ORANGE BIGOTRY.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XIX, Issue 50, 18 September 1891, Page 15

ORANGE BIGOTRY.

A NTJMBBB of Orangemen belonging to Liverpool and district held a demonstration in Knowsley Park (say the Irish Catholic of 18th July), marching in procession with bands and banners. In the park there was a meeting under the chairmanship of Bro F. Farran, 4\G.M., and the following resolutions were adopted :—" This meeting of loyal Orangemen desires to thank the Government of Lord Salisbury for its opposition to Mr Gladstone's Religious Disabilities Bill, for the clear and firm foreign policy which ha B kept us in honourable peace and secured for the country better trade and less taxation, and also for the enforcement of law and the attainment of order in Ireland, as the result of which the property and lives of all loyal subjects in the country have been fully secured. This meetl ing, believing that the foundation principles of our civil and religious liberties are to be found in the Bill of Rights, the Act of Settlement, and the Protestant religion, and feeling assured that the laws and organisation of the Orange Institution are in full harmony with the constitutional principles, therefore invites all loyal men to join the Orange body, and so aid in continuing to us and to our successors the inestimable privileges which we all enjoy in this land of Scriptural freedom." Lord Salisbury has as little reason to be proud of his friendß as Mr Gladstone has to be afraid of them. The recurrence of the Twelfth of July is signalised by an order from the Duke of Cambridge, addressed to the Commander-in-chief in India, directing that steps shall be at once taken to close an Orange Lodge lately established in an infantry regiment stationed in that country. The Commander in-Chief has intimated his disapproval of snch lodges in the army, and requests their discontinuance. Fifty years ago the growth of Orangeism in the army was deemed a danger to the State, when thirty or forty regiments had lodges established in their midst with the sanction of the Duke of Cumberland, then Grand Master. Parliament caused an inquiry and Orange Lodges in the army were forbidden. Who is responsible for the present revival ? And of all places in the world-in India I We have generals who announced on public platforms what they would do in the event of Home Rule being given to Ireland. Does the recrudescence of Orangeism in the army date from those speeches as an incentive to preparation ? We think it is time for the House of Commons to beßtir itself again.