REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON ORANGEISM.

TIIE Committee appointed to inquire into the origin, nature, extent, and tendency of Orange Institutions in Great Britain and the Colonies, have made their report to the House of Commons. The refusal of the person calling himself Colonel Fairman, the Deputy Grand Secre- tary of the Institution, to produce the book containing the correspond- ence since February 1834, has narrowed the inquiries of the Committee; but sufficient evidence was adduced "to prove the existence of an or- gamzed institution, pervading Great Britain and her Colonies, to ars

extent never contemplated as possible," and which is declared by the Committee to be "highly injurious to the discipline of his Majesty's Army, and dangerous to the peace of his Majesty's subjects."

It appears that the first Grand Orange Lodge was established in England in 1808, at Manchester ; but that it was transferred to Lord Kenyon's (the Deputy Grand Master's) house in Portman Square, in 1821; where the meetings have since been regularly held, on the third Thursday in February, and on the 4th of June, and at such other times as the Grand Master or the Deputy Grand Master may appoint.

Every "complaint, proposition, matter or thing" must be sub- mitted to the Grand Committee, consisting of thirty six Grand officers, before it can be discussed at these meetings, unless the Grand Master, or his Deputy, or the dignitary presiding in their absence, shall declare its postponement to be injurious to the Society. All the resolutions

are put separately from the chair to the meeting ; and the Duke of Cumberland, when in England, has always presided at the meetings, as Grand Master. All the minutes of proceedings are laid before the

Deputy Grand Master for examination arid correction.

Orangemen in England and Ireland are considered as belonging to

one society. Deputy Grand Masters of counties, cities, and boroughs returning

Members to Parliament, are appointed by the Imperial Grand Lodge. Masters of lodges are elected by the members of the lodges. There is an organized system of correspondence between the District Lodges and the Imperial Grand Lodge, by means of which the proceedings of the whole body are known to and directed by the chief officers in Lon- don. " A new system of lectures, secret signs, and pass-words has of late years been adopted by all Orangemen in the United Kingdom and the, Colonies ; and the ordinances declare that its whole institution is one neighbourhood, within which every Orangeman is at home in the furthest parts of the world." All members must be balloted for ; and, with the exception of soldiers and sailors, who maN be admitted without any charge, are required to pay 3s. to the Imperial Lodge, as an Mids..

tion fee.

In 1821, the oath taken by Orangemen was abolished ; but the cere-

mony of initiation is so conducted as to have more than the ordinary solemnity of an oath. . The candidate for admission into the Purple order —a sort of aristocracy of Orangemen—is introduced into the room between two of the brethren, holding a Bible with both his hands, with a book containing the rules of theOrder placed on it. The Chaplain reads some texts of Scripture ; the Master of the Lodge asks who will vouch for the candidate being duly qualified for admission; and the two members who introduced him, called his sponsors, vouch.

for him. Then the Master says— The Master—" What do you carry in your hand ?', Brother—" The Wont of Cod." Master—" Under the assurance of these faithful Purplemen, we believe that you have

also carried it in your heart. What is that other book ?"

Brother—" The book of our rules and regulations." Master—" Under the like assurance, we trust that you have hitherto obeyed them in all lawful matters. Therefore, we gladly advance you into this order. Purplemen, bring to me our brother." Other texts of Scripture are read, and thus the ceremony ends. In this way Orangemen think they evade the law against secret oaths.

The Grand Master is the chief and supreme head of the Orange- men. His office is permanent and uncontrolled no particular functions or duties can be prescribed to him his powers are discretionary, illimit- able, and absolute. Although it is pretended that the character of the Orange Instifts.

tion is religious, it is in fact political. The influence of its dignitaries has been used to obtain places of various kinds—in the Police, in the Dock-yards, pensions in the Artillery, and public-house licences, for the poorer members of the fraternity. Votes of thanks have been passed to the Tory press ; Liberal electors have been expelled from the body on account of their politics ; large bodies of armed Orangemen have interfered at elections ; and they have been muttered in vast numbers in Ireland to pass Tory addresses and resolutions. In Jun*

last, the Grand Lodge in Dublin thanked their brethren for assembling at Hillsborough and other places ; and the Grand Lodge in London republished their resolutions, with this encomiastic accompaniment-

.. We beg to call the attention of the Grand Lodge, and through them ret ern our heartfelt thanks and congratulations to our brethren through various parts of Ireland, who, at the late meetings of the three thousaud in Dublin, five thousand at Bandon, thirty thousand at Cavan, and seventy-five thousand at H illshorough, by their strength and numbers, the rank, respectability. and orderly conduct of their attendance, the manly and eloquent expressions of every Christian and loyal sentiment, vindicated so nobly the character of our institution, against the aspersion thrown on it, as ' the paltry remnant oran expiring faction.' And we ardently hope that our brethren in the other parts of the kingdom, who have not yet come forward, will do so, and not forget the Lint given to us in our Sovereign's last most gracious declaration, to speak out.' Mr.' Randall Plunket, Grand Master of Meath, Deputy Grand Master in Ireland, and a member of the London Grand Committee, in a letter to the Deputy Grand Secretary, dated .5th July 1834, says- " The physical strength of the Orange Institution, as its last resort, should be ex- plained by a short address. The Orange body is capable of being rendered eminently available at elections; its peculiar and almost unique application to purposes of com- munication between persons of all trades and to large bodies, whether the intent of such application be for insuring as election or strengthening the hands of &Government. Sm.' and, he continues, 'that Conservatism is inferior to Orangeism, as it is solely. and almost selfishly, political. I cannot consent to lose your valuable exertions by Wenn- tying you with the politics of the Carlton Club. I should fly at higher game, and en- deavour to make the members of the Carlton Orangemen.'"

The following significant comment on this letter of Mr. Plunket is adduced by the Committee-

" Your Committee could not keep out of sight the riots that took place in Ireland at that gentleman's election by the interference of large bodies of armed Orangemen, as detailed in the evidence on the table of the House, as the hind 0/ eminent services that may be rendered at elections by Orangemen."

With a view "to make the members of the Carlton Orangemen," the Grand Committee drew up an address to them, and to the Con. servatives of England generally, from which we extract a characteristic passage— sit (the Orange Institution) governed by a Grand Master, the first Prince of the blood, who, with the aid of noblemen and gentlemen eminent for loyalty, wisdom, and sound discretion, win be able (when the institution shall become more extensively ramified) to muster, in every part of the empire. no small portion of all that is sound in the community, and Mu: present, in every guarter,a phalanx too strong to be overpowered by the Destructive:, which will gire D moral as well as a known physical strength to the Go. verument of the King. and will enable it to set at defiance the tyrannous power that has been so madly called into existence."

In a letter to the Duke of Gordon, Colonel Fairman says- " Cannon Row, Westminster, Aug. 11, 1932.

Our institution is going on prosperously. and my accounts from all quarters, Arc of the most satisfactory kind. By our nest general meeting we shall be assuming. I think, such an attitude of boldness as will strike the rite w ith awe; but ice inculcate the doe. nine ofpcusive obedience and if non.resistance too religiously byfitr." This shows what sort of loyalty it is, of which the Orangemen boast.

Again, Colonel Fairman, writing to Lord Longford, in June 1833, Says- - We shall speedily have such a moral and physical force, I trust, as w ill strike with terror and sore tliSMay the foes of our country.'' It thus appears, not only that the views of the Orangemen are poli- tical, but that they are prepared to accomplish their ends by the use of physical force.

The numbers of English Orangemen have not been ascertained. Mr. Cooper, an active member of the Grand Committee, estimates them at 40,000 in London, and altogether at from 120,000 to 140,000; but the Committee seem to think these numbers exaggerated. The total number of Orange Lodges, in Great Britain and the Colonies, is 474.

The lodges in regiments, established under warrants issued by the English Grand Lodge, are no fewer than thirty-two, in addition to those which have been granted by the Dublin Grand Lodge.

Grangeism has been extensively propagated in the Colonies. The Report says-

" It will be seen by the correspondence between non-commissioned officers and privates in different regiments of the Line and of the Artillery, at Bermuda, Gibraltar, Malta, and Corfu, and the Deputy Grand Secretary of the Institu- tion, that Orange Lodges have not only been held in regiments in these colonies, with the knowledge of the Grand Officers of the Institution, but that the sol- diers have been encouraged by them to hold such lodges under the most suspi- cious circumstances. The books of the institution show also that money has been received from them, from time to time, for the warrants, and for the dues owing to the Grand Lodge, by the inenibers of these lodges ; and it is difficult to comprehend how all this could he done, and continued for so many years, without the knowledge of the Grand Officers of the Institution in Lou. don, to whom it may fairly be presumed that the books of the Secretary and Treasurer have been always accessible. " New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land appear to be deeply imbued With the system of Orangeism. Your Committee refer to several letters which have come before them, and which will explain the progress of the srtem there; but your Committee consider it of importance to place prominently before the -House one letter dated January Nal, in which it appears that the Deputy Grand Secretary of the Institution in London induced the writer, a soldier, to disobey the orders of his commanding officer, and did actually exchange an Irish for an English warrant to hold a lodge, contrary to the orders of the Com- mander-in-Chief, at the time he knew that the military orders were against such grant." The following is an extract from the letter referred to in the above passage of the Report— I was ordered, previous to embarkation, if I had or held a warrant of the Orange system, to send it back to the Grand Lodge; which I did not think proper toil°. This, I must own. was direct disobedience if orders to my commanding qficcr ; but I wrote to Mr. aetwode Emstace, then Demey Grand Secretary ; and he inpined me not to be the teat afraid,,for so Sarno would be done me. I knew there was an order issued in 1829 weld. biting Orange Lodges in the Army ; but this was only, as I believe, to satisfy our most bitter enemies ; bat if our beloved Sovereign was depending on them for the support of is crown, he would litid the result ; but I hope God will keep them from further power, for they are getting too much in power, both in the Army and public. I am of opinion that if Orange Lodges were established in this country, it would increase the weltare of the community, for there are numbers of free respectable i uhabitants and discharged soldiers would support the same; but we are uut allowed to make inhubitauts Orange- men under our warrant held as a military one, but if there was a warrant granted to me. I am assured it would increase rapidly, as I intend to stop in this country by purchasing my discharge, when I shall make communication to you on the same.

" WM. AN,: EL. COTre, 17th Regiment. •• God Save the King."

The resolution to set the orders of the Commander-in-Chief for the suppression of Orange Lodges at defiance, is conspicuous in the cor- respondence of the military brethren. On the 30th of July 1833, Colonel Fairman wrote thus to the Master of a Lodge at Portsmouth- .. it Is a lamentable thing that the Government is so short-sighted, or so wilfully blind, as not to encourage Orangeism in the Army, which would operate as an addi. tional security for the allegiance and fidelity of the soldier on all occasions; but thy Ministers of the present day are holding out premiums for disloyalty to subjeets of every elass."

It has not been ascertained how many Orangemen are in the Metro- politan Police, but Colonel Rowan feels confident that they are not numerous.

The Clergy of the Established Church have engaged to a consider- able extent in the affairs of the Orange Institution-

" The Right Reverend Thomas, Lord Bishop of Salisbury, is Lord Pre. late and Grand Chaplain of Me Order. There are also twelve or thir- teen Deputy Grand Chaplains of the Institution. Some clergymen have warrants as Masters of Lodges, and conduct the affairs of the lodge. No Dissenting clergyman in England, and only two clergymen of any persuasion in Scotland, appear to have joined the institution. The reverend functionaries of the institution are directed to appear in the Grand Lodge in canonicals : their insignia is a purple velvet scarf with gold binding, gold fringe at the ends, and lined with orange silk."

The Committee have spoken out on the subject of the Duke of Cumberland's professed ignorance of the existence of Orange Lodges in the Army. They state at once, that the facts laid before them ren- der it impossible to credit that ignorance. They give a great number of resolutions authorizing the formation Of Orange lodges in the- Army, which were passed at meetings with the Duke of Cumberland in the chair. In the printed report of proceedings on June 4th, 1834, is this passage-

" The laws and ordinances of the Institutiox, as revised by the Grand Committee, and submitted to the inspection of his Royal Highness the Grand Master, and his Lordship the Deputy Grand Master of England and Wales, were approved and con. fitted by his Royal Highness to the final supervision of Lord Kenyon."

One of these laws was this-

" Role 41st. No person can be admitted into this Institution for a less fen than Ms..' nor advanced into the Purple order, alter a reasonable probation, for less than au ex- tra fee of except soldiers and sailors. when the fee of admission shall be at the dis- cretion of the meeting."

This was one of the rules submitted in manuscript to Sergeant Letts in 1821, when his opinion as to the legality of Orange Lodges was required : it is in the copies of the laws revised in 18'26 and in 1834. Mr. Edmund Nocella was employed in establishing lodges in the regiments stationed in the Mediterranean ; and his report was read and approved of at a meeting presided over by the Duke of Cumberland, and at which Lord Kenyon also was present. It does not appear that Orangeism has flourished extensively in

Scotland under the Deputy Grand Mastership of the Duke of Gordon.;, but it has been attended with the usual pernicious consequences wher- ever it has obtained a footing. Mr. Jimmies was deputed by the Lord- Advocate to inquire into the causes of the riots in July last in the West of Scotland ; and he told the Committee, that the existence of Orange Lodges had been the cause of those riots, some of which had been attended with loss of life and followed by the execution of offen- ders. The existence of Orange Societies has produced the establish- ment of Riband Societies ; arid Mr. Trines says, that " it will not be possible to restore the West of Scotland to tranquillity, arid to prevent breaches of the peace occurring occasionally, unless measures are taken to put down the Orange Lodges and Ribandmen and every other secret society."

The Committee are of opinion that no new laws are necessary to put down Orangeism. They refer with satisfaction to Lord Hill's order, declaring that any officer or private who shall institute or coun- tenance Orange Associations, shall be tried for disobedience of orders; and they recommend the dismissal from office of all public servants who shall continue members of Orange or any other similar associations. In reference to the Duke of Cumberland's assertion that it was in contravention of his declared determination that warrants were granted for Military Lodges, the Committee observe-

" It would have been very easy for his Royal Highness to have published the document by which, and the time and place where, he issued any order, or made any declaration, against Orange Lodges in the Army, instead Of a general dis- claimer; as no such declarat;on, verbal or written, has come to time knowledge of your Cotninittee in a manner to be relied upon ; whilst, on the contrary, the numerous facts stated in this Report and in the Appendix, and taken from Official records of proceedings of the Grand Lodges, during the time the Duke was present and conducting these proceedings, are in direct opposition to such de. elaration."

It has been alleged that the Duke of York's order prohibiting Orange Lodges in the Army was confidential, and not a general order published from the Horge Guards; but the Adjutant-General, Sir J. Macdonald, told the Committee, . . . . " that the confidential circular letter of July 1822, was embodied ia the edition printed in that year of the General Regulations and Orders of the Army ; that it is the duty of the Colonel or commander of every regiment to have one of those books; and every regimental officer is directed to supply him- self with a copy of it ; and that every regimental orderly-room ought to have a copy. Of the orders of the Duke of York no officer ought to be ignorant."

After this, we suppose there can be no doubt that the disobedience of this order was winked at by the Tories at the Horse Guards : that the Commander-in-Chief could be ignorant of the existence of between. sixty and seventy Orange Lodges in the Army, is not to be believed.

In conclusion, the Committee submit to the House, whether the law against Secret Societies does not embrace the Orange Clubs. In the 9th section of tile statute, passed in the 39th of George the Third, chapter 79, unlawfid societies are described as those which are com- posed of "different divisions or branches, or of different parts, acting in any mariner separately or distinct from each other, or of which part shall have any distinct president, secretary, treasurer, delegate, or other officer, elected or appointed by, or for such part, or to act vs. any office for such part, &c." And the Committee add, "it will be for the House to determine whether the present organization of Orange Lodges in connexion with the Imperial Grand Lodge comes within the words of that Statute ; and, if so, whether the Law Officers of the Crown should not be directed to prosecute the Grand Officers of all these Orange Lodges without delay."