Ad Sorores.

AD SORORES .

There has been for many a long year a complaint on the part of the fairer , certainly , if not the better part of the community , that they are most unjustly and unfairly treated in being excluded from Freemasonry . I remember many

years ago a very pretty person , saying to a circle of attentive brethren , " You Masons are always boasting of your devotion to our softer sex , you are often singing with great emphasis and energy of expression ,

' No mortal can more The ladies adore , Than a Free and an Accepted Mason . ' and yet with a law worthy of Draco you won't receive us not oidy at your lodge meetings , but even at your banquets . You say you have got a secret ,

I don't believe you men could have kept a secret so long . The truth is you are afraid that Ave may interfere Avith that ' feast of reason ancl HOAV of soul ' which always distinguish your gatheringsor that Ave may put a stop to that

, ancient and touching melody , ' Ave won't go home till morning , till daylight does appear . " What could Ave say to such a tirade 1 what reply could Ave make to such insinuations \ IIOAV could Ave poor

helpless men ward off such Parthian darts ? We could only reiterate , that , to none was the female sex more dear , by none Avas it more appropriated , as an eloquent brother once said , than by Freemasons " whether in the happy hours

of nascent love , or in the softer moments of connubial felicity . " No doubt the fan lady's complaint Avas true , as a fact , but yet it is a fact Avhich it is easier to complain of than to alter . Though it may be true as Bro . Hughan well knows

that at one period there were " sisters " as well as " brethren" of our Craft , " he ' s " as well as " she ' s " to be admitted into our sodality , yet since 1717 , at any rate , the exclusion of ladies has been rigorously observed , though no doubt also that exclusion had begun long before . I do not go and I will not

go to-day mto all the reasons wh y according to our ancient bretliren females are shut out from our lodges but that such for long has been the undeviating law of our Order admits oi no doubt or debate .

Mrs . Alclworth is a notable exception to this rule , ancl it has been stated , that there was another female Freemason , but , yet Avhatever may have been the success of Eve ' s fair daughter as regards the Hymeneal , there have been no other

candidates for the "Mystic Tie . " In France during the last century they set up "La Maconnerie d'Adoption , " and which at one time Avas very successful , and our " cheres Scerirs" Avere very numerous but like other good

things in the Avorld it has passed away , ancl is now , I believe , extinct . An attempt Avas made some years back to resuscitate an English system , akin to the French , in one of our larger piwinces , but that has also I fancy , fallen through , or is at any rate , in a very dormant state . One of the reasons for its non-success was

according to a young bachelor Mason , like most of our more youthful associates somewhat ready of speech , because to use his own Avords , " they can't get on Avith themselves , they cannot succeed Avithout us gentlemen , " I do not

believe the insinuation for one moment , not I , but thus the matter rests ancl the result is , that the fair sex look on Freemasonry from the outside , and at some considerable distance from it . Some enthusiastic brethren of recent

years have tried to induce the lodges to break clown this partition Avail , but so far Avith very little success , and to inaugurate , though the times objects to the word , festive gatherings where the ladies can be admitted , and where Masonic

ceremonial may necessarily be dispensed with . But the idea has not been , nor is yet , popular with the Craft generally , and I remember well hearing a good old Mason in the province to which 1 then belonged by residence , express his opinion in a very distinct if homely way when such a proposition Avas fust made .