This scheme not coming off, the Duke went on building up his power until Joseph Hume brought the whole thing before Parliament in 1836, when the startling disclosures then made caused the suppression of the Orange Lodges. It was asserted that the Duke of Cumberland, as Grand Master of the whole association, was a dangerous man. The Lodges all regarded him as their political leader; he was called the Supreme Head of the Grand Orange Lodge of Great Britain and Ireland; it was laid down that his pleasure was law, and that the Orangemen were bound to obey his summons and do his will for whatever purpose he desired. There were 15,000 Lodges in Ireland, with a membership of 200,000 arm-bearing men; and 1,500 Lodges in England, besides some in the Colonies. Thus the Duke had the unquestioning obedience of 300,000 men—40,000 in London alone. Meetings were called in Ireland of ten, twenty, and even thirty thousand men. From all this Joseph Hume not unwisely inferred that it was time to consider whether the Duke of Cumberland was King or subject.
The whole matter made a tremendous public impression, and there were rumours that the Princess Victoria was in danger of her life from these secret enemies. At a public dinner in Nottingham the chairman, a Mr. Wakefield, said that the hope of the English people “was founded on the way in which the illustrious Princess was educated, which gave them every reason to believe that her attachment to this country was such that her reign—provided she lived—would be a blessing at large. The toast he would propose was—The Princess Victoria, and may the machinations against her suffer the same fate as the Orange conspiracy.”
One of the newspapers of the day endeavoured to comfort her for any fears she might have had by the following lines:—
“Oh, fear not, fair lily, our country’s just pride,
The hypocrite’s schemes or the traitor’s foul band;
The firm knights of Britain will range by thy side
And proclaim thee hereafter the Queen of our land.
By virtues illustrious, the gem of our isle—
Around thee will range in the time of alarm,
Those friends whose attachment no fiend shall beguile,