Chapter XXI
The Orangemen
When founded in Ireland, in 1795, was a secret political society composed entirely of Protestants. The name was taken in honor of King William the Third, Prince of Orange. The professed object of the society was “to support and defend the reigning sovereign of Great Britain and Ireland, and the succession to the throne in the present royal family as long as it remains Protestant.” Workingmen and men without much wealth joined the society at first, but when the society spread rapidly over Ireland, England and the British possessions, people of all classes began to seek initiation. The society felt itself so strong in Canada in 1860 that it attempted to compel the Prince of Wales, during his visit there, to recognize the order and to pass under its arches and banners, which the Prince, however, refused to do.
Though the society met with much opposition from the British House of Commons, it has still much influence in England and her possessions. To concede something to the spirit of the age and American principles, members of the society in the United States proclaim themselves theoretically the friends of religious toleration, but facts have shown, within my own personal observations, this, as in most similar cases, to be a mere delusion.
