic Emancipation Bill in 1829 had driven 
 them almost to madness, and ever since their movements had 
 been marked by recklessness and folly. "'"^ This was the period 
 during which the English and Irish Grand Lodges were most 
 acflive in corrupting the fidelity and undermining the discipline 
 of the army, and in preparing the brethren — close on half a 
 million in number — for a revolution or a civil war. 
 
 The period here referred to covers the operations of the 
 Cumberland Plot, which occupies as well-known a pJace in 
 history as the Cato Street Conspiracy of 1820. No reference 
 to the loyalty of the governing body of the Orange society 
 would be complete without at least a few leading fadts regard- 
 ing the Cumberland scheme. From the passing reference made 
 
 ^^Minutes of Evidence, Third Irish Report, Q. 7063. 
 
 ^"^ Ibid, Qq, 7062-7072 ; cf. Qq. 5929-5934. These processions of 
 Orangemen were held at Lisburn, Hillsborough, Dungannon (170 lodges), 
 Dromore, Kilmore, Saintfield (40 lodges), Portadown (30 to 40 lodges), 
 Lurgan (80 to go), Ballymoney (28 lodges), Ballymena, Antrim, Coleraine, 
 etc. 
 
 ^^Eccles. Hist, oj Ireland, vol. ii,, p. 463. 
 
 362 
 
THE CUMBERLAND PLOT. 
 
 to it in a previous chapter, the reader is already aware that 
 the objecSl of the conspiracy, as stated by historians of the time, 
 was to alter the succession to the Throne of England : to set 
 aside the just and legalised claims of the Princess (now Queen) 
 Vi(5toria, and to place the crown on the head of the Imperi*! 
 Grand Master of the Orange society, Ernest, Duke of 
 Cumberland. Dr. Killen, the Presbyterian historian, says 
 that the investigations of the Parliamentary Committee of 
 1835 "revealed the existence of a conspiracy to exclude the 
 Princess Vidtoria from the succession, and place the Duke of 
 Cumberland on the Throne." ^^ Miss Martineau, a contem- 
 porary Protestant historian, thus refers to the plot in her 
 Thirty Y ears' Peace : ^° 
 
 " The revolutionary movement referred to as occurring at 
 the other end of society was one which it would be scarcely 
 possible to credit now, but for the body of documentary 
 evidence which leaves no shadow of doubt on any of the prin- 
 cipal features of the conspiracy. The whole affair seems so 
 unsuited to our time and the conditions of our monarchy — so 
 like a plunge back into a former century — that all the 
 superiority of documentary evidence of which we have the 
 advantage, is needed to make the story credible to quiet 
 people who do not dream of treason, plots, and civil war in 
 England in our day." 
 
 The "body of documentary evidence" here referred to goes 
 to show that the conspiracy was condudled by the members ot 
 the Imperial Grand Lodge of London, who guided the votes, 
 policy, and destinies of all the scattered fragments of Orange- 
 ism throughout the world. Among those who seem to have been 
 most deeply implicated were Lords Kenyon, Wynford, 
 Longford, and Roden, the Duke of Gordon (Deputy Grand 
 Master for Scotland), and the Marquis of Londonderry. The 
 leading roles in the plot are, however, by general consent, 
 assigned to the Duke of Cumberland and his intimate friend 
 and familiar. Deputy Grand Secretary Lieutenant-Colonel 
 Blennerhasset Fairman. 
 
 The character and antecedents of the Duke of Cumberland 
 eminently fitted him for the headship of the Orange organisa- 
 tion, and for a leading part in such an enterprise as that with 
 which his name has been inseparably associated ever since 
 1836. He was brother of the reigning king, William IV. He 
 had learned his ideas of morality in the corrupt courts of the 
 Georges, which, says an eminent historian of our time, had " a 
 full flavour such as a decent tap-room would hardly exhibit in 
 
 ^^Ibid., p. 464. 
 
 ^oVol. ii., chap, v., p. 266. 
 
 363 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 a time like the present." There were few, if any, of the old 
 rones of his day more cordially hated than the Imperial Grand 
 Master of all the lodges. He was, says Spencer Walpole, 
 "the least reputable and the most unpopular of the King's 
 brothers."" His brother, George IV., thus explained to the 
 Duke of Wellington the cause of Cumberland's extreme 
 unpopularity: It was, said the King, "because there never was 
 a father well with a son, a husband with his wife, a lover with 
 his mistress, or a friend with his friend, that he [Cumberland] 
 did not try to make mischief between."^- His characSter is thus 
 summed up by Mr. Justin McCarthy :^^ 
 
 " His manners were rude, overbearing, and sometimes 
 even brutal. He had personal habits which seemed rathei 
 fitted for the days of Tiberius, or for the court of Peter the 
 Great, than for the time and sphere to which he belonged. 
 Rumour not unnaturally exaggerated his defecTts, and in the 
 mouths of many his name was the symbol of the darkest and 
 fiercest passions, and even crimes. Some of the popular 
 reports with regard to him had their foundation only in the 
 common detestation of his characfler and dread of his influence. 
 But it was certain that he was profligate, selfish, overbearing, 
 and quarrelsome. A man with these qualities would usually 
 be described in ficflion as, at all events, bluntly honest and 
 outspoken ; but the Duke of Cumberland was deceitful and 
 treacherous. He was outspoken in his abuse of those with 
 whom he quarrelled, and in his style of anecdote and jocular 
 conversation, but in no other sense." After referring to the 
 unpopularity of the Duke of Cumberland, the historian just 
 quoted goes on to say : " He was believed by many persons to 
 have had more than an indirecft, or passive, or innocent share in 
 the Orange plot discovered and exposed by Mr. Hume in 1835 
 for setting aside the claims of the young Princess Victoria, and 
 putting himself — the Duke of Cumberland — upon the Throne : 
 a scheme which its authors pretended to justify by many pre- 
 posterous assertions that they feared the Duke of Wellington 
 would otherwise seize the Crown for himself." 
 
 ENTER COLONEL FAIRMAN. 
 
 Lieutenant-Colonel Fairraan played the jackal to the 
 Imperial lion of the lodges. He had been an Orangeman since 
 1815, and was introduced into the Imperial Grand Lodge of 
 London under the following significant circumstances : 
 
 ^'^Hist. of Efigland, vol. ii., pp. 505-506. 
 
 ■*2The Greville Memoirs : Journal of the Reigns of King George IV. and oj 
 King William I'V., vol. i., p. 218 (Longman's ed., 1884). 
 ^^History of Our Own Times, vol. i., pp. 16-17. 
 
THE CUMBERLAND PLOT. 
 
 1. During the illness of George IV., Fairman had done all 
 in his power to have a Regent appointed — the Regent to be 
 none other than H.R.H. the Duke of Cumberland. He had 
 also spoken slightingly of the Princess VicStoria's claims to the 
 Throne." , 
 
 2. While Fairman was thus establishing a claim on the 
 Duke of Cumberland, the Deputy Grand Secretary of the 
 Orange institution was an Irishman named Chetwoode Eustace 
 Chetwoode. He is described as " an honest, simple-minded 
 man in his way — certainly not one fitted for treasons, 
 stratagems, and broils. "^^ It was decided to get rid of him. 
 Fie was charged with not having kept the books and accounts 
 in proper order, called upon by the Grand Lodge — apparently 
 in all seriousness — to prove that he was not a Papist, and 
 dismissed. From the evidence received by the Parliamentary 
 Committee (English) of 1835, we find that, a short time 
 previous to his dismissal, two tylers of the Grand Lodge 
 (Condell and Osborne) and another Orangeman (Payne) broke 
 into Chetwoode's Chambers in Lyons' Inn during his absence, 
 and abstracted therefrom all the papers they could lay their 
 hands upon. The complicity of the Grand Lodge in the 
 robbery is evidenced by the facfl that the thieves were paid for 
 their services by Fairman, and that some of the stolen 
 documents were subsequently produced before the Seledt 
 Parliamentary Committee of 1835. Chetwoode was thus 
 quietly deprived of the only weapons by which he might have 
 been formidable to those who afterwards sat in judgment on 
 him. 
 
 3. Before his appointment, Fairman had several long 
 private interviews with Cumberland at Kew. Immediately 
 after one of these conferences, he was appointed to the office of 
 Deputy Grand Secretary, on the nomination of the DmA^, seconded 
 by Deputy Grand Master Lord Kenyon. 
 
 4. Fairman's appointment was rapidly followed by a notable 
 change in the whole policy of the organisation : 
 
 {a) A new and uniform system was devised, new signs and 
 passwords were invented,^" and every means taken to secure 
 secrecy in the new departure now entered upon. 
 
 {b) The Imperial Grand Lodge now advocated an open 
 resort to physical force and the terrorism of armed multitudes 
 of the brethren, for the purpose of crushing opposition to their 
 schemes. 
 
 **For instance, in his letter to the Editor of the Morning Herald, dated 
 April 6, 1830. 
 
 *5"]VI.P.." Htst. of Orangeism, p. 203. 
 
 ♦"Miss Martinep.u, The Thirty Years' Peace, vol. ii., p. 268. 
 
 365 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 (c) The loyalty of the army was tampered with systemati- 
 cally and on a large scale, by the agents of the Grand Lodge. 
 The establishment of regimental Orange lodges was pushed by 
 them with feverish acftivity, contrary to the well-known military 
 regulations of 1822 and 1829. 
 
 (d) The Grand Lodge officers exerted themselves to have 
 the Duke of Cumberland appointed Regent during the declining 
 years of George IV. and William IV. They ignored or 
 belittled the rights of the Duchess of Kent, and of the Princess 
 (now Queen) Vicftoria, already established by Adt of Parlia- 
 ment, and did all in their power to keep the person and what 
 Fairman termed the " paramount claims," of Cumberland as 
 prominently as possible before the public eye. 
 
 (e) Moreover, from the day of Fairman's appointment to 
 the office of Deputy Grand Secretary, the Duke of Cumberland 
 presided at the Imperial Grand Lodge meetings in royal state. 
 
 (f) The correspondence of the Grand Lodge at this period 
 speaks of a great scheme being afoot, which will cause dismay 
 throughout the kingdom, and which must be spoken of in 
 whispers and enigmas even to officers of the Grand Lodge. 
 Certain Orangemen testified on oath or otherwise that, to their 
 diredt knowledge, the avowed purpose of the Grand Lodge 
 was to set aside the claims of the Princess Vicftoria, and to 
 place the Duke of Cumberland upon the Throne. Such a con- 
 spiracy is fully in keeping with the language and conducfl of 
 the Grand Lodge during this period. On any other supposition 
 they are well-nigh inexplicable. 
 
 THE PLOT THICKENS. 
 
 A few further facfts in explanation of the brief summary just 
 given above will enable the reader to grasp more fully all that 
 is implied in the words " the Cumberland Plot." The par- 
 ticulars here given will be found in the Minutes of Evidence of, and 
 Appendices to, the Report of the English Seledt Committee of 
 1835, in the Parliamentary debates of the period, and in the 
 writings of well-known Protestant historians. 
 
 {a) Sufficient details have already been given in the sixth 
 chapter, or will appear as we proceed, regarding the means 
 adopted by the Imperial Grand Lodge to safeguard the secrecy 
 of the newly inaugurated "forward" movement. 
 
 {b) The policy of physical force. — From the date of his accept- 
 ance of office, Fairman's letters" to the members of the Imperial 
 Lodge contain, says the English Committee's Report, "a general 
 
 ''^''Fairman's letters and those of other members of the Imperial Grand 
 Lodge will be found in Appendix to Report of Seledl Pari. Committee 
 (English) of 1835, ^^d in Barry O'Brien's Thomas Drummond. 
 
 366 
 
THE CUMBERLAND PLOT. 
 
 reference to the advantage of increase of numbers, of boldness 
 of attitude, and even of physical force, to support the views 
 of the Orange institution." " By a rapid augmentation of our 
 physical force," wrote Fairman to the Marquis of Londonderry 
 in June, 1832, "we might be able to assume a boldness of 
 attitude which should command the respedt of our Jacobinical 
 rulers. . . . If we prove not too strong for such a Govern- 
 ment as the present is, such a Government will prove too strong 
 for us ; some arbitrary steps would be taken in this case for the 
 suppression of our meetings. Hence the necessity for our lay- 
 ing aside that non-resistance and passive obedience which has 
 hitherto been religiously enforced to our discomfiture." In 
 another passage already quoted from the same letter, Fairman 
 commends the Irish Orangemen, who *' were resolved to resist 
 all attempts on the part of the Governmentto put them down." 
 The Deputy Grand Secretary is still more outspoken in a letter 
 written on the nth of August, 1833, to the Duke of Gordon, 
 Deputy Grand Master for Scotland: " Our institution is going 
 on prosperously," said he, " and my accounts from all quarters 
 are of the most satisfacftory kind. By our next general meet- 
 ing we shall be assuming, I think, such an attitude of boldness 
 as will strike the foe with awe ; but we inculcate the do(5trine of 
 passive obedience and non-resistance too religiously by far." 
 In another letter he favours giving the Irish lodges" that sup- 
 port which would give vigour to their proceedings, and which 
 would be an eternal source of terror to the enemy." In June, 1833, 
 Fairman writes to another Orange leader. Lord Longford : 
 " We shall speedily have such a moral and physical force, I 
 trust, as will strike with terror and sore dismay the foes of our 
 country." 
 
 (c) The army. — After having despatched the letter to the 
 Marquis of Londonderry, from which I have quoted above, 
 regarding the use of physical force in support of the views of 
 the Grand Lodge, Fairman wrote again on the 30th of July, 
 1832 : " In my letter of Saturday I omitted to mention that we 
 have the military with us as far as they are at liberty to avow their 
 principles and sentiments." The army, then, was to be an im- 
 portant fa(5tor in the conspiracy of intimidation and terrorism 
 which was being planned by the Imperial Grand Lodge. In 
 the course of this chapter abundant reference has already been 
 made to the feverish energy with which the loyalty and dis- 
 cipline of the army were being undermined in the interests of 
 the Orange party. According to a statement then made by 
 Mr. Hume, a Protestant M.P., in the House of Commons, the 
 Irish yeomanry were at this period " all Orange." They alone 
 were amply sufficient to hold Ireland for the Duke of Cumber- 
 
 367 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 land. At the same time, as we have seen, the regular forces 
 stationed in England, Ireland, and Scotland, as well as in 
 Canada and Australia, were, by Cumbeylattd's diredions, so 
 successfully tampered with, that bodies of them frankly defied 
 the General Orders of the Horse Guards, for the purpose of 
 obeying the behests of the Imperial Grand Lodge. When the 
 conspiracy was discovered, there were over fifty regiments in 
 the service whose fidelity could not be counted upon. To 
 these we may add the Irish yeomanry forces, and the 340,000 
 to 360,000 Orange civilians, who, according to the evidence of 
 the Grand Lodge officers examined by the English Parlia- 
 mentary Committee, were scattered about through Great 
 Britain and Ireland. According to the same Committee's 
 Report, most of the Orange civilians were armed, and all the 
 members of that vast organisation — perhaps close on half-a- 
 raillion of armed men — were bound to assemble at the com- 
 mand of Grand Master the Duke of Cumberland, who thus 
 held in his hands all the elements of a rapid and successful 
 revolution. As already stated in these chapters, it was this 
 power of rapidly and secretly mobilising vast bodies of armed 
 fanatics, which, in the eyes of the English Parliamentary 
 Committee of 1835, formed a menace to the safety of the 
 Empire, and made the suppression of the Orange association 
 " imperatively necessary." 
 
 " FLYING AT HIGH GAME." 
 
 [d) Lord Brougham in his Life and Times, Miss Martineau in 
 her Thirty Years' Peace, and other contemporary writers, looked 
 upon the Duke of Cumberland as an arch-schemer, whose 
 hungry eye was ever fixed upon the Crown of England. Lord 
 Brougham tells how, in the days of George IV., the Duke 
 " kept himself for some time after his return [from Hanover] 
 in the background, knowing how unpopular he was all 
 over England, with the single exception of the Universities 
 of Oxford and Dublin ; but he had now broken through this 
 discreet resolution, and was putting himself more and more in 
 the public eye. At the time I speak of [1833] he had assumed 
 the position and attitude of a leader, as the chief of the Ultra 
 party ; and, with Kenyon and Falmouth for his supporters, 
 and Wynford to back him up, he claimed as distinguished a 
 place as the Duke of Wellington on the Opposition side of the 
 House of Peers. He no longer confined himself to asking a 
 question upon the order of business, or on a point of form ; he 
 spoke upon the gravest and largest subjects ; and in one even- 
 ing he spoke two or three times, one of these being on the Poor 
 Law Bill. It became, therefore, manifest that his Royal 
 
 368 
 
THE CUMBERLAND PLOT. 
 
 Hii^hness now thought himself destined to play a great part, and he 
 was flying at high game.'"^" 
 
 Not only in the House of Lords, but out of it as well, the 
 Duke's new policy received the eager support of the other 
 members of the English Grand Lodge. Deputy Grand Master 
 Lord Kenyon, for instance, writing to Fairman as far back as 
 December 28, 1832, expresses a wish that Cumberland would 
 *' attend in addition to what is popular." Fairman, in his 
 letter of February 12, 1833, to Lord Kenyon, says : "I believe 
 I mentioned that I had consulted his lordship [Lord Wynford] 
 on the propriety of my continuing to introduce the Duke's name 
 in the prominent shape I had previously done, and with the 
 policy of which he seemed to agree.'' In facSl, Lord Wynford's 
 letter of Odtober 24 urged him to make certain mysterious 
 '* appeals" on Cumberland's behalf to " sure Tories," and to 
 them only. Fairman's letter to Lord Kenyon, referred to 
 above, shows that he had been puffing up the Duke to such 
 purpose in and about Doncaster, that " if he [Cumberland] 
 would but make a tour into these parts, for which I have 
 prepared the ivay, he would be idolised." Following fast upon 
 this came another letter, also to Lord Kenyon, Cumberland's 
 other right-hand man. He tells how, at a meeting which he 
 had convened, he himself (Fairman) and the gentlemen and 
 ladies (" the blue belles of Yorkshire," as he terms the latter) 
 who were present wept at the bare mention of the name of the 
 profligate old Duke. The same letter recounts how, at the 
 same time, at Fairman's diredi or indirecfl suggestion, a move- 
 ment was set afoot among the local magnates to subscribe £^0 
 each for the purpose of providing a great entertainment for his 
 Royal Highness, " if they might be permitted to look forward 
 to so distinguished an honour as a visit from him." 
 
 FLOATING RUMOURS. 
 
 Cumberland was an accomplished intriguer,^'' and his 
 ambitions were well known. In the closing days of George 
 IV. a scheme had been set on foot to appoint a Regent. It 
 is needless to state that the candidate put forward by Fairman 
 and the Orange party for that high office was none other than 
 their Imperial Grand Master. In a letter to Earl Grey, Lord 
 ;^rougham expressly says in his Life and Times : " In fadl, he 
 
 ^^Life and Times of Lord Brougham, vol. iii., pp. 273-274. Blackwood : 
 1871. Cumberland was strongly opposed to the repeal of the Test and 
 Corporation Adts (Spencer Walpole, Hist, of England, vol. ii., p. 474). 
 He was also a violent opponent of Catholic Emancipation {Ibid., pp. 517, 
 518; Rev. G. N. Wright, Life of William IV., vol. ii., p. 579). 
 
 *8See Spencer Walpole, Hist, of England, vol. ii., pp. 505-506; 
 Greville'.s yoM/ /it?/ etc., vol. i., p. 222. 
 
 369 X 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 [Cumberland] wants to start for the Regency under the Orange 
 colours — to make the Brunswick Clubs [the lodges of the time] 
 his handle for the purpose of setting himself up with the 
 country." Shortly after the accession of William IV., there 
 was a violent debate over the Regency Bill. The right of 
 succession was then settled on the Princess (now Queen) 
 Victoria, who was at the time a minor. Her mother, the 
 Duchess of Kent, was to be Regent in the event of the death 
 of William IV. before the young Princess came of age. This 
 arrangement, however, proved extremely distasteful to the 
 Orange leaders. Cumberland's party industriously circulated 
 rumours which were significantly favourable to the schemes of 
 the Imperial Grand Master, and which contained contemptuous 
 references to the legalised claims of the Princess Vicftoria. 
 The rumours referred to were to the efifecft : 
 
 (i) That the Duke of Wellington was about to seize the 
 Throne. 
 
 (2) That King W^illiam IV. was insane, and should there- 
 fore be superseded. 
 
 (3) That the Princess Vicftoria was only " a woman and a 
 minor," and that if she succeeded to the Throne she would 
 become a Papist. 
 
 These rumours were, in facft, so many appeals, on behalf 
 of the Duke of Cumberland, to two of the most cherished con- 
 servative instincfts of the British public of the time, namely : 
 
 {a) The dread of a revolution or of a civil war, such as 
 would in all likelihood result from any attempt to alter the 
 succession to the English Throne ; 
 
 {b) The dread of a break in, or termination of, the Pro- 
 testant succession. 
 
 At the same time the leaders of the Imperial Grand Lodge 
 set vigorously to work to keep before the public eye, and to 
 otherwise actively support, what Fairman termed the " para- 
 mount claims" of Ernest, Duke of Cumberland. 
 
 (i) Miss Martineau tells us that, in 1835-1836, members of 
 the British Parliament " were aware how the loyal Orangemen 
 had listened to suggestions for making the Duke of Cumber- 
 land King, to prevent the usurpation of the Crown by the Duke 
 of Wellington ; for expedling that William IV. would be 
 superseded on the allegation of insanity, and the Princess 
 Vicftoria because she was a woman and probably still a 
 minor."^" Cumberland's jealousy of the Duke of Wellington 
 was notorious. ^^ Lord Brougham has already told us how the 
 
 ^^Tke Thirty Years' Peace, vol. ii., p. 270 ; cf. Pict. Hist. 0/ England, vol. 
 vii., p. 490. 
 
 siSpencer Walpole, ffist. of Ensland, vol. ii.. pp. 505-506. 
 
 370 
 
THE CUMBERLAND PLOT. 
 
 Imperial Grand Master had succeeded, if not in filching from, 
 at least in sharing with, the old hero of Waterloo the leader- 
 ship of the ultra-Tory party in the House of Lords. Fairman 
 wrote to Cumberland, acquainting him with the supposed 
 "rash designs in embryo" of the Duke of Wellington, "so as 
 the better to design measures for its frustration; at any rate," 
 he continues, "you would not be taken by surprise, as the 
 nation was last year, but might have an opportunity of rally- 
 ing your forces, and of organising your plans for the defeat of 
 such machinations as might be hostile to your paramount claims. 
 Hence, should the experiment be made, and its expediency be 
 established, your Royal Highness would be in a situation to 
 contend for the exercise in your own person oj that office at which the 
 wild ambition of another may prompt him to aspire." Two 
 subsequent letters of Fairnian's explain that this "other" 
 person was the Duke of Wellington — "the devoted Welling- 
 ton," who, says Miss Martineau, "imperilled his reputation 
 for consistency, and what his party called political honour, 
 over and over again, rather than desert his Sovereign."*^ 
 
 (2) The same writer tells how, "from one occasion to 
 another, rumours of the insanity of King William came float- 
 ing abroad from the recesses of Toryism [Cumberland's party] , 
 till exploded by contadl with free air and light." In a passage 
 already quoted, she states that this alleged insanity was seized 
 upon by the Orange party as a reason for deposing the reign- 
 ing King in favour of the Duke of Cumberland. According 
 to the written testimony of Heywood, a Sheffield Orangeman, 
 Deputy Grand Secretary Fairman assured the brethren, in 
 1832, that the deposition of William IV. was "not im- 
 probable."^^ 
 
 ONLY A WOMAN. 
 
 (3) All this time the young Princess Vicftoria had been 
 kept in comparative retirement by her careful mother, far 
 removed from the corrupt surroundings of the English Court 
 of those days. Her seclusion was so complete, even when the 
 King's health was failing, that Greville wrote in his Memoirs: 
 "What renders speculation so easy and events so uncertain, 
 is the absolute ignorance of everybody, without exception, of 
 the characfter, disposition, and capability of the Princess.. 
 She has been kept in such jealous seclusion by her mother 
 (never having slept out of her bedroom, nor been alone with 
 anybody but herself and the Baroness Lehzen) that not one of 
 
 '^^The Thirty Years^ Peace, vol. ii., p. 269. 
 
 ssHeywood's letter to Deputy Grand Master Lord Kenyon, quoted in 
 Appendix to English Committee's Report. See this chapter, infra. 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 her acquaintance, none of the attendants at Kensington, not 
 even the Duchess of Northumberland, her governess, have 
 any idea what she is or what she promises to be."*^ King 
 Wilham IV,, who had a personal regard for his young kins- 
 woman, complained bitterly of the rarity of her visits to the 
 Court/^ She was but little known or heard of by the mass of 
 the English people at a time the Orange party were straining 
 every nerve to keep the "paramount claims" of Cumberland 
 as much as possible before the public eye. The Orange party 
 sought to compass her exclusion from the Throne by the 
 following chief methods: 
 
 (a) Appealing to the Salic law; 
 
 (b) Making the Duke of Cumberland Regent; 
 
 (c) Exciting the feeling of the British public against her: 
 
 (d) Adling as if she were already de fa6io excluded from 
 the succession ; preparing to secure by force, if necessary, the 
 accession of the Duke of Cumberland in her stead. 
 
 {a) As far back as 1830, Fairman, in setting forth the 
 claims of Cumberland, referred shghtingly to the Princess 
 Vidforia as being "not alone a female, but a minor. "°'* For a 
 hundred and twenty years — ever since the days of Queen 
 Anne — no woman had sat alone upon the Throne of England. 
 The Salic law, which prevailed in all the continental kingdoms 
 of Europe, prohibited the succession of females to the Crown. 
 It existed in Hanover, whence Cumberland had come, and 
 where, says Lord Brougham, he had "formed his habits of 
 thinking, and his political opinions."^' Had it been in force in 
 England, the succession would have devolved by right upon 
 the Duke, who was the oldest surviving brother of William IV. 
 Hence — as the reader has seen by the passage quoted above 
 from Miss Martineau — the facft of the young Princess being 
 merely a female was advanced by the loyal Orangemen as a 
 pretext for setting aside her claims to the Throne, even though 
 her rights had been ratified by A(fl of Parliament. 
 
 {b) Had the Imperial Grand Master become Regent in the 
 declining days of William IV., his position, backed by over a 
 quarter of a miUion of armed Orangemen and a disaffecfled 
 army, would have easily enabled him to hold his own against 
 a comparatively unknown girl, who had little to depend upon 
 beyond her virtue and her theoretical right. It will become 
 
 ^^GveviWe, Journal of the Reigns, etc., vol. iii., p. 403. 
 
 6B/W.,364, 367, 368. 
 
 6 6Letter to Editor of the Morning Herald. April 6, 1830, given in 
 Appendix to English Pari. Committee's Report, and in Barry O'Brien's 
 Thomas Drummond. 
 
 ^''Liji and Times, vol. iii., p. 273. 
 
 372 
 
THE CUMBERLAND PLOT. 
 
 evident to the reader as we proceed, that a deep purpose lay 
 concealed in the defiant and feverish acftivity with which the 
 Orange leaders systematically corrupted the fidelity of the 
 army, and endeavoured to make it subservient to their schemes. 
 Cumberland and his compeers had joined an association whose 
 chief objecfl is to commemorate a successful revolution which 
 took place in 1688. On their own principles they could not 
 seriously objecl: to another "glorious revolution" in 1837, by 
 which not a de fatlo King, but a merely de jure, Queen, whom 
 they slighted, would be set aside in the interests of the Orange 
 institution. 
 
 {c) Yet another rumour was set afloat at this period, which 
 was well calculated to rouse the passions of the British public 
 against the Princess Vi(5toria. It was to the effetSl: that, upon 
 her accession, she would become a Papist.^® In the state of 
 the law and of public feeling on the subjecft of the Protestant 
 succession, this was tantamount to an appeal to the people of 
 England to set aside the claims of the young Princess. The 
 rumour appears to have originated with Cumberland's party. 
 It is unnecessary to state that the Imperial Grand Master was 
 the only person who was likely to be benefited by the spread 
 of such a groundless and apparently carefully planned tale. 
 
 (d) It is a matter of h^' tory that the heir-apparent, the 
 Princess Vicfloria, was deposed in advance by some of the 
 ardent spirits who sat around the Grand Lodge table with 
 Ernest of Cumberland. Shortly after Fairman's tour among 
 the military and civilian lodges of the British Isles, it was 
 decided to issue an address to the Carlton Club, in the name 
 of the whole Orange institution. The draft of this address^^ 
 (written by an Irish member of the Imperial Grand Lodge) 
 referred to the Duke of Cumberland as being " the nearest to the 
 Throne."^ The rights of the present Queen were thus com- 
 pletely set aside in favour of the Orange pretender. The 
 words just quoted were subsequently modified. None the less, 
 when coupled with the other faifts of the conspiracy, they serve 
 
 s^This rumour gained such currency among the Tory party that, 
 shortly after her Majesty's accession, their organ, the Times, warned her 
 that if she were to become a Catholic, or to marry one, " or in any manner 
 follow the footsteps of the Coburg family," such a course would bring 
 about an "immediate forfeiture of the British Crown." Quoted by "M.P.," 
 Hist, of Orangeism, p. 201. 
 
 59Quoted in Appendix to Report of English Selecft Pari. Committee of 
 
 1835- 
 
 ^"The words were subsequently altered to " the first male subjedt in 
 the realm." Even the latter phrase is not without its significance, when 
 we couple it with the question of the succession, and the references of the 
 Orange party to the Princess Vidloria as being merely a female and a 
 minor. 
 
 373 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 to indicate the diredtion in which the current of Imperial 
 Lodge thought and feeling was setting at the time. Another 
 significant expression is found in an address presented by the 
 Orangemen of London to the Duke of Cumberland, The 
 brethren voice the hope that his Royal Highness may long be 
 spared to ivatch over the destinies of the nation. °^ As we proceed, 
 reference will be made to the manner in which the brethren 
 were sounded as to their preparedness for civil war, in the 
 event of the seizure of the crown by their Imperial Grand 
 Master. 
 
 PLAYING AT BEING KING. 
 
 (e) It has been stated above that, immediately after the 
 appointment of Fairman to the office of Deputy Grand 
 Secretary, the Duke of Cumberland presided at the meetings 
 of the Imperial Grand Lodge with royal state and circumstance. 
 For instance : (i) the Royal Arms were affixed to all lodge 
 documents ; (2) a Great Seal was used by him, corresponding 
 with the Great Seal of the Empire ; (3) Colonel Fairman, in his 
 evidence before the Parliamentary Sele(5t Committee of 1835, 
 admitted that " the Grand Committee sat like a Cabinet or 
 Privy Council ;" (4) the Duke, on entering or leaving the 
 lodge, was always preceded by a mace borne in state before him ; 
 (5) at the meetings he sat behind the mace ; (6) no one was 
 appointed to membership of the Grand Lodge except with his 
 consent f^ (7) all the members, grand dignitaries, and reverend 
 funcftionaries were bound to attend in their full regalia or 
 canonicals ; (8) the Imperial Grand Master, still in imitation 
 of royalty, had an absolute veto on all propositions, and 
 allowed no discussion whatever to take place on his opinions 
 or arrangements.'^'^ In the printed proceedings of the Imperial 
 Grand Lodge for June 4, 1833, ''■' the Duke of Cumberland 
 issued the following fiat with a view " to simplify the proceed- 
 ings of the institution as much as possible." " Individual 
 opinion," said he, " is not to be consulted upon vital and 
 important arrangements, involving the welfare and best 
 interests of the institution." Some days before the issue of 
 this ukase (May 30, 1833), Lord Kenyon had written to 
 Fairman that no discussion should be permitted at Grand 
 Lodge meetings, and that the Duke should " interdicft the 
 attendance of any brethren who would so forget themselves.'' 
 
 ^^The address is entered in the proceedings of a meeting held at Lord 
 Kenyon's, given in Appendix to English Committee's Report. 
 
 ^^Kenyon's letter to Fairman, May 30, 1833. 
 
 ^^Molesworth, Hist, of England, vol. i., p. 377. 
 
 "^Given in Appendix to Report of English Pari. Seledt Committee 
 of 1835. 
 
 374 
 
THE CUMBERLAND PLOT. 
 
 Cumberland was already putting in pradlice in the lodges the 
 autocratic rule which he subsequently introduced among his 
 unhappy subjedls in Hanover.^ 
 
 A CLOAK OF MYSTERY. 
 
 (/) The scheme of the Grand Lodge was to be mentioned 
 only to safe people, and to them only in whispers and enigmas. 
 Fairman writing to Cumberland in 1829 or 1830, has, for 
 instance, "a great divulgement " to make. He continues: 
 " The divulgement I have expressed a willingness to furnish 
 would be deprived of no small portion of its value" in the 
 event of the recovery of George IV., who at the time lay ill. 
 On Ocftober 24, 1832, Lord Wynford, another prominent 
 member of the London Grand Lodge, wrote to Fairman an 
 extravagant eulogium on the virtues and noble qualities of his 
 Royal Highness Prince Ernest. After having stated that " the 
 Tories have not been sufficiently grateful to him," the writer 
 concludes with these pregnant words ; 
 
 " As you are so obliging in your last letter as to ask my 
 advice as to whether you should pursue the course you have 
 so ably begun, I can only say that you must exercise your 
 discretion as to the company in which you make such appeals 
 as that which I have seen reported. When you meet only sure 
 Tories, you may well make them feel what they owe to one who 
 is the constant, unflinching champion of the party, and who, 
 by his steady course, has brought on himself all the obloquy 
 that a base, malignant facftion can invent." 
 
 (i) Now, the " true" or ultra-Tories of the day had two 
 leaders, Cumberland and the Duke of Wellington. Cumber- 
 land and his se(5tion of the party cordially hated the Duke of 
 Wellington, and, as we have seen, professed to regard him as 
 a public enemy and an aspirant to the Throne. In the eyes of 
 Orangemen, and more especially of the Grand Lodge, the 
 " unflinching champion" of their party would naturally be 
 none other than their Grand Master, the Duke of Cumberland 
 himself. 
 
 (2) There was a mysterious something which " only sure 
 Tories" owed to their " unflinching champion." 
 
 (3) It was to be mentioned to none but " sure Tories," and 
 to them only in whispers. 
 
 (4) It was, inferentially, dangerous to disclose it to any but 
 " sure Tories." 
 
 s^Lord Brougham describes Cumberland, whom he knew well, as " a 
 rank, violent, ultra-Tory of the strongest Orange breed, and whose prin- 
 ciples and propensities were purely arbitrary." Li/e and Tunes, vol. iii., p. 
 273- 
 
 375 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 (5) What was this mysterious something which " only sure 
 Tories" owed to the Duke of Cumberland ? It would naturally 
 be one of two things : either (a) somethmg in the ordinary gift 
 of a political party, or (b) something not in their ordinary gift. 
 If the former, why all this secrecy and whispering* in dark 
 corners ? Similar dim foreshadowings of things to come are 
 met with in a letter written at this period by the Duke of 
 Cumberland to the Duke of Buckingham : " I shall ever be 
 found at my post," says the Imperial Grand Master, " but 
 think it better for you, being unwell, to nerve yourself for 
 another occasion, as I know you are staunch, and I can 
 depend upon your support." (The italics and capitals are the 
 Duke of Cumberland's).™ 
 
 But the whole conducfl of Cumberland and his fellow- 
 conspirators of the London Grand Lodge goes to show that 
 they aimed at securing something higher than the mere head- 
 ship of a party, or a mere Regency, for their Imperial Grand 
 Master. A proper idea of the mystery with which this projedl 
 was surrounded can be gained only by perusal of the Imperial 
 Grand Lodge correspondence of the period as a whole. Many of 
 these letters, and presumably the most incriminating of them, 
 were deliberately and obstinately withheld by Fairman from 
 the Parliamentary Committee of 1835. He admitted that 
 these letters related " decidedly" to the business of the institu- 
 tion, and that many of them were written " to Lord Kenyon on 
 Orange business, interspersed here and there with references which 
 he would not make known to the Committee.'' ''^ He refused to let 
 the Committee read any portion of the letters in question, on 
 the significant plea that by doing so he would establish a bad 
 precedent in a country where a man was never expelled to convict 
 himself. As already stated in the sixth chapter of this volume, 
 the Orange party in the House of Commons opposed the 
 motion for the producflion of the missing correspondence. 
 Fainnan defied the order of the House. He was committed 
 for breach of privilege, and promptly absconded. The mysteri- 
 ous letters have never since been brought to the light of day. 
 The reader may judge for himself, as best he can, what must 
 have been the contents of those presumably incriminating 
 documents which the Orange party found it so necessary to 
 keep from all risk of contadl: with the light of day. In her 
 
 ^^The Courts and Cabinets of William IV. and Victoria. The work was 
 compiled by the Duke of Buckingham. 
 
 s'^See chap, vi., supra, pp. 113, 114. Miss Martineau, The Thirty Years' 
 Peace, vol. ii., pp. 276-277. According to Miss Martineau, it was proved 
 in a court of justice that Fairman had given a false address for the purpo.se 
 of getting rid of a troublesome creditor. Ibid., p. 273. 
 
THE CUMBERLAND PLOT. 
 
 Thirty Years' Peace, Miss Martineau writes that the Grand 
 Lodge scheme must have been " a grave affair to the interests 
 of the brethren, if we may judge by a letter of Lord Kenyon's 
 to Colonel Fairman in January, 1 833. ' The good cause,' writes 
 his lordship, ' is worth all the help that man can give it, but our 
 only trust must be in God. In the last two years and a half 
 I have spent, I suspecft, in its behalf, nearer ;^20,ooo than 
 ;^io,ooo.' " Lord Kenyon probably felt that he was casting 
 his bread on the running waters, and that after many days it 
 would return to him again in the shape of a high place in the 
 kingdom, when the royal diadem should encircle the brow of the 
 Duke of Cumberland. Fairman, however, was not at all 
 times content to wait for his reward. In a letter to an unknown 
 friend (published in the Fairman correspondence), he speaks 
 of demanding compensation " from royalty" for services 
 rendered. He states that he will appeal at first privately. 
 Should that course fail, he threatens to air his grievance in 
 pamphlets and papers, "when a dvcad of exposure may prompt 
 them to do that which ought to have emanated from a sense of 
 gratitude.'' Now (i) there was but one "royalty" that owed 
 a debt of "gratitude" to Fairman for services, surrenders, etc., 
 and that was his Royal Highness the Duke of Cumberland, 
 brother to the King. (2) Fairman evidently had possession of 
 facfls, the publication of which would be peculiarly inconven- 
 ient — in fadl: a source of "dread" — to "royalty." (3) The 
 threatened "exposure" must have covered matters of a very 
 incriminating kind, since Fairman supposed that their publi- 
 cation would produce a feeling of "dread" in the mind of a 
 man of Cumberland's characfler. (4) Somehow — whether by 
 friendly interview, or by the fillip of a threat — Fairman's 
 claim to compensation seems to have been fully satisfied. Not 
 alone did the threatened "exposure" of a royal person not 
 take place, but, on the contrary, Fairman did all in his power, 
 as the reader has seen, to shield the inner counsels of himself 
 and his colleagues of the Grand Lodge from the search-light 
 of even a Parliamentary Inquiry. 
 
 For the rest, the movements of the Orange leaders between 
 1829 and 1835 were marked, as the Presbyterian historian 
 Killen states, "by recklessness and folly." "^ There is abundant 
 evidence to show that, during this period, the Imperial Grand 
 Lodge conspirators were prepared, in certain eventualities, to 
 plunge the nation into the horrors of a civil war. A few 
 extracts in point from the Fairman correspondence will 
 suffice : 
 
 ^^Eccles. Hist, of Ireland, vol. ii., p. 463. 
 
 377 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 In a letter to Sir James Cockburne, bearing date July 14, 
 1831, Fairman refers in guarded terms to "the visionary 
 scheme now afloat for the removal of all our political sores." 
 He speaks of a coming "civil war," and says that "the 
 formidable force now in review [the Orange society] will 
 hasten with cheerfulness to the arduous scene of acftion. By 
 our late returns its numerical strength now exceeds 175,000, 
 and is fast augmenting. . . . My own fine fellows, who 
 come from the lodges in the capital and its environs . . 
 are staunch to the backbone. . . . At my summons they 
 would assemble, and under my command they would place 
 themselves for putting their principles to the test. I have 
 strong reasons to be of opinion that before long there will be some 
 occasion.'' The aristocracy who were opposed to them will, he 
 predicfts, "fall at the arrival of the evil hour," The calm of 
 the Reformers, he writes again, " is only a prelude to the 
 gathering storm which is howling at a distance, and will draw 
 on us anon." In a subsequent letter to Lord Kenyon 
 (November 30, 1831) he declares that "on the arrival, how- 
 ever, of the day of reckoning," the "hell-hounds will be called 
 on to pay the full penalty of their cold-blooded tergiversations." 
 In his letter of August 11, 1832, to the Duke of Gordon 
 (already quoted), he proclaims the determination of the Grand 
 Lodge to adopt "such an attitude of boldness as will strike the 
 foe with awe. . . . The time is fast approaching when matters 
 will be brought to an issue, as a conciliatory course will be laid 
 aside, and an opposite one will be resorted to." At a meeting 
 of the Grand Lodge, June 4, 1833, Deputy Grand Secretary 
 Fairman declared that " such a fire has been kindled in North 
 Britain as must speedily burst into a conflagration not easily to be 
 extinguished.''' Deputy Grand Master Thompson stated at the 
 same meeting that, through Fairman's mission to Scotland, a 
 firm basis was laid " for a great accession of strength to the 
 lighting up of a flame of Orangeism in the North, which all the 
 efforts of its opponents ivould never be able to smother."'^'-' As early 
 as Odtober, 1833, Earl Grey found the seditious acftivity of the 
 Orange lodges such an obstacle to the enforcement of the law, 
 that he asked Wellesley "to get an accurate account of all 
 that is being done [by them] , to be laid before the Cabinet when 
 it reassembles officially."'" The condu(5t and correspondence 
 of the Imperial Grand Lodge during this period justify the 
 conclusion that the supreme governing body of the Orange 
 
 ^^The English Parliamentary Committee, in their Report, direft the 
 particular attention of the House of Commons to the meaning of these 
 threats. 
 
 ''^' Brougham's Life and Times, vol. iii., p. 309; cf. p. 315. 
 
THE CUMBERLAND PLOT. 
 
 institution was acftively preparing — should their purposes 
 demand it — to plunge the country into the agonies of a revo- 
 lution or of a civil war. 
 
 THE DENOUMENT. 
 
 Evidence more diredlly incriminating the Duke of Cumber- 
 land and the Grand Lodge is not wanting. In Ocftober, 1835, 
 one Heywood, a Sheffield Orangeman, stated, in the course of 
 a letter to Lord Kenyon, that Fairman, during his tour in 
 1832, had been instrudled by the Grand Lodge-" to sound the 
 brethren how they would be disposed, in the event of King 
 William IV. being deposed, which was not improbable, on 
 account of his sandtioning Reform in Parliament ; and that, 
 that being so, it would become the duty of every Orangeman to support 
 his Royal Highness, who woidd then in all probability be called to the 
 Throne." Heywood's letter appears in the Report of the English 
 Sele(5t Committee. Other letters on the same subje(5t fell into 
 the hands of Mr. Hume, a Protestant M.P. He, with Mr. 
 Finn, M.P., direcftly charged the Duke and his colleagues 
 with heading a vast conspiracy to alter the succession to the 
 Throne." The London and Westminster Review, January to April, 
 1 836, contains copies of a number of important letters bearing 
 on the plot, which are not inserted in the Report oi ihe English 
 Selecft Parliamentary Committee of 1835.'" The publishers 
 offered to produce the originals in the event of the Duke of 
 Cumberland being prosecuted. They also published in extenso 
 the sworn depositions of an Orangeman, from which I extradt 
 the following: 
 
 " That he, the said W. B. Fairman [when presiding at an 
 Orange meeting during his tour in 1832], drew comparison 
 between his Majesty William IV. and the Duke of Cumber- 
 land, as regarded their attachment to the Protestant Church; 
 that this was a critical time for Orangeism; that they ought 
 to make a stand; that if any 'row' took place, would they 
 rally round the Duke of Cumberland? that his Majesty had 
 no right to san(ftion the revolutionary measures of the Govern- 
 ment in passing the Reform Bill; that a ' row' was expecfted 
 to take place. The result of all this on deponent's mind was, 
 
 ''lOn the 12th of February, 1836, Mr. Finn proposed a motion in the 
 House of Commons against the Duke of Cumberland and the Orange 
 society, with a view "to secure a safe, peaceable, legal, and rightful suc- 
 cession to the throne of these realms." 
 
 ''■^Dr. Madden, in his United Irishmen, vol. iv., p. xiii., says that proofs 
 of the existence of the Orange conspiracy "that were considered of too 
 formidable a charadter by the Government of the day to be published in a 
 Parliamentary Report, exist in the hands of the gentleman by whom that 
 Committee was moved for." 
 
 379 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 that Fairman was sounding them as to whether, in the event 
 of a 'tumult' taking place, the Orangemen would adhere to 
 the Duke of Cumberland in preference to the King," The 
 original of these depositions was, at the time, in the hands of a 
 distinguished lawyer, and was one of the documents on which 
 the prosecutors of the Orange plotters meant to rely. The 
 reader will note how this document accords as to its statement 
 of fa(5ts with the testimony of the Orangeman Heywood, and 
 as to its expressions, with the letters which passed between 
 Fairman and his confederates. 
 
 " It was proposed," says Killen, the Presbyterian historian, 
 " to commence a criminal prosecution against the Duke of 
 Cumberland, Lord Kenyon, the Bishop of Salisbury [Grand 
 Chaplain], Colonel Fairman, and others believed to be 
 implicated in the scheme of rebellion."'^ The incriminated 
 leaders thereupon decided to checkmate this move by prosecut- 
 ing Heywood for libel, if possible before their own trial came 
 oflf. The high position and influence of the plaintiffs, coupled 
 with the tortuous ways of Orange witnesses and jurymen, might 
 easily have led to a verdicl favourable to their party, apart 
 altogether from themerits of the case at issue. Miss Martineau 
 says: " It was clear to the [Parliamentary Select] Committee 
 that the evidence bore out Heywood's statements."" They 
 retained eminent counsel for his defence.^® The indicflments 
 were drawn up. The letters and other documents on which 
 Heywood's counsel and the Committee relied, were placed in 
 order. The public were on the tiptoe of expecftation of seeing 
 the King's brother and his associates of the Imperial Grand 
 Lodge placed in the dock on a charge of high treason; " but 
 meanwhile," says Killen, " Hey wood, the chief witness against 
 the conspirators — in an agony of excitement, created by a 
 sense of the peculiarly dangerous position in which he stood — 
 burst a blood-vessel and died. . . . Under the influence of 
 alarm, all the English lodges were abruptly dissolved [by 
 Cumberland] , and, as the party was thus thoroughly humbled, 
 it was deemed expedient not to press a formidable combination 
 
 ''^Eccles. Hist, of Ireland, vol. ii., p. 464. The proposal for the prosecu- 
 tion was made in the House of Commons, February 23, 1836, by Sir 
 William Molesworth, a Protestant member. By their prosecution and 
 convidion, said he, " the society will easily and quickly be annihilated, and 
 a few years' residence on the shores of the Southern Ocean will teach 
 those titled criminals that the laws of their country are not to be violated 
 with impunity, and that equal justice is to be distributed impartially to 
 both high and low." Parliamentary Debates of date 
 
 ''^The Thirty Years' Peace, vol. ii., p. 277. 
 
 '"'Ibid. 
 
 380 
 
THE CUMBERLAND PLOT. 
 
 )o extremities, and to give up the prosecution.""' The revela- 
 tions regarding the vast physical strength of the fraternity, 
 and the extent to which they had tampered with the fidelity of 
 the army, produced " a universal sense of danger in the leaders 
 of all parties," and it was deemed " not safe to drive them [the 
 Orangemen] to resentment or despair."" The prosecution was 
 therefore abandoned. 
 
 During the debate on the proposed prosecution of the Duke 
 of Cumberland and the other Orange leaders (February 23, 
 1836), the following resolution, moved by Lord John Russell, 
 was unanimously agreed to by the House of Commons : 
 
 " That an humble address be presented to his Majesty, 
 praying that his Majesty would be graciously pleased to take 
 such measures as to his Majesty seemed advisable, for the 
 effe(5tual discouragement of Orange lodges, and, generally, of all 
 political societies excluding persons of different faiths, using 
 signs and symbols, and adting by associated branches."''® 
 
 It is significant that the Orange leaders in the House of 
 Commons had nothing to urge in either defence or extenuation 
 of the condu(5t of the association. At the last moment, 
 however, an attempt was made to induce Lord John Russell 
 to omit the word " Orange " from the resolution. This he 
 declined to do — determined that the verdicft of the nation's 
 representatives should be given direcftly against the Orange 
 society. The address was presented to the King, and on the 
 25th of February, 1836, he sent the following reply to the 
 House of Commons : 
 
 " I will willingly assent to the prayer of the address of my 
 faithful Commons that I will be pleased to take such measures 
 as may seem to me advisable, for the effecftual discouragement 
 of Orange lodges, and generally of all political societies 
 excluding persons of different religious faiths, using signs and 
 symbols, and acfting by means of associated branches. It is 
 my firm intention to discourage all such societies in my 
 dominions, and / rely with confidence on the fidelity of my loyal 
 mhjeCts to support me in this determination."'^ 
 
 A copy of the King's reply was sent by the Home Secretary 
 
 ''^Eccles. Hist, of Irela?id, vol. ii., pp. 464-465. A threat was held out 
 to the incriminated leaders of the Orange party, that the evidence available 
 would be used against them in case they would attempt to reconstrudt the 
 English society, whether under the same or any other name. (Miss 
 Martineau, The Thirty Years' Peace, vol. ii., p. 278). The attempt was not 
 made. 
 
 ''''The Thirty Years' Peace, vol. ii., p. 278. 
 
 ''^Journals of the House, quoted by " M.P.," p. 221 ; of. Killen, Eccles. 
 Hist, of Ireland, vol. ii., p. 464. 
 
 ''^Journals of the House of Commons, of date. 
 
 381 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 to the Duke of Cumberland. It was at last evident, even to 
 him, that Parliament and the nation had had a surfeit of the 
 ways of Orangeism, and that they were determined to rid the 
 country of an association so menacing to its peace and 
 prosperity. He bowed to the inevitable, and then, and not till 
 then, "took steps" to dissolve the English Orange institution. 
 He had played a desperate game for high stakes, and lost. 
 The English people experienced a sense of relief when he 
 afterwards left the country, to play the tyrant in little 
 Hanover.^ 
 
 King William IV. had called upon all his loyal subjedis to 
 help him in putting down the Orange society. The Grand 
 Committee of the Irish Loyal Orange institution met in Dublin 
 to consider the situation, and, after debate, passed a series of 
 resolutions to the effedl: that the will of the King [even when 
 backed by that of Parliament] was not law, and that, therefore, 
 they were strongly oppposed to dissolution. In its issue of 
 April, 1836, the Dublin University Magazine said that "the organ- 
 isation of Orangemen was designed simply for the concentration of 
 physical force — these times demand the exhibition of moral power." 
 It counselled dissolution, but hinted that the association 
 "would still remain united in reality."**^ "The result was 
 that the Irish society was abandoned by all who gave it weight 
 or respedl:ability. The disreputable portion of it threw off their 
 yoke of allegiance, asserted that a royal proclamation was not 
 an A6i of the Legislature, and became more secret and more 
 illegal than ever."^^ The Irish organisation was never broken 
 up, and (says Killen), "notwithstanding the Disestablishment 
 of the Episcopal Church, they [the Orangemen] continue to 
 this very day to keep up an unhealthy excitement among the 
 lower orders of Protestants throughout the country."*^ 
 
 "Such," says Miss Martineau, "was the institution — the 
 great conspiracy against the national will and national 
 interests, ttae conspiracy against the rights of all, from the 
 King on the Throne to the humblest voter, or soldier, or sailor, 
 or Dissenter, or Catholic — which was discovered by the energy 
 and diligence of Mr. Hume in 1835."®* 
 
 soMiss Martineau, TAe Thirty Years' Peace, vol. ii., p. 278; cf. Justin 
 McCarthy's Jlist. of our Own Times, vol. i., p. 17. King William IV. had 
 long been anxious to get rid of the Duke of Cumberland. See Greville's 
 Jourtials of the Reigns, etc., vol. i., 222. 
 
 siQuoted in " M.P.'s" History of Orangeism, p. 222. 
 
 ^"^Ibid., cf. Westminster Revieiv, 1836 vol., p. 201. 
 
 ^^Eccles. Hist, of Ireland, vol. ii.. p. 465. 
 
 ^^Ibid., p. 274. On p. 277 the same writer says that the country owed 
 to Mr. Hume " the exposure and annihilation of this great conspiracy." 
 Rev. W. Nassau Molesworth, while admitting a somewhat extensive belief 
 
 382 
 
THE CUMBERLAND PLOT. 
 
 The Imperial Grand Lodge of London had lived long 
 enough to prove itself and its following the most dangerous 
 and crafty internal foe which has threatened the weal of the 
 Empire in the present century. When its dark conventicles 
 were ransacked, and some only of its secrets turned into the 
 light of day, it sank, at the height of its power, under the 
 stigma of an indelible disgrace. The Government of the day 
 took prompt steps to prevent, as far as they dared, in the 
 presence of such a formidable organisation, the recurrence of 
 the underground plottings from which the country had been 
 so narrowly saved. On March 15, 1836, a Treasury Minute 
 was issued to all the Departments of the Civil Service. 
 Having quoted the royal message given above, it continues : 
 " It has become the duty of my Lords to use every proper 
 means to carry into effecft his Majesty's most gracious message. 
 H is Majesty has been pleased to express his reliance on the fidelity 
 of his loyal subjecfts to support him in his determination. My 
 Lords entertain no doubt of the result of this appeal to his 
 Majesty's subjetfts in general ; but they consider that it has 
 specially become the duty of all who serve, in whatever 
 capacity, under the Crown, to acfl in immediate accordance 
 with his Majesty's most gracious intention. They desire, 
 therefore, that a communication should be made to the respec- 
 tive Boards and Heads of Departments under their control 
 (transmitting to them a copy of the Minute), and that they 
 should be direcfted without delay to make it known to all 
 persons acfting in any capacity in their respecftive Departments. 
 My Lords further desire that they should inform their officers 
 that it is the express diredliion of this Board that every party 
 who is now a member of an Orange lodge, or any political 
 society excluding persons of a different religious faith, using 
 secret signs and symbols, and a(5ting by means of associated 
 branches, should immediately withdraw from such society ; 
 
 among certain classes at the time in the existence of the Orange conspiracy, 
 displays a singular lack of acquaintance with the fads of the plot, and with 
 the literature bearing on the subject . He appears, for instance, quite un- 
 aware of Cumberland's complicity with the spread of Orange lodges in the 
 army, and has evidently not read that part of the Seledl Committee's 
 Report which places the Duke's guilt beyond the reach of doubt. He, 
 furthermore, gives no hint of certain notorious fads, such as the attempts 
 made to have Cumberland appointed Regent ; the attitude of the Duke's 
 party towards the Duke of Wellington and the Princess Vidoria ; the 
 testimony of Heywood and others ; the proposed trial of various members 
 of the Imperial Grand Lodge for high treason. He likewise appears to be 
 quite unaware of the adion of the Seled Committee in providing for the 
 defence of Heywood, and of the verdids of the "well-informed" contem- 
 porary and later writers, who regard the existence of the Cumberland 
 conspiracy as a matter which admits of no doubt. 
 
 383 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 and that no person in the Service shall hereafter beconne in 
 any way a member of or connected with such a society. And 
 if it hereafter become known to this Board that any public 
 servant under their control shall, after this warning, either 
 continue or become a member of such society, my Lords will 
 feel it their duty, without hesitation, to dismiss him from the 
 Service. Inform them further that my Lords rely on their 
 carrying the intentions of his Majesty and the direcTtions of 
 this Board zealously and impartially into efFecft." 
 
 IN CONCLUSION. 
 
 I cannot more appropriately terminate this volume than 
 by quoting from a Protestant magazine, the Edinburgh Review, 
 of January, 1836, the conclusions which it based on the 
 evidence laid before the Parliamentary Selecft Committees of 
 the previous year : 
 
 "Our task is now nearly complete. We have seen enough 
 of 'the proceedings, extent, and tendency of the Orange insti- 
 tutions of Great Britain, Ireland, and the colonies,' to feel 
 satisfied that the existence of this 'oldest, best, and most sacred 
 of institutions' is not for the peace or well-being of the com- 
 munity. It may be objedl:ed that many of its proceedings are 
 so silly that they can scarcely be dangerous. But this is a 
 mistake. The Orangemen, and more especially the Irish 
 Orangemen, have had a firm and fierce faith in the truth and 
 righteousness and utility of their pernicious institution. 
 Founded on principles of exclusiveness and insolence, they 
 have believed themselves to be meek and charitable ; existing 
 as a privileged minority amongst a conquered and oppressed 
 population, they have considered themselves the injured and 
 offended ; combining against, or adling beyond, the law, they 
 have thought themselves the most loyal of subjecfts; and 
 reprobating bigotry, they have been at best but the bigoted 
 persecutors of imputed bigotry. There are many, too, who 
 have entered and used the association as a stepping-stone to 
 power and connedliion, or who have seen in it an engine web 
 fitted for securing that ascendency in Church and State which 
 has been a fruitful source of ascendency in patronage and pelf 
 to them and their party. 
 
 "There can be no doubt that Orangeism has been, and 
 continues to be, hurtful to the very cause and principles it 
 professes to support. Our charges against it are: 
 
 "That it has rendered Protestantism weaker than it found 
 it. 
 
 " That it has fomented hostile and intolerant feelings 
 between co-set5ts of the Christian religion. 
 
 384 
 
IN CONCLUSION. 
 
 "That by its annual processions and commemorations ol 
 epochs of party triumph, it has exasperated and transmitted 
 ancient feuds, which have led to riots, with loss of property 
 and life. 
 
 "That in consequence of the civil and religious antipathies 
 thus engendered, the administration of justice in all its depart- 
 ments, whether in the bench, the jury, or the witness-box, has 
 become tainted or suspedled. 
 
 "That, prompted by the encouragement or remissness of 
 former Administrations, the ambition or presumption of indi- 
 viduals has at length organised an association of nearly half-a- 
 million of men, held together by secret signs, and an affiliation 
 kept up through the Empire, contrary to law. 
 
 "That this society has strengthened itself by secretly 
 introducing its lodges among the privates of more than fifty 
 regiments, both at home and on foreign service, contrary to 
 the known rules and regulations of the army. That gather- 
 ings, or demonstrations of physical strength, have been recom- 
 mended by the executive authorities of the society both in 
 England and in Ireland, and have frequently taken place to a 
 great extent. 
 
 "That this association, addressing itself to the religious 
 passions of the multitude, is placed under the absolute com- 
 mand of a Prince of the Blood, who, as Imperial Grand 
 Master, has, amongst other powers, that of assembling the 
 whole Orange body, as far as pracfticable, at any given place 
 or time. 
 
 "These are grave charges. We have carefully quoted the 
 authorities upon which they are founded."*'' 
 
 ®^Quoted by " M.P.," Hist. ofOranseism, pp. 219-220. 
 
 385 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 Appendix A* 
 
 THE POSITION OF CATHOLICS IN BELFAST, DERRY, 
 AND ARMAGH— THE POSITION OF PROTESTANTS 
 IN THE SOUTH AND WEST OF IRELAND. 
 
 Reference has been made in the course of this volume^ to the 
 manner in which Catholics are excluded, in the great Orange 
 centres of Belfast and Derry, from offices of honour and 
 emolument in the gift of the people. The history of Ireland 
 since 1795, and especially of the Ulster portion of it, furnishes, 
 in melancholy abundance, instances of the rapid growth of the 
 most violent forms of sediarian rancour which followed the 
 spread of Orangeism throughout the country. The thirteenth 
 and fourteenth chapters of this volume supply many instances 
 in point. Among the British colonies, Canada is a signal 
 example. - In Dublin, and the South and West of Ireland 
 generally, circumstances over which the lodges had no control 
 — the course of legislation and enlightenment, the movement 
 of population, etc. — have to a great extent or altogether de- 
 prived the Orange party of the power of grinding the faces of 
 their Catholic fellow-countrymen. This, coupled with the 
 naturally tolerant spirit of Irish Catholics, will sufficiently 
 explain the singular freedom of those portions of Ireland from 
 the marked and constant displays of religious hate that form 
 the bane of life in the Orange distridts of Ulster. Belfast and 
 Derry are singled out for special mention in these pages for 
 the following reasons : 
 
 1. They are the twin capitals of the world's Orangeism. 
 
 2. Before the rise of the Orange association, the Protestants 
 of Derry, and still more those of Belfast, displayed a spirit of 
 generous friendliness for the Catholic body, which was not 
 surpassed, if it were even equalled, by any other cities in 
 Ireland. 
 
 3. The spread of Orangeism in Belfast and Derry was 
 accompanied by a fierce and energising hatred of the Catholic 
 body, which continues to the present hour. 
 
 4. The Orange party in Belfast and Derry have, almost to 
 this hour, exercised complete control in Municipal and other 
 
 ^See p. 7. 
 
 J86 
 
CATHOLICS IN BELFAST. 
 
 local matters, and have thereby been enabled to manifest the\ 
 true inner spirit of the society in their dealings with their / 
 Catholic fellow-citizens. 
 
 5. The Catholics of Belfast and Derry have been, almost to { 
 the present moment, as really deprived of certain of the benefits 
 of Emancipation, as if some of the provisions of the Penal Code 
 were still unrepealed. ; 
 
 BELFAST. — ' 
 
 Before the rise of the Orange association, Belfast — the cradle 
 of the United Irish society — took the lead, as we have 
 already seen, in the acftive movement initiated by Protestants, 
 at the close of the last century, for the admission of Catholics 
 to equal civil rights with themselves. Early in 1797 the 
 Orange society secured a footing in Belfast. In due course it 
 was strong enough to obtain control in Municipal affairs. From 
 that fatal day Catholics have led the lives of helots in the 
 capital of the North; and from no other place, except perhaps 
 from Derry, came more violent opposition to Emancipation, 
 and, generally, to every movement for the extension of a 
 measure of civil rights to the overwhelming majority of the 
 Irish population. An account of the sufferings of the members 
 of the hated creed in Belfast would be quite beyond the scope 
 of an Appendix. The following particulars of a form of 
 persecution which in great part still continues, may, however, 
 be of interest to the reader : 
 
 In 1892 a Selecfl Committee was appointed to collecTi: evidence 
 with a view to the Belfast Corporation, Lunatic Asylums, etc.. Bill, 
 then before the House of Commons. In the Minutes of 
 Evidence taken by them on the 9th of May of that year, we find 
 the following facfts, which are here placed in tabulated form. The 
 reader is requested to bear in mind the facft that, as already 
 stated in these pages. Catholics, according to the census of i8gi, 
 form 26-3 per cent, of the population of Belfast. 
 
 Elective Public Bodies. Protestants. Catholics. 
 
 Corporation : 
 
 Members .... 40 , none 
 
 Paid Officials^ ... 89 , 2 
 
 Harbour Commission : 
 
 Members ... 22 . none 
 
 Paid Officials • • • 37 . none 
 
 Water Commission : 
 
 Members .... 15 . i 
 
 Paid Officials 7 none 
 
 ■^The Town Clerk's salary was ;^25oo a year (that of the Dublin Town 
 Clerk ;^r20G a year); the combined salaries of the two Catholic officials 
 in Belfast amounted to ^265. 
 
 387 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 Elective Public Bodies. Protestants. Catholics. 
 
 Poor Law Board : 
 
 Elected Members ... 22 . none 
 
 Ex-officio Members'* . . 21 . i 
 
 Paid Officials* ... 91 . 3 
 
 Asyliim Board : 
 
 Members .... 19 , 3 
 
 Paid Officials^ ... 65 . 8 
 
 Petty Sessions Clerks . . 6 . none 
 
 Of the other most important elecftive offices, the two Clerk- 
 ships, etc., and the Coronership were all held by Protestants. 
 The Selecft Committee must have been strongly impressed with 
 the treatment accorded to the Catholic minority in the head 
 centre of Orangeism, for they excised from the Bill those clauses 
 which conferred on the Belfast Corporation the same powers 
 with regard to Industrial Schools and Reformatories, which 
 were then, and still are, exercised by the Catholic Corporations 
 of Dublin, Cork, and Limerick. 
 
 The position of Catholics in Belfast has by no means 
 improved since 1892, as may be seen by the following extract 
 from the London Tablet of February 29, 1896 (p. 327). The 
 Tablet, I need not say, is a Catholic journal, but its politics are 
 of the most pronounced anti-Nationalist type: 
 
 " After reading a little book of statistics just published at 
 Belfast," says this organ, " no one can hug the fond belief that 
 the Catholics there are not the subjedts of a sedlarian boycott. 
 At the census of 1891 the Belfast Catholics were 70,234 out of 
 a total population of 273,114, or more than a fourth of the 
 whole, yet this quarter of the whole population has, it is stated, 
 not a single representative among the ten Aldermen, nor among 
 the thirty Councillors of the city. Out of 95 paid officials 
 of the Belfast Municipality, drawing an aggregate salary of 
 /'2o,ooo, only two are Catholics, and these are mere minor 
 officials with salaries well under /^20o each." On the Board of 
 [Poor Law] Guardians, Catholics have only three representa- 
 tives' out of a total of 41, and only six paid officials of the Board 
 
 ^Seenote 7, infra. 
 
 *Of the three Catholic officials, two were Work-house teachers, and 
 one a nurse. There were forty Protestant nurses employed. 
 
 ^The eight Catholics were attendants, of whom sixty-eight were em- 
 ployed. 
 
 ^In the Report of the Seleft Committee on the Belfast Corporation Bill 
 (1896) it is stated that the Protestant officials draw salaries amounting to 
 ^18,467; the Catholics, ^^294. Minutes of Evidence, Q. 103. 
 
 ''These three were ex-offtcio, and not eleded, members of the Board. 
 They were appointed because they held the Commission of the Peace 
 within the Union, and had a higher property qualification than other 
 justices Evidence was given before the Select Committee on the Belfast 
 
 388 
 
CATHOLICS IN BELFAST. 
 
 are Catholics, receiving ;^i7o, whilst the 164 Protestants 
 receive between them /f 10,223 ^ year. On the Harbour Board 
 there is now, apparently, no Catholic representative, and the 
 only Catholic paid official of the Board is one of the pilot 
 masters. Here the aggregate Protestant portion of loaves and 
 fishes is ;^7,648, and the Catholic portion £1^0. Of the 17 
 Water Commissioners not one is a Catholic, and here the 
 Protestant monopoly of salaried posts — of an aggregate annual 
 value of ;^3,524 — seems to be complete. Even the rate- 
 coUecflors, the collecftors to the gas offices, the architects and 
 building surveyors, and the clerk of works at the pumping 
 stations and outfall works, are all Protestants. All this seems 
 to show that, with the Belfast Municipality, it is an axiom 
 that ' no Catholic need apply. '^ As a writer in the Manchester 
 Guardian puts it, the list, ' unless it can be discredited as a 
 whole, proves that Protestantism is the first qualification 
 required of pracflically every salaried official of the Belfast 
 Corporation, as well as of the members of all public bodies of 
 which the Protestant majority of the ratepayers can decide 
 the composition.' This is plain persecution, unless indeed 
 one would go the length of trying to make a distinction 
 between persecution and the deprivation of political power ; 
 between which, as Sydney Smith, with much robustness of 
 phrase, declared, there was no more distiniftion than there was 
 between 'the man who makes such a distincftion and a 
 booby.' " _ 
 
 The Belfast Corporation Adi, which was forced by Parlia- "\ 
 ment upon unwilling Aldermen and Councillors in 1896, 
 provides for a very small modicum of representation to the 
 Catholic ratepayers of the city. It does not, however, open the 
 offices of emolument to members of the persecuted creed. 
 Reference to the Report of the Selecft Committee on the Belfast 
 
 ^ 
 
 Corporation Bill (1896) that Catholics had no chance of being «/^c/^(f members 
 of the Board. Minutes 0/ Evidence, Qq. 6162-6163, 6292, 6495-6496. 
 
 "Various witnesses deposed before the Seledt Committee on the Belfast 
 Corporation Bill (1896) that known CathoUcs have no chance of any appoint- 
 ment in the gift of eledlive public bodies in Belfast. See, for instance, 
 Minutes of Evidence, Qq. 64gs-64g6- Mr. Pirrie, Lord Mayor of the city, 
 stated before the same Committee that he voted only once to have a 
 Catholic employed by the Corporation. The applicant was a lady. Her 
 salary was only 14s. a week. Mr. Pirrie added that when he gave his vote he 
 did not knotv she was a Catholic. Minutes of Evidence, Qq. 110-112. Sir 
 Samuel Black, Town Clerk, solicitor, and former Alderman, deposed before 
 the same Committee, as he had previously done before Mr. Dowse in 
 1864, that he would know a Catholic from a Protestant by merely looking 
 at him. Ihid., Qq. looo-iooi. For the power of the Orange body in the 
 Corporation, see Q. 5745 ; cf. Q. 5747. A Jew, Mr. Jaffe. is allowed a seat 
 in the Belfast Corporation, but not a Catholic. Ibid., Q. 5596. 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 Corporation Bill will show that party feeling against Catholics 
 still runs as high as ever in the head centre of Orangeism/^ and 
 that party expressions have lost none of their old bitterness." 
 The whole evidence as to the position of Catholics generally in 
 Belfast may be summed up in the words of one of the witnesses 
 regarding the poorer classes of them : " The Catholics of Belfast, 
 so far as the working population is concerned, are being simply 
 tolerated.' '^^ 
 
 DERRY. 
 
 In the second chapter of this volume brief reference has 
 been made to the spirit of broad-minded tolerance which existed 
 among Protestants in Derry before the rise of Orangeism, and 
 to the religious rancour which replaced it when the brethren 
 secured a firm footing in the Maiden City. It would be easy 
 to multiply further evidence of the unhappy change wrought 
 by Orange principles and pra(5lice in Derry. In this instance 
 the situation was even worse, if possible, than in Belfast, inas- 
 much as it was and is the persecution of a majority of the 
 population by an intolerant minority. The disabilities of the 
 Catholic body have only been partially relieved — nearly seventy 
 years after Emancipation — in spite of the protest of the local 
 ascendency party, by the Londonderry Improvement A6t of 
 i8g6. At the census of i8gi, the population of Derry was 
 33,161. Ofthese 18,073 were Catholics, and 15,088 Protestants. 
 Yet, owing to the careful " rigging" of the Municipal registers, 
 and an artificial valuation, the Catholic ratepayers were deftly 
 placed in a minority in each ward.^^ The old Corporation con- 
 sisted of twenty-four members. I have a complete list of the 
 members of the Corporation from 1866 to i8g6 before me, and 
 I find that during that whole time only two Catholics were 
 admitted within the sacred precincfts of the Council Chamber. 
 One of these — the late Mr. Thomas O'Hanlon, ex-M.P. for 
 Cavan — was ele(5f ed through dissensions among the non-Catholic 
 eledtors, and also by way of protest against the Corporation's 
 scandalous neglecfl of the ward for which he was returned. 
 He was not permitted to hold the seat long, notwithstanding 
 his devotion to the elecftors' interests, and the fadl that he was 
 
 ^Minutes of Evidence, Qq. 6482-6484, 7043, etc. 
 
 ^°/bid., Qq.5559, 6354, 6357, 6459. According to one of the witnesses, 
 the party expressions used daily against the CathoUcs consist principally of 
 insulting references to the Pope. See pp. 157-158, supra. 
 
 ■>-Ubid., Q. 5728. 
 
 12 Another method of securing eledlions in Derry is very frequently 
 adopted towards Catholic ratepayers who are in arrears of rent. They 
 are served with notices to quit, and are thus disfranchised, before the day 
 of the contest. Report of Seleft Committee on Londonderry Improvement 
 Bill. Minutes of Evidence, Qq. 10146, sqq. 
 
CATHOLICS IN DERRY. 
 
 a man of spotless characfler, and one of the largest ratepayers 
 in the ward. The other, Mr. Charles O'Neill, was a man 
 whose name was the synonym for every domestic and public 
 virtue. A Protestant (but not Orange) paper, the Derry 
 Standard, once appealed for the few non-Catholic votes neces- 
 sary for his return, on the strange plea that, if the ratepayers 
 rejedted a man of his worth, because of his religion, no voice 
 could ever be raised in defence of Ulster Unionists on English 
 political platforms. Though Mr. O'Neill was the oldest and 
 most respedted member of the Corporation, he was never 
 nominated for the office of mayor. Some time after Mr, 
 O'Neill's death, in 1892, the Derry Journal, the Catholic local 
 organ, appealed to the Protestant ratepayers for one, only one, 
 seat out of the twenty-four, for Catholic representation. The 
 Catholic candidate, Mr. B. Hannigan, was in every way 
 unexceptionable. He held a large interest in the ward, was a 
 magistrate, a man of culture, and a citizen of the highest 
 integrity. Mr. Hannigan was defeated, although the ward 
 which he contested had previously returned an Indian quack 
 do(flor of unsavoury reputation, who used to walk in the 
 Apprentice Boys' Processions. A complete Hst of the members 
 of the Corporation for 1895 appeared in the Dublin Weekly 
 Freeman of April 13, 1895; and for the period up till 
 November, 1896, in the Derry Journal of January i, 
 1897. Not one of them was a Catholic. At the same 
 time all the paid officials of the Corporation, thirty-two in 
 number, were Protestants, drawing salaries amounting to 
 /"a, 718 13s. 6d. per annum. '^ A Table published on p. 393 of 
 the Report of the Selecft Committee on the Londonderry Improve- 
 ment Bill (Q. 10048) shows that the Catholic employes of the Derry 
 Corporation draw annually only ^967 2s. This represents the 
 whole amount which the Catholic majority of Derry receive 
 out of about ;^22,ooo annually expended by the Corporation of 
 the Maiden City," which sum, after deducfting the small pro- 
 portion which goes to interest, as well as the amount just 
 mentioned as given to Catholic employes, all goes as " salary, 
 wages, and benefits to Protestants."^® 
 
 " There is then, no Catholic in the Corporation, nor among 
 the Bridge Commissioners, nor in the Harbour Commissioners, 
 except one who was [not elecfted, but] co-opted by the Harbour 
 Commissioners themselves. The Bridge Commissioners are 
 
 ^^Report of Seled Committee on Londonderry Improvement Bill (1896). 
 Minutes of Evidence, Q. 10041, p. 392. The Table there given makes the 
 number of officials 35. 
 
 i4/i/(/., Q. 10049. 
 
 ^^Ihid., Q. 10385. 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 seledted by exclusive public bodies, and the members of the 
 Harbour Trust are elecfted by open voting on a very high 
 qualification. Add to this, that all the paid officials of all three 
 bodies are non-Catholics, and some idea may be formed of the 
 system of our local government. "^^ 
 
 The Derry Corporation was not content with thus penalising 
 Catholics because of their religion. They took steps to per- 
 petuate the monopoly of their party, by proposing an extension 
 of the city boundaries which would make the Municipal area 
 as large as that of the city of Berlin, and such a re-arrangement 
 of the wards as would deprive the Catholic population of any 
 hope of fair representation in the future.^' Parliament, how- 
 ever, rejecSted the proposal as to the boundaries, but permitted 
 the exclusively Protestant Corporation to map out the new 
 wards. The present municipal wards are the very divisions 
 which the intolerant Tory Corporation had made for the conven- 
 ience of their followers at the Parliamentary ele(5tions, and which 
 were strongly objecfled to by the Nationalists of the city as being 
 made in the Tory interest. Mr. Vessey Knox, the Protestant 
 Nationalist representing Derry, made a strenuous, whole-souled 
 effort to have a fair division of wards made, but he was defeated. 
 Full justice still remains to be done. There are now sixteen 
 Catholics seated with twenty-four Protestants on the new 
 Derry Corporation.^^ But the division of the wards has 
 
 ^^Weekly Freeman (Dublin), April 13, 1895. 
 
 ^''Report of Seled Committee on Londonderry Improvement Bill. Minutes 
 of Evidence, Qq. 10241 to 10269. 
 
 ■i^'' A list of the new Aldermen and Councillors, as well as of the paid 
 officials of the new Corporation under the Adt of 1896, is given in the Derry 
 Journa/ol January i, 1897. One of the latest proposals of the majority in 
 the new Corporation savours strongly of the old spirit, with perhaps a 
 soup<;on of retaliation. It is their proposal to ered: city cattle sale-yards at 
 the very doors of the Catholic College and Christian Brothers' Schools, 
 and Nazareth House, on ground purchased at enormous expense for the 
 purpose. The old Corporation, which was exclusively Protestant, offered 
 the (Protestant) Church representative body ;6570o for the site. The 
 Catholic Bishop offered ;^5ioo for it, which was admittedly very far above 
 its value. No person would think of making so high an offer as a mere 
 private speculation ; but the ground was specially valuable to the Bishop, 
 as it was almost surrounded by Catholic (ecclesiastical) property. Besides, 
 too, it had an historical value as being the site of St. Columba's monastery. 
 The new Corporation, nevertheless, has ratified the proposal of their pre- 
 decessors against the protest of the Catholic people. Nor would they 
 agree to sell the portion immediately adjoining the Catholic property, 
 though the Bishop offered them an almost fabulous price, and though 
 many of the Corporators admitted the whole of the ground was not neces- 
 sary for the purposes of a horse and cattle sale-yard. It is simply taxing 
 the Catholics of Derry for the support of Protestantism ; and it is more- 
 over a grievous injurv to the Catholic people,whosefineproperty is thereby 
 seriously depreciated in value. On the day of the eledion for the new Cor- 
 
 392 
 
CATHOLICS IN DERRY. 
 
 been so scandalously partisan that the Catholics may be' 
 expedled to retain only the seats of the one division which no 
 "jerrymandering " could take from them. In Derryand Belfast, 
 Catholics, for the purpose of self-protedtion, lived, for the most 
 part, in one division of the city. The Orange Corporators, by 
 their division of wards, have succeeded in locking up the 
 Catholic vote in one distridl:. The nev/ Corporation, like the 
 old, has thirty-two salaried officials, not one of whom 
 Catholic. 
 
 Before leaving the subjecft of Corporate exclusiveness" 
 Derry, I may, by way of illustration, mention two cases out of 
 a long list which lies before me. In March, 1869, the illus- 
 trious Irish Protestant lawyer, Isaac Butt, was specially 
 engaged at the Derry Assizes. The local Literary Association, 
 whose committee was largely Protestant, and consisted of men 
 of the highest respectability and commercial standing in the 
 city, took advantage of Mr. Butt's visit to ask him to le(5ture 
 in aid of their funds. Mr. Butt, it must be remembered, was 
 not at the time in Parliament, and though a strong Nationalist, 
 was not then the leader of the Irish people. He chose "The 
 Republic of Venice," a singularly non-contentious subjecft, for 
 his lecture. But the Orange mayor. Dr. Millar, refused the 
 useoftheCitizens' Hall, and finally only yielded to the weightiest 
 pressure from Mr. Butt's immediate friends and relatives, wha> 
 were amongst the largest ratepayers in Derry. '^Abdut 
 the same time the office of market-inspecftor became vacant. 
 Mr. Richard Todd, who held a pracftically sinecure office from 
 the old Corporation, proposed to do the work for ^20 a year. 
 But Mr. Todd was a Catholic, and rather than give him the 
 office, the Corporation appointed a man of "the right sort" 
 at a salary of ^75, thus pracftically mulcfting the citizens 
 in a capital sum of ;£'iioo. The difficulty of finding 
 any plausible ground of objecftion against the candidate 
 was insuperable, and it is amusing to read the reasons 
 given against his appointment. One councillor, Mr. A. 
 Stewart, boldly stated that Mr. Todd was too gentle- 
 manly and too good a man for such a paltry office, and 
 that it was an insult to a man of his position and characfter to 
 propose such an office for his acceptance. Other councillors 
 supported Mr. Stewart's view. Mr. Todd was a citizen of the 
 highest integrity and capacity.''' Those who have not had 
 pradtical experience of political life in Ulster find it difficult to 
 
 poration, the dead walls of the city were placarded with this appeal to the 
 Protestant voters: " Remember, the fate of the Bishop's Garden depends 
 upon your vote." 
 
 i«See report of Corporation proceedings in Derry Journal of that date. 
 
 393 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 believe that men could be so intolerant towards those whom 
 they must necessarily meet in every relation of daily life. 1 shall 
 just give one illustration of the notion of fair play entertained 
 by the organ of the lodges in Derry. When the late Mr. 
 William McLaughlin, Q.C., was editor of the Derry Journal, 
 he fearlessly advocated the cause of his persecuted co- 
 religionists. As a consequence of his spirited and patriotic 
 adlion, the local Orange organ called on the Protestants of 
 the North-West of Ireland to starve out the Protestant pro- 
 prietor of the Jotirnal if he did not dismiss the Catholic editor.^' 
 The right of making known their grievances was to be denied 
 the Derry Catholics.^^ 
 
 2oMr. McLaughlin, appearing for the Catholics and Liberal Protes- 
 tants of Derry, before the Royal Commission (Derry), 1869, feelingly 
 referred to this fadt, in answer to some statements of Mr. Crawford, solici- 
 tor, who appeared in the Protestant (Apprentice-Boy) interest. 
 
 2 'The dignified protest of the Derry Catholics against the 
 attempt of the Government to shield the titled and reverend Orange 
 rowdies on the occasion of Lord Mayor Dawson's visit to the city, ist 
 November, 1883, deserves special mention. A few weeks before, the Crimes 
 Ad had been put into full force in Derry against some Nationalists, who 
 were arrested on empty suspicion. Dublin Castle, controlled by certain per- 
 manent Orange officials, had a different set of measures for lodge offenders. 
 Immediately after the Senior Commissioner, Mr. Piers White, Q-C, had 
 explained the scope of the Inquiry, and stated that witnesses would not be 
 required to give their evidence on oath, a solemn protest against the mode of 
 investigation was made by Mr. James E. O'Doherty, the eminent solicitor 
 whose name will be ever associated with the struggles, in his generation, of 
 the Derry Catholics for freedom. The Catholics of Derry, by declining 
 to recognise the sham Commission, drew the attention of the Three 
 Kingdoms to the fadt that Orange ofiicials were ready to shield Orange 
 criminals, though the charge against them was of the most serious 
 kind. I append the historic protest, as it is given in the Report 
 of the Derry Inquiry, 1883, Appendix A. It was unanimously agreed to 
 by the Catholics of Derry : 
 
 "An inquiry into the eventsof November i was sprung upon the Catholics 
 of Derry to-day, but the terms of the warrant and the statement of Mr. White 
 have dissipated whatever hope the misleading notice of the inquiry might 
 have excited. It is notorious that the position of the Catholics in Derry is 
 little better than what it was before Catholic Emancipation. We have 
 neither the protedlion of the law from outrage, nor hope of redress after its 
 commission. On the other hand, an insolent minority has controlling 
 influence not only in civic representation, but even in the appointment 
 and removal of resident magistrates and police officers. In these things 
 lie the causes which ever lead to disturbances in this city ; but these 
 things are not within the terms of the Commission, and could not without 
 due notice and preparation be properly brought out. We would have 
 endeavoured to assist the Commission, even if its objeft had been the very 
 limited one of inquiry, how, in a city proclaimed under the Arms Adt, an 
 armed mob could seize and hold by force the Corporation Hall, or into the 
 negledl of obvious precautions — the utter want of energy or self-possession 
 when the crisis arose — and into the eternal contrast between the treatment 
 of the majority and minority in this city. But these matters are not, in 
 
 394 
 
CATHOLICS IN ARMAGH. 
 
 The position of Catholics in the great Orange stronghold oi 
 Armagh city has been, almost up to the present hour, no 
 better than that of their co-religionists of Belfast and Derry. 
 "The Orange Town Commissioners" (as an Irish newspaper 
 before me terms them) recently sought, and obtained from, the 
 Local Government Board a Provisional Order for such an 
 extension of their powers as would perpetuate the exclusion of 
 Catholics from representation on, and public employment by, 
 the local Municipal Council. But for the vigilance of Cardinal 
 Logue, and the exertions of Mr. T. M. Healy, M.P., the 
 Armagh Provisional Order would have passed through the 
 House of Commons. Through Mr. Healy's intervention, two 
 important clauses were added to the Order : the one bringing 
 Armagh under the Towns Improvement A6i, and giving the rate- 
 payers a reduced franchise ; the other providing that the town 
 should be divided into three wards. Two Local Government 
 Board Inquiries were subsequently held, at which the ward 
 boundaries were arranged in such a manner that an instalment 
 of justice has at length been done to the Catholic ratepayers 
 of Armagh. This tardy and partial acft of reparation was met 
 with a torrent of abuse from the Orange press. The Dublin 
 Nation oiM^rch. 13, 1897, copies into its columns portions of 
 leading articles on the subjecft from the Ulster Gazette and the 
 Armagh Standard. The former is bitterly hostile to the Armagh 
 settlement. The Armagh Standard refers to it in terms of 
 coarse violence which recall the palmiest days of Orange 
 ascendency."-^ 
 
 our opinion, within— and they certainly are not the main objedls of— this 
 inquiry ; and even to ensure such an inquiry we will not assist the Govern- 
 ment to evade its duty in the proper and firm and impartial administration 
 of exceptional powers of criminal investigation ; nor will we sandion by our 
 presence this proposed kid-glove method of dealing with notorious rioters. 
 The Commissioners declared to-day that they are prepared to hear even 
 the cinminals of the Corporation Hall. The assassin is to be at liberty to 
 state on his honour his view of the circumstances of the First of November. 
 We objedl to associate with such men in the witness-box, and we will not 
 sandtion by our presence the conversion of what should be a criminal 
 investigation into a Commission of excuse. For these reasons, we decline 
 to attend or give evidence at the Commission, and approve of the aftion 
 taken by our representative to-day. Dated this 14th day of December 
 1883." 
 
 '2A few brief extradls will enable the reader {a) to gauge the bitter 
 hostility of the Armagh Orange party to the extension of equal civil rights 
 to their Catholic fellow-citizens, and {b) to note the similarity of the 
 brethren's language, and the unity of their spirit, as regards Catholics, 
 both in Ireland and Australia. In the course of the article in question the 
 Standard makes a violent attack on Rev. J. Quinn, who had watched over 
 the interests of the Catholic ratepayers. "The [chimney] sweep," says 
 the Standard, "tells us we have a dirty face, the sewer-cleaner' is an 
 
 395 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 A CONTRAST. 
 
 A pleasing and instrucftive contrast to the display of 
 secTtarian feeling in Derry and Belfast, will be found in the 
 liberal treatment accorded by the "rebels of the West and 
 South " to the Pr6testant minority who live in their midst. 
 Most of the facfls to be presently stated in a summary way will 
 be found, with a wealth of detail, in a pamphlet entitled The 
 Treatment of Minorities in Ireland, written in 1886 by Mr. Dawson 
 (formerly Lord Mayor of Dublin and M.P. for Carlow), and 
 published by the Irish Press Agency, London. It is needless 
 to say that, since the appearance of that pamphlet, there has 
 been no change in the attitude of broad-minded tolerance 
 which Irish Catholics, where they are in power, have shown 
 towards the adherents of other creeds. '^^ I am here dealing 
 exclusively with elecflive offices of honour and emolument 
 which are in the gift of the people. 
 
 I. Offices of honour: [a) Parliament. — Irish Catholics could 
 not, of course, be expecfted to cast their votes for representatives 
 who, in Parliament, would oppose their political views, or those 
 interests which affe(5led their comforts, rights, or liberties. Irish 
 Catholic constituencies are exacft ing as to a candidate's politics, 
 which closely affedl them. They look upon his religion as his 
 own private concern. At each period in the progress of Parlia- 
 mentary and Municipal Reform — in 1832, 1841, 1850, and 1884 
 
 authority on smells, likewise the Rev. John Quinn talks of bigotry and 
 prejudice. The Irish priest is the last remnant of paganism in this nine- 
 teenth century. With not so good a social position as the ordinary Irish 
 policeman, with good breeding at a minimum, and with pride and ignor- 
 ance at a maximum, he cuts a sorry figure in these days." It describes 
 the Catholic Church as " subtle, crafty, exclusive, grasping, and ever- 
 grasping," and avers that she " will never be content until she has crushed 
 the last semblance of liberty out of the wretches of whose throats she has 
 got a grasp." It makes the usual references to the Jesuits and " their 
 nefarious schemes, worked out in the dark, and put into execution in day- 
 light with bland, smiling face;" and declares that Parliament ("Balfour 
 and his minions"), in performing this adt of justice to the Catholics of 
 Armagh, are handing over the Standard's party " body and soul to those who 
 would destroy us." Compare the similar language published in the Austra- 
 ian Orange press, as quoted on pp. 165-167. 
 
 2=^In a letter written in 1895 to Canon Brosnan, the Protestant Reftor 
 of Cachirciveen (Kerry) says : " I take this opportunity of saying, with 
 much gratitude, that during my long residence of twenty-eight years among 
 them, I have received nothing but unvarying respeft and kindness from 
 your flock ; and I shall never forget how, on two occasions, when laid 
 low on a bed of illness, you and they aded towards me." Kerry is one of 
 the most Catholic counties in Ireland. The Daily News, commenting on 
 the Redtor's letter, remarks that " it has often been pointed out that while 
 Protestants and Roman Catholics squabble in the North-east of Ireland, 
 where the Catholics are in a minority, they are generally on the best ot terms ia 
 the South, where they are in a majority." 
 
 S96 
 
PROTESTANT MINORITIES. 
 
 — Catholic constituencies returned Protestant representatives to 
 Parliament. At the general eledlion of 1832, no fewer than 43 
 Protestant Members of Parliament were returned by thirty- 
 three eledlorates in which the Catholics were in an overwhelm- 
 ing majority. In 1848, after the agonies of the great faminej 
 Catholic ele(51:ors returned 40 Protestant representatives to 
 Parliament. They acfled in a similar manner in the by-elecftions 
 from 1848 to 1868 — Mr. Ball, a Catholic, being, for instance, 
 rejecfted by his co-religionists of Limerick in favour of a 
 Protestant merchant, Mr. James Spaight. In 1868, Catholic 
 majorities in Leinster, Munster, and Connaught returned 33 
 Protestants to Parliament. In 1874 the Home Rule question 
 was brought before the Irish ele(ftors by Mr. Isaac Butt. The 
 number of non-Catholic candidates decreased ; but every one 
 of them who advocated the national demand was received with 
 open arms. At the close of the contest, 28 Protestants repre- 
 sented Catholic constituencies in the British Parliament. 
 Moreover, the chosen leaders of the Irish Catholic people were, 
 almost to a man, Protestants, who had been returned for Catholic 
 constituencies. Isaac Butt and Charles Stewart Parnell were 
 members of the Protestant Episcopal Church ; Joseph Biggar, 
 when returned for Cavan, William Shaw, the eledl of "rebel 
 Cork," and John Martin, the choice of Meath, were Presby- 
 terians. 
 
 (b) Municipal Honours. — It was not until 1841 that the 
 Catholic Corporations of Ireland became possessed of political 
 power. Since that time Catholic Gahvay has repeatedly had 
 Protestant chairmen of its Commissioners, Protestant chair- 
 men of the Harbour Board, etc. From the passing of 
 the Municipal Reform A6t oi 1845 to 1886, Catholic Waterford 
 has, on no fewer than hvelve occasions, elecfted Protestants 
 to the office of mayor. In 1891 its population was 18,810 
 Catholics, and 2,042 Protestants. From the Reform A(51: 
 of 1841 to 1886, Limerick has had 13 non-Catholic mayors, 
 and ever since Irish Corporations received the power to 
 elecft sheriffs, it has appointed Protestants to that office. 
 The same is true of Cork, which has a population of 64,561 
 Catholics and 10,784 Protestants. Up to 1885 the Catholic 
 Corporators placed eight Protestants on the Harbour Board, 
 and at least seven more in the mayoral chair. In Dublin-' 
 
 2*In 1842, after the passing of the Municipal Reform Act, O'Connell 
 offered one-half of the seats in the DubUn Corporation, without a contest, 
 to the Protestant minority. From 1841 till 1869 the ofSce of Lord Mayor 
 was held, every alternate year, by a Protestant, and the Tory Corporators 
 were allowed to eled their candidate. The nomination of Mr. Yokes 
 Mackcy for the office in i86g led the (London) Globe to assert that the 
 
 397 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY, 
 
 there are 201,418 Catholics and 43,583 Protestants. Between 
 1 84 1 and 1886, its Catholic Corporation eledled no fewer than 
 18 Protestants to the office of Lord Mayor, and appointed 
 many others of the creed of the minority to the office of sheriff. 
 
 2. Offices of Emolument. — In Catholic Galway, Drogheda, 
 Sligo, Wexford, Waterford, and Limerick, a large proportion 
 of the paid officials of the various elecflive bodies are Pro- 
 testants. Up till a recent period (says Mr. Dawson) "all the 
 Municipal chief offices in Cork, except that of Town Clerk, 
 were held by non-Catholics, and they received ;^i,840 out of 
 the ^2,440 voted by the Catholic Council.-^ They form less 
 than 15 per cent, of the population; they receive more than 75 
 per cent, of the salaries of the Corporation." In Sligo the Pro- 
 testants are less than 2 1 per cent, of the population ; they receive 
 over 50 per cent, of the Municipal salaries. In Dublin, up to 
 the appearance of Mr. Dawson's pamphlet in 1886, a great 
 proportion of the officials of the Corporation were Protestants, 
 who drew ^4,000 out of ;^8,400 a year paid in salaries by the 
 city fathers. Protestants form 18 per cent, of the population 
 of Dublin; they drew over 47 per cent, of the amount paid by 
 the city in salaries. When Mr. Langdale (a Cathohc) was 
 appointed sheriff of Fermanagh, he nominated as his sub-sherifF 
 the Master of an Orange lodge. ^^ 
 
 In the matter of the expression of secftarian feeling, a wide 
 gulf is fixed between the portions of Ireland where Cathohc 
 majorities hold sway, and the North-East corner which is 
 infedled with the spirit of the Orange lodges. It would probably 
 be difficult, perhaps impossible, to find in any country similarly 
 circumstanced, such fair and broad-minded treatment accorded 
 to minorities as that which Catholic majorities in eledlive 
 bodies in Ireland extend to their Protestant fellow-countrymen. 
 
 Catholic Corporation of Dublin was opposed to Mr. Gladstone's proposal 
 to disestablish the Protestant Church in Ireland. Mr. Mackey's imprudent 
 friends re-echoed the assertion from pulpit and platform, with the result 
 that the nomination was rescinded. Under the old arrangement Liberal 
 Protestants were excluded from the Lord Mayoralty. Since 1869 the 
 Catholic Corporators have eledted Liberal, as well as Tory, Protestants to 
 the office. 
 
 2SIn 1854 the powers of the Grand Jury and Wide Street Commis- 
 sioners were transferred to the Corporation, who could have dismissed the 
 mostly or altogether Protestant employes of the defundt bodies on small 
 pensions. Instead, the Cork Corporation retained their services, and in 
 several cases increased their salaries, one from ;^iii to ;^220 a year, 
 another from /40 to £100 a year. A new office, that of City Engineer 
 was created. A Protestant and a Catholic competed. The Protestant, in 
 consideration of a previous claim, was appointed. 
 
 26Hansard, March 14, 1870, p. i885. 
 
 398 
 
THE INNER RINGS. 
 
 Appendix B* 
 
 RITUAL OF INTRODUCTION 
 
 TO THE 
 
 ORANGE DEGREE. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 
 
 A BOOK on the Orange society, by anybody but an Orangeman, 
 must, by the necessities of the case, deal chiefly with (a) 
 matters which the institution intends or permits to come to 
 the knowledge of the uninitiated ; (b) with matters which 
 become so known beside, or in spite of, the wishes of the 
 society ; and (c) with the known or traceable results of its 
 acflivities. But beside and beyond these classes of facfts there 
 lies what is, for the general public, a great terya incognita : the 
 inner life of the lodges. Herein mere private inquiry can 
 avail very little, where secrecy is guarded by such fearful 
 sancftions — frequently by dogged silence, and on occasion, as 
 the reader has seen, by rank perjury — against even the most 
 searching forms of judicial and Parliamentary inquiry. The 
 reader will understand the severe limitations which were thus 
 placed upon me in dealing with matters relating to the organ- 
 isation, etc., of the Orange society, in chapters vi. and vii. In 
 the course of the sixth chapter^ evidence has been adduced to 
 show that the printed rules and rituals of the Orange society 
 are, at best, but- half truths. They give quite an inadequate 
 idea of the ceremonies, customs, and organisation of the lodges. 
 Since the sixth and seventh chapters went through the press, 
 I find that the number of inner rings, or wheels within wheels, 
 of the society, is far greater than originally stated by me, or 
 than appears in any printed lodge document or other authori- 
 ties consulted by me when preparing this book for the press. 
 The reader is already aware that Orangemen and Purplemen 
 meet to transacfl business in the same lodges, and that the 
 Purplemen have different secrets, signs, passwords, oaths or 
 "obligations," etc., which they are not permitted to divulge to 
 those of the lower degree.- When " Purple business " is 
 
 iPp. log sqq. 
 
 -See pp. 107-108, supra. The Purpleman's emblems are, if I ani 
 rightly informed, a five-pointed star if- and the following mark )|( 
 
 399 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 about to be transacfled — or, to use the technical phrase, v/hen 
 the lodge is to be " raised to the Royal Arch Purple [R.A.P,] 
 degree " — the mere Orangemen are required to take themselves 
 out of the room, and the lodge is cautiously " tyled " against 
 prying eyes and ears before the proceedings are commenced.^ 
 Above the Purple order there are various " higher degrees." 
 Tried Purplemen are eligible for membership of the lodges of 
 the Royal Black Preceptory.^ These lodges are numbered 
 differently from the ordinary Orange lodges. Their meetings 
 are held apart from those of Orangemen and Purplemen, and 
 at different times or places. All mere members of the two lower 
 degrees are severely excluded from presence at, or participa- 
 tion in, the special business of the Preceptory. It is a 
 significant facft that the offices of the Provincial Grand Black 
 Chapter of Vicftoria are filled altogether or almost altogether 
 by members of the Grand Orange Lodge of the colony.^ I 
 cannot state with certainty the number of rings or degrees 
 which meet in the Black Preceptory lodges ; but as far as I 
 have been able to discover, they run somewhat as follows : 
 
 Black Preceptory ; Scarlet ; White ; Royal Blue, and 
 (I think) Apron and Blue; Green; Link and Chain; Crimson 
 Arrow ; Red Cross. 
 
 As far as I have been able to learn, each of these degrees 
 has its special colors," emblems,' oaths, and secrets, which are 
 to be jealously kept from the knowledge of the uninitiated. 
 
 As in the ordinary Orange lodges, the Black Preceptory 
 meetings are frequently "raised" to one or other of the higher 
 degrees. All members of lower degrees are then excluded, so 
 
 Each of these symbols has a special meaning, which must not be divulged 
 to mere Orangemen. Members of the Orange degree wear only the 
 colours of their order (orange), and have no special symbol that I know of. 
 Compare rule 22, Appendix C. 
 
 ^The Victorian Standard reports refer with great frequency to the 
 raising of the lodge to the R.A.P. degree, but, of course, no hint is ever 
 given of what takes place when the Purplemen meet in secret conclave. 
 
 *The Victorian Standard occasionally records the admission of Purple- 
 men into the R.B.P. lodges. See, for instance, its issue of December 31, 
 1896, p. II. 
 
 ^Victorian Standard, November 30, 1896, pp. lo-ii. The same state- 
 ment holds good, to a great extent, with regard to the Protestant Alliance 
 B^riendly Society. See p. 5, supra. 
 
 ^An Orange rosette or badge in the writer's possession has the follow- 
 ing colours in the order here stated ; Orange, purple, black, scarlet, white 
 alternating with black, blue, white, and last, of all the colours of the rain- 
 bow, green. The whole is surmounted by a metallic five-pointed star. 
 
 ''The emblem of the Black Preceptory is the cheerful one of a skull 
 and crossbones ; that of the Apron and Royal Blue is, I think, a compass 
 and square ; and that of green, a rake, pickaxe, and shovel. There are 
 also a rule, triangle, crimson arrow, and other emblems, each having a 
 
 400 
 
RITUAL OF ORANGE DEGREE. 
 
 that the special secrets of the inner rings may never percolate 
 to the outside circle of the association.*^ 
 
 Elaborate precautions are taken to prevent the rituals, 
 "ledlures/' or "instrucftions" of the "higher degrees" from 
 falling into the hands even of members of the lower orders. 
 I have been credibly informed that the "lecftures" from the 
 Purple degree upwards exist in manuscript only, and that they 
 are placed in the hands of only a very limited number of 
 persons — the lecfture-masters, I fancy ; — that they contain 
 formal oaths ; and that they one and all breathe a spirit of deep 
 hostility to Catholics.^ Some time ago the Vidorian Standard 
 contained a suggestion — made probably in the interests of 
 secrecy — that the " ledtures" should not be read, as is the 
 usual custom, but delivered from memory. As far as I can learn, 
 the only initiatory ceremonial of the Orange society that has 
 been committed to the risk of print is that of the Orange 
 degree, which is given hereunder. 
 
 RITUAL OF THE ORANGE DEGREE.^^ 
 
 [The applicant will be introduced between two Sponsors — 
 namely, the Brethren who proposed and seconded his admission 
 —carrying the Bible in his hands with the Book of Rules and 
 Regulations placed thereon. Two Brethren shall precede him 
 on his entering the room. A Chaplain, if present, or, in his 
 
 meaning of its own, which is not to be communicated to a member of any 
 lower degree. 
 
 8 Only three or four of the Black Preceptory lodges of Vidloria adver- 
 tise or are reported in the Victorian Standard. They all meet in the 
 Protestant Hall, Melbourne, the bead-quarters of the Orange institution of 
 the colony. One Black Preceptory lodge in Perth (W.A.) advertises in the 
 Victorian Standard. 
 
 sprom what I have been able to learn, these " ledtures" and " instruc- 
 tions" form a curious blending of Scripture, politics, hatred of Catholics, 
 and elaborate explanations of recondite signs, emblems, etc. I have been 
 informed that, for instance, certain references to the sun, moon, and stars 
 are worked out with considerable elaboration in the " ledlure" for the 
 Purple degree. 
 
 loThe full title, etc., runs as toUows: Ritual of Introduction to the Orange 
 Degree, with opening and closing Prayer. Melbourne: Stewart and Woodman, 
 General Printers, 13 and 14 Eastern Market, Lower Flat. No date. This is 
 the Ritual now (1897) in use in the lodges of Vidloria. With trifling excep- 
 tions, it is the same as the one in use in Orange lodges in 1799 and 1800. 
 The reader will note the strange combination it presents of religion, con- 
 ditional loyalty, eledlioneering, secrecy at all costs, adlive animosity against 
 Catholics, and needless protestations to comply with certain elemental 
 civic duties which are already enforced by law and conscience, and which 
 are quietly performed, as a mere matter of course, by all ordinary adult 
 males, except criminals and misdemeanants. One, and only one, ritual is 
 supplied to each lodge. Like the seals, it remains the property of the 
 Grand Lodge, and may be withdrawn at any time. See rules 26, 28. 
 
 401 Z 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 absence, a Brother appointed by the Master, shall say the 
 whole or part of what follows] : 
 
 Chaplain : " Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord, or who 
 shall stand in His holy place ? He that hath clean hands and 
 a pure heart, who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor 
 sworn deceitfully. He shall receive the blessing from the 
 Lord, and righteousness from the God of his salvation." 
 Psalm xxiv., 3-5. 
 
 [During the reading of this the candidate shall stand at the foot 
 of the table, the Brethren all standing also in their places'] ." 
 
 Master : Friend, is it of your own free will and accord that 
 you seek admission into the Orange Institution ? 
 
 Candidate : It is. 
 
 Master : Who will answer for this friend, that he is a true 
 Protestant^^ and a loyal subjec5t ?'^ 
 
 [The Sponsors shall bow to the Master and signify the same, each 
 mentioning his own name] . 
 
 Master : Have you duly considered the responsibility you 
 have incurred to the Institution at large, and this Lodge in 
 particular, in thus becoming a guarantee to us for this friend ? 
 
 Sponsors : We have. 
 
 Master : It is required of you, in order to be a true Orange- 
 man, that you shall be faithful and bear true allegiance to Her 
 Majesty the Queen ; that you shall support and maintain to 
 the utmost of your power the Laws and Constitution of Great 
 Britain and her colonies, and the rightful succession to the 
 Throne in Her Majesty's illustrious house, being Protestant,^* and 
 that you shall always be ready and willing to aid and assist, 
 when called upon, the Magistrates and Civil Authorities in the 
 lawful execution of their duties. ^^ 
 
 Chaplain: "Let every soul be subjecfl unto the higher 
 powers, for there is not power but the powers that are 
 
 11 With the exception of these and the following rubrical diredtions, 
 and the words "William the Third" in the " obligation," the italics and 
 capitals are the present writer's. 
 
 i^The words " true Protestants," " Protestants who are in earnest," etc., 
 mean those who are prepared to adopt an aggressive attitude towards 
 Catholics. Cf. pp. 92, sqq., 265, supra. 
 
 i^For loyalty, as understood in the lodges, see chaps, x.-xv., supra, 
 
 i*For the words of the old Orange oath of conditional loyalty, see p. 
 252, supra. The reader will note the condition here attached to the loyalty 
 of tTie brethren. See details of the Cumberland conspiracy, chap, xv., 
 supra. 
 
 ^^Orangemen bind themselves to two kinds of "obligations": (i) 
 Those to which all law-abiding citizens are already bound both by law and 
 conscience ; (2) those which are special to Orangemen, and which have a 
 decided flavour of disloyalty. See pp. 247 sqq., supra. For the manner in 
 which the brethren "aid the civil authorities," see pp. 201-240, suM-a. 
 
 402 
 
RITUAL OF ORANGE DEGREE. 
 
 ordained of God ; for rulers are not a terror to good works, but 
 to evil. Wilt thou, then, not be afraid of the power ? Do 
 that which is good and thou shalt have praise of the same. 
 Wherefore ye must needs be subjedl not only for wrath, but 
 also for conscience sake." Romans xiii., i, 2, 3. 
 
 Master : Friend, it is required of you that you avoid, dis- 
 countenance, and repudiate all Societies and Associations 
 which are composed of persons who seek to subvert the just 
 prerogative of the Crown,^'' the established rights of property," 
 and the conne(51:ion of these colonies with the United Kingdom 
 of Great Britain and Ireland.^® 
 
 Chaplain : " If sinners entice thee, consent thou not. If 
 they say. Come with us, let us lay wait for blood, let us lurk 
 privily for the innocent without cause ; we shall find all 
 precious substance, we shall fill our houses with spoil ; cast 
 in thy lot amongst us, let us all have one purse. My son, 
 walk not thou in the way with them ; refrain thy foot from 
 their path ; for their feet run to evil, and make haste to shed 
 blood." Prov. i., io-i5. 
 
 Master : Friend, it is required of you that you be true and 
 faithful to every brother Orangeman in all just acftions, and 
 never know him to be wronged without giving him due notice 
 thereof. And it is also required of you that, should you now or at 
 any future period he in the possession of the elei^oral franchise, you will 
 support by your vote and interest Orangis. and Protestant can- 
 didates ONLY, and in no wise refrain from voting, remembering otir 
 
 16 Orangemen and the prerogative of the Crown : see the Cumberland 
 conspiracy, chap. xv. 
 
 I'Orangemen and the rights of property, etc. : see pp. 71 sqq., 221 sqq., 
 268 ; cf. p. 162. 
 
 i^In Ireland the Orange party are, by their rules, pledged to maintain 
 the Legislative Union between Great Britain and Ireland, the policy of the 
 society in this, as in other matters, being didtated by the Grand Lodge 
 leaders. In 1799, when Home Rule meant what Orangemen understood 
 by the Protestant ascendency (see pp. 252-253) a large number of the Irish 
 lodges were strongly opposed to the Adt of Union of 1800. See Appendices 
 to Reports of Irish Parliamentary Committee of 1835, also Barry O'Brien's 
 Thomas Drummond, pp. 108-109. Mr. Bouverie-Pusey, a Protestant writer, 
 states in his Past History of Ireland (p. 119) that the majority of the Orange- 
 men were opposed to the Legislative Union. In 1869, after the passing of 
 the Disestablishment Bill, many of the Orange leaders, in disgust at British 
 " treachery," became for the nonce advocates of Home Rule. The Dublin 
 Grand Lodge, in its printed proceedings for 1869, agreed to the postpone- 
 ment of a motion by Brother Nunn, with the understanding that they 
 would, at a special meeting, " consider the subjedt of omitting the obliga- 
 tion to maintain the Legislative Union." Healy's Word for Ireland, p. 144. 
 Many extradls from Orange speakers and writers, all pointing the same 
 way, will be found in The Orange Bogey, by J. J. Clancy, MP., Irish Press 
 Agency, London, 1886. 
 
 403 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 motto : " He ivho is not with us is against ?«." " Your neglcdrting to 
 fulfil these conditions zmll render you liable to expulsion."" 
 
 Chaplain : " A new commandment I give unto you, that 
 you love one another." John xiii. 34. " And this command- 
 ment have we from Him, that he who loveth God, loveth his 
 brother also." I. John iv., 21. "I will not be ashamed to 
 defend a friend, neither will I hide myself from him ; and if 
 any evil happen unto me by him, every man that heareth it 
 will be aware of him." 
 
 Master : Friend, if it is not your determination to perform 
 the duty and fulfil the expectation that I have now laid before 
 you, you are at liberty to withdraw, rather than bring disgrace on 
 your proposer, dishonour and expulsion on yourself, discredit on the 
 Institution, and consequent injury to the cause we espouse. 
 Friend, what do you carry in your hand ? 
 
 Candidate : The Word of God. 
 
 Master : Under the assurance of your worthy Brothers 
 who introduced you, we will trust that you also carry it in 
 your own heart. What is that other Book ? 
 
 Candidate : The Book of Rules and Regulations. 
 
 Master : With the like assurance we will further trust that 
 you will study them well, and obey them in all lawful 
 matters. Therefore, we gladly receive you into our Institution. 
 Brethren, bring forward your friend. 
 
 {The candidate shall then he brought to the right hand of the 
 Master, when he shall kneel down and take the following obligation] .-^^ 
 
 I do solemnly and sincerely declare that I will be faithful 
 and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty the Queen Vicfloria ; 
 that I will to the utmost of my power support and maintain 
 the Protestant Religion and the succession to the Throne in 
 Her Majesty's illustrious house being Protestant,"^ and that I 
 will ever hold sacred the name of our glorious deliverer 
 WILLIAM THE THIRD, Prince of Orange ; that I am 
 not, nor never was, and never will be, a Roman Catholic, and 
 that I am not married to one, nor will I marry one, or willingly 
 permit any child of mine to marry one ;^^ that I am not, nor 
 
 i^'See note 15, supra, and pp. 132-139. 
 
 20The candidate takes this " obligation" on his knees, holding the Bible 
 in his hands. The EngHsh Parhamentary Committee stated that it has 
 " the apparent obligation of an oath." Seep. 115. Instances have been 
 given in which formal oaths were taken on initiation, although such oaths 
 are not, for evident reasons, provided for in the printed rituals. See pp. 
 111-112. A statement has been made to the writer that, at initiation, the 
 Orangeman receives diredlions couched in some such terms as the follow- 
 ing : " and, to make this obligation more binding, you will now kiss the 
 book." 
 
 21 See note 14, supra. 
 
 a^See pp. 85, 96-98, supra. 
 
 404 
 
RITUAL OF ORANGE DEGREE. 
 
 ever was, nor ever will become, a member of any treasonable 
 society or body of men who are enemies to the lawful Sove- 
 reign^'' or the Protestant religion, and that I never took oath 
 of secrecy to any treasonable society ; that I will, as far as in 
 me lies, assist magistrates and civil authorities of the colonies 
 'n the lawful execution of their duties, when called upon to do 
 so ;^^ that I will be true and faithful to every Brother Orange- 
 man in all just acftions, that I will not wrong, nor know him to 
 be wronged or injured, without giving him due notice thereof, 
 if in my power so to do ; and that / will not in any mmmer com- 
 municate or reveal, by word, adl, or deed, any of the proceedings of any 
 Brother Orangeman in Lodge assembled, nor any matter or thing 
 therein communicated to me, unless to a Brother Orangeman, well 
 knowing him to be such, or until I shall have been authorised so to do 
 by the Grand Lodge ;'^ that I have not, to my knowledge or 
 behef, been proposed in and rejedled by, nor suspended or 
 expelled from, any other Orange Lodge ;^'' and that I now 
 become an Orangeman without fear, bribery, or corruption, 
 steadfastly resolving, by God's help, to observe and abide by 
 ALL rules""'' made for the government of the Orange Institution 
 in Vicftoria. 
 
 Chaplain : " Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His 
 might. Put on the whole armour of God, that you may be 
 able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle, 
 not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against 
 powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against 
 spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you 
 
 23See notes 15, 16, supra. 
 
 ^^^See pp. 247-249, supra. 
 
 25The reader will note the sweeping charadter of this part of the 
 " solemn declaration" (or oath) which the Grand Lodge requires every 
 Orangeman to take on bended knees, holding the Bible in his hands. By 
 virtue of the wording of this " obligation," or oath, every member of the 
 Orange society binds himself as follows : that, even when examined in 
 courts of justice, etc., regarding lodge proceedings, he will either be guilty 
 of contempt of court by declining to give evidence, or will commit perjury, 
 unless the Grand Lodge graciously accords him, under seal, written per- 
 mission to tell the plain truth. See pp. 114, 120. Such permission is very 
 rarely granted. We have seen above (p. 115) that if, without such per- 
 mission, he gives true and faithful evidence on such matters, as any loyal 
 citizen should, he would, as the English Parliamentary Committee de- 
 clared, be expelled from the society. For instances of refusal to give 
 evidence on lodge matters, see Preface, and pp. 110-112, 115, 123-124. An 
 instance in which the Grand Lodge passed a vote of thanks to a recalcitrant 
 witness is given on pp. 108-109. Instances of prevarication by Orange 
 witnesses in high places will be found in chap, xv., 352-354. Cf. p. no. 
 
 •26See p. 129, supra. 
 
 ''''See p. 136, supra. 
 
 403 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 the whole armour of God, that you may be able to withstand 
 in the evil day." Ephcs. vi., 10-13. 
 
 Master : We receive thee, dear Brother, into the Religious 
 and Loyal Institution of Orangemen, trusting that thou wilt 
 abide a devoted servant of God, and a true believer in His Son 
 Jesus Christ, a faithful subjecSl: to our Queen, and supporter of 
 our Constitution. Keep thou firm in the Protestant faith, 
 holding its pure docftrine, and observing its holy precepts,^* 
 make thyself the friend of all pious and peaceful men, avoiding 
 strife, and seeking benevolence ; slow to take offence, and offering none, ^ 
 thereby, so far as in thee lieth, turning the injustice of our 
 adversaries into their own reproof and confusion. 
 
 \_Here the Master shall invest the newly made Brother with the 
 Insignia of the Order, and then raise him by the hand, which he will 
 hold while he repeats'] In the name of the Brotherhood, I bid 
 thee welcome, and pray that thou mayest long continue 
 amongst them a worthy Orangeman — namely, fearing God, 
 honouring the Queen and maintaining the Law. 
 
 OBLIGATIONS FOR OFFICERS. 
 
 I, A.B., do solemnly and sincerely declare — Master and 
 Deputy Master : That I am not now made a Master (or Deputy 
 Master) for any private emolument or advantage ; that I have 
 not a sitting in my house for which I hold a license to sell 
 beer, spirits, or any other intoxicating liquor ;^° that I will not 
 knowingly admit, or allow any person for me to admit, any- 
 one into the Society of Orangemen who was or is a Papist ;•" 
 that I will use my authority to keep proper behaviour and 
 sobriety in this lodge ; and that I will not certify for any 
 
 2*»See pp. 102-103 for someverdidls as to " the baneful and unchristian 
 influence" of the lodges. In this connexion it is a singular faifl that, 
 among a people living in pradlically the same conditions, the lodge-ridden 
 portions of Ulster are those which furnish the highest percentage of illegiti- 
 mate births. A Protestant writer, Mr. J. A. Fox, has the following remarks 
 on this subjedl : " Ulster, it is sad to tell, is primus amongst the Irish 
 provinces in immorality only ; Antrim, Armagh, Londonderry, Down, and 
 Tyrone counties being the plague spots of the most moral country in 
 Europe. These counties, the Pall Mall Gazette says, are the only ones 
 ' returning Orange members to the present Parliament,' and, somewhat 
 unkindly, adds : ' It seems that Orangeism and illegitimacy go together, 
 and that illegitimate children in Ireland are in proportion to Orange 
 lodges.' " (A Key to the Irish Question, p. 166. Kegan Paul : 1890). See 
 the Registrar-General's returns in the Census of 1S91 ; also Dr. Leffing- 
 well's work on Illegitimacy, pp. 26-28, 29, 153. (Swan Sonnenschein : 1892). 
 The rate of illegitimacy in Down is constantly almost ten times greater 
 than for Mayo {ibid., p. 28 1 . 
 
 2»The comment on these words will be found in chaps iv., viii., x., xi., 
 xiii., xiv. 
 
 soSee pp. 115-116. 
 
 siSee pp. 83 sqq., 106. 
 
 406 
 
TYLER'S RITUAL. 
 
 person without having first proved him, and being satisfied in 
 my conscience that he is a person of good characfter. 
 
 Secretary : That I will, to the utmost of my power, keep 
 safe the papers belonging to this Lodge, and that I will not 
 give any copy of the Articles, or lend them, to make an 
 Orangeman out of the Lodge I belong to,^^ or lend the Seal, 
 so that it may be affixed to any forged paper or irregular 
 Orangeman's Certificate. 
 
 Treasurer : That I will account for all money I have or may 
 receive for the use of this lodge, when called upon by the 
 Master of this Lodge. 
 
 Committee Men : That whenever I may be called upon to 
 a(ft, in the absence of the Master and Deputy Master, I will not 
 knowingly admit anyone into the Society of Orangemen who 
 was or is a Papist ; and that I will use my authority to keep 
 proper behaviour and sobriety in the Lodge. 
 
 TYLER'S RITUAL. 
 OBLIGATION. 
 
 I, A.B., do solemnly declare that I will be faithful to the 
 duties of my office, and / will not admit any person into the Lodge 
 without having first found him to he in possession of the Financial 
 Password,^^ or without sandtion of the W.M. of this Lodge. 
 
 DUTIES OF TYLERS. 
 
 The duty devolves on the D.M. in seeing that the Lodge is 
 properly tyled, who, when direcfted to do so by the W.M., 
 shall address the Tyler thus : Worthy Tyler, what is your duty 
 to this Lodge ? To which the Tyler shall reply thus : To 
 prevent the intrusion of improper persons into the Lodge, to 
 take the names and passwords from Brothers previous to 
 admitting them, and to obey the commands of the W.M. in 
 the admission of Brothers and Candidates for Membership into 
 the Lodge. 
 
 [Here follow an opening and a closing prayer. Neither of 
 them contains anything noteworthy, with, perhaps, the excep- 
 tion of the following petition from the closing prayer : " Take 
 away all hatred and prejudice, and whatsoever else may hinder 
 us from godly union and concord, and enable us to lead a quiet 
 and peaceful life in all godliness and honesty.] "^ 
 
 8*See note lo, supra and p. 119 
 
 ''^Secret signs, passwords, etc., see pp. 108-112, supra. 
 
 ''*Chaps. viii.-xiv form a safficient commentary on this invocation 
 
 407 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 Appendix C^ 
 
 RULES 
 
 OF THE 
 
 LOYAL ORANGE INSTITUTION OF. VICTOR! A. » 
 
 BASIS OF THE INSTITUTION. 
 
 The Orange Institution, so named in honor of King William, 
 Prince of Orange, is composed of Protestants resolved to 
 support and defend to the utmost of their power the Protestant 
 religion, the laws of the colony, the rightful Sovereign, being 
 Protestant, and to maintain the connection of this colony with 
 Great Britain and Ireland. It is exclusively an association of 
 those who are attached to the religion of the Reformation, and 
 will not admit into its Brotherhood persons whom an intolerant 
 spirit leads to persecute, injure, or upbraid any man on account 
 of his religious opinions. 
 
 GENERAL QUALIFICATIONS. 
 
 The Master and Members of any Lodge in which a Candi- 
 date is proposed, must satisfy themselves, previous to his 
 admission, that he possesses the following qualifications : 
 
 An Orangeman should have a sincere love and veneration 
 for the Triune God — the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit ; an 
 humble and steadfast faith in Jesus Christ, the Saviour of 
 mankind, believing him to be God and man, and the only 
 Mediator between God and man. He should cultivate truth 
 and justice, brotherly kindness, charity, devotion, piety, 
 concord, unity, and obedience to the laws ; his deportment 
 should be gentle, compassionate, kind, and courteous; he 
 should cultivate the society of the virtuous, and avoid the 
 company of the evil ; he should honor and diligently read the 
 Holy Scriptures, and make them the rule of his faith and 
 pracSlice ; he should love, uphold, and defend the Protestant 
 Religion, and sincerely desire and endeavour to propagate its 
 docSlrines and precepts; he should strenuously oppose the fatal 
 errors and docflrines of the Church of Rome, and scrupulously 
 
 iThe full title of the pamphlet is given on p. 85, supra, note 4. The 
 original rules have very few pundtuation marks. The ordinary system of 
 pundtuation, which was carried out in the rules of 1878, 1885, and 
 1891, is introduced here for the reader's convenience, care being taken that 
 in no case the sense of any rule, or part of any rule, is thereby altered. 
 
 408 
 
RULES. 
 
 avoid countenancing, by his presence or otherwise, any acft or 
 ceremony of Roman Catholic worship ; he should by all lawful 
 means resist the ascendency of that Church, its encroachments, 
 and the extension of its power, ever abstaining from all un- 
 charitable words, ac5tions, or sentiments towards its adherents; 
 he should remember to keep holy the Sabbath Day and attend 
 the public worship of God, and diligently train up his offspring, 
 and all under his control, in the fear of God and in the Pro- 
 testant faith ; he should never take the name of God in vain, 
 but abstain from all profane language, and use every oppor- 
 tunity of discouraging these and all other sinful pra(5fices in 
 others; his condudl: should be guided by wisdom and prudence 
 and marked by honesty, temperance and sobriety. The glory 
 of God, the welfare of man, the honour of his Sovereign, and 
 the good of his country, should be the motives of his a(5lions. 
 
 ADMISSION OF MEMBERS. 
 
 I. The admission of members shall be by ballot, one black 
 ball in seven to exclude. No candidate shall be balloted for 
 without having been regularly proposed and seconded in open 
 Lodge at least one month previous to such ballot. No candi- 
 date who has been rejec'led can be re-balloted for in any Lodge, 
 until after the expiration of twelve months from the date of 
 such reje(5lion, and then only by the special permission of the 
 Grand Lodge. Any person who has been rejecfted by one 
 Lodge and has obtained admission into another without 
 informing the members of the facft, shall on proof thereof be 
 expelled the Institution. 
 
 ROMAN CATHOLICS, PERSONS WHO HAVE BEEN, 
 
 2. No person who has at any time been a Roman Catholic, 
 or has married one, shall be admitted into the Institution, 
 except by the vote of the Grand Lodge (one vote in seven to 
 exclude), founded upon testimonials of good characfter, and a 
 certificate of his having been duly elecfted by ballot (pursuant 
 to Rule i) in the Lodge in which he is proposed, such certifi- 
 cate to be sent to the Grand Secretary. Any member marry- 
 ing a Roman Catholic shall be expelled. 
 
 INITIATION FEE, SUBSCRIPTIONS, SUSPENSIONS. 
 
 3. Each member shall, previous to his admission into the 
 Orange Institution, pay a sum of five shillings for the Orange 
 Degree, and he shall pay such monthly subscriptions as the 
 Lodge may require. Any member failing therein for six 
 months shall be considered unfinancial, and shall be liable tc 
 suspension for a term not exceeding nine months, and, if all 
 the subscriptions be not paid within that period, to a further 
 
 409 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 suspension not exceeding two years, and then, unless pay- 
 ment be made to the satisfa61ion of the Lodge, he shall be 
 expelled, provided that the member suspended under this law 
 shall have been served with a notice, by letter, to his last 
 known address, to attend and show cause why he should not 
 be so dealt with. Should any member desire to take the 
 Purple Degree, he shall give notice to the Secretary of his 
 Lodge, who shall duly propose him, and, if accepted, the 
 candidate shall pay the sum of ten shillings for such Degree 
 previous to his admission. 
 
 REJECTIONS. 
 
 4. The rejedlion of any rejoining member, or of any candi- 
 date, shall be reported to the Grand Secretary, and when con- 
 firmed by the Grand Lodge, shall be inserted in the next 
 Grand Lodge Report, and the consent of the Grand Lodge 
 must be obtained before he can be admitted into any Lodge; 
 and a rejoining member shall take the same obligation as a 
 candidate. 
 
 REJOINING MEMBERS. 
 
 5. Any member of the Institution the Warrant of whose 
 Lodge has been surrendered or cancelled, may, with the con- 
 sent of the Grand Lodge, be received as a rejoining member 
 by any other Lodge, on the payment of two shillings and 
 sixpence ; a ballot to be taken for his admission. 
 
 SUSPENDED MEMBERS REJOINING. 
 
 6. A member notified as being suspended for non-payment 
 of dues, and the same appearing in the Annual Report, shall 
 not be received into his Lodge until the sum of six shillings 
 has been paid. 
 
 MEMBERS TO BELONG TO PRIVATE LODGE; TO BE FINANCIAL; 
 FOUNDATION MEMBERS OF NEW LODGES. 
 
 7. Every member of the Institution shall belong to a 
 Private Lodge, and may also, on payment of 5s. a year, be an 
 affiliated member of another Lodge, with all the privileges of 
 membership, except those voting for, or becoming a delegate 
 to, the Grand Lodge. For the establishment of a new Lodge, 
 he may become a Foundation Member of the same for a period 
 of 12 months, and, should he desire to remain a member 
 thereof, he shall draw his clearance from his old Lodge. No 
 one who is not a financial member of a Lodge shall take any 
 part in the business thereof, or hold any office therein. 
 
 RE-BALLOT, GRAND LODGE CAN ORDER. 
 
 8. In order to guard the Institution against the possibility 
 
 410 
 
RULES. 
 
 of improper persons continuing members thereof, it shall be 
 competent for the Grand Lodge, upon the application of a 
 Private Lodge, to order a re-ballot for any member or members 
 thereof; and should it be deemed expedient that all or any 
 members of the Institution should undergo a new ballot, a re- 
 ballot shall be taken in such a manner as the Grand Lodge 
 shall prescribe. Any member being rejecfled can only be re- 
 admitted into the Institution with the sandtion of the Grand 
 Lodge, after notice to the Lodge by which such member was 
 rejedled. 
 
 RESIGNATIONS. 
 
 9. After a member has resigned membership, he shall not 
 be permitted to rejoin the Institution unless approved of by 
 the Lodge from which he has resigned, and sandtioned by the 
 Grand Lodge. 
 
 COMPLAINTS AGAINST MEMBERS. 
 
 10. Complaints or charges against members must in the 
 first place be dealt with in their Private Lodges, or by the 
 committee thereof, and confirmed ^by the Lodge, unless such 
 cases as the Grand Lodge shall see fit to have tried otherwise; 
 and ten days previously the charge must be furnished in 
 writing to the member complained of, and to the Secretary of 
 the Lodge in which the case is to be tried. 
 
 TRIALS. 
 
 11. Before entering upon the trial or investigation of any 
 charge against a Lodge, the warrant of such Lodge shall be 
 deposited in the custody of the officer presiding at such trial 
 or investigation. 
 
 LODGES REFUSING TO TRY. 
 
 12. In case any Private Lodge neglecf^ or refuse to try and 
 decide any charge or complaint that may be preferred against 
 any member thereof, such member shall be summoned before 
 the Lodge to which the aggrieved member belongs, which 
 Lodge shall have the power to try and decide thereon, subje(51 
 to the appeal to the Grand Lodge. 
 
 BREACH OF LAWS. 
 
 13. In case of miscondu(51: in a Lodge, or any breach of the 
 Laws of the Instiiution, or any a(51:ion inconsistent with the 
 principles of the Institution, the punishment shall be suspen- 
 sion, not exceeding a period of seven years. 
 
 OFFENCES. 
 
 14. Any member guilty of an ofTence of an aggravated 
 
 411 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 characfter against religion or morality, or of habitual drunken- 
 ness, shall be liable to expulsion. 
 
 APPEALS. 
 
 15. Any one* who may feel aggrieved at the decision of any 
 Lodge officer of a Lodge or Committee, shall have the power 
 of appealing to the next highest jurisdiction; but in any case 
 where a fine has been inflicfled, such fine must be first fully 
 paid, and, in the event of the appeal being sustained, it shallbe 
 returned to the party paying it. In all cases of appeal to the 
 Grand Lodge, the sum of one guinea shall be deposited with 
 the Grand Secretary; also two written notices of the grounds 
 of appeal, one of which notices shall be forwarded by the 
 Grand Secretary to the party or parties whose decision has 
 been appealed against, three days before the hearing of such 
 appeal; and the party or parties so appealed against shall 
 thereupon produce all evidence taken before them in the case 
 to the body trying such appeal. The one guinea so deposited 
 shall be dealt with as the body adjudicating the case may deem 
 fit. 
 
 CANDIDATES FOR PURPLE DEGREE, WHEN ELIGIBLE. 
 
 16. No candidate shall be eligible to receive the Purple 
 Degree without the consent of his Lodge, after attending six 
 monthly meetings, except by the permission of the Grand 
 Lodge. 
 
 LODGES NOT TO BE HELD IN HOTELS. 
 
 17. No Lodge shall be held in a Hotel, unless a suitable 
 room cannot be obtained elsewhere, and then only with the 
 approval of the Grand Lodge. 
 
 DOCUMENTS, ETC 
 
 18. All documents necessary to the working of the Institu- 
 tion, including rule-books, rituals, warrants, certificates, and 
 all other forms, shall be printed exclusively under the direcStions 
 of the Grand Lodge; and no Private Lodge or member shall 
 present to any person or body, or publish or print any address 
 or other documents, or be a party to any a.6\, which may in 
 any way involve the Institution, or any members thereof as 
 such, without the san(51;ion of the Grand Lodge. Any member 
 violating this rule shall be liable to expulsion. 
 
 BOOKS OPEN FOR INSPECTION. . 
 
 ig. The books and documents of all Lodges of the Insti- 
 tution shall be open at all reasonable times tc the inspedtion of 
 its members, the Grand Lodge officers, and persons properly 
 authorised on behalf of the Government of the country. 
 
 412 
 
RULES. 
 
 RETURNS, LODGES TO FURNISH SAME. 
 
 20. Any Private Lodge neglecfting to furnish such returns, 
 or to pay such dues, as may be required by the Grand Lodge, 
 seven days at least before the meeting of the Grand Lodge in 
 November, shall be liable to pay a fine of ten shillings ; and 
 the representatives of such Lodge shall be disqualified from 
 sitting in the Grand Lodge, except on payment of the dues 
 and fine, and on the vote of the Grand Lodge. 
 
 NAME OF LODGES. 
 
 21. No Lodge shall assume any distincftive title or name, 
 without the permission of the Grand Lodge. 
 
 EMBLEMS TO BE WORN. 
 
 22. At all meetings of the Grand Lodge or Private Lodges, 
 members shall wear nppropriate emblems of the order or 
 degree they have received ; but in no case shall they be 
 permitted to wear any colour or emblem which has not been 
 duly conferred on them by the authority of the Orange 
 Institution ; and those of the Orange degree shall wear the 
 Orange colour only, which shall be provided by the Lodge. 
 
 BUSINESS TRANSACTED WlilLE LODGE IS OPEN. 
 
 23. No business shall be transacted except while the Lodge 
 is regularly open, and no refreshments shall be permitted 
 during that period. 
 
 DECISIONS OF MAJORITY, ETC, 
 
 24. In all meetings of Lodges and Committees, the 
 decision of the majority of qualified members present shall be 
 binding on the minority, and upon all members and Lodges 
 subordinate thereto ; and besides his ordinary vote as a 
 member, the presiding officer or Chairman shall, in every case 
 of an equality of votes, be entitled to a second or casting vote. 
 Any member voting in the minority shall be privileged to call 
 for a division. 
 
 CELEBRATIONS. 
 
 25. In order to commemorate God's gracious deliverance 
 of the Protestant Parliament from the intended massacre by 
 gunpowder, and the happy arrival on that day of His Majesty 
 King William III. for the deliverance of the nation, the 
 members shall celebrate the 5th of November. They shall in 
 like manner commemorate the anniversary of the Battle of the 
 Boyne on the 12th July. 
 
 warrants ETC, PROPERTY OF GRAND LODGE. 
 
 26. All Warrants, Seals, and Rituals, issued to Lodges, 
 are the property of the Grand Lodge, which has the power of 
 
 413 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 cancelling, suspending, or withdrawing any Warrant as it may 
 see fit, and of again issuing the same to any other Lodge ; but 
 on all such re-issues of Warrants, the charge shall be los. 6d.; 
 and the Grand Master shall have full power to suspend, take, 
 or authorise possession to be taken of, any warrant, subjedl 
 to appeal to the Grand Lodge ; and every Warrant while so 
 cancelled, suspended, or withdrawn, shall be wholly void and 
 inoperative, and every member who shall knowingly use, or 
 a6l upon, or sit under, any such Warrant during such period, 
 shall be suspended for a term not exceeding two years. 
 
 LODGES TO BE HELD UNDER WARRANT. 
 
 27. No Lodge shall be held without the authority of a 
 Warrant, under the seal of the Grand Lodge of Vicfloria, 
 signed by the G.M., D.G.M., Grand Secretary, and Grand 
 Treasurer ; and all Warrants shall be held by the Officers for 
 the time being of the Lodge, in trust, subjecft to the Laws of 
 the Institution. 
 
 WARRANTS NOT TO BE REMOVED. 
 
 28. No Warrant, Seal, or Ritual, shall be bought, sold, or 
 removed from the distriiSt for which it was granted, without 
 the authority of the Grand Lodge ; and any member buying, 
 selling, or removing, any warrant, shall be suspended for any 
 term not exceeding twelve months, and then, unless he shall 
 have surrendered such Warrant, Seal, or Ritual to the Grand 
 Secretary, he may be expelled. 
 
 PROPERTY OF LODGES. 
 
 29. All goods, books, money, chattels, and effecfls of any 
 Lodge shall be placed in the custody of the officers, who shall 
 be accountable for the same ; and if any member damage, 
 destroy, or take away the Warrant, regalia, money, deeds, or 
 other property of the Lodge, he shall be expelled, or otherwise 
 punished, as the Lodge may determine. 
 
 SPECIAL MEETINGS. 
 
 30. Lodges shall hold special meetings when requested by 
 the Grand Lodge, and shall consider and deal with such 
 business as may be required of them. 
 
 MAKING AND ALTERATION OF LAWS. 
 
 31. The Grand Lodge shall have the power of making such 
 alterations in, and additions to, the Laws, as may from time 
 to time be found necessary, six months' notice of the proposed 
 alteration being first given ; but no Law of the Institution, or 
 resolution of the Grand Lodge, which, in the opinion of the 
 Chairman for the time being, has the effedl: of a Law, shall be 
 
 414 
 
RULES. 
 
 altered or rescinded without such notice, and two-thirds of the 
 members present concurring in such alterations. 
 
 GRAND LODGE. 
 CONSTITUTION OF GRAND LODGE. 
 
 32. The affairs of the Institution shall be managed by the 
 Grand Lodge, which shall consist of the Grand Master, 
 Immediate Past Grand Master, seven Deputy Grand Masters, 
 Grand Chaplain, Grand Secretary, Grand Treasurer, nine 
 members of Grand Committee, and the Managing Committee 
 of the Melbourne Protestant Hall, together with the Represen- 
 tatives of the Private Lodges ele(5t:ed from the Purple Members 
 thereof in the ratio of one for each twenty-five members or 
 portion thereof. 
 
 DEPUTY GRAND MASTERS. 
 
 33. The seven Deputy Grand Masters mentioned in Rule 
 No. 32 shall be appointed for the following distriifts and shall 
 be members of Lodges within such distridls, viz.: (i) Mel- 
 bourne and Metropolitan Distridl: ; (2) Ballarat and Western 
 Districft ; (3) Castlemaine, Sandhurst, and Northern Districft ; 
 (4) North-Eastern Districl ; (5) Geelong and South-Western 
 Districft ; (6) Gippsland Distri(ft ; (7) Wimmera DistricSl:. 
 
 PROTESTANT HALL COMMITTEE. 
 
 34. The Grand Lodge shall, immediately after the elecftion 
 of Grand Officers, proceed to ele(ft seven members to adl; as a 
 Managing Committee for the Melbourne Protestant Hall, and 
 the revenue accruing therefrom, such Committee to render a 
 report and account of all their proceedings and transactions to 
 the Grand Lodge at its November meeting. 
 
 GRAND COMMITTEE, DUTIES OF. 
 
 35. To the Grand Committee, of which the Grand Master, 
 Deputy Grand Masters, Grand Chaplain, Grand Secretary, and 
 Grand Treasurer, are ex-officio members, is delegated all the 
 authority of the Grand Lodge during the intervals between its 
 meetings, except the power of altering or rescinding any of its 
 resolutions, or making any alteration in the Constitution and 
 Laws of the Institution. This Committee shall prepare and 
 arrange the business to be brought before the Grand Lodge 
 from time to time, watch over its interests during such intervals, 
 and carry into effecft such objecfts and purposes, in stridl accord- 
 ance with the Rules, reporting all its proceedings to each 
 meeting of the Grand Lodge for confirmation. It shall meet 
 once each month at the Protestant Hall, Melbourne, or when 
 
 415 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 and where summoned by the Grand Secretary or Chairman, 
 seven days' notice being previously given. 
 
 MEETINGS OF GRAND LODGE. 
 
 36. The Grand Lodge shall have not less than two regular 
 meetings in each year, viz. : May and November, and each 
 meeting shall be held at such place as shall be decided by the 
 preceding meeting. 
 
 BUSINESS OF GRAND LODGE. 
 
 37. At each meeting of the Grand Lodge, the Grand 
 Secretary shall first read and place on record the credentials 
 of all delegates entitled to take their seats in the Grand Lodge. 
 They shall then hear and determine all appeals, and confirm or 
 rejedt, as the case may be, all the returns from the Private 
 Lodges, and at the November meeting shall eletfl, from the 
 members of the Purple Order entitled to be present, the Grand 
 Officers and Committees for the ensuing year, such elec5tion to 
 be by ballot, with a majority of the members present, and 
 those eledted shall be installed before the closing of such 
 meeting. 
 
 SPECIAL MEETING OF GRAND LODGE. 
 
 38. The Grand Master, or, in his absence, one of the 
 Deputy Grand Masters, may, on his own authority, or shall, 
 on receipt of a requisition signed by ten members eligible to 
 sit in the Grand Lodge, call a special meeting thereof, and 
 such special meeting of the Grand Lodge shall have the right 
 to exercise all the powers of a regular meeting. 
 
 NOTICE OF SPECIAL MEETINGS. 
 
 39. No special meeting of the Grand Lodge shall be held 
 without fourteen days' notice of the business which is to come 
 before it having been first given to all its members ; and in 
 order to constitute such meetings, 30 members must be present. 
 All notices to be inserted in the business sheet of the annual 
 meeting must be deposited with the Grand Secretary sixty 
 clear days prior to Grand Lodge meeting. 
 
 VISITORS. 
 
 40. The Grand Lodge shall have power of admitting to its 
 meetings visitors who are duly vouched for financial members 
 of the Purple Degree. 
 
 TRUSTEES, REAL PROPERTY TO BE VESTED IN. 
 
 41. All the real property of the Institution shall be vested 
 in five Trustees, members of the Institution, appointed by, 
 and holding office during the pleasure of, the Grand Lodge, 
 
 416 
 
RULES. 
 
 subjecTt: to the provisions of Part 3 of the Trusts A6t, 1S90, 
 under which the Trust shall be duly registered. 
 
 TRUSTEES ABSENT FROM VICTORIA. 
 
 42. A Trustee absent from Vi(5loria for the space of twelve 
 months shall be deemed to have resigned office as Trustee, and 
 the vacancy shall be filled by the Grand Lodge. 
 
 TRUSTEES AND OTHER PROPERTY. 
 
 43. All the other property of the Institution, and that of 
 any Private Lodge passing a special resolution to that effecft, 
 shall be vested in three Trustees, members of the Institudon, 
 who shall be elecfled and shall remain in office during the 
 p.leasure of the Grand Lodge ; and such Trustees are hereby 
 empowered to sue for and recover, and to hold and apply the 
 same to the use of the Lodge or Lodges to which the same 
 may belong. 
 
 TRUSTEES SUBJECT TO CONTROL. 
 
 44. The Trustees shall hold the real property and effecfls 
 invested in them subjecft to the direcftion and control of the 
 Grand or Private Lodge entitled thereto, as declared by reso- 
 lution passed by such Lodges respedliively from time to time, 
 and shall in all respects deal with and dispose thereof in 
 accordance with such resolution. 
 
 LEVY. 
 
 45. The annual Grand Lodge levy shall be fixed at each 
 November meeting for every member financial on the books 
 of the Institution, and shall be payable to the Grand Secretary 
 half-yearly on the ist of March and the ist day of September; 
 and no delegate of any Lodge shall have the privilege of a 
 member of the Grand Lodge until his Lodge shall have paid 
 such levy. 
 
 REPORTS. 
 
 46. The Grand Lodge shall, within one month after its 
 November meeting, issue a report of all its proceedings, and 
 furnish copies to the members of the Institution, through the 
 Secretaries of the private Lodges, such report to specify the 
 name and numbers of the lodges, and names of all persons 
 who may have resigned, been rejedled, suspended, or expelled, 
 giving the reason for such rejecftion, suspension, or expulsion, 
 and period of such suspension, as the case may be. 
 
 ACCOUNTS TO BE AUDITED. 
 
 47. The accounts of the Grand Treasurer and Grand 
 Secretary shall be audited, and a balance-sheet duly vouched 
 shall be presented to the Grand Lodge meetings held in May 
 
 + 17 AI 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 and November of each year, and entered in detail in published 
 report ; and in no case shall any officer retain more than £iq 
 in his possession, the surplus to be vested in the names of the 
 three Trustees of the Institution. 
 
 GRAND TREASURER, DUTIES OF. 
 
 48. The Grand Treasurer shall receive all moneys from the 
 Grand Secretary, on behalf of the Institution. He shall not 
 incur any liabilities, or contracfl any debt, or pay any moneys, 
 without the authority of the Grand Lodge. 
 
 GRAND SECRETARY, DUTIES OF. 
 
 49. The Grand Secretary shall be Secretary to the Com- 
 mittees and Trustees appointed by the Grand Lodge. He 
 shall receive all moneys of the Institution, and of the 
 Protestant Hall, Melbourne, and hand them to the Treasurer 
 entitled thereto, within fourteen days of the date he receives 
 them. He shall also keep the books, and transact the 
 business, of the Grand Lodge, and be the custodian of the 
 seal of the Grand Lodge, and of all its books and papers. He 
 shall produce all or any of such, when required by the Grand 
 Master, or, in his absence, the Deputy Grand Master, or the 
 Grand Lodge, or Grand Committee, and furnish all private 
 Lodges with a business sheet at least thirty-five days before 
 the regular Grand Lodge meetings. His address shall be the 
 Protestant Hall, Melbourne. 
 
 WARRANTS, APPLICATIONS FOR. 
 
 50. On the application to the Grand Secretary for a War- 
 rant to form a new Lodge, he shall enquire as to the suitability 
 of the place of meeting, and report thereon to the Grand Com- 
 mittee. No application for a Warrant shall be entertained 
 unless in writing, signed by not less than five members, three 
 at least of the Purple Degree, stating the names of the pro- 
 posed officers, the place and time of meeting, accompanied 
 with the sum of one guinea to pay for the Warrant. To form 
 a quorum, not less than five members shall be present, three 
 to be of the Purple Degree. The Grand Master, with the 
 Grand Secretary, may issue under seal a dispensation to form 
 a Lodge until the next meeting of the Grand Committee. 
 
 GRAND LODGE OFFICERS MEMBERS OF PRIVATE LODGES. 
 
 51. All elecftive officers of the Grand Lodge are ex officio 
 members of all Private Lodges, and are entitled to preside 
 therein, and vote on all subjecfts, save and except the distribu- 
 tion of funds, the eledtion of officers, and the formation of by- 
 laws. 
 
 418 
 
RULES. 
 
 GRAND LODGE, OFFENCES BY MEMBERS OF. 
 
 52. Any offence committed by one member of tke Grand 
 Lodge against another in the Grand Lodge, or in the Grand 
 Committee, shall be tried and determined by the Grand Lodge. 
 
 PRIVATE LODGE. 
 MEETINGS, NOTICE OF. 
 
 53. Every Lodge shall meet once a month, and the Master 
 of each Lodge shall give, or cause to be given, notice of every 
 quarterly meeting to each member ; and any Master neglecfting 
 to regularly convene his Lodge shall be liable to suspension. 
 
 ELECTION OF OFFICERS. 
 
 54. Each Private Lodge shall, at its Ocftober meeting, 
 eledl a Master, Deputy Master, Secretary, Treasurer, and 
 Chaplain, Inner Guard, Outside Tyfer, and five Committee 
 men. Members so selecfted shall be of the Purple Degree, and 
 shall be installed if confirmed by the Grand Degree at the 
 meeting diredlly following the Grand Lodge meeting. No 
 member shall be eligible for office until qualified to give the 
 Orange degree. 
 
 MASTER, DUTIES OF. 
 
 55. The Master, or, in his absence, the Deputy Master, 
 Past Master, or any officer of the Lodge, shall preside, and be 
 responsible for the proper discipline and corredl management 
 of the business of the Lodge. The Master shall also be 
 answerable to the Grand Lodge for the correcfl: keeping of the 
 books, and the safe custody of the funds, during his term of 
 office. 
 
 OFFICERS ABSENT FROM DUTIES. 
 
 56. Any officer of a Private Lodge absent from three 
 consecutive monthly meetings, shall be deemed to have vacated 
 his office, unless the Lodge shall pass a resolution to the 
 contrary, and any vacancy may be forthwith filled by the 
 Lodge, subjecft to confirmation by the Grand Lodge. 
 
 COMMITTEE, DUTIES OF. 
 
 57. The duties of the Committee of a Private Lodge shall 
 be, to enquire and report as to the characfter of candidates, to 
 examine and determine all matters referred to them, and to 
 report their decision to the Lodge for confirmation. 
 
 SECRETARY AND TREASURER, DUTIES OF. 
 
 58. The Secretary shall keep the minutes, collecfl all dues, 
 condudl: the correspondence of the Lodge, and shall enter the 
 names of members, with the office which any may hold, and 
 
 419 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 the date of elecflion or appointment, in a book to be kept for 
 the purpose, and make a return yearly to the Grand Secretary, 
 within the prescribed time, of the names and residences of 
 the several members, and all persons who have resigned, been 
 reje(fted, suspended or expelled, with the reasons for such 
 reje(51:ion, suspension, or expulsion, together with the time and 
 place of meeting of the Lodge, signed by the Master, and 
 bearing the seal. The Treasurer shall receive all money from 
 the Secretary, and pay the same into such bank as the Lodge 
 may decide on. All payments shall be made through such 
 officers, and in such manner, as the Lodge may diredl. 
 
 PROPOSITION OF CANDIDATES. 
 
 5g. No candidate shall be admitted except according to 
 Rule I, nor until the proposer and seconder have certified that 
 he is a Protestant of known loyalty, above eighteen years of 
 age, and not married to a Roman Catholic ; and before the 
 admission of a Candidate, the proposer shall satisfy the Lodge 
 that he has placed a copy of the Laws of the Orange Institu- 
 tion in his hands, or otherwise made him acquainted with the 
 qualifications necessary for him to become a member of the 
 Orange Institution, and that he approves of the same. 
 
 CLEARANCES. 
 
 60. Any financial member desiring to join another Lodge, 
 shall be entitled to a certificate of membership ,to be forwarded 
 to the Lodge he wishes to join, if in the Australian colonies, 
 signed by the Master and Secretary, under the seal of the 
 Lodge, for which he shall pay 2s. 6d.; but if the member has 
 deposited a certificate in the Lodge when joining it, he shall 
 receive the same gratis, endorsed by the Master and Secretary, 
 under the seal of the said Lodge ; and no certificate shall be 
 refused except for improper conducft. Every resigning member 
 shall receive a certificate, signed by the Master and Secretary, 
 that he is financial to date of resignation. 
 
 CLEARANCES, LODGES REFUSING. 
 
 61. Should any Lodge refuse a certificate or clearance 
 without sufficent cause, the Grand Lodge may, on appeal, 
 grant it ; and should any Lodge grant a certificate to a person 
 not entitled to it, such Lodge shall be liable to suspension. 
 The clearance of any member who is refused admission into 
 another Lodge, shall be forthwith returned to the Lodge 
 issuing the same. 
 
 LODGES, POWER TO TRY CHARGES. 
 
 62. Every Lodge shall have power to try any charge 
 
 420 
 
RULES. 
 
 ai^ainst any of its members, and to adjudicate thereon, and of 
 suspending or expelling such members proved to have violated 
 any of the rules or principles of the Institution ; such suspen- 
 sion or expulsion to take effecft from the time when pronounced, 
 so as to exclude such members from every Private Lodge, but 
 not from the Institution until confirmed by the Grand Lodge. 
 
 LODGE SEALS. 
 
 63. All Private Lodges shall procure their Lodge Seals 
 through the Grand Lodge, and all communications from any 
 Lodge shall have the seal affixed. 
 
 SEAL NOT TO BE AFFIXED TO DOCUMENTS, ETC. 
 
 64. No Secretary of a Lodge shall affix the Seal to any 
 letter or document calculated to injure a brother, unless the 
 same has been approved of at a Lodge meeting, 
 
 MEMBER OUT OF DISTRICT. 
 
 65. Any member residing more than five miles from a 
 Lodge-room, shall be entitled, on application, to have half of 
 his dues remitted. 
 
 SUBSCRIPTIONS, LODGES NOT TO SOLICIT WITHOUT CONSENT. 
 
 66. No Private Lodge shall solicit subscriptions from any 
 other Private Lodge, or member thereof, without the san(5tion 
 of the Grand Lodge. 
 
 DEGREES CONFERRED UNDER WARRANT. 
 
 67. The two degrees of the Institution, the Orange and the 
 Purple, shall be conferred in each Lodge under the authority 
 of its Warrant ; but the Purple shall not be given by any 
 member who is not authorised by Certificate of the Grand 
 Lodge ; and such Certificate shall be issued to qualified 
 persons, and shall remain in force for the current year only. 
 
 BY-LAWS. 
 
 68. All Lodges shall have the power of making and altering 
 such by-laws for their own government as are not inconsistent 
 with the laws of the Institution, such by-laws and alterations 
 to be confirmed by the Grand Lodge, and a copy deposited 
 with the Grand Secretary. 
 
 [Next follow the usual rules of order and debate, the 
 method of taking the vote, and the order of business at Grand, 
 Districfl, and Private Lodge meetings.] 
 
 4-21 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 Index of Authorities 
 
 REFERRED TO IN THE COURSE OF THIS VOLUME. 
 
 N.B. — The bracketed Jigures ivhich follow the title of the 
 hook, etc., indicate the number of distindt passages of the 
 authority in question which have been quoted, or to which 
 the reader has been referred. 
 
 GOVERNMENT PUBLI- Reports of the two Parliamen- 
 
 CATIONS. tary Selea Committees of 
 
 Adls of Parliament (82). Inquiry into the Orange 
 
 Parliamentary Debates, Journals, society m 1835 (287). 
 
 etc., (60).^ Report of SelecSl Committee of 
 
 iThese passages include quotations from, or references to, speeches, 
 etc., by the following Protestant members : 
 
 Earl Derby and Lord John Russell, Prime Ministers ; Mr. Chichester 
 Fortescue, Mr. Stanley, and Mr. Trevelyan, Chief Secretaries for Ireland ; 
 Baron Dowse, Attorney-General for Ireland ; Mr. Hume; and the follow- 
 ing Orange or philo-Orange members : Viscount Crichton, Lord Claude 
 Hamilton, Mr. W. Johnston, Mr. Saunderson, Mr. Verner. The only 
 Catholic members whose speeches or questions have been drawn on are 
 Mr. Callan, Mr. Finn, and Mr. McCarthy Downing. References have 
 been given from other sources to the Parliamentary utterances of the 
 following Protestant members : Mr. Grattan, Mr. Canning, Mr. Vandeleur, 
 Dr. Brown, the Knight of Kerry, Mr. \V. Smith, Mr. W. Wynne, Lord 
 William Russell, Lord Clare, Lord Arthur Wellesley, Sir Laurence 
 Parsons, Sir John Newport, Sir Henry Parneli, and three Orange mem- 
 bers of the Irish Parliament, namely, Mr. J. C. Beresford, Dr. Duigenan, 
 and Mr. T. Verner. 
 
 -The passages referred to include some 37 expressions of opinion by 
 the Parliamentary Committee (English) in condemnation of the Orange 
 society. The Minutes of Evidence contain the testimony of the following 
 Protestant witnesses : 
 
 Mr. Richardson Bell, J. P. (4), the Earl of Caledon {5), Captain W. S. 
 Crawford, M.P. (2), Mr. James Christie (27), Rev. Mr. Donaldson, Captain 
 Duff (5), Lord Gosford (3), Mr. J. Gore, J. P., Mr. Handcock. J. P. (7), Mr. 
 McConnell, Captain Patton, Mr. Randall, J. P., Mr. Sinclair, J. P. (10), 
 Constable Stratton (5), Inspedor-General Stoven (16), and others. Evidence 
 is also included in the above-mentioned figures from the following leaders 
 of the Orange society : Assistant Grand Secretary Stewart Blacker, D.G.M., 
 Col. Blacker (24), D.G.S. Fairman (23), Rev. Holt Waring (2), Grand 
 Chaplain Mortimer O'Sullivan (7), D.G.M. Randall Plunkett (2), Deputy 
 Grand Secretary Swan (3), Colonel Verner (6). The only Catholic witnesses 
 whose evidence is referred to are Mr. Kernan (7) and (I think) Dr. Mullen (2). 
 For the constitution of the Irish Parliamentary Committee see pp. 45-46, 
 
 422 
 
INDEX OF AUTHORITIES. 
 
 and 
 
 Me- 
 and 
 
 House of Lords, 1839, to 
 
 inquire into the State of 
 
 Ireland with respecfl to 
 
 Crime (5). 
 Report of Selecft Committee of 
 
 House of Lords, 1852, on 
 
 Outrages in Ireland (22). 
 Report of Parliamentary Selecft 
 
 Committee on the Belfast 
 
 Corporation, Lunatic Asylums, 
 
 etc., Bill of 1892 (7). 
 Report oi Parliamentary Seledl: 
 
 Committee on the Belfast 
 
 Corporation Bill of 1 896 (18). 
 Report of Parliamentary Selecft 
 
 Committee on the London- 
 derry Improvement Bill of 1 896 
 
 (4). 
 Reports, etc., of Commissioner 
 
 Berwick and others on the 
 
 disturbances at Dolly's Brae 
 
 in 1849 (9). 
 Reports of Royal Commissions 
 
 of Inquiry into the disturb- 
 
 ancesat Belfast in 1857 (69)-* 
 Ditto, 1864(1). 
 Ditto, 1886(24). 
 Reports of Royal Commissions 
 
 of Inquiry into the disturb- 
 ances at Derryin 1869 (29). 
 Ditto, 1883 (2).^ 
 
 note, supra. From the works of Lecky and others references have been 
 given to the proceedings of the Parliamentary Seled Committees of 1793 
 and 1798, and to various official reports made to the Government by the 
 Earl of Gosford, Lord Caledon, Captains Patton and Duff, Mr. Sergeant 
 Perrin, Mr. Handcock, J. P., and others. 
 
 3 Some 29 of the passages referred to above are expressions of opinion 
 by the Royal Commissioners, strongly condemning the Orange association. 
 The statements drawn from the Minutes of Evidence and the Appendices to 
 their Report are (with at most one exception) from exclusively Orange and 
 Protestant sources. Several of the chief witnesses whose testimony is 
 drawn upon, or referred to, in this Report were Orangemen, such as, for 
 instance, Grand Master the Earl of Enniskillen, Mr. Gwynne, representa- 
 tive of the Irish Grand Lodge, Constable Robert Blair, and Revs. H. 
 Hanna and Dr. Drew. The references to the other Royal Commissions con- 
 tain (with one or two exceptions) either the statements of the Royal Com- 
 missioners themselves, the statistics colledled by them, or the evidence oi 
 Protestant witnesses. 
 
 *See pp. 394-395, supra, note 21. 
 
 Report of Board of Inquiry 
 into the Post Office and 
 Telegraph Department, 
 Melbourne, 1896 (see Pre- 
 face). 
 
 HISTORIANS andOTHER 
 WRITERS. 
 
 Non-Catholic: 
 
 Barrington, Sir Jonah: Per- 
 sonal Sketches and Rise and 
 Fall of the Irish Nation (15). 
 
 BouvERiE-PusEY, The Past 
 History of Ireland (10). 
 
 Brougham, Lord, Life 
 Times (6). 
 
 Buckingham, Duke of, 
 moirs of the Courts 
 Cabinets of William IV. and 
 Vidioria (i). 
 
 Burke, Edmund, Correspon- 
 dence, and Tradl on the 
 Popery Laws, etc. {3). 
 
 Chambers' Encyclopcidia (5). 
 
 Constitutional Year Book (i). 
 
 CoRNWALLis, Memoirs and 
 Correspondence (20). 
 
 Curran's Speeches (i). 
 
 Dickens, American Notes (i). 
 
 Dickson (Bishop), Narrative 
 
 423 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 Emmet, O'Connor, and 
 
 McNevin, Memoir of the 
 
 Union (3).* 
 Encyclopcedia Britannica (5). 
 Fletcher, Judge, Charge to 
 
 the Wexford Jury (g)." 
 Fox, J. A., A Key to the Irish 
 
 Question (i). 
 Froude, J. A., The English in 
 
 Ireland (11). 
 Galloway Rigg, Papevs on 
 
 Ulster. 
 GoDKiN, The Battlefields of 
 
 Ninety -eight and The Land 
 
 War in Ireland (15). 
 Goldwin-Smith, Irish History 
 
 and Irish Character (2). 
 Gordon, Rev. James, History 
 
 oj the Rebellion (21). 
 Grattan's L?/^ and Letters (3). 
 Greville's Journals of the 
 
 Reigns of King George IV. 
 
 and of King William IV. 
 
 (7). 
 
 Harris, Seymour F., Prin- 
 ciples of the Criminal Law 
 (6). 
 
 Hill's Plantation of Ulster (i). 
 
 Holland, Lord, Memoirs of 
 the Whig Party (5). 
 
 Holt's Memoirs (i). 
 
 Howard's Popery Cases (i). 
 
 Irwin's History of Presbyterian- 
 ism outside Ulster (i). 
 
 Injunctions of Queen Elizabeth 
 
 (I)- 
 Johnston, W. (Deputy Grand 
 Master), Nightshade (i). 
 
 sThe Memoir is here set down as the work of non-Catholics, two of its 
 writers, Emmet and O'Connor, being members of the Established Church. 
 See p. 24, note 43. Per contra, a number of quotations are hereunder attri- 
 buted to a Catholic source (McNevin's colledion of Pieces of Irish History), 
 although many of them were written by Protestants. Cf. p. 24, supra, 
 note 45. 
 
 6 References are given from the newspaper press and other sources, 
 for the condemnation of Orange magistrates or jurors by Chief Justice 
 Bushe, Sir F. Brady, Judges Barry, Lawson, Murphy, and Osborne. 
 
 Killen, Rev. W. D., Ecclesi- 
 astical History of Ireland (46). 
 
 Knox Wi-gram, W., The Jus- 
 tice's Note-book (2). 
 
 Larcom's Ordnance Survey of 
 Derry (2). 
 
 L,ECK^i, Leaders of Public Opinion 
 in Ireland, History of Ireland 
 in the 18th Century, and His- 
 tory of Englafid in the 18th 
 Century (406). 
 
 Leffingwell, Albert,M.D., 
 Illegitimacy (i). 
 
 Macaulay, History of England 
 
 (2). 
 Martineau, Harriet, The 
 
 Thirty Years' Peace (24). 
 McKnight, Thomas, Ulster as 
 
 It Is ; or Twenty-eight Years' 
 
 Experience as an Irish Editor 
 
 (2). 
 McLennan, J. F., Memoir of 
 
 Thomas Drummond (i). 
 Memoirs of Wolfe Tone (2). 
 MiLNER, Rev. J., and Oswald 
 
 W. Brierly, The Cruise of 
 
 the H.M.S. Galatea (2). 
 MiTCHEL, History of Ireland 
 
 and Reply to the Falsification 
 
 of History by James Anthony 
 
 Froude (56). 
 
 MOLESWORTH, ReV. W. 
 
 Nassau, History of England 
 (16). 
 MoLYNEUX, Case of Ireland 
 
 Morrison Davidson, The Book 
 of Erin (7). 
 
 424 
 
INDEX OF AUTHORITIES. 
 
 MusGRAVE, Memoir of the 
 Different Rebellions in Ireland, 
 and Striduves on Plowden's 
 Historical Review (28).' 
 
 " Observer," A View of the 
 Present State of Ireland (5). 
 
 O'CoNOR Morris, Judge, 
 Ireland: 1642-1868 (i). 
 
 Phillips, Charles, Speeches, 
 and Curran and His Contem- 
 poraries (5). 
 
 Pictorial History of England 
 
 (2)- 
 'PK'E.n'DE'RGkST: ,The Cromwellian 
 
 Settlement (3). 
 Sampson, W., Memoirs (3). 
 Sheffield, Lord, Observations 
 
 on the Trade of Ireland (i). 
 Smith, Rev. Sydney, Peter 
 
 Plyniley's Letters, Ireland and 
 
 England, etc. (5). 
 Spencer Walpole, History of 
 
 England (4). 
 Stead, W. T., // Christ came 
 
 to Chicago (2). 
 Stephen's Inquiry (i). 
 Stock, Dr. (Bishop of Killala), 
 
 A Narrative of What Passed 
 
 at Killala (i). 
 Swift, Dean, Works (i). 
 Swift, McNeil, English Inter- 
 ference with Irish Industries 
 
 Taylor, The Irish Civil Wars 
 
 Taylor, Rev. Geo., History 
 
 of the Rebellion in the County 
 
 of Wexford {6)." 
 "Ulsterman" (F.Morgan), 
 
 Rise and Progress of Orangeism 
 
 (2). 
 
 Walpole, History of the King- 
 dom of Ireland (54). 
 
 Webb, Alfred, Compendium 
 of Irish Biography (5). 
 
 Wesley's Journal (2). 
 
 West, Dean, The Endowed 
 Schools Commission (i). 
 
 White, W., The Inner Life of 
 the House of Commons (2). 
 
 Witherow, Rev. Dr., Derry 
 and Enniskillen (i). 
 
 Wright, Rev. G. N., Life oj 
 William /F. (i). 
 
 Young, Arthur, Tour in Ire- 
 land (6). 
 
 Young, Robert, Orange 
 " poet " (2). 
 
 Catholic : 
 
 Barry O'Brien, Thomas 
 Drnmmond (12). 
 
 Bowles Daly, Ireland in 
 Ninety -eight (4). 
 
 Byrne, Myles, Memoirs {11). 
 
 Clancy, J. T. (M.P.), The 
 Orange Bogey, and Ulster ('3). 
 
 Dawson, C. (M.P.), Treatment 
 of Minorities in Ireland. 
 
 Doherty, W. J., Inis-owenand 
 Tirconnell (i). 
 
 Fitzpatrick, Dr. Lanigan, his 
 Life and Times (i). 
 
 Haverty, M., History of Ire- 
 land (2). 
 
 Hay, Edward, History of the 
 Insnyre6iion in Wexford {2^). 
 
 Healy, T. M., a Word for 
 Ireland, and Loyalty phis 
 Murder (7). 
 
 Kavanagh, History of the Re- 
 bellion (8).° 
 
 ''Musgrave was an Orangeman. His Memoirs are the apology of the 
 society. See pp. 57-58, supra, tiote. 
 
 ^See p. 266, supra, note 38. 
 
 9 Three of these passages are quotations : two from the Irish Magazine 
 for iSii, the third from Bagenal Harvey's orders to the insurgent forces. 
 
 425 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 Life and Times of O'Comiell 
 
 (0- 
 
 Madden, Dr., The United 
 
 Irishmen : theiy Lives and 
 
 Times (29). 
 McCarthy, Justin, History of 
 
 Our Oimi Times, and Outlines 
 
 of Irish History (4). 
 McGee, T. D., History of Ire- 
 land (i). 
 McNevin, Dr., Pieces of Irish 
 
 History (22). 
 " M.P.," History of Oraiigeism 
 
 (63).^° 
 Murphy, Rev. D., Our Martyrs 
 
 (I). 
 O'Connell, Memoir of Ireland 
 
 O'Connor, T. P., The Parnell 
 
 Movement (5). 
 O'Conor, History of the Irish 
 
 People (3). 
 O'Doherty, Rev. P., The 
 
 Truth About Ulster (i). 
 O'Neill Daunt, W. J., 
 
 Eighty-five Years of Irish 
 
 History (2). 
 Plowden, F ., Historical Review 
 
 of the State of Ireland, and 
 
 Ireland from its Union 
 
 (104). 
 Scully, Statement of the Penal 
 
 Laws (3). 
 Sheil, Richard Lalor, 
 
 Speeches (3). 
 Wyse, History of the Catholic 
 
 Association (2). 
 
 10 Forty-five of these passages are quotations from newspapers, rare 
 pamphlets, etc., by Orangemen or Protestants, such as Wilson's Letters and 
 Narrative (6), or those issued by the Catholic publicist, J. W. Battersby (2), 
 the Edinburgh Review of January, 1836, the Dublin University Magazine, the 
 Belfast News-Letter of a remote date, etc. The author was, I understand, a 
 Belfast man. 
 
 iiThis is, I believe, an Orange paper, and I have seen it referred to as 
 such. It is frequently quoted by the Victorian Standard ; see, for instance, 
 its issue of June 30, 1897. 
 
 i^The Daily Express is the chief organ of the Irish Orange party. 
 
 NEWSPAPERS, PERIOD- 
 ICALS, Etc. 
 
 Non-Catholic : 
 Age, Melbourne (6). 
 Ararat Advertiser (6), 
 Argus, Melbourne (9). 
 AthencBum (2). 
 B a liar at Star (i). 
 Belfast Examiner (i), 
 Belfast News-Lettev (2). 
 Belfast Weekly News (2)." 
 Chambers' Journal (i). 
 Constitutional Year Book (i). 
 Contemporary Review (8). 
 Daily Chronicle, London (i). 
 Daily Express, Dublin (20).'^ 
 Daily News (2), 
 Derry Standard (i). 
 Evening Mail, Dublin (i). 
 Financial Reform Almanac (i). 
 Globe, London (i). 
 Herald, Melbourne (i). 
 Irish Church Directory (i). 
 Irish Times (i). 
 Maryborough and Dunolly A dver- 
 
 tiser, Vicftoria (8). 
 Maryborough Standard, Victoria 
 
 New York Herald (i). 
 North American Review (i). 
 Northern' Whig (4). 
 Portland Observer, Vicfloria (3). 
 Riponshire Advocate, Yi6\.ona.{^). 
 Times, London (12). 
 Vidorian Standard, Orange 
 
 lodge organ (154).^ 
 Walhalla Chronicle,Ni6\ona.{i). 
 
 426 
 
INDEX OF AUTHORITIES. 
 
 WarragulGiiardian,Y\6\ona.{j). Morning Star, Launceston, 
 
 Tasmania. 
 
 Catholic: Nation, Dublin (2). 
 
 Advocate, Melbourne (2). Tablet, London (3). 
 Belfast Irish News (i), 
 Derry Journal (8). 
 
 Freeman's Journal, New York ORANGE DOCUMENTS. 
 
 (i). Circulars, tracfls, leaflets (46). 
 
 Freeman's Journal and Weekly Rules, ritual, etc. (132).^* 
 
 Freeman, Dublin (15). 
 
 i^The number of references indicated above is independent of Appen- 
 dices B and C 
 
 4.27 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 General Index* 
 
 ABERCORN, Duke of, go; 
 Lord, 316. 
 
 Abercromby, General Sir 
 Ralph, 289, 292. 
 
 Abjuration of Popery, Oath 
 of, 177-178, 186, 187. 
 
 Absconding of Orange crimi- 
 nals, 302, 304, 326, 327; of 
 D.G.S. Fairman, 124. 
 
 Abuse of Catholic Church by 
 Orangemen, 95-96, 149 s^'^'., 
 396 {tiote 22) ; of the Pope, 
 clergy, convents, etc., 95- 
 96, 149 sqq., 179 {note 47), 
 199 {note 29), 395-396 {note 
 22); of Catholic laity, 83, 
 125, 149-151, 161-169. See 
 "Clergy," "Convents," 
 " Pope," " Sermons." 
 
 Acre, Irish and English, 181 
 {note 59). 
 
 A6i of Suppression of Orange 
 society defied, 208, 356, 360- 
 362. 
 
 Admission of candidates, 127, 
 156 {note 54), 401-407, 409, 
 420. 
 
 Aggressive characfler of Peep- 
 o'-Day movement, 28 sqq.; 
 of early Orangeism, 61 sqq. 
 See " Orange society." 
 
 Agitators, Orange. See 
 " Abuse," " Clergy." 
 
 Agrarian troubles and the 
 Peep-o'-Day movement, 33. 
 
 "Aiding" the Civil Authorities, 
 205 sqq., 247, 248-250, 341 
 sqq., 402, 405. 
 
 Air, the Irish national, 43 
 {note 20). 
 
 Alexander, Mr., J. P., 77. 
 
 Allegiance, Oath of, in 1690, 
 174 ; of Orangemen, see 
 " Loyalty." 
 
 Alliance meetings, Presby- 
 terian, 18-19. 
 
 Altamount, Lord, 79. 
 
 America, emigration to, under 
 Penal Code, 182; A. P. A. 
 and No-Popery in, 11- 12, 
 95-96 {note). 
 
 Ancient Britons, 264, 268- 
 269, 273-274, 278, 279, 299. 
 
 Anglesey, " Papist," 98. 
 
 Anglicans and the United 
 Irish Society, 26 {note) ; and 
 the Orange society, 86-89, 
 90. 
 
 Annahagh, destrucftion of, 222, 
 307 {note 216). 
 
 Anne, Queen, and the Penal 
 Code, 176 sqq. ; and the 
 Irish flax and hempen in- 
 dustries, 182 ; and the Salic 
 law, 372._ 
 
 Anniversaries, Orange. See 
 " Abuse," " Demonstra- 
 tions," " Processions," 
 " Sermons," " Speeches." 
 
 Annuities on land under Penal 
 Code, 181. 
 
 Anti-Catholic ledlurers, 95-96, 
 156, 160, 179 {note 47). 
 
 Antrim militia, 268, 269, 291, 
 299 {note). 
 
 A. P. A. (American ProtecSlive 
 
 4'.c!8 
 
GENERAL INDEX. 
 
 Association), 11-12, 95-96 
 (note). 
 
 Apostacy, inducements to, 
 under Penal Code, 179, 180, 
 183-184. 
 
 Appeals in Orange lodges, 
 131, 412. 
 
 Appointment of officers, 128 
 sqq. 
 
 Apprentice Boys of Derry, 
 197, 202-203, 210, 225-226, 
 228. 
 
 Apprentices, Catholic, under 
 Penal Code, 182. 
 
 Apron and Blue Degree, 400. 
 
 Armagh county, Peep-o'-Day 
 and Defender disturbances 
 in, 27 sqq., 36-56 ; the Ca- 
 tholic body in, 16, 22-23, 
 60; the Protestant body in, 
 i6, 22-23, 60 ; early Orange 
 outrages in, 70 sqq. ; the 
 magistracy and the outrages, 
 73. 75. 77. 260 {note 10), 312 
 sqq., 333 ; Catholics in town 
 of Armagh, 395 ; Armagh 
 militia, 299 (note 188). 
 
 Arms, use of forbidden to 
 Catholics by Penal Code, 
 187 ; raiding for by Peep- 
 o'-Day Boys, 28 sqq. ; by 
 Orangemen, 58, 59, 357; 
 arms of Peep-o'-Day Boys 
 and Defenders, 50 ; use of 
 in Orange processions 43 
 (note 20), 201 sqq., 209, 210 
 (note 73), 218, 221 sqq., 226 
 sqq.; at eledtions, 132. 
 
 Arms A(5ls, 218. 
 
 Army, Orange lodges in the, 
 217. 342, 347-356, 366, 367- 
 
 368,385- 
 Articles of Limerick, 174-175. 
 Articles, secret, 59, 121-122, 
 
 356-358- 
 Ascendency, Protestant, 87, 
 
 173 5??-. 189-192, 247, 254, 
 266, 359; meaning of the 
 words, 252-253; Ascendency 
 party, their ferocity in 1798, 
 266,291 sqq., 300-301. 
 
 Assault, the first, 357. 
 
 Assembling the lodges, 198- 
 
 199.357-358, 378, 385- See 
 " Grand Master." 
 
 Atkinson, Captain, 39, 43, 52, 
 61 (note), cf. 315. 
 
 Attorneys and their clerks 
 under Penal Code, 187. 
 
 Australia, Orangeism in. Pre- 
 face, 5-8, 12-14, 85 sqq., gy, 
 126 sqq., i^Ssqq., 154, 157, 
 165, 193, 210-211, 334-335, 
 351. 359-360, 368,401 (note 
 8). 
 
 Authorities on the Orange 
 society, 12-13, i5> 101-102, 
 332 (see Index of Authori- 
 ties) ; on the Penal Code, 
 176. 
 
 BABYLON, the Church of 
 Rome, 92, 151. 
 
 Bagot, Captain, 297. 
 
 Bailieborough, yeomanry out- 
 rage at, 221, 303. 
 
 Baker, Bro., 5, 154-155. 
 
 Ballaghkeene, yeomen at, 
 287. 
 
 Ball-alley massacre, Carnew, 
 291, 299. 
 
 Ballarat, Orangeism at, 7-8. 
 
 Ballot in Orange lodges, 127, 
 131, 245, 409, (see " Re- 
 ballot"); Ballot Aa and 
 the Grand Lodge, 135 sqq. 
 
 Ballycanew (Co. Wexford) in 
 1798, Catholic loyal address 
 from, 297 (note 183); battle 
 of, 300 (note 191). 
 
 Ballyholan massacre, 269, 
 273-274. 
 
 429 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 Ballyvarley, Orange outrage 
 at, 230. 
 
 Banbridge, outrage at, 221. 
 
 Bandon, exclusion of Catholics 
 from, 182 (note 68) ; Earl of, 
 305 ; mutiny of yeomanry, 
 ibid. 
 
 Bangor, Johnston's march to, 
 209 ; Banishment of clergy 
 under Penal Code, 177, 178 ; 
 of Catholics by early 
 Orangemen, 74 sqq., 316. 
 
 Bann, etc., yeomanry, mutiny 
 of, 306. 
 
 Bantry Bay, French invasion 
 of, 24-25, 265. 
 
 Barclay, Defender outrage on, 
 31 [note 81). 
 
 Barnes, Lieutenant, 306. 
 
 Barrington, Sir Jonah, i, 80, 
 249 {note 23), 262-263, 266. 
 
 Barristers, Catholic, under 
 Penal Code, 187. 
 
 Barrow, Bro. F., 7. 
 
 Barry, Lord Justice, on Or- 
 ange juries, 330. 
 
 " Basis " of Orange society, 
 14, 144, 145, 246, 251, 310, 
 341, 408. 
 
 Battersby, W. J., 317. 
 
 Battle of Boyne, date of, 148 
 (note 16); of Diamond, 36- 
 56, 70, 71, 72, 255. 
 
 Bedell, Bishop, 17. 
 
 Bedford, Lord, 281. 
 
 Beers, County Grand Master, 
 222 sqq., 225 (note), 311 
 (note), 328. 
 
 Belfast : position of Catholics 
 in, 253, 322-323, 386-390 ; 
 Catholic magistrates and 
 police in, 323 ; Orange 
 police in, 323-324; sedliarian 
 riots in, 10-11,220,231, 335, 
 336 ; trial of Orange rioters 
 in, 303-304 ; United Irish 
 
 society in, 24; Protestant 
 friendliness towards Catho- 
 lics in, before rise of Or- 
 angeism, 20, 386. 
 
 Bell, Alexander, 302. 
 
 Bell, Richardson, J. P., 361, 
 362. 
 
 Belmore, Lord, 327. 
 
 Belturbet, Catholics excluded 
 from, 182 (note 68). 
 
 Benburb Orange yeomanry, 
 302. 
 
 Bench-packing, 322, 328. 
 
 Beresford family, 64 [note 31), 
 275 {note 76), 300 ; John 
 Claudius, 269, 286, 287-288, 
 292. 
 
 Bermuda, army lodges in, 
 
 333- 
 
 Berry, Canon, 109. 
 
 Berwick's official Report, 222 
 sqq., 328. 
 
 Bible, Orangemen and the, 
 56; useof at initiation, 113- 
 115, 401 sqq. ; Bible and 
 gun, 258. 
 
 Biggar, Joseph, M.P., 201 
 {note 35), 397. 
 
 Billy-goat riding in Orange 
 lodge, 117. 
 
 Bishops, Catholic, and the 
 United Irishmen, 26 {note), 
 265 {note 33) ; and the De- 
 fenders, 33. 
 
 Blackburn, Attorney-General, 
 326. 
 
 Blackburn, D.G.M., 245 {note 
 
 9). 
 Blacker family, 39 {note 7), 
 
 73' 311. 315' 337 M^ 77). 
 348 ; Colonel, 38 sqq., 39 
 {note 7), 208-209, 302, 307 
 {note 215), 311 {note) ; Dean, 
 39 {note 7) ; Stewart, ibid. 
 "Blacklist" of Orange lodges, 
 129, 410, 417, 420. 
 
 430 
 
GENERAL INDEX 
 
 Black Lodge outrages, 222. 
 Black Mob, Hunter Gowan's, 
 
 266-267, 276, 290. 
 Black Preceptory lodges, 5, 
 
 400, 401 {note 8). 
 Black, Sir Samuel, 389 {note 
 
 8). 
 Black Watch lodge, 91 {note 
 
 29). 
 Blacksmiths, torture of, in 
 
 1798, 287. 
 Blair, Robert, iii, 323. 
 Blanket - tossing at Orange 
 
 lodges, 118. 
 Blindfolding at Orange lodges, 
 
 118. 
 Bloodthirstiness, alleged, of 
 
 Catholics, 158,161, 164 sqq, 
 
 396 {note 22). 
 *' Bloody Friday " massacre, 
 
 297. 
 Blue degrees, 400. 
 Books on the Orange society, 
 
 12-13, ^5' 101-102, 332. See 
 
 Index of Authorities. 
 Bottle riot, 98-99, 108. 
 Boulter, Primate, 186. 
 Bouverie-Pusey, S. E. B., 30, 
 
 295- 
 
 Box, Mr., 211 {notey^). 
 
 Boycotting by Orangemen, 
 73, 76, 83, 125, 131, 154, 
 162-164, 192, 335 {note 75), 
 403.See"Belfast,""Derry," 
 " Elecftions." 
 
 Boyne battle, date of, 148 
 {note 16) ; colours worn at, 
 216 {note). 
 
 Brady, Lord Chancellor, or- 
 der against Orange magis- 
 trates, 335-337- 
 
 Brady, Sir F., 330. 
 
 Branding of Priests under 
 Penal Code, 177. 
 
 Bribery under Penal Code, 
 176, 179, 180, 183 sqq. 
 
 Britons. See "Ancient 
 
 Britons." 
 Broe, Rev. F. J., 267 {note 42). 
 Brosnan, Canon, 396 {note 23). 
 Brougham, Lord, 368, 369- 
 
 370. 372, 375 {note 65), 378. 
 Brown, Rev. Bro., 154. 
 Browne, Dr., M. P. ,290. Rev. 
 
 J. J. 245 (^note 9). 
 Brunswick Clubs, 360-362, 
 
 370; demonstrations (Mel- 
 bourne) 169, 199 {note 27), 
 
 218-219. 
 Buckingham, Duke of, 376. 
 Burial of Catholics in Penal 
 
 days, 178. 
 Burials Bill (Ireland), 90. 
 Burke, Edmund, on Penal 
 
 Code, 188. 
 Burridge, Rev. W., 152. 
 Bushe, Chief Justice, on 
 
 Orange juries, 327. 
 Butt, Isaac, M.P., 393, 397. 
 By-laws of Orange lodges, 
 
 no, 122, 128, 418, 421. 
 Byrne, Myles, 270-271, 29c 
 
 {note 148), 291 {note 152). 
 
 CALEDON, Earl of, 99, 
 
 195, 319 ; outrage at, 221. 
 Callan, Mr., M.P., 202. 
 Calling out the lodges, 198 
 
 i99> 357-358> 378, 385. See 
 
 " Grand Master." 
 Camden, Lord, 213, 263, 292 
 
 315 {note 15). 
 Cameroy Orange yeomanry> 
 
 307- 
 Campbell, Rev. P., 191. 
 Canada, Orangeismin, 4-5, g 
 
 II, 12, 112, 209-210, 386; 
 
 army lodges in, 350, 353, 
 
 368. 
 Candidates, admission of, 127, 
 
 156 {note 54), 409, 420; 
 
 initiation, 11 7 -118, 401 sqq.; 
 
 431 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 list of reje(fted, resigned, 
 expelled, see " Black list "; 
 Orange, at ele(5\ions, 131- 
 139, 247, 403. 
 
 Canning on Orangeism, 205. 
 
 Canon Law, 166-167. 
 
 Carhampton, Lord, 34, 275 
 {note 76), 312. 
 
 Carlisle, Lord, 335, 337. 
 
 Carlow, military outrages in, 
 276, 277 ; cf. 268 {note 47) ; 
 yeomanry in, 268 ; nylitia 
 in, 277, 299 {note 188). 
 
 Carlton Club, address to, 373. 
 
 Carnew, massacre of, 291, 
 299. 
 
 Carr, Archbishop, and Orange 
 processions, 219. 
 
 Carrowkeel outrage, 221. 
 
 Carter, Dean, 304. 
 
 Castlereagh, Lord, 65, 261. 
 
 Catholics, Irish : Before and 
 at vise of Orangeism : their 
 tolerant spirit, i6-ig ; a 
 minority in Armagh county, 
 16,22-23; friendly relations 
 between them and Protest- 
 ants, 19-21 ; their loyalty, 
 23-26, 297 {note 183); lower 
 classes in Armagh, etc.. 
 Defenders, 23, 24, 27 sqq., 
 32 ; better class oppose 
 Defenders, 24, 32-3 ; Penal 
 Code, 176 sqq. After rise of 
 Orangeism : the first Orange 
 Reign of Terror, 1795- 1797, 
 26,64-79; the second Reign 
 of Terror, 1797- 1799, see 
 " Inquisition, " " Insur- 
 redlion," "Retaliation," 
 " Torture," " Yeomanry" ; 
 Catholics join United Irish- 
 men," 24, 26 {note) (see 
 "United Irishmen"); ex- 
 cluded from the Orange 
 society, 83 sqq., 409 ; at- 
 
 tempted exclusion from 
 Civil service and public re- 
 presentation, preface, 7, 8, 
 125, 154, 162-163, 187 {note 
 84)' 253, 335 (see "Ascend- 
 ency," "Belfast," "Derry," 
 " Eleiftions," "Emancipa- 
 tion") ; denied justice by Or- 
 ange magistrates and jurors, 
 ^og sqq. (see " Magistrates," 
 "Jurors"). Orange demonstra- 
 tions : Catholic grounds of 
 obje(5iion to, see "Abuse," 
 "Arms," "Demonstrations," 
 " Emblems," " Massacre," 
 " Penal Code," " Proces- 
 sions," "Raids" ; Counter- 
 associations, 237-238. 
 
 Caton, Rev. J., 94. 
 
 Cato-street Conspiracy, 362. 
 
 Ceremonies of initiation, 113- 
 114, 401 sqq.; billy-goat 
 riding, blanket-tossing, 
 blindfolding, etc., 117-118; 
 cf. p. 148. 
 
 Certificates, 420. 
 
 Challenges at the Diamond, 
 50; at Orange processions, 
 218. 
 
 Chaplains of lodges, 169. See 
 " Clergy." 
 
 Chara(5ler of Peep-o'-Day 
 Boys, 32 ; of early Orange- 
 men, 61-64. 
 
 Charity, Orange society and 
 works of, etc., 103. 
 
 Charlemont, Lord, 262. 
 
 Charles I. and Irish Catholics, 
 
 173- 
 Charter Schools, 185-186. 
 
 Charter Toast, 79-82. 
 
 Chetwoode, Eustace, D.G.S., 
 349, 351, 365. 
 
 Children, Catholic, guardian- 
 ship of under Penal Code, 
 184; bribery and prosely- 
 
 432 
 
GENERAL INDEX. 
 
 tism of, 183-184 ; brutal 
 treatment of by Orange 
 soldiery, 274, 277. 
 
 Christie, James, 75, 195, 202, 
 207-208, 314, 318. 
 
 Churches, Catholic, damaged, 
 9, 75-76, 224 ; cf. 200. 
 
 Civil Authorities, "aiding" 
 the, 205 sqq., 247, 248-250, 
 341 sqq., 402, 405. See 
 *' Law," " Processions." 
 
 Civil Service, Orangeism in 
 the, 382, III, 238, 323-324, 
 334 ; proposed expulsion of 
 Catholics from, by Orange- 
 men, 7, 8, 125, 154, 162-163, 
 187 [note 84), 253, 335; of 
 Orangemen by State, 333- 
 
 334. 355. 383-384- 
 
 Clare, Lord, 262. 
 
 Clarendon, Lord, and the 
 Orange party in 1848, 250 
 {note 26). 
 
 " Clemency " of martial law. 
 Orange protest against the, 
 292. 
 
 Clements, Mr., 153. 
 
 Clergy, Catholic : Penal laws 
 against, 177-180; attitude 
 regarding Orange riots, 218- 
 219, 220 ; vilification of, by 
 Orangemen, see "Abuse;" 
 hostile to Defenders, 33 ; 
 and United Irishmen, 26 
 (note). Orange clergy, 88-89, 
 91, 151 sqq., 155 sqq., 164 
 sqq., 167, 168-169, 199-201, 
 254.307 ("0/^2 14), 334, 335; 
 cf. 359. Irish Protestant 
 Clergy : their tolerant spirit 
 at rise of Orangeism, 20-21. 
 
 Clones, outrage at, 304 (^note 
 205). 
 
 Clerks, Attorneys ; under 
 Penal Code, 1S7. 
 
 Cockburn, Sir James, 378. 
 
 Cockburne, Major-General 
 217. 
 
 Coile, Bernard, 59, 64. 
 
 Colour, the Irish National, 
 266 [note 39). 
 
 Colours, Orange party, etc., 
 210-21 1 (note 73), 213, 216 
 {note 15), 217, 266, 268, 317, 
 400. See " Emblems." 
 
 Commerce of Ireland, ruin of, 
 by William III., 173, 182. 
 
 Commission of the Peace, 
 Orangemen dismissed from, 
 40, 44 (note 24), 225 (note), 
 ^11 (note), ^28. See"Magis- 
 trates." 
 
 Committee of lodge, 419 ; 
 their " obligation," 84-85, 
 407. 
 
 " Common platform. A," 90- 
 92. 
 
 Concealment of lodge docu- 
 ments, 122 sqq., 145, 401, 
 412. 
 
 Conditional loyalty, 40, 121, 
 147. 306, 358-360, 402, 404. 
 
 Confession, attacks on, 155- 
 156. 
 
 Confiscation under .Cromwell, 
 80 (note 91); under Penal 
 Code, 181 ; by early Orange- 
 men, 72 sqq., cf. See 
 " Plunder." 
 
 Connaught, condu(5l of insur- 
 gents in, 296. 
 
 " Connaught, Hell or," 74 sqq., 
 80, 316. 
 
 Conspiracy, the Cumberland, 
 ^62 sqq. See "Cumberland." 
 
 Constables, under Penal Code, 
 187. 
 
 Convents, Orange outrages 
 against, 9, 228 ; vilification 
 of, 159-161. 
 
 Conversion of Protestants 
 under Penal Code, 179. 
 
 433 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 Conwell, Rev. Dr., 303 (jioie 
 201). 
 
 "Cooked" rule-books, etc., 
 121-122, 359. 
 
 Coote, Captain, 311 (note). 
 
 Corfu, army lodges in, 353. 
 
 Corinshiga massacre, 303. 
 
 Cork, position of Protestants 
 in, 397, 398 {note 25). 
 
 Ccrnwallis, Lord, 67, 289, 292, 
 298-301. 
 
 Cost of Orange demonstra- 
 tions, 4-5, 231-232, 250. 
 
 Counter-associations, 205, 237- 
 238. 
 
 Counter-demonstrations, 
 Orange, 200-201, 203-204, 
 226 sqq., 234 [note 81). 
 
 Courts of law, Orange emblems 
 in, 314, 317. 
 
 Courts-martial in 1798, 264 
 
 (note), 284, 289, 297-298. 
 
 Coveney, Rev. D., libel on, 
 
 159- 
 Cowperthwaite, Rev. J., 94. 
 Craddock, General, 23. 
 Crawford, W. Sharman, 207, 
 
 306, 319. 
 Crichton, yicount, 249-250. 
 Cries at Orange processions, 
 
 etc., 148, 201 (note 35), 211, 
 
 214, 215, 230. 
 Crimean war, Orangemen and 
 
 the, 330-331 {note 64)^. 
 Criminals or offenders feted by 
 
 Orangemen, 221-222, 307, 
 
 311 {note); acquitted, aided, 
 
 or shielded, 312, 314 sqq., 
 
 208, 222, 302-304, 325 sqq., 
 
 345-347- See "Jurors," 
 
 " Magistrates." 
 Crimson Arrow degree, 400. 
 Crolly, Bishop, 218. 
 Cromwell in Ireland, 80, 258 ; 
 
 Orange admiration of, 67, 
 
 80, 258 {note 3). 
 
 Crossgar, outrage at, 221. 
 
 " Croppy," the term, 214 {note 
 7); "Croppy Corney," 292. 
 
 Crown, forces of, defied, 205 
 sqq., 307 ; cf. 330-33 1 {note 64); 
 threat to kick the Queen's 
 Crown, lOD. 
 
 Cumberland, Ernest, Duke of, 
 Grand Master, 348 ; orders 
 processions, 205 ; his char- 
 adler, 363-364, 368, 369, 375 
 {note) ; his relations with 
 Fairman, 364 sqq. ; plot to 
 secure the Crown, 122, 123 
 (note), 351, 362-382; pro- 
 motes lodges in army, 348 
 sqq. ; efforts for Regency, 
 
 365> 366, 369-370, 372; 
 royal state in lodge, 366, 
 374-375 ; proposed prosecu- 
 tion of for high treason, 380 ; 
 dissolves English lodges, 
 380-381. 
 
 Curfew Ad\, 263. 
 
 Curragh massacre, 296, 297. 
 
 Curran, John P., 77. 
 
 Cush, Bernard, 64-65. 
 
 Custom House (Dublin), tor- 
 ture at, in 1798, 288. 
 
 DAILY TELEGRAPH 
 (Launceston,Tas.), libel by, 
 
 159. 347- 
 Date of Battle of Boyne, 148 
 
 {note 16). 
 Dawson, C. (Lord Mayor), 
 
 225, 394 M^ 21), 396. 
 " Deadheads " of Ulster, The, 
 
 338 {note 80). 
 Declarations against Transub- 
 
 stantiation, 121, 178, 186; 
 
 of Orangemen, see "Oaths," 
 
 " Obligations." 
 Defenders, 19, 23, 24, 32, 36 
 
 sqq., 272 ; before and at 
 
 Diamond battle 47 sqq., 54 ; 
 
 434 
 
GENERAL INDEX. 
 
 Defenders and United Irish- 
 men 28 ; and Presbyterians, 
 61 [note) ; opposed by C. 
 clergy, 33. See " Peep-o'- 
 Day Boys." 
 
 Degrees, Orange and Purple, 
 107, 127 sqq., 399, 421 ; 
 other degrees, 399-401 ; 
 ritual of Orange degree, 401 
 sqq. 
 
 Delegates to Grand Lodge, 
 128, 415. 
 
 Demonstrations, Orange : vili- 
 fication of Catholic Church 
 and body, see "Abuse;" 
 newspaper reports of, 150; 
 Catholics and, 171-173, 180, 
 184, 189 sqq., 194 sqq., 212 
 sqq. ; processions, resistance 
 to civil authorities, 205 sqq., 
 3O7(cf.33o-33i,«0i;e64). See 
 "Arms," "Cries," "Crown," 
 "Emblems," "Law," "Pro- 
 cessions," "Tunes," "Out- 
 rages." 
 
 Demoralisation of Orange 
 soldiery, 259 sqq., 272, 273, 
 277 sqq., 289 sqq., 297 sqq., 
 301 sqq. 
 
 Denworth, Jeremiah, 6. 
 
 Deputy Grand Masters, 126 
 («(?/^), 415. 
 
 Deputy Master's "obligation," 
 84, 115, 406-407. 
 
 Deputy Secretary's oath, 84, 
 119. 
 ' Derby, Lord, and Orange 
 "poetry," 150 {note 18) ; and 
 the Orange society, 337 {note 
 78). 
 
 Derham, Colonel, 263-264 
 {iwte). 
 
 Derry, Catholics excluded 
 from, in penal days, 182 
 {note 68) ; tolerant spirit of 
 Protestants in, before rise of 
 
 Orangeism, 20-21, 386; 
 position of Catholics in, 
 since rise of Orangeism, 21, 
 22, 197 {note 16), 253, 385- 
 386, 390-394 ; protest of 
 Derry Catholics, 394-395 
 {note) ; se(5tarian riots in 171, 
 173, 202, 225-226, 231-232; 
 trial of Orange rioters in, 
 330. 
 
 Derrygonelly, outrage at, 303- 
 304, 326. 
 
 Derrymacash massacre, 197 
 {note 16), 225. 
 
 Diamond, battle of, 36 5^1^., 
 70,71,72,255; Col.Verner's 
 toast of, 44 {note 24), 56. 
 
 Dickens, Charles, on Orange- 
 ism, 9. 
 
 Dickson, Bishop, 279. 
 
 Discoveries, Popish, 178. 
 
 Disembowelling, penalty of, 
 under Penal Code, 177. 
 
 Disestablishment, Orangemen 
 and, 132, 134 {note 33), 189, 
 254, 330 {note 64), 338, 382, 
 403 {note 18). 
 
 Disloyalty, charges of, against 
 Catholics, 160, 161 sqq. 
 
 Disraeli Government and 
 Orangeism, 338. 
 
 Dissenters, Orangemen and, 
 89 sqq., 253, 359-360, 369 
 {note 48). 
 
 Distich, on bust of William 
 III., 81 {note 95). 
 
 " Ditch-lining," 330 (note 
 64). 
 
 Documents of lodges, con- 
 cealment of, 122 sqq., 145, 
 401, 412 ; mutilation, etc., 
 of, 46, 113, 122 sqq.y 162, 
 359; printing of, 113, 412; 
 publication of, 120- 121 ; in- 
 specftion of, 412. 
 
 Doherty,]. W., 250 {note 26). 
 
 435 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 Doherty, T., murder of, 297- 
 
 298. 
 Dolly's Brae massacre, 222 
 
 sqq., 229, 257, 327-328, 355. 
 Dominion Parliament and the 
 
 Orange society, 11. 
 Donaldson, Rev. Mr., 43 {note 
 
 20). 
 Donegal, a celebration in, 204. 
 Downing, McCarthy, M.P., 
 
 202, 321. 
 Downshire, Lord, 260. 
 Dowse, Baron, 197 {note 16), 
 
 206, 321. 
 Drew, Dr., Grand Chaplain, 
 
 166, 172, 200, 225. 
 Drogheda elections, 132 ; 
 
 position of Protestants in, 
 
 398. 
 Dromore, outrage at, 327. 
 Drum-beating at Orange pro- 
 cessions, 195, 214, 229. 
 Drummond, Under Secretary, 
 
 on Orange processions, 193, 
 
 233- 
 
 Drunkenness, habitual, 97, 412. 
 
 Duane, Father, murder of, 
 221, 303. 
 
 Dublin, army lodges in, 353 ; 
 torture of people by Orange- 
 men in, 1798, 287-288 ; 
 yeomanry in, 288 ; position 
 of Protestants in, 397-398 ; 
 rumoured rising of 1848 in, 
 250 {note 26). 
 
 Duff, Captain, 208, 248. 
 
 Dufferin, Lord, on Orangeism, 
 9-1 1. 
 
 Duigenan, Dr., 80, 249. 
 
 Dundas, General, 292. 
 
 Dunlavin massacre, 291. 
 
 Dunsany, Lord, 274-275. 
 
 Dunstan, Rev. Mr., 157. 
 
 EAR-SLITTING in 1798, 
 28G. 
 
 Edinburgh, Duke of, 6. 
 
 Edinburgh Review on Orange- 
 ism, 222, 225 {note), 384- 
 385. 
 
 Education of Catholics under 
 Penal Code, 180, 184-186; 
 Irish Education Bill, Orange 
 opposition to, 132, 185 
 {note 77). 
 
 ElecStions, armed Orangemen 
 at, 132,249 ; Orange lodges, 
 and, 131 sqq., 247, 403 ; 
 elecflion rules, 113, 138-139 ; 
 exclusion cf Catholic candi- 
 dates, 136, 403. 
 
 Emancipation, Catholic, 
 favoured by Irish Protes- 
 tants before rise of Orange- 
 ism, 19-21, 0.6 {note); Orange 
 opposition to, 20 {note 16), 
 22, 99-100, 132, 133, 189- 
 
 192, 201, 221, 305 sqq., 312, 
 322, 330 {note 64), 338, 343, 
 361, 362, 369 {note 48), 387, 
 390> 394-395 {"ote). 
 
 Emblems, Orange, 148, 170, 
 
 193, 211, 213, 215-217,229, 
 
 243» 399» 4oo> 4^3; worn 
 by Orange soldiery, 266- 
 267, 268, 270-271 ; in courts 
 of justice, 314, 317; in 
 church, 217. 
 
 Emigration, under Penal Code, 
 182. 
 
 Emmet, Robert, 24 {note 45). 
 
 England, No-Popery in, 12. 
 
 English in Ireland, by Froude, 
 remarks on, 62-63 {note). 
 
 English Parliament and Irish 
 Penal Code 175 {note 22). 
 
 English regiments in Ireland 
 in 1798, 299-300 {note 191). 
 
 Enniscorthy, 266, 280 {note 
 104), 285, 303. 
 
 Enniskillen, exclusion of Ca- 
 tholics from, 182 {note 68); 
 
 436 
 
GENERAL INDEX. 
 
 Earl of, 4, no, 213, 215, 
 240, 297-298, 311, 326, 337 
 [note 77). 
 
 " Escaped Nun," The, 96. 
 
 Established Church, Orange- 
 ism not founded to defend, 
 16, 19, 23, 32, 33, 35, 56, 
 69 sqq. ; in Armagh county, 
 16, 22-23, 61 [note) ; revenue 
 in 1868, 134 [note) ; early 
 Orangemen belonged to, 86- 
 8g ; certain members of, not 
 admissible to Orange so- 
 ciety, 92 sqq. See "Pro- 
 testants." 
 
 Evans, P.G.M., 155, 
 
 Evidence of Orange witnesses. 
 See " Witnesses." 
 
 Ex-Catholics and the Orange 
 society, 95-96. 
 
 Exclusive dealing by Orange- 
 men. See " Boycotting." 
 
 Exeter-Hall and Orange litera- 
 ture, 150. 
 
 Expelled, resigned, and sus- 
 pended members, lists of. 
 See " Black list." 
 
 Ex-priests, etc., 95-96. 
 
 Expulsion from the Orange 
 society, 96, 97,98, 128, 129, 
 
 133' 134. 136, i39> 145 M^ 
 5), 246, 403, 404, 405, 409, 
 410, 412, 414, 417, 420, 
 421. 
 Extermination oath, 64 sqq.; 
 extermination policy of 
 Peep-o'-Day Boys, 33 ; of 
 early Orangemen, 60, 66 
 sqq., 300 {note 193), 313 
 {note 9). 
 
 FAIRMAN, Deputy Grand 
 Secretary, 3, 348, 350 ; 
 defies House of Commons, 
 122-124,376-377; absconds, 
 124; deceives creditor, 376 
 
 {note 67) ; encourages illegal 
 processions, 208 ; corrupts 
 the army, 350; his part in 
 the Cumberland conspiracy, 
 363, 364 sqq. 
 
 Falmouth, Lord, 368. 
 
 Federation of Australian 
 lodges, 5, 112. 
 
 Felony, Orangemen guilty of, 
 74 {note 60), 305 ; cf. 109. 
 
 Ferguson, Rev. S. H., 152, 
 
 154. 155- 
 
 Fermanagh, juries and jury- 
 packing in, 320, 322-323 
 {note) ; acflion of Catholic 
 sheriff in, 398. 
 
 Ferns (Co. Wexford) in 1798, 
 266. 
 
 Finlayson, Crown Solicitor, 
 210-21 1 {note 73). 
 
 Finn, Mr., M.P., 199, 333, 
 
 379- 
 
 Firearms, use of, during Bel- 
 fast riots, 231 ; firing parties 
 at Orange processions, 202. 
 See "Arms." Fitzgerald, 
 Knight of Kerry, 75. 
 
 Fitzgerald, Lord Edward, 265. 
 
 Fitzmaurice, S.M., 223. 
 
 Fitzwilliam, Lord, 262. 
 
 Flanagan, Patrick, and the 
 Limerick lodge, 85-86. 
 
 Flanagan, Rev. Mr., 100, 200. 
 
 Flax and hempen industries, 
 182. 
 
 Fleming, torture of, 269 {note 
 
 52). 
 Fletcher, Judge, on Orange- 
 ism, 171-172,238; on Orange 
 loyalty, 251-252 ; on Orange 
 yeomen, 304-305; on Orange 
 magistrates and juries, 317, 
 
 329-. 
 Flogging in 1798, 269 {note 
 52), 277, 282, 283, 284, 
 285, 286-288, 292, 296 {note 
 
 437 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 79) ; defence of, by Mus- 
 grave and Orange party, 
 288-289. 
 
 Ford, J. P., 314. 
 
 Foreign education, penal laws 
 against, 185. 
 
 Fortescue, Chichester, Chief 
 Secretary, on Orange de- 
 monstrations, 194, 234. 
 
 Fox, Judge, 316, 325-326, 329. 
 
 Franchise, Catholics deprived 
 of, by Penal Code, 186; 
 Franchise Bill, Orange op- 
 position to, 132, 186 {7iote 
 84), 189, 225. See " Re- 
 form." 
 
 Eraser, S., Grand Master, 137, 
 145 {note 7), 243, 245 (note 9). 
 
 Free-quarters in 1798, 272, 
 275 {note 76), 284. See 
 " Martial law." 
 
 French invasion of 1796, 24- 
 25, 265 ; of 1798, 296. 
 
 Froude, as historian, remarks 
 on, 62-63 (note) ; his ani- 
 mosity against Catholics, 
 ibid., 177 {note 34) ; on the 
 Orange yeomanry, 261. 
 
 Funerals of Catholics, Orange 
 outrages at, 76, 229. 
 
 GABBET, W., 326. 
 Gallows, the Walking, 283 
 
 {note). 
 Galway, Catholics excluded 
 
 from, by Penal Code, 182 ; 
 
 position of Protestants in, 
 
 397' 398- 
 
 Game - keepers under Penal 
 Code, 187. 
 
 General Orders against army 
 lodges, 348, 351, 355. 
 
 Gentry and the Orange so- 
 ciety, 64 {note 31), 259. 
 
 George II. and the Penal 
 Code, 176. 
 
 George IV., and Cumberland, 
 
 364, 369, 375. 
 Giftard, Captain, 67, 273-274. 
 Giffen, 228. 
 Gladstone and Stuart Knox, 
 
 338 {note 80). 
 Glasgow, origin of Irish 
 
 colony in, 79. 
 Godkin on Penal Code, 188. 
 Goldwin Smith on Orange 
 
 outrages, 282. 
 Gordon, Duke of, D.G.M., 
 
 363- 378. 
 
 Gordon, Rev. James, as a his- 
 torian, remarks on, 297 
 (note 182). 
 
 Gordon riots, 169. 
 
 Gore, J., 319. 
 
 Gorey in 1798, 266, 267, 297. 
 
 Gosford, Earl of, 72-73 ; Lord, 
 on the Orange society, 201, 
 248, 307, etc. 
 
 Gough, Francis, torture of, 
 269 {note 52). 
 
 Government and the Orange 
 yeomanry, 259 sqq. ; conniv- 
 ance at Peep-o'-Day out- 
 rages, 28, 34 ; at early Or- 
 ange outrages, 65, 77 (see 
 "Magistrates"); at military 
 outrages of 1797 and 1798, 
 262, 281, 288, 290, 291-292, 
 294. 
 
 Gowan, Hunter, and the 
 Black Mob, 266-267, 276. 
 
 Gowan, Ogle R. (D.G.M.), 
 350-351 i^otf 18). 
 
 Grand Committee, 415-416. 
 
 Grand Orange Council, 5 {note 
 12), 131. 
 
 Grand Juries under Penal 
 Code, 187. 
 
 Grand Lodge, constitution of, 
 128, 415; its secrecy, 128; 
 its powers, i2ysqq.,2^6, 341, 
 416,418; its a(ftion at elec- 
 
 4^8 
 
GENERAL INDEX. 
 
 tions, 132 sqq.; support of 
 No-Popery le(51urers, 95-96, 
 1 60; encouragement of illegal 
 processions, 207, 209 342- 
 345 ; shielding offenders, 
 208, 345-347 ; attitude to- 
 wards Orange magistrates 
 and jurors, 310 sqq., 342, 
 345-347; corrupting the 
 army, 342, 347-356, 366, 
 367-368 ; defiance of Adl of 
 Suppression, 342, 360-362 ; 
 its loyalty, 340 sqq. ; its 
 share in the Cumberland 
 conspiracy, 363 sqq. ; sup- 
 pression of English Grand 
 Lodge, 4, 335, 342, 380-381, 
 382 : of Irish, 4, 362, cf. 
 382. See "Suppression." 
 
 Grand Master, his authority, 
 141, 374, 385 ; at elecflion 
 times, 138 sqq., 247 (see 
 " Ele(ftions ") ; of calling 
 out the lodges, 151. See 
 "Calling out." 
 
 Grand Tylers, 128. 
 
 Grants. Mayor of Montreal,! I. 
 
 Grattan on early Orange out- 
 rages, 68, 73-75 ; on outrages 
 of 1797, 263, 275, 293. 
 
 Green, Irish national colour, 
 216 [notci^); Orangemen's 
 hatred of, 278; use of by 
 Orangemen, 400 {note 6). 
 
 Greer, J. P., 311 {note), 314. 
 
 Greville, 364, 371-372. 
 
 Grey, Earl, 369, 378. 
 
 Grips, secret, log. 
 
 Guard, inner, 119, 128, 419. 
 
 Guardianshipof children under 
 Penal Code, 184. 
 
 Gullibility of Orangemen, 168. 
 
 Gun and Bible, 258. 
 
 Gun-clubs, 201-202, 204, 238. 
 
 Gunpowder, torture by, 286. 
 
 Gwynne, Mr., 96-97, 144, 240. 
 
 HABEAS CORPUS ACTS, 
 suspension of, 263. 
 
 Half-hanging under Penal 
 Code, 177 ; in 1798, 277, 
 282-285, 296 {note 179). 
 
 Hall, King v., 329. 
 
 Hamilton, Lieutenant, 327. 
 ,, Lord Claude, 90, 250. 
 
 Hammer, Rev. C. H., and the 
 billy-goat, 117. 
 
 Handcock, W. J., 42 {note), 
 43 {note 20), 248, 307. 
 
 Hanging of Priests under 
 Penal Code, 177 ; of people 
 in 1798, 271 (see " Half- 
 hanging"). 
 
 Hanna, Rev. H., sermons of, 
 200. 
 
 Hannigan, B., 391. 
 
 Harbouring priests under 
 Penal Code, 178-179. 
 
 Hardwicke, Earl of, 347-348. 
 
 Harkness, Bro. E., on the 
 extermination of Catholics, 
 68. 
 
 Hart, Rev. I\I, G., 94, 157. 
 
 Harvey, Bagenal, 298 [note 
 187). 
 
 Harvey, Bishop of Derry, 21. 
 
 Hawkins, Rev. F. C, 165. 
 
 Hay, Edward, 266. 
 
 Healy, T. M., M.P., 39:;. 
 
 Hearts of Oak, 62 ; of Steel, 
 ibid. 
 
 Heathershaw, Grand Chap- 
 lain, 105, 107, 144, 152, 157. 
 
 " Hell or Connaught," 74 sqq, 
 80, 316. 
 
 Hemp and linen trade, Irish, 
 under William III. and 
 Anne, 182. 
 
 Hepenstall, theWai'Ring Gal- 
 lows, 283 {note). 
 
 Hertford, Lord, 359. 
 
 Hessian regiments, brutality 
 of, in 1798, 265, 279. 
 
 439 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 Heywood and the Cumberland 
 
 Plot, 379, 380. 
 Higgin, Bishop (Protestant), 
 
 197 (iiote 16). 
 High sheriffs, Orangemen, 
 
 320. 
 Hill, Bro. W. D., 7. 
 Histories of Orangeism, by 
 
 Orangemen, 14, 94, 150 
 
 [note 18). 
 Holiday, an Orange, 229-230. 
 Holland, Lord, 67, 279, 284, 
 
 292. 
 Holmes, Mr., 194. 
 Holt, Joseph, 294 {note 172). 
 Holt, Waring, Rev,, 71 {note), 
 
 106, 307 {note 214). 
 Home Rule, Orangemen and, 
 
 166, 203-204, 330, 331, 403- 
 
 404 {note). 
 Hooting at Lord Caledon, 
 
 99; the police, 249. See 
 
 " Police." 
 Horses, possession of by Ca- 
 tholics under Penal Code, 
 
 183. 
 
 Hotels, holding lodges in, 115- 
 116, 119, 147, 412. 
 
 House-burning or wrecking 
 by Peep-o'-Day Boys, 28, 
 33 {note 93) ; by Orangemen, 
 39, 42, 43 {note 20), 72, 75- 
 76, 220 sqq., 230-231, 251 ; 
 by Orange soldiery, etc., 
 273-277, 290, 292, 296 {note 
 179) ; iDy magistrates, 266. 
 
 Houses abandoned by people 
 in 1798, 276, 277, 287, 293. 
 
 Howard, Edw. (yeoman), 100 
 {note 65), 306. 
 
 Hurley, David, 6. 
 
 Hume, M.P., and Orange 
 society, 308, 333 ; and Cum- 
 berland conspiracy, 379, 
 382. 
 
 Hunter Gowan, 266-267, 276. 
 
 IGNORANCE enforced by 
 Penal Code, 184-186. 
 
 " Ignorant Irish," ihid. 
 
 Illegitimacy, Orangeism and, 
 406 {note 28). 
 
 Immorality, charges of by 
 Orangemen against Catho- 
 lics, 158, 159-161. 
 
 Impoverishment of Catholics 
 by Penal Code, 180 sqq. 
 
 Indemnity Acfls, 64, 263, 293. 
 
 Informers under Penal Code, 
 176, 178, 179, 181,183,185, 
 187; in 1798, 301. 
 
 Influence, baneful, of Orange- 
 ism, 102-103, 320-321. 
 
 Inheritance under Penal Code, 
 181, 183 sqq. 
 
 Initiation into Orange society, 
 1 1 3- 1 14, 409; strange cere- 
 monies of, 1 1 7- 1 18. 
 
 Inner Guard, 119, 128, 419. 
 
 Innes's report on Orangeism 
 in Scotland, 239. 
 
 Innocent or merely suspecfted 
 persons, torture of, in 1798, 
 281, 282, 284, 285. See 
 " Torture." 
 
 Inquiry, Parliamentary, into 
 Orangeism, 45-46 ; inquiry 
 suppressed in 1798, 293. 
 
 Inquisition, the Orange, 280 
 sqq. See " Insurrecftion," 
 " Torture." 
 
 "Instrudtions" for the "higher 
 degrees," 401. 
 
 InsurrecT;ion A(5t, 263, 313. 
 
 Insurrecftion of 1798 fomented 
 by Government, 258 sqq. ; 
 by what means, 261 sqq., 
 281-282, 284, 291, 292, 294, 
 295 {note) ; chief instru- 
 ments, the Orange ^ yeo- 
 manry, etc., 259 sqq. (see 
 " Yeomanry"); martial law, 
 264, 271, 272, 295 ; house- 
 
 440 
 
GENERAL INDEX 
 
 turning, etc., 266, 273-277, 
 290, 292, 296 {note 179); 
 treatment of women by- 
 soldiery, 273-274, 277-280 ; 
 by insurgents, 280. The 
 Orange Inquisition, 280 sqq. 
 (see " Torture ") ; murder 
 and massacre by Orange 
 soldiery, etc., 18 (note 7), 
 273-275. 276-277, 289 sqq., 
 297 5?!7-; ferocity of Orange 
 party, 291-292 ; no legal 
 redress, 293. The Insuvrec- 
 tion; retaliation by insurg- 
 ents, 295-296 ; excesses of 
 Orange soldiery, 296-300 ; 
 ferocity of Orange party 
 after rebellion, 300-301 ; in- 
 surgents' hatred of Orange- 
 men, 267. 
 
 Invasion, French, of 1796, 
 24-25, 265; of 1798, 296. 
 
 Ionian Islands, army lodges 
 
 in. 349-350- 
 Irish, Catholics, tolerant spirit 
 
 of, 17-19, 396-398 ; Protes- 
 tants, tolerant spirit of be- 
 fore rise of Orangeism, 16, 
 19-21 ; commerce destroyed 
 by William III., 173, 181- 
 182; national air, 43 {note 
 20) ; national colour, 216 
 (note), 266-26y (note); Penal 
 Code, 173 sqq. ; Orange yeo- 
 manry, 25^ sqq. 
 Italy, army lodges in, 350. 
 
 JACOB, Dr., 267. 
 Jaffe, Mr., 389 (note 8). 
 James II. and Irish Catholics, 
 
 173- 
 Jefferson, Thomas, 309. 
 Jesuits, abuse of, 396 {note 22). 
 Tohnson, Judge, 316. 
 Johnston, Rev. Mr., loi ; Rev. 
 
 Dr., 236. 
 
 Johnston, W. (Deputy Grand 
 Master), 198, 209, 210,234. 
 
 Judges and the Orange society, 
 171-172, 238, 251-252, 304- 
 305. 316, 317, 325-326,329, 
 330-332- 
 
 Juries, Orange, 256, 304, 305, 
 3io(5(?(/).,3i7, 319,320, 321, 
 322, 326-327, 329, 330-332, 
 
 345-347. 385- 
 Jurors' oath, 309. 
 Jury-packing, 319, 322. 
 
 KANE, Rev. R., 245 (noteg). 
 
 Kennedy, Captain 250 (note 
 26). 
 
 Kent, Duchess of, 370. 
 
 Kernan (Barrister), 317 (note 
 21), 319-320, 327. 
 
 Kenyon, Lord (Deputy Grand 
 Master), and the civil autho- 
 rities, 347 ; and army lodges, 
 353 ; and the Cumberland 
 plot, 363, 368, 369, 374, 
 
 377. 378. 379. 380. 
 Kerry, position of Protestants 
 
 in, 396 (note 23). 
 Kildare, yeomanry in, 268; out- 
 rages by soldiery in, 296, 
 
 297 ; rebellion in 299 (note 
 
 188). 
 KiUen, Rev. W. D., 16 (note). 
 Killyman, Orange Wreckers, 
 
 39, 42, 43 (note 20), 209 ; 
 
 Orange yeomanry, 307. 
 King, Sir Abraham B., 108- 
 
 109. 
 Kingsborough, Lord, 269, 270 
 
 (note 53), 288 (note 138). 
 King's County militia. 270 
 
 (note 53). 
 King V. Hall, 329. 
 Kissing cross on the Pope's 
 
 foot, 157. 
 Kitson, Orange yeoman, 304, 
 
 326. 
 
 441 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 Knownothingism, 11-12, i6g. 
 
 Knox, General, 66. 
 
 Knox, Colonel Stuart, M.P., 
 
 338 {note 80). 
 Knox, Vessey, M.P., 392. 
 
 LAITY, Catholic, abuse of, 
 161-169. 
 
 Lake, General, on the yeo- 
 manry, 273. 
 
 Land, annuities on, leases of, 
 etc., under Penal Code, 
 181, sqq; confiscation of 
 under Penal Code, 173, 181; 
 League, Orangemen and, 
 99. 
 
 Langdale, Sheriff, 398. 
 
 Langley, Rev. H. A., 165. 
 
 Launceston Daily Telegraph, 
 libel by, 159. 
 
 Law, Orangemen and the, 40- 
 4i> 43-44> 109, no sqq., 
 114, 115, 116, 194, 197 
 (note 1 6), 204 5^^., 217 sqq., 
 246-256, 281, 287, 306, 
 310 sqq. See " Crown," 
 "Grand Lodge," "Loyalty," 
 "Juries," "Magistrates," 
 " Processions," "Torture." 
 
 LAWS, monopoly in making 
 of, under Penal Code, 174. 
 
 Laws, etc., of Orange society, 
 408 sqq.. 
 
 Lawson, Judge, on Orange 
 juries, 331. 
 
 Leadbeater, Mrs., 277. 
 
 Learned professions, Catholics 
 excluded from, under Penal 
 Code, 174, 180, 186-187. 
 
 " Le6\ures" of the " higher 
 degrees," 401. 
 
 Lecfturers, No- Popery, 95-96, 
 156, 160, 179 (note 47). 
 
 Lecky, 69 {note 50) ; on Penal 
 Code, 188-189. 
 
 Legislative Union, how ef- 
 
 fecfted, 258 5(^(^., 294; Orange- 
 men and, 403-404 {note). 
 
 Leinster, Orange soldiery in, 
 265-268, 270-271, 275- 
 291, 295-299, 301, 303, 
 304-305. See " Antrim 
 militia, " Carlow," " Dub- 
 lin," " Kildare," " North 
 Cork," "Tyrone," "Wex- 
 ford," " Wicklow." 
 
 Leland, Rev. T., 18. 
 
 Libel on Rev. D. Coveney, 
 
 159- 
 
 Liberal candidates, Orange- 
 men and. See " Eledfions." 
 
 Liberal-minded Protestants, 
 Orange hatred of, 98 sqq., 
 13I' 133. 249, 316; cf. 398 
 {note 24). 
 
 Licensed vidl;uallers, 11 5- 116, 
 119) I47»4i2. 
 
 Limerick, violated treaty of, 
 174-175, 178, 187; exclu- 
 sion of Catholics from, 
 under Penal Code, 182; 
 position of Protestants in, 
 
 397. 398. 
 
 Linen and hempen trade, Irish, 
 under William III., 182. 
 
 Link and Chain degree, 400. 
 
 List of resigned, suspended, 
 and expelled members, etc., 
 see " Black list." 
 
 " Literature" of lodges, 149, 
 156, 159-161, 217. 
 
 Liverpool, Orange processions 
 in, 207. 
 
 Lodge era of Orangeism, 35, 
 36 ; first lodge, 54. 
 
 Lodges, Orange, institution 
 of, 54, 56 ; forming new, 
 127, 410; chaplains of, 169 
 (see " Clergy") ; in army, 
 see " Army" ; in public- 
 houses, 115-116, 119, 147, 
 412 ; membership of, 8^ sqq.. 
 
 442 
 
GENERAL INDEX. 
 
 128 sqq.; re-ballot of, 128, 
 129, 130, 245-246, 410-41 1 ; 
 suspension or suppression 
 of, 130, 420. See also 
 " Calling out," " Grand 
 Lodge," " Laws." 
 
 Londondervy Impvovement A<ft, 
 390 sqg. 
 
 Londonderry, Lord, and 
 Cumberland Plot, 363, 367. 
 
 Longford, Lord, and Cumber- 
 land Plot, 363. 
 
 Long Tower Church, Derry, 
 20-21. 
 
 Loughgall, 54. 
 
 Lowndes, 57 (note). 
 
 Lowther, Lord, 359. 
 
 Loyal subje(5ts, William IV. 's 
 appeal to, against the Orange 
 society, 381. 
 
 Loyalty defined, 242 ; of Irish 
 Catholics, 16, 23-26, 176 ; 
 Orangemen's professions of, 
 241-256, 264, 267, 281, 241- 
 256 ; rioting through, 226 
 sqq.; conditional loyalty, 40, 
 121, 147, 251-255,306,358- 
 360, 402, 404 ; its selling 
 price, 251-255 (see "Ascen- 
 dency") ; loyal "obliga- 
 tions," 247-256 ; loyalty of 
 the Orange masses, see 
 "^rms," " Crown," "Law," 
 " Plunder," "Processions," 
 " Raids" ; of Orange juries 
 and magistrates, see 
 "Juries," " Magistrates " ; 
 of the Orange leaders, see 
 "Cumberland plot," 
 "Grand Lodge," "Queen"; 
 of the Orange soldiery, see 
 "Ancient Britons," "How- 
 ard," " Massacre," " Mu- 
 tiny," "Plunder," "Tyr- 
 one," " Yeomanry." 
 
 Lurgan, Episcopalians in, 61 
 
 (note 21) ; yeomanry, 307. 
 Luttrell, see "Carhampton." 
 Lynch, Rev. Dr., 20. 
 
 MACARTNEY, Dean, 153, 
 
 165. 
 
 MacDonald, Major- General 
 Sir J., 348. 
 
 Mackenzie, Lieut.- General, 
 306. 
 
 Madgwick, Rev. Bro., 93. 
 
 Madsen, Rev. A., 165 {note 82). 
 
 Magherafelt inquiry, 111-112. 
 
 Magheramayo massacre. See 
 " Dolly's Brae." 
 
 Maghery, outrage at, 42-43, 
 221. 
 
 Magistrates, oath of, 309 ; 
 and Penal Code, 178 ; 
 CathoHc, in Ireland, 322- 
 323 ; and Peep-o'-Day out- 
 rages, 34 ; and early Orange 
 outrages, 73, 75, 77, 260 
 {)iote 10), 312-314, 333 ; 
 Orange magistrates, partia- 
 lity of, 40-41, 43, 208, 224- 
 225, 249,256, 265, 313 sqq.y 
 345-347» 385; refusing to 
 receive or adl: on informa- 
 tions, 41, 313-314, 325 sqq.; 
 declared unfit for office, 333- 
 334» 335-337; Lord Chan- 
 cellor Brady's order against, 
 335"337 ; dismissed from 
 office, 40, 44 (note 24), 225 
 (note), 311 (note), 328. 
 
 Malta, army lodges in, 349- 
 
 350, 353- 
 
 Malyon, Rev. T. J., 157, 159, 
 167. 
 
 Mandeville, Viscount, 201. 
 
 " Mangling " by Orangemen 
 in Dublin, 288 {note 132). 
 
 Tilanifesto of Dublin Orange- 
 men, 68-69. 
 
 443 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 Manning, Cardinal, abuse of, 
 
 165. 
 Mansell, Rev. Mr., 48-49, 50, 
 
 199. 
 Maria Monk, 160, 266 [note 
 
 38). 
 Marriages, mixed, under Penal 
 Code, 179-180; in later 
 times, igi. 
 
 Marrying Papists, Orangemen, 
 96-98, 179 [note 48), 404, 
 409, 420. 
 
 Martial law in 1798, 264, 271, 
 272, 295. See " Free- 
 quarters," " House-burn- 
 ing," "Insurrection," 
 " Massacre," " Militia," 
 " Torture," " Women," 
 " Yeomanry." 
 
 Martin, John, 397. 
 
 Martineau, Miss, 363, 365, 
 370. 371 » 376 {I'ote 67), 380- 
 381. 
 
 Mass, Orangeman expelled for 
 attending at, 145 [note 5) ; 
 Royal family, condemned 
 for, loo-ioi. 
 
 Massacre, alleged, of 1641, 18; 
 bogey of future massacre of 
 Protestants, 164 sqq., 396 
 [note 22) ; massacres by 
 soldiers, yeomen, etc., 18 
 {note 7), 273-275, 276-277, 
 289 sqq., 297 sqq. ; by Or- 
 angemen, 220 sqq., 225, 282, 
 327-328. 
 
 Master of lodge, " obligation" 
 of, 84, 115, 406-407. 
 
 Mathew, Father, Orangemen 
 and, 191. 
 
 Mathieson, Rev., 94, 152. 
 
 Maynooth Grant, 133-134. 
 
 Mayors, Protestant, in South 
 and West, 397-398. 
 
 McBrian, murder of, 327. 
 
 McCabe, murder of, 327. 
 
 McCarthy Downing, Mr., 
 M.P., 202, 321. 
 
 McCarthy, Justin, 99, 364. 
 
 McClelland, Mr., J. P., 220. 
 
 McClelland, Baron, 302. 
 
 McCrea, Rev. J., his speeches, 
 199-200. 
 
 McCuster outrage, 304 [note 
 207), 326. 
 
 McGlade, murder of, 304. 
 
 MTlwine, Rev., 200. 
 
 McKeown, murder of, 303. 
 
 McKie, Corporal, 5, 351. 
 
 McKnight, Dr. James, 167 
 and note 97, 171, 196, 202 
 {note 46), 214, 239. 
 
 McKnight, Thomas, 214, 
 231. 
 
 McLaughlin, W., Q.C., 394. 
 
 McMeekin, Father, outrage 
 on, 31 {note 81). 
 
 McNally, informer, on Orange 
 justice, 314-315. 
 
 McNevin, Dr., 24 {^wte 45), 
 37. 263. 
 
 Meath yeomanry, 268. 
 
 Melbourne, Orange riots, etc., 
 in, 6, 218-219. 
 
 Membership of lodges, 83 sqq., 
 128 sqq., see "Ballot," 
 " Black list," " Expulsion," 
 " Initiation," " Lodges," 
 " Suspension." 
 
 Members of Parliament, Pro- 
 testant, for Catholic elec- 
 torates, 396-397. 
 
 Memoir of the Union, 24 [note 
 
 45). 
 Memorial of Belfast Catholics, 
 322 ; of Derry Catholics, 
 
 394-395 i^'ote)- 
 
 Meeting-place of lodges, pre- 
 cautions regarding, 4 18. See 
 "Public-houses," "Tylers." 
 
 Militia, Irish, in 1798, 265, 
 266, 268, 269-271, 279, 285, 
 
 444 
 
GENERAL INDEX. 
 
 286, 287, 291, 294 {note 172), 
 298. 
 
 Miller, Mr., J. P., 220. 
 
 Mitchel, John, 17 {note 5). 
 
 Mixed marriages, laws against, 
 179-180, 191. 
 
 Moira, Lord, 78, 275. 
 
 Moira yeomanry, mutiny of, 
 306. 
 
 Molesworth, Rev. W. Nassau, 
 147, 189-190 ; on the Cum- 
 berland plot, 382-383 {note). 
 
 Molesworth, Sir W., 380 {note 
 
 73)- 
 Monaghan magistrates and 
 
 juries, 322, 330. 
 Monasteries, etc., suppression 
 
 of, under Penal Code, 178. 
 Monk, Maria, 160, 266 {note 
 
 38). 
 Monopolies created by Penal 
 
 Code, ly^sqq., 186 ; claimed 
 
 by Orangemen, 252-253. 
 Montgomery, Sir H., 221. 
 Montreal riots, 210. 
 Moore, Mr. Serjeant, 303 {note 
 
 201). 
 Moore, Sir John, 268 {note 45), 
 
 300 {note 191). 
 Morality, Orangeism and, 97- 
 
 98, 102-103, 406 {note 28). 
 Morgan, F. (" Ulsterman "), 
 
 14 {note 24), 94, 150 {note 
 
 18). 
 Mortgages on land under 
 
 Penal Code, 181, 183. 
 Mottoes of secret societies, 
 
 143- 
 Mullen, Dr., 319. 
 Municipal and Parliamentary 
 
 eledtions, Orange rules for, 
 
 1^6 sqq. See " Ele(5lions." 
 Murphy, Father John, 267 
 
 {note 42). 
 Murphy, Judge, on Omagh 
 
 jury, 332. 
 
 Murphy, No-Popery lecfturer, 
 156 {note 53). 
 
 Murvanogue, murder of, 326. 
 
 Musgrave as a historian, 31 
 {note 8j), 57-58 {note i); on 
 the Orange society, 237 ; 
 approves of torture, 288- 
 289. 
 
 Musical festival, A, 225. 
 
 Mutilation by early Orange- 
 men, 76 ; of lodge docu- 
 ments, 46, 113, 121 sqq. 
 
 Mutiny of Orange Yeomanry, 
 305-308. 
 
 N APLES Convent, slander on 
 
 a, 161 {note 73). 
 National air of Ireland, 43 
 
 {note 20) ; national colour, 
 
 216 {note 15), 266-267 {note). 
 Nationalists, meetings and 
 
 processions of, 202, 204. 
 Navy, lodges in, 353. 
 Neild, Grand Master, 165. 
 Newry Orange yeomanry, 269. 
 New South Wales, Orangeism 
 
 in, 5. 154' 165, 351. 
 No-Popery, Orangemen and, 
 
 5, 12, 82 {note], i^gsqq. See 
 
 " Leifturers." 
 North Cork Militia in 1798, 
 
 265, 266, 268, 269-271, 276, 
 
 279, 285, 286, 287, 299. 
 Novthevn Star office wrecked, 
 
 293 {note 163). 
 Northern Whig, 225, 336. 
 Northumberland, Duke of, 
 
 207 ; Duchess of, 372. 
 Nose-slitting in 1798, 286. 
 Nucella, 349-35o> 352, 353 
 Nugent, Lord, 350. 
 
 OATHS for Catholics under 
 Penal Code, 174, 177-178, 
 186,187; the corporal, 114; 
 of jurors, 309 ; of magis 
 
 445 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 trates, ibid.; of Orangemen, 
 4> 39-40. 84-85, 97, 107, 
 loS-iog sqq., 119, 121, 247, 
 356,400,401, 404-405; of 
 extermination, 64 sqq., 300 
 {note 193); alleged, of 
 Catholic priests, 165. 
 
 Oaths and Tests A(5ts, 4, 109, 
 112, 114,369(7^0^^48). 
 
 "Obligations" of lodge offi- 
 cers, 406-407 ; of Orange- 
 men, 247-256, 404-405 ; of 
 Pur piemen, 108. See 
 " Oaths." 
 
 " Observer," 28, 293 [note 163). 
 
 O'Connell, 397 (note). 
 
 O'Connor, Arthur, 24 (note 
 45), 26 (note), 300 (note 193). 
 
 O Doherty, James E., 394 
 (note 21). 
 
 Officers of private lodges, 127 
 sqq., 419 ; of Grand Lodge, 
 416 sqq. 
 
 O'Gorman, Auffi-ay, Mrs., 96, 
 160. 
 
 O'Hagan, Lord, 191. 
 
 O'Hanlon, T., 390. 
 
 O' Kelly V. Rodolphus Harvey, 
 206. 
 
 Old Custom House, torture 
 at, 288. 
 
 " Old True Blue," 14 (note 24), 
 150 (note 18). 
 
 O'Leary, Father, 18 (note 6), 
 19. 
 
 O'Mullan v. McKorkill, 82 
 (note). 
 
 Omagh trials, 331-332. 
 
 O'Neill, Charles, 391. 
 
 O'Neill, Constantine, outrage 
 on, 41 (note 18), 302-303, 
 
 Ontario, Orangeism in, 5. 
 Orange colours, see "Colours." 
 Orange degree, 127, 128-129; 
 ritual of, 401-407. 
 
 Orange emblems, see " Em- 
 
 blems." 
 Orangeism and Protestantism, 
 
 93, 102-103, 255, 338, 384, 
 
 406 (note 28). 
 Orange politicians, 132 sqq., 
 
 338 (note 80). 
 Orange society, the : its name, 
 
 57 (note) ; its conne(51;ion 
 
 with Peep-o'-Day Boys, 
 
 35. 36, 54 (»^^^ 52), 57 m-y 
 not defensive, 16, 19, 23, 
 25-26, 35. 56, 69 sqq., 82, 
 92, 104, 125, 147, 149 
 sqq., 170-173, 189-192, 195 
 sqq., 205 sqq., 212 sqq., 
 235. 249 sqq., 310 sqq (see 
 " Abuse," " Arms," " Con- 
 fiscation," " Crown," " Ex- 
 termination," " Insurrec- 
 tion," " Massacre," "Plun- 
 der," "Torture," "Yeo- 
 manry") ; extermination 
 oath of, 64 sqq., 300 (note 
 193) ; charadler of the 
 early, 2, 61-64, 69 (note 50) ; 
 inaugural outrages, 31 (note 
 81) 64 sqq., 69 sqq.; Orange 
 society and United Irishmen, 
 24, 26 (note), J 1 (note); religion 
 of, 102-103 ; secrecy of, see 
 " Secrecy " ; organisation 
 of, 126 sqq.; policy of party 
 ascendency, see " Ascend- 
 ency " ; attitude towards 
 Presbyterians and other 
 Dissenters, see "Dis- 
 senters," " Presbyterians," 
 " Primitive Methodists, " 
 " Salvation Army " ; hos- 
 tility to Catholics, see 
 " Abuse," " Boycotting," 
 " Belfast," " Civil Service," 
 "Demonstrations," 
 "Derry, " " Extermina- 
 tion," "Insurrection," 
 
 446 
 
GENERAL INDEX. 
 
 . " Juries," " Magistrates," 
 " Penal Code," " Proces- 
 sions," " Torture," " Yeo- 
 manry " ; hostility to Go- 
 vernment, see " Crown," 
 "Demonstrations," 
 "Loyalty," "Parliament," 
 " Processions " ; hostility 
 to the law, see " Law " ; 
 hostility to Queen Vicftoria, 
 see " Cumberland Plot," 
 " Queen " ; rules of the 
 society, 4, 122, 126, 408 
 sqq.; its tendency, 102 ; its 
 suppression, see " Suppres- 
 sion." 
 
 Oratorical display at Orange 
 celebrations. See "Abuse," 
 " Sermons." 
 
 Organisation of the Orange 
 society, 126 sqq. 
 
 Oriel, Colonel, 305. 
 
 Osborne, Judge, on Orange 
 magistrates, etc., 304 {note 
 205), 326. 
 
 O'Shanassy, Sir John, 6. 
 
 O'Sullivan, Rev. M., D.G.C., 
 29, 40. 
 
 Oulart Hill, battle of, 299 
 [note 190). 
 
 Outrages by Orangemen, 31 
 {note 81), 42, 43, 70-79, 98- 
 99, 132, 217-232, 249. See 
 " Inquisition," " Insurrec- 
 tion," "Massacre," "Tor- 
 ture," "Yeomanry." 
 
 PACKING of bench, 322-328; 
 
 of jury-box, 319-322. 
 Paisley, Irish colony at, 79 ; 
 
 rioting at, 232. 
 Palmerston, Lord, on the 
 
 Orange society, 219, 337 
 
 {note 78;. 
 " Papering," 74. 
 " Papist," the term. Queen 
 
 Elizabeth's objecftion to, 
 158 ; use of in Penal Code, 
 158, 177 sqq.; by Orange- 
 men, 96, 97, 98-99, 158, 
 190 {note 100), 300, 406; 
 marrying a Papist, 96-98; 
 "Papist" Protestants, 98- 
 99, 108 ; "Papist" Orange- 
 men, 99, 365. 
 
 Parker, Rev. D., 155, 165. 
 
 Parkes, Rev. W., 164 {note 82). 
 
 Parliament, EngUsh, and Irish 
 Penal Code 175 {note 22) ; 
 exclusion of Catholics and 
 Dissenters from, 253 ; Par- 
 liament and the Orange 
 society, 4, 11,42 {note 19), 44 
 (?w^^24),56, 1 1 7, 121-122,123, 
 141, 194, 198, 200, 202, 203- 
 204, 205, 208, 210, 221, 
 225, 233, 234, 249-250, 253, 
 304 {note 207), 318, 328, 330, 
 
 333, 338, 342, 343>354,37o. 
 381. 
 
 ParHamentary Committees of 
 Inquiry into the Orange 
 society, 45 46, 97, 99 {note 
 62), 102, 108. 
 
 Parliamentary elections, Or- 
 angemen and. See " Elec- 
 tions." 
 
 Parliamentary Reform, 
 Orangemen and, 132, 133, 
 189, 378, 379. 
 
 Parnell, C. S., 397. 
 
 Parnell, Sir Henry, 205. 
 
 Parsons, Sir Laurence, 75. 
 
 Party ascendency, see " As- 
 cendency" ; colours, see 
 " Colours " ; cries, see 
 "Cries"; emblems, see 
 " Emblems" ; tunes, 43 
 {note '20), 148,209,211,213, 
 229, 230. 
 
 Party Processions Acfts, 7, 40, 
 99 {>iote 62), 194, 195, 205, 
 
 447 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 209, 225, 234, 249-250, 
 
 343- 
 Passwords, 5 {note 19), 107), 
 109, III, 112, 115, 117, 120, 
 
 365. 407- 
 
 Patience of Catholics, 218-221 . 
 
 Patrick Flanagan, case of, 85- 
 86. 
 
 Patronage by lodges, 254, 384. 
 See " Belfast," " Derry," 
 " Ele(5tions." 
 
 Patten, Dr. 304. 
 
 Patterson, J. B., 158, 245 
 (note 9). 
 
 Peel Government and Orange- 
 ism, 338. 
 
 Peep-o'-Day Boys : their ori- 
 gin, character, and methods, 
 21, 27, 32, 61 (note) ; their 
 movement aggressive, 28 
 
 sQq-, 35> 51. 55^ 56, 70; 
 extermination policy of, 33 ; 
 partiality of civil authorities 
 to, 34 ; connedtion of with 
 Presbyterians, 61 (note) ; 
 with early Orangemen, 30- 
 31 {note 76), 35, 36, 54 {note 
 52), 57 sqg. ; at Diamond 
 battle, 48 sqq., 54, 61 (note). 
 
 Pelham, Chief Secretary, 260 
 {note 13). 
 
 Penal Code, William III. and 
 the, 173 sqq. ; monopolies 
 created by, 173-174; vio- 
 lated treaty of Limerick, 
 174-175 ; object of Penal 
 Code, 176, 177, 180-181, 
 188 ; laws against Catholic 
 clergy, 177-179; restridlions 
 on ownership of property, 
 confiscation, destruction of 
 Irish trade, 180 sqq.; pro- 
 selytising, 183 sqq. ; laws 
 against education of Catho- 
 lics, 184-186; exclusion of 
 Catholics from Parliament, 
 
 etc., 186 sqq.; death of 
 Penal Code, 20 ; Orange- 
 men favour penalising 
 Catholics, 178 {note 39), 179 
 {note 47), 181 {note 59), 185 
 {note 77), 186-187 {note), 189- 
 192 ; penalising Dissenters, 
 90, 253, 369 {note 48); 
 Froude and Penal Code, 
 177 {note 34). 
 
 Pennefather, Judge, 194, 209. 
 
 Perjury, 114, 353-354. 405 
 {note 25). 
 
 Perrin, Mr. Serjeant, 42 {note 
 19). 
 
 Perry, Anthony, torture of, 
 286 {note 121). 
 
 Persecution, Irish Catholics 
 and, 16-19; by Orangemen, 
 see "Abuse," "Boycot- 
 ting," "Civil Service," 
 "Confiscation," "Elec- 
 tions," " Extermination," 
 " Inquisition," " Insurrec- 
 tion," " Juries," " Magis- 
 trates," "Massacre," "Plun- 
 der," " Torture," " Yeo- 
 manry." 
 
 " Peter the Packer," 320 {note 
 29). 
 
 Petitions against the Orange 
 society, 121. 
 
 PhilHps, Charles, 81-82. 
 
 Physical force. Orange policy 
 of, 3. 125, 132, 198-199, 
 365. 366-367, 385. See 
 " Calling out," " Crown," 
 " Processions." 
 
 Picketing, torture of, 271, 
 277, 281, 282-285, 287. 
 
 Pillory, the, under Penal Code, 
 187. 
 
 Pirrie, Lord Mayor (Belfast), 
 
 .389- 
 Pitched cap,tortureof,27o, 27 1, 
 282, 285-286, 296 {note 179). 
 
 448 
 
GENERAL INDEX. 
 
 Pitt's Irish policy, 2, 26, 32 
 [note 82), 63-64, 2^8 sqq., 292. 
 
 Pius IX, vilification of, 159. 
 
 Place-hunting by Orangemen, 
 254, 384. See " Elecflions." 
 
 Place of lodge meeting, 418. 
 See "Public-houses." 
 
 " Platform, a common," 90-92. 
 
 Plot, Cumberland, 362 sqq. 
 See " Cumberland." 
 
 Plowden,37; on the Defenders 
 29 (note 69). 
 
 Plunder of Catholics by Or- 
 angemen, 72, 74, 75, 76, 78, 
 220, 231, 251, 268, 273, 274 
 (note 68), 277, 290, 357, cf. 
 277. See " Confiscation." 
 
 Plunket, Randel, D.G.M., 3, 
 132. 
 
 " Poets" and ■' poetry " of 
 lodges, 14 {note 24), 98, 150 
 (note 18), 153, 225, 257-258. 
 
 Police, Orangemen resist, 
 maim, or murder, 207, 208, 
 220, 228, 230, 249, 331 ; 
 Irish police. Orange lodges 
 in, 323 ; regulation against 
 lodgesin,324; Orange police 
 in Belfast, iii, 323-324; in 
 Vi(fl:oria,324,334; partiality 
 of Orange police, 82 {note), 
 
 323-324- 
 
 Politicians, Orange, 132 sqq., 
 140, 254. See " Eledtions," 
 "Grand Lodge," "Grand 
 Master." 
 
 Politics and religion in the 
 Orange society, 2, 131 sqq., 
 251-254, 401 (notes 9, 10), 
 403. See " Disestablish- 
 ment," "Elecflions," "Edu- 
 cation," "Emancipation," 
 "Franchise," "Reform." 
 
 Pope, abuse of the, 80, 82 (note), 
 92, 148 (note 16), 157-158, 
 215, 230, 390 {note 10). 
 
 "Popish," use of the word in 
 Penal Code, 177 sqq., 190 
 {note 100). 
 
 Post Office Inquiry (Mel- 
 bourne), Preface, 8, 40, 115, 
 162, 335. 
 
 Pound quarter, Belfast, 213 
 {note 2), 220. 
 
 Praemunire, penalty for, 179. 
 
 Presbyterians not persecuted 
 in Ireland, 18-19; Presby- 
 terians and United Irish- 
 men, 24, 26 {note) ; and 
 Peep-o'-Day Boys, 61 {note)', 
 and Orangemen, 87, 89 90 ; 
 and Catholic refugees from 
 Orange outrages, 79. See 
 also Regium Donum, 134 
 {note 33). 
 
 Pressmen excluded from 
 Orange society, 116. 
 
 Prevarication by Orange lead- 
 ers, 44, 47, 69 {note 49), 
 
 351-354- 
 Price of Orange loyalty, 251- 
 
 255- 
 
 Priests and Defenderism, 33 ; 
 penal laws against, 177 sqq. ; 
 and Ribbonism, 239 (note 
 93); hunting of, 178- 1 79; 
 vilification of by Orange- 
 men, 158-159, 199 {note 29) ; 
 outrages, etc., on, 31 {note 
 Si), 221, 300. 
 
 Primitive Methodist clergy 
 and the Orange society, 91, 
 151, 152, 157. 
 
 Prince of Wales, Orangemen 
 and the, loi. 
 
 Printing of Orange docu- 
 ments, 113, 1 20-12 1. 
 
 Prisoners, escorted by Orange- 
 men, 222 ; murder of, 289, 
 290-291 ; rescue of, by 
 Orangemen, 302. 
 
 Processions of Peep-o' Day 
 
 449 
 
 A3 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 Boys and Defenders, 29 
 (note 72) ; of Orangemen, 
 58, 170, 193 sqq., 208-211, 
 212 sqq., 318, 342-345; ille- 
 gality of, 205-206, 208-211, 
 342-345 ; habit of carrying 
 armsatjSee" Arms;" Party 
 Processions Acfts, 7, 40, 99 
 {note 62), 194, 195, 205, 209, 
 225, 234, 249-250, 343 ; de- 
 fiance of law, 40-41, 43- 
 44, 205 sqq., 248 sqq., 
 342 - 345> 361 - 362 ; the 
 Catholic party, 212 sqq., 
 ofFensiveness of processions, 
 170-173, 180, 184, 189-192, 
 193 sqq., 212 sqq., 232-235; 
 result of processions : strife, 
 outrage, 171-173, 205 sqq., 
 212 sqq., 217 sqq., 385 (see 
 " Outrages "); cost of pro- 
 cessions, 4-5, 231-232 ; con- 
 demnation of, 232-235, 236- 
 240. 
 
 Proclamation by insurgent 
 leaders, 295 (note 176). 
 
 Professions, learned, mono- 
 poly of under Penal Code, 
 174, 180, 186-187. 
 
 Professions of secret societies, 
 105-106, 143 ; and official 
 pradtice of the Orange 
 society, contrast between, 
 84, 106, 143 sqq., 156, 161, 
 164, 170, i8g-igo, 205, 214, 
 240, 241-257, 264, 271-272, 
 278, 301, 308. 3^0, 337 {note 
 78), 3405^^., 349, 354, 356, 
 
 384-385> 407- 
 Property of Catholics under 
 
 Penal Code, 181 sqq. 
 Prosecution, proposed, of 
 
 Cumberland conspirators, 
 
 380-382. 
 Proselytising under Penal 
 
 Code, 176,183-184,185-186. 
 
 Protestant, meaning of word 
 in Ireland, 23 (note 37), 86- 
 88 ; " Protestant ascend- 
 ency," meaning of words, 
 see " Ascendency'' ; Pro- 
 testant religion. Orange 
 meaning of words, 86-89 » 
 Protestant succession, 370. 
 
 Protestant Alliance Friendly 
 Society, 5. 
 
 Protestants, Irish, tolerant 
 spirit of before rise of 
 Orangeism, 16, 19-21, 386 ; 
 conversion of under Penal 
 Code, 179; Protestants 
 alone eligible for the Orange 
 society, 83 sqq. ; the Estab- 
 lished Church, 86-88 ; " the 
 wrong sort," 92 sqq, 131, 
 133. 255, 316; "the right 
 sort," 90-92, 129, 265, 402 ; 
 Protestants, Australian, and 
 the Orange society, 90-92 ; 
 alleged intended massacre 
 of Protestants, 161, 164- 
 169, 396 [note 22) ; Protes- 
 tants in South and West of 
 Ireland, 396 - 398. See 
 " Dissenters," " Presby- 
 terians," "Primitive Metho- 
 dists," " Salvation Army." 
 
 Protestantism and Orange- 
 ism, 93, 102-103, 255, 338, 
 384, 406 (note 28). 
 
 Prussians, sale of Irish Catho- 
 lics to, 284. 
 
 Publicans and the Orange 
 society, 115-116, 119, 147, 
 406, 412, cf. 191. 
 
 Publication of Orange docu- 
 ments. See " Documents." 
 
 Public employment. Catholics 
 excluded from by Penal 
 Code, 174, 186-187; re- 
 admitted to, 20. See " Civil 
 Service." 
 
 450 
 
GENERAL INDEX. 
 
 Public houses, lodges in, 115- 
 116, 119, 147, 412, cf. 191. 
 
 Public Service. See " Civil 
 Service." 
 
 Purple degree, 107-108, 127 
 
 sqq-^ 399-400,410,412,418; 
 
 oath, 65, 66, 108 ; qualifica- 
 tions for, 107-108. 
 
 QUAKER Missions in Ire- 
 land, 17. 
 
 Quakers in Wexford, 267 {note 
 42). 
 
 " Qualifications of an Orange- 
 man," 14, 84, 120 {note 49), 
 144 sqq., 246 ynote 13), 251, 
 271-272, 278, 301, 354, 408 
 sqq.\ of Purplemen, 107- 
 108. See " Basis," " Law," 
 " Loyalty," " Professions." 
 
 Quarter not given to insur- 
 gents (1798), 296. 
 
 Quartering, Penalty of, under 
 Penal Code, 177. 
 
 Quebec, army lodges in, 353. 
 
 Queen's County, Orange jus- 
 tice in, 314-315. 
 
 Queensland, Orangeism in, 5. 
 
 Queen Vi(ftoria, Orange cen- 
 sure of, 99 sqq., 100- loi ; 
 Orange threats against, 100, 
 225, 254. See also " Cum- 
 berland." 
 
 Quinn, Rev. J., 395-396 {note). 
 
 Quorum at Orange lodge, 127, 
 418. 
 
 RAIDS by Orangemen on 
 Catholic villages, etc., 42 
 {note), 43 {note), 132, 220- 
 231. 327-328. 
 
 Rape. See " Women." 
 
 Ratepayers, cost of Orange 
 processions to, 4-5, 231-232, 
 250. 
 
 Rathdrum yeomanry, 268. 
 
 Re-admission to the Orange 
 society, 129, 130, 131, 410, 
 411. 
 
 Reballot in Orange lodges, 
 128, 129, 130, 245-246,410- 
 411. 
 
 Rebellion of 164 1, 18 {note 7) ; 
 of 1715 and 1745, 176 ; of 
 1798, see " Insurrediion ;" 
 threats of, by Orangemen, 
 330 {note 64), 378. 
 
 Red Cross degree, 400. 
 
 Reform, Parliamentary, 
 Orangemen and, 132, 133, 
 
 189, 378. 379- 
 Refugees from early Orange 
 
 outrages, 77-79. 
 Regalia, Orange, 89, 212, 215, 
 
 216-217, 400, 413. See 
 
 " Colours," " Emblems." 
 Regency, Cumberland and 
 
 the, 365, 366, 369-370, 372. 
 
 See " Cumberland." 
 Reginm Donnm, 134 {note 33). 
 Reign of Terror, the first 
 
 Orange, 71 sqq. ; the second, 
 
 see " Inquisition," " Insur- 
 
 retStion," " Torture." 
 Rejecfled candidates, 129, 405, 
 
 409, 410, 411, 417, 420. 
 
 See " Black list." 
 Rejoining members, 129, 130, 
 
 13I' 4io> 411- 
 
 Relief Acfts, 20, 33, 189-192. 
 See " Emancipation." 
 
 Religion of Orangemen. See 
 "Charity," "Orangeism," 
 " Orange society," " Pro- 
 testantism," "Protestants." 
 
 Religion and Politics in the 
 Orange society, 2, 131 sqq., 
 251-254, 401 {notes 9, 10), 
 403. See "Disestablish- 
 ment," "Elecftions," "Edu- 
 cation," " Emancipation," 
 " Franchise," " Reform." 
 
 451 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 Reports of Orange celebra- 
 tions, 150, 167. 
 
 Resignations, 129, 411, 417, 
 420. See " Black list," 
 
 Retaliation by insurgents in 
 1798, 280, 295-296. 
 
 Revolution, Orangeism glori- 
 fies, 173, 251, 373 ; c.f. 255; 
 Revolution of 1688, its re- 
 sults in Ireland, 173 sqq. 
 See " Commerce," *' Penal 
 Code." 
 
 Revolvers at Orange demon- 
 strations, 203-204. See 
 " Arms." 
 
 Ribbon societies, 238-239. 
 
 Richardson, P.G.M., 245 
 {iiote 9). 
 
 Richmond administration, 303 
 {note 203). 
 
 Riding billy-goat in lodge, 
 117. 
 
 Riding-house, Dublin, torture 
 in, by Orange leaders, 287- 
 288. See " Beresford," 
 "Flogging." 
 
 Riot Acfl defied, 207, 209, 228. 
 
 Rioting through loyalty, 226 
 sqq., 249-250. 
 
 Riots at Orange demonstra- 
 tions, 99, [note 62), 1945^^., 
 205 sqq., 217 sqq. See 
 "Demonstrations," "Pro- 
 cessions." Gordon and 
 Knownothing riots, 169. 
 
 Rise of Orangeism. See 
 "Orange Society" " Peep- 
 o'-Day Boys." 
 
 Ritual of Orange degree, 113, 
 119, 130, 401 sqq. ; Tyler's, 
 407. 
 
 Ritualists, Orangemen's ob- 
 jeiflion to, 94-95. 
 
 Robinson, Rev. Dr., 67-68. 
 
 Roden, Lord, 225 {note), 297, 
 311 {note), 328, 363. 
 
 " Roman Catholic," the title, 
 190 {note 100). 
 
 Rome, vilification of Church 
 of. See " Abuse." 
 
 Rosslea counter - dem onstra- 
 tion, 200-201. 
 
 Rossmore,Lord, 203-31 1 {note). 
 
 Royal Black Preceptory 
 lodges, 400. 
 
 Royal Blue degree, ihid. 
 
 Royal Commissions on disturb- 
 ances at Belfast, Derry, and 
 elsewhere, 14 and passim. 
 See Index of Authorities, 
 422. 
 
 Royal Exchange (Dublin), 
 torture in, 288. 
 
 Royal State in Imperial Grand 
 Lodge, 366, 374-375-. 
 
 Rules of the Orange society, 4, 
 122, 126, 408 sqq. ; for Elec- 
 tions, 137 sqq.; "cooked" 
 books of rules, 121 sqq. See 
 "Documents," "LecS^ures," 
 " Ritual." 
 
 Russell, Lord John, 353, 356, 
 
 381. 
 
 Russell, Lord William, 289. 
 
 Ruthven, Mr., Crown Solici- 
 tor, 328. 
 
 SALIC Law, 372. 
 
 Salisbury, Bishop of, G.C., 
 88, 380. 
 
 Salisbury Government and 
 Orangemen, 330-331, 338. 
 
 Salvation Army and the 
 Orange society, 91. 
 
 Sampson, William, 66. 
 
 Sandy-row Orangemen (Bel- 
 fast), 213, 220, 324. 
 
 Sandys, Major, and his Prevot, 
 288. 
 
 "Satanides." See " Carhamp- 
 ton." 
 
 Saunderson, Colonel, 214, 234. 
 
 452 
 
GENERAL INDEX. 
 
 Scarlet degree, 400 ; Woman, 
 
 92, 151. 
 Scarvagh yeomanry, mutiny 
 
 of, 306. 
 Scarves, Orange, in church, 
 
 217. See "Colours," " Em- 
 blems." 
 Schoolmasters, hunting of, 
 
 under Penal Code, 185. 
 Scotchmen and Orange society 
 
 (Melbourne), 91 {note 2g). 
 Scotland, Irish colony in, 79 ; 
 
 Orangeism in, 5, 89, 118, 
 
 239, 368. 
 Scott, ex-Sheriff, and O'Con- 
 
 nell, 99. 
 Scourging in 1798. See 
 
 " Flogging." 
 Scouring and search parties 
 
 in 1798, outrages by, 289, 
 
 290, 298. 
 ScuUabogue, massacre of, 280, 
 
 296. 
 Seals, use of in lodges, 130, 
 
 421. 
 Search and scouring parties 
 
 in 1798, 289, 290, 298. 
 Secrecy of the Orange society 
 
 Preface, 13, 106 sqq., 128, 
 
 131. 358, 375-379> 399-401 ; 
 oaths of, 356 ; declarations 
 of, 113-114, 247-248, 405. 
 
 Secret Articles, 59, 121-122, 
 356-358. 
 
 Secretary's oath, 84, 119; 
 "obligation," 115, 119,407. 
 
 Secret of Orangeism, what it 
 is, 1 2 4-1 25, 154 (see 
 " Ascendency," " Civil Ser- 
 vice"); how guarded, 107 
 sqq-, 399-401, 405; secret 
 signs, 5 {note 12), 107, 109- 
 112,115,365. See " Grips," 
 " Passwords." 
 
 Secret societies, professions 
 of, 105-106, 143 ; Orange- 
 
 men and, 250-251 ; Catho- 
 lics and, ibid. 
 
 Secret Parliamentary Com- 
 mittee, 263. 
 
 Sele(5l Committee on Belfast 
 Corporation Bill, etc., 387 
 sqq.; on Londonderry Im- 
 provement Bill, 390 sqq. 
 
 Sermons and speeches. Or- 
 ange, 148, 198, 200, 203, 
 204-205,212,217,228. See 
 " Abuse," "Clergy." 
 
 Servants, Catholic, 163. 
 
 Shamrock, Irish national em- 
 blem, 216 {note). 
 
 Shanks, Rev. T., 94. 
 
 Shaw, William, M.P., 397. 
 
 Sheffield, Lord, 19. 
 
 Shercock massacre, 221. 
 
 Shiel, Hon. Lalor, 67. 
 
 Sheriffs, under Penal Code, 
 187 ; Orange, 320. 
 
 Signs, 5 {note 12), 107, 109- 
 112,115,365. See "Grips," 
 " Passwords." 
 
 Sinclair, J., 200, 214, 248, 319. 
 
 Sligo, Protestants in, 398. 
 
 Sloan and first Orange lodge, 
 
 54- 
 Solicitors under Penal Code, 
 
 187. 
 Songs and song writers. 
 
 Orange, 14 {note 24), 98, 
 
 150 {note 18), 153, 225, 257- 
 
 258. 
 South Australia, Orangeism 
 
 in, 5- 
 South and West of Ireland, 
 position of Protestants in, 
 
 396-398- 
 
 Spaight, James, 397. 
 
 Speeches, Orange. See 
 " Abuse," " Clergy," "Ser- 
 mons." 
 
 Spies under Penal Code. See 
 " Informers." 
 
 453 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 Stafford, County - Inspecftor, 
 
 202. 
 Stanley, Chief-Secretary, on 
 
 Orange society, 194-195, 
 
 218, 343. 
 Stead, W. T., on Orangeism, 
 
 12. 
 Stewart. J., 153. 
 Stock, Bishop, 296. 
 Stoven, Sir F., 146, 195, 201, 
 
 208, 214, 248. 
 Stratton, W., 195, 201, 214. 
 Stuart, James, 306. 
 Stuart, Knox, M.P., 338 {note 
 
 80). 
 Style of Orange literature, 1 50, 
 Subscriptions for Orange 
 
 offenders, 208. 
 Sullivan, James, Preface, 8, 
 
 335- 
 Suppression of the Orange 
 society urged, 219, 337 (note 
 
 78), 339. 354-355; of Eng- 
 lish Orangeism, 4, 335, 342, 
 380-381, 382 ; of Irish, 
 4, 360-362, cf. 382 ; A(51: of 
 Suppression defied, 208, 
 356, 360-362 ; suppression 
 of lodges by Grand Lodge, 
 130. 
 
 Suspension of lodge, 420 ; of 
 members, 128, 129, 130, 
 134. 136, 405. 409-410 411. 
 4i4> 417. 420, 421. 
 
 Symbols, secret. See "Signs." 
 
 Sydney Smith on Orange- 
 men, 190. 
 
 Sydney (N.S.W.) army lodge 
 in, 5,351. 
 
 TAMMANY, the Irish, 312, 
 
 338-339- 
 Tanderagee, outrage at, 221- 
 
 222, 304. 
 Taylor, Rev. G. (author), 266, 
 
 268 {note 45). 
 
 Taylor, Rev. D. T., 158. 
 Tasmania, Orangeism in, 5, 
 
 351- 
 
 Teachers, Catholic, under 
 Penal Code, 185-186. 
 
 Temperance movement, Or- 
 angemen and the, 191. 
 
 Tendency of Orangeism, 102. 
 
 Tests Adts, 4 ; Orangemen 
 oppose repeal of, 90, 369 
 {note 48). 
 
 Tests, Orange, 66 {note 37), 
 107, 109, no, 356. 
 
 Theatrical display a Orange 
 demonstrations. See " Pro- 
 cessions." 
 
 Thompson, D.G.JM.,378. 
 
 Thornton, Bishop, on Orange- 
 ism, 335. 
 
 Threats, disloyal, of Orange- 
 men, 100, 225, 254, 330 
 {note 64), 378. _ 
 
 Times on Orangeism, etc., 219, 
 225, 232. 
 
 Tithes Acft repeal, Orange- 
 men and, 132. 
 
 Titles of lodges, 413. 
 
 Toasts, Charter and other, 
 44 {note 24), 56, 79-82, 148, 
 274 {note 68). 
 
 Todd, Richard, 393. 
 
 Tolerance of Irish Catholics, 
 16-19; of Protestants before 
 rise of Orangeism, 16, 19-21, 
 386. 
 
 Tom the Devil, 286. 
 
 Tone, T. Wolfe, 26 {note). 
 
 Toronto, Orangeism in, 9. 
 
 Torture, use of, in 1798, 262- 
 263, 266, 268 {note 47), 270- 
 271, 273, 2805^^.; picketing 
 and half-hanging, 271, 277 ; 
 pitch-capping, 270, 27 1 , 282, 
 285-286, 296 {note 179) ; 
 scourging, 269 {note 52), 
 277, 286-289 ; carried out 
 
 454 
 
GENERAL INDEX. 
 
 and approved by Orange 
 party, 287-289 ; its illegality, 
 281, 287 ; Government con- 
 nivance at, 262, 281, 288, 
 291-292, 294. See " Beres- 
 ford." 
 
 Transportation without trial, 
 34, 274, 275, 314. 
 
 Transubstantiation, declara- 
 tion against, 121, 178, 186. 
 
 Ticasurer's "obligation," 407. 
 
 Treaty, violated, o- Limerick, 
 174-175, 178. 
 
 Trevelyai:, Chief-Secretary, on 
 Orange demonsitations,203- 
 204. 
 
 Trim ele(51:ions, 132. 
 
 Troops forbidden Orange em- 
 blems, 217. 
 
 Truce of the Diamond, >i-55. 
 
 " True Blue, Old," 14 {note 
 24), 150 (note 18). 
 
 *' True Protestant," 90-92, 
 129, 265, 402. 
 
 Tullyorier, outrage at, 221. 
 
 Tunes, party, 43 {note 20), 148, 
 209, 211, 213, 229, 230. 
 
 Tylers, 117, 119, 128, 400, 
 
 407- ... ^ ^ 
 
 Tyrone militia, 268, 299 {note); 
 trials, 331 ; yeomanry, 279. 
 
 ULSTER, se(flarian disturb- 
 ances in, their cause (see 
 "Abuse," "Arms," "Cler- 
 gy," " Cries," " Emblems," 
 " Processions," " Raids") ; 
 alleged superior wealth, etc., 
 of, 245 {note 9) ; outrages by 
 yeomanry, etc., in, see 
 " Yeomanry ;" administra- 
 tion of justice in, see 
 " Juries," " Magistrates," 
 " Witnesses" ; illegitimacy 
 in, 406 {note 28). 
 
 " Ulsterman's " history of 
 
 Orangeism, 14 {note 24), 94, 
 150 {note 18). 
 
 Union, Legislative, how effecfl- 
 ed, 258 sqq. ; Orangemen 
 and, 203-204, 330-331, 403- 
 404 {note). 
 
 Unitarians and the Regium 
 Donum, 134 [note 33). 
 
 United Irishmen, chiefly Pro- 
 testants, 20, 26 {note) ; ob- 
 jecft of, 20, 26 {note) ; brief ac- 
 count of, 26 {note), cf. 263 ; 
 opposed by Catholic clergy, 
 26 {note), 265 {note 33) ; 
 United Irishmen and De- 
 fenders, 28; and Orange- 
 men, 272, 313; Catholics 
 forced into, 24, 26 {note 294) ; 
 in Wexford, 265 ; Memoir 
 of, 24 {note 43), 25-26 {note). 
 
 United States, Orangeism in, 
 11-12, 118. 
 
 VALE, R. T., D.G.M., 7, 8, 
 
 12 {note), 97 {note 51), 137, 
 152, 153, 154, 243. 
 
 Vandeleur, M.P., 333. 
 
 Verdicts of Orange juries. See 
 "Juries." 
 
 Verner family, 41, 73, 75, 
 311, 315, 348; Colonel, 38, 
 41 sqq., 46, 47, 50, 53 {note), 
 54, 56, 59, 69 {note 49), 75, 
 107, 207, 302, 314; James, 
 41 {note), 43, 73 ; Thomas, 
 ibid., 66 {note 38), 76. 
 
 Vessey Knox, M.P., 392. 
 
 Veto of Grand Lodge, 128- 
 130. 
 
 Viceroy, W^ellesley, Orange 
 outrage on, 98-99. 
 
 Vi(5toria (colony), Orangeism 
 in. Preface, 5, 126 sqq., 148 
 sqq., 110-211, 334-335. 
 
 Victoria, Princess, plot against. 
 See " Cumberland." 
 
 455 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 Vi(ftorian Standard, 14 {note 23), 
 100 {note 63), 150 sqq. 
 
 Vilification of Catholics. See 
 "Abuse," "Clergy," "Con- 
 fession," "Convents," "Dis- 
 loyalty," " Ledl:urers," 
 "Massacre," "Pope," 
 *' i^riests," " Sermons." 
 
 Villages, etc., abandoned in 
 1798, 276, 277 ; raids on by 
 Orangemen, 220-231. 
 
 Vinegar Hill, 267, 280. 
 
 Visitors to Grand Lodge, 416. 
 
 Vokes, Mackey,397-398(«o^e). 
 
 Volunteers, their tolerant 
 spirit, 19 ; and Peep-o'-Day 
 Boys, 34. 
 
 Votes of Orangemen, Grand 
 Master's control of, 131 sqq. 
 See " Elecflions," " Grand 
 Master." 
 
 WALKING Gallows (Hep- 
 enstall), 283 {note 1.11). 
 
 Wallace, Brigade Major, 306 
 {note 211). 
 
 Walpole on Orange yeomanry, 
 277; on Penal Code, 188. 
 
 Warrant to reveal password, 
 120 ; for Orange lodge, 122, 
 128, 130,410, 413-414, 418, 
 421 ; Irish exchanged for 
 English, etc., 122, 351, 361 ; 
 Cumberland's, 350, 352. 
 
 Waterford, position of Pro- 
 testants in, 3^7, 398. 
 
 Wattle - blossom as Orange 
 emblem, 215. 
 
 Wealth, Ulster's alleged supe- 
 riority in, 245 {note 9). 
 
 Weapons. See "Arms," "Gun- 
 clubs." 
 
 Weavers, Catholic, outrages 
 on by Orangemen, 74, 75. 
 
 Wellesley, Marquis of, 98, 
 108, 378. 
 
 Wellington and the Cumber- 
 land plot, 36S, 370-371, 375- 
 
 Wesley in Ireland, 17, 1S6 {note 
 81) ; favours penal laws, 18 
 {note 6). 
 
 West and South of Ireland, 
 position of Protestants in, 
 
 396-398- 
 
 W estern Australia, Orar.geism 
 in, 5 {note 12), 157, 211 {note), 
 401 {note 8). 
 
 Wexford before insurredtion, 
 peaceable, 276, 2S1 ; United 
 Irishmen in 265 ; Orange- 
 ism in, 266-267, 270-271 ; 
 yeomanry in, 260 {note 13), 
 265-267, 271, 276-277, 279, 
 287,297, 30o(7?r^^_i9i), 303; 
 North Cork militia in, 266, 
 269-271, 279, 285-286, 298 
 {note 188); Quakers in, 267 
 {note 42) ; cruelty of magis- 
 trates in, 266 ; how insur- 
 recftion was caused in, 266, 
 295 {note 175) ; outrages on 
 women in, 279 ; other out- 
 rages in, 293,295 {note 175), 
 297, 299 ; use of party col- 
 ours in, 266 ; town of, 266, 
 267; massacres in, 280, 290, 
 291 (see also "ScuUabogue"; 
 present position of Protes- 
 tants in, 398. 
 
 Wheeler, D.G.M., 154. 
 
 Whipping under Penal Code 
 and in 1798. See " Flog- 
 ging-" 
 
 W^hite degree, 400. 
 
 White, Dr., 322. 
 
 White, Piers, Q.C.. 394 {note 
 21). 
 
 W^icklow, Orangeism in, 267 
 {note 42), 268 {note 45) ; yeo- 
 manry in, 265, 268, 300 
 {note 191); Ancient Britons 
 in, 268; militia in, 268, 299 
 
 456 
 
GENERAL INDEX. 
 
 {note) ; outrages on women 
 in, 278 ; other outrages in, 
 276, 278, 281, 291, 293, 
 2g^ (note iy2); massacre in, 
 291 ; cause of insurre(5tion in, 
 295 {note 175). _ 
 
 Wife, the Papist (Orange 
 song), 98. 
 
 William III. and Penal Code 
 (see " Penal Code"), and 
 destrucftion of Irish trade, 
 173, 182. 
 
 William IV., Cumberland 
 plotters and, 370, 372, 379- 
 380 ; on the Orange society, 
 355-356, 381-382. 
 
 Wilson, J. P., on Orange magis- 
 trates, etc., 41 {note 18), 302, 
 315-316, 333. 
 
 Witnesses, Orange, Preface, 
 39-40, 46-47, 108, no sqq., 
 115, 123-124, 247-248, 321, 
 323-324> 385- See "Juries," 
 ** Magistrates," " Perjury," 
 " Prevarication." 
 
 Wolfe Tone, 26 {note). 
 
 WoUaghan, Hugh (yeoman), 
 297-298. 
 
 Women, barbarous treatment 
 of in 1798, 273-274, 277- 
 280, 287 ; at Dolly's Brae, 
 224 ; respecftful treatment 
 of by insurgents, 280, 296 ; 
 Orange lodges for, 116. 
 
 Woollen trade, Irish, destroyed 
 by William III., 182. 
 
 Works of charity by Orange- 
 men, 103. 
 
 Works on Orangeism. See 
 " Authorities." 
 
 Wreckers, Peep-o'-Day Boys, 
 28,33 ("o^^93); the Killy- 
 man, 39, 42, 43 {note 20), 
 209. 
 
 Wrecking of Catholic houses, 
 churches, etc., by Orange- 
 men, 72, 75-76, 220 sqq. ,2^0' 
 231, 251 (see " House-burn- 
 ing"); by Orange yeomanry, 
 2y^sqq.\ by magistrates, 266; 
 of Northern Star office, 293 
 {note 163). 
 
 Wynford, Lord, 363, 368, 369, 
 
 375- 
 Wynne, W., 238. 
 
 YELVERTON case, 191. 
 
 Yeomanry, Catholics and the, 
 25, 260, 265, 306 ; the 
 Orange, 2575^^., 323; their 
 rise, 258-261 ; their demora- 
 lisation, 259 sqq., 272, 273, 
 277, 301 sqq. ; their share 
 in provoking the insurrec- 
 tion, 259, 261, 2j/\.sqq., 273- 
 274, 281 sqq.; use of torture 
 by, 281 sqq.; outrages on 
 women, 278-280 ; murders, 
 massacre by, 273-275, 291, 
 301 sqq. ; conducft during in- 
 surrecftion, 296-300; in times 
 of peace, 201, 207, 301 sqq.; 
 mutiny of, 305-308. 
 
 York, Duke of, 348, 352, 359. 
 
 Young Ireland party in 1848, 
 250 {note 26). 
 
 Young, Robert ( Orange 
 "poet"), 14 {note 24), 150 
 {note 18). 
 
THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 
 
 Additional References^ 
 
 Page 45, note 26 : There were five Catholics on the Pari. 
 
 Selecft Committee for Ireland. 
 Page 75, note • see also Lord Gosford's evidence, Q. 3600. 
 Page 99, note 58 : see also Qq. 3736, 4201, 4210, 5438-5439- . 
 Page 100, note 64 : for further denunciations of Queen Vicftoria, 
 
 by an Orange clergyman (Rev. Mr. Mcllwine), see Edin- 
 burgh Review for January, 1850, p. 115, and Times, November 
 
 I, 1849. 
 Page 103, note 72 : see also Minutes of Evidence, English Report, 
 
 Q. 2862, and Appendix 5, p. 92. 
 Page 107, note 8 : compare Dublin University Magazine, April, 
 
 1836, p. 405. 
 Page 132, line 22, and page 185, note 77 : for petitions against 
 
 the Irish Education Bill, see First Irish Report of 1835, 
 
 Appendix, p. 76. 
 Page 142, tiote 48 : see also Lord Gosford's evidence, Q. 3542. 
 Page 208, note 58 : compare Qq. 3580-3581. 
 Page 218, Catholic clergy: see also Mr. Christie's evidence, 
 
 Qq. 5651-5654. 
 Page 238-239, 7iote 93 : compare Lord Gosford's evidence, Irish 
 
 Report of 1835, Qq. 3539-3540- 
 Page 250, note 26 : see also Edinburgh Review for January 1850, 
 
 p, 115, note. 
 Page 302, note 197: see also Qq. 6363-6369 and Appendix B3, 
 
 pp. 28-30; note 198: see also Appendix B, Third Irish 
 
 Report, pp. 28-29. 
 Page 307, note 216 : for facTts regarding the Annahagh outrage, 
 
 see Minutes of Evidence of 1835, Qq. 3363-3474, 3521, 3526 
 
 sqq., 4108, 4183, 4597. 
 Page 308, note 217, first line : add Q. 4224. 
 Page 311. note (Greer's dismissal) : see Lord Caledon's evidence, 
 
 Qq. 5422-5430. 
 Page 328, note 51 (the Castlewellan Bench) : see also Edinburgh 
 
 Review, January 1836, p. 107. 
 Page 382, note 81 : see Dublin University Magazine, April, 1836, 
 
 page 403. The Irish Grand Lodge " dissolved" April 13, 
 
 1836 {ibid., June, 1836, pp. 687 5^^.). 
 Page 283, note : see London and Westminster Review, April to 
 
 July, 1836, art. on "Orange conspiracy," pp. 181-201 ; 
 
 cf. McClintock and Strong's Cyclopedia, art. " Orange- 
 men," 
 
 458 
 
ERRATA. 
 
 Errata* 
 
 On checking the references for the fourth edition, I find that, 
 in previous issues of the book, I inaccurately stated some 
 oi the Question Numbers of the Minutes of Evidence of the Irish 
 Reports of 1835. This was chiefly due to the facfl that the 
 proof-sheets of the pages in question were corre(51ed at z 
 time when I had no access to my notes on the subje(fl, or 
 to the volumes of the Reports in the Melbourne Public 
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