failure to meet the ordinary obligations of social life. The artisans
of Portadown go to work every day, and the farmers do their level best
with the land, which all about this region is highly cultivated. They
claim to belong to the party of law and order, and they agree with the
great orator who once said:--"The party of law and order includes
every farmer who does not want to rob the landlord of his due and who
does not want to be forced to pay blackmail to agitation--every poor
fellow who desires to be at liberty to earn a day's wages by
whomsoever they are offered him, without being shunned, insulted,
beaten, or too probably murdered." The orator in question bears the
well-known name of William Ewart Gladstone, now intimately associated
with the names of Dillon, O'Brien, Sexton, O'Connor, Tim Healy, and
the rest of the agitators to whom he was referring in the above-quoted
speech, delivered at Hawick just ten years ago.

A Portadown Orangeman complained bitterly of the attitude of the
English Gladstonian party with reference to his order. He said:--"We
have been denounced as rowdies and Orange blackguards until the
English people seem to believe it. They never think of comparing our
record with the record of the party denouncing us, nor do they know
anything of the history and constitution of the order. We have always
been loyal, always friends of England, and that is why the Nationalist
party so strongly disapprove of us. We have never occupied the time of
the English Parliament, nor have we leagued ourselves with the enemies
of England. We have maintained order, and taken care of English
interests in Ireland, besides looking after our own personal affairs.
We have not stood everlastingly hat in hand, crying, like the daughter
of the horse-leech, Give, give. And great is our reward. We are to be
handed over to a pack of Papist traitors and robbers, who for years
have made the country a perfect Hell. Mr. Gladstone would fain give
rich, industrious Ulster into the hands of lazy, improvident
Connaught. Let them try it on. Let them impose their taxes, and let
them try to collect them. They'll find in Ulster something to run up
against. We prefer business to fighting and disturbance, but when once
we make up our minds for a row we shall go in for a big thing. Most of
our people have a deep sense of religion, and they will look upon it
as a religious war. It will be the sword of the Lord and of Gideon. We
never will b