words which could be of no importance whatever in the address. The government might see no reason why Ireland should not forthwith be dealt with as England and Scotland had been. The question, however, was not whether there were or were not reasons for so dealing with it; but whether, with out discussion, without hearing the ministerial plan, without considering the differences which were acknowledged to exist, they should bind the house to adopt precisely the same line of conduct in different circumstances.

The amendment was likewise supported by Mr. Hardy and Mr. Shaw. Lord Howick, Lord Palmerston, and Mr. O'Connell spoke in support of the address; and the principal result of the discussion was to shew that the real intention of the words used in the speech and the address was not to express a contingent hope, but to announce a resolution already adopted. Mr. O'Connell gave warning that if Ireland got less than had been granted to England and Scotland, the cry of repeal would again be immediately raised. "I caution you to beware," said he; "if you again excite that cry, let it be at your peril." He declared, however, that he did not mean to menace, while he concluded his speech by assuring the house, that as the people of Ireland would go to the death in maintaining the union if they obtained justice, in which was included this form of municipal change, so, if justice were refused to them, they would go an equal length for its dissolution. Lord Howick described the amendment as being a formal refusal to give Ireland the benefit of the same popular institutions which had been created in the other parts of the

kingdom, apparently forgetting that his colleagues had accepted it in the house of Peers as possessing no such character. Where such views were entertained, it was impossible for ministers, especially as no apprehensions of defeat operated on their prudence, to concede the point as they had done in the Lords; and, on a division the original address was carried by a majority of 41, being supported by 284 votes, while there were 243 for the amendment.

was

As Ireland had thus presented the first subject of debate so it continued to furnish, during the session, the principal topics to which public attention directed, because they were those on which the opposing parties were most formidably marshalled. Mr. O'Connell and his friends lost no time in returning to the attack on the Orange Societies, which had been begun during the preceding session. On the 12th of February, Mr. Finn moved a resolution," That Orangeism has been productive of the most baneful effects upon the character and administration of public justice in Ireland; that its prevalence in the constabulary and peace preservation force and yeomanry corps of that country, has led individual members, as well as large bodies of the above description of force, to the gross neglect and violation of their public duty, and to open, daring, and lawless resistance to the authority of the magistracy, and of the executive government, on various occasions. That the systematic and surreptitious introduction of Orangeism into every branch of the military service, in almost every part of the empire, in direct violation of orders issued in 1822 and 1829, by the commander

in-chief of his majesty's forces, and the absolute power and control vested by its governing body, the grand Orange lodge of England and Ireland, in his royal highness the duke of Cumberland, together with the rank, station, influence, and numbers of that formidable and secret conspiracy, are well calculated to excite serious apprehensions in all his majesty's loyal subjects, and imperatively call for the most energetic expression on the part of the representatives of the people of this empire, to secure the safe, peaceable, legal, and rightful succession to the throne of these realms."

Some parts of this resolution betrayed as much of the blindness and incredulity of party spirit as could be ascribed to the most bigotted Orangeman. As the Orange societies were founded on the interests or the ascendancy of Protestantism, in a country where Popery was the religion of the great majority in numbers, and as they furnished means for concentrating and regulating the influence of these Protestants, it might be very true, that they were viewed with great apprehension by his majesty's Popish subjects in Ireland. But, assuredly, the people of England and Scotland had neither felt nor expressed any fears regarding them; and when Mr. Finn, by his resolution, declared these societies to be engaged in a conspiracy, and insinuated, at least, that the object of this conspiracy was no less than to alter the succession to the throne; and, for that purpose, to corrupt the army, he fell into one of those outrageous absurdities, the belief in which betrays, that a man's mind is too much under the influence of party animosity,

to judge calmly of any political question. In the speech with which he introduced the resolution, he treated the Orange system as one of deadly hostility to the great mass of the population; and asserted that it was established by the report of the secret committee, that the Orange society set law, justice, and authority, at defiance, for the protection of their own members in every act of barbarity and injustice which they might choose to inflict on their Catholic countrymen. Mr. E. Buller, likewise, who seconded the resolution, described the Orange association as being an exclusive association, while nominally it was formed for the purposes of selfdefence, and the protection of life and liberty. Its true object was not self-defence, but Protestant ascendancy-not the protection of that party, but its domination. Its spirit pervaded all classes-magistrates who had to administer the law, and who appointed the police -sheriffs and under-sheriffs who had to strike juries, and who purposely excluded Roman Catholics. It was scarcely possible that justice could be well administered, where such a system prevailed; and, accordingly, the instances were numerous, in which outrages committed by Orangemen on Catholics had been allowed to pass unpunished.

As notice had been given for the 23d of February, by Col. Verner, member for the county of Armagh, to extend the inquiry to other societies existing in Ireland than those of Orangemen, and as Mr. Hume was to bring forward, on the same day, certain resolutions directed to the same object which Mr. Finn had in view, the House agreed, on the suggestion of lord

John Russell, to adjourn the further consideration of the motion to that day. On the 23d, Mr. Hume entered, at great length, into the evidence which had been given before the select committee of the previous session, and the documents which had been laid before it by the office-bearers of the Orange Association, including their official correspondence, and a good deal of what seemed to be private correspondence. In fact, it was stated by Mr. Hume himself, that almost the whole of the evidence had been derived from the officers of the institution themselves a fearlessness of disclosure which betrayed no consciousness either of moral or of legal guilt. He stated, that there were in Ireland 1,500 lodges, and in England 300, not only strictly exclusive, in so far as regarded Catholics, but formed for the purpose of opposing and oppressing the Catholics. In Ireland, the Orangemen amounted to about 200,000 men capable of bearing arms, and, at various times, as many as 10,000, 20,000, and even 30,000, had been assembled by the authority of the grand

master.

It was an association, whose members had, at all times, arms in their possession, and most of whom were ready, on every occasion, to violate the law, in order to perpetrate aggressions against their opponents. Wherever they assembled in any considerable force, bloodshed generally followed, be cause, being confident in their arms and their numbers, they never hesitated to excite the Catholics, and to commit against them the grossest outrages. So far back as 1811, Mr. Justice Fletcher, in addressing a grand jury, had attributed much of the disturbance that prevailed in that

country, to Orange societies, and had declared that they were illegal; yet they had been allowed to go on, without any attempt to check or restrain them. The law could not be administered, till Orangeism was put down. In the present state of the association, juries could not be found, who would administer justice impartially. Magistrates would sometimes refuse to take examinations,, or at least put off doing so as long as possible. Individuals charged with murder, were often allowed to escape, and the very sources of justice were corrupted. Lord Gosford stated, that only in one or two instances had he known a Catholic to be put upon a jury. In Fermanagh, there had been no Catholic upon a jury for thirty years. Orangemen, when brought to trial, were acquitted, or let off with a trifling degree of punishment, while the Catholic, if found guilty, was uniformly punished with severity. If, then, the Catholics were persuaded that they could not obtain justice, as the law was at present administered, was it to be wondered at that they should try to take it into their own hands, or that disgraceful outrages on persons and property should be the consequence? These were acts done in self-defence; for Orange magistrates and jurymen were not easily brought to condemn Orange criminals. Even the judges had a leaning that way. It did not, indeed, appear from the evidence, whether they were thus biassed now; but the very suspicion was productive of mischievous results. It was now clearly proved, too, that Orange societies were connected by secret signs and symbols. All the evils, likewise, to which they led, were aggravated

by the rank of those who directed them. Their assemblages, instead of being restrained, were headed by the magistracy, by the deputylieutenants, by gentlemen of weight and consideration, and even by clergymen of the established church It was, therefore, highly expedit that government should take steps, in regard to persons in civil offices, similar to those which had already been adopted in regard to the army. Every officer connected with the administration of the law, or the preservation of the public peace, ought to be dismissed, if he was an Orangeman. The police and constabulary force was mainly Orange: the yeomanry was also Orange, and contained many who had been rendered infamous by their convictions in courts, but who, so soon as their punishment was over, were again received into the corps, as if they had acquired a new qualification for the service. The yeomanry, so far as the Orangemen were concerned, ought to be disbanded. It was the more necessary, Mr. Hume contended, that government should now act with vigour, because it appeared from the documents laid before the committee, that the association, during the last two or three years, had been actively striving to extend its influence and ramifications, and had sent one of its officers through the kingdom, under a warrant of the duke of Cumberland, on an itinerant expedition, to confirm old lodges, and to organise new ones. Mr. Hume, likewise, although he did not assert, like Mr. Finn, that the Orange lodges were in a conspiracy to alter the succession, yet maintained that the duke of Cumberland, as their official master, was a dangerous man. They regarded

his royal highness, he said, as their political head; he was stated in all the correspondence, to be the supreme head of the grand Orange lodge of Great Britain and Ireland: it was laid down that his pleasure was law, and that the Orangemen were bound to obey his summons; and thus his royal highness had the power of assembling a body of 300,000 men. It appeared that he possessed similar authority in regard to the colonies; and if he persisted in continuing to be the head of such a body, it was time to consider whether he was to be king or subject, for that was the real question. Nay, the evidence gave reason to suspect that the individual, who had been sent through the kingdom to forward the objects of the institution, under a warrant of the grand master, had hazarded speculations on the possibility of the king being deposed, and a regency, at least, established under the duke of Cumberland, during the minority of the heir apparent.* Mr. Hume moved, "That this house, taking into consideration the evidence given before the select committee appointed to inquire into the nature, extent, character, and ten

* This had reference to a letter which a person of the name of Haywood, after being dismissed from a lodge, had ad1835, and in which he asked, “Did not dressed to lord Kenyon, in October his royal highness, as grand master, and lord Kenyon, as deputy grand master, know what their missionary, colonel Fairman, had done in 1832; or rather, did he not act under the directions of his royal highness, or lord Kenyon; and was he not, under their directions,

instructed 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 sanctioning reform in parliament; and

dency of Orange lodges, associations, or societies in Ireland, and of Orange institutions in Great Britain, and the colonies; and seeing that the existence of Orange societies is highly detrimental to the peace of the community, by exciting discord among the several classes of his majesty's subjects; and seeing that it is highly injurious to the due administration of justice, that any judge, sheriff, magistrate, juryman, or any other person employed in maintaining the peace of the country, should be bound by any secret obligation to, or be in any combination with, any association unknown to the laws, and founded upon principles of religious exclusion-that, even if justice were impartially administered under such circumstances, which is in itself impossible, yet any connexion. with such societies, would create suspicions and jealousies detrimental to the peace and good government of this country: that Orange societies, and all other political societies, which have secret forms of initiation, and secret signs, and are bound together by any religious ceremony, are particularly deserving of the severest reprobation of the house, and

that, if so, it would become the duty of every Orangeman to support his royal highness, who would then, in all probability, be called to the throne?" There was something very suspicious in this revelation of supposed designs entertained by a body to which the maker of the revelation had, nevertheless, continued to belong for three years. Colonel Fairman immediately published a letter, declaring the whole statement to be a falsehood, and adopted judicial proceed ings against Haywood, which dropped, however, in consequence of the death of

the latter.

should no longer be permitted to continue an humble address be presented to his majesty, that his majesty will be graciously pleased to direct measures to be taken to remove from the public service, at home and abroad, every judge, privy councillor, lord-lieutenant, custos rotulorum, magistrate, militia officer, inspector, chief constable of the constabulary and peace-preservation force, every officer of police in Ireland, and every functionary employed in the administration of justice, and in maintaining the peace of the country, who shall attend the meetings of any Orange lodge, of any ribband lodge, or of any other political club, institution, or association, whenever or wherever assembled, having secret forms of initiation, and being bound together by any religious ceremony, and with secret signs and pass-words for recognition of inembers of such bodies, and who shall not withdraw from such societies or associations, on or before the expiration of one month after the publication of any proclamation which his majesty may be pleased to direct to be issued hereupon, forbidding their continuing to be members of such Orange lodges, societies, and associations."

This resolution, it was plain, contained some startling things, more particularly the power which was thus implied to reside in the crown, of removing a judge, or any functionary connected with the administration of holding an office for life, upon a justice simple address of the House of Commons, declaring that he had done something, which they thought he ought not to have done. Sir William Molesworth, member for Cornwall, devoted himself to