leaders. More than that, the emissaries of
the Orange lodges contrived to make their influence widely felt in the
Army, and it became clear afterwards that a large number of soldiers
were sworn confederates of the association.

Some of the explanations which were afterwards given to account for the
sudden spread of Orangeism might well appear incredible at first to an
intelligent reader of our day not acquainted with this singular chapter
of history. But it was afterwards made perfectly certain that a large
number of credulous persons were prevailed upon to join the Orange
ranks by the positive assurance that the Duke of Wellington had formed
the determination to seize the crown of England and to put it on his
own head, and that the Duke of Cumberland was the only man who could
save the realm from this treasonable enterprise. It seems hardly
possible now to understand that there could have been one human
creature in England silly and ignorant enough to believe the Duke of
Wellington capable of so preposterous and so wicked a scheme. Lord
John Russell has left it on record that when he visited Napoleon in his
exile at Elba, the fallen Emperor, during the course of a long
conversation, expressed his strong belief that Wellington would seize
the crown of England. Lord John endeavored to convince him that such
an idea went entirely outside the limits of sober reality; but Napoleon
refused to be convinced, and blandly put the question aside with the
manner of one who knows better but does not particularly care to
impress his opinion on unwilling ears. One can easily understand how
such an idea might come into the mind of Napoleon, who knew little or
nothing about the actual conditions of English political and social
life, and who had experience of his own to demonstrate the possibility
of a great military conqueror becoming at once the ruler of a State.
But it seems hard indeed to understand how any sane Englishman could
have believed that {278} the simple, loyal, unselfish Duke of
Wellington could allow such an idea to enter his mind for a moment, or
could see his way to make it a reality even if he did entertain it.
Yet it cannot be doubted that numbers of Englishmen were induced to
join Orange lodges by the positive assurance that thus only could they
save the State from Wellington's daring ambition.

[Sidenote: 1836--Dissolution of the Orange lodges]

One of the principal instruments of the Orange organization w