The Meeting Of Grand Lodge

tho Fund of Benevolence and ( b ) the Fund of General Purposes . The receipts in the former case amount to £ 2 . 983 lis lOd , including a balance brought forward of £ 1433 12 s 5 d , half year ' s interest on Consols £ 630 4 s lid , and contributions of Lodges £ 899 15 s fckl . The expenditure

reached £ 1 , 223 , leavinga balance in hand of £ 1 , 760 Us lOd . The Fund of General Purposes opened with a balance inhnnd of £ 1 , 108 8 s lOd , the total receipts , including contributions of Lodges , £ 1 , 919 lis Gd , being £ 3 , 753 4 s 5 d . The expenditure , which , with one exception , is of the usual

character , reached the sum of £ 2 , 427 Us 2 d , thus leaving a balance in hand of £ 1 , 325 13 s 3 d . The exceptional item of expenditure is one amounting to only £ 6 14 s , which was paid to tho " Tavern Company , for refreshments supplied to scrutineers on the day of Grand Lodge iu Juno . "

We do not consider the duties of a Scrutineer are vory arduous , or more arduous in Jnne than at other seasons of the year , when snch officers may be needed . £ 6 14 s is a small sum in itself , but sufficiently large , if we bear in

mind there were only twelve brethren who fulfilled these duties . We ask , tinder what circumstances it was thought necessary to incur this expenditure on this particular occasion , and who authorised it . Whatever is exceptional should be explained .

Attack And Defence

ATTACK AND DEFENCE

A NOTABLE controversy raged in Sydney , the capital of New South Wales , in the month of October last , between the Freemasons and their inveterate opponents , the Roman Catholic priesthood . The provocation came in the first instance from the Rev . Robert Bede Vaughan ,

who rejoices in the style and title of Archbishop of Nazianzus , in partibus ivfidelium , and is , in plain English , a Romish Missionary Archbishop in one of the Australian Colonies of Great Britain . With that intolerance of free

thought which animates the Ultramontane section of the Romish priestcraft , the Archbishop made a furious onslaught on the tenets of Freemasonry , of which he evidently knows nothing , on the three principal grounds that it is atheistical , immoral , and disloyal . But Dr . Vaughan bad

evidently reckoned without his host . We presume he must have anticipated either that this tremendous attack of his would pass unnoticed except by the obedient members of his own flock , or that the Freemasons of New South Wales would bo so terrified at finding themselves denounced

as common vagabonds , by a high dignitary of the Romish Church , as to be unable to meet his charges with anything like a reasonable prospect of success . It matters , of course , very little what his motives were , or what result he anticipated . It is sufficient for us to state that his lectnre was

only a fortnight old , when onr Rev . Bro . Dr . Wazir Beg , Deputy Grand Chaplain of New South Wales and the able editor of the Australian Freemason , took up the cudgels on behalf of the Craft . Dr . Vaughan ' s charges were made at the opening of the Romish Guild Hall on the 9 th October .

Bro . Dr . Beg ' s lecture was delivered on the 23 rd of the month in the Masonic Hall , York-street , Sydney ; and so densely packed was the audience on the latter occasion , that a large portion of them had to stand in the passages ,

while hundreds were unable to obtain admission . It is believed that over two thousand people were present , and the lecturer was frequently interrupted by the hearty and sympathetic applause of his hearers .

Let us . however , deal with the attack first , as being the first in the order of events . We need not dwell upon it at any length . The old stock arguments were brought against our Society with more than the usual parade of words , and with at least as much of the sugejestio falsi and suppressio

ven as we are justified in expecting from a thoroughly disingenuous opponent . The scraps of knowledge which the Archbishop had gathered up were twisted so as to convey a meaning totally at variance with their true import . He

declared Freemasonry to be the prime mover in the dissemination of materialistic doctrine , but he did not attempt to prove , or attempting , did not succeed in proving , that any connection whatever existed between the Craft and

materialism . The true designs of our Fraternity were kept out of sight altogether . He did not tell his audience that Freemasonry is one huge benevolent and beneficent society spread over the whole surface of the earth ; that its members meet together in their several sections or Lodges on the one common ground of humanity ; and that when they thus meet

Attack And Defence

together , they lay aside , for the time being , those differences , both political and religions , which , in the nature of things , are likely to create dissension . Ho carefully concealed from his audience tho wide difference thero is between a man of no religion at all and tho man who is tolerant of all

religions ; between him who has no sense of loyalty towards any form of government and is always plotting and contriving against the powers that be , and him who considers loyalty is obedience to constituted authority , but is careless as to tho particular form snch authority may assume ; or ,

iu other words , between the man of anarchical tendencies , to whom all forms of government are alike distasteful , and him of archical tendencies , by whom all such forms are alike respected . And as in making these charges , it would not unnaturally occur to the majority of his audience that

a society could hardly be disloyal and atheistic which included in its ranks men of princely and noble estate on the one hand , and on tho other many learned priests and deacons of different religious faiths , the Archbishop was careful to repeat the grotesque old statement that only a limited

and perfectly harmless knowledge of our mysteries was vouchsafed to these worthies . There were "hidden springs " of knowledge which were reserved to a select few , in whose hands the good and wise and noble men who join our ranks are mere puppets . The third charge brought against us

was that of immorality , but as the falsity of this is self evident , we need not give it even a moment's attention Freemasonry is defined to be a peculiar system of morality

The men who profess it are known in their respective cir cles , and the tenour of their lives will prove more conclu Bively than any words of ours the untruth of this acensa tion .

We have said the Archbishop ' s attack on Freemasonry was made before his audience with more than the usual parade of words . In fact , the lecture occupies several pages of the Freeman ' s Journal of Sydney . But its sum and substance we have already stated . As regards the very powerful

defence of Bro . Dr . Beg , that worthy brother was not content with merely repelling , as he did most effectually , the attack of his opponent . He , to use a common phrase , carried the war into the heart of the enemy ' s country . He not only demonstrated , to the satisfaction of his audience , that

Freemasons were religious , loyal , and moral men . He argued most forcibly that Roman Catholic priests , if loyal to their church , must be disloyal to the temporal government under which they lived . His quotations from Romish writers of acknowledged merit were very much to the point . His

rendering of the oath which Dr . Vaughan had taken at the time of his elevation to episcopal rank , was a skilful and most effective blow at his adversary . In the correspondence that ensued in one of the local journals , Dr . Vaughan made an attempt to lessen the force of this blow , but Dr . Beg was

not to be denied . Our able brother challenged his adversary to publish the oath he had actually taken , and even promised to accept the Archbishop ' s own rendering of the original Latin . To this , however , the astute Churchmanit may be very wisely—made no response whatever . And

as in personal conflict , where one of two combatants declines to continue the duello , the other is saluted as victor , so in this contest of words , the honours of victory must be taken to rest with Bro . Beg . Here we should have been disposed to leave the question

The attack of Dr . Vaughan is merely a repetition o £ those attacks by dignitaries of tbe Romish Church to which Freemasonry is periodically subjected , while the defence that was offered was , in the first instance , the same which has again and again been adduced by other brethren .

Nor do we think it expedient to follow Dr . Beg far into the religious or political phases of Roman Catholicism . These are matters which it is our dut y to avoid . But without entering into any religious disquisition , we feel bound to offer certain remarks on the extra-religious' influence which

the Roman Church is always striving to exercise ; and the injurious effect this has , not on Christendom only , but on the whole world . Masons in common with all members of every religious persuasion lament the spread of materialism and those so-called atheistic tendencies which unhappily

prevail m some countries . Many justify these latter on the ground that every man has a right to hold what opinions he chooses , not only as to the nature and attributes of God , but as to His existence or non-existence . Dr .

Vaughan holds " the Sect , " as he is pleased to call us , responsible for the spread of these pernicious opinions . On our part , we say that no power on earth has inflicted greater injury on the cause of true religion than the