to support and to protect the national church, and to secure accommodation and religious instruction to the people of Scotland, so that they may attend regularly upon divine ordinances, and may profit by the pastoral exertions and superintendence of its ministers. With a view to these most important objects, and under the protestation herein contained, they approve of such members of the church as may be required to do so by the commissioners nominated

rate information as to all statistical matters; and also approve of all church courts, allowing inspection of, or giving extracts from, their records, of all entries relating to the same matters; it being clearly understood, that the commission of the assembly hold, that it is not competent to the commissioners to put to individual members any questions relating to the doctrine, worship, government, or discipline of the church."

T

THE influence, which the Irish opposition had acquired by its union with the ousted cabinet, manifested itself early in the session by the commencement of a series of parliamentary attacks directed against the Orange Lodges. Ministers were asked in the House of Commons, on the 4th of March, if it was true that addresses had been presented to the king from Orange societies, and that answers had been returned bearing that they had been graciously received. The secretary for the home department stated, that when addresses or petitions were forwarded to be presented to the king, no offence was ever taken at the particular appellation which the parties might assume, provided the language which they used was becoming. He had presented addresses from persons who described themselves to be members of Orange societies, and from persons who described themselves to be members of Trades Unions; and the answers were given to them not as members of these societies but as indi

viduals. A discussion ensued, in which it was first assumed that Orange societies were illegal, and then government was accused of encouraging these illegal societies by appointing to offices persons who were known to be members of them, and by receiving addresses from them to be presented to his majesty. Mr. O'Connell admitted that there was no law which declared Orange societies to be illegal; but he maintained that as they were societies from which Catholics were excluded, government was bound to adopt all possible means of discouraging and dissolving them. On the 6th of March, Mr. Sheil moved for the production of addresses presented to the king from certain Orange societies, and the answers which had been returned to them. The papers were immediately granted; but this did not prevent a discussion distinguished principally by the unbounded and rabid abuse which the Irish opposition poured out upon the Orangemen, and the rational sensible advice which sir R. Peel gave to the House. The

question, he told them, was not as to the precise legality of those associations. It was possible that associations might strictly conform to the law, and yet that all their evils might remain. The evils were not cured by making them conformable to law. The real danger was not in a breach of the law, but in the encourage ment of augry feelings. It might be the fact that exclusive associations were not in precise conformity to the law; but still causing them to conform thereto might not alter them from that which constituted the real objection to their existence. He knew of no law that could be passed to prevent Orange associations, or to prevent them from excluding Roman Catholics. The House might pass a law to prevent the members of the association from administering an oath; but if it did, and they substituted a declaration in lieu of the oath, then the principle of the exclusive confederacy would remain and the evil continue. In his opinion the most unwise course had been taken with respect to those societies; the members of them had been taunted and treated in a way calculated to afford them an excuse for the continuance of their associations, and for coming to a determination not to yield to threats and menaces. He had thought the best mode of proceeding in reference to them was to use that language towards them, which would not only induce them to conform to the law, but which might induce them to see the danger of encouraging angry feelings and of keeping up the commemoration of a memory that was no longer necessary for any good purpose, and only widened the dif

ever

ferences of opinion which at present existed between portions of the community. He trusted that an example would be set to discourage such associations, as dangerous in their tendency; and, above all, to dissuade from an unnecessary irritation by the commemoration of events on the part of some, which others looked upon with different eyes. Their addresses had been received and answered as all others were, according to a useful and necessary general rule, which could not be departed from, unless the illegality of these societies were to be assumed. The bill of rights secured to the subject the right of petitions; and was it now to be inculcated, that, before his majesty received the petition of a certain number of his subjects, he was to enter into minute inquiries as to what associations they belonged to?

Political Unions had been denounced; but the opposition would search in vain for an instance in which the king had refused a petition from persons describing themselves to be members of such a body, or had told them in answer that they had forfeited the common rights of his subjects, Why should a different rule be applied to the case of the Orange associations? It was an attempt to narrow the right and privilege of the subject to address the Crown, or to cause the Crown to inquire into the particular opinious or associations to which those belonged who did address it, and in that way to prevent those opinions being conveyed to the sovereign or to parliament in the manner most palateable to the persons who wished to express them. If those bodies were illegal, why were they not put down? If they were

illegal, let them be prosecuted; but if they were not, his earnest advice was to set an example of forbearance; and let the advice to be conveyed to them be in friendly terms: for then he was confident that it would make a much more salutary impression, than the most violent and menacing language that could be re

sorted to.

66

The subject was again brought before the House, on the 23rd of March, by Mr. Finn, member for the county of Kilkenny, who moved that a select committee be appointed to inquire into the nature, character, extent, and tendency of Orange lodges, associations, or societics in Ireland, and to report their opinion thereon to the House." The motion was seconded by Mr. Maxwell, member for the county of Cavan, who avowed himself an Orangeman, and courted the fullest inquiry, with a hope that the committee would be constituted in the most

impartial manner. Government having made no opposition, the committee was appointed, and was still proceeding with its inquiries, when Mr. Hume, on the 4th of August, brought part of them before the House. He had seen in the newspapers what purported to be portions of the evidence taken before that committee, from which it appeared that Orange lodges had been introduced into the army, and existed in thirty or forty regiments of the line. These Institutions in the army were in direct violation of general orders issued by the commander-in-chief, in 1822 and 1829, which strongly reprobated the practice of holding Orange lodges in regiments as "fraught with injury to the discipline of the army," and declared

"that, on military grounds, it was contrary to order and to the rules of the service." It was added in the general order of 1829, " that a disregard to this caution will subject offending parties to trial and punishment for disobedience of orders." These lodges, moreover, had been formed under warrants granted for that purpose by the duke of Cumberland, who was the grand master of the Orange body, and a field-marshal. The warrants, indeed, were issued in blank, and there was no evidence to prove that his royal highness knew how they were filled up; but Mr. Hume found it difficult to imagine that the duke should have been ignorant of the existence of Orange lodges in the army. He moved the following resolutions.

"1. That it appears from the evidence laid before this House that there exists at present in Ireland more than 1,500 Orange lodges, some parishes containing as many as three or four private lodges, consisting of members varying in number from 16 to 260, acting in communication and correspondence with each other, and having secret signs and pass-words as bonds of union, and all depending on the grand lodge of Ireland.

"2. The second resolution described the manner in which those bodies were bound together, and declared "that the Orange institution of Ireland is unlimited in numbers, and exclusively a protestant association; that every member must first belong to a private lodge, to which he is admitted under a religious sauction, and with a religious ceremony, carrying a bible in his hands, submitting to certain forms and declarations, and taught secret signs and pass-words.