Our Great Charitable Institutions.

with . We believe that no charitable institution in Great Britain is more efficiently conducted or more economically administered . We therefore propose to those whom it may concern , to consider the advisability of asking the Stewards for the year to assist the Building Committee in their

reception of the Prince and Princess of Wales in the summer or autumn—in fact , invite them to act as Stewards on both occasions , of the Festival and the Reception . We believe that the volunteers for this charitable and agreeable duty will be very many indeed in our ever loyal

brotherhood , glad to aid in the good work of charity , zealous in their devoted attachment to the Royal Family of England . It is , in fact , a combination ofthe " utile " and the "dulce , " which will not occur probably in the history of the Girls' School ao-ain , and it is an opportunity of exhibiting both

loyal attachment and charitable sympathy which ought not to be overlooked or neglected . If sound sense and practical " savoirfaire" now rule the councils ofthe Girls' School , 1 S 7 8 will probably be a very striking year in its annals and memories . Some questions have lately been raised as

regards the introduction on the General Com _ mittee of fresh members , to use a common expression , of " new blood . " We venture to think that for 1878 such efforts should remain in abeyance , and that we should leave to the present House and Building Committees , and , above al ! ,

to our gallant Bi * o . Lt .-CoI . Creaton , the pleasant function of carrying out all the needful arrangements for the year . Sure we are that in Bro . Lt .-Col . Creaton ' s hands the honour and efficiency of the Girls' School will be perfectly safe . If in r 879 it is felt , as probably it will be felt , that

changes had better be made and new members introduced into the General Committee , it can probably be arranged , that brethren may be proposed whose names command the respect of the Order , who will alike advance the efficiency

of the School , and guard the interests of the Subscribers . Our readers will observe with regret the spread of measles in the School , but we hope , and we have no doubt that about July it will be both convenient and safe to inaugurate the new building .

The Situation In France.

THE SITUATION IN FRANCE .

That Bio . Caubet , in the Monde Maconnique , was correct when he asserted that the recent change in France was agreeable to the feelings of a most sympathetic majority of the French brethren , we have , despite his hi gh authority , always ventured to doubt . That there was a decisive majority in the French Grand Orient is cleur , and it is somewhat curious that the numbers

of the majority and minority appear relatively to have exchanged sides . When we compare the voting of 1855 with the voting of 1878 on the same question , the same majority , nearly , which rejected Bro . Massol ' s proposition in 1865 accepted the same proposition in 1878 . It

would be idle to deny that the vote has been carried by a large majority , but yet we equally venture to believe that there is a very large , respectable , intelligent , educated minority in France , which deplores the change , and disavows such a revolution , effected , too , let us note , under

the somewhat sensational and not a little Jesuitical cry of " absolute toleration . " For just as there is admittedly a " credulite des incredules , " a credulity of the incredulous , ( happy expression !) , so there is also , undoubtedly , a tyranny of the hyper-tolerant which we can see around

us at the present hour . People are so tolerant that , as extremes meet always here , they become actuall y intolerant . We commend this remark to the notice of all , who seem willing to render liberty of conscience a paradox , and toleration a farce , inasmuch as they leave nothing

either for liberty of conscience or toleration to respect or to uphold ! Mournful conclusion of emancipated free thought , depressing outcome of absolute toleration ! We are among those who venture to think that the majority in the French Grand Orient was not a real or united

majority , that it was alike accidental and abnormal , made up not of purely Masonic thinkers , but of those who have unfortunately for themselves and Masonry , introduced into the abso-

The Situation In France.

lutely neutral territory of French Freemasonry the sad remembrances of Ultramontane folly , and the bitter influences of political factions . We say nothing of the effect produced by Bro . Desmon ' sspecial pleading , or the extraordinary statements which he made , which , as Bro . Denis has

pointed out , are mournfully mistaken , and positively untrue . We hope , though at present we admit that hope is but fainfc , that wiser counsels and more moderate views may yet prevail in the Grand Orient of France , and that above all , the prudence of Bro . St . Jean , and

the good sense of the more moderate party may keep things safe and quiet , may avoid the extveme views of agitators and fanatics , and may save Fiench Freemasonry from that heavy fall and melancholy " fiasco , " which otherwise inevitably await it . Bro . Denis , of Tours , to whose letter to Bro . Hubert in the Chaine d'Union we

alluded last week , has a remarkable passage in that communication which we give in the original French , and of which we append a translation : — "Notre temps est un temps de lutte et de transition . Les mesquines conceptions du passe s'ecroulent et les grandes lignes

de \ a ph-ftosoplve d-a I avenvr se . mssvaent a peme dans l ' ombre . Deux forces egalement funestes sollicitent l'humanite ii cette heure . D ' un cote , 1 intolerance de Ia foi aveugle- de l ' autre , I'intolt ^ rance du doute et de la negation . Entre ces deux poles l ' esprit humain erre anxieux et dans

l'incertitude qui pese sur lui le bien et le juste se voiler . t . L'interet egoiste regno sur le monde , le succcs et la fortune sont seuls glorifies . Au milieu de cet aftaiblissement general , la Maejonnerie aurait pu remplir un role immense et regenerateur . Sa forte et bienfaisante philosophic , qui fut celle des plus grands penseurs , . . .

et qui se resume en trois mots : Dieu , Progres , Liberie , cette philosophic rayonnant dans ses Temples pourrait encore relever les esprits , faire revivre la fraternite chancelante et l ' amour du prochain . Mais la decrepitude morale qui affaiblit le monde

profane a penetre jusque dans son sem et cet enseignement , dernicre forteresse , est lui-mema attaque et bien pret d ' etre force par le scepttcisme . " " Our tithe is a time of strife and transition , the unworthy conceptions fall to pieces , and the great

lines of the philosophy of the future are traced with difficulty in the shade . Two forces equally injurious appeal to humanity at this hour ; on one side the intolerance of a blind faith , on the other the intolerance of doubt and of negation . Between these two poles , the

human mind wanders anxiously , and in the uncertainty which weighs upon it , what is good and what is just is altogether obscured . Egotistic interest reigns in this world . Success and fortune alone are glorified . In the midst of this general weakening Freemasonry might have

filled its great and regenerating ' role . Its firm and benevolent philosophy which is that of the greatest thinkers and which is summed up in three words , God , Progrsss , Liberty , this philosophy , 1 say , shining forth in its temples , might have again elevated the mind

and revived a wavering fraternity and love of our neighbour . But the moral decrepitude which weakens the profane world has penetrated into its very bosom , and is attacking its last fortress , is itself now attacked , ready to be forced by scepticism . " Making some allowance for a

French view of the matter , we shall , in England , be inclined in the main to agree with Bro . Denis . We have always strongly felt that in giving up their open profession of belief in T . G . A . O . T . U . the Grand Orient was ostensibly departing , in its public platform at any rate , from that

via media of truth which avoided equally the two extremes of Ultramontane assumption and unbelieving negation . To claim an " absolute toleration" among reasonable men , thinking men , religiously-minded men , in order to proclaim entire rejection of any belief in God , is a

paradox so saddening , and a climax so absurd , as not only to " make the angels weep , " but to ask for pity rather than for anger ; for deep sorrow , rather than for irritable animadversion . We can only add that we must still consider the position of affairs in France most dangerous to the best interests of true Freemasonry .

Very Proper.

VERY PROPER .

The Fanfulla , quoted by The Times of Monday , states that Leo XIII . has expressed a desire that all Bishops , in their manifestoes concerning religious functions , shall abstain from any allusions foreign to spiritual affairs . We welcome this assurance as a good omen for the future .

As Freemasons we have no warrant or authority to enter into controversy with any religious body , and so long as the Church of Rome attends to its proper duties , and leaves us " poor Freemasons" to ourselves , we are bound not to attack her , qua the Roman Catholic Church . There are those

who think that there ought to be a perpetual warfare existing between Roman Catholicism and Freemasonry , but this , in our opinion , is a grave mistake , Freemasonry has nothing to do with the polemics or politics of the hour . When the Roman Catholic Church unwisely

attacks or irreligiously excommunicates Freemasons we naturally protest , and point out the futility and folly , and even impiety of such proceedings . But we have hopes of a better state of things , from the conciliatory disposition and common , sense evinced already by Leo XIII .

Original Correspondence.

Original Correspondence .

[ We do not hold ourselves responsible for , or even as approving of the opinions expressed by our correspondents , but we wish , in a spirit of fair play to all , to permit—within certain necessary limits—free discussion . —ED . 1

ENGLISH MASONS AND THE GRAND ORIENT OF FRANCE . To the Editor ofthe " Freemason . " Dear Sir and Brother , — Through illness I was prevented attending Grand Lodge on the 6 th , or I should have endeavoured to have set before the brethren views which might have suggested

further reflection as to the policy to be pursued towards the Grand Orient respecting the alteration it has made in its Constitution . It may be presumptuous to differ from so many brethren . Nothing , indeed , but a keen sense of the injudiciousness of the movement would induce me to contend against the able , eloquent , and well-intentioned ' remarks of our

M . W . Pio Grand Master . Were the Order a religious one , no arguments could be more apposite . His reasoning would have carried conviction to all . My wonder then would have been that he should be satisfied with only the recognition of the G . A ., and should not also have required the re-imposition of the Christian test . If in 1813 Grand Lodge laid aside this latter

requirement in order to enlarge thc basis of union , thereby breaking down the barrier to admission of Hebrew , Mahometan , Hindoo , Parsee , & c , and no violation of Christian principles was involved , logically , the omission of allusions to the Supreme Being should not be deemed detrimental to the religious principles of myself and those brethren who worship the G . A ., though such alterations were made in

our own Constitutions . How much less then should we be apprehensive when a foreign body modifies its Constitution—seeing that we preserve unimpaired the diminished religious colouring of our own ? In neither case is an absolute subscription required of religious belief . In the case of English Masons , the Churchman submits to the exclusion of a propoition of his religious belief , and in

the Grand Orient as recently constituted there is an exclusion of the whole . The proposition at the present time to censure the German lodges for refusal to admit non-Christian brethren , when viewed in juxtaposition with the expressions of indignation at the freer admissions contemplated by the lodges of France , is somewhat anomalous . When , in past years , shelter was sought from

persecution on account of religion , and Masonry furnished an escape , the Order was cosmopolitan—its chief aim , I venture to suggest , was a mutual security for individual freedom in religion and politics , coupled with the maintenance of an elevated moral character . These qualities have been largely preserved j why jeopardise their universality by importing subjects which invariably lead to the

disintegration of brotherly love and harmony ? If any assurance be really needed to satisfy the outward world that Masons are not without their due proportion of orthodoxy—if so , let some other means than disagreements inter se be adopted to satisfy external social scruples . We Masons under the rule of the Grand Lodge of England are no more compromised by the ruling of our foreign

brethren than a Christian merchant would be compromised by trading with an heathen—even if they were members of the same Chamber cf Commerce . The intercommunication might actually afford go'den opportunities to inculcate higher principles , whether of religion , or of

justice and fair-dealing . Let us not revert to the exploded and condemned practice of persecution for differences of faith . Purity of principles may be sustained in other and better ways than hy the infliction of pains ar . d penalties on those who maintain—even blindly—views inconsistent with our standard .

Yours fiaternaUy , P . G . STEWARD . [ Our good brother the P . G . Steward is too transcendental for us . ' We like calling things by their proper names . With us a spade is a spade . ED . ]