High Degrees.

posed io each other , assume to confer the same high degrees . Then , when onepartyexcommunicates theother , and exposes all of its naughtiness , and the other retorts and exposes the naughtiness of the first , Brethren of Solomonic wisdom smile , and congratulate themselves upon the fact that ,

after all , they themselves possess the much coveted and truly genuine "highest and last degree , " about which there can be no contention as to its regularity or antiquity . Brethren should manifest their appreciation of tho only ancient and universally accepted degrees , including as they

do the highest of all , by diligent attendance at the meetings of the respective Masonic bodies in which they are conferred . Always do full justice , first to your Lodge and Chapter ; and afterwards devote what time you may to other bodies . The former are entitled to your loyal and

cordial allegiance . They made you , Masonically , what you are ; they include in their membership the entire Masonic family ; they are elevated , dignified , and enlightened ; and search where you will , go where you may , you can find outside of them no higher degree . —Keystone . ¦

An Anti-Masonic Agitation.

AN ANTI-MASONIC AGITATION .

fTIHAT unscrupulous party . manager , wire puller and corrupter of -i- popular constituencies , Thurlow Weed , who had more actions for libel brought against him than any editor in America , gives an account in his autobiograph y , recently published at Boston , of an anti . Masonio movement in New York State whioh has , as a Times reviewer remarks , a curious resemblance to the anti Semitic agitation in Hungary . A mysterious disapperance , due to suicideto accident

, , absconding , or ordinary crime , was turned to shameful but most profitable account for political purposes , and in fact created the po . litical reputation of the aroh-apostle of the movement , Thurlow Weed . In his autobiography , Weed naturally adheres to the lie whioh he propagated , but the friendshi p which he boasts of maintaining to the end with those whom he accused , and still posthumously accuses , of the murder , is utterly inconsistent with a genuine belief in the

horrors whioh he relates . As individual and popular force become to an increasing extent repressed by the strong arm of the law , the at . tempt to misdirect that arm itself by false accusations , carefully prepared and placed in a credible li ght by all kinds of lying reports spread abroad in the press , will become more frequent , since whether the charge succeeds or not in the courts , its effect upon the populace is pretty sure to be useful to the party whioh forges the slanderous tale .

The Freemasons were the victims in 1826 in America , as the Jews were recently in Hungary ; and the history of the anti-Masonic feud is full of instruction to ourselves . Weed ' s account of it is warped and coloured to palliate his own disgraceful share in spreading the scandal and obscuring the truth . But practically it is the confession of a Thug . After naively recounting his exploits in bribing the rural

electors of New York with 8 , 000 dollars sent to him one Sunday morning in a large bandana handkerchief , he tells ua that he was at Rochester , New York , editing a paper , when he was asked to print a revelation of the first three degrees in Freemasonry , which a Captain William Morgan had been writing out . The request was refused , on the ground that a partner in the paper was a Freemason .

In the following September intelligence reached Rochester that Captain Morgan , who had removed to Batavia , New York , with his wife , had been spirited away , and that the printed sheets of a book describing the secrets of Freemasonry had also disappeared . Morgan , it seemed , by the interposition of Masons , had been released from temporary detention at Canandaigua . The wife of his gaoler

deposed that she saw and heard him struggling with men who , on his leaving the gaol , forced him into a carriage . About the same time a body of men , supposed to be young Freemasons , attacked and tried to burn the office at which Morgan ' s book was being printed . Many respectable Freemasons , accused of having assisted in the abduction , were brought to trial , in five different counties . Convictions

of John Whitney and others were obtained . The opinion still was that Morgan had only been carried off . In October 1827 , two residents of Carleton , Orleans county , discovered a dead body much decayed on the beach at a point at which the Oak Orchard Creek enters Lake Ontario . An inquest was held , and elicited nothing . When an account of tbe body was received at Rochester , Morgan ' s

acquaintances were convinced the body was his . It was exhumed , and many persons , including Mrs . Morgan , identified it . A jury , among whom was Thurlow Weed , agreed unanimously that it was the body of William Morgan . Almost immediately afterwards information was received that a Canadian , Timothy Munroe , had been drowned in the Niagara River in September 1827 . Masons and

their friends declared the body was his . Once more it was exhumed , in the presence of a crowd of Masons and anti-Masons , and Mrs . Timoth y Munroe was there . The clothes had been preserved , and she was asked to describe those her husband wore . Her description tallied minutely , to a darn , with the clothes of the drowned corpse . But her recollections of her husband ' s body differed . Her husband had been four inches taller , and the colour of his hair was dissimilar .

As Thurlow Weed himself puts it , "The question , as far as it had heen settled testimony , seemed to involve the contradiction , if not the absurdity , of proving that Mnnroe's clothes were found upon the body either of Morgan , or of some unknown person . " The clothes had been worn by Munroe a year after the presumed drowning of a man upon whose body they were found . Thurlow Weed , writing in 1869 , professed , as persuaded in 1829 , that he had actually looked at Carleton on the murdered body of Morgan , He knew how the crime

An Anti-Masonic Agitation.

was committed . He had heard from tho lips of John Whitney , in the presence and with the assent of Colonel Jewett , another Mason , who had been tried for his share in the abduction , that Whitney and others drowned Morgan in Lake Ontario b y direction of the highest Masonio authority , given one evening after those engaged had been " called from labour to refreshment . "

In the Morgan mystery the attempt was to prove that the drowned body was the subject of a murder , and had been clothed in some inexplicable way in another man ' s clothes . In the Tiaza-Eszlar prosecution the allegation was that the bod y discovered in the Theiss was the subject of no murder , and that the clothes it was dressed in , which were the clothes of the supposed victim of Jewish

fanaticism , had been put on it in the design to blind justice . The natural inclination is to deny the murder of Morgan , and to assume tha t he was simply hidden away . If , however , Masons had removed him they would have brought him back to screen their Order from the storm of odium . An easy solution is to adopt the theory of his murder . But then there is the difficulty of the olothes , which had

been apparently worn by a man who survived him . Had Thurlow Weed insinuated that Mrs . Timothy Munroe was in league with the Masons , and falsely feigned to recognize clothes of which she had received a description from accomplices , despair at the dilemma might have tempted to acquiescence . Thurlow Weed ventures upon no such insinuation against Mrs . Munroe's good faith . The result is

an unsolved and insoluble puzzle . AH whioh is apparent is , that Morgan vanished after being subjected , as alleged , to violence from Freemasons , that for several years all the politics of New York State hinged upon his disappearance , and that this was greatly to the advantage of the juryman Thurlow Weed . Weed describes his first attack on the Masons as most moderate . This is from a man who

could never understand how the people whom he libelled in his scandalous prints felt aggrieved , and who forbore , probably with some reason , from taking any proceedings against the Daily Advertiser when it reported that he had pulled out dead Timothy Mnnroe ' s whiskers to identify the face with the shaven cheeks of William Morgan . His accusation , couched in whatever terms , was in itself

an outrage upon Masons . They retorted—perhaps with undue vehemence ; in its earlier stages at least snch a charge is often best snuffed out by silence . Weedstood at bay , and created anti-Masonry . The party of tho anti-Masons revolutionised New York politics ; and elevated Thurlow Weed into a potent political manager . He had always been friendly with Masons . His first political chief

Governor Clinton , was the New York Grand Master . He boasts that his personal relations with a prominent person among the accused , Colonel Jewett , were scarcely disturbed dnring the bitterest days of the controversy . He wrote to John Whitney , one , as he affects to believe , of tbe direct murderers , who had been actually convicted of the abduction , as his " dear old friend . " But his were the counsels

which guided the campaign against Freemasonry . Although he confesses that his efforts failed to render secret societies in general unpopular , he succeeded for a time in raising up a mighty combination against Freemasonry . He did more . On anti-Masonry he founded a political organisation , which fought for John Quincy Adams against General Jackson , clouded the prospects of Mr . Clay ,

who was himself a Mason , and was felt in every public relation of the State until the purposes of its existence were exhausted , and it merged in 1833 in Thurlow Weed ' s Whig party . Thus the accusation " paid" very well for a time , although it entitles its author or main advocate to lasting infamy . He was not ultimately prosperous , even from a material point of view . —Jeivish Chronicle .

Bro . Seymour Smith's annual benefit concert at the South-place Institute , Moorgate-street , on Saturday last , was a great success . The programme was both lengthy and varied , and the number and quality of the artistes were above the average . Amid such a host of talent it is

difficult to do justice , especially when all did so well . We could say a good word for every item in the programme , but as our space is limited , we can only indulge in two or three references to performances that struck us as being particularly pleasing . The " Drummer Boy ' s Song , " by Miss

Heath , was one of these ; another was " In cellar cool , ' by Mr . Albert Hubbard ; a third was "Dorothy ' s Diary , " by Miss Maud Cameron ; and still another , the " Sands o' Dee , " by Mr . Arthur Thompson , was particularly fascinating . Of course , the beneficiaire contributed to the pleasure of the

audience , and the talent who assisted him , in addition to the names already given , were , vocalists—Miss Meta Russell and Madame Raymond , Messrs . Lester , James , Lord , G . T . Carter , F . H . Cozens , C . A . White , and Chaplin Henry . Instrumentalists—Madame Brett , Miss

Evelyn Seymour Smith , Miss Dunbar Perkins , Messrs . Michael Watson , W . Morrow , Richard Blagrove , and F . A . Jewson . Most , if not all , of the male performers are members of the Craft , and their services were highly appreciated by a numerous and appreciative audience .

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upon the adjacent tkin , unless the friction should cause pain . Holloway s Pills should be simultaneously taken to reduce inflammation and to purify the blood . This treatment abates the violence , and lessens the frequency of gout , rheumatism , and all spasmodic diseases , which spring from hereditary predisposition , or from any accidental weakness of constitution . This Ointment checks the local remedy . Tho Pills restore tne vital powers .