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^ J M ^^ TOjusonc HLUSTRATED .

Masonry And The Popular World.

Masonry and the Popular World .

SPECULATIVE Masonry , pure and simple , freed from all the trammels of operative work , has existed for at least three centuries . It is interesting to trace the views of the outside world from that date to the present time , with regard to a system founded , as its followers know , on the principles of Brotherly

Love , Relief and Truth . It was not long before the ruling power in England discovered the advantages and beneficial effect of Freemasonry . From 1782 to 1813 the Grand Master was always a member of the Royal House ; and the first Grand Master of United Grand Lodge , from 1813 to 18 43 , was also a member of the

same illustrious family . The appointment of His Majesty to that distinguished office was in 1 874 , and the recent election and installation of our present Grand Master is fresh in ( he recollection of all Masons . Parliament was not slow to recognise that the study and practice of Speculative Masonry merited the support and protection of Government .

In 1799 , owing to the prevalence of sedition , an act was passed to suppress all societies , "the members whereof were required to take any oath not authorised by law . " Societies , however , " held under the denomination of lodges of Freemasons" were express !} ' exempted , and the act contains provisions enabling the lodges to be registered with the

clerk of the peace for the district in which they are held . Again , when in 1 : 817 Parliament enacted that all societies , " the members whereof took any oath not required or authorised by law , " should be deemed and taken to be unlawful combinations and conspiracies ; lodges of Freemasons were expressly exempted from the provisions of

the act . Some idea of the high privileges conferred by the legislature upon Freemasonry may be gathered from the fact that Freemasons alone have a legal right to demand from their members an oath not to disclose their secrets . Any other society or association of men making a similar claim

is an illegal association , and its members are liable to punishment . Thus Freemasonry early met with the approval of the Government of this country , but remained an object of suspicion to many for a number of years , and especially to certain authorities abroad . An old book published in

London in 174 6 and entitled " Unparalleled suffering of John Coustos , who nine times underwent tortures to extort the secrets of Freemasonry , " throws a lurid light upon the prejudices existing in Portugal against the Order at that time . The ecclesiastical judges of that unfortunate Mason described Masonry as a " horrid compound of sacrilege and

many other abominable crimes . " All that the editor of the book has to say with regard to the science is that he himself is not a brother , and that if " the Society is of no benefit to the community" he is persuaded it "is not prejudicial to it . " The absurd charge that Masonry was used as a cloak for immoral practices was never again seriously made against it even by its most prejudiced opponents .

In 1797 , one John Robison published a book called " Proofs of a Conspiracy . " In this precious work he , among other accusations , charges the English lodges with being often—unknown to themselves—the tools of the Jesuits . Such a suggestion one would have thought sufficientl y absurd to need no refutation , especiall y when

the fulmination against Masonry contained in the papal bulls of 1739 and 1756 are remembered . Yet at this time such was the horror of Jesuit intrigue prevailing in England that it was thought necessary to answer the ridiculous slander . Another and somewhat inconsistent charge made against Masonry by the same author , was that it was admitting

into its ceremonies " French novelties , full of tinsel and glitter and high sounding titles , " and that it was being influenced by the illuminati , an offshoot , as he alleged , of Masonry , and a society which had been formed " for the express purpose of rooting out all the religious establishments and overturning all the existing governments of Europe . "

The vagaries of certain continental lodges gave some slight colour to this accusation , and in 1809 , Lord Moira , Pro Grand Master , thought it necessary to publicly disconnect English Masonry from certain of its alleged foreign disciples in the following memorable words : " mischievous combinations on the continent borrowing and prostituting the

respectable name of Masonry and sowing disaffection and sedition through the communities within which they were protected . "

' 1 houghout the British Empire the repeated declaration of the rulers of the Craft , the oft-expressed sentiments of all its members , the works of charity and good-will which it has , from almost its foundations carried into effect , have for many years convinced even the most sceptical of the high ideals and benelicient aims of the Institution .

Its secrecy now only excites that kind of curiosity which acts as a spur in inducing persons to enter the Order . The hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church still remains opposed to the science . The cause of this hostility is an interesting historical study with which we will deal in our next issue .