THE CABLE ORANGE AGONY.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXI, Issue 22, 17 March 1893, Page 20

THE CABLE ORANGE AGONY.

TO THE EDITOB N.Z. TABLET.

Sib,— -The Orange coloured telegrams at preEent being dumped on the colonies are amusing reading. We have them from various quarters, and all of them redolent of the usnal tvil spirit that has ever marked and led the Orange fraternity. It is whispered to us by cable, as a most portentous secret, tbat they are arming in Ulster to resist Home Bule. Just think (or a irotnent what a rise there will be in bludgeons and paving stones, should that dread event of Home Rule occur. Then we are tod that not even arming will satisfy them, but that each and all of them are swearing a bushel or two of oaths to fight to tbe death against it. And etill another telegram tells us that should Home Rule pass into law, they will never more no, never more — pay rates or taxes, nor sing the praises of King Billy, or any of his descendants. This ia awful to contemplate, and is the most serious part of the whole programme. How on earth could Ulster get along at all without tbe usual Orange yell of King Billy and all its well-known accompaniments, inc'uding wocden shoes, brass money, and no surrender. But all this furore ariaesfrom their exuberant feeltDgs of loyalty. They claim a peculiar monopoly of that virtue, and thie no doubt is their method of showing loyalty to Qaeen and country, by threatening rebellion against both. And it is not the first time by any means that thie contemptible association has Bhown what its loud-mouthed professions of loyalty are worth. Still another telegram from Canada tells us that the brethren of tbe godly association there are sending arms to their poor oppressed brothers in Ulster. And anon further news comes from some of the back slums of Australia that the gentle brothers in these parts are preparing to atsist the loyal efforts of Ulster OraDgtmen in raising civil war in their native land. Th«-Be things are no doubt very portentous and alarming to simple- winded people. But to those who know the run of the ropes, and bow and by whom they aie pulled, and for what purposes, telegrams of the above clats are amusing and idiotic to the last degree.

And mort especially so wben read in the light of other telegrams shunted out here. One of these later telegrams tells us that a propos&l has been made for a day of fasting, humiliation, and prayer all over Ulster, beseeching the Almighty to avert from the Orange lodges the calamity of Home Rule. And another of a like tenor comes from Dublin, the brethren there being also desirous of trying what to them is the new and unwonted experiment of piayer and humiliation to assist their ends. Thtee later cables aa to the attitude of Orangemen, and their propose! resort to prayer, form a beautiful commentary on the previous ones, all breathing fire and slaughter and no surrender. An appeal to Heaven for assietance in any of their jobs is decidedly the last resource with such a body, and clearly indicites that they are hopeless of success by the usual methods they have hitherto adopted. The powers they b,ive always invoked to assist them ia their nefarious work, hate been of quite an opposite character, and the fact that they trust their patron saints no longer is a promibing

feature for peace and civilisation. Tbe casa mubt indeed be hopelessly bad with them, when their usual weapons fall profitless from their hands, and they appeal to Htavea on the sabject. The last and final resort of the lifelong reprobate, condemned for his crimes, is generally turned in the same direction, bat like the Orangeman of Ulster, not till all other means have failed, and the gibbet and rope loom up in front of his horrified gaze.— l am, etc,

Gideon.