Papers On Masonry.

PAPERS ON MASONRY .

BY A LEWIS . XVI . —MASONRY IN ITALY . " Thus speaketh the Lord of Hosts , the God of Israel , saying , I have broken the yoke of the King of Babylon . VVithin two full years will I bring again unto this place all tbe vessels of the Lord ' s house that Nebuchadnezzar , King of Babylon , took ' away from

this place , and carried them to Babylon . "—Jeremiah xsviii . 2 , 3 . That Truth is great and must prevail is a very trite maxim . That punishment follows a great wrong , with thorough humiliation , is a fact ,

To conciliate , to heal wounds , is rig ht . How can we heal one who is , in a universal sense of Humanity our brother—as well as a mere tool in the hands of a most ignorant , arrogant and unscrupulous person—by whom I mean Cardinal

Antonelli—when that brother , a known Mason , initiated many years ago in a Swiss Lodge , issued the Allocution of the 25 th September , 1865 ? If his affection for billiards and bayonets have overcome that true principle—which , -while it

does not divest Masons of the political influence justly to be exercised by them as citizens , makes them men of honour and probity—then the

sooner war is declared against , not the Home of our history books , the Rome of our archaic recollections , but the Rome , not of the Romans—that of Antonelli . I am one who believe that Bro .

Mastai Ferretti , was one of those whose intentions are so remai-kable that they can only be used up in a particular place , not mentionable to ears polite , nor actually existent anywhere . Yet I will not even wrong the Pope so much as to

say that his remarkable Representative Minister is not ten thousand times as bad . The world is now to see a farce , which , if it were not fraught with grave consequences to the mental progress of millions yet unborn , would be about as

amusing and laughable as " Box and Cox , or " A Nice Firm . " We are to have an CEcumeuical Council , a uni versal theological jollification , in which so-called Christian priests of every dye wiir take part . It is a sort of un-British

Association for the Advancement of Ignorance . They propose to divide it into ten sections . The two fh"st , as meaning the same thing—though theologians make such fine distinctions—might he consolidated . Perhaps , to a certain extent , the

third . Hastuyrecapitulatingthem , weliere fix upon the fourth . Section one comprises : Pantheism , Naturalism , and Absolute Rationalism . Section two : Modified Rationalism . Section three Indifference and Intolerance .

The fourth section is , however , worthy of some notice here . It proposes—and we trust that tho committee of that section will be carefully selected — to take into thorough consideration the following subjects : Socialism , Communion ,

Secret Societies , Biblo Societies , and Clerical Liberal Societies . That secret societies are a necessity forced upon our times cannot ho doubted , and their co-extension is a fact dependent upon that

necessit y . Were it possible to anticipate a verdict to which any respect could be paid , the attcntivo scrutiny of the causes which have led to their establishment mi ght provo a useful thing , both to men of intellect , and those unhappy mortals

¦ who havo no time to think , nnd no education to give subsistency to their reflections . To make this programme complete , I may as well add tho outline given us of the rest of the

topics to bo preached upon . Section five , therefore , undertakes the consideration of Errors with respect to the Church and her Rights . Section six : Errors with respect to Civil Society in its-

Papers On Masonry.

self and in its Relation to the Church . Section seven : Errors with respect to Natural and Christian Morals . Section eight : With respect to Christian Marriage . Section nine : With respect to the Sovereignty of the Roman Pope , and

thenthat the serpent may appear to bite its tailwe get section ten :, With respect to Modern Liberalism . Now this is so large a platform that the . united exertions of the worthy and misguided men who

will enjoy for a season the usufruct of" St . Peter s Pence , " and take copious libations from the vessels carried away to Babylon , will have no little difficulty in covering it . So far as concerns the fourth section , however , I will try and lighten their labours .

The existence of Secret Societies has it root rather in the intolerance which forced Galileo on his knees , and condemned both Giordano Bruno and Servetus to the stake , than to any desire on the part of men to cabal in corners .

That an opposition to Freemasonry and other private Orders should be made by a power which patronizes the order of Jesuits appears foolish . There is no greater reason for patronizing the latter , than for discouraging the former ; but , to

some extent , the former exists as a countercheck and protest . In this *' " mad world , my masters , " one hand , as the German proverb hath it , washes the other , and if they wash , it necessarily follows that neither are quite clean . But one certainly

is dirtier than the other . As I have incidentally said in a former paper , those countries which have not , by stress of circumstances accomplished their freedom , use Masonry as a political engine . This accounts

for the hostile attitude assumed by the main holders of power on the European , continent . This love for freedom—the battle for which has been going on for so many centuries—is singularly visible in Italy , and Masonry there , in my

personal opinion with perfect justification , assumes a political aspect . Sicily and Naples were freed mainly by Masonic influences ; the First Mason of Italy swept with his irresistible and compact little phalanx over the rocks of Sicily , and what

may be termed Greek Italy—Magna Grazcia , as it was called in times of old . The pacific influence of the Society could not be re-established without the use of the sword , and the Grand Orient of Italy—the last Bulletin of which lies

by my side—has not quite lost the savour of political salt . Had Aspromonte and Mentana not unfortunately been opposed by Piedmont herself , a substantial and not a shadowy Italy mig ht have been seen . But I warn those of opposite

views , that within two years , in the words of the son of Azur , the vessels carried to the mystical Baby lon must be restored . It matters not whether Popery is fought in Ireland , Spain or Italy , it must be fought j the buttle is a necessity for tho advancement of the Right .

We may emphatically exclaim in those memorable words put into the month of King'John , by tho givat Shakespere , in his reply to 1 ' audulph : —

" Thou canst not , Cardinal , devise a name So slight , unworthy , and ridiculous , To charge me to an answer , as the Pope . Tell him this tale ; and from the mouth of England Add this much more , that no Italian priest Shall tithe or toll in our dominions . "

The autonomy of nations , and the solf-respect of races , is best attained by permitting them to work out the problems of their existence , by institutions calculated to endow them with the most unfettered action . There exists a gentleman of great capacity , invested with extraordi-

Papers On Masonry.

nary power , who some years ago pledged himself to accomplish the freedom of Italy , or rather of the Italian Peninsula " from the Alps to the Adriatic ; " he redeemed it b y a compromise after Solferino , he capped it by the cession of Venetia

to himself : the murder of Cavour crowned this edifice . As Jacques de Molay summoned Philip and Clement , so I , in the sacred name of Freedom , summon , metaphorically , Mastai Ferretti , by Cardinal Antonelli , and Louis

Napoleon , to the bar of public condemnation if , within two years , the vessels carried away to Babylon are not restored—without the intermediation of measures , not abandoned , but postponed by the Illustrious Giuseppe Garibaldi .

First Mason of Italy . It must surely be evident to the Fraternity in England that political action on the part of Masons in countries where opinion and thought ia

enslaved , is a necessity . We have , m this country , stagnated so long by a belief in our partial possession of popular rights—our ideas have been limited to so narrow an area , and the censer of Catholicism has been waved so

continually before us—that we have become stupified , and we stagger under the hateful influence . Hence it is that English Masons cannot see the giant wrong of permitting Freemasonry not t ° act according to the impulses of the Brotherhood

wherever a Grand Orient exists . " La santissima causa di Roma , " wrote on the 9 th of October , 1867 , the illustrious Garibaldi . This we must keep before us , whether

we fight the battle of Light in Ireland , Italy , or Spain . While the Sun of Masonry shines there can be no possible compromise with that gigantic fraud , the Papacy . Roma , o Morte t

CRYPTONYMUS . P . S . —I am obliged to " Mystes" for divulging the signification of the name I adopt for these papers . I am but in the position of Junius— " stat nominis umbra "—but I chose

rather to sign these articles thus , than to " do ' the editorial We—nor am I the editor . I assure " Mystes" that I have a personality , and . one of a very vehement character . C .

Masonic Congress.

MASONIC CONGRESS .

A Congress of Masons will be held at Amsterdam , not as originally contemplated in September , but in August . We have a Special Correspondent , in the person of our esteemed Bro . George Warriner , on the spot . He will

inform the readers of THE FREEMASON of such things , as it is desirable should be communicated to the Fraternity at large . He may be addressed on this subject at the office of the Exhibition .

THE "H ILDA . ' '—13 ro . lt . Hubbard is the Provendor appointed to the General Steam Navigation Company ' s paddle-wheel steamer , " Hilda . " His gentlemanly courtesy and kindness of manner are so well known as to have become proverbial , lie supplies a good table both fore and aft , which give universal satisfactionand all his moderate

, prices are and economical . The " Hilda" leaves London-bridge every Sunday morning at half-past eight , and after a stay of three hours at Margate arrives at the Bridge again about eight o ' clock in tho evening . The Company have evidently not spared any expenso to make the " Hilda" one of the fastest and

bestfitted ships on the Iliamcs . THE forthcoming work by Bro . Win . J . Hughan will contain : —1 . An article on Masonic M . SS ., by Bro . Hughan . 2 . A reprint of the Constitution ot the Freemasons by the Grand Lodge of Kngland , 172 U , being the first edition ( slightly abridged . ) 3 . A flic-simile lithographic reprint of Coles' copper-plate

edition of the Constitutions , 172 S , from transfers from the original in Bro . Ilughan ' s possession . Seventy copies only are to be printed for sale , at 10 s . 6 ( 1 . each , and ' 10 copies for presentation . Tho work will be deilicated , by permission , to the M . W . G . M ., the Earl of Zetland . . Subscriptions to be sent to the publisher , Bro . Win . Lake , Truro , stating name in full und Masonic position .