exploded system. They may be influenced by selfishness, urged by disappointment, or prompted by fear, by ignorance, or by passion. In a few years, compared with the age of a nation, they will have passed away, and their places will be supplied by men, who, educated under a reformed political system, will neither scorn the obligations of society, nor reject the claims of public opinion. Means may even be devised to remove or mitigate the evil, without this delay, but if the institution itself be destroyed, it may never be replaced; and upon its ruins must necessarily arise that purely democratic form of government, whichunsuited, as it may prove, to the present habits and manners of the people, and not adapted, perhaps, under any circumstances, to a redundant population within a confined spacemay bring with it anarchy and terrorism, instead of that partial success, which the confirmed manners, and the local advantages of the Americans, have shown to be not inconsistent, for a time, with equality and democracy. We are free to own, that, as constitutional reformers, we look to the fulfilment of our hopes as men, and our duties as citizens, by the means and not by the subversion of the institutions of our country. We would remove all such obstacles to the truth as we can remove; and then we are content to watch and wait; never forgetting that the triumph of truth is that of justice, and that justice in matters of opinion is tolerance. "Time's golden thigh Upholds the flowery body of the earth When used aright:-the use of Time is Fate." 328 ARTICLE XIV. Reports from the Select Committees appointed to inquire into the nature, character, extent, and tendency, of Orange Lodges, Associations, or Societies, in Ireland; with the Minutes of Evidence, and Appendix. Ordered by the House of Commons to be Printed. Report from the Select Committee appointed to inquire into the origin, nature, extent, and tendency, of Orange Institutions in Great Britain and the Colonies; with the Minutes of Evidence, Appendix, and Index. Ordered by the House of Commons to be Printed. THE Orange Societies had, previously to the last session of parliament, been occasionally the subject of animadversion in the House of Commons. In 1813, Mr. Charles Wynn moved for an inquiry into their nature, and represented them as equally illegal and pernicious. Lord Castlereagh deprecated their existence, but, with his characteristic lubricity, slipped through the question. In the year 1827 a debate, regarding their legality, took place, upon a motion by Mr. Brownlow, with respect to a procession at Lisburne. It appeared in the course of the discussion that Mr. Joy, the present Chief Baron of the Court of Exchequer in Ireland, an avowed Conservative, had, as a law officer of the crown, given an opinion, expressly stating Orange Lodges to be illegal; and that Lord Manners, the then Chancellor, had, in a letter to Mr. Jones, a magistrate, concurred in that view. Notwithstanding the admissions made by the government respecting the character of the Orange confederacy, it was not considered necessary to take any decided steps for its suppression; nor indeed, for a considerable time, was any very strong interest excited in the public mind, in reference to the proceedings of the Irish Orangemen ; who, although connived at by Tory governments, had not been openly enlisted as their auxiliaries. Mention was often made in the English newspapers of outrages committed in the north of Ireland; but as the Catholics and Orangemen differed as essentially in their facts as in their opinions, and, with a reciprocal strenuousness of asseveration, charged each other with the commission of these atrocities, the British public took in their fierce criminations little concern. The Orange Society had not as yet obtained any political importance; it had not made any display of its resources, or distinct disclosure of its views. The Duke of Wellington and Sir Robert Peel, when the Catholic question was carried, relinquished all connexion with the Society, and became the objects of its denunciation. Under the Duke of Northumberland's and Sir Henry Hardinge's government, which immediately followed the concession of the Catholic claims, there was a mutual feeling of disrelish between the Orangemen and the local administration of Ireland. Lord O'Neill was dismissed from a lucrative employment, because he had exhibited an Orange flag from one of the towers of his castle, upon occasion of some factious anniversary. Disclaimed by the Tories, and continuing in that relation to the Whigs in which they had always stood, the Orangemen ceased to attract notice; and although they passed resolutions, condemning the extension of parliamentary reform to Ireland, were held in such little account, that, for a considerable period, scarcely any mention of their proceedings was made in parliament. But while they ceased to draw attention, they did not discontinue their efforts to strengthen and extend their organization; and succeeded so far that, after the Reform Bill was carried, the Tories, with whom they had previously had a rupture, thought it conducive to their interests, and consequently compatible with their honour, to resort to what will ultimately prove to be a most sinister assistance. An opportunity presented itself for the enlistment of their aid. Lord Stanley, Sir James Graham, the Duke of Richmond, and Lord Goderich, having resigned, and Lord Grey having soon after retired from office, from causes disproportioned to so momentous an incident, the government became so apparently enfeebled, that the Tories thought the time had arrived for a manifestation of their strength. It was accordingly determined that the strongest possible expression, of what is called Protestant feeling, should be called forth, in order to produce that impression upon the royal mind of which it was known to be susceptible; and accordingly the Hillsborough meeting was convened. The Marquess of Downshire, the Lord Lieu tenant of the county of Down, was sufficiently injudicious to give it his sanction, although it purported to be an assembly composed exclusively of the Protestants of the county. Upon this occasion, a very considerable body of Orangemen, although the numbers were greatly exaggerated, was got together. Other meetings of a similar description were held; and that they were the result of a scheme to overthrow the government, the evidence published in the reports before us abundantly establish. We copy the following extract from the proceedings of the committee of the Grand Lodge of Ireland, in the Appendix to the first report, p. 77 :— "12th November, 1834.-We would beg to call the attention of the Grand Lodge, and, through them, return our heart-felt thanks and congratulations to our brethren, through the various parts of Ireland, who, in the late meetings of 3000 in Dublin, 5000 at Bandon, 30,000 in Cavan, and 75,000 at Hillsborough, by their strength and numbers, the rank, respectability, and orderly conduct of their attendance-the manly and eloquent expression of every christian and loyal sentiment, indicated so nobly the character of an institution against the aspersion thrown on it, as the paltry remnant of an expiring faction*;' 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.” The ministers having been dismissed, it was determined that the blow, struck with success, should be followed up; and other public meetings were called, of which that at Dungannon, held on the 19th of December, 1834, was the most remarkable. To the scenes which took place at that meetingthe riotous and insulting conduct of the Orangemen-their display of military power-the discharge of a gun at Sir T. Steven-the inauguration of Lord Claude Hamilton as an Orangeman, and his subsequent appointment as a magistrate-we shall have occasion in the course of this article to refer. We advert, at present, to the Dungannon meeting, as one of the numerous proofs, that the members of the new government associated themselves with the Orange body, and employed it, previously to their accession to office, as an instrument to dismiss Lord Melbourne's administration. The Conservative cabinet, having been formed, proceeded to offer to the leaders of the Orange body, and to the men, who, A phrase used by Lord Stanley, before his abandonment of his colleagues. Since his secession, he has maintained a significant silence on the Orange Society. though not ostensibly members of the Society, were in close sympathy with it, strong marks of favour. To Colonel Perceval a place in the ordnance was given; to Lord Roden an office in the palace, near the person of his sovereign, was tendered; Mr. Frederick Shaw, and Mr. Lefroy, were made privy councillors; and Mr. Charles Boyton, Grand Chaplain of the Grand Orange Lodge (whom we shall presently see establishing an Orange Lodge in a regiment), was appointed chaplain to the Lord Lieutenant. It is not surprising that there should have been an outbreak of ferocious exultation, amongst the Orangemen of Ireland, at the event; to which, it must be confessed, that they were accessory in no immaterial degree. Their joy, and their ferocity, knew no bounds; and on the first visit of Lord Haddington to the theatre, they gave ample vent to both. The shouts of men, inebriated with the excitement of success-plaudits, intended by their succession to imitate the discharge of musquetry, and called. "the Conservative fire"-cries of "No Popery"-hurras for Orangeism-Lord Haddington could not restrain; but (and with this we charge him) over the box where he sat, with his vice-regal retinue, as the representative of his sovereign, there was unfurled an Orange flag; which hung over him, as a symbol of the triumph which had been obtained over the people by a faction, to whose arbitrary domination Ireland was to be thenceforth surrendered. How, it may be said, could he help this? For the indiscretions of his supporters, should he be made answerable? We answer, Yes.-He ought, when this insult was offered to the country, which he had recently arrived to govern, to have ordered the ensign of party to be hauled down, and to have left the theatre, rather than submit to a participation in this national affront. But looking at the conduct of the late government in the most favourable view-making for the difficulties in which they were placed, not only every fair, but every plausible allowance and consenting to waive any objection to the conduct of Lord Haddington at the theatre-we do not see what answer it is possible to give to another accusation, having the same object, although resting on different grounds. It is this:-To addresses from Orange Lodges, to the King, on the change of government, the Secretary for the Home Department, in reply, recog |