Masonic Reminiscences.

tm the same subject , recommend the establishment of " COURTS OF HONOUR , " with power to award those submissions and acknowledgements which it is generally the purpose of a challenge to obtain . We can remember that not a great many years since , an attempt was made to establish such tribunals , and the most eminent men of the day both civil and military lent the sanction of their names to carry them into practical operation ; but , unfortunately , the highest members of the court were sometimes found to be the first to violate its rules , and thus

demonstrate its inefficiency . Even the iron Duke himself , the hero of Waterloo , whose well-won fame could triumphantly laugh to scorn the imputation of cowardice , was unable to resist the fashionable vice , and was weak enough to submit to its despotic influence by going out in his old age , ^ nd in the full blaze of his military renown , with the Earl of Winchelsea . Thus these refined courts of honour , as well as the ordinary courts of

law , have been insufficient to remedy this great social evil ; indeed , all the efforts of philanthropists have hitherto signally failed , and we are firmly impressed with the conviction that the true and radical cure will be found in the application of the Masonic principle , by the extension of Ereemasonry . Within the small sphere of our own experience we have known several quarrels adjusted , and , in all probability homicide prevented , by the

interference of brothers , and an appeal to the fraternal bond . NIL , PROSUNT LEGES SINE MORIBUS . Let Masonry become universal , let the mystic tie bind man and man together " from Indus to the Pole , " then may the philanthropic anti-duellist exclaim , EUREKA . Each Lodge would become a true court of honour , an Areopagus where justice woidd be sought with confidence , each Master an Aristides , from whose decisions there need be no appeal ; the most sensitive would be satisfied , * for he should feel his honour was in the guardianship of a

brother and a friend , and if Ereemasonry effected no greater benefit than abolishing this unsocial , and unchristian practice , it would deserve the support and countenance of the great and good of every land where the divine principles of peace , love , and charity , are cultivated . The suggestions in this short episode on duelling have been forced upon us by the recollection of many a foolish quarrelet quorum pars

, ? kRVAfirimas , in which it was frequently our lot to be called noon to act as arbitrator ; we generally found little difficult y in arranging differences between Masons , and men who were utterly regardless of the penalties of the law of the land and upon whom an appeal to a higher law had little effect , often yielded a willing and gentle obedience to the laivs of Masonry . It naturall

y occurred to us that the extension of the fraternal tie would prove to be that panacea which benevolent ethical doctors had been so long perplexing their ingenuities to discover , and as it is not our object in these gleanings of memory to dive into the dread obscure of the misty past for the purpose of tracing out and bringing to the light the ancient traditions of our Order ( this archailogical inquiry we leave to other and

abler hands ) , but rather in a simple spirit of utilitarianism to point out its aptitude as a remedy to a particular evil , as well as its practical usefulness and social influence generally in the transactions of this work-