To Our Readers.

TO OUR READERS .

The FREEMASON is a Weekly Newspaper , price 6 ( 1 . Jt is published every Friday morning , and contains the most important , interesting , and useful information , relating to Freemasonry in every degree . Subscription , including postage : United America , India . India , China . & c .

Kingdom , the Continent , & c . Via Brindisi . Twelvemonths ios . fid . 12 s . fid . 17 s . 4 d . Six tf , 5 s . 3 d . 6 s . fid . 8 s . 8 d . Three ,, 2 s . Sd . 3 s . 3 d . 4 s . 6 d . Subscriptions may be paid for in stamps , but Post Office Orders or Cheques are preferred , the former payable to

GEOUGE KENNING , CHIEF OFFICE , LONDON , the latter crossed London Joint Stock Bank . Advertisements and other business communications should be addressed to the Publisher . Communications on literary subjects and books for

review are to be forwarded to the Editor . Anonymous correspondence will be wholly disregarded , and the return of rejected MSS . cannot be guaranteed . Further inlormation will be supplied o" application to the Publisher , it > 8 . Fleet-street , London .

Important Notice.

IMPORTANT NOTICE .

It is very necessary for our readers to advis ¦ of all money orders they remit , more especially those from the United States of America and India ; otherwise we cannot tell where to credit them . Several P . O . O . ' s are now in hand , but having received no advice -we cannot credit them .

To Advertisers

TO ADVERTISERS

The FREEMASON has a large circulation in all parts of the Globe , its advantages as an advertising medium can therefore scarcely be overrated . ADVERTISEMENTS to ensure insertion In current -week ' s issue should reach the Office , 198 , Fleet-street , by 12 o ' clock on ¦ Wednesdays . SCALE OF CHARGES FOR

ADVERTISEMENTS . Whole of back page ... ... ... £ 12 12 o Half ,, „ ... ... ... ... 6 10 o Inside pages ... ... ... ... 770 Half of ditto ... ... ... ... ... 400 Quarter t'itto ... ... ... .. 2 10 o Whole column ... ... ... ... ... 2 10 o

Half „ 1 10 0 Quarter „ .. ... ... ... ... 100 Per inch ... ... ... o e o These prices are for single insertions . A liberal reduction is made for a series of 13 , 26 , and 52 insertions . Further particulars may be obtained of the Publisher , io 8 , Fleet-street , London .

Answers To Correspondents.

Answers to Correspondents .

X . t . Z . —We did not receive a report . BOOKS , & c , RECEIVED . " Royal Cornwall Gazette , " " Alliance News . " " Broad Arrow , " "The Masonic Record of Western India , " "The Canadian Craftsman , " " The Christian Union , " "

Freemason * . ' Repository , " "Hebrew Leader , " " K' -ystone , " "Sunday Times , " " Paper Consumers' Circular , " " European Mail , " ' Bullit'n Grand Orient of France , " " Greenhouse Favourit-s , " "Sutton's Bulb Catalogue , " " Brief , " " Bauhiittr , " "Puck , " "Hull Packet , " " New York Dispatch , " " Kentish Mercury , " " Citizen . "

Births, Marriages, And Deaths.

Births , Marriages , and Deaths .

[ The charge is 2 S . fid . for announcements not exceeding Four Lines under this heading . ] BIRTHS . PEIIKISS . —On the 4 th inst ., at fi , Clissold-park-villas , Stoke Ncwington , the wife of Mr . William Tress Perkins , "f a son . RLII . LY . —On the 8 th inst ., at Woodberry Down Cottage , Stoke Newington , the wife of Mr . C . Reilly , of a son .

MARRIAGES . GAMMON—SMITH . — On the fith inst ., at Waterloo-road Chapel , by the Rev . John Gammon , father of the bridegroom , assisted by the Rev . Samuel Allin , Fredttic Thomas Gammon , of Park-road-terrace , Forest-hill , to Alice Eliza Canada , youngest sister of Bro . Charles Smith , P . M . Ivy Lodge , 1441 , and P .

Soj . Chap . 1 ( 104 . HEAHSON—Cow . —On the 4 th inst ., atlmmanuel Church , L j ^ Streatham-rommon , by the Rev . Stcnton Eardley , B . A ., Vicar , assisted by the Rev . G . Swinnerton , M . A ., Richard Osmnnd Hearson , son of Mr . Thomas Hearson , of Barnstaple , Devon , to Mary Billing , daughter of Mr . P . B . Cow , Streatham-common .

DEATHS . CAHTI ; . —On the 1 st inst ., at Torrington-square , the Rev . Thomas Simpson Carte , M . A . COLLINS . —On the 5 th inst ., atStedham , in his 80 th year , the Rev . Caleb ' Collins . HAV . —On the 2 nd inst ., at the F . lms , Sunderland , Mr . ~ — James Hay , aged 64 years .

Notice.

NOTICE .

The Cosmopolitan Masonic Diary and Pocket Book for 1880 is preparing for publication early in November . To ensure accuracy a form for filling up has been sent to every lodge , and those Secretaries who have not yet made their returns will greatly oblige the Publisher b y doing so at their earliest possible convenience . The Freemason Office , 198 , Fleet-street .

Ar00410

THE FREEMASON . SATURDAY , SEPTEMBER 13 , 1879 . _

Our Grand Secretary.

OUR GRAND SECRETARY .

Our readers will have perceived from our report , and realized with heartfelt regret , the absence of our excellent and kindl y Grand Secretary from Grand Lodge at the last Quarterl y Communication through continued illness , but will have equally rejoiced to learn on the high

authority of Bro . Buss , A . G . S ., that our esteemed and respected friend , ( for friend he is to all of us ) , is "better . " With Bro . Martyn ' s motion they will heartily sympathize , concurring alike in its words and aspirations , echoing the one and responding to the other , with the good old

Masonic prayer , ' So mote it be . We are sure we are but expressing the feelings of our entire Fraternity when we add that their anxious and hearty good wishes are with our admirable Grand Secretary in all his trials , trusting that in the

Providence of T . G . A . O . T . U . we may soon welcome his genial presence amongst us again , in better health and in his wonted activity and urbanity , which are so great and so commendable , to continue his invaluable services to the Grand Lodge and universal Masonry .

Persecution For Religion's Sake.

PERSECUTION FOR RELIGION'S SAKE .

What a sad chapter is that in the history of the world which is darkened by the sorrowful records of persecution , by the animosities of countless pro f cssois of reli gion , by the cruel deeds of the blood-stained arena , by the lurid fires of the Inquisition . Indeed , it has often

struck acute thinkers how strange is this tendency to persecute others for conscience sake in the annals of our race , and some one has called man "a thinking , indeed , but a persecuting animal . " As we look back to-dav through a long roll of ages , how melancholy is the spectacle presented to our

view . Heathens and Hebrews , Christians and non-Christians , Mahommedans and Buddhists , —all equally in turn persecutors of others— -who in ^ this or that , in a doctrine or a declaration , a name or a novelty , a vestment or a picture , a creed or a catechism , disagreed or dissented from

their neighbours . Indeed , it is hard to-day to put our finger on any one religious denomination and say of it that in its teachings or practices persecution is unknown . One great religious body , the Chuich of England , from which most of our excellent and admirable Chaplains emerge ,

is , perhaps , the most tolerant reli gious organization that ever existed , and to its wise toleration and large-hearted charity we are-indebted , since Popes first cursed us , and the intolerant excommunicated us , for that long array of excellent Masons who have done honour both to our

Craft and their own kindly and Catholic creed . But still , as we all know , and as we have seen of late years , the spirit of persecution survives , and whether it is Dominic wielding the scourge and lighting up the Auto-da-fe , or Baptists and Presbyterians banning , not blessing ,

Freemasons , or Roman Catholic Bishops and priests refusing the rites of reli gion , or Cardinals and Popes excommunicating us " en bloc , " or unbelievers striking out the very name of God , it is all one and the same hateful system ; what we

call in our emphatic and truthful Masonic language , " the debasing practice of persecution . " If " Truth" is to hold its own , if religion is to commend its acceptance to the doubtful and the disputatious , the cold and the callous , the sneer-

Persecution For Religion's Sake.

ing and the sceptic , it is not by harsh words or cruel deeds , the outcome of unreasoning violence intolerant injustice , and un-Christian anger . No 1 it is by the mild and persuasive words of gentleness , and charity , and goodness ; by the active practice of what we profess ; by charitable lives

as well as b y kindly words , and by the exercize of that spirit of courtesy , consideration , and love which forgets that we are erring but realizes that we are human , which ignores that we are offending but " pitieth our infirmities . " Religion , to be religion , requires no sword of Dominic , no

fires of Smithfield ; " its words are words of pleasantness , and all its paths are peace . " One of the most humiliating chapters in the history of Christianity is the persecution of the Hebrew race . Admitted that the Jews in the first glow of Christianity were adverse and hostile to

Christians ; proved , as probably it may be , that in the early Roman persecutions they joined the heathen array , and took part in the mockeries and massacres of the arena , surely that is no reason why Christians , in the later and middle ages especially , should have looked on the

Hebrews as hardly human beings , should have heaped every indignity upon their heads , and should have treated them habitually as the " offscouring of all things , " with every species of rapacity , plunder , cruelty , insult , and oppression . It really does seem to us a most degrading

commentary on the practice of our age and the progress of civilization in the world , to be told to-day that in Servia and Roumania the great question is how not to give the Jews equal rights , and how that Roumanian statesmen are '' beatinsr about the bush" in all directions to

seek to find some means of evading the provisions of the Treaty of Berlin , which enjoin equal rights and just laws , and kind consideration for the Hebrew race in that country . Wonderful paradox of humanity ! We who have studied the Hebrew history know well what industrious and

useful members of the body politic Hebrews are , and though perhaps it is true of them that they constitute a " nation within a nation , " and that their true patriotic ardour is bound up with the land of their old renown , with Jerusalem and Jordan , the hills and vales of Palestine , yet we

never could understand how Christians believing in Christianity could wish to persecute the Hebrews . We do , therefore , denounce to-day any refusal to them , in any quarter of the globe , of their just and undeniable rights . We protest against treatment which is detestable , and

persecution which is cowardly , of a harmless , and kindly , and loyal race , and we trust that the time is not far distant when it shall be admitted that the rights of Hebrews are as sacred as those of any other religion or class in the world , and that the ) ' have every warrant to claim both our sympathy and our support , our good will and regard ,

as valued , and valuable , and industrious workers in the great social hive . Let us hope we have heard the last of Servian injustice and Roumanian cruelties to the Hebrews , and that we may live to learn to boast in this epoch of light and liberty that we persecute no one for conscience sake , much less for religion ' s sake .

Masonic Amenities.

MASONIC AMENITIES .

We are sorry to note how very abusive and unbrctheriy Freemasons are when they once get into print . What is that peculiar power , or , ( if we may so say ) , temper of publicity which continually renders us uncourteous and inconsiderate ,

unkind and unfair to others r Curiously enough , Freemasons , who are always preaching , or , as some one has said sneeringly , " spouting " brotherly love , seem sometimes in print the most censorious of critics , the most bitter of writers ,

and the most violent of opponents . Put a pen in the hand of a brother and give him space in our columns , and set him out and up with the " clearness of type , " and there seem no limits sometimes to the causticity of his criticisms , no measure to the violence of his remarks , ( not

vrafrequentl y libellous ) , upon others , whom he terms in lodge " his brethren in Masonry . " Why IS this ? Whence this sad contrast between profession and practice ? this abject parody on the whole kindly teaching and temper of our friendly , and fraternal , and considerate , and courteous Order ? We suppose that it can only be attN-