The Last Quarterly Communication.

nay " cl " - 'me m w' 1 ^ * - ' v , ' ° f some of our o-o ' od brethren , but unless ours was an untrue utterance of deliberate conviction , unless yve yvere to write to order , and to please either a majority or a minority , which we do not , we mnst frankly say what yve really feel and believe . We always

welcome free discussion in the pages of the <•* Freemason , " within proper limits , but we have a rig ht to claim for ourselves , alike freedom of expression , and honesty of purpose . We , feel strongly that a good opportunity of doing a very handsome thing prcperly and gracefully

lias been alloyved to slip away unimproved . The only effect of the amendment has been "to hang things up , " as they say , until September , as the resolution will have to be confirmed , and some provisions made for the appointment of a committee by somebody , which at present is " in nubibus . " Then in our opinion

the movement , as a movement of the Craft , will be tco late , the proposal yvill come yvith a hulling grace , and perhaps the bsst solution of all noyv , for this difficulty , as perhaps the '' dignus vindice modus " yvill be simply to confine the resolution to a record of our grateful thanks for onr beloved Grand Master ' s safe return . We must consider

our Grand Master in the matte-r more than anything else , more than some of us have done , more than any question even of the triumph of particular views , or above all of a successful amendment .

Masonic Narrow-Mindedness.

MASONIC NARROW-MINDEDNESS .

We all of ns sadly remember , and as sadly experience day by day , amid the cares which harass , or the treacheries which betray , hoyv most imperfect and disappointing everything is of earth . For some reason or other it is a truth , hoyvever , which yve hardly like to realise . And

yet too surely and too plainly it is so . Often , like children yvith their fairy tales , we surround our " Chateaux en Espagne , " and all the adjacent country with glotving shadows , with a roseate hue . All is fair and pleasant to the sight ; we listen to the voices of songsters which till

the fairy groves , wj inhale the perfume of odorous floyvers which lift up their heads in many a gay parterre . All is full to us of life and light , and brightness and bloom , there seems to be for us no possible change , there loom for us no dark clouds in the distant horizon . Alas , in

the early morn the shadoyvs have been swept atvay yvhile the dew is on the grass , ancl the grey tints around us warn us of the approach of day . The fairy fabric has crumbled into nothingness , gone from us for ever , and no trace of it remains . We see nothing but the misty and dingy

moorland before our very eyes . Life has indeed come to us yvith its trials in the family , its wotries abroad , its public annoyances , and its private griefs , and yve most of us have a ghost in the cupboard which we lock up , as we think , safely at home . Such is the world for us and

ours in which we live to day , and such will it , such must it be always here . Neither time , nor chance , nor civilization , nor education , nor public opinion , nor anything else , can affect , or alter this yvay of the world . Such as it has been , such > t is , and such it will be " , until this eaith of ours

has fulfilled its weird , and its pomp and pleasures , and shoyv and sorrows , all are forgotten among the things which were , in a " long ago " never to return . Noyv , amid some of the imperfections of this earthly lot of ours , some of the " petites misercs de la vie humaine , "

narrowmindedness is , though very prevalent , most annoying . We see it in many yvays and things , and > t alway s appears to us as the veriest parody alike on our professions of humanity , our claims for sympath y , and our ' * outcome " of civilization . As a general rule , narroyv-minded people , and we

imoyv a " bonny lot" of them , are the greatest of jiores . To use a familiar expression , they never look beyond" their " noses , " and most "" genial companions , and unsympathetic associates they are . They try and jud ge everything "ere b y the one unfailing standard of their oyvn

narrowmindedness , which is simply the sublimation of the personal ergo , the embodiment of concentrated selfishness , in opinion , in policy , and in practice . Nothing here now seems to go down with them , which does not accord with ineir canon of supreme and overpowering nar-

Masonic Narrow-Mindedness.

rowmindedness . Their rule of life , their expression of opinion , i . s always consistent in this respect . They yvill not look beyond the " narrow limits" of their oyvn subjective sympathies , and the consequence is that on all occasions , public or private , they betray a narroyv-mindedness

yvhich is most conspicuous , which almost always leads to pettiness of aim , and seems to sanction grovelling motives of action ; and is fashioned into exclusiveness and pharasaism , and ends in callousness and intolerance . We have met many narroyv-minded persons in our life , and hopeless

and unpractical they are in every relation of earth , They stop all improvements , they resist all reforms . they are obstructives , A . i . copper-bottomed at Lloyd ' s , (; ee the log of the Water Lily ) , and everything has to be meted out and regulated on secondary principlesaccording to their

narrowminded vieyv of things , persons , and events . Most hard , intolerant , and unsympathetic they ever are . They always prove themselves narroyvminded in their narroyv-mindedness , whether in the * * ' Forum " or in matters of business , surrounded by a family circle , or taking part in the affairs of men . Now narrow-mindedness in

Freemasonry would seem to be impossible , and yet , even in Freemasonry , and among Freemasons , it can be found . It is strange that it should be so , but so it is , though most inconsistent with the enlarged principle of thought and practice we Freemasons profess before men . There are

many Freemasons who look on Freemasonry , not as a means to a great end , high aims , and noble effects , but as a means to itself , a means for themselves . They boldly avow a natroyv minded opinion in all such matters Freemasonry was intended for Freemasons ,

Freemasonry was not intended for the many , but for the few , Freemasonry ought to keep its good things for its own members , Freemasonry is not meant to be too elevated , either in teaching or practice . For them all appeals either to first principles , or more sympathetic aspirations is

looked upon as moonshine and humbug . Freemasonry is only to be valued for what it is to them . It has pleasant gatherings good ban . quets , agreeable re-unions , a certain amount of charitable activity , but not too much , all is as well as can be , what more does

anyone want ? Well , we certainly always prefer " optimists" to pessimists " in this life , but we object very much to that far too common view of matters , yvhich in its oyvn narrowmindedness , condemns the efforts and longings of those , who believing in Freemasonry , seek to

raise it to the prop 3 r sense , and discharge of its goodly mission . Of course if Freemasons do not believe in Freemasonry " cadit quoestio , " you can do nothing with them . They are too narroyv-minded to bear the light , they will never admit that they are in the yvrong , or never move

out of their " jog trot . For them Freemasonry means something quite different from what it means to the ardent and the earnest , hut so it is , aud nothing any one can say will mend matters , or change the situation . We always deplore narroyv-mindedness in things Masonic

because Freemasonry is to us the epitome of all that is liberal , tolerant , large-hearted , and generous . It condemns yvith no uncertain voice the hateful differences and the petty disputes which often warp the minds and conscience of living men until they become narrow-minded

bigoted , intolerant , persecuting , unbelieving in their time and generation . Freemasonry would inculcate a higher morality and unfold a nobler lore . It would lead us all , be who we may , to uphold the right and maintain the true , not in narrow-minded persecutors , but because they

are to us simply the . right and the true . Freemasonry would tell us all " be just and fear not , " never allow the tumult of passion , or the violence of party , to blind your eyes to what is good and true in others , to the nobler and more exalting , sentiments of our warring humanity Above all , do not be narrow-minded .

Freemasonry would urge you to take a large liberal enlightened view of men and things , and never by yvord or action , as Freemasons , proclaim to any one , that your governing rule of life is a narrowmindedness wh ' ch nothing can enlarge , a grovelling id 3 a of Freemasonry itself , which is fatal to you * very profession as a Freemason , and i * destructive of the great and

Masonic Narrow-Mindedness.

glorious principles of our tolerant and enlightened brotherhood .

An Ultramontane Insult To The Prince Of Wales.

AN ULTRAMONTANE INSULT TO THE PRINCE OF WALES .

The "Times " of June 1 , 5 th publishes from its oyvn correspondent at Cadiz , by telegram , among other items of intelligence , which we take " verbatim et literatim " from onr august contemporary , the folloyving startling passage : — " In Cadiz and Cordova the fact that the Bishop

of Cadiz having , at a public dinner , alluded to the Prince of Wales as ' the Herejote , ' or Great Heretic , excites much discussion and disgust . " We are glad to find that the good sense of the Spanish people revolts from the vulgarity and

rowdy ism and intolerable impertinence of the Ultramontane party . Let us conceive what the state of feeling yvould be in England if some exalted prelate , " plenus veteris Bacchi , " were to venture in the excess of his ultramontane ardour thus to insult the Prince of Wales .

We do not think that such a thing could happen in England , but there is really no knowing to what lengths the ' * insanis Ira" of the Ultramontanes will not lead them now . They seem to be perfectly unmanagable . It has become a very serious matter indeed for all thinking persons , for all who knoyv anything of the history

or teaching ofthe Roman Catholic Church , because all this violent " mjnomania" only too surely evidences that behind the flowery professions of able and agreeable persons like Monsignor Capel the ascetism of Cardinal Manning , and the earnest zjal of Bishop Ullathorne , there still is in the Roman Catholic Church the

fixed persuasion that all are heretical except themselves , and that it is their duty to denounce to condemn , and to burn all such misguided persons . Will no Roman Catholic lift up his voice against these continued outrages upon all that is kind and courteous , decent and decorous ,

fitting and true ? With many as regards the golden and fiery days of the loving Inquisition their quotation yvould ba , " Adveniant utinam sic mihi sa * p * J dies . " But when to this , what yve fear is the fact , we superadd the intense virulence

and yve may say brutality of the ignorant , the perverse , and the fanatic , it becomes indeed both . ** a very alarming question and a very mournful lookout , alike for civilization and for Christianity—for religion and for humanity .

The East.

THE EAST .

The news from the East is still conflicting and dubious . The medical profession in England seems to be somewhat sceptical , and someyvhat justly , we think , as to the unsatisfactory account of the nineteen medical men and their professional accuracy in this special case . No

doubt many of the surroundings are full of doubt , fear , and mystery , but still on ths whole the balance of probabilities is in favour of the hypothesis , that Abdul Aziz committed suicide . We can hardly believe that tyvo English medical men , or , indeed , any medical men at all , yvould for

any reason of state , or other cause , luve put their names to a lying document in the face of the whole civilized yvorld , or that of Abdul Aziz had been cruelly and shamefully murdered , this truth yvould not have leaked out by this ti me . We do not deny that some of the "

surroundings " of the case are very unsatisfactory and suspicious , but Midhat Pasha , and those who are honestly seeking to reform and preserve the Turkish Empire , if they have yielded to the temptation of violently removing an uneasy rival to the new Sultan could have taken no worse

course for Turkey or for themselves . At this present era , such a fact , if substantiated , would be looked upon with universal abhorrence , and would be the forerunner in our humble opinion of the downfall of Turkey in Europe . But we lean to the belief , on the whole , that the medical account is true per se , despite some not

unreasonable objections in this country as the hurried nature of the enquiry would arise to a great extent from the peculiarities of Turkish feelings and institutions on the subject of " postmortem" examination for instance and the like . Let us hope then that peace may be preserved , and that all | thosej" rumoursj " , of