The Installation Of H.R.H. The Prince Of Wales.

THE INSTALLATION OF H . R . H . THE PRINCE OF WALES .

AS the time approaches for the Installation of His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales , the public excitement increases , and the event is justly regarded by the outer world as one of great public importance . The press has devoted much of its space to the publication of the details of the arrangements , and it is not too much to

say that people who never saw the inside of a Lodge room in their lives , exhibit a genuine interest in the coming event . Every one feels that the acceptation of high office by the heir apparent to the throne of these realms marks an epoch in Masonry , and affords the Order a new point of " departure . "

The countenance and patronage of a high personage who will one day , in all human probability , wield the sceptre of a beneficent monarchy over the vast multitude who owe allegiance to the British Crown , is a sufficient and cogent answer to those ignorant libellers who have declared that

the Fraternity is opposed in princip le to the laws upon which society is based . We have heard much ignorant declamation against the Order of late from persons high in authority in a great section of the Christian Church , and it has been our fortune to point out the fallacies which underlie the

arguments of these hostile critics . Masonry has been scouted for its secrecy , for its supposed infidelity , for its assumed hostility to order and good government , and those who have been most active in promulgating erroneous ideas concerning it , are just the persons who profess to have the interests of mankind at heart . Oar critics are men who affect

a cosmopolitanism which would draw all the varied races of men in serried rank under one great religious banner . We do not quarrel with them for indulging in dreams of spiritual conquest , which are not likely to be realised , but we blame them for their obstinate refusal to see that the

Masonic Fraternity , with no sectarian aims in view , is working to achieve a portion at least of the scheme of the largest hearted of the sectaries into which the Christian world is unfortunately divided . The basis of our Order is essentially religious . We claim for Masonry the credit of

holding and spreading those elementary ideas of religious and moral truth , without which elaborate creeds ard formularies would be nothing . Its fundamental doctrine is duty to man and love to the Great Architect of the Universe , and it has impressed these truths upon the minds

of thousands of every creed who , but for Masonry , might have forgotten the practical duties of life . Masonry has reminded us that the religious emotion , like human speech , is universal , while its outward manifestations may assume varied forms . The religions of the world , like the languages

of men , contain elementary roots which are common to them all , and it is at least matter for congratulation , and not for censure , that a great body , banded together for benevolent purposes , and necessarily comprising men of various creeds and opinions , should be able , with

consummate wisdom , to strike the key-note of all the religions of the world , without offering offence to any of them . It is something gained in the cause of progress and toleration

when men whose ideas are as variously tinted as the figures in a kaleidoscope , should hold a philosophy which , to borrow the language of science , sweeps the curve of agreement between all the varied forms of thought in which the

devotional feeling of mankind is disguised . If Masonry had done no more for the world than this , we might fairly claim for it a high place amongst the civilising forces of the age . It has helped to teach toleration , and to make

The Installation Of H.R.H. The Prince Of Wales.

brotherhood amongst men no mere mockery of a name , but a solid reality . It has taught us all that brotherhood has claims which stand before rank and wealth , and that although the equality of republican dreamers is impossible , yet that in the Lodge where men meet in the divine cause

of charity , the social distinctions may justly be forgotten . A Mason who passes the portals of the Lodge leaves the trappings of his rank behind him , and our Royal Brother , apart from his official position , h ^ s no higher status than the poorest and most obscure member of the Craft .

These facts are sufficiently important to justify us in asserting that his Royal Highness , in lending the weight of his great name to the Order , desires the world to understand that its principles are entirely in accordance with religion , law and order . His Installation will teach our critics a

wholesome lesson . While they are inveighing against the Craft , he proclaims , in the face of the world , that Masonry has claims upon the consideration of a Royal House whose sympathies have always been strongly in favour of the widest toleration and the most far-reaching

benevolence . He virtually tells the leaders of the great religious party , who are actively engaged in a crusade against the Order , that its principles , with which he is entirely familiar , are not antagonistic to order or religion .

His assent to these principles is a sufficient guarantee that the Fraternity can never foster heresy , schism , or communism , and that it will never encourage a factious opposition to those who are called to rule the destinies of nations .

He comes amongst us pledged to principles of government and religion which have contributed to make tho British Empire the greatest in the world , and he tells tlie world that these principles lie at the basis of Masonry . Further argument or evidence is needless . On the one hand , we

aro assailed by declaimers , who are confessedly ignorant of the principles they assail ; while , on the other hand , the gentleman who is to bo our future King , assumes the purple

with full confidence in the beneficent influence of the great Fraternity , which , from China to Peru , has helped to bind those links of brotherhood which draw together in close relationship the varied members of the human family .

Freemasonry In Denmark.

FREEMASONRY IN DENMARK .

LAST week we gave a short sketch of the progress of Masonry in the kingdom of Holland , and feeling , as we do , that the extension of our Order in other parts of the

world cannot fail to prove interesting to our readers , we purpose giving , as opportunity permits , a series of papers thereon , selecting the little kingdom of Denmark as the subject of our present notice .

Most of the writers we have consulted are in accord as to the date when Masonry made its first appearance in Denmark , 1743 being the year to which the first Lodge meeting is assigned . Smith says : "The first Lodge in . Copenhagen was instituted by a patent from Scotland in the

year 1743 , which is now the Grand Lodge of that kingdom . " Mackey , in his Lexicon of Freemasonry , and Copping , in his Handhoolc of Freemasonry , write to the following effect , using at least identical , if not the same , words . The Grand Lodge of Denmark , according to their

account , was instituted in l / 4 o , and derived its existence from the Grand Lodge of Scotland . Preston , in reference to Denmark , merely remarks : " Under the auspices of Lord Byron "—Grand Master of England from 1747 to 1752—" provincial patents were issued for Denmark and