THE SAVAGE AND UNTUTORED ORANGEMEN.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume IV, Issue 189, 10 November 1876, Page 8

THE SAVAGE AND UNTUTORED ORANGEMEN.

t-t . (From the • Times.') We wish we could believe that the heat of the weather had something to do with the party riots at Belfast. It is perhaps, unfortunate that the Feast of the Assumption, which Bon&partist devotion mide for so many years the especial holiday of France as the Fete .Napoleon, should fall in the middle of August ; and we cannot but remember that the years 1864 and 1872. which were the last years signalised by popular outbreaks, were, like the present year of exceptional heat. Unfortunately, however, there has been hot weather everywhere, and it is in Belfast alone that mobs turn out to break the heads of their fellow-citizens. The material is not so lanamwable elsewhere. It does not occur to the inhabitants of the kingdom out of Ireland, or, indeed, out of Ulster, to find relief from atmospheric influences by turning out to pour volleys of stones on their iellow-citizens. The deduction we are compelled to draw is painful, but it is irresistible. In the most prosperous town of the most prosperous county and province of Ireland we have to admit the truth that we have to deal with a barbarous and uncivilised peopje. Its inhabitants remain, as far as regards the conditions of civic education, a savage and untutored race. What adds to the numxhation of this confession is that the persons we are thus condemning are nominally, at least, followers of the forms of creed we rank above those which are held by their fellow-citizens who are the objects of their assaults. It is the enlightened Presbyterian who tries to break the head of the benighted Papist. There ought * I no Presbyterian of any degree of enlightenment who should not teel the deepest shame at the confession of this truth. The glories of their history, which we should be the last to undervalue, are the records of heroic efforts to maintain the freedom and sanctity ot conscientious opinion, and they dishonor th« memory of tueir ancestry when they endeavor to overpower the expression of the conscientious convictions of others labouring under the disadvantage of differing from themselves. * * * • • •4. !8! 8 ""P? 88 ™* to overlook the fact that the dishonor of these «Sr *- at vi f » st rest , s u P° n the Orangemen. It may be that Nationalists .would be as intolerant if they were placed in a

similar position; but it happens that they have not .'of- late been ti'ied and found wanting, and we cannot enter upon the conjectural region of what might have been. And, indeed, if the surmise should be capable of proof, it would be of the smallest possible value in extenuating the faults of the Orange democracy of Ulster. These people, who claim to be the best educated and most civilised of the inhabitants of Ireland, contrive to show o»ery few years that they are in the same stage of advance as Birmingham was during the Priestley riots ; or, in other words, nearly a century behind the education of the civic population of England. We know of no excuse that can be urged on their beha-lf . They have never suffered wrong; they can maka no parade of injustice; the utmost that can be urged for them— and it may well be deemed lanciful— is that they have been demoralised by the possession of exceptional privileges. This may to some extent explain, though it cannot justify, their desire to coerce their fellow-citizens into! abstaining from the exercise of rights they are entitled to enjoy, lhe position of the Government of the nation towards such a temper cannot be ambiguous. It matters not whether the administration be Liberal or Conservative, the utmost power at its command must be employed to put down the lawlessness which may animate one class of the community in seeking to terrorise another. The time was when such deference was paid to the passions of parties that a party gathering in itself perfectly innocent was prohibited because it might provoke the violence of others, but we cannot go back to this policy of weakness. Instead of restricting lawful liberty because a turbulent mob is excited by it, we must teach the turbulent mob that it must respect the freedom of those it dislikes under the penalty of forcible repression. Our policy is clear, and we cannot hesitate to pursue it; but we would make another appeal to those of the Orange leaders who have any respect for law to use their influence to control their less instructed brethren. Let them come out and stand by the aide of the police when the Eiot Act is read and force employed to prevent Orano-e-men from using force to coerce " Nationalists." Their patriotilm should impel them to adopt this advice, and they may be well assured that whether they do or do not assist in bringing it about the end will still be enforced, and the spirit of lawlessness sup. pressed wherever manifested.