Freemasonry In France.

its agents pleased by the attitude , full of calmness and dignity , of the deputies in the exercise of their duties , i-emained passive , and waited till everything was finished . The second time , the order of the Prefet of Police , arrived late and when the Assembly , after having finished the election and having made a

report of the sitting , had dispersed of its own accord , and the members had separated . Thus , happily , the obstacles placed in the way by the administration , of which we should be ashamed to recall all the manoeuvres , the election of the Grand Master had been accomplishedand the Assembly had

, fulfilled the most important part of its business . Desiring to abridge this recital , we pass . in silence a crowd of details for which we refer to the Masonic journals independent of the administration : VInitiation , or le Journal des Initie ' s , and le Monde Mctgonniqae . We confine ourselves to stating that after

having prorogued the Assembly from the 21 st to the 24 th , the Grand Master , relying ou the sudden order of arrest from the Prefet of Police , shutting the Temples from the evening of the 23 rd , declared the Assembly dissolved , and adjourned the election to the month of October . Meanwhile , the election being an accomplished act , Erench Masonry was in the situation of liaving two

Grand Masters , the one who was regarded as rightfully elected by the representatives of the Order , the Worshipfuls , and the Deputies from the lodges , the other who would not give up his oflice , and who intended to keep his power until the month of October , the time when he thought his duties ought to cease . The installation of the new Grand Master 5 having

hecome impossible , Prince Napoleon asked the newspapers not to mix his name in their disputes . As for the deputies , convinced of having clone their duty , they signed , before returning to their homes , a declaration in which tl ' , ? y give ? -n- coec-vint ot tlicir conduct . "We should have here finished this recital if there had

not remained a last net of authority to mention which proves that the Grand Master intended to persistto the end in the way he had begin . Nearly a month had slipped by , the deputies had become calm , each one , long since , preserving all his right for the futurehad returned to his own affairs when the

, Presidents of the lodges received an official communication of a decree of the Grand Master , dated 29 th of May , but despatched very slowly from the 16 th to the 25 th June . This decree ran thus : —

"Art . 1 st . —All the brethren , whoever they may be , who have taken any part whatever in the illegal ancl anti-masonic meetings which have been held in the house belonging to the Grand Orient , without our authority , and in spite of our prohibition , are declared unworthy Masons .

Freemasonry In France.

"Since their names are known , without a formal denial on their part , these brothers will be immediately suspended . " Erom this time forward and amongst those present the brethren are provisionally suspended whose names followsince they have been pointed out to us as

hav-, ing belonged to this meeting . " The names of twenty-four members of the assembly follow , which joined to the names of the twelve members already suspended , makes thirty ^ six the number of Venerables or Delegates deprived by this new order of their Masonic rihts .

g In the meanwhile all those" who have not been suspended for the act are declared unworthy . It remains to know on which side the unworthiness is . Public opinion was not deceived by it ! ( To be continued )

The "Saturday Review" And The "Daily Telegraph" On Freemasonry.

THE "SATURDAY REVIEW" AND THE "DAILY TELEGRAPH" ON FREEMASONRY .

The Saturday Bevieiv , in a notice of Bro . Cooke ' s lately published edition of the ancient MS . on the History and Articles of Ereemasonry has been attemping to be amazingly funny with regard to the Order , which they tell us they cannot understand : ; and here we do not doubt their assertion . The writer

makes merry with the idea of " Speculative Masonry , " and asks whether there may not he such a thing as " speculative tailoring . " We certainly cannot ear lighten him on that point ; but one thing is made very clear in the Saturday Magazine , viz .: —That there is plenty of " speculative writing , " and that the

wildest professors of that art are well represented in . the pages now before us . The cudgels on behalf of the Craft , have , however , been so ably taken up in the Daily Telegraph , that we feel that we cannot do better than transfer the article to our columns . It is as

follows : — " Our cankered contemporary the Saturday Review , all whose salt—and it has not much , to spare , Attic or otherwise—would lose its savour if it were not spiteful , has recently availed itself of the republication of a very interesting mediteval manuscript , edited by a distinguished

Mason , to give vent to some amusingly ill-natured remarks on the Craft in general , and Freemasons iu particular . If there is to be such a thing as " speculative Masonry , " the Satwr & ay Heview cannot see why there should not be a pursuit of " speculative tailoring . " Our contemporary ' s own criticism on a subject which it knows absolutely nothing about isof courseeminentl

-, , y specu lative . " " 'Tis this and ' tis that , " aud the Saturday cannot tell what it is . Why should a cobbler , be oft-times as worthy a Mason as the wearer of a coronet ? Why should the mere fact of haviug gone through a . certain probation and acquired a certain degree of knowledge make the initiated John Bull a sworn brother to the initiated turbaued Turk or Cherokee Indian ?• It is this

puzzling ignorance , this state of outer darkness , which vex aud irritate our hebdominal friend . He would have every Mason carry a hod , or spend his time in sawing stones , or else refrain from calling , himself a Mason at all . He admits that Masonic rites in England date back