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Article ABUSE OF FREEMASONRY. Page 1 of 2 Article ABUSE OF FREEMASONRY. Page 1 of 2 →
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Abuse Of Freemasonry.
ABUSE OF FREEMASONRY .
WE revert to the subject we dealt with under this title in our issue of the 18 th ult . We then noticed an attack on Freemasonry , made in the columns of a Belfast journal , by one who was described , in a somewhat elaborate editorial , as " a valued and honourable correspondent . " We did not , of course , doubt the said
correspondent's value , nor did we for a moment question his being honourable . We pointed out , however , that the series of articles he was then entering upon were likely to prove a very perfect illustration of the class of writing which is commonly known as " twaddle . " We even went
a little out of our way , and mentioned the only people who , in our opinion , would be likely to appreciate the writer ' s peculiar style . Since then we have received
copies of The Weelcly Examiner and Ulster Observer for the 18 th and 25 th ult ., and the letters they contain from the pen of this ready writer more than confirm the views we gave utterance to a fortnight since .
It will be argued , perhaps , and not without a certain show of reason , that if the letters are of the character we have described , we are honouring them by a second notice , beyond their deserts . We hinted , however , that nervous people are often disconcerted by a false charge again and
again repeated . The views they have long held become more and more unsettled , till , at length , reason is overpowered by sheer impudence . This must be our apology for reverting to this attack—this and the evidence the writer has since furnished of his ignorance and profound stupidity .
Thia " valued and honourable correspondent , " who , we are further told in his opening letter , is " talented and respected , " announced , with becoming modesty , " that he was tolerant to a fault , " yet he is abusive in the last degree . He is " charitable in the fullest and best sense of the
word , yet apparently is he nothing if not vindictive . He knows " no distinction of sect or party , " yet his best efforts are being directed towards exciting hatred between the Roman Catholic and Protestant inhabitants of Belfast . But the simulation of our antagonist is comparatively of little moment ; it is his assertions which concern us most .
In the third of the series of letters we are told , that in all probability " there is a great future before our trade . " The war in Spain is over . Cuba will soon be pacified . The United States are slowly but surely recovering from the effects of the late Civil war , and the American trade of
Ulster " will soon know lively times . " There is , again , a magnificent opening for pushing Belfast wares in Japan . Foreign competition , however , is the great thorn in the side of Belfast . Not that foreign competitors have any means or material at their disposal . On the contrary ,
" foreign flax spinning is not spinning . " " Foreign yarns are not yarns . " Foreign flax spinners "work their machinery till it is decrepid . " " They dwarf and demoralise the workers , " and " buy their flax from ten to twenty per cent , clearer . " And yet , in the teeth of all these
disadvantages , foreign linen finds an excellent market in Belfast . We have already said we are not posted in the fluctuations of trade in Belfast or elsewhere . We are not in a position therefore to examine these statements . We simply note
them . And what , think our readers , is the root of all this evil ? The flax trade is in the hands of the Protestants , and the Protestants are all Freemasons . Freemasonry " does what it likes with the trade . " " It is the corruption and cancer which are consuming the very vitals of the
Abuse Of Freemasonry.
trade . " " For a dozen years or more you ( i . e ., Freemasonry ) have held the trade in your viper clasp , and now you have it as nearly strangled as it was when the incompetents , your forerunners , had it almost garroted ( sic ) in ' 38 . " Here we pause for a moment , partly in order to recover our
equanimity , partly to trace the argument , which is apparently as follows : —The Belfast linen trade is in a bad way , but has a fine future before it , only foreign competition is a thorn in its side . Foreign linen is worthless , yet it finds a market in Belfast in preference to tho linen of native
manufacturers , because the Belfixst manufacturers are Protestants , and the Protestants are Freemasons . Ergo , Freemasonry has ruined the trade of Belfast . We cannot say we by any means see the force of this so-called argument . We imagine there must be an " undistributed middle"
somewhere , that the major and minor premises , if there be any , must have gone off at a tangent , and consequently that the conclusion is a little out of joint . This , however , is all we have been able to make out of the first two columns of the third letter . The Belfast trade is in a bad way . It might
be better . But the manufacturers are all Protestants , and the Protestants all Freemasons . Verily this is logic gone mad . But there is ' more yet to come . The higher mill employes are Protestants , and soon become Freemasons and Orangemen . Thus "they are a happy family of mill
employes , all of one caste and colour , all moulded in the one matrix—the matrix of Freemasonry ; all reduced to the one dull , dead , soulless level of debased Freemason uniformity . " True they wero born with certain individualities , but " in tho crucible of Freemasonry the
heterogeneous individualities are fused into a homogeneous whole . " This last sentence reads very prettily . " Freemasonry is the Rarey which tames them all clown to the Lodge level . " They are loyal , in the first instance , to the Lodge , and then any superfluous loyalty that may remain is
exhibited towards the mill and its master . This is Masonic Trades Unionism . It excludes Catholics that" the Lodge may reign aristocratically . " And the mill employe may do as he likes . He may go out on a "bender " in the evening , and the overseer—we beg pardon , the " surveillant—will
take no heed of his incapacity for work the next day . He need not , or he does not , study the moral economy of flaxgrowing countries , or the geographical distribution of flax . He has no time , in fact . He must attend his Freemason and Orange lodges . He must frequent bars , chaff barmaids ,
play billiards , and go in for bicycling , hundred-yards spurts , betting , and other weaknesses of human nature . Moreover , he draws his salary without study , and even without work . Thus it is the flax-trade is depressed , and foreign
competitors have it all their own in the market of Belfast . " So , at least , says our "talented and respected correspondent" of The Weelcly Examiner and Ulster Observer in his third letter , and he is an " honourable " man .
Our amiable correspondent in his fourth letter is not more illogical , for that were impossible , but he is a wee bit more violent in the language he uses . This perhaps is due to his exaltation , in the interval between writing the two letters , to the degree of R . A . M ., for he is at the pains to
introduce us to the "Royal Arch Confraternity . " But , as " whoso exalteth himself shall be abased , " we have hardly had time to realise the new status when we rapidly descend below the level of the drunkard . " An incurable drunkard
is not an efficient employe . But a hardened , confirmed , inveterate Freemason is worse . " The drunkard is " said to be ' nobody ' s enemy but his own . '" But the Freemason " is the friend of his brother of the craft , and of none other . " It will be seen that we are advancing in our
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Abuse Of Freemasonry.
ABUSE OF FREEMASONRY .
WE revert to the subject we dealt with under this title in our issue of the 18 th ult . We then noticed an attack on Freemasonry , made in the columns of a Belfast journal , by one who was described , in a somewhat elaborate editorial , as " a valued and honourable correspondent . " We did not , of course , doubt the said
correspondent's value , nor did we for a moment question his being honourable . We pointed out , however , that the series of articles he was then entering upon were likely to prove a very perfect illustration of the class of writing which is commonly known as " twaddle . " We even went
a little out of our way , and mentioned the only people who , in our opinion , would be likely to appreciate the writer ' s peculiar style . Since then we have received
copies of The Weelcly Examiner and Ulster Observer for the 18 th and 25 th ult ., and the letters they contain from the pen of this ready writer more than confirm the views we gave utterance to a fortnight since .
It will be argued , perhaps , and not without a certain show of reason , that if the letters are of the character we have described , we are honouring them by a second notice , beyond their deserts . We hinted , however , that nervous people are often disconcerted by a false charge again and
again repeated . The views they have long held become more and more unsettled , till , at length , reason is overpowered by sheer impudence . This must be our apology for reverting to this attack—this and the evidence the writer has since furnished of his ignorance and profound stupidity .
Thia " valued and honourable correspondent , " who , we are further told in his opening letter , is " talented and respected , " announced , with becoming modesty , " that he was tolerant to a fault , " yet he is abusive in the last degree . He is " charitable in the fullest and best sense of the
word , yet apparently is he nothing if not vindictive . He knows " no distinction of sect or party , " yet his best efforts are being directed towards exciting hatred between the Roman Catholic and Protestant inhabitants of Belfast . But the simulation of our antagonist is comparatively of little moment ; it is his assertions which concern us most .
In the third of the series of letters we are told , that in all probability " there is a great future before our trade . " The war in Spain is over . Cuba will soon be pacified . The United States are slowly but surely recovering from the effects of the late Civil war , and the American trade of
Ulster " will soon know lively times . " There is , again , a magnificent opening for pushing Belfast wares in Japan . Foreign competition , however , is the great thorn in the side of Belfast . Not that foreign competitors have any means or material at their disposal . On the contrary ,
" foreign flax spinning is not spinning . " " Foreign yarns are not yarns . " Foreign flax spinners "work their machinery till it is decrepid . " " They dwarf and demoralise the workers , " and " buy their flax from ten to twenty per cent , clearer . " And yet , in the teeth of all these
disadvantages , foreign linen finds an excellent market in Belfast . We have already said we are not posted in the fluctuations of trade in Belfast or elsewhere . We are not in a position therefore to examine these statements . We simply note
them . And what , think our readers , is the root of all this evil ? The flax trade is in the hands of the Protestants , and the Protestants are all Freemasons . Freemasonry " does what it likes with the trade . " " It is the corruption and cancer which are consuming the very vitals of the
Abuse Of Freemasonry.
trade . " " For a dozen years or more you ( i . e ., Freemasonry ) have held the trade in your viper clasp , and now you have it as nearly strangled as it was when the incompetents , your forerunners , had it almost garroted ( sic ) in ' 38 . " Here we pause for a moment , partly in order to recover our
equanimity , partly to trace the argument , which is apparently as follows : —The Belfast linen trade is in a bad way , but has a fine future before it , only foreign competition is a thorn in its side . Foreign linen is worthless , yet it finds a market in Belfast in preference to tho linen of native
manufacturers , because the Belfixst manufacturers are Protestants , and the Protestants are Freemasons . Ergo , Freemasonry has ruined the trade of Belfast . We cannot say we by any means see the force of this so-called argument . We imagine there must be an " undistributed middle"
somewhere , that the major and minor premises , if there be any , must have gone off at a tangent , and consequently that the conclusion is a little out of joint . This , however , is all we have been able to make out of the first two columns of the third letter . The Belfast trade is in a bad way . It might
be better . But the manufacturers are all Protestants , and the Protestants all Freemasons . Verily this is logic gone mad . But there is ' more yet to come . The higher mill employes are Protestants , and soon become Freemasons and Orangemen . Thus "they are a happy family of mill
employes , all of one caste and colour , all moulded in the one matrix—the matrix of Freemasonry ; all reduced to the one dull , dead , soulless level of debased Freemason uniformity . " True they wero born with certain individualities , but " in tho crucible of Freemasonry the
heterogeneous individualities are fused into a homogeneous whole . " This last sentence reads very prettily . " Freemasonry is the Rarey which tames them all clown to the Lodge level . " They are loyal , in the first instance , to the Lodge , and then any superfluous loyalty that may remain is
exhibited towards the mill and its master . This is Masonic Trades Unionism . It excludes Catholics that" the Lodge may reign aristocratically . " And the mill employe may do as he likes . He may go out on a "bender " in the evening , and the overseer—we beg pardon , the " surveillant—will
take no heed of his incapacity for work the next day . He need not , or he does not , study the moral economy of flaxgrowing countries , or the geographical distribution of flax . He has no time , in fact . He must attend his Freemason and Orange lodges . He must frequent bars , chaff barmaids ,
play billiards , and go in for bicycling , hundred-yards spurts , betting , and other weaknesses of human nature . Moreover , he draws his salary without study , and even without work . Thus it is the flax-trade is depressed , and foreign
competitors have it all their own in the market of Belfast . " So , at least , says our "talented and respected correspondent" of The Weelcly Examiner and Ulster Observer in his third letter , and he is an " honourable " man .
Our amiable correspondent in his fourth letter is not more illogical , for that were impossible , but he is a wee bit more violent in the language he uses . This perhaps is due to his exaltation , in the interval between writing the two letters , to the degree of R . A . M ., for he is at the pains to
introduce us to the "Royal Arch Confraternity . " But , as " whoso exalteth himself shall be abased , " we have hardly had time to realise the new status when we rapidly descend below the level of the drunkard . " An incurable drunkard
is not an efficient employe . But a hardened , confirmed , inveterate Freemason is worse . " The drunkard is " said to be ' nobody ' s enemy but his own . '" But the Freemason " is the friend of his brother of the craft , and of none other . " It will be seen that we are advancing in our