The Irish standard., 1899-07-01
ORANGE RUFF1AN1sM IN BELFAST.

The fanaticism of the Orangemen OF
Belfast is almost beyond belief. That
stronghold OF Professionalism in ireland
has recently given an exhibition in
bigotry and hlackguardism which would
not be tolerated in any other city in the
world. After attacking a Ritualistic
minister named Rev. Mr.. Peoples for
conducting religious services in his own
church, they made an assault on Ma
tionalist procession. Then they vented
their hatred against the Catholics by
driving them from their lawful occupa-
ton in the mercantile and manufacture
ing establishments. To the credit Of
the Protestant people of the city, the
Orange rowdies were kept from slaugh-
tering their neighbors, but the govern
ment OF Dublin castle has failed to do
its duty in suppressing lawlessness and
violence. Instead of furnishing the mis-
creants, Gerald Balfour has blamed their
victims for exercising their rights Of
free worship, free speech and free meet
ing in the land of their birth. The Dub
lin Freeman's Journal refers to the mis-
conduct of the Orangemen as follows:
What strikes one most forcibly about
the behaviour OF the Orangemen in their
murderous mood is the appalling CRIT
city and unnatural cowardice of the
creatures. We doubt il any tribe Of
aboriginal cannibals in remotest dis
tricts of Borneo could, even in times Of
war, degrade themselves to the level OF
five hundred white and clothed barbara
ans who sought to murder a single
workman at the Queens Island this
week under the circumstances which are
reported elsewhere. Five hundred
against one they were, yet not man OF
them all felt pang Of shame or thrill
of pity. The fiends chased him as a
gang OF terriers would a rat; they We'd
with one another for the privilege of
kicking and maltreating him, and finally,
they threw his semi-conscious body in
to the river, there to sink as it would
have done had not some bathers dragged
it ashore. They were brave bathers, and
the wonder is that the savages overhead
didnot kill them with nuts. Possibly none
OF the maddened disgraces to the human
form thought of such an expedient at
the moment.
1t is ridiculous to connect such exhi-
billions with any demonstration. They
recur annually. They have occurred time
and again in Belfast for generations, and
instead of decaying the instinct of
savagery grows stronger year by year
amongst the hordes of Orangeism for
the simple and sufficient reason that
it is nursed and tended by the local
leaders and pandered to by the British
Government. The worst elements of the
population in Belfast have scored again
and again over the authorities, and
every victory naturally increased their
self-confidence and their contempt for
''the accredited representatives of law
and order" Consequently they have
been proceeding from one excess to an
ether, until now, in consequence OF
their own ridiculous cowardice the Gov
eminent are face to face with problem
in this corner OF Ulster quite as serious
as the difficulty in the Transvaal to a
very great extent. We venture to pre-
dict that though a harbor policeman
was present at yesterdays horrible at
tempt to commit deliberate murder, not
a single imam" of all the five hundred
yahoos will be brought to justice. Dub
lin Castle is afraid OF the Queens
Island. f..
Let us put case. There are, roughly
speaking, some sixty thousand Uitland-
ers in johannesburg, and they are, by
leave Of the Beers, rapidly acquiring for
tunes, some OF them enormous, in a
land seven thousand miles away, in
which five per cent OF them were not
known twelve years ago, and in which
FIVE per cent OF them have not the re-
hottest notion of permanently settling.
There arc eighty thousand Nationalist