The Grand Orient Of France Before The Craft Universal.

•which , we may at once set forth tho erroneous manner in which they aro often interpreted abroad by English Lodges . Tho action of England following that of Ireland against the Grand Orient , and under the circumstances already alluded to , is one that should bo defended on other grounds than that given in the four Resolutions . Since a Committee , composed

of -worthy and high Masonic Dignitaries of G . L ., sat upon the question of tho conduct of the Grand Orient , why not have made known thoir report on tho law npon which they founded their resolutions ? Thero can be no question that they knew well the subject upon which they had to report , sinco they did not scorn to have wanted even any statements or explanations from that Grancl

Orient , which was brought within their jurisdiction for judgment . Knowing Masonic history as well as actual facts in France , they , no doubt , never expected to realise Masonic union by insisting on perfect uniformity of opinion , aud that under penalty of excommunication . Ifc was consequently known to that Committee that ever since the Initiation ( more than a century and a half ago ) of the great astro .

nomer Lalando , down to that of the Eminent Bro . Littre and a number of other eminent men , non-professors , nofc distinguished , of course , for their faith , French Masona have always professed to believe : " That toleration of difference in all opinions , religious and political , scientific and social , was a cardinal doctrine of Freemasonry , ono that grows out of its organism and constitution , and one which

is constantly alluded to in its own rituals ; thafc a Freemason has a right to honestly hold any decided opinions on religion , politics , and even revolution , provided that he docs nofc less esteem his brother who is equally sincere and decided iu opinions directly opposite , and that , snch a doctrine , so peculiar to the Order , was its great bulwark againsfc disunion and discord ; for it is nofc the differing

opinions thafc aro tho cause of disunion and ruptures , but the want of that other cardinal doctrine or rather virtue : charity , brotherly love ; thafc religion being taken as a system of ethics , and not as a particular system of faith or form of worship , is , by no means , superior to those mere teachings of Freemasonry ; that , on the contrary , it may be proved that tho latter have vastly more powerful influence upon

tho minds , and aro , consequently , more fruitful than the teaching of any creed or Church ; for they are imparted by a method and with a spirit which no creeds possess , and which tend to unity of purpose iu the union of tho whole human family ; and that , finally , unity of men , diffusion of knowledge , brotherly love among them , and the practice of benevolence , are worth exceedingly more to Humanity

than any creed , dogma , or glittering religious theory ever mooted . Now , it was because there was every reason to believe thafc those distinguished Masons of the Grand Lodge Committee knew all this , and were thoroughly acquainted with the traditional principles and peculiarities of French Freemasonry—if peculiarities all theso may be called—that much surprise has been felt at not seeing published

a Report of that Committee upon tho alleged breach of Masonic law committed by tho Grand Orient . And ifc was with regret and pain that the latter saw it stated , in the Resolutions , that it had eliminated the G . A . O . T . U . from its Constitution , instead of its being said that it was only introduced , not very loug ago , under peculiar circumstances , as an indispensable fundamental of the Order ; aud that quite

exceptionally , too , if compared with the other Masonic Constitutions , to begin with , their own English ouc-8 . It is to bo presumed that tho lack of somo formal aud exact law , having strict and determinate limitations iu the matter , compelled the Committee to purely and simply adopt the Irish Grand Lodge ' s opinion , and act as it did , tho non scriytn . les argument being

considered now-a-days , m most cases , too threadbare an oue to be used seriously . In fact , tho landmark theory would justify as well the French in their raising , iu 1849 , to a Masonic dogma the belief in God and tho immortality of the soul , and to have it inscribed as the first article in their Constitution , and sworn to , as au essential condition for admission into the Order , as tho same theory would

equally justify others iu not having any such an article in theirs , but , nevertheless , to vindicate the right of excommunicating tho French Masons , for violating a landmark by attempting , in 1877 , to cancel what they had themselves laid down , uncautiously some years before . But it is not the excommunication alone , it is the stigma of atheism attached to it , that aggravates tho grievance . Ono

thing , however , is certain , aud should bo generally known , aud that is . while in an English Lodge an Atheist may be duly elected aud initiated , and tho fact bo unknown to the Lodge , because no confession of his unbelief is to be forced from hia own lips ; such a thing has always been a material impossibility in a French . Lodge , where ifc is the practice to examine publicly tho Candidate as to his

views and opinions on matters religions and social . If some true and goad French brethren , passionate lovers of peace and harmony , of mutual regard and equality of rights , on seeing the misconstruction put upon the act of the Grand Orient , the manner in which ifc was assailed , the disunion and rupture which it has been made tho pretext of , did , in true Masonic feeling , express their regret

at its having taken that step , however necessary it had become for the Government of the Lodges , thoso Brethren , at the same time , did nofc forbear to give vent to their surprise afc the passive role played in the matter by tho Grand Lodge of England , and to pronounce teat part one of the most regrettable , on all points , for both parties alike . To build up a party or sect in Masonry , and to divide ifc

hyperbotically into "supposed" believers and unbelievers , so to cause the Grand Orient to bo looked upon , among thomselvcrs , as a Masonic heresiarch , is certainly not the airn nor tho wish of English Freemasons ; for the rectitude of intention and tho dignity of action from the Grand Lodge of England should not be doubted . Aud yet , how to explain what has taken place ? how to conciliate its manifest

embarrassment in its irrational enactment of those perplexed aud conflicting Resolutions , with the desire , with which it is credited , ot elevating in the world at large , so far as is , iu its power , the union and consideration of tho Craft Universal ? Happily for the French Lodges , either from a want of forethought , or deliberately , nothing was enjoined by those Resolutions on English

The Grand Orient Of France Before The Craft Universal.

brethren , as to their visiting or nofc tho Lodges of tho Grand Orient . This was left to thoir discretion , or perhaps the Committee that drew up the bull wore not afraid of any atheistical contamination for the English brethren entering French Lodges . So the latter havo been and aro daily visited , nofc only by English bufc also Irish aud Scotch brethren , who are welcomed then wifch brotherly regard

and Masonic cordiality . The French brethren convince their visitors that they havo neither deviated from nor abandoned any of the true principles of Freemasonry ; and thoy do so , not by words , but by Masonic deeds : friendlily introducing and assisting the stranger , feelingly relieving the poor and distressed brother . Tho question of rupture between thoso governing Bodies and the

Grand Orient appears , to the French Masons , to lie absolutely in a nutshell . They know that to a great ; majority of English brethren they are nofc so black as painted by thafc Excommunication ; whose mischievous effects many , in England , see wifch sincere regret , and would instantly erase , if it depended on them . The same may be said of a great many of Scotch aud Irish brethren ; in

fact , of all those who aro acquainted with the real merits of the case One of the Irish G . Lodge ' s Officers , writing to the Grand Orient , in November 1877 says : — " Personally I consider tho Grand Orient had a perfect right to do as it did ; and that the introdnction in 18-19 was wrong , and should not havo been made in the Constitntion . Our English speaking Constitutions have nofc any declaration of faith

contained in them , such being confined to the Ancient and other Charges . I cannot bnt express my strongest opinion againsfc the course taken , " & o . & c . Ifc is manifest to any English Mason of experience , who is also conversant with the practice of examination of candidates in French Lodges , that thero is a vast difference between that particular trial

in which all the brethren present join , in order to arrive , so far as is possible , afc a real knowledge of the morale of the man for whom they are about to give a last vote for admission among them , and the process of admitting a Candidate who , of course , haa been duly proposed and seconded , ballofcted for and elected , and to whom now they read ( nofc to say spit out ) , more or less comprehensively , the Old

Charges . To say thafc the mere recital of the old Charges , thus made to the Candidate , must be taken as a formal confession of faith from him , would be as preposterous and absurd a « to hold that listening to a sermon is to endorse the opinions of the preacher and be bound by them . Why tho Candidate , who is , by all outward signs , what is known as an honest and honourable man may be inwardly a rank infidel or

a " stupid Atheist , going , pro forma only , through the ceremony of a Ritual ancl saying , parrotlike , the few words thafc are whispered to him , even those of the Obligation , without thinking , for one moment , that he is compelled to make known his own belief or unbelief , but at the same time , ready perhaps to boldly do so if he were called upon . The Grand Orient , though fully convinced thafc the step it has taken to affirm once more , before tho Craft Universal , the principle

of liberty of conscience as a Masonic doctrine that does not admit of any restriction , ia one that will work its way and prove of great benefit to the Order in years to come , yet that Body h uncertainly not , the least desire to impose its opinion upon any one . Isnt even within its own Jurisdiction will the Grand Orient enforce its views upon that considerable question . The Council of the Order , through Bro , Caubet , one of its members , dclined , on this point , ita sentiinent-3 as follows : —

" To prevent any mistaken interpretation , it should be well to always remind the brethren that , under the law that now governs us , the suppression of dogmatic formulio does not imply a defence of making use of them . Liberty of conscience required ' -hat tho obligation of using those formula ) should ho suppressed , as a binding one , because that obligation was in direct violation of thn

liberty of conscience of those thafc did not accept them . However , that samo liberty of conscience exacts that those forms should remain optional , so that they may bo n . s & cl , according to tho individual feeling of each of us ; the silence of tho law on this point being the right and guarantee of all . Free conscience being held the supreme Rule of our Order , and the fundamental security of individual

dignity , it must not be overlooked that , in matoers dogmatic , indi . vidual rights should be positively absolute , and , therefore a majority has no legitimate authority to impose its opinions upon a minority . " Strange as it may appear , our opinion is thafc if the Craft , could bear any religious and dogmatic interpretation whatever , the so-called " Haufc Grades , " would never have been invented as an excrescence of

Freemasonry proper , being neither strictly in nor without it . Their creation and history , their Ceremonies and Symbolism , even the name they havo still retained of Christian Degrees , all tend to show thafc it was precisely because there was no room for creed and dogmas in Craft Masonry that theso separate Degrees have been invented afterwards so aa to supply those who are of a religions turn of mind with

something akin to Church , Ceremonies , Dogmas , C eeds , Lights , Vestments , & c , & c . Nothing would bear out theopini m tha' ; the founders of Freemasonry , desirous , as we believe they wen , that it should be a great Cosmopolitan association , to effect the mion ancl fraf . er . ial intercourse of men of all countries , had made the Initiation * v .:- > v dependent upon any formal confession of faith , and re- ••¦ •i

any dogmatic principle . And in support of s ^ ich au o ; have the very " Book of the Constitutions , " publish ^' wherein such a declaration of faith is conspicuous by r- ; .. ' ,, though tho author was , by profession , a man of the Chnrc . It may be that , while there remaiuod still inscribed in the biws of most nations in Europe a penalty of death by tire , or one of tortnie , against ' magicians , enchanters , sorcerers , Eastern astrologers ,

alchemists , sacrilegious men , < tc , and that all secret societies were supposed to be composed of such men , Masons then thought it , in many countries , good policy to make , whenever they hud a chance , a religious show outside the Lodge , such as carrying processionally tlie Bible from Lodge to church , & c . ; thus allowing Freemasonry to inconsistently ifffect to bo here Calvinist or Lutheran , there Anc-Hcan , Puritan , and von Roman Catholic . But that was then only with a view to its own security ; thafc was to be allowed to live by toleration , to try and