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ertions of the chair procured order, the orator immediately began. “ Gratified as he was (he said) by the flattering, unbought approbation of his suffering countrymen, yet he would not waste another sentence on the subject; his heart was too full of his country, her wrongs, and her sorrows, to leave room in it for a thought connected with so insignificant a being as himself. And, heaven knows, enough there is of bitterness in our situation to wring and sadden a heart like mine-Irish in every vein. Was ever a people so hapless as we? We are strangers in our native country. Helots in the fields over which our fathers swayed. Neither time, nor our loyalty of demeanour, nor our exertions in fighting the battles of the coun try with purse and person (it was in the height of the war against Buonaparte that this speech was made) nor our readiness to give every pledge which the most lynx-eyed investigator could demand, can make any impression on the minds of those whom their own baleful and bigoted passions and prejudices have arrayed in opposition to the millions of their countrymen. Year after year we are doomed to feel the bitterness of hope deferred. Year after year we have the same stale, and a hundred times refuted sophisms brought forward with unblushing effrontery to oppose our just pretensions. Can any man, who has the spirit of a man, put up with this? But it is said that we are clamourous-gentle souls! So it appears that we are to lie down without even the poor privilege of pigs (a laugh) without leave even to squall when our tormentors are plunging their knives into our throats. And again, there are agitators among us! agitators! aye, to be sure. I am an agitator-so I hope and trust are many whom I see around me. I hope that we will never cease to agitate and ruffle the slough of despond into which our enemies have cast us, until we emerge from its foul waters for ever."

This was a trope, or a figure-I do not know which-and, of course, was received with the applause, which is the regular tribute to trope and figure in Ireland. The orator went on. He spoke of the goodness of the Irish heart, the beauty of the emerald isle, the bravery of its sons, the chastity of its daughters. -He proved, to the satisfaction of his hearers, that Maida, and Talavera, Salamanca, and Vittoria, were won by the Irish Catholic, much in the same way

that his brother Celt from Badenoch or Lochaber would prove that they were achieved by the unaided arms of the breeches-less heroes of the Highlands. He held up the Duke of Wellington as a model of ingratitude, for not supporting, in the Lords and the Cabinet, the cause of those men to whom alone he was indebted for the ducal coronet and the knightly garter. "Yet, in the army of this very man-I am sorry to say he is an Irishman, though happy to add, that his Grace has the grace to deny it-[hear, hear, and a laugh,]-though the bayonet is irresistible in the hand of a Catholic, the double epaulet of the major must not shine upon his shoulder. He may win his weary way up to the glorious privilege of commanding a companythough in practice even that paltry boon is but rarely conceded-but a regiment --What! a Papist, an Idolator, an Amalekite command a regiment! The idea would make every hair in my Lord Chancellor's wig, well arranged as it is, uncurl and stand up with horror. A Popish or Romish officer-they have a variety of pet names for us-is brave as his own sword-loyal, skilful, dashing, in all points of war, in all the pomp and circumstances of military glory, in all the regularity and etiquette of military discipline, absolute and perfect-he may be qualified to be a marshal of France-but a British major he must not be !-Why?-Is any fault found with his knowledge, his bravery, his honour, his birth, his loyalty? Oh! nonone whatever. What then is his crime? -He believes that the blessed Virgin― glory to her name—| -[here he blessed himself, and the crowd bowed in reverence] -he believes, I say, that the Virgin Mary is mother of God, and, therefore, be he brave, be he all that can be said or sung in praise of a perfect soldier, he dies a subaltern!"

Tumultuous uproar of applause followed this sentence. Many minutes elapsed ere order could be at all restored. The cheek of the orator was now flushed, and his eye blazing when he got through the next period. He went over the different professionshow the Catholic could not rise in the navy, though he might direct the thunders of the British oak with unerring intrepidity-how parliament was closed against him, and open to mutton-pated people, whose sole merit was hatred of the majority of their countrymen-how the nobility of Howard, the antient

fame of Talbot, the active loyalty of Kenmare, the baronial ancestry of Clifford, were all equally unavailing to seat them with their peers--" or to come to matters nearer home, long standing at the bar, extensive practice, some degree of knowledge, at least of experience, unimpeached integrity, must be contented with a gown of stuff-don't laugh, gentlemen; it may appear matter of form-but it is matter of substancein my case it might make a difference of a thousand a-year- while insufficiency, inferior standing, ignorance, and want of public respect, figures away flauntingly in a gown of silk. And why -why, I ask, is the hardy sailor, the man of wealth or talent, the high-born lord, the learned lawyer kept from their stations no impeachment is on their honour, no tache on their blazonry, no doubt of their powers-but they hold by the faith of their ancestors, they believe in the creed of the majority of the civilized world-they believe that the Blessed Virgin [another blessing, and another responsive reverence from the multitude,] is worthy of honour. There is their crime-we all know what is its punishment." [Applause.]

He had now fairly worked himself into a passion, and began to rage. He went into a history of the penal laws, from the treaty of Limerick to the moment he was speaking. He reminded his audience how the Catholic priests had been hunted down like wild beasts -a price fixed upon their heads-their churches, or, as they were insultingly called, their mass-houses closed-how the layman had been deprived of arms, aye, even of a fowling-piece, to pursue the game over the lands of his ancestors -how a papist dared not ride on a horse of the value of five pounds-how children had been set against parents by a lure to their cupidity-how the youthful progeny of the poor had been dragged away from them, to be inclosed in seminaries of proselytism-how every thing, in short, which could be said or feigned of all former persecutions of the church, had been enacted in tenfold ferocity against the unfortunate Irish. "Yes, my friends, and fellow-sufferers, former persecutions, those of Nero and Dioclesian, were less cruel than those of our English oppressors. These pagan princes, it is true, cut off by fire and sword the holy martyrs of the church; but they did not wage war on a whole people as a people. Where the sword smote

there the victim died, and there was an end. But, in our case, we were submitted to the process of lingering death: we were roasted at a slow fire. Like the tyrants of old, they bound our living bodies to the dead carcase of a treaty putrefying in their corruption. [A trope Hibernian-and, of course, followed by immense applause.]

"Gentlemen, [there were not fifty coats whole at the elbows in the multitude, but, nevertheless, they were exofficio gentlemen though it would have been hard to deduce their title to the name, either from their gentleness or gentility.] Gentlemen, it is vain for us to conceal from ourselves the miserable fact of our horrible degradation. We are slaves. We dare not speak." To corroborate this fact of their slavery and silence, a tumultuous shout

-That rent heaven's concave and beyond, Frighted the Vetoists

arose, denouncing vengeance against the ascendancy, and the bloody Orangemen. When it subsided, the counsellor continued," Yes, gentlemen, we dare not whisper above our breath. The intrusive novelty of this three hundred year old church-this mushroom of yesterɖay—must not be muttered against. Well, be it so. It shan't be so long. The ranks of the establishment are scattered and broken up. The Cossacks of methodism are invading them in one flank, the murky-muzzled fanatics of the presbytery are assailing them in another, while we, children of the cross," [a blessing]" bearing the sacred symbol of our holy and unchangeable religion, hoisting the oriflamme of the church, are bearing down on them in unbroken phalanx, and down the accursed thing must go. Down-down-to eternal darkness-as sunk the Arians, the Nestorians, the Waldenses, and all other foes of Catholicity, so must sink this spawn of Luther, this swarm of locusts, which issued from the bottomless pit, as pious Pastorini, a book which you all should read, has learnedly demonstrated. But to drop the consideration of these ecclesiastical matters for the present, though I hope and trust, brother Catholics, they will ever be prominent in your minds, for our religion is all that is left us, and turn to the matter more immediately in hand- -a chance of our re-appearing in the possession, or, at least, in the show of possession, of the rights so abominably withheld from us, is now before us. Something,-it is needless to exa

mine too minutely what-bas so disposed the minds of those in authority, that they are thinking of doing us some sort of tardy justice. But beware of the insidious manner in which it is proposed that this should be done. Some, no doubt, actuated by a real affection for liberty-alas! they are but few-and some, out of indifference to the cause of the church, to which they nominally belong, would grant us emancipation without farther conditions. But others, sham friends to our cause, which they hope to ruin by their patronage, or else obliged to bend to the bigotry or hatred of the dark-gowned churchmen of Oxford, or the purple-visaged corporators of Dublin, or the iron-handed and iron-eyed Anti-Irishmen, who rule Ireland all through its ill-fated hills and valleys, bawl aloud for securitics. New oaths, new tests, are required of us--our pure episcopal order is to be put under the surveillance of the underlings of an inimical cabinet, our ecclesiastics, &c."

I need not go on any farther with the counsellor's harangue. He went over every topic, which, from long experience, he well knew would excite discontent, or inflame indignation. He proposed, that a resolution, declaratory of their unshaken attachment to the church, and their consequent firm determination to resist the insidious encroachments of vetoism, should be instantly adopted-and adopted it was, amid a thunder of applause. A petition, framed in any thing but the spirit of supplication, was passed in a similar temper; and the whole was wound-up by a second appeal, still more animated and unconciliating, from their favourite spokesman. The mob shouted, groaned, growled, wondered, hooted, or were mute in silence, as the various portions of his fervent harangue worked on their several passions; and, when at the peroration, he told them to spurn with indignation the paltry shuffling of cowardly or crawling compromises of their liberties and their religion, and to trust in the goodness of their cause, which must be blessed by the God of the whole world and of Ireland, [a common piece of Hibernian bathos] they interrupted his uplifted voice to exclaim, as if with the cry of one man-"Say no more about it-we trust in You.' He bowed, as if oppressed by the weight of a compliment which he had anticipated, and sate in modest silence-while a resolution, hastily put, and more hastily

VOL. I.

carried-decreed, that the Man of the People should be drawn from the place of meeting, in triumph, to his lodgings in a distant and more fashionable part of the city. He opposed it with becoming diffidence-why should he not? The Nolo Episcopari is not confined to churchmen-but, like the unwilling candidate for the mitre, suffered his scruples to be over-ruled, and placed himself in an open carriage, decorated by what symbols of their party they could hastily collect-green boughs, shamrocks, knots of ribband of the emerald dye-and drawn by hundreds, happy to perform the office of coach-horses in a cause identified by them with the cause of their country.

Interior of an Orange-Lodge.

The procession moved on as such processions are wont to do, noisily enough; its ranks thickening as a snow-ball, by rolling onward. Its way, 'ere it had proceeded very far, lay through a long and narrow street, through which it had to wind slowly and cautiously. Now it so happened that in that very street was a tavern of an humble class, so humble indeed, as to deserve scarcely a higher appellation than that of a publichouse. In London, to be sure, it would have assumed the title of Wine Vaults, and sold fine Port and undeniable Sherry; but here it sported only whiskypunch, and matchless porter. So it was, that, call it as you please, it was the place of meeting of one of the most violent Orange Lodges of the City. That day happened to be one of those appointed for their monthly meeting, and they had assembled in considerable force. Long, however, before the hour of the procession had arrived, the Orange Lodge had dissolved; but some business of internal arrangement detained its Purplemen in anxious conclave. The departure of those, who, though initiated in the primary mysteries, knew nothing of the purple arcana, had reduced the numbers to but five. These had done their business, which occupied some time; and, as it had then advanced somewhat into the evening, they rcmained to dine. (Even the uninitiated know that matters of mastication and refreshment, as they are technically termed, are excluded, by positive and unbending enactment, from the Lodges of Orangemen and Freemasons; but nevertheless, in both societies, these form the usual appendage to their labours, after

C

business is declared utterly concluded.) Dinner was but just over, and the Right Worshipful had given, over a foaming jug of punch, the far-famed Shibboleth of the party "The glorious, pious, and immortal memory of the great and good King William, who saved us from popery, slavery, brass money, and arbitrary power;" with such additional prayers for the success of its partizans, aud imprecations on its enemies, as his talents or experience in that line dictated. The high bumper was duly honoured.— "The thrice repeated ery, which hails alike the wine cup and the fight" (I forget the exact words in Don Roderick) was given with all the ability of the langs of the company; and the upturned glasses on the table proved that no one there had disgraced the memory of the much-loved chief, by omitting to drain the beverage to its last drop. Just then a distant shouting and tumult reached their cars, and the landlord, eagerly bursting open the door, communicated to them the intelligence that a huge Papist mob, chairing their ruffian counsellor, was proceeding to enter the street. "What is to be done?" said he; "I know they will tatter my house, or at the least smash my windows. Are the villains coming?" said the master, starting from his seat, which he had resumed on the entrance of the landlord. "You had better, Martin, fasten up below-hoist the shutters-bolt the doors-and muster as many good men, and true, as you can find to stand by you in case of an assault." The advice was the best that could be given, and Martin hastened to summon his household to put it into execution.

"What shall we do?" asked, rather anxiously, one of the five. "What shall we do?" indignantly retorted the master-"why, stick by poor Martin, against these bloody murderers, as long as flesh and bone hold together. Do you think that we should desert him, and leave him to be roasted at a slow fire, as these villains did the other day, in Duhallow, to Regan the proctor? or have his cars cut off, and stitched into his mouth, as they did at Knocknecroghery to Jack Stubbs, for not knowing how to bless himself?"-"Ay," said another, or be piked and hung out like a salmon on a gaff, as they did to the Protestants on Wexford Bridge." '-" Or burnt alive," added a third, as was the case at Scullabogue.' "The short and long of the matter," said the master,

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cutting short this catalogue of enormities, is, that I shall open a Lodge of Emergency. Hand me the constitution book, brother secretary, and I shall look at the bye-law! Is Martin purple ?""To the back-bone," quoth the secretary. "He flung us the sign of distress. coming in, if I mistake not?" asked the master. "He did," was the reply."Call him in, then, and let him report what progress he has made below."

Martin announced that all was se cure, that he had put the women and children in the back of the house, which projected over a river, and left his son, a grown-up stripling of about nineteen, and two men-servants, on guard in the front shop. "Are they the right colour?"" said the master. "Your son Tom, I know is, for I did the job for him last lodge day myself."-"I know they have got one step," said the landlord, "but cannot say whether they are higher or not."-" Let them be tried," said the Secretary, "for we are going to open a purple or orange lodge the former if possible and wish to have as many in the room as we can muster."-" I shall call them," said Martin, and in obedience to his call they made their appearance. "One at a time, brother," said the master; and he got severally from each the word and sign which gave them title to sit under the jurisdiction of his. hammer.

6

What these tests are I cannot say, nor is it material to my story. "Before you open, brother worshipful," said one of the company, "I propose the aforesaid;" for our brethren just now come in have not drank it yet."" Here, Martin,” said the master," order off this punch, and post on the table a bottle of your primest port. We shall give it in the regal_purple stream. Here is the Glorious, Piousand may he who will not drink it be rammed into the great gun of Athlone, and spattered into pieces against the battlements of Hell, to be made into sparables for Orangemen's shoes.' Hip hip! hurra! hurra! hurra! which was of course uproariously responded by thecompany. As the burraing concluded, he flung the glass vehemently against the cieling, that it might never be polluted by being employed in the service of a less sacred pledge, and the room immediately rang with the clatter of shivered glasses, and the jingle of their falling fragments.

He seized his hammer, ordered on the purple cloth, decked himself with the

paraphernalia of his office, in which he was followed by his brethren: sent brother Gubbins (one of the servants, but there is in lodges no distinction of persons--all being brethren) to tie the door, and opened business with the accustomed prayer. "How stands the enemy, brother?" said he to Tom; "look out, and see." Tom looked accordingly, and reported that the crowd appeared to have met with some check, for they were only thickening at the end of the street, and making no progress. In fact, an accumulation of broken pavement at the entrance of the narrow pass had delayed the advance for some few minutes, and they were busily employed in rcmoving it, while the more practised were reserving the ammunition thus casually in store, in expectation of that most probable of all occurrences-a row. "We have brought ourselves, Worshipful," said an enthusiastic orangeman, whose father and uncle had been murdered by a party of rebels, during one of the insurrections so common in Ireland--" we have brought ourselves, Worshipful, to a pretty pass. If there ever was a body of men to be pitied, it is the Protestants of this country. We had the land in full domination, entirely in our own power, scarce thirty years ago, and now we are obliged to skulk into holes and corners, to declare our adherence to the principles which put the house of Hanover on the throne-which raised its princes from being petty electors in beggarly Germany, where, in all probability, they would have been lacqueys, cap-inhand to Buonaparte, or some of Buonaparte's people, to the high rank of monarchs of the greatest empire of the earth. We have, of our own mere motion, raised the Papists from a state of lowly depression to a participation of rights which they never granted to any Protestant community in any country where they bore sway-we have given them rank, and weight, and wealth-we withheld from them nothing but the enjoyment of power, which they have always abused when they enjoyed, and which they are now clamouring for, only for an opportunity of abusing it again. They long for the days of the massacre of 1641-their souls yearn after a repetition of the rule of James, when at a slap they attainted 3,000 of us, and when they caged us up wherever they had dominion, to be murdered at the sanguinary dictate of their bloody priesthood. Blessed be God! we beat them then. The policy

of our ancestors bound them with heavy chains, and they bent under them patient as Issachar. In 1715, Scotland and the north of England arose in rebellion in favour of that accursed house, for which the Papists had bitten the dust beneath our swords at the Boyne, at Antrim, and at Derry, and yet all was quiet here. In 1745, the Pretender shook England to its centre-and Ireland looked on. Why? They were kept down by our fathers. But a day comes, and we relieve them of the weighty bonds of which they complained. How are we thanked? By rebellion after rebellion -by murder and by fire. Their gratitude is to turn, viper like, on the hands that warmed them into life. My poor father-but to speak of matters not personal to myself-are not our churches insulted our ministers mocked — our church-yards violated-our persons attacked? Is not this very mob a proof

"The noise is getting nearer, brother Andrews," said the chair. "Curse them, that ever gave them liberty to make it." -"Ay," said Andrews," they have rued it already. He that first moved Popish Emancipation in the Irish Parliament lay dead beneath a Papist ball in his heart, at Three Bullet-gate."-"I tell you what, lads," said Hopkins, the Secretary, a dashing, active, and tumultuous young man, on whom the wine he had swallowed had done its office in some degree; suppose we show them who we are; suppose, I say, that we hoist a flag of defiance, and shake over the vagabonds the honest banner of King William. Here it is," said he, lifting it from the chest-" here it is, my boys; will you refuse to spread it to the blaze of day?"-" Not I, for one," said the chair, but we should be prepared for consequences. There will be an attack on us decidedly, can we resist? Are there arms in the house?"-" And plenty," said Martin ; "the chest is in the room, with arms enough for twenty men, primed and loaded, I warrant them, and oiled, in good condition; there is ammunition too enough for our job.”— "Arm ourselves, then," cried Andrews, "in the name of the God of Joshua, son of Nun. We are going to do no harm -but force must be resisted by forceThe blood be on the head of him who does the first act of violence."

The Orange Insult.

In a moment the chest was open, and muskets, pistols, and blunderbusses, put