present, from entering into a cordial co-operation and union with this heroic body.

Of the principles of this body we cannot give a better account than in the words of the Honourable and Rev. Marcus Beresford at a late meeting of the Conservative Society of Dublin.

"My Lord, the Orangemen of Ireland are not men who would be led on by any reckless or desperate set of individuals, however high their station, or however great their gradation in society, to attempt to mur der a judge of the land, and set in flames one of the principal cities in his Majesty's dominions. Neither are the Orangemen a body who would hurry on revolution for the purpose of enjoying the plunder that might be thrown in their way. Neither are the Orangemen a mob that would stand round the atheist and the blasphemer, and cheer him on while he was singing the praises of anarchy and confusion. Neither, my Lord, are the Orangemen a body who would take away the blessed Book of God from the rising generation. Neither are the Orangemen a class of persons who would deprive God's poor blinded creatures of his best and most inestimable gift-the knowledge of salvation. Neither are the Orangemen persons who would pull down the Church-they know not why nor wherefore-unless it were to please a reckless, wild, and ungodly set of individuals. But, my Lord, the Orangemen are a class of persons who are always ready to support the law of the land-even at the expense of the last drop of their blood. They will repel outrage, but not create it. The Orangemen of Ireland are ready to support the Church as by law established-aye, and as their fathers did before them, commit their bodies to the flames before they would suffer the blasphemous and heretical Church of Rome to fill this land once more with her abominations. My Lord, the Orangemen of Ireland are scriptural Christians, Church of England men, and Presbyterians-but yet one body united in heart and spirit, and determined to support each other in all cases of difficulty and danger. They are determined to make a noble stand against rebellion, revolution,

ment of the empire is effected. We long ago asserted that the passing of the Reform Bill would ultimately prove the death-warrant of the British Empire. How rapidly are the immediate foreseen and foretold consequences of that measure, hurrying on the catastrophe!

Is then the case utterly hopeless? Are there no means, even after all the insanity of the last five years, of averting the prostration of the British Empire? And are we to be content to remain quietly allowing murder, conflagration, and massacre to prevail in Ireland, till the sense of unbearable agony produce a convulsive effort, which for ever separates the two islands? No! the means of salvation still remain: they are simple, easy, and just, of tried efficacy and established force. If the empire is torn asunder, it is only because from the force of political prejudice we refuse to use them.

Ireland possesses within its bosom, a great and noble race, bound to this country by every tie of religion, kindred, and interest; indomitable in resolution, inexhaustible in resources; whose organization, under the pressure of common danger, has become perfect; whose courage is equal to the rudest encounter. Repeatedly during the last three centuries, when concession and weakness had brought the country to the brink of ruin, have they interposed, and with their mighty arm stayed the spoiler. They saved it in the Tyrone rebellion; they saved it in 1798; they are ready to save it in 1833. Their interests are identified with England; their hearts are British; they sympathize with the glories of England, and execrate the infidel triumphs of the tri-color. They know that a repeal of the Union would speedily be followed by the confiscation of their estates, the firing of their dwellings, the murder of their families. Their feelings, their associations, are all identified with England's glory; they recur with enthusiasm to the Revolution of 1688, which established our national liberties, and recount with deserved pride their heroic achievements in the war with the French Revolution. Nothing but infatuation could prevent the English Government and the English nation, at such a crisis as the

anarchy, and bloodshed-and for the truth that has come down to us, and which they value more than their lives, or any possession which they have under heaven. And let no man say that our dear and cherished brethren, the Presbyterians, do not join heart and hand in supporting our Church. Having lived in a mixed population of Presbyterians and Church of England men, I can bear witness that when a man in the ministry is a real minister of the Church of England, who holds to the spirit of the liturgy and the articles of the Christian faith, and discharges his duty as a faithful steward, then the Presbyterians look up to that man and bless him."

This body in Ireland is not only numerous, brave, and energetic, but it is united. The imminence of the danger has produced an organization in that country to which we have nothing as yet comparable in Great Britain; and united the nobles and the people, the high and the low, to a degree of which we can hardly form an idea. When the Reform agitation was at its height in Ireland in spring 1832, the leaders of this intrepid body formed a Society in Dublin to counteract the influence of the Catholic priesthood, and the success of their efforts has already exceeded the most sanguine expectations. To the efforts, the bold and manly efforts of that Society, we owe the intrepid stand made by the North of Ireland against the Reform Bill; a stand which, if imitated in other places with the same resolution, would have prevented that fatal measure from ever becoming the law of the land. Meetings were there held, attended by 50,000 men, to petition against the suicidal measure, and Earl Roden presented a petition against it signed by 130,000 persons. It is to organization, the admirable organization established by the Conservative Society in Dublin, that these splendid and orderly efforts are owing; and a memorable example does it afford to the other parts of the empire, of what can be done, even in the face of extreme danger, by the union of able and indefatigable leaders with intrepid and enthusiastic followers.

Of the proceedings' of the Society which has organized this great and patriotic body into its present active

and efficient form, we cannot give so good an account as in the words of Mr Boyton. "I believe, my Lord, that we have not so much reason to complain of the effects of Reform in thinning our ranks as the Government have. We told the Government that they would lose all these members, and that they would be transferred to Mr O'Connell, and the prophecy has been fulfilled both in spirit and letter. We are not, however, to be disheartened at any thing that has occurred. We have not been taken by surprise-all that has occurred we fully anticipated-but notwithstanding, our force in the present Parliament is nearly as strong as in the Parliament which preceded it. It is important to impress the public mind with a just idea of the discomfiture which the Government experienced at the elections in this country. We have ample means to recover the position which we once occupied. We must inspire the lower orders with confidence. This Society has been only in existence for a space of nine months, and I would appeal to any gentleman in Ireland, whether there does not exist a spirit in the lower order of the population on this first day of 1833, which was unknown in 1832? This Society has created that spirit, and given a tone and intensity unparalleled in the history of the country. And are we now to think, that because the elections are over our business is at an end? No, my Lord, it is our duty to stand here, not merely as an election committee, but to remain here as the mouthpiece of the Protestant population as the centre around which they are to rally on all occasions-as the head to which they are always to look for advice-and as the arm to which they should always apply for protection. I recollect leaving your Lordship in London in June last, and I told your Lordship that I would come over to Ireland and supply for three months the enemies of our name and race ample materials for digestion. I think I kept my word. I now promise our enemies, whether they be found in the Castle or the CornExchange, that for the coming six months they shall have ample materials for their consideration. I trust we shall be able to promote a spirit of

confidence among Protestants of every denomination, and procure a perfect consolidation of all Protestants in the country, from the peer to the peasant. We must place before the Protestant mind of the country, the secret of their own power. It is folly to say, that possessing, as they do, a vast preponderance of the wealth of the country-and in possession of so vast a proportion of the surface of the land-and the only sound portion of the population-with all the rank, property, and intelligence of the country on their side-it is a folly to say that two millions and a half of such people could be any thing else but a powerful and irresistible body, and, if not placed under the most trying circumstances they would have had a preponderating majority at the late elections. Whereever a Conservative and a Repeal candidate were in the field, the Government invariably supported the Repealer. It is the manifest duty of every Government to support property against population, but in every instance at the late elections, the Government were invariably found supporting the Repealer and the Democrat against the Conservative candidate, who was ready and anxious to maintain peace, order, and tranquillity."

We extract from one of the last speeches of that intrepid and patriotic nobleman, the Earl of Roden, the following account of the object of the Society:—

"From the first formation of the Society, I need hardly tell this respectable meeting, that I have taken a most lively and anxious interest in its progress. It has been my delight to watch over your proceedings week after week; and although at a distance from you-detained, in some instances by public, in others by private duty-I have waited most anxiously for the opportunity which has arrived to-day of joining and uniting with you personally in that great and important cause for the maintenance of which we originally combined in this room-namely, to support and uphold the Protestant institutions of the country. I am persuaded, and every day I live the persuasion becomes stronger, that it is to Protestantism in Ireland is to be ascribed that liberty of con

science as well as personal liberty, which is enjoyed, not merely by the Protestants themselves, but by the Roman Catholic inhabitants of this country. It is therefore, sir, because I wish well to all my countrymen, of every persuasion and denomination, that I would uphold the principles of Protestantism. I would say to you, as I have said it in my place in Parliament-and as I am ready to assert whenever I may be called upon that I consider Protestantism in this country as the nucleus of all the liberties we have enjoyed-and to that alone we may trust the continuation of that happiness and freedom so long enjoyed by the inhabitants of this country; and therefore, sir, you will not be surprised when I state it to be my determinationmoving in that sphere of life in which God has placed me, to use every means in my power to forward and uphold so great and important an object. If we once admit that the truth found in Protestantism is a matter of indifference-if we once admit that it signifies not to what religion a man belong, provided he be sincere in his belief in it-we then make no difference between truth and error. The Bible would be a useless book, instead of being the charter of a Christian's privilege, and the foundation of a sinner's hope."

The general object of the Protestant Society is, to counteract the movements, and defeat the objects, of the Catholic Revolutionists; and for a description of these objects, we willingly turn to a late number of one of the ablest of the Conservative papers of Great Britain.

"The first object of Catholic legislation," says the Standard," and of the intrigues for which their legislative power gives them opportunity, is the overthrow of the Church establishment in Ireland; the overthrow of the Church establishment in England-aye, and in Scotland, too, must follow. Upon this ground, though we have higher to come, we appeal to the clergy of all ranks, to the patrons of Church preferment of all degrees, throughout Great Britain-we appeal to them to aid the Conservative Society of Ireland, in repelling the first invasion of their rights and property.

"The second object of the Popish

party in Parliament, is the extirpation of the Protestant religion. Upon this ground we invoke the aid of all Christian churchmen and Dissenters, of whatever denomination, to aid that Society which, in resisting the aggression of this Popish faction, champions the vital interests of Christianity, and literally prevents the closing of the gospel against seven or eight millions of our fellow-subjects.

"The third object of the Popish faction in Parliament, is the ostentatiously avowed one, the repeal of the Union. Let the manufacturer, the fundholder, the party concerned in the East or West India trade-let, indeed, any man concerned to maintain the power and station of Great Britain, but reflect upon the import of these five words-the repeal of the Union-the repeal of that Union which, thirty-two years ago, was effected at such a cost, in order to avoid a political separation; and that at a moment when the power of Popery had been crushed into the dust by its defeat in a recent rebellion. What would be the effect of a repeal of the Union now, when Popery has been pampered to its present high and palmy state? Let, we say, those who have property, particularly funded property, let those who are engaged in any branch of commerce-let those who have any British feeling, reflect deliberately upon what would follow from a repeal of the Union; and then let them ask themselves whether they ought not to lend a hand to the Protestants of Ireland, who are standing in the breach against that plague?"

When a powerful body, acting upon these principles, is organized for the defence of order in Ireland, and to preserve its union with this country, it is surely the height of madness for Government to throw away such auxiliaries, to alienate such affections, on the very eve of a conflict for the dismemberment of the empire. Yet this is what the Ministry have have done, and are doing, by coalescing on every occasion with the Catholic Repealer in preference to the Protestant Unionist,-the firebrand of anarchy, and dismemberer of the empire, in preference to the friend of order, and tried supporter of the British constitution.

Of the extent to which the anarchical meetings, so loudly praised and warmly supported at one time by Ministers, have gone in Ireland, we cannot give a better proof than is contained in the following charge of Judge Joy to the grand jury at the late Longford Assizes:-" to learn, that there is an appearance of moral disease in your country, more fatal and pernicious in its immediate effects, and far more destructive in its general consequences, than that physical disease which Providence has already considerably alleviated in your country. Large assemblies of the people have taken place for the purpose of resisting the law, exciting discontent, and obstructing those persons who are exercising their due rights, and for the purpose of depriving them of that property which the law has given them; and which the law, so long as it remains as it is, must secure to them. Large assemblies have been convoked, for the purpose of entering into a combination to resist the law, and obstructing those who are coming forward in the exercise of their just rights. This state of things cannot be suffered to exist, for evil, you may be assured, must be the result. If it be not checked, there is an end to all social order to all peace-to all protection for life and property, and those ties by which society are kept together must be ultimately severed; if such a state of things be permitted to exist, no man will know what to call his own -no man can exercise his will over that which is his own, but must submissively bend to that most despotic of all tyrants-the tyranny of the mob. It becomes my duty, therefore, to enter into an explanation of the law upon this subject. Persons, it is stated, have assembled in large bodies, with arms, with flying banners, with ensigns, denoting the object of their assembling, and thus inspiring terror into the peaceable subjects of his Majesty. The very existence of this I at once pronounce to be a revolution of the law, which calls for, and is deserving of punishment. Gentlemen, in some cases they have given specific directions as to who should be employed by particular persons, and who should not. They have assumed a control

I am sorry

ling authority over the labour of the country, by dictating to those who are necessarily obliged to employ persons under them; and have also exercised a dictatorial authority in saying, 'You shall not employ this man or that man;' and over those unfortunate persons who are obliged to have recourse to their labour for support, they have exercised an equally dictatorial authority by preventing them from receiving payment from particular men."

That the Protestant party in Ireland are a powerful and intrepid body, is evident from the astonishing stand they have made against the Catholic anarchists, even when deserted by Administration, and when the whole weight of Government was lent to support the 5,000,000 of Agitators who are tearing society to pieces in that wretched country. It is owing to their efforts, and their efforts alone, aided by the cool and humane courage of the English soldiers, that there is any thing like order or peace left in any part of Ireland. But the eloquence and ability of the orators of whom it can boast, is in Great Britain in a great degree unknown; and to remove the error, and give a specimen of the ability which presides over their meetings, we cannot resist the temptation of adorning our pages by part of the splendid speech of Mr Boyton on the Dutch war ;-a proceeding of which the consequences and the punishment are doomed to be more fasting than the gallant defence of General Chassé. It is not exactly on the subject at present under discussion, but it is intimately connected with it; and Mr Boyton's eloquence is worthy of a place in a more lasting record than the perishing columns of a newspaper.

"I say it is our duty to employ this influence in the way of respectful remonstrance. It is the unquestionable prerogative of the King to declare war-but no Minister should advise war unless it receive the support of the great body of the people -for none such can be brought to a successful termination. My Lord, we object to the war as undertaken in violation of the national faith.War is a fearful alternative, but an alternative which a people may be induced to adopt. But the present

war is to the people of this country unintelligible. If it were undertaken to support an old and faithful allyif it were undertaken to loosen the chains and establish the freedom of an oppressed people-if its objects. were to curb superstitious bigotry, or to crush religious persecution(cheers)-if the interests of the country advised, or the honour of the country required, that we should draw the sword from out its sheath, they might excuse if they did not approve the present policy. But that England should unite with her natural enemy to crush an ancient friend; that she should join to wrest from them the hard-earned rights of a gallant people, bought by their bravery and sealed with their blood

that she should ally herself with infidels against brethren of the same household of the faith-and this in defiance of the most obvious interests, and in violation of the pledged honour of the country, is that against which the mind revolts, and will call down, I feel assured, the universal reclamation of the country. But supposing honour permitted, justice must condemn the war-the very basis accepted by the King of Holland contained conditions of crying injustice. Upon the closing of the Scheldt, my Lord, I say the prosperity of the states of Holland has for a long time depended. I need not dwell upon the right vested in Holland to close the entrance of this river, possessing, as she does, a territory on either side of its embouchure; but this right was settled by special treaty between Philip the Fourth and the States of Holland centuries before; they have since strengthened that title by all the authority of fprescription, and by the sanction of the States of Europe. Why, my Lord, the attempt of the Emperor Joseph to open the Scheldt, joined with the equally prudent policy, by which, through a most extraordinary coincidence, it was accompanied-namely, the dismantling of the iron girdle of frontier towns, by which the Netherlands was separated from France, led to that first disturbance in Europe, immediately preceding the movement at the French Revolution. The ground assigned by England for its declaration of war against France in