they were few: the enemies of the rights of man were the more numerous; but, nevertheless, France enjoyed much practical liberty, and her peasantry were happy and well-fed.

In England, Toryism was triumphant. The forges were all employed; the funds were high and healthy; the cry of war had been abandoned; the navy was flourishing, and actively engaged; the army was numerous, well fed, and well paid; the Duke of York, their declared and open enemy, and who headed the Orange faction, was the commander-in-chief; Mr. Canning was in office, secured by a motley cabinet, who opposed each other openly, but who covertly befriended themselves to the detriment of the country; Mr. Peel, their avowed enemy, was firm in his place; Lord Liverpool still opposed them. Was it, therefore, at all wonderful that the Catholics were despised, and their cause abandoned?

In Ireland, they had been blamed for being agitators. He (Mr. O'Connell) thanked his God for being one. Whatever little they had gained, they had gained by agitation, while they uniformly lost by moderation. The last word was repeated so often, that he was completely sick of it. He wondered some gentleman did not teach a parrot to repeat it. (A laugh.)_lf we gained nothing by moderation, it cost us something. Our religion was reviled, and we thanked the revilers; they spit in our faces and we paid 'em for it. (Laughter and applause.) This reminded him of Shylock, in "The Merchant of Venice"

Fair Sir, you spat on me on Wednesday last;

On such a day you called me dog;

And for these courtesies I'll lend you so much monies

The King came, and from the Catholics he reaped a rich harvest of gratitude. Anger and bigotry clothed their frightful forms in the garb of peace and conciliation, and became for a time allies to the throne. The feelings of the Catholics were, and he was not ashamed to say it, a little exaggerated by the natural ardour of the national temperament; by their innate sense of gratitude, and by the sentiments of duty and respect, which warmed into enthusiastic love. The king had dismissed the whiskered and feathered tribe, the reds and the blues, who delighted in clothing themselves in all sorts of muffs and tippets. (Much laughter.) He won the Irish, and he was received with one acclaiming shout from Dingle-o'-Cooch to the Giant's Causeway.

That most paltry of all paltry things, the Corporation of the

City of Dublin, swallowed this as they would have a bitter pill. (Loud laughter.) It was a very long time since he had taken physic, but he had some slight recollection of the taste of a pill from his boyish days. (Laughter.) The cat, however, drew up its nails within its paw, and we met the velvet. (Laughter.) We pledged as men and gentlemen, and we kept our words. The Orangemen accuse us of not keeping faith with heretics, but they have kept no faith with us, from the treaty of Limerick to the dinner at the Mansion-house. (Loud applause.) They never made a treaty with us that they did not violate, when it was their interest or pleasure to do so. (Hear.) The vile press of Londor might taunt him for his observations to-day; but he would tell that press, that at the last time of which he was speaking, he bent his knee to his Sovereign, in all the ardour of duty, allegiance, and love-that knee which he bent only to his God beside. (Cheers.)

However, as he was saying, the Orangemen got alarmed— consultations were held-deputies came up to town, to preserve the Orange system. A representation was thereby established, and each county and city appointed some kind friend to act in behalf of the fraternity. (Loud and general applause.)

[Mr. O'Connell here called for a large package of books, letters, and papers which, he said, an honest fellow in the North (and God bless him for it!(laughter)-transmitted to him. (Here there were many cries of "Read, read.")

He would with the leave of the meeting, proceed to read, but he would first exhibit to them the signs and seals of the dignitaries of Donegal. This document should be framed and glazed forthwith, and suspended from the walls of the Catholic Association. (Hear and laughter.) The county of Donegal was not regularly organized till 1813.

[Here Mr. B. CoYLE stated that it was organised in 1796.]

Mr. O'Connell resumed. It was a very Catholic county, and although there might have been scattered Orangemen resident in it, still he had reason to think there was no organized Lodge till the period he had mentioned.

The learned gentleman now proceeded to read the regulations for admission, as assigned by the notorious Jack Giffard. Those who wished to be of the brotherhood should enter naked and hoodwinked. (Immense laughter.) This part of the business was denominated the Royal Arch Mark. They were next made acquainted with the dialogue, which was represented by Giffard to be long, simple, and beautiful. (Laughter.)

Mr. O'Connell next read a letter, signed "John Payne," of the Cambridge militia, who was admitted to Lodge 1,287. This person stated that the forms were indecent and absurd, and that he had suffered considerable injury and abuse, ana many things degrading to a good and loyal man, in becoming an Orangeman. It was worthy of remark that these Orange Lodges met on the first Tuesday in every assizes. If there was a bit of an acre of ground between a Protestant and a bloody Papist, or if there was an Orange murder, to be sure these honest Orangemen would not say a word about the matter to those of the fraternity summoned on juries. No, no; it would be indelicate to suppose such a thing. (Applause.) It was further to be observed, that Captain Nesbitt, after being one year in office, had resigned the grand-mastership of this Lodge to Sir James. Galbraith, the crown-solicitor for the county. Therefore, the stream of justice was sure to flow unpolluted. (Cheering,) Oh (he said again), God bless the honest fellow who sent him these books! He was sure he was much obliged to him. (Hear.) It was in the recollection of many who heard him, that these self same gentry had petitioned the House of Commons against the respectable Jesuit establishment in Ireland.

At a

The Jesuits were a body, the most enlightened in every age since their original formation. The tuition of the youth of Europe had been committed to them, and they had acquitted themselves nobly. There was no subject of science or elegant literature which they had not touched, and they certainly improved and adorned every subject on which they had written. time when bigotry was the epidemic of the age in England, efforts were certainly made by subornation of perjury to malign and traduce the character of this society; but the clear and steady light of history-" temporum testis, lux veritatis"-had pronounced a judgment not less severe than merited on these attempts.

These were the men who were accused by the Orangemen of the North with darkening the intellect of the rising generation; but the eagle-eyed penetration of Henry Brougham had discovered that the petition of the enlighteners, "par excellence," abounded in glaring mis-spellings and breaches of concord. (Laughter.)

In one of the letters in his possession, the treasurer, in applying for subscriptions, wrote as follows:--" "As several members is in arrear. The high numbering of the lodges reminded him of a templar in London, a friend of his, who, having purchased

two pair of silk stockings, had them numbered 47 and 48 (Laughter.)

After all the boasting, however, about organization and funds, it was discovered that lodge 10,547 only paid 5s. ; that lodge 1,499 paid only 5s. also; while 344 advanced only 2s. 6d., and 1,190 nothing at all. (Laughter.) In all they could muster but the sum of 12s. 6d. for one year, of these lodges, which he contended were falsely represented with regard to the number and respectability of their members. He next produced an entry on the book, "deploring that the political hemisphere had been gloomily clouded by the removal, to a better world, of that great and good man and brother, John Giffard, Esq." (Great laughter and applause).

If J. Giffard died, the spirit of the dog survived; but what was next? Why, a document proving the illiberality of their ene‐ mies. It was in the shape of a resolution :

RESOLVED That any Orangeman, who ever has, or may hereafter, siga any petition in favour of the Roman Catholics, and for their emancipation, be expelled from all Orange Lodges, and his name posted.”

The individuals who passed that resolution had lately appointed a Committee of twenty-one Orange gentlemen, to manage their affairs in the Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland. They were

"Thomas Ellis, Esq., M.P.; Frederick Darley, Esq. and Alderman; Sir H Lees, clergyman and Baronet; Thomas Verner, Esq., Francis Dejoncourt, Esq. Captain Wiley, Charles Todd, Esq., George Hill, Esq., J. Walsh, Esq., N. Bai. rington, Esq., J. Forbes, Esq., L. H. Maugan, Esq., J. Pim, Esq."

All Esquires, said Mr. O'Connell.

"Joseph Mullen, Esq. (no Denis in it) (a laugh); Wm. Hall, Esq., G. Bentley, Esq., A. O'Neill, Esq., T. G. Byrne, Esq., George Fearon, Esq., Genge Atkinson, Esq."

(Great laughter, when this list was ended.)

Here came a letter, written at Donegal, when the king was in Dublin, addressed to the then Grand Secretary; the object of it was to know if the Orange system was not about being discon tinued, owing to the conciliatory proceedings of that period. The answer to that was from Theophilus Norton, Esq., Grand Secretary; he expressed his amazement as to what could have giveu rise to such a rumour, but said that owing to the bustle in Dublin, the Grand Lodge could not meet, and added that ('olonel Blacker had been elected Deputy Grand Master, in the room of Sir A. B. King, Bart., and that the system was as flourishing as

ever.

The next document read, was dated 9th July, 1822, and addressed to the Donegal Lodge, by John Burke Fitzsimons, Esq., their representative; it was a postscript of a letter, and ran thus:

"P.S.-Our statue in College-green, I am delighted to say, is painting for the 12th."

(Great merriment.)

In the following November, the next paper was written, and was a suggestion from the Grand Lodge of Donegal, that any further concessions to Papists would only produce further demands " on our liberty," and they might call for the removal of the statue, and an abandonment of our principals, &c. (laughter)—that being so obnoxious to Catholics-they might ask to abolish "days and times"—" days and times," repeated Mr. O'Connell, why that would be working a greater miracle than any yet wrought. (Great laughter.) This was signed "J. B. Fitzsimons," and dated Sandymount.

The next was a letter from Mr. Fitzsimons, also dated Sandymount, 17th September, 1822 :—

"DEAR SIR-The Grand Lodge are averse to abandoning the old custom of dressing the statue-Lord O'Neill in the chair-present, three Vernons, Messrs. Sneyd, Ellis, and Darley. God send we have done right in differing with government: hope it will not lead to bad consequences; but no discussion had ever been more fairly or knowingly conducted. "J. B. F."

Another document, dated Wiley's Rooms, North Earl-street -Colonel Blacker in the Chair-it was agreed to form a new association, called the "Loyal Orange Association."

Another document called for a return of masters and representatives from the country. [Here, Mr. O'Connell said, was a proof of illegality.] That document, claiming such return, was dated "Post-office, Dublin," and signed "William M'Culloch, Deputy Grand Secretary."

This, he said, convicted the Orangemen out of their own lips, who now called themselves legally constituted. Mr. J. B. F. wrote another letter, declaring he had received no money, and recommending another application to Mr. Ellis, (secrecy), and the adoption of the king's parting admonition as their best guide. (A laugh.) It complained "that no party was ever more maligned or misrepresented than the Orangemen of Ireland; and he hoped that their unjust persecution was at an end.” He expressed his hope in Anglo-Saxon language, "that they would prove the advi of their friends," and ended with, "send