connived at and encouraged those outrages: and several of them were rewarded with commands in the Yeomanry Corps, and otherwise favoured by Government. ism 1 It is not to be imagined, that the atrocious Orangspirit of Orangism confined itself merely to the spreads to county of Armagh. It met with too much en- the neighbouring couragement elsewhere from persons, whose in- counties. fluence might, as it ought, to have repressed its progress. In the adjoining counties of Tyrone, Antrim, and Down the Catholics were hunted from their dwellings, their chapels razed or burnt, and their property was plundered or destroyed with impunity. Two brothers, industrious tenants of Lord Hertford, Catholics, by name Brangan, were burnt with their whole family, consisting of eight persons, and the house and furniture, whilst the savage Orangemen encircled the flames to prevent escape. Lord Hertford was then in Lisburne. Instant investigation and exemplary rigor were threatened. No punishment ensued. It is to be lamented, that the Orange system was so zealously encouraged from the pulpit. The Rev. posterity credit, that the man, who in open Senate, dared to avow those sentiments, was the person, who restored Mr. Greer to the Commission of the peace, after his convietion ? 1 S. Cupples, of Lisburne, and Philip Johnson, * of Derriaghy, were prominently zealous in evan * Beauties of the Press. Lond. Ed. 1800.357. It is well known, that the Press newspaper was not put down for publishing falsehood, but too strong truths. That letter to the Rev. Philip Johnson from a Presbyterian of Castlereagh contains several instances of the Derriaghy Orangemen outraging Presbyterians and others for befriending the persecuted Catholics. Amongst the clerical evangelizers of Orangism at that time stood conspicuously forward the Rev. Dr. Cleland, Rector of Newton Ardes. He had been private tutor to Lord Castlereagh, and was brought up a Presbyterian. Promises of promotion are said to have worked powerfully towards his conversion. He never stood very high in theological learning: insomuch that he procured the Rev. Dr. Dickson a Dissenting Minister to write for him the thesis, upon which he was ordained by the Bishop of Dromore. He now lives in Armagh, and about 1804, was inducted into the valuable living of Killevy, the tithes of which he has contrived to raise from 5001. to 1500l. per annum. He has been known at one Session at Market-hill to have had above 100 processes against his parishioners. He is considered to have contributed not lightly to that soreness and discontent, which produced the following recent resolution. "We, the Grand Jury of the county of Armagh, assembled "at Lent Assizes, 1808, see with much concern the exorbi"tant demands made by some of the clergy and their proc"tors in certain parishes in this county in collecting of tithe, " to the very great oppression of their parishioners, and tend"ing at this time in particular to detach the minds of his Ma jesty's subjects from their loyalty and attachment to the "happy constitution of this country. Resolved, That our "representatives be instructed to further with their decided support any measure, that may be brought forward in the evangelizing the new code.. Deputations were sent from Armagh, to inoculate the new lodges with the genuine matter: and the eruption was exuberant. Besides encouraging his Orange parishioners in their orgies, this latter reverend gentleman attacked the house of Mr. James Cochran, a Scotch Presbyterian, a man of most respectable character and exemplary industry, at the unguarded hour of two o'clock in the morning, and hurried him to Carrickfergus, goal, where he languished 12 months, without even the remotest appearance of crime, merely because he judged him a friend to the Catholics. Much misrepresentation has been industriously why so set afloat concerning the Orangemen of the many North. It was the wish of the party, that the PresbytePresbyterians should be considered as forward in Orangepromoting that institution, as the Protestants of the Established Church. Sir Richard Musgrave says, (p. 194) "that in the counties of Fermanagh, Tyrone, Derry, and Armagh, 66 " there were 14,000 Yeomen, and most of them Orangemen: and much to the honour of the Presbyterians three-fourths of them were of " that order. In Tyrone there were about 5000 " Yeomen, men. more equitable mode the payment of the clergy in this county." Signed by 23 Grand Jurymen. : 1 "Yeomen, the majority of whom were Presbyterians, and there were about 4,200 Orange men among them." He has greatly exaggerated the proportionate number of Presbyterian Orangemen. It is unquestionable, that the Presbyterians generally abhoired the principles of the Orangemen': but it is also certain, that many of them were sworn into their societies. They were however chiefly of the lower orders, who depended for their subsistence upon their landlords. Several persons of great landed interest in those parts insisted upon their Protestant tenants and labourers becoming Yeomen and Orangemen. Such were the Marquis of Hertford, Marquis of Abercorn, Lord Northland, the Earl of Londonderry, Mr. Cope, Messrs. Brownlow and Richardson, members for the county of Armagh, and other possessors of great landed estates in Ulster. It is remarkable, that the parish of Carmoney, in the county of Antrim, near Belfast, is inhabited by above 15,000 Presbyterians not immediately under such controul, and not an Orangeman was ever known amongst them. Few, if any Presbyterians of independence entered their societies. When the Catholics were, first expelled from Armagh, many of them fled for protection and support to Belfast, where the Presbyterians made a stock-purse, and by weekly allowances, in proportion to the numbers of the exterminated families, supported them till till they could procure work or settlement. Many of them were enabled to pass over to Scotland, and were encouraged to settle in the neighbourhood of Glasgow and Paisely. This was the beginning of that colony of Irish in that part of Scotland, which at this time is computed to amount nearly to 20,000. The thriving state of the manufactures in the west of Scotland ensured constant employ to the industrious, and the oppression and persecution at home have caused an unceasing emigration of useful hands from Ireland to Scotland. Govern When in the Autumn of 1796, Mr. Pelham Mr. Pelhad boasted in Parliament, that Government ham's boast of since the last Session had been exculpated by the the vigiMagistrates of Armagh, and that every effort lance of was making there to restore that order, which ment. was approaching every day; Mr. Grattan not ineptly replied, that the persecution had been complained of for years, and the application of the remedy was spoken of only as from the last Session. He further added, that "the audacity of the mob arose from a confidence "in the connivance of Government. Under an administration sent thither to defeat a Ca"tholic bill, a Protestant mob very naturally " conceived itself a part of the State, and exer"cised the power of life and death and transportation and murder and rape with triumph; K2 " and |