The Derby Day.

of any worldly amusement . We know of no purely amusement of earth , whether attracting jar < re numbers or small coteries , of which the same mig ht not be predicated . And if it is added that the " accessories are bad , and the associations are hurtful , " not only is a

racecourse not the only locale in this sublunary scene where the associations are hurtful , and the accessories are bad , but we may and do meet the same bad and hurtful things wherever we are and wherever we go . Indeed , if " Stiggins " is right in his view of the evil attaching to such

p laces , the monks in the Thebaid were perfectly right who left the world of old for deserts and for caves , and practically helpless idleness . The great old moralist condemned all this illogical perversity years ago , when he said even with his reverential spirit to the head of a Nunnery in Paris , " Madam , you are not here from love of

virtue , but from fear of vice . ' The old canon , in our opinion , may then fairly be pleaded , " defendit numerus , " and that other equally true axiom , " it is not the thing that is wrong but the person . " We apprehend that seeing a race , and admiring the horses , and meeting pleasant friends , and eating a good luncheon , and enjoying a rural drive do not constitute in whole or in part , a

very grave moral offence . ' It may be true that you may witness lamentable outbreaks of painfui inebiiety , jnd listen to the coarse jestsof the vulgar or the " rough , " but we fancy a good many of these descriptions are " sensational , " something like the " Dwarf and the Dog "

of the " Casual Warder , " creditable to the imagination but hardly consonant with fact . But even if so , " Abusus non tollit usum , " and we have yet to learn that well-conducted people are to give up their legitimate amusements because some foolish persons possibly may and

actually do misconduct themselves . This is " post hoc propter hoc " with a yengeance ! We are therefore prepared to contend , pace Sir Wilfred Lawson , not only that Lord Palmerston was quite right in the thoroughly English and practical view he took of the matter , but that

our legislators are wise in their generation in giving themselves this annual holiday . Nothing is so easy , as we well know , for persons to take the "high moral line " on very child ish , perversc , fanatical grounds , and often on no grounds at all . Nothing is so simple as to make merry at old

customs , or even , if you like , cherished idiosyncrasies . But he is the wiser and sounder person , and especially is this the case with the statesman , who seeks to recognize the national instinct and the national tastes , especially when by a wise concession he can afford a day ' s amusement of

social pleasantry and agreeable companionship to many a toiling and many a smoke-dried fellowcitizen . Notwithstanding then the complaints of those , to whom life with all its sunshine and brightness , and gay day-dreams , and softening imaginations , seems to be ever dark with

clouds , and whose sky is ever lurid with the threatenings of a coming storm , we prefer that more genial philosophy which finds a proper season and time for everything , which declines to make us miserable when we should be joyous , or serious when we are full of cheerful

associations , and which does not disdain above all to think of the people , and with the people , and for the people , and is even willing to condescend for the nonce to share in " Suburban Saturnalia , " and to take part in a <( Cockney Carnival . "

Monseigneur Dupanloup.

MONSEIGNEUR DUPANLOUP .

We have read with much attention , and we may add , with much interest , the " Etude sur la Francmaconnerie , " recently put forth by the well known Monseigneur Dupanloup , R . C . Bishop of Orleans , and which " Etude" has

already reached a third edition . Many of our readers well know that that eminent French prelate is a writer of very great ability , and that his literary productions always command , as in truth they justly merit , not only respect , but perusal .

We may not , and probably shall not , agree with all he says , , but we shall gladly recognize the honesty of his convictions and the outspokenness of his statements . It is given , moreover , to few writers to possess a clearer style or a more forcible utterance of his views , and he has this

Monseigneur Dupanloup.

singular recommendation , in these days of wordy obscurity or mystic jargon , that he always makes you understand what it is he is " driving at , " while he is gifted with a power , shared by few writers of the hour , of putting into the fewest possible , but equally the clearest possible words

what it is he has got to say . As Freemasons , we are specially bound to be ever tolerant and generous even in the hottest controversy , and we should be always willing to admire , as we believe , to our credit we are , those evidences of " geist" and talent , which always appeal so

forcibly to the mind and the approval of men Monseigneur Dupanloup , it seems , has recently made an " Etude" of Freemasonry , and that " Etude " has been so unsatisfactory , his orig inal bad opinion of Freemasonry has been made so much worse by the result of his investigations ,

that he feels bound , he tells us , to make known at the earliest possible opportunity , these , his conclusions , discoveries , fears , and griefs to others , that they may avoid the dreadful delusions and the fearful pitfalls of Freemasonry . Indeed , so alarming , in his view , are the real end and

teaching of Freemasonry , that , agreeing with the opinion of Bishop Ketteler of Mayence , he declares that no true Roman Catholic , no religiously-minded person , nay , no man of sense , can be or ought to be a Freemason . Well , these are very hard words , and this is a very serious

conclusion , especially when spoken and deliberately avowed by the Bishop of Orleans , and we therefore have thought it well to call the attention of our readers to the subject and the controversy . It is well to observe , that this pamphlet of ninety pages , written in . the Bishop ' s

usual vigorous verbiage , is mainly directed against French and Belgian Freemasonry . He does not actually deal with Freemasonry in general , except by implication , and therefore his remarks have more of a particular than a general bearing . English Freemasonry is not by name

actually assailed , though no doubt he would strongly disapprove equally of our basis of organization and of our universal platform . But , as it is , we are not " named either in his criticisms or his censures , severe as they are , and we think we may fairly say , that had

Monseigneur Dupanloup only to deal with our Anglo-Saxon Freemasonry , he would not have thought it necessary to have published the " Etude . " For we fear that it must be fairly confessed , that the Bishop of Orleans has some grounds for complaining of many of the

indiscreet utterances of our brethren in Masonry in Belgium and France . As he introduces these to our notice , we see at once how alien they are from the truer teaching of our good and peaceable English craft . We know nothing in England of political discussions or of religious

controversies . Ours is purely a benevolent and philanthropic order , most kindly to all men , most attached to the brotherhood , and most friendly , on our sound English principles , to toleration and civilization , to progress and improvement , to liberty of conscience and liberty of worship !

We quarrel with no man ' s dogmas , we cavil at no brother ' s creed , and we are tolerant of all , yet holding firmly the sanctity of the individual belief , and the importance and need and blessing of religious truth . We equally uphold as a great feature of our Order the governing , controlling ,

Divine moral law , and we keep from us the avowed atheist and the open libertine . But if the extracts adduced by the Bishop of Orleans be correct , ( we hope that some of them are coloured , ) though he apparently confirms them

by published authorities , some of the French and Belgian Freemasons have certainly openly identified themselves with one political party in each country , namely , the extreme revolutionary party . But we would fain believe , that such violent words are rather those of individual than

of general concurrence , and that whatever some Freemasons may hold in both countries they are still a minority in the Order . We in England should utterly repudiate their expressed views alike on political questions , as on religious

topics , as we strongly hold that Freemasons have nothing whatever to do with either , and we deeply deplore many of those very acts to which the Bishop alludes , just as we deprecate many of the addresses to which he refers . We have always contended , and we always shall contend ,

Monseigneur Dupanloup.

that there is but one safe onward path for Freemasonry , namely , that happy via media which passes through the host of angry politicians on the one side , and of angrier controversialists on the other . We have always lamented that coquetry , for instance , with the Commune ,

which so many of the French Freemasons seemed so rashly to approve of , for such proceedings are , we believe , most opposed to the teachings of true Freemasonry , and most detrimental to the peaceful and loyal character of Freemasons . Equally repulsive to us are those

negations of the Supreme Being , of the immortality of the soul , of the Divine Law of morality , of religious rites , and of religious instructions , all sad echoes from dark and dangerous days , which we , alas ! find are so often and so loudly expressed by someFreemasons both in France and Belgium .

Few English Freemasons we believe there are , who from our good old-fashioned way of looking at all these questions , would not practically agree with Monseigneur Dupanloup even , in his energetic " reprobation of such declarations and such teaching . But beyond this we cannot go with

him . Though he has not attacked Freemason ^' in general , he does so , as we . said before , by implication , and especially when , as a faithful child of the Roman Church , he adduces the Papal Briefs , entirely condemnatory as they are of Freemasonry generally everywhere , as decisive

of the whole question . Here it is then where he and we must respectfully part company . With hirn we warmly regret and openly disavow all those mistaken views which would represent Freemasonry as an atheistical , or a communistic , or a revolutionary association , which would

assert it to be in perpetual war with the very idea of a church , with revelation , with religious instruction , with government , with society , and , in fact , with liberty of conscience and toleration of opinions . For curiously enough , just as there is nothing like the " credulittr des

incredules , so b . ere is nothing to equal the intolerance of Freethinkers . But we cannot agree with the Bishop that because " Roma locuta est causa finita est . " Here in England , as in Scotland and Ireland , and the United States , Freemasonry is flourishing in spite of "ban" and

" anathema , and flourish it will everywhere , we believe , so long as its members remain true to its great landmarks and its leading principles . We can quite understand that conscientious religionists may object to the constitution of Freemasonry , per se , but yet Freemasonry is

we believe , too strong , both in its inherent worth and its practical utility , to be impeded or put down either by menace or by censure . And then , even in France and Belgium , the words and acts which the Bishop holds up to reprobation are no doubt the result

of honest conviction , and he must also permit us to say , the intolerance of his Church against any thing like untrammelled thought , freedom of conscience , and individual liberty of action , has rendered the antagonism of many whose sympathies are warm and whose opinions are decided , almost an internecine war . We do not

say this to excuse many of these unwise and unfitting avowals to which the Bishop calls attention , but simply to explain what is the actual condition of affairs , greatly to be regretted in our opinion , the more so as it is not , and ought not to be , the normal position of Freemasonry . We do not in conclusion think that the Bishop of Orleans ' s " Etude" will have mucheffect on the

Freemasons m France or Belgium . The struggle has become so very severe and is becoming hourly more embittered . We should ourselves rejoice if the French and Belgian Freemasons could be induced to retrace their steps and become once again a purely non-political body ; if

they could be pursuaded to disassociate themselves openly from any avowed sympathies , either with the " Commune " or with revolution . If too they can see their way to remove frpm their official regulations any negation of religion , of the Supreme Being , of the immortality of the soul , to become once again if a tolerant

yet a theistic body , we feel sure the greatest good would ensue to Freemasonry and to themselves . We then should have but little fear for their future progress , and no apprehension whatever either for the hostile criticism of the outer world , or the vehement denunciations of the ablest of their adversaries .