Objects Of Masonic Reform.

" Love wol not be eonstreined by maiestno : " When maisirie conioth tlio God of love , anon , " Beteth his winges , and , farewell , ho is gou . " Love is a tiling as any spirit free . " CnAtrcEE . In England tooat lastthe dry hones of Freemasonry are shaking

, , together Avith no uncertain sound . In the metropolis and the proAdnces there are many utterances , if not loud yet deep , against the present state of things . Masonic discontent is rife and it is no uncommon occurrence to hear strong denunciations of the policy pursued . It is hut recently that a formidable secession Avas openly mooted , brought about by the A ain throat of expelling some members

of the order Avho had dared to act for themselves , after suffering CA oi'y indignity , and rudeness , a pampered menial could heap upon them . For a time , hoivcver , this breach has been partially closed ¦ —no doubt through the strong will and good sense of one AVIIO is irresistible—but the ili-Avill engendered through ' the hasty , inconsiderate , and offensive , conduct of this servant of the Avhole craft

has rankled , and still festers , in many a bosom and has caused more unpopularity to attach itself to the name of the M . W . G-. M ' ., through the action of a servant , than tlie tiventy-oiie years of partial rule his lordship has secured for it . ' ' Dressed in a little brief authority ,

" He aped the Lion ' s lordly growl ; " Slipped on his master ' s skin and , opening wide his mouth , " Urayed!—and proclaimed liis ancestry /' PIECLAIETIIES ,

To specify all the abuses that have crept into the craft since 1717 , Avould he a Avork of . years and require many sheets , equal in extent to the most enlarged number of The Times , hence , for the present purpose , hut a salient feAV Avill ho chosen as examples , and they Avill be treated more in the character of a free commentary

than as direct quotations . Bro . Dr . A . G . Mackey , in his book on Masonic Jurisprudence , sets out by stating that , " Sir William Blackstono commences his Commentaries on the Lawa of England " with the succinct definition that ' lawin its most general and comprehensive

, " sense , signifies a rule of action , whether animate or inanimate , rational or irrational . ' "It is in this sense that wo speak of the laws of a country as heing those rules " whether derived from positive enactment of the legislative authority , or from "long estahlished custom , by which the conduct of its citizens is regulated . " So too , societies , which are but empires , kingdoms , or republics , in minature , " are also controlled by rules of action which are , to their respective members , as * ' perfect laws as the Statutes of the Realm . Hence Freemasonryas the most

, " ancient and universal of all societies , is governed by its laws or rules of action , " which either spring out of its organization , and are based upon its established " customs and usages , or are derived from the enactments of it superintending " tribunals . "