Freemason's Journal And Masonic Press.

FREEMASON'S JOURNAL AND MASONIC PRESS .

FROM THE HEBREW LEADEK . WE have obtained a copy of n new four page paper having the above title , ami issued in the City of Now York , wo bespeak it a large patronage , and trust in its success ; indeed , wo do not . doubt its success if it , will carry ont its professions as contained in its leader of No . 4 . The motto is of the true Masonic ring , " Parity , Harmony , Fraternity . " The Publisher ia Bro . John VV . Keeler :

Editor , Wor . W . II . McDougall ; Contributors , Bros . VV . Dalamatet and A . J . Barton ; Office , 164 Pulton . street . In welcoming this now comer , we ardently hope it will over bear in mind its pronounced purpose and opinion , and jnst so long do wo desire to be its companion . The Freemason's Journal says : " Starting upon the premise that tho publication of derogatory

personalities , by papers claiming Masonic snpport , and supposed tn be animated by tho pnro principles of Masonic teaching , in contrary to the established idea of dnty , as taught to overy initiate and gradnlnto in onr fraternal society , wo havo no difficulty before iia in onr attempts to show what shonld be the aim and end of Masonic Jonrnalism * * * . The Masonio writer , above all members of tho

Craft , shonld be npright , truthful , and honourable , inasmuch as tho opinions of the profane are influenced by his writing . The effect of a dishonest publication , an nntrathfnl statement or a misreprosentation of facts is not usually regarded as serious as it is in fact . The secret of -non-success of Masonio publications in the City of

New York is the hitherto unrecognised fact that there has always been too muoh passion , prejudice , and personal favouritism displayed in them . We havo witnessed , with much sorrow , the rise and fall of promising ventures in Masonic publications , have expressed astonishment at the brevity of their existence , and still have failed to attribute their collapse to the proper cause . Starting fair , they

invariably drifted upon well-known shoals , and were stranded . One is occasionally forced to ask himself the question . Has the subject of Masonry , its morals , its fraternal ties , its charity , its great and important truths , been completely exhausted ? Ave we obliged , as a brotherhood , to resort to the lowest and meanest kind of journalism to secure readers ? Must we fill onr Masonic colnmns

with flattery , buncombe , gush , abase , and scandal to make them interesting to tho great body of intelligent Masons ? We feel like uttering au emphatic negative to each of these questions , but the facts will not warrant suoh answers . A brother meeting another says : ' Have yon seen the Blatant Scandal this week ? "Vou ought to get it and see the way it pitches into Bro . Jones . ' Straightway

the questioned looks for the paper and reads a fierce onslaught on a brother whom he knows to be a good man and Mason . A laugh follows—and this they call Masonio jonrnalism ! And just this sort of thing is what has produce ! fcho lamentable lack of pure Masonio reading . Personalities between brethren shonld meet with general

condemnation , if for no other reason than thafc they encourage the worst elements of onr fraternity as against the bettor . Of late years we have become accnstomed to seeing and hearing certain of our brethren spoken of in highly slanderous and improper terms , and have forgotten onr duty to make strong and earnest protest . The time is now como to make a firm stand against the villainous personal attacks upon tho

reputations of Masons that havo become common ; the time is come to slum and avoid tho ntterers of scandalous lies and vilo insinuations against tho honour and probity of well-known good men and brethren ; tho time is come to discourage and frown npon men (?) who make Masonry a tool to gratify a malicious nature ; tho time ia come to deny all detractors and falsifiers the rights and privileges

due the deserving brother ; the time is come to show these miserable creatures of mistaken charity aud to the world , that honest Masons do indeed love their honest brethren , and that they will no longer be allowed the use of their foul wills , by pen and by tongue , by press and by speech , to abase , slander , and defame the men who have served Masonry honourably and faithfully .

Well may we ask ourselves the question : Why do we permit the vicious of the Fraternity to exercise their foul propensities in the view and hearing of all without vigorous defence ? It may be said silence is better than repressive action ; but silence sometimes becomes acquiescence , and in failure to defend strongly and openly

we are apt to be considered as giving some credence to the defamation . Let this no longer be the rule . Crush slander by putting upon it tbe foot of earnest protest , and if that fails try the remedies Masonic law permits . " If the Freemason's Journal will act in the spirit it commends , it will not be long ere " Blatant Scandal " will be kicked ont of decent

Nooiot y , when Grand Officers will cease to walk hand in hand with "Jendacifcy , and when Lodges and brethren will stjp their contributions now given for fear of tho pen of tbe vilifior , or in other words when tho necessity for present cowardice will be removed , and Masonry and manhood will assert themselves .

The twenty-sixth Annual Conclave of the Grand Commandery Knights Templar of California was hold in April last , in San Francisco . Sir Kuighfc George 0 . Perkins k-C . presided , aud twenty-two Commanderies were

represented . The annual statement of accounts showed total fund 8 , 485 dollars ; disbursements 4 , 434 dollars ; balance 'V- * ' 51 dollars . An elegant silver service was presented to kir

Knight Perkins on his retirement from tho Grand konimandershi p . Sir Knight W . Monroe Petrie , of Sacra-*^ nio , was elected Grand Commander , and Sir Kni ght ¦ * ¦ ¦ Hubbard Caswell re-elected Graud Recorder .

Correspondence.

CORRESPONDENCE .

We do not hold ourselves responsible for the opinions of our Cor rtspnndents . AV Letter * must , hear the name and address of the Writer , no \ t \ eces \ aribi for publication , but as a guarantee of good faith . We cannot undertake to return rejected communications .

REV . BROTHER JOHN ENTICK . To the Editor of the FREEMASON ' CHRONICLE . DEAR SIR AND BROTHER , —You have given frequent opportunities of airing his Wows to Bro . Jacob Norton ; perhaps you will spare me a small space for a few remarks auent that able and somewhat eccentric brother . I do nofc think I am far wrong in regarding Bro . Norton as a Masonic Iconoclast . He is always tilting afc some cherished

idol or other , and if he is not tho Don Quixote of tho Craft , he ia never tirod of warring against what most ; Freemasons regard as the pieture-qne and romantic surroundings of tho Order . Hia admiration for Rationalism seems to deprive him of all reverence for Tradition . With him the absence of proof that does not amount to mathematical demonstration is regarded as positive evidence against

all speculative philosophy , all tradition , and those charming poetic sentiments which abound in the Craft , and without whioh it would be shorn of much of its beauty and grandeur . Bro . Norton , nevertheless , has done , and is doing , good service by hia sledge-hammer criticisms and his courageous and bold assertions . Like thousands of others I reverence traditions , I venerate old-world thoughts and

actions , where they are not absolutely wicked , and I have a decided objection to have my idols rudely demolished before my very eyes . I believe utilitarianism to be one of the greatest curses of the present age—worse than any superstitions belief that is now prevalent or likely to arise among the Masonic body . I hold strongly , too , thafc to be withont the traditions of the past would be a present living

death . Sentiment is a greater factor in life than Bro . Norton seems willing to admit , and while I respect him for having fche courage of his convictions , I shonld be moro inclined to pay attention to him were he less brutal in assailing what he may term false and worthless prejudices . Bro . Norton's letter in yonr last issue places him in a very

favourable light . He there ceases to destroy , and attempts to educate . He exposes the shortcomings of what should be regarded as a hi gh Masonic authority , and he supplies some facts which merit and demand a larger audience than the Craft affords . Bro . Enfcick was not only an able Freemason , the author of Latin and English dictionaries , but he was a somewhat prolific historian . This fact ought to have found

a place in a work professing to be a Masonio Cyclopedia . Bro . Norton has done well in pointing out omissions in a work that shonld be free from snch blemishes . It is another matter when political aud partisan opinions and acts are in question . Bro . Entick may havo been a patriot , but I hardly think , wero he alive , he would claim the exceptional honour with which Bro . Norton would invest him at the expense

of his brethren of the same Order . All English Freemasons know that politics are excluded from Lodges and Masouic intercourse , and ifc is a matter of opinion how mnch of tho career of a distinguished brother should be given in a work purporting to be a cyclopaedia . My own idea is , thafc all matters of a public character should be regarded in tho simplest form when they in no way relate to the

Craft , leaving it , to the reader s desire for further information to seek it where ifc nny be found . I fear , in the caso in question , tho omis . sions referred to by Bro . Jacob Norton are the result of ignorance and slovenliness , two faults in a compiler that go far to destroy confidence in his accuracy and judgment . Most intelligent Masons would like to know of the doings of a learned brother , more especially if

those doings were of a particularly noteworthy character . Some men miss fame as others do fortune , " and this appears to have been the case with Bro . Entick , who acted a real patriot ' s part , but who , unlike Wilkes , failed to attain the popularity that followed and still clings to the demagogue ' s name . I may mention that I have three authorities where Bro . Entick ' s

name onght to appear , but , strange to say , he only figures in one . and in that no mention is made of his patriotic resistance to the exercise of tyrannical and arbitrary authority . Where his name is mentioned , the date of his death is given as 1780 . If any excuse is needed for Bro . Woodford ' s omission ifc is to be found in the fact that , in a

dictionary devoted to literature , Bro . Entick ' s name is nofc to be found , and that in a popular reference book , where the name is recorded , no mention is made of facts given by Sir Erskine May in his great work . Notwithstanding this defence , I agree with Bro . Norton that Bro . Entick deserved better treatment than ho has received at the bauds of the compiler of the cycloptedia he refers to .

lam , Sir aud Brother , Yours fraternally , WATCHMAN , 9 th Sept . 18 S 4 .

To the Editor of the FREEMASON S CtiRONtCTiE . PEAR Sin A . VB BROTHER , —When I wrote last week about Bro . Entick tho Masonic library room was undergoing repairs , and I could not get any books out of tho cases . I have , however , since then consulted Mackey ' s Cyclopaedia and Oliver ' s Revelations of a Square .

Mackey mentions Entick ' s History in five volumes , and another work in four volumes , and Oliver merely gives the names of several of Entick's sermons . In Gordon ' s Biographical Dictionary Entick is thus referred to : — "A miscellaneous compiler ; was born in 1713 . Wheie he was educated is not known ; nor , although he styled himself 'B . ev . John