The Irish standard., 1893-01-07

Lu00GluS VI tlo uud&l6G-6 -6tSo Va VAO SSuuVy
Of Armagh, summoned by the governor,
Lord Gosford, was held on Dec. %, 1895,
to consider the state Of the county. ut
is no secret" said the governor, in his ad-
dress to the magistrates, "that persecu-
tion, accompanied with all the circum.
stances OF q ferocious cruelty which have
in all ages distinguished that calamity,
is now raging in this country. Neither
age nor sex, nor even acknowledged in
nocence as to any guilt in the late dis.
turbance, is sufficient to excite mercy or
afford protection. The whole crime
which the wretched objects of this ruth
less persecution are charged with is
crime, indeed, easy of proof. tits simply
profession of the Roman Catholic faith.
A lawless banditti have constituted
themselves judges of this new species of
delinquency, and the sentence they have
pronounced is equally concise and ter
,ible 1t is nothing less than a confsca-
tion Of all property and an immediate
banishment." Resolutions deploring the
lawless conduct of the Orangemen were
adopted by the magistrates, and urging
the authorities to afford protection to the
Roman Catholics, but the government
made no move toward restoring law and
order. Indeed at this time, as in many
another period OF it's century of exist
ence, the Orange Society was fostered,
nursed and encouraged by the govern
ment for it's own party ends. The OUT
RACES went on unchecked in several of
the counties Of Ulster for, years, and ex~
tending all over ireland were the means
principally of goadipg the wretched
Catholic peasantry into rebellion in 1893.
Such, then, was the origin of the
Orange society. It's members boast it is
loyal and religious organization, with
the object of preserving the Protestant
religion and maintaining the connection
between Ireland and England. "The in
| surgents call themselves Orangemen and
Protestant boys" said Henry Grattan,
more accurately, in the Irish House OF
Commons in 1896 ''They are ban
| ditti of murderers, committing massacres
in the name Of God, and exercising des-
potic powers in the name OF liberty" !"
Plowden, in his History of Ireland"
gives on what he calls well-founded, but
anonymous, authorities the following as
the original oath of the Orange Society:
"I-do hereby swear that will be
true to the King and government, and
that / will extezminate the Catholics of
ireland, so far as in my power lies"
This oath is etoutly repudisted by the
Orange societies; but, as Plowden re-
marks, the frequency and earnestness
with which, as have shown, the latter
part of it has heen acted upon by Or
angemen has rendered the charge of talk
ing it to be credible. This, the Orange
historians say, was the original oath:
eI-do solemnly swear that I will, to
tho utmost of my power, support and de-
fend the King and his heirs as long as
no or they support the Protestant ascend
Itancy."
Now, what is the protestant ascend
ancy" which the monarch should sup
port in order to insure the loyalty Of the
Orangemen to the thnone2 Let the Or
ange corporation of Dublin OF 1892, three
years before the establishment Of the Or
ange Society, answer the question. For
some years previously number ofslead-
ing and influential Roman Catholics
known az "the Catholic Committee" had
been mildly sgitating, by petition and
prayers, to the Irish Parliament and the
King for slight relaxation Of the penal
laws, and in 1892 they succeeded in OBJ
tanning q "relief act," which enabled
Catholics to vote for members of Parlia
ment, that is, for Protestant members
and no others, and admitted them to the
outer bar and to the inferior military
and naval commissions The Dublin
corporation, highly irats at these conces-
sions, passed resolution declaring 1sThat
the Protestants OF Ireland will not be
compelled 81 any authority whatever to
abandon that political situation which.
their fathers won with their swords, and
which il, therefore, their birthrigh 8
The corporation then proceeded o.ds-
fine atheir birthrigh ii, !" and this IS what
they said it was: IA Protestant King 81
Ireland Erotsstan Parliament, Prot.
f,ontinued 81 Eighth Pags