Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Ireland.
" I must confess myself unable to comprehend the object of this most arbitrary proceeding on the part of Sir Edward Blakeney , and shall feel obliged if you will throw some light ou it , and state what it is connected with Freemasonry that has led Sir E . Blakeney thus to condemn it as an improper society for military men to belong to . If he can show that its introduction into the army has been in any way subversive of good order and military discilinethe question is oi settledbut
p , course ; I must remark that if any such objection really does exist , it is strange that it has never been stated until now , and that it altogether escaped the notice of the following General Officers , who were to the full as anxious to maintain strict discipline in the British army , as the gallant Commander of the Forces in Ireland : —His late Royal Highness the Duke of York , the late Duke of Richmond , Earl of Harrington , Marquis of HastingsEarl of DonoughnioreSir John StuartSir John le
, , , Doy , Lord Combermere ( who was present lately when his son , an officer in the 7 th Hussars , was initiated into the mysteries of Freemasonry ) , and many others living and dead , were all members of the Masonic Brotherhood which Sir E . Blakeney has taken upon himself to denounce as dangerous and hostile to the well being of the army . Did Sir Edward Blakeney ever hear that the 46 th fought less gallantly at Dominica in 1805 because opposed to a bodof French consisting for the most part
, y of Freemasons , although there was at the time a Regimental Masonic Lod ge in the 46 th ? or can he show , in the whole army , regiments whicli have uniformly maintained a higher character for strict discipline , good conduct , and bravery in the field , than the following regiments ( whicli I name from memory)—1 st Dragoons , 28 th , 29 th , 38 th , 42 nd , 46 th , 71 st , 79 th , and 88 th , to each of which there is , or was lately , a Masonic Lodge attached ?
" Anxious to obtain through your extensively circulated journal an answer to the foregoing questions , not merely for the benefit of the army , but from a wish to ascertain what fault ( hitherto undiscovered ) there is in Masonry to disqualify any member of either service from joining the Brotherhood , whose motto is ' Good will towards all men , ' and who recognise no distinctions of politics or religion , I am , Mr . Editor , your constant reader , G . L . S . "
" The following letter , originally published in the Cork Standard , but which escaped our notice in that journal , first attracted our attention in a Dublin contemporary , Saunders ' s News Letter—a paper which has always evinced an anxious interest in the cause of Masonry , and has done the Craft good service : — " LIMERICK , July 16 . —The 38 th regiment , stationed in Limerick , having had a Masonic warrantNo 441 of the Registry of Irelandin
, , , the regiment for the last fifty years , but it being some time since they met as a Lodge , through the exertions of their Colonel ( Piper ) , who was the W . M . while in India , they revived the Lotlge , and having got the Brethren of the ancient Limerick Lodge to assist , they had the Master and officers installed on the 23 rd of June last . The circumstance having been inserted in a Limerick paper , came under the notice of Sir Edward Blakeney , who immediately wrote to know if such a shocking
transaction occurred amongst the oflicers and men of the 38 th , and upon being answered that they considered where the 42 d , 79 th , 4 th Dragoons , and several other regiments had Masonic Lodges in them—and particularly as they were under the special protection of the law , inasmuch as
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Ireland.
" I must confess myself unable to comprehend the object of this most arbitrary proceeding on the part of Sir Edward Blakeney , and shall feel obliged if you will throw some light ou it , and state what it is connected with Freemasonry that has led Sir E . Blakeney thus to condemn it as an improper society for military men to belong to . If he can show that its introduction into the army has been in any way subversive of good order and military discilinethe question is oi settledbut
p , course ; I must remark that if any such objection really does exist , it is strange that it has never been stated until now , and that it altogether escaped the notice of the following General Officers , who were to the full as anxious to maintain strict discipline in the British army , as the gallant Commander of the Forces in Ireland : —His late Royal Highness the Duke of York , the late Duke of Richmond , Earl of Harrington , Marquis of HastingsEarl of DonoughnioreSir John StuartSir John le
, , , Doy , Lord Combermere ( who was present lately when his son , an officer in the 7 th Hussars , was initiated into the mysteries of Freemasonry ) , and many others living and dead , were all members of the Masonic Brotherhood which Sir E . Blakeney has taken upon himself to denounce as dangerous and hostile to the well being of the army . Did Sir Edward Blakeney ever hear that the 46 th fought less gallantly at Dominica in 1805 because opposed to a bodof French consisting for the most part
, y of Freemasons , although there was at the time a Regimental Masonic Lod ge in the 46 th ? or can he show , in the whole army , regiments whicli have uniformly maintained a higher character for strict discipline , good conduct , and bravery in the field , than the following regiments ( whicli I name from memory)—1 st Dragoons , 28 th , 29 th , 38 th , 42 nd , 46 th , 71 st , 79 th , and 88 th , to each of which there is , or was lately , a Masonic Lodge attached ?
" Anxious to obtain through your extensively circulated journal an answer to the foregoing questions , not merely for the benefit of the army , but from a wish to ascertain what fault ( hitherto undiscovered ) there is in Masonry to disqualify any member of either service from joining the Brotherhood , whose motto is ' Good will towards all men , ' and who recognise no distinctions of politics or religion , I am , Mr . Editor , your constant reader , G . L . S . "
" The following letter , originally published in the Cork Standard , but which escaped our notice in that journal , first attracted our attention in a Dublin contemporary , Saunders ' s News Letter—a paper which has always evinced an anxious interest in the cause of Masonry , and has done the Craft good service : — " LIMERICK , July 16 . —The 38 th regiment , stationed in Limerick , having had a Masonic warrantNo 441 of the Registry of Irelandin
, , , the regiment for the last fifty years , but it being some time since they met as a Lodge , through the exertions of their Colonel ( Piper ) , who was the W . M . while in India , they revived the Lotlge , and having got the Brethren of the ancient Limerick Lodge to assist , they had the Master and officers installed on the 23 rd of June last . The circumstance having been inserted in a Limerick paper , came under the notice of Sir Edward Blakeney , who immediately wrote to know if such a shocking
transaction occurred amongst the oflicers and men of the 38 th , and upon being answered that they considered where the 42 d , 79 th , 4 th Dragoons , and several other regiments had Masonic Lodges in them—and particularly as they were under the special protection of the law , inasmuch as