Christianity And Freemasonry.

can claim a Brotherhood of Charity . On the Continent priestly power has contended for the supremacy , and in the struggle for freedom from a corrupt and tyrannical church , men deserted the legal Institution of Freemasonry and established other secret societies . They were driven to desperate resources , and , in the wild excesses that

followed , the good suffered with the bad . But , notwithstanding all that took place , there was much to pity in the offenders . Freemasonry could nofc find a remedy for their grievances , and it ought not to be mado responsible for their crimes .

Initiation Of Prince Albert Victor Of Wales.

INITIATION OF PRINCE ALBERT VICTOR OF WALES .

THERE can be no question as to the views entertained by onr Grand Master in regard to Freemasonry . The Order evidently has his Royal Highness ' s warmest sympathy ; not only in his official capacity as Grand

Master , bufc also in private life as a citizen and a father . That such is the case was amply demonstrated on Tuesday , when His Royal Highness personally initiated his eldest son into the mysteries of tho Craffc , and conferred on him

membership of an Order which must be held in high repute by our future King , for he has taken the earliest opportunity of introducing his son into its ranks . The ceremony took place in the Royal Alpha Lodge , No . 16 , at

Willis's Rooms , St . James ' s , and was of all but a private character ; simply the members of the Lodge being present to witness the initiation , which , in all probability , will be recorded as one of the principal events of English

Freemasonry of the nineteenth century . The Prince of Wales was supported by the leaders of the Craft , who filled the respective offices , and assisted iu the admission of the

Royal Initiate , who we trust will take as much interest in the welfare of the Order as has been displayed by the members of his Royal Family in the past .

From The Daily Telegraph, 17th March 1885.

FROM THE DAILY TELEGRAPH , 17 TH MARCH 1885 .

Ever since the Prince of Wales was initiated into the rites of Freemasonry by the King of Sweden at Stockholm in 1868 , His Eoyal Highness has taken a close personal interest in the welfare of the Craffc . He has not been content to appear occasionally among the brethren as a mere ornamental patron of their ancient and

widespread society , but has worked in Lodge with indnstry and assiduity , and is , indeed , apart from other high qualifications , an accomplished Craftsman . When , on the resignation of the Marquis of Ripon , the Prince accepted the duties and responsibilities of Worshipful Grand Master , eight thousand Officers in Masonry assembled at the Albert

Hall to witness a sight which for splendour and impressiveness was probably never equalled among Free and Accepted Masons since the time of King Solomon , Hiram , King of Tyre , and Hiram Abiff . His Royal Highness has served the office of Worshipful Master in the Apollo University Lodge at Oxford , in the Prince of Wales'

Lodgein which he initiated his brother , the Dake of Connaught—and in the Alpha Lodge , in which he will receive his eldest son , Prince Albert Victor . Freemasons throughout the world—wherever brethren are known to one another by the occult mysteries which bind them together—will rejoice at the latest accession to an Order which

though founded on the principl © of the equality of mankind , is yet full of veneration and respect for rank and precedence . Prince Albert Victor will be the seventeenth of the Blood Royal of Great Britain and Ireland to join the Freemasons since the year 1737 , beyond which period the records of the Craffc are occasionall y va » ue

and not always to be relied on . Without going outside the confines of England , the historians of the society claim for it an antiquity further back than the invasion of the Romans under Julins Crosar . St . Austin , assumed to be a zealous Mason , helped to found the Cathedrals of Canterbury , Rochester , St . Paul's , and St . Peter ' s

, Westminster , all in the seventh century ; and , if the * ecords may be trnsted , the Craft has continued to flourish here , with the exception of a period of stagnation during the Heptarchy , from these days to those . According to Anderson ' s account , St . Augustine , Alfred fche Great , St . Dnnstan , and Edward the Confessor were all Grand

Masters before the coming of the Normans . Nevertheless , the list of the holders of this exalted position among the brethren is not generally accepted without reservation until the end of Queen Anne's reign . Undoubtedly Henry VII . and Henry VIII . were Freemasons , and Inigo Jones and Sir Christopher

Wren Masters of Lodges . An historic list of Grand Masters , however , accurate beyond all possibility and dispute , only begins with the Grand Mastership of Henry Sayer in 1717 , followed by that of George Payne in 1718 . In the year following the office was conferred on Dr . Desaguliers , who initiated Frederick Lewis , twentieth Prince of

Wales , eldest son of King George II ., at the Palace of Kew , on tho 5 th November 1737 . If we are to place implicit reliance on the Memoirs of Lord Hervey—Pope ' s " Sporus "—the character of Prince Frederick Lewis was not above criticism . Certain it is that his father , a vain and selfish old man , despised him , and he was

From The Daily Telegraph, 17th March 1885.

hated by his mother , the generally acute Queen Caroline . The Prince , however , waa popular with tho multitude , and that he must have been popular with the Craft is manifest from the fact that the Book of Constitutions for the year 1748 was dedicated to his Royal Highness .

The uninitiated are in the habit of asking : If Freemasonry be such an admirable institution , why is it not thrown open to everyone ; and , furthermore , if ifc be good for men , why are not women also entrusted with its secrets ? To this the Freemasons reply that were tho privileges of the Order to be indiscriminately dispensed , its

mysteries , becoming familiar , would loso their value and sink into disregard , and , when pressed , they aro fain to admit that upon one occasion a lady was actually passed through the degrees of the Craffc and emerged a full Freemason . Ifc would appear that at some time during the second quarter of the eighteenth century the meetings of

Lodge 44 used to be held at Doneraile House , the seat of Lord Doneraile , in Ireland , his lordship being then Worshipful Master . Lord Doneraile had a sister , the Hon . Elizabeth St . Leger , afterwards the Honourable Mrs . Aldworth , and the young lady so managed affairs thafc she possessed herself of all the secrets of the Lodge

workings . The St . Legers , it will be remembered , were an enter prising family . " Handsome Jack Bellinger , " one of the founders of the " Hell Fire Club " and the Doncaster St . Leger , a boon companion of the " First Gentleman in Europe , " inherited all the curiosity and liveliness of the Doneraile blood . Some say that the Honourable

Elizabeth secreted herself in a clock-case , others thafc she witnessed the working through a crevice in the wall of the apartment sacred to the mysteries of the Craft . What were the members of Lodge 44 to do under the circumstances ? Having discovered her , had they let her go free she might have revealed secrets , close kept since the days

of the building of the Temple , to all the parish , ancl so to society afc large . We may suppose that her brother the Worshipful Master , and the Officers and brethren assembled , were hard put how to act for the best . Women might not become Freemasons . Yefc here was a woman who , so far as a knowledge of some of the most important

secrets , never revealed to the outer or popular world , was alreadyone . The Constitutions did not provide for anch a contingency , and ifc became necessary to create a precedent . Thereupon the Honourable Elizabeth St . Leger , only daughter of Arthur , first Viscount Doneraile , was brought before the authorities of Lodge 44 and

solemnly inducted into the secrets and mysteries , the signs and tokens , of a Free and Accepted Mason . What was imparted to the lady is not likely to be made public . For , as one of the most learned of Masons had laid down , " of all the arts which Masons practise the art of secrecy particularly distinguishes them ; and that ifc is agreeable

to the Deity Himself may be easily conceived from the glorious example which He gives in concealing from mankind the ways of His Providence . The wisest of men cannot pry into the Arcana of Heaven , nor can they divine to-day what to-morrow may brink forth . " Indeed , Harpocrates and Angerona were not more sacred to silence

among the Greeks and Romans than is all that goes on in a Lodge close-tiled to the discreet Freemason . Whatever was told to Miss St . Leger , under tho seal of secrecy , she possessed the conscience and prudence never to let pass her lips . The Irish Masons revere her memory , and her likeness in full Masonio clothing is still preserved .

When , afc tbe Royal Alpha Lodge , to be held at Willis ' s Rooms to-day , Prince Albert Victor is received into the Craffc by his father , he will become the member of a society illustrious alike for its antiquity and " respectability , " and for the innumerable works of charity with which its name is associated . The word "

respectability " is used advisedly . It is a word understood and applied according to its best and truest meaning—respect-worthy by the Craft at large . Freemasonry is , in this sense , before all and above all , a respectable institntion . Its tenets teach the principles of hononr and the practice of virtue . The society aids and assists the

sick and the poor , and the widows and orphans of its members . Fond of good fellowship and lavish in the cause of Charity , the typical British Freemason is a good man and a decent citizen . Although ifc is a secrefc society , religion has nothing to fear from an Institution based on belief . Only lately the English Lodges have out

themselves adrift from the Grand Orient of France , not , as has been erroneously supposed , because the Orient favours freedom of thought , but becanse the Grand Commander of French Freemasonry and his Officers refuse to admit that the very life of the Institution is founded on the Masonic acknowledgment of faith in the Great Architect of

the Universe . For the Grand Commander of the Orient , or for any lesser Masonj native or foreign , to pretend that the Craft in its purity is possible without a profession of faith is to misunderstand the first principles of Masonry , to misinterpret its injunctions , and to misread its records . Freemasons are , or shonld be , brethren

wherever they meet . The Craft , like Art , speaks a universal language understood by all races of the initiated—East , West , North , and South . In the pasfc it has left its traces npon almost every sacred Jewish and Christian fane famous in the annals of architecture . When the Freemasons really handled the tools of the mason ' s

trade they were a guild by themselves , protected by every enlightened Monarch throughout the civilised world . And now that there are speculative Masons more particularly devoted to ethics and morality , Kings and Princes equally delight to honour an institution which upholds the safety of the State and the stability of the Throne .

As of other learning , so of the knowledge of Freemasonry , there is no Royal road to all thafc it teaches . With the aid of an instructor , however , as able and accomplished in the lessons of the Craft as his illustrious father , Prince Albert Victor enters upon his Masonic career under a most auspicious star .

With respect to some of the remarks as above , a Past Master writes to the Daily Telegraph as follows : — In your able leading article on Freemasonry , of last Tuesday , you say , "that on one occasion a lady was actually passed