iolence,
and outrage, and persecution itself, under a conviction that they
are only discharging their duties by a faithful adherence to its
obligations. These obligations, however, admirable as they are and
ably drawn up, possess neither power nor influence in the system, being
nothing more nor less than an abstract series of religious and moral
duties recommended to practice, but stript of any force of obligation
that might impress them on the heart and principles. They are not
embodied at all in the code in any shape or form that might touch the
conscience or regulate the conduct, but on the contrary, stand there as
a thing to look at and admire, but not as a matter of duty. If they had
been even drawn up as a solemn declaration, asserting on the part of the
newly made member, a conviction that strict observance of their precepts
was an indispensable and necessary part of his obligations as an
Orangeman, they might have been productive of good effect, and raised
the practices of the institution from many of the low and gross
atrocities which disgraced it. I cannot deny, however, that Orangeism,
with all its crimes and outrages, has rendered very important services
to the political Protestantism of the country. In fact, it was produced
at the period of its formation by the almost utter absence of spiritual
religion in the Established Church. Some principle was necessary to keep
Protestantism from falling to pieces, and as a good one could not be
found in a church which is at this moment one mass of sordid and selfish
secularity,* there was nothing left for it but a combination such
as this. Indeed, you could form no conception of the state of the
Protestant Church here, even while I write, although you might form
a very gorgeous one of the Establishment. The truth is she is all
Establishment and no Church; and is, to quote Swift's celebrated
simile--

"Like a fat corpse upon a bed,
That rots and stinks in state."

* Let the reader remember that this, and almost everything
that refers to the Irish Establishment, is supposed to have
been written about forty years ago.

"There was no purifying or restraining power in the Establishment to
modify, improve, or elevate the principles of Orangeism at all. And what
has been the consequence? Why, that in attempting to infuse her spirit
into the new system she was overmatched herself, and instead of making
Orangeism Christian, the institution has made