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tants required the protection of fire-arms to preserve them from the violence of Catholics? If such an alarming and calumnious doctrine were sought to be established, he (Mr. O'C.) could adduce a striking instance in elucidation; for in his own barony, where there were 14,700 Catholics and about 80 Protestants, none of whom were Orangemen, an outrage against Protestants was unknown.

But the basis of the objection was confounded, for the petition. principally alluded to the aggressions of the Orangemen in the north. There they were superior to the Catholics in numberthere, too, they were armed-and there, with indignation and sorrow must it be told, the Catholics are only considered as animals whose immolation to the god of frenzied, factious bigotry, is necessary to the existence of Orangemen ; but if the Orangemen were deprived of those weapons of destruction, they would cease to be offensive, as the Catholics would be upon an equal footing, and personal prudence would suggest to others, that as those, whom they now goad into opponents, were able to protect themselves, aggression would be a hazardous pastime; not as at present, when they commence by creating a mere riot in a fair, and appear determined to contend upon equal terms, or with no other weapon than what is within the reach of all parties-the shilelah. But when they have drawn the poor deluded people into the affray, then they retreat to their depot of fire-arms, and return, dealing death and destruction, without distinction of age or sex, amongst the opposite party.

Now, the object of the petition was to deprive the armed Orangemen of having the lives of Catholics at their mercy, and to place both parties on an equal footing. As to the means of offence in possession of Catholics, government was able to protect the lives of all; or if so absurd an apprehension existed, as that the Catholics would persecute either Protestants or Orangemen, (he did not at all mean to include the two latter under the same head), why, let government send a sufficient armed force under responsible control, to protect the Orangemen.

But could a sensible, unprejudiced man pretend there were any grounds for such apprehension? Would not every Catholic at all influenced by the precepts of his religion, throw his arm of protection round the Protestant whose life should be threatened by the infidel abusing the name of Catholic, and who should learn, that a religion having Christianity for its basis, requires no human force for its preservation? But when do Protestants complain of being abused from Catholic numerical force ?

Has any instance of it occurred in the south of Ireland, where the Protestants are so far outnumbered by the Catholics? Or did it occur in Dublin, where, according to the census of the late Rev. Mr. Whitelaw, a Protestant divine, the Catholics had doubled their number within the last seventy years, and where they are now seven-eighths of the entire population? When have Orangemen complained of Catholics having injured them, and that they did not receive redress?

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But have not the Catholics been slaughtered in their beds, and in the streets? Does not the blood of slaughtered Catholics rise against the Orangemen of the North; and when have the cries of suffering relatives been heard with effect? Then, as the Catholics cannot obtain redress, even from a constitutional inquest, when conscientious and impartial judges have instructed juries as to the bearing of evidence in support of the accusation -when those who are entrusted with the powers of rulers, are · either incompetent or fearful to do their duty in protecting the subjects, is it not reasonable for the Catholics to petition for permission to protect themselves?-by procuring arms, not to declare war, but to preserve peace; not to offend others, but to prevent them from offending us; to abolish the frequent celebration of Turkish lents, the only lent known to the Orangemen, when, like the Turks, they sally forth with loaded muskets, and as the miserable Greeks are massacred with Mussulman ferocity, to appease the spirit of Mahommedan bigotry, so the unprotected, armless Catholic falls the victim to the periodical fanaticism of the armed Orangemen.

As the petition sought but the placing of Catholics on an equal footing of personal security with the Orangemen, there could be no substantial objection to the prayer for the dis arming of Orangemen.

CATHOLIC ASSOCIATION, JUNE 2, 1824.

JOHN LAWLESS, Esq., Barrister-at-Law, in the Chair.

ORANGEMEN.

MR. O'CONNELL stated, that he had obtained from two Orangemen, documents which would explain what Sir A. B. King had,

very naturally, wished to conceal from the House of Commonsthe obligation of an Orangeman; which Sir Abraham's brethren in the House were also anxious to withhold from the world, conscious of the enormity of its provisions, and the execration they must inspire in the mind of every Christian.

Mr. O'Connell said the documents were received from a source that would enable the Catholics to make such a case for parliament as could not fail to be established. From one of the two Orangemen who had supplied him with the information, he (Mr. O'C.) had received such corroborative proofs, as could leave no doubt of the authenticity of the statements in the documents he was about to submit to the meeting. That Orangeman had undertaken to prove the statement before the bar of the House of Commons, and, of course, the Association would not fail to make him a sufficient compensation for the risk and hazard of life he should run in thus coming forward. The principles of the system were to be found in the 68th Psalm; or, in the 67th and 68th of the Douay Bible, and the 24th verse :

"That thy feet may be dipped in the blood of thine enemies; and that the tongue of thy dogs may be red through the same."

Mr. O'Connell then read the following dialogue:

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tion.

ORANGE SYSTEM.

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The System is taken from the 68th Psalm.

The Lecture is

Q. From whence came you?-A. From the deep.

Q. What deep?-A. The deep of the sea.

Q. Whither go you ?-A. To the hill.

Q. What hill ?-A. Even an high hill as the hill of BASAN.

'Q. Who shall conduct you hither?-A. The Lord, of whom cometh salva

"Q. Have you a password?-A. I have.

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Q. Will you give it to me?-A. I did not so obtain it myself; but I will divide it with a true brother, knowing him to be such.

"Q. Begin?-A. No; do you begin. RE-MEM-BER.

"This is the entrance password, and is accompanied with three knocks. "The grand password is SI-NAI.

"The sign is made by placing the forefinger of the right hand on the mouth. "The answer is by the other person placing his right hand upon his left breast. "The 67th psalm, according to the Hebrew version, being the 69th according to the Septuagint, and marked accordingly, 67 and 68 in the Douay translation.

"Verse 23rd.-The Lord said I will turn them from Basan, I will turn them into the depth of the sea.

24th. That the feet may be dipped in the blood of thy enemies; that the tongue of thy dogs may be red with the same."

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Mr. O'Connell proceeded-The Orangeman at his entrance was lectured from the 68th Psalm. The 2nd verse of the same psalm, consisting of the following words, was also read to him: "Like as the smoke vanisheth, so shalt thou drive them away: and like as wax melteth at the fire, so let the ungodly perish at the presence of God."

An amusing incident had occurred to himself, with reference to these same signs and tokens. He had, that morning, in the hall of the Four Courts, made some of the signals to an Orangeman, an acquaintance of his, greatly to the latter's astonishment, and not a little to his confusion, for he blushed and got most exceedingly angry.

The 24th verse, continued Mr. O'Connell, contains the sanguinary principle which induced the horrid murder of poor Grunly, on the 12th of July, 1822, in Armagh, and which has occasioned his sister to wander ever since through her neighbourhood a wretched maniac. When the poor, heart-sickened girl told that she had seen one of the persons who shot her brother get some of his blood and mix it with water, and make his dog drink it on the spot where the murder was committed, her frightful tale was not believed.

The same hellish perversion of the sacred text had caused the murders of Wm. Campbell, at Armagh, on the 12th of July, 1823, and in the month of March last, that of Hugh Cassidy.

It was true, persons were tried for these murders, but it was equally certain that not one was convicted. Their blood is still unavenged by the law.

To be sure, the Orangemen and Orange newspapers will deny the authenticity and truth of those documents; but will they venture to deny what has been stated of their system being founded on the 68th Psalm? Mr. O'Connell concluded, by giving notice of a motion for a petition to parliament on the subject of the Orange societies.

THE LATE MURDERS IN FERMANAGH.

On the recommendation of Mr. O'Connell, a committee wa appointed to employ an agent and counsel to proceed forthwith to Fermanagh, and collect evidence to be laid before Mr. Black burn.

Without the active interference, protection, and advice of some professional and respectable gentleman, the witness who possessed the most important information would either be inti

midated or unadvised, and it would be the object of the guilty party to prevent their access to Mr. Blackburn's court of inquiry. Should those persons succeed in obstructing the communication, the object of the inquiry would be defeated, notwithstanding the industry and ability with which Mr. Blackburn would, no doubt, conduct it.

As the appointment he had recommended would materially facilitate and assist the government in the inquiry, he should move, that, in consequence of the urgency of the case, Mr. Blackburn being to leave town for Fermanagh to-morrow, (this day,) that a committee be appointed to employ Counsellor Kernan, and engage him to proceed immediately to attend the examination.

SATURDAY, JUNE 5.

MR. O'CONNELL said he wished to give notice of a motion as resulting from a late debate in parliament.

Of what occurred in parliament, he said, they knew nothing; but the reports published in the newspapers they had a right to discuss

He thought it was no small proof how much the Catholic Association had exerted itself in the cause of religious liberty, when it had earned so fully the hostility of an avowed Orangeinan, who was, of course, the sworn enemy of Catholic claims, and who, in the discharge of his sworn duty, assailed the Catholic Association. One would have thought the newspaper which had given so laboured a report of Mr. Brownlow's censure of the Catholic Association, would have despised the paltry pretence of regretting that the Association was injuring the cause of Catholic Emancipation. Why, if that were true, the columns of that paper would not have been occupied with Mr. Brownlow's philippic, for he would rather support the existence of au association, whose proceedings were calculated to retard the march of liberality, or the attainment of Catholic Emancipation.

Mr. Brownlow was member for Armagh, where three murders of Catholics had been committed within the last eighteen months. Mr. Brownlow may not think it is the duty of the Association to put down the faction which delights in those scenes of massacre.

In the complaints of the Catholic Association, as reported in

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