Another Attack On Freemasonry.

ANOTHER ATTACK ON FREEMASONRY .

THE Lublin Freeman ' s Journal , which is regarded as the leading Ultramontane organ of the Catholic party in Ireland , has opened fire from , its very heaviest artillery upon Freemasonry . A leader in a recent issue is devoted to the very Christian work of cursing us , and we are

constrained to confess that the Ireeman ' s Journal has performed its allotted task gracefully , vigorously , and with fall command of the ecclesiastical vocabulary of abuse . We nre indeed disposed to think that it has fired its heavy ordnance at random , and without due inquiry into the

" facts ' which have excited its ire ; but it may console itself with the reflection that a curse or two , more or less , can do no harm to our Order , which is already suffering under the weight of the heavy displeasure of the Holy Father . A few centuries since it was regarded as a Christian duty to

anathematise and plunder the Children of Israel , and in these enlightened days , when the Jew has asserted his light to breathe the air of heaven unmolested , a section of the great Christian community appears to imagine that Freemasonry is a fitting target for the overflowing wrath of

the Church . We do not complain of misrepresentation , and we are certainly not disposed to indulge in any outburst of anger against our opponent . We desire to speak of Rome and its religion with all clue respect , and we aro not unmindful of tbe fact that many

zealous and active Masons are members of the Roman Catholic communion . We do not , however , think the Freeman ' s Journal deserves much quarter at our hands . Had its diatribe been spoken by an ecclesiastic from the pulpit , we might have passed it by with feelings of pity

and indifference j but a public writer has no coward ' s castle into which he can retreat after the perpetration of an outrage against good taste , and wo venture , therefore , to say a few words in reply to this , the latest and least

justifiable attack upon our Order . Ib seems that a body of Catholics , in the old city Ghent , in a solemn procession in the streets , were assailed by a mob , who saluted them with stones and mud . Women and children were

jostled , trampled upon , and , according to the writer in the Freeman ' s Journal , whose account of the affair is somewhat obscure , a life was lost in the scuffle . Every peaceful person , of whatever creed , will at once admit that the riot was most disgraceful , and we have no hesitation in saying

that the rioters are deserving of the most severe punishment . Thus far , we cordially go with the Freeman ' s Journal , but when that bitter and reckless print charges

the Freemasons with the whole responsibility for the outrage , we , in common justice , demand the proofs for the assertion . Our opponent declares that the Freemasons of Belsrium cherish the most bitter hatred of

tho Catholic religion , and their organs in the press have been ceaseless in their efforts to stir up the popular passions against it . It does not , however , afford us a particle of evidence in justification of this serious charge . Following the bad example of its great head , the Catholic

print speaks ex cathedra , and no doubt lays claim to a portion , at least , of the immunity which is supposed to be the privilege of the Pope . We , however , are not by any means disposed to take its statements upon trust . We insist in the first place that , in common -justice , it should tell us the names

of the journals which have endeavoured to stir up sectarian strife , and that it sbtmld afford ample proof of their connection with the Masonic fraternity . Until it does this , we shall be justified in saying that its charge against the Order has merely been prompted by blind hatred , or that

Another Attack On Freemasonry.

it has humbly obeyed the orders of its spiritual chiefs , and has abused us officially , just as a hired advocate attempts to blacken the character of his opponent . We are fully aware of the lamentable state of religious parties in Belgium . But we venture to say , without fear of

refutation , that the opposition which has been there excite in some quarters to the Catholic Church has been , caused solely by the unwise zeal of Churchmen themselves . In no country on the Continent do religious contentions run higher , and if the claims of the Church

of Rome in Belgium were not met by vigorous opposition , they would become too monstrous to be consistent with the maintenance of the existing civil government . The Belgian Ultramontanes have gone mad in the cause of the Church , and they have only themselves to thank for the

spirit of persecution which they have awakened . We deny that the Freemasons have degraded the Order into an engine for the dissemination of political or antireligious ideas . It is pledged to neutrality in these important particulars ; and , until we hear good evidence to

the contrary , we shall maintain that the Freeman s Journal has turned its guns upon us merely because its spiritual fugle-man has given the word of command . ' It declares that " it is useless to seek elsewhere than in this secret , oath-bound , anathematised institution tho origin of

these infamous excesses . The Belgian Masons claim them as glories for the Order , and point to them as evidences of tho zeal with which they carry out the ordinances of

the Brotherhood . " We demand proofs for this statement . If it is true the proofs must be accessible . What Masonic print has ventured to give utterance to such disgraceful sentiments ? The Freeman ' s Journal either has the

evidence in its possession , or it has not . If it can give us chapter and verse in support of this charge it is most certainly bound to do so , and if it cannot , then we , in turn , charge it with having deliberately , and for mere party purposes , given utterance to statements which it knows are

untrue . The very quotation with which , in the interests of truth , we have been compelled to sully our columns , contains its own refutation . The ordinances of the brotherhood are diametrically opposed to religious persecution , and if any Mason has dared to maintain the contrary ,

he has ventured upon a deliberate untruth . But we do not , for one moment , believe that any of our continental brethren could so far forget themselves as to associate the

Order with sectarian strife . Its enemies , for purposes of their own , find it convenient to rank Masons on the side of those who are hostile to the claims of Rome , and no argument or assertion of ours could convince an Ultramontane

that Masons , as such , can have no opinions in reference to the grave questions which are now convulsing religious society . The Freeman ' s Journal may , possibly , still maintain tho accuracy of its charges , in defiance of fact ,

and regardless of such a sublunary trifle as evidence , but if it fails to substantiate its recent indictment we shall hold that it is self-convicted of having wilfully sacrificed truth in the supposed interests of religion .

Freemasonry In India.

FREEMASONRY IN INDIA .

THE earliest mention of the Craft in India is in the year 1728-9 , when the then Grand Master , Viscount Kingston , nominated Bro . George Pomfret to be the first Provincial Grand Master of Bengal , where , according to Thory , "il ( Pomfret ) fonda onze Logm , " and where , as Preston