Of The Society Of Freemassons.

have come in appropriately for this occasion , but , above all , from two printed works little known in France . The first has been printed three or four times in London , under the title of " Masonry Dissected , " & o . We cannot place any great reliance on this very obscure and very equivocal little work , therefore we shall only use it with caution . The second appears more approved of and more authentic . According to its titleit was printed in London in the year

, of the world , 5723 , and of our Lord , 1723 . It was dedicated to the Duke * of Montague , by order of the Duke of Wharton , his successor in the office of G . M . of the Order in the same year , 1723 . It has for a title , " The Constitutions of a Freemason "—that is to say , Constitution of the Confraternity of the Free Masons , where we find the history and the regulations of this ancient and venerable brotherhood , for the use of the brethren , etc .

STATUTES AND REGULATIONS OP THE SOCIETY . The secret of the societ y or Confraternity of Freemasons , very numerous and distinguished by the illustrious persons who are members of it , is said to be impenetrable , and of such a nature that up to the present time no one has dared to violate it . On this account different persons have formed different conjectures respecting the Freemasons .

By some they have been regarded as an assembly of libertines and Deists ; by others as debauchees of every sort of rank , condition , and profession , distributed into a great number of classes , all in relation one with the other . They have made of them alchemists , searchers after the philosopher ' s stone , chemists , and brethren of the Rose Croix , fanatics , etc . ; and all these conjectures were renewed in 1735 when the " Free Massons " attempted to establish

, lodges here . Scarcely had that Republic suppressed the lodges , when the people , always indisposed towards those they see condemned , - ) - defamed them openly as men who sought to make cabal against the State . Some even looked on them as debauchees who sought to establish the most infamous wickednesses , already proscribed and punished by the State—specially in 1730—in the most

severe mariner . On the contrary , those who reason and examine into things are persuaded that there has been neither debauchery nor libertinage in this society . What reality could there be in this as truth , seeing that since 1691 it has subsisted peacefully in England , that it now numbers 129 lodges , as well in the provinces of the Isle as in London ; that it has been extended into neighbouring states , enemies of vice and well overlooked by a police , if it was a fact

that the " Freemasons " were either Atheists , or Deists , or libertines , or factious rebels , or debauched and infamous ? If these accusations are well founded , is it probable that persons of the highest rank could have consented to be made members of such a society , and participate in the iniquities of a host of scoundrels ? No one is ignorant that they count among their brethren kings , princesnobleslords of a distinguished meritand ecclesiastics clothed with

, , , the highest dignities of the Anglican Church . Lastly , can anyone imagine that a secret of consequence , ordained to conceal the greatest crimes against God or against the State , could have been held amid so great a number of brethren , against the remorse of some , and the avidity of others .

The society is composed of noblemen , and of dukes and peers , of lawyers , of physicians , of theologians , tradespeople , artisans . Perhaps we might compare it to a republic , which ought to be composed of nobles , the middle class , and the lower classes , of learned men and ignorant persons , of sages and of