the Canadas, Ionian Islands, and colonies of all
sorts, who laboured in the vineyard with
surprising success. Their zeal actually carried
them so far as to tamper with the military, and
in some thirty or forty regiments " lodges" were
formed, in which the soldiers made speeches, and
drank, and swore to exterminate their comrades
of the obnoxious religion. In vain the colonels
protested against a system so subversive of all
good discipline. The eager emissaries went on
with their labour, and the Royal Grand Master
filled in warrant after warrant for constituting
fresh military lodges. At last the authorities
interfered. Ernest himself was called to
account, and after some awkward denials, which
looked very like shuffling, was compelled to
withdraw this portion of the system.

The organisation seems to have been borrowed
from the Freemasons. Any persons or any
number of persons can form a " private lodge," by
forwarding their names and a guinea to the
grand lodge. All the private lodges in a county
elect members to the "district lodges." The
district lodges elect six members to the county
lodges, and the county lodges elect to the grand
central. Three and sixpence used to be the
moderate annual subscription of a private lodge.
A public-house was generally the appropriate
venue for the rites of inauguration or discussion
of the important concerns of the fraternity; and
prayer introduced and terminated the pious
proceedings.

Under this happy dispensation the system
nourished. Twenty-five years ago it could boast
of fifteen hundred private lodges and over two
hundred thousand members. Some thirty years
ago they defined themselves to be "a society
banded together against the destroyers and
corrupters of God's word, and opposed by a
bigoted and malignant faction, always our
inveterate foes and the unrelenting opponents of
true religion." This wholesome spirit was
further encouraged by inflammatory songs, with
which the members stimulated their drooping
hopes. There are published song-books
which contain the old chaster lyrics of the
"Boyne Water " and "Croppies, lie down;" but
there is a more stirring sort, in which " Keeping
Powder Dry" is specially insisted on. Here is
one of the right kind:

A LOYAL SONG.

My lads, pray attend to the voice of a friend,
Whilst I give you a history true,
For a loyalist fit, sure your taste it must hit,
For 'tis trimmed up with orange and blue.
Tol de lol.

For since Reformation enlighten'd the nation,
And to Popery gave the first blow,
Their hatred and spleen were in bigotry seen,
'Gainst our lives and religion to flow.
Tol de lol.

At their relics he laugh'd, he despised their
priestcraft,
Their religion, he said, was a trick,
Confession a joke, absolution a cloak,
So he pitch'd them wholesale to old Nick.
Tol de lol.

I'll give you a toast, 'tis my pride and my boast,
May the Protestant interest stand,
In spite of all evil, the French and the devil,
And flourish in peace o'er the land.
Tol de lol.

May William's good cause, and William's good laws,
These traitors and rebels to quell,
Be 'stablished once more, and upon the old score,
And Rebellion shall vanish to hell.
Tol de lol.

But at this moment Orange prospects are
anything but bright. Men of all parties and creeds ,
who love order and justice and have common
sense, have joined to put Orangemen down. From
the year 'thirty-five, when they had to suffer the
indignity of being put on their trial in a
parliamentary inquiry, they have met nothing but
rebuffs. They have fallen on evil days. The
only satisfaction left is firing a few shots on a
loved anniversary, and walking in surreptitious
procession on the great July days. Acts of
parliament have been passed specially to pare
their claws. The heaviest blow was reserved
for the year 1858, when the government
refused to appoint any one a magistrate who
was known to belong to the society. A
deputation of brethren waited on the late
Lord Palmerston to protest, who told them
"that they belonged to the middle ages,"
and with an amused air asked for what
object they existed? A Conservative peer
answered gravely, " For self-defence, my lord."
Lord Palmerston replied, that the laws of the
country would provide for that, and that they
need be under no uneasiness. But the cruelest
stroke came from Lord Derby, who pronounced
the whole association to be one of the miseries
of Ireland.

Let us now turn to the pendant to this strange
society, which is to be found low down, among
the ignorant and less civilised classes. Both
societies may be fairly put on a level, and there
can be no question but that the barbarous
intolerance of the one produced the savage and Indian
ferocity of the other.

The Ribbon Society is of modern date, and
succeeded a whole tribe of secret societies,
including the notorious Whiteboys, whose
lawless proceedings, it was found, could not be
reached by the ordinary statute or common law,
and who were paid the honour of having a
special act of parliament passed to suppress
them. They are the most modern of lawless
societies, excepting, of course, that now famous
Fenian Association, with which we have recently
become familiar. But they are all, in truth,
the one society under different names: the
Whiteboys being succeeded by "Thrashers,"
"Carders," " Steelboys," " Terry Alts," " Molly
M'(iiiires," " Phcenixites," and many more.

The lowest officer in the Ribbon Society is
the "Body Master," next to him comes the
"Parish Master," whose title shows the extent
of his jurisdiction, and after him the " County
Delegate," who is of the secret council of the
whole society. The "body" is merely the
same as the " lodge" among the Orangemen,