An Oration

Avith social progress , have brought about , I hope it , happy modifications . It is in use that Ave recognize the A'alue ; it is practice Avhich Avill show to us Avhether Ave are deceived , or if our work is good . I ardently hope that our labour has been profitable ,

and that our conditions of life , as Avell as our lodges , will become daily better . Perfection is not of this world ; but human institutions are to be made perfect , and it is this perfectibility Avith which Ave are preoccupied everytime that AVO are reunited in this hall .

But there is one of your decisions upon Avhich I shall permit myself to linger . Tho Council of the order , Avhich generally leaves to the lod ges of our constitution the initiative in projects of law tending to amend the constitutionhas presented

, you this year with a project to Avhich it seemed to attach extreme importance , and liy the terms of which it claimed for itself the right of punishing the masters and lodges culpable of having violated the constitution . Under the general terms of

the proposition , ( and not one of you misunderstood them ) , it Avas easy to see that among all the offences that a master or orator is susceptible of rendering themselves culpable , the project visited especiall y the case Avhere they had

tolerated in their lodge political or religious discussions , and in order to render efficacious the power of the council , which has always in such circumstances the ri ght of stopping them in this deplorable path , by suspending them , it asked to remove them

from the common ri ght and their natural judges , in order to bring them before a hi gher jurisdiction . You ICUOAV the solution , and I do not Avish to revert to it ; but concerning the causes which have led to this grave questionit is my duty to

, tell you all my opinions . For t-vo or three years , especially for some months , Freemasonry has been attacked with an excessive violence . It has been denounced , calumniated , turned into ridicule , or represented as an clement of disorder and

revolution . One mi ght truly say that a " mot d ' ordre" had been given , for there is not one of our adversaries Avho has not thought himself obliged to mingle his A'oice in this grand concert of imprecations aud anathemas . Have Ave done anything Avhich can justify in any measure a campaign so violently commenced ? I may

Avell seek , I see nothing . 1 knoAv nothing , as Avell as in that which concerns the lodges as in that Avhich concerns the Grand Orient of France , of a nature to lead to this deluge of inA'ectives , aud of these denunciations to the civil poAver . Freemasonry has never deviated from its " route ; " it has always

affirmed that it ivas unworthy of itself to mix itself in the strife of parties ; and , placing its actions in accord Avith its principles , it has always kept itself Avithin the high aud serene spheres of a generous philosophythe last Avord of which was

, , love of humanity . That Freemasons as citizens have such and such convictions , that they enrol themselves under this or that banner , that they manifest their opinions in private reunions , or by their Avritingswhat matters it to Freemasonry ?

, They are citizens ; they are free—it is their right . But when they are re-united Masonically in their lodges , then it is necessary that the Masonic constitution should be

scrupulously observed , that the Masonic principles should be vigorously applied ; in a Avord , that Masonic questions alone should be discussed and resolved . It is on the faith of this equivocation , hurled by design among the public by the means of tho press , and Avhich consists in

confounding the moral existence of the lodge Avith the political or private conduct of some of its members , that Ave are represented as conspirators , ceaselessly sapping the basis of society , dreaming of the fall of all authority civil or religiousand seeking

, in our lodges , hidden from indiscreet observation , the means of perpetuating the most horrible crimes . Nothing is less exact . Falsehood and insult are the

Aveapons of war , of those AVIIO support a bad cause . Silence ought to be our only answer if there did not exist a clanger for us , namely , that these false assertions may find at the end credit with some ; that they are propogated ; and that Ave may become victims of this fearful conspiracy directed

against the most honest , the most noble of institutions , the most Avorthy of consideration , of esteem and of respect . We haA'e protested with all our energy against these calumnies , after the manner of Don Basilio . AVe shall ahvay protest . But , my brethren , by the side of these protestations , which issue against our will from indignant minds , we have a conduct to pursue in order to