owe great obligations to the Warder and Mail; both of which papers have ever exhibited a promptitude and an ability in their cause, which should excite their gratitude and admiration. This has been done, notwithstanding that these papers have had to encounter the reproach to which the Orange system was exposed, without that degree of support from the Orangemen, as a body, to which, for such valuable assistance, they were so well entitled. The Protestant community, in general, are the patrons of our conservative journals, and the aid which they have given to the Orangemen, in particular, has often been at the risque of compromising themselves with the general reader; and while this should enhance such services in the estimation of those for whom they were wrought, it should also impress upon them the necessity of providing, in some more certain, efficacious, and permanent manner, for the only species of advocacy by which they can now hope to defeat the malice and to triumph over the wickedness of their enemies.

Nothing can now withstand a general conspiracy of the press; and Orangemen may be well convinced that the wounds which their institution has received can only be healed by a weapon somewhat similar to that by which they have been inflicted.

But there are many who may say, the Orange Institution was certainly necessary in its origin, and has been justified by its effects. It neutralized the virus of rebellion in 1798, and counteracted the machinations of treason in 1803. But is it, at present, necessary? Has not the time arrived when it may do more harm than good, or when, at least, its organization may be dispensed with ?

I must, in candour, answer-no. The very same spirit now exists which necessitated its origin, and the very same practices are now to be opposed, by which its principles were justified, and its organization rendered indispensible. Indeed, the only dif ference is, that the disloyal party have now got more power, and ostentatiously identify themselves with the government of the country.

When John Knox was accused, before the Scottish council, of recommending what was called an extraor

dinary meeting of the brethren, he defended his conduct by former precedents, by which, if he were then guilty, the conduct of his judges and accusers could not be justified. "Nay," said Secretary Maitland, "then was then, and now is now." "I see no differ ence," rejoined the intrepid reformer, "between then and now, except that now the devil has got a visor upon his face. Before he came in open tyranny, and then, I think that you will allow, the brethren rightfully assembled themselves in defence of their lives. Now he comes after another manner, seeking by cunning and artifice to do that which he could not accomplish in his own strength." The effect was electrical; the council were struck dumb; the people were excited to an active resistance to meditated oppression, and they never put off the harness until they accomplished the Scottish refor mation.

The case is somewhat different with us. When the Orange Institution arose, the wolf wore sheep's clothing, and it was under this disguise that he hoped to be able to ravage the flock. He was defeated and humbled; and in his defeat and humiliation there were some who saw grounds for expecting such a mitigation of his ferocity as should render him no longer dangerous. He was too cunning not to encourage this delusion, and is now fain to expect credit for the tenderest concern for those whom he meditates to make his victims. But he has thrown off disguise-he appears in his native character-and, whoever else may be deceived, the Orangemen do not believe that he has changed his nature. Shall they, therefore, remit precaution because he has thrown off disguise, and is now, in some sort, a favourite with those who ought to be their natural protectors. Forbid it, common sense! They must know full well that his hostility is still as unmitigated as ever, and that when they before contended with him, they contended for supremacy; but the contest now is a contest for existence.

No one can be blind to the coming contest. Popery is again struggling for ascendency in this country, and that with greater advantages than she possessed at any former time. How is she to be resisted? By pulverising

the Protestant union? By disuniting and dispersing her adversaries, so that individually they can be of no avail? No; but by reinvigorating their combination, by holding before them the adage of the bundle of sticks, and thus eausing them to be consolidated into im pregnable bodies, and scattered like masses of granite over the surface of the country, instead of existing like so many heaps of sand.

And small must be his knowledge of human nature who does not know that, if they be not formed into combinations of one kind, they will be formed into combinations of another; that if they be not zealously for the institutions of the country, they will be zealously against them. Politically, as well as physically, large masses attract in proportion to their magnitude; and nothing but the Orange confederacy prevents a vast number of Protestants being absorbed with that portentous conspiracy which, under the pretence of a repeal of the union, meditates the dis memberment of the empire. There are many considerations lying upon the surface which would be quite sufficient to swell the ranks of O'Connell's followers, if a counteracting agency had not been brought into play, which more than suffices to impair their influence. The repeal of the union is a national object, and might, upon that ground alone, be made to assume a most plausible aspect. England has abandoned her garrison; and there are many who might say, and some who might think, that it is no longer either wise or patriotic to keep up the cry of "No Surrender." The church has been all but deposed-she has been rifled and mutilated, and that under the direction of a British parliament, bound by the most sacred obligations to cherish and preserve her. These are topics upon which the advocates of repeal might loudly expatiate. They might point to her murdered clergy-her desecrated churches-her proscribed and persecuted people, some of them in exile, others preparing to follow, while those whose destiny condemns them still to linger in their native land, at evening say, would to God it were morning; and at morning, would to God it were evening, for very weariness of a persecuted existence. Such being, the blessings of British

connexion and British rule, and there being no such thing as Orange organization, what answer could they make to those who might tempt them by the bait of repeal? I know of none. The repeal project would act upon them with the fascination of the rattlesnake, and they would be either drawn by the plausibilities of the demagogue, or driven by the very recklessness of their own condition to be the pledged adherents of the worst enemies of the prosperity of Ireland and the wellbeing of the empire.

But Orangeism is an anti-septic ta all such contagious insinuations. The Orangeman knows well, that by falling in with the views of O'Connell, be would not only be acting against the weal of England, but contributing to the establishment of a domestic despotism the most galling and ruthless that could be imposed upon his native land; and therefore he bears up under all the oppressions which he at present endures, and resists all the temptations that can be presented to him with a view to seduce him from his allegiance. This he could never do in his own strength alone. As a solitary individual, he must sink under the power, or be drawn away by the alluring plausibilities of his adversaries. But, as a member of a great and powerful confederacy, comprising in it much of the wealth, the worth, and the nobility of the land, he bids them a proud defiance; and, strong in the consciousness of a good cause, he is prepared to abide the issue without fear, "until this tyranny be overpast." He cannot believe that England will always, or much longer, continue deaf to the claims, or insensible to the sufferings of her afflicted brethren in this country. Her honor and interest are both too deeply concerned, to permit, much longer, a desperate faction to practise their wicked devices for our undoing ; and he is thus encouraged to persevere in a righteous resistance to the oppressors, in the sure and certain hope that, however they may be defeated for a time, his constitutional exertions must be ultimately successful. But let Orangeism be put down-let its lodges be broken up, and its members scattered abroad, and nothing remains to give him confidence and courage in the contest in which he is called upon

to engage, while every thing must tend to deceive or to dishearten him, until he insensibly becomes either the victim or the accomplice of the enemies of Protestantism and of the constitution. From this consummation, so devoutly to be deprecated, he is saved by the protective influence of this much-calumniated institution. It operates like a species of political vaccination, and supersedes, by a mild and wholesome constitutional excitement, a malady which might otherwise prove dangerous, if not deadly. Let it be dispensed with, and the virus of the political poison will soon manifest itself with a force and a malignity that cannot be resisted.

The great offence of the Orange Institution, in the eyes of those who desire its overthrow, is, that it affords a purchase, as it were, to the maintainers of sound, conservative principles, by which the throne and the altar have hitherto been preserved against the daring assaults of unscrupulous assailants. It gives a unity and consistency, a steadiness and a force, to the efforts of the friends of social order, similar to that which political unions and reform associations have given to its enemies. Therefore they wish it destroyed, that they may proceed in their work of demolition without disturb ance; for they can apprehend but little interruption from the isolated efforts of scattered individuals. Now, when it is considered that the reform mania is as natural to politicians in their nonage, as the teething fever is to children of two or three years old, it is scarcely necessary to employ any artificial stimulants for its production. It is inevitably incidental to the crude state of their political knowledge, however it may be modified by the peculiarity of their tempers, or the character of their minds. A jealousy of rank, an apprehension of tyranny, a love of popular distinction, a disposition to spy out defects and to exaggerate evils in the existing order of things; these all belong to that restless, busy, meddling race of men who constitute the class denominated reformers. There needs no especial pains to excite the elements of discontent, which are always found in sufficient abundance, amidst an ignorant and an indigent population; but the contrary of all this, namely, a love of order, a respect for dignities, a

veneration for established institutions, a clear perception of the difference between change and improvement, and a lively horror of the proceedings of those who, under the pretext of reform, would destroy; these are not feelings or sentiments to which men in general are naturally prone; and therefore it is the more necessary that they should be embodied in clubs and associations, having for their object the propagation of that sound political knowledge by which the machinations of the demagogue and the incendiary might be defeated. There being, then, a natural tendency to such combinations as are unconstitutional, and which may be productive of evil, and a natural indisposition to such combinations as are constitutional, and which may be productive of good, upon what plea of policy can we discourage the latter while we encourage the former; and why should Orangeism be repressed, while political unions are promoted?

It is very easy to understand why the destructives are opposed to an institution which must offer to their designs such serious obstructions; it is very easy to understand why papists should hate an institution which, as long as it exists, will not suffer the love of Protestantism to wax cold; it is very easy to understand why Orangemen should incur the peculiar detestation of the advocates of a repeal of the union. All these classes must be possessed by an instinctive antipathy towards them, as the great, if not the only obstacle to the attainment of the ends upon which they are severally bent. But, that loyal and enlightened men should so far fall in with the views of their enemies as to entertain distrust or aversion towards a body of individuals, associated as the Orangemen are, upon the strictest principles of self-defence, and for the maintenance of social order, argues, in my mind, a kind of mental alienation. It resembles the conduct of the idiot traveller who put the drag on his carriage when it was going up the hill, and took it off when it was going down. Conservative feelings and principles are, as it were, hot-bed plants which require to be cherished; their op posites resemble weeds which require to be repressed. And there are those who call themselves conservative statesmen at the present day, who seem bent upon destroying the best nurseries of the former,

while no pains are taken to check the latter, which are suffered to flourish with a rank luxuriance. It is painful to contemplate the possible consequences of this political infatuation.

But, while it is acknowledged that the Orange system was originally well intended, and that it has served very important ends, it has been asked, may it not also be powerful for evil? I answer not, without such a departure from its principles as must completely change its nature. Loyalty is its end and aim, the pole-star by which it is guided; and when it ceases to be loyal, it ceases to be Orange, and must die a natural death before it can appear in any other form from which disloyal and seditious results might be apprehended. The church might as well be charged with propagating irreligion, the courts of law with corrupting justice, the medical profession with being injurious to the public health, as the loyal association of Orangemen with entertaining designs subversive of the constitution. It is rather amusing, too, to see the class of persons whose fears have been excited lest it should become disloyal. Mr. O'Connell and Mr. Sheil are the individuals who, in their prophetic horror of future evil, recommend its extinction, notwithstanding that it might be proved to be of some present advantage. But they may calm their fears; Orangemen will never realize their wild anticipations. Their drafts upon the future will be dishonored, even as their imputations respecting the past have been disproved. When a Roman Catholic association may be formed, friendly to the church, then they may be found hostile to it; when the repealers have changed their views and principles, and entered into a confederacy for the confirmation and establishment of the act of union, then they may be opposed to that measure, and do all in their power to have it dissolved; but not until then; so that the great agitator and his accomplices may spare themselves the pain of speculating upon impossibilities. Orangemen will not be found traitors to their principles until rivers run back to their sources, or mountains invade the dominion of the sea. Mr. O'Connell may continue to believe that the same spirit which actuates them now, will continue to actuate them in all succeeding times, and that no future demagogue will

ever be more successful than be has himself proved, in his attempts to seduce them from their allegiance.

The Volunteers have been mentioned as a case in point, to show that a society, originally praiseworthy and patriotic, may eventually become inju rious to the public weal. But the analogy does not hold; for the Volunteers were, from the first, animated by not a little jealousy of England, which only manifested itself more and more in proportion as they felt their strength; so that they but followed the law of their nature when they ultimately assumed that formidable attitude which menaced the empire with so much peril. But the Orange Institution is founded upon an affectionate attachment to British connexion, and they would be contradicting the law of their nature if they were ever betrayed into any course of action by which that connexion might be endangered. Indeed it may be said, that the acknowledged evil of the one confederacy may have, in some degree, occasioned the other. The volunteer association acted as a kind of hot-bed of discon tent, in which a premature and preter natural vigor was given to the pestilent products of infidelity and sedition. It was the parent of the united Irish system. The Orange association arose for the purpose of counteracting the evils thus occasioned; and unless we apply the homoiopathic principle to politics, and maintain, that whatever will cure treasonable practices will also cause them, it will be impossible, with any degree of consistency, to maintain, that consequences such as flowed from the old volunteer system can ever be apprehended from the Orange association. At all events, it will be time enough, when such consequences do follow, to provide against them. Practical good is not to be prevented, because knaves pretend, or visionaries imagine, that they can foresee speculative evils. It is quite possible that the system of freemasonry may yet be turned to a bad account; but is it, therefore, to be suppressed at present? No one will say so. Why? Because experience has hitherto proved that it is innoxious;-and no sane politician will prefer theory to experience. In like manner, I say, let us judge of the Orange system from what all may know, not from what its enemies may

choose to conjecture, and there is no individual. whose common sense has not been wofully perverted by faction, who could for one moment maintain, that a tree which has hitherto borne wholesome fruit should be cut down, because it may, at some future period, altogether change its nature, and produce most deadly poison.

There is another ground upon which the continuance of the Orange Institution may be contended for, arising out of the changes which have lately taken place in the constitution of England. No one will deny that it has become vastly more democratic than it was before. The Reform Bill has thrown the governing power of the country into the hands of the people. We still have a sovereign, and we still have a house of lords; but every one knows that they are now regarded as but slender obstacles to the popular will, whenever it is strongly manifested; and, that if we are still to have even the semblance of a mixed government, it can only be by educating and informing the people, so as to show them the dangers which must attend its overthrow, and impress them with a grateful sense of the blessings which they have hitherto derived from its protection. That there are elements of mischief at work to produce a contrary effect; that there are individuals in whose judgment a republican form of government is preferable, and who are continually holding forth America as the model which we should seek to imitate; that there are others whose insane cupidity would lead them to desire a scramble, and who, for a little present gain or distinction, would have no objection to encounter the horrors of the French revolution, needs but to be stated to be admitted by every candid man who has paid any attention to public affairs. And, if the designs of these persons are to be resisted, they can be alone effectually resisted by a constitutional party, arising amongst the people themselves, and bent upon the promotion of constitutional objects. A strong government might dispense with such a party. Where the seditious man might be summarily coerced, it might not be quite indispensable that his pretexts should be stripped of their plausibility, and exposed in their native deformity. When

the law might promptly curb his envenomed virulence, it might not be so necessary to detect his flagitious falsehood. But, no one can expect any such vigour on the part of government as at present constituted, without entertaining the most vain and chimerical expectations. The incendiaries have now a voice in the cabinet; and Hume, and Roebuck, and O'Connell, and Whittle Harvey, are sufficiently powerful to beard a conservative, and to dictate terms to an anti-conservative administration. It is, therefore, indispensable, if even the shadow of our limited monarchy is still to be preserved, that every means should be taken for cherishing whatever amount of good principle exists amongst the people at large, as the only available force that can be employed for averting the open and the secret designs of those who are preparing, as it were, an infernal machine, which they are sooner or later resolved to discharge against the constitution.

It is my belief, that the force of good principle is still sufficient to defeat the force of bad, and that if we are only true to ourselves, our enemies will have no advantage over us. We need not seek for coercive laws, nor have recourse to any act of extra-constitutional rigour, in order to confound their devices. But we cannot safely dispense with any one of the means within our power for increasing, concentrating, and invigorating that attachment to the ancient institutions of the country, which is the only available antagonist to the hostility by which they are assailed. Such attachment exists to a degree of which the enemies of our institutions have no conception; even many of their friends do not know its extent. Let it be wisely employed, and all will yet be well. Let it be neglected, or undervalued, or discouraged, and nothing human can save us. In this latter case, a triumphant ascendancy will be speedily given to the powers of evil. reign of anarchy will have commenced. A few honest and intrepid men, may, here and there, continue a hopeless struggle; but they cannot, in this unassisted struggle, long sustain the torrent that will rush against them, and in which the monarchy, the church, the house of lords, the aristocracyall that gives its peculiar, ennobling,

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