AN ENGLISH PROTEST ANT OPINION ON ORANGE ANNIVERSARIES.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume III, Issue 136, 10 December 1875, Page 7

AN ENGLISH PROTEST ANT OPINION ON ORANGE ANNIVERSARIES.

-;-+ Undeknlatii we copy a remarkable passage from a London contemporary by no menus prejudiced in tavov of our co-religionists, to Avit, the ' Weekly Despatch,' winch is known to be the property of j Sir Charles Dilko, M.A\, and his brother, As^heton :—: — I " From Prince Bismarck's point of view, affairs in Ireland this ' year have been somewhat disappointing. Among all the anniversaries to be kept up with a view to conciliating Ireland, that of the Battle of the Boyne on the 12th of July is generally the most productive of glory to the British Church and State. There is a cheerful audacity about the celebration that proves the Irish Church, though disestablished, to be still very militant indeed. Orangemen assemble in their thousands, and generally taking care ii of to avoid Catholic districts, march, with drums beating and flags Hying, to an appointed spot, where they are lectured and inflamed by their spiritual pastors and parliamentary representatives, where they denounce the I'ope and till his works with a vehemence that must rejoice the heurt of Dr. Falck, and threaten their countrymen Avho do not happen to worship at the sauie altar in a free-and-easy manner, tbat would immediately be construed in France us an incitement to ci\il Avar. In Ireland it is merely an ebullition of Protestant fervour. Then the celebrants march home Haunting their insignia — whatever they may be — chanting ' Boyne Water' lustily, and they are of course, immeasurably shocked and surprised if a Catholic mob meets them on their peaceful way, and .gives vent to a tyrannical spirit of intolerance by throwing brickhats and nourishing shillelaghs. The Orangemen vepel the aggressors, like churchmen of the old type that wore a breast-plate under Ihe cassock, loved best the cross m the shape of a sAvord-hilt, and com crted tin; heathen by hard blows. 'St. Patrick's Day in the Morning' answers 'Jioyne Water'; the constabulary arrive, arrests are made, smd a goodly crop oi malefactors, generally Catholics, for next assizes, and iinother Papist outrage advertised in the iicavspapers. This is the classic, the familiar Jioyne Day as it has been celebrated ever since the Union. It furnished a flimsy excuse for excessive measures of repression, and a, theme for innumerable lamentations over the incalculably rebellious spirit of the Irish people, and their black ingratitude towards their English benefactors. The day was a blessing in a Avay to certain classes of politicians in England, who felt it to be an annual refresher of their prejudices against the sister country.''