rinciple they ever
announced. Above all, they avowed their purpose to urge on the country
the duty of armed resistance whenever its success appeared probable. The
Government heard of these avowals, and the time spent in captious
discussions about moral nonentities and legal quibbles, when the stake
was a nation's death or life, was diligently employed by the Government
in accumulating means of defence.

The motives of the principal promoters of the league are by no means
questioned here. On the contrary, it is freely admitted their
convictions were as sincere as they were fatal. The due appreciation of
that movement requires that a few leading facts and inferences upon
which it was based should be calmly considered. The first and most
important is the great change which had taken place in the feelings of
the country. The vast majority of the thinking population were ranged at
the side of the Confederation. So, too, was that of the people of the
rural districts. The intellectual leaders of the great Protestant party
had actually identified themselves with it, and a reconciliation with
the entire body of the Orangemen had been nearly effected. Most of the
men whose integrity and ability had preserved the lingering existence of
the Association, openly avowed their approval of its principles, and
such of them whose hearts were not mere empty sounds, would join its
members at a crisis.

Thus stood the facts. The considerations in favour of the junction were
these: Certain men of influence, who, contrary to their own convictions,
adhered to the Association, in the commencement through fear, and still
adhered to it through an unintelligible hankering after consistency,
pressed for an opportunity where they might abandon their former
associates without the appearance of abandoning their old principles.
There were others who followed a middle course, and were always with the
greater crowd and the more intense enthusiasm, who demanded the same
means of escape.

There was a consideration of some weight which no doubt influenced the
decision of the Confederates. It was this: the Roman Catholic clergymen
had given unmitigated opposition to the Confederation. Their hostility
had been the most formidable obstacle in its way; and it was assumed
that the presence of some leading churchmen among the Confederates,
would remove the distrust which the former opposition of the priesthood
had mainly tended to create.

These were the chie