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

so far as the reign of Henry YIL , but he doubts—only as the ignoront can doubt—as to the far remoter and more awful antiquity of the Craft . But we despair of convincing the Saturday Review of the injustice which lies in condemning an institution whose members are properldebarred from defending their more occult tenets

y before darkened scoffers . Masons just glance at the calumnies and ridicule of the outsiders , and let them pass . But thus much they are permitted to tell the vulgar : — that material and free-handed charity to all who are in affliction is one of the most sacred of Masonic obligations , and one that is most cheerfully and generously observed ; that Freemasonry tends to good-fellowshi

encourage p ,-truth , virtue , and sincerity among mankind , and to discourage every vicious , every base , and every immoral thing ; and that , to be a thoroughly good Mason , there are two essentials requisite—sincere piety and devoted loyalty . The Freemasons of England would have been wanting , indeedin their reverence for those noble traditions which

, so strongly bind up veneration for the Church and attachment to the Throne in the practice of their Craft , had they withheld their solemn and respectful tribute to sorrowing Royalty in the conjuncture which has recently cast so dark a shadow over that which was once the most

gloriously happy of English homes . HowtheEnglishpeoplefelt the bereavement of their Queen , and with what affectionate and decorous sympathy they told their Sovereign that her grief was a portion of bitterness to all her subjects , to the very meanest—how we , a rude and stern nation , not ordinarly given to the graceful courtesies , the refined sentimentalities of life , demeaned ourselves in the

presence of last December ' s memorable calamity—are now matters of fact , not to be controverted , not to be sneered away , but which will remain patent to our honour in the great history of the land . We did not bury our Prince with banners , and plumed catafalques , and blazing torches . We laid him down in the earth quietland unobstrusivelbut we mourned for him with

y , y ; all our hearts , and with all our souls . The hearts of Englishmen wore crape on that Black Monday , and not alone their garments . Even now , a stranger passing along a crowded London street might imagine that ninetenths of the population had lately lost some near relative . We do not allude to fashionable throughfares where sables are the fashion , and crape is not found

incompatible ivith crinoline . But go into the bustling highways of industry and commerce ; see the common people—the toilers ancl moilers—pass by ; and count how few hats there are devoid of a funereal token in

memory of the wise and good man who had ceased to be Prince Albert of Saxe Coburg aud G-otha , and was , in spirit and truth , Prince Albert of England . As a natural sequence to this spontaneous exhibition of sympathy on the part of those to whom court mourning is a mystery and the official expressions of woe cabalistic words , have come a throng of addresses of condolence

from the constituted public bodies of the kingdom , and amongst them we , ai-e gratified to observe that the English Freemasons , meeting in solemn conclave and in their Supreme Council , have tendered to the beloved Monarch , who is the daughter and the niece of the most illustrious of Masons , the expressions of their loyal affection and of their heartfelt condolence for her deprivation .

Grand Lodge was convened in special convocation on Wednesday , and the Free and Accepted Masons of England and Wales , obeying the summons of their Grand Master , the Earl of Zetland , met in their Masonic Temple . An additional sadness was . cast over the proceedings by the recent death of Lord Yarborough , an exalted Masonic dignitaryand long esteemed as Deputy to

, the Grand Master . Iu the unavoidable absence of Lord Zetland , another eminent member of the Craft , Lord De Grey and Ripon , filled the chair ; and after a . series of speeches , marked by good and appropriate feeling , an address of condolence to her Maiesty was unanimously

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

agreed upon , and ordered to be engrossed on vellum , signed and sealed , and forwarded to the Earl of Zetland for presentation . We only wish that schedules for signature could be forwarded to every lodge , subject to the jurisdiction of the Grand Master , and that the address could have appended to it the name of Free and

every Accepted Mason in England and Wales . If we have dwelt on the names of the noble personages lately or at present associated with Masonry , it has been less with a desire to glorify the Craft , or to claim for it a patrician status than to assert its unfettered and cosmopolitan character ; for Masonry in itself recognises no degrees save those-conferred as a reward for knowledacquired

ge , for work and labour done ; and the same brotherhood to which kings and princes and nobles are proud to belong , welcomes to its ranks the simple citizen , the humble trader , the artizan , aud the soldier . Every Mason in the country has , through his delegates in Grand Lodge , participated in the spirit of the address voted by the Masonic parliament , although his name

appear not on the engrossed vellum ; and when that document is presented to our Sovereign , we trust that those about her will tell her that it is not merely an emanation from the respectful loyalty of so many noblemen and gentlemen assembled in a handsome room near Lincoln's Inn-fields , but that it is virtually the offspring of the heart utterance of many thousands of Englishmen , faithful and true , and belonging to almost every class iu the community . We are not disposed to attach any undue importance

to tne ordinary addresses of corporate bodies . We do not seek to magnify the magniloquent diction generally contributed by recorders , or to glorify the eloquence of town clerks . We just take the loyal effusions of mayors and corporations , commercial bodies and civic companies , universities and learned societies , for what they are worth , holding them in most cases of as little account as

they appeared to be to Richard Cromwell , who , when living in quiet security , used to keep an old hair trunk full of mouldy parchments , which he called " The lives ' and fortunes of the good people of England , " but which were in truth the addresses , brimming over with expressions nf devotion to his person and Government , which had been presented tutim Jn-n ' na-his brief tenure of the ProtectorateThere is inherent in iAto

. a tendency corporate mind to vote and to present addresses ; but in the present instance it would be cynicism to deny to those of which , day after day , our columns have given record , the merit of being thoroughly genuine and sincere . It is yet too early to venture even to indulge a hope that her Majesty is susceptible of consolation ; but

she may be sensible of relief . To know that no great public peril now intervenes between her and the tranquil contemplation of the past , may afford some comfort to her over-taxed mind , her over-wrought energies . There may be also a softer , but an equally soothing , sensation of relief iu the knowledge that her husband's good deeds have not been forgotten by her subjects ; that his loss has touched the ininos ^ chords " of the national heart , and that the public voice is unanimous in lamenting his loss .

Masonic Facts.

MASONIC FACTS .

( Continued from page 28 . ) 25 . Maignaud , a Canon of St . Genevieve at Paris , is recorded , as the builder of the entrance oi that church in the reign of Hugh Capet ( 1020 ) . —Millin , Antiquities Rationales , Tom . Y . No . 60 . And Thibault , a Priest and Chanter of the church , con 7

structed a part of the clock tower . The rest of the building was erected in the 12 th century by Stephen , of Tournay—Abbot Roth—Thibault and Maignaud