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  • Nov. 4, 1876
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  • THE "FREEMASON."
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The Freemason, Nov. 4, 1876: Page 6

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    Article Untitled Page 1 of 1
    Article TO ADVERTISERS. Page 1 of 1
    Article THE "FREEMASON." Page 1 of 1
    Article THE "MASONIC MAGAZINE." Page 1 of 1
    Article Answers to Correspondents. Page 1 of 1
    Article REMITTANCES RECEIVED. Page 1 of 1
    Article Births, Marriages, and Deaths. Page 1 of 1
    Article Untitled Page 1 of 1
    Article THE PRESENT ASPECTS OF FRENCH FREEMASONRY. Page 1 of 1
    Article THE PRESENT ASPECTS OF FRENCH FREEMASONRY. Page 1 of 1
    Article THE LEGAL STATUS OF FREEMASONRY. Page 1 of 2 →
Page 6

Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.

Ar00600

IMPORTANT NOTICE ,

COLONIAL and FOREIGN SUBSCRIBERS are informed that acknowledgments of remittances received are published in the first number of every month .

It is very necessary for our readers to advise us of all money orders they remit , more especially those from the United States of America and India j otherwise we cannot tell where to credit them .

To Advertisers.

TO ADVERTISERS .

The Treemason has a large circulation in all parts of the Globe , its advantages as an advertising medium can therefore scarcely be- overrated . ADVERTISEMENTS should reach the Office , 198 Fleet Street , London , not later than 12 o ' clock on Wednesday , to insure insertion in the following Saturday ' s number . The Rates for Advertisements may be had on application at the Office .

The "Freemason."

THE "FREEMASON . "

The Christmas number of the " Freemason " will appear on the 23 rd December , and will consist of 32 pages , to subscribers as usual , to non-subscribers 4 d . Orders to prevent disappointment , as the demand will be so large , should be sent at once to the Publisher 198 , Fleet Street , London .

The "Masonic Magazine."

THE "MASONIC MAGAZINE . "

The Christmas number of the Masonic Magazine will be ready on the 22 nd of December , and will be a double number . To subscribers as usual , to non-subscribers is .

Answers To Correspondents.

Answers to Correspondents .

A WELL WISHER is very much thanked , and his communication is under consideration . A full report of the opening of the Worcester Lodge , 1603 , at Worcester , Cape of Good Hope , will appear in our pages at the first convenient opportunity . R . W . O . —Much obliged , but already in prinf .

Bro . Jacob Norton ' s letter , for which he is much thanked , will appear , owing to our crowded pages , in the "Masonic Magazine " for December . Music . —In the notice of "Our Nelly Waltz , " & o , by a mistake of Bro . Anderson's , Mr . Williams was said to have been proposed in "Thc Great City Lodge , " whereas it ought to have been the " City of London Lodge , " No . 901 .

Remittances Received.

REMITTANCES RECEIVED .

£ 3 . d . Abbott , F ., Canada ( P . O . O . ) 1 6 o Bevan , J ., New Zealand ( P . O . O . ) 1 4 o Collins , James , India ( P . O . O . ) o 12 o Cook . Wm .. laDan ( Draft ) o 17 A .

Devereux , G ., Inglewood ( P . O . O . ) 226 Ferguson , Jas ., Tasmania ( P . O . O . ) 1 1 o Graham , A ., New York ( P . O . O . ) 0120 Griffiths , R ., Australia ( P . O . O . ) 116 o Hutton , Lieut .-Col . Canada ( P . O . O . ) o 12 o Money , E . M .. India ( Cash ) 100

Pattison , S ., Egypt ( Draft ) o 17 4 Richardson , T ., New York ( P . O . O . ) o 12 o Smith , J ., India ( P . O . O . ) 50 o Turner , N ., California ( P . O . O . ) 0120 Watkins , Jas ., Bermuda ( P . O . O . ) o 12 o Wolff , E ., Kronstad O . F . S . ( Cash ) 012 3

Births, Marriages, And Deaths.

Births , Marriages , and Deaths .

[ The charge is 2 s . 6 d for announcements , not exceed ing four lines , under this heading . ]

BIRTHS . BENSON . —On the a 8 th ult ., at Brondesbury-road , N . W ., the wife of H . B . Benson , of a son . FABER . —On the 25 th ult ., at Clifton-hill , N . W ., the wife of Louis Faber , of a son , stillborn . GORDON . —On the 20 . h ult ., at Staunton , Notts , the wife of G . Gordon , Esq ., of a son . LAW . —On the 25 th ult ., at Barnstaple , the wife of A . J . Law , of a daughter .

MARRIAGES . PROUT—WILLING . —On the 26 th ult ., at the parish church Great Wakering , W . A . Prout , Esq ., B . A ., Trinity Hall Cantab , to Jessie Sophia , daughter of Dr . Willing . SKEBTK—SILBERBERQ . —On the 24 th ult ., at St . Barnabas , Addison-road , Kensington , John Brathwaite Skeete , B . A ., Oxon , to Emmeline Emma , daughter of L . Silberberg , Esq .

DEATHS . MACKENZIE . —On the 27 th ult ., at Cornwall-cottages , Holloway , Henry , the younger son of the late Henry Mackenzie , of Clarcmo : it-row , Islington , aged 57 . MAXWELL . —On the 27 th ult ., at Bournemouth , Helenora ,

wife of Sir W . Maxwell , Bart ., of Monreith . PERRY . —On the 24 th ult ., at Trinity-place , Windsor , William Perry , in his 68 fh year . TEALE . —On the 27 th ult ., Bro . W . H . Teale , aged » fO . WALTERS . —On the 29 th ult ., at Chester-terrace , Regent's Park , Gregory Scale Walters , Esq ., in his 80 th year .

Ar00610

The Freemason , SATURDAY , Nov . 4 , 1876 .

The Present Aspects Of French Freemasonry.

THE PRESENT ASPECTS OF FRENCH FREEMASONRY .

"We said in our last , that we should revert to the arguments of Bros . Caubet and WyrouboufF , and we do so , therefore , to-day . Bro . Caubet quite approves of the result of the meeting of the Grand Orient , and tells us that the meeting by the " calmness of its deliberations , by its wise

and progressive spirit , " had earned the wellmerited praise of its President . He goes on to observe that if , " as we doubt not , the Tesult of the study" or consideration " of the lodges concurs with the opinion of the Convent" ( that is the Grand Orient assembled ) , " French Masonry will

give to the world the example of the true and complete practice of liberty of conscience . " Bro . Caubet also points out that Masonry is " purely a moral society , a lay society , that it is not a Church , and can therefore make no religious or irreligious manifestation . Its

mission is a mission of peace and liberty , which obliges it in an absolute manner to abstain from all that can divide mankind , and from all that can rub against the legitimate susceptibilities of their consciences . " We may observe that their consciences are very susceptible indeed , which

can be injured by the declaration of the belief in the " existence of God . " According to Bro . Caubet , " the paragraph II . of the first article of the Constitution , now under re-consideration , has occasioned sufficient acrimonious discussions , provoked sufficient acts of intolerance

to render the suppression absolutely necessary . " We need not go into Bro . Caubet ' s eloquent peroration , because it is , as we deem it , utterly outside the question , however well expressed in verbiage . But this we see clearly , it is wished no longer to admit any formal expression of belief

in the existence of God and the Immortality of the Soul , and as the Bible " has been banished from the French Lodges , " nothing remains for them but human morality alone , which in itself , as we know , is a broken reed , a rotten foundation for any one to lean upon or build upon . We have

long deplored the tendency of French Freemasonry to strike out for itself a new path , dis-associating itself from the past and above all from Anglo-Saxon Freemasonry . We feel sure that when this intelligence reaches the United States , and Canada , the

feeling there will be just as strong as in England , that no more impolitic step has ever been taken , no more unwise decision has ever been arrived at , than that which now places French Freemasonry in the position of an Order which positively cannot and will not own its

belief in the existence of God . The only effect , as we said last week , will be to play into the hands of the Ultramontane party in France , and to take away from French Freemasonry those friends who would have stood by it loyally to the last . As it is , we can only shrug our shoulders

and leave French Freemasonry to itself . When we turn to Bro . Wyroubouff we see that he takes , if a somewhat more philosophic view of things , yet one which , We feel bound to add , in our own humble opinion , "is equally mistaken , and greatly to be regretted . Bro . Wyroubouff

has written , and written well , as some may know , on the side of " positivism , " and is a " positivist , " but in his address he professes to speak only as a Freemason . He declares that the suppression of this paragraph is necessary " for liberty of conscience , " and

that " because this article is suppressed , it does not render Freemasonry therefore atheistical . " No one , we apprehend , contends that the logical consequence of the act of suppression is to make an atheistical declaration on the part of French Freemasonry—that would be saying too much ;

but what we do assert is that whereas up to the present time French Freemasonry , like English Freemasonry , has declared its belief in the existence of God , as a necessary condition of admission , all of a sudden , this condition is to be removed j no such prerequisite condition is to be enforced any more in French Freemasonry , and

The Present Aspects Of French Freemasonry.

French Freemasonry assumes , therefore , an entirely novel position , and separates itself at once from a million , in round numbers at the least , of Anglo-Saxon Freemasons . Fifty valid reasons may be alleged , indeed , for this Masonic revolution , but the allegation that it is to uphold

liberty of conscience is m truth alone worthy of the Jesuits , for as we have often said , there is a Jesuitism in this world of ours besides that of the affiliates of Ignatius Loyola . Those who have followed the course of French Freemasonry from the unhappy hours when it began to

express an opinion on subjects beyond its competence , through the ridiculous manifestations of some Parisian Freemasons with the Commune , and in its present abnormal condition , must be aware that the dominant section is associated with an extreme party , in all matters

relating to religious belief . The sentiments of Bro . Massol have still great influence with the Grand Orient of France , and that able brother , as we know , was most hostile not only to the existence of the Bible even in our English lodges , but to any form of belief at all .

He was , as we all know , one of the prophets of the " Independent Morality " ( " Morale Independante , " ) a teaching destructive of anything like the supernatural or the spiritual even in religion , the equivalent only of a decent and polished Heathenism , without faith in this world ,

and without hope for the next . When Bro . Wyroubouff states that " Atheism is a doctrine , " and " the negation of God , and inevitably a philosophy , " and that Freemasonry ought neither to have a doctrine or a philosophy , and " that as for him , as a Mason , he

is equally opposed to materialism and spiritualism , " he asserts for Freemasonry the position of an actual " religio " of some kind or other , a " tertium quid , " an independent morality of its own , something very akin to that of Bro . Massol . This we hold to be a very great mistake , and

even worse . Such a position Freemasonry cannot uphold , as the moment it essays to teach a morality of its own it falls , as the only true morality that a friendly and philanthropic brotherhood like ours can profess to proclaim to man is that which is founded on the Divine morality of

the Bible . Any mere human code of morality is absolutely worthless , can only resolve itself into a vain or blatant philosophy , and must eventually pave the way , as all history points out , for a temporal and spiritual despotism . We can only express , once more , our deep sorrow at this ,

in our opinion , most regrettable proceeding . For it can have but one effect , if carried through , as Bro . Caubet expects it will be , and that effect will be the weakening and breaking up of French Freemasonry . We know , from the best of authority , that there are many French

Freemasons who deeply deplore the present state of things , and the present dominant teaching ot French Freemasonry , and in all kindness and goodwill to oar Bros . St . Jean , and Caubet , and Wyroubouff , and others , we would say to-dayi before " you burn your ships " ( it is always ,

remember , an act of desperation ) , think well 01 the inevitable pitfall which awaits French Freemasonry , and of that shout of triumph which the Bishop of Orleans , and your many adversaries , will set up from one end of France to the other , when , fulfilling his vaticinations , you openly avow to the Masonic world that French

Freemasonry will no more even declare its belief in the existence of God . It is , indeed , a mournful result of so many arduous struggles , and will be a continued source of alarm to all who value both the principles and the practice of Freemasonry .

The Legal Status Of Freemasonry.

THE LEGAL STATUS OF FREEMASONRY .

A case , which has been decided by the Westminster County Court Judge , Mr . Bayley , ana which appeared in our last issue , will , we think , be very much commented upon by our brethren , and we therefore think it needful to notice it-It appears that the Hervev Lodge , i 2 fjo , sued a

brother , who shall be nameless in our P age *' for £ i $ , his initiation fees , in fact . Tne County Court Judge held , that the " Freemasons were not a body corporate , " that thejj could not " sue , " and that in " point of la * they were a " nonentity . " He declined to allotf

“The Freemason: 1876-11-04, Page 6” Masonic Periodicals Online, Library and Museum of Freemasonry, 16 May 2025, django:8000/periodicals/fvl/issues/fvl_04111876/page/6/.
  • List
  • Grid
Title Category Page
CONTENTS. Article 1
REPORTS OF MASONIC MEETINGS. Article 1
Royal Arch. Article 3
Mark Masonry. Article 3
SUPREME GRAND CHAPTER. Article 4
GRAND LODGE OF MARK MASTERS. Article 4
PROVINCIAL GRAND MARK LODGE OF LANCASHIRE. Article 4
CONSTITUTION OF A MARK MASTER'S LODGE IN LEICESTER. Article 5
ARCHÆOLOGICAL SECTION OF THE FALCON LODGE, No. 1416, AT THIRSK. Article 5
THE ROYAL VISIT TO NORWICH. Article 5
HOBART TOWN FREEMASONS' HALL COMPANY. Article 5
GRAND LODGE OF QUEBEC. Article 5
SWEDENBORGIAN RITE. Article 5
Untitled Article 6
TO ADVERTISERS. Article 6
THE "FREEMASON." Article 6
THE "MASONIC MAGAZINE." Article 6
Answers to Correspondents. Article 6
REMITTANCES RECEIVED. Article 6
Births, Marriages, and Deaths. Article 6
Untitled Article 6
THE PRESENT ASPECTS OF FRENCH FREEMASONRY. Article 6
THE LEGAL STATUS OF FREEMASONRY. Article 6
CHARITY ORGANIZATION. Article 7
THE RETURN OF THE ARCTIC EXPEDITION. Article 7
Original Correspondence. Article 8
PROVINCIAL GRAND LODGE OF DURHAM. Article 8
GRAND LODGE OF NEW BRUNSWICK. Article 9
THE HAMER BENEVOLENT FUND. Article 9
Masonic and General Tidings. Article 9
METROPOLITAN MASONIC MEETINGS. Article 10
MASONIC MEETINGS IN WEST LANCASHIRE AND CHESHIRE. Article 10
MASONIC MEETINGS IN GLASGOW AND WEST OF SCOTLAND. Article 10
MASONIC MEETINGS IN EDINBURGH AND VICINITY. Article 10
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Page 6

Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.

Ar00600

IMPORTANT NOTICE ,

COLONIAL and FOREIGN SUBSCRIBERS are informed that acknowledgments of remittances received are published in the first number of every month .

It is very necessary for our readers to advise us of all money orders they remit , more especially those from the United States of America and India j otherwise we cannot tell where to credit them .

To Advertisers.

TO ADVERTISERS .

The Treemason has a large circulation in all parts of the Globe , its advantages as an advertising medium can therefore scarcely be- overrated . ADVERTISEMENTS should reach the Office , 198 Fleet Street , London , not later than 12 o ' clock on Wednesday , to insure insertion in the following Saturday ' s number . The Rates for Advertisements may be had on application at the Office .

The "Freemason."

THE "FREEMASON . "

The Christmas number of the " Freemason " will appear on the 23 rd December , and will consist of 32 pages , to subscribers as usual , to non-subscribers 4 d . Orders to prevent disappointment , as the demand will be so large , should be sent at once to the Publisher 198 , Fleet Street , London .

The "Masonic Magazine."

THE "MASONIC MAGAZINE . "

The Christmas number of the Masonic Magazine will be ready on the 22 nd of December , and will be a double number . To subscribers as usual , to non-subscribers is .

Answers To Correspondents.

Answers to Correspondents .

A WELL WISHER is very much thanked , and his communication is under consideration . A full report of the opening of the Worcester Lodge , 1603 , at Worcester , Cape of Good Hope , will appear in our pages at the first convenient opportunity . R . W . O . —Much obliged , but already in prinf .

Bro . Jacob Norton ' s letter , for which he is much thanked , will appear , owing to our crowded pages , in the "Masonic Magazine " for December . Music . —In the notice of "Our Nelly Waltz , " & o , by a mistake of Bro . Anderson's , Mr . Williams was said to have been proposed in "Thc Great City Lodge , " whereas it ought to have been the " City of London Lodge , " No . 901 .

Remittances Received.

REMITTANCES RECEIVED .

£ 3 . d . Abbott , F ., Canada ( P . O . O . ) 1 6 o Bevan , J ., New Zealand ( P . O . O . ) 1 4 o Collins , James , India ( P . O . O . ) o 12 o Cook . Wm .. laDan ( Draft ) o 17 A .

Devereux , G ., Inglewood ( P . O . O . ) 226 Ferguson , Jas ., Tasmania ( P . O . O . ) 1 1 o Graham , A ., New York ( P . O . O . ) 0120 Griffiths , R ., Australia ( P . O . O . ) 116 o Hutton , Lieut .-Col . Canada ( P . O . O . ) o 12 o Money , E . M .. India ( Cash ) 100

Pattison , S ., Egypt ( Draft ) o 17 4 Richardson , T ., New York ( P . O . O . ) o 12 o Smith , J ., India ( P . O . O . ) 50 o Turner , N ., California ( P . O . O . ) 0120 Watkins , Jas ., Bermuda ( P . O . O . ) o 12 o Wolff , E ., Kronstad O . F . S . ( Cash ) 012 3

Births, Marriages, And Deaths.

Births , Marriages , and Deaths .

[ The charge is 2 s . 6 d for announcements , not exceed ing four lines , under this heading . ]

BIRTHS . BENSON . —On the a 8 th ult ., at Brondesbury-road , N . W ., the wife of H . B . Benson , of a son . FABER . —On the 25 th ult ., at Clifton-hill , N . W ., the wife of Louis Faber , of a son , stillborn . GORDON . —On the 20 . h ult ., at Staunton , Notts , the wife of G . Gordon , Esq ., of a son . LAW . —On the 25 th ult ., at Barnstaple , the wife of A . J . Law , of a daughter .

MARRIAGES . PROUT—WILLING . —On the 26 th ult ., at the parish church Great Wakering , W . A . Prout , Esq ., B . A ., Trinity Hall Cantab , to Jessie Sophia , daughter of Dr . Willing . SKEBTK—SILBERBERQ . —On the 24 th ult ., at St . Barnabas , Addison-road , Kensington , John Brathwaite Skeete , B . A ., Oxon , to Emmeline Emma , daughter of L . Silberberg , Esq .

DEATHS . MACKENZIE . —On the 27 th ult ., at Cornwall-cottages , Holloway , Henry , the younger son of the late Henry Mackenzie , of Clarcmo : it-row , Islington , aged 57 . MAXWELL . —On the 27 th ult ., at Bournemouth , Helenora ,

wife of Sir W . Maxwell , Bart ., of Monreith . PERRY . —On the 24 th ult ., at Trinity-place , Windsor , William Perry , in his 68 fh year . TEALE . —On the 27 th ult ., Bro . W . H . Teale , aged » fO . WALTERS . —On the 29 th ult ., at Chester-terrace , Regent's Park , Gregory Scale Walters , Esq ., in his 80 th year .

Ar00610

The Freemason , SATURDAY , Nov . 4 , 1876 .

The Present Aspects Of French Freemasonry.

THE PRESENT ASPECTS OF FRENCH FREEMASONRY .

"We said in our last , that we should revert to the arguments of Bros . Caubet and WyrouboufF , and we do so , therefore , to-day . Bro . Caubet quite approves of the result of the meeting of the Grand Orient , and tells us that the meeting by the " calmness of its deliberations , by its wise

and progressive spirit , " had earned the wellmerited praise of its President . He goes on to observe that if , " as we doubt not , the Tesult of the study" or consideration " of the lodges concurs with the opinion of the Convent" ( that is the Grand Orient assembled ) , " French Masonry will

give to the world the example of the true and complete practice of liberty of conscience . " Bro . Caubet also points out that Masonry is " purely a moral society , a lay society , that it is not a Church , and can therefore make no religious or irreligious manifestation . Its

mission is a mission of peace and liberty , which obliges it in an absolute manner to abstain from all that can divide mankind , and from all that can rub against the legitimate susceptibilities of their consciences . " We may observe that their consciences are very susceptible indeed , which

can be injured by the declaration of the belief in the " existence of God . " According to Bro . Caubet , " the paragraph II . of the first article of the Constitution , now under re-consideration , has occasioned sufficient acrimonious discussions , provoked sufficient acts of intolerance

to render the suppression absolutely necessary . " We need not go into Bro . Caubet ' s eloquent peroration , because it is , as we deem it , utterly outside the question , however well expressed in verbiage . But this we see clearly , it is wished no longer to admit any formal expression of belief

in the existence of God and the Immortality of the Soul , and as the Bible " has been banished from the French Lodges , " nothing remains for them but human morality alone , which in itself , as we know , is a broken reed , a rotten foundation for any one to lean upon or build upon . We have

long deplored the tendency of French Freemasonry to strike out for itself a new path , dis-associating itself from the past and above all from Anglo-Saxon Freemasonry . We feel sure that when this intelligence reaches the United States , and Canada , the

feeling there will be just as strong as in England , that no more impolitic step has ever been taken , no more unwise decision has ever been arrived at , than that which now places French Freemasonry in the position of an Order which positively cannot and will not own its

belief in the existence of God . The only effect , as we said last week , will be to play into the hands of the Ultramontane party in France , and to take away from French Freemasonry those friends who would have stood by it loyally to the last . As it is , we can only shrug our shoulders

and leave French Freemasonry to itself . When we turn to Bro . Wyroubouff we see that he takes , if a somewhat more philosophic view of things , yet one which , We feel bound to add , in our own humble opinion , "is equally mistaken , and greatly to be regretted . Bro . Wyroubouff

has written , and written well , as some may know , on the side of " positivism , " and is a " positivist , " but in his address he professes to speak only as a Freemason . He declares that the suppression of this paragraph is necessary " for liberty of conscience , " and

that " because this article is suppressed , it does not render Freemasonry therefore atheistical . " No one , we apprehend , contends that the logical consequence of the act of suppression is to make an atheistical declaration on the part of French Freemasonry—that would be saying too much ;

but what we do assert is that whereas up to the present time French Freemasonry , like English Freemasonry , has declared its belief in the existence of God , as a necessary condition of admission , all of a sudden , this condition is to be removed j no such prerequisite condition is to be enforced any more in French Freemasonry , and

The Present Aspects Of French Freemasonry.

French Freemasonry assumes , therefore , an entirely novel position , and separates itself at once from a million , in round numbers at the least , of Anglo-Saxon Freemasons . Fifty valid reasons may be alleged , indeed , for this Masonic revolution , but the allegation that it is to uphold

liberty of conscience is m truth alone worthy of the Jesuits , for as we have often said , there is a Jesuitism in this world of ours besides that of the affiliates of Ignatius Loyola . Those who have followed the course of French Freemasonry from the unhappy hours when it began to

express an opinion on subjects beyond its competence , through the ridiculous manifestations of some Parisian Freemasons with the Commune , and in its present abnormal condition , must be aware that the dominant section is associated with an extreme party , in all matters

relating to religious belief . The sentiments of Bro . Massol have still great influence with the Grand Orient of France , and that able brother , as we know , was most hostile not only to the existence of the Bible even in our English lodges , but to any form of belief at all .

He was , as we all know , one of the prophets of the " Independent Morality " ( " Morale Independante , " ) a teaching destructive of anything like the supernatural or the spiritual even in religion , the equivalent only of a decent and polished Heathenism , without faith in this world ,

and without hope for the next . When Bro . Wyroubouff states that " Atheism is a doctrine , " and " the negation of God , and inevitably a philosophy , " and that Freemasonry ought neither to have a doctrine or a philosophy , and " that as for him , as a Mason , he

is equally opposed to materialism and spiritualism , " he asserts for Freemasonry the position of an actual " religio " of some kind or other , a " tertium quid , " an independent morality of its own , something very akin to that of Bro . Massol . This we hold to be a very great mistake , and

even worse . Such a position Freemasonry cannot uphold , as the moment it essays to teach a morality of its own it falls , as the only true morality that a friendly and philanthropic brotherhood like ours can profess to proclaim to man is that which is founded on the Divine morality of

the Bible . Any mere human code of morality is absolutely worthless , can only resolve itself into a vain or blatant philosophy , and must eventually pave the way , as all history points out , for a temporal and spiritual despotism . We can only express , once more , our deep sorrow at this ,

in our opinion , most regrettable proceeding . For it can have but one effect , if carried through , as Bro . Caubet expects it will be , and that effect will be the weakening and breaking up of French Freemasonry . We know , from the best of authority , that there are many French

Freemasons who deeply deplore the present state of things , and the present dominant teaching ot French Freemasonry , and in all kindness and goodwill to oar Bros . St . Jean , and Caubet , and Wyroubouff , and others , we would say to-dayi before " you burn your ships " ( it is always ,

remember , an act of desperation ) , think well 01 the inevitable pitfall which awaits French Freemasonry , and of that shout of triumph which the Bishop of Orleans , and your many adversaries , will set up from one end of France to the other , when , fulfilling his vaticinations , you openly avow to the Masonic world that French

Freemasonry will no more even declare its belief in the existence of God . It is , indeed , a mournful result of so many arduous struggles , and will be a continued source of alarm to all who value both the principles and the practice of Freemasonry .

The Legal Status Of Freemasonry.

THE LEGAL STATUS OF FREEMASONRY .

A case , which has been decided by the Westminster County Court Judge , Mr . Bayley , ana which appeared in our last issue , will , we think , be very much commented upon by our brethren , and we therefore think it needful to notice it-It appears that the Hervev Lodge , i 2 fjo , sued a

brother , who shall be nameless in our P age *' for £ i $ , his initiation fees , in fact . Tne County Court Judge held , that the " Freemasons were not a body corporate , " that thejj could not " sue , " and that in " point of la * they were a " nonentity . " He declined to allotf

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