Grand Lodge.

GRAND LODGE .

IT must be many years since any Communication of onr United Grand Lodge has been looked forward to with so much interest as that which will be held on Wednesday next . The greater part of the business set down on the agenda paper is of a very ordinary character ; but two matters will be brought under the notice of tho brethren

¦ which it is no exaggeration to say are of vital importance , as affecting the well-being of the Craft Universal . The two points which will be considered are as widely separate from each other as the Poles . In one case , the attention of brethren will be called to a conspicuous illustration of

that narrow-minded religious bigotry which it has ever been the chief object of Freemasony to destroy ; in the other , to a display of irreligious licence , to which the grandly-simple teaching of the founders of our modern system has been equally opposed . Two mortal blows , from

two opposite directions , have been dealt at the integrity of our Order . On the one hand , we are invited to believe that one who is a Mason may justly have in bim no degree or kind of religious belief whatsoever ; on the other , that one , and one form only , of religion is necessary in order to

justify admission into our ranks . Thus there devolves on Grand Lodge on Wednesday next the solemn function of upholding the principles of Freemasonry in all their native purity . We do not doubt but it will prove equal to the occasion , and that it will approach the important subjects

"which will be submitted for its consideration with mingled calmness , dignity , and resolution . It is beyond all question that ours is the mother Grand Lodge of all the Grand Lodges in the world . Other countries , perhaps , may be able to boast of an earlier acquaintance with operative Masonry .

Elsewhere may be found earlier instances of gentlemen , or non-operative Masons ; but ours is the first , both in order of time , and we may add , in rank , of the Masonic governments specially organised on purely speculative principles . It is from us that other and more recent Masonic

governments have derived their being . We have , therefore , an undoubted , nay , an inherent right to proclaim , in the presence of the whole Masonic world , what are and have been the principles on which this our constitution is based .

We in England are far from being faultless , but on the whole , we have been scrupulously faithful in carrying out the designs of our founders ; and now that the magnificent results of their labours are endangered elsewhere it behoves

us , as men as well as Masons , to stand up boldly and defend the right . However , we need not dwell longer on a duty ¦ which must be patent to every one . Rather let us turn to the two subjects which it will be the business of Grand Lodge to take into solemn consideration next Wednesday .

First of the two in order on the agenda paper for that day is the simple announcement that "the M . W . Grand Master will refer to the recent action of the Grand Orient

of France . What this action is we have already stated m former articles , nor does it seem necessary we should offer any sort or kind of justification for the proposed reference . We have already pointed out that this action of the French Grand Orient is subversive of the true principles of

Freemasonry , and that it is the duty of the mother Grand Lodge of the Fraternity to vindicate those principles on all necessary occasions . And if we consider who and what

manner of man he was who took the leading part in the establishment of our modern speculative system—who was , in fact , the presiding genius of the movement—we shall see in a still stronger light the necessity there is for some

Grand Lodge.

counter-action on the part of our Grand Lodge—some protest against this fatal policy of destruction which has been tried on more than one occasion in other countries but never before with such conspicuous success . Dr . Desaguliers , to whom all students of our history must be

aware we are chiefly indebted for the erection of our modern Masonic Temple , was the son of a French refugee , who had been driven to seek asylum in a foreign land by the intolerance of his sovereign . Like numbers of his fellow-countrymen the elder Desaguliers was successful in

establishing himself in his new English home , and from him , no doubt , the future founder of Speculative Freemasonry must have imbibed his first lessons of hatred for all kinds of intolerance . Moreover , during the earlier years of his life he must have seen in his adopted

country much that reminded him of the land of his fathers ; for men ' s minds here were still inflamed by the bitter struggles of our own revolutionary period ; nor , indeed , was the contest by any means determined , even when the young Desaguliers was approaching man ' s estate . It is

obvious then , that he , as the son of one who had been the victim of religious intolerance , and seeing on all sides how deadly was the feud between rival political and religious parties , and moreover , as possessing a practical as well as a philosophical turn of mind , must early have directed his

energies to softening , if possible , the bitterness of party discord . Probably it was mere accident which threw him , in the first instance , in the way of the Freemasons of this day , then in a transition state , and but a sorry remnant of the grand old operative guilds of the middle ages .

But once entered as a member of the Fraternity , he quickly found that while its teaching contained little , if anything , that was either very profound or novel , it might easily be made the means for promoting the principles of political and religious tolerance . Here , at all events , he must have

pictured to himself , were the scattered remains of a body which it would be possible and desirable to re-unite ; and these once re-united would form the nucleus of a society which in time might be spread over the whole world , so as to include not only men of every nationality , but likewise

of every religious creed , as well as of every shade of politics . It was a grand idea , and grandly carried out . There was little to be done beyond laying down certain general principles which all men might conscientiously accept . It was necessary , in order to secure the peace and harmony of the

society , that it should be a non-political one , though necessarily composed of men of every shade of political opinion . It was equally necessary that , while imbued with a due sense of religion , it should be a non-sectarian religious body . It was never intended that Freemasonry should be , cither

passively or actively , the enemy of religion , but simply of those terrible persecutions which had been practised in tho name of religion by more powerful politico-religious bodies against those who were weak and more or less incapable of defending themselves . Thus , from the very first , the

discussion of those questions which were sure to arouse a hostile feeling on the part of some towards others was strictly forbidden . But though this class of subjects controversial was rigidly excluded from the programme of the new society , it was necessary , as we have said , there should

be certain general principles which all men might accept and abide by , and these were declared to be a just sense of religion , the love and practice of morality for its own sake ,

and a ready obedience to all legally constituted civil authority . That Desaguliers and his able coadjntors were right in the plans they had formed , is evident from the fact that within twenty years from the erection of the Grand