ecame the abhorrence of traitors whose crimes they
thwarted. The Government looked askance at a body of men who
interfered with the time-honoured policy of overcoming sedition by
tenderness and softness of speech. But the lodges grew and multiplied.
Honest men of all ranks sought admission into them as into spontaneous
Vigilance Committees to supply the place of the constabulary which
ought to have been, but was not, established; and if they did their
work with some roughness and irregularity, the work nevertheless was
done. By the spring of 1797 they could place twenty thousand men at
the disposition of the authorities. In 1798 they filled the ranks of
the Yeomanry, and beyond all other influences the Orange organisation
counteracted and thwarted the progress of the United Irishmen in
Ulster, and when the moment of danger arrived, had broken the right
arm of the insurrection. After this brief sketch of the origin of the
movement it would not be surprising if the constitutions of the body
inculcated intolerance, or even revenge. On the contrary, both these
things are sternly prohibited, and their contraries expressly insisted
on. A pious Brother of Portadown said:--"As Protestants we endeavour
to make the Bible our rule and guide. We endeavour to love our
neighbour as ourselves, we obey the constituted authorities, we
maintain and uphold the law, we fear God and honour the Queen. We are
firmly resolved to maintain our present position to the British Crown,
and we deny the right of Mr. Gladstone to give us away, or to barter
us for power. By the confession of his own followers, all his previous
legislation for Ireland has been a failure, for if it be not so, why
the present measure? We claim no ascendency, and we will submit to
none. It was from our ancestors that ascendency received its
death-blow. Ever since 1681 our leading doctrine has been equality for
all, without distinction of class or creed. By thrift and industry we
have created a state of commercial prosperity which is a credit and an
honour to the empire, while the Nationalist party under precisely
similar conditions have discredited the empire, and by perpetual
agitation, and not sticking to business, have brought every part of
the country under their influence to degradation and poverty; besides
which they have, by their repudiation of contracts, undermined the
morality of their supporters all over Ireland. The Nationalist farmers
prefer to have twenty-five