To Our Readers.

TO OUR READERS .

The Freemason may be procured through any newsagent in the United Kingdom by giving ( if needed ) the publisher ' s address , 198 , Flcet-st . All communications , correspondence , reports , & c , must addressed io the I : ditor . A- ' vpi-ti-eni-nts , change in address , complaints of difficulties in proctiriii ' . * Freemason , Sec , to the Publisher , 198 , Fleet-st ., London , E . C .

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 . For terms , position , Sec , apply to GEOUGE KENNING , 198 , Fleet-st .

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NOTICE

Many complaints having been received of the difficulty experienced in procuring the Freemason in the City , the publisher begs to append the following list , being a selected few of the appointed agents : — Abbott , Wm ., East-cheap . Bates , Pilgrim-street , Ludgate-hill .

Born , H ., 115 , London-wall . Dawson , Wm ., 121 , Cannon-street . Gilbert , Jas ., 18 , Gracechurch-street . Gjest , Wm ., 54 , Paternoster-row . Phillpott Bros ., 6 s , King William-street . Pottle , R ., 14 , Royal Exchange . May also be obtained at W . 11 . Smith & Son ' s Bookstalls

at the following City Stations : — Broad-street I Holborn Viaduct . Cannon-street . | London Bridge . Ludgate Hill .

Births, Marriages And Deaths.

Births , Marriages and Deaths .

BIRTH . KNIGHT . —May 20 , Elm-side , 1 lampton , the wife of Bro . Alderman Knight , of a daughter . MARRIAGE . OiniEN—WATSON . —At St . John ' s Church , Forest Hill , by the Rev . Dr . Boyd , Chas . Magnus Ohren ( son of Bro . Magnus Ohren ) , and Elizabeth eldest daughter of James Watson Esq ., Aberda !< ric Lodge , Lower Sydenham .

DEATHS . ALLAN . —May 20 , at King ' s-road , Brownswood-park , A , Allan , son of the late Bro . J . B . Allan , of St . Paul ' s-churchyard , aged 32 . FouiiDiiiNiEii . —On the 23 rd instant , at Holly Cottage , Forest Hill , S . E ., aged 67 , Anna Maria Fourdrinier , eldest surviving daughter of the late Charles Fourdrinier , Esq ., and sister of Bro . John Coles Fourdrinier , P . M . Lodge of Antiquity , 2 , tec , P . P . G . W . of North Wales and Shropshire

Answers To Correspondents.

Answers to Correspondents .

All Communications , Advertisements , Sec , intended for i nscition in the Number of the following Saturday , must reach the Office not later than 12 o ' clock on Wednesday

m orning . » MASONIC TIDINGS . —A little too personal . We have received a communication "hailing" from Scotland so wild and so virulent , written , moreover , in a scrawl that it is impossible to decipher , that we naturally decline to publish it . The writer , in our opinion , ought to be looked after by his friends . Such of his statements

as we can read are either the opinions of a vulgar non-Mason , or a confirmed lunatic . Letters from II . Ncwbolt , D . Dist . G . M . Turkey ; R . Rich ; II . IL ; Beta ; Funeral of Bro . G . Stuttard ; Laying Foundation Stone of St . Luke ' s ¦ Church , Dudley ; Bro . Hughan ' s revieffof MnTlccKethorn ; 'Reports of Lodges

177 , 720 , E . C . ; 219 , 541 , S . C . ; and many other English and Scotch Lodges unavoidably stand over . The great pressure of matter week by week must be our plea for the forbearance of our brethren . We are reluctantly compelled this week to keep hack several most interesting reports and communications , which will appear duly next week .

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TheFreemason, SATURDAY , MAY 39 , 1875 .

The Pope And The Freemasons.

THE POPE AND THE FREEMASONS .

Most of our brethren will have read with pain , not perhaps unmingled with some little amusement , the Papal letter to Bishop Dupanloup , which appeared in our last impression . And though it be true that much of the force and most of the incriminations of the venerable

Pontiff fall short , as far as we are concerned in England , yet , as we do uphold liberty of conscience , free worship , and the public press , we must , to a certain extent , feel that the censure , such as it is , is also intended for us . It is

probable , indeed , that other Freemasons than our English brotherhood are the persons primarily intended j but still , as we are not afraid to avow our principles before all men , we must be also prepared to-day , if we properly can , to cast in our lot with our inculpated brethren elsewhere . But

The Pope And The Freemasons.

we think it right to observe that we English Freemasons have no such watchwords as " liberty , equality , and fraternity . " We entirely disclaim them as our watchwords for many good reasons , though as Freemasons we believe in and practise

all three . Otir only watchwords are brotherly love , relief and truth , loyalty and charity . If then we are not clearly obnoxious to many of the angry remarks of the Venerable Pontiff , we yet feel bound to observe that if we are to be condemned in common with other Freemasons

because we uphold a free conscience , full toleration , and the . liberty of the Press , as English citizens , and under our wise , constitution we are pledged manfestly as patriots to avow and conserve one and all . Nothing , we make bold to add , will make Englishmen ever swerve from these great

first principles , alike of English law and English belief . We deeply regret to see the Roman Catholic authorities , and the chief of them especially , running a-mtick literally against everything like constitutional freedom and religious toleration . It is a most mournful sign of the

times , and seems to point to much of trial and of discord in the future for nations and for religious communities . But the language of this letter to Bishop Dupanloup , angry and unwise as it is , is most mild when compared with the utterances of another " brief'' of Pops Pius the

IX ., which we give in another page , and which we have translated from the Monde Maconniqtte for May . It seems that there is a society in France called the Reparative Society towards the Holy Trinity , which is under the patronage of St . Michael , for the purpose of praying to God

for the extinction of all social societies , and the conversion of their members . The editor of the Monde Maconnique calls it " cecurieux document , " we would rather t 2 rm it a sad document . Our good Bro . Caubet , the editor of the Monde Maconn ' upie , feels it so much that he adds , " sans

le faire suivre d ' aucune reflexion . " Indeed , what could he say ? What can any one say ? We think that when our readers have perused it they will agree with us that it is positively a parody on all that is true , loving , or religious . Is it not most melancholy to realize that here is the

personally benevolent Pontiff in his " green old age , " the spiritual head of the largest Christian denomination in the world , denouncing all Freemasons , without any exception , as children of Satan , and declaring that in their lodges they heap up insults and blasphemies against the Most High , that they " break the tie which constitutes

society , and that " many are the evils which they cause alike to religion and to civil society . " We say nothing here of the wild assertions and the exaggerated and excited declaration of this mournful pastoral , as perhaps Bro . Caubet is right , the " least said the soonest mended . " But we feel bound to subjoin one remaik . We wonder that the authorities of the Church of

Rome do not see that all their stage tricks , all this claptrap of unreasoning tremor , air this " anomia" of an untenable spiritual power , are one and all a heavy blow and great discouragement to true religion . It is but fair to bear in mind that the Church of Rome is not

single in this revived inquisitorial persecution , as some Protestant bodies use language equally untrue , and equally insulting in respect of our peaceful fraternity , and seem rather to indicate a wish to revive burning and auto da fes , pains and penakies , and spiritual persecutions . It is , we

venture to think and to say , most humiliating to all who wish well to religion and recognise gladly the effects of denominational zeal in the unceasing struggles of good and evil , to have religion itself , and the denominational unit , so to say , thus rendered a laughing stock to many , and a

stumbling block to more . The Church of Rome , true to her malign feelings , her want of liberality and toleration , oblivious of the great power it does wield and might wield for the moral regeneration and religious happiness of mankind , is now condescending to make use of a low sensationalism , and is now deluging the contemporary literature

of this and other lands with all the vituperation of an utterly harmless and benevolent Order , which a fertile and unscrupulous vocabulary can suggest . It is indeed a most sorry sight for men and angels , and most antagonistic to every true theory , whether of benevolence , or sympathy , of toleration , or of charity .

Our Brethren In Scotland.

OUR BRETHREN IN SCOTLAND .

It seems from some reports that we published last week from Scotland , that the views we ventured to express respecting the utterly unbefitting and uncalled for " deliverance " of the Scottish Freemaso ? is' Magazine " anent" our English Order and our Royal

Grand Master are fully shared in and approved of , as we felt sure they would be , by our worthy and warm-hearted brethren in Scotland . We felt persuaded from the first that such perverse and ill-regulated opinions in no sense whatever could be supposed to represent the real

sentiments of Scottish Freemasons , and we rejoice to think and to know that all we ventured to say on so serious a subject has been fully endorsed b y many able and excellent brethren " across the border . " It would have bsen very strange indeed had it been otherwise . Why , because we

English Freemasons had been so fortunate , in a time of great anxiety and depression , as to have obtained the kindly personal presence amongst us of our Royal Grand Master , and that we greatly rejoiced thereat—that , therefore , we were to be blamed , we could not and cannot understand .

Why , again , because we were naturally exultant at such a solution of passing difficulties , at such an answer to the heated complaints of the Ultramontane Press , at such a prospect of future peaceful and wise administration , and because we said so , that we were to be " called over the

coals " for our loyal exultation and gratification , we did not realise than , and we do not profess to realise now . No doubt the writer had some great compelling motive which induced him thus , " more" John Knox , in his own opinion , to hold forth and to " testify . " We did not see it

in England . We don ' t see it yet , and being alike independent in mind and free spoken in utterance , we thought it better at once to say what we sincerely felt , at so unreasonable , so unwise , so unmasonic a tirade ! And we are

therefore glad to find that our motives and our words are properly appreciated by our equally independent and outspoken brethren in Scotland . We hope that our contemporary will take warning , improve his style , and amend his vocabulary . Luckily , like all similar foolish and hastv attacks

on Freemasonryjust now , that utterly baseless charge against English Freemasons ( which ought never to have been made ) , and those most uncalled-for remarks ] about an exalted personage , can have no effect on any one . Marked by bad taste , vulgar both in conception and expression ,

they are at once condemned by the good sense and simple loyalty , as well of Scottish as of English Craftsmen . We are accustomed , indeed , to Jesuit assailants and Ultramontane extravagances •we are not unprepared for an episcopal anathema or a Papal excommunication . We are

resigned to the watery outpourings of deeply diving Baptists ; to Habakkuk Mucklewrath ' s Presbyterian objurgations and censures ; nay , to the asthetic performances of a sucking Ritualist . But to receive such cruel aspersions from an old

brother Mason , a regular old stager in the mystic circle , a fraternal confrere in the literary arena , is indeed too much . We say , as the great Roman once said , with a sigh of Masonic grief , " Et tu Brute . "

Mr. Heckethorn's Opinion Of Freemasons And Freemasonry.

MR . HECKETHORN'S OPINION OF FREEMASONS AND FREEMASONRY .

By a review of Mr . Heckethorn's History of Secret Societies of all ages and countries ( a most ambitious title ) , which appeared in our last impression , our brethren will sec that among other of his characteristics he has made another very violent attack on our Order . It seems as

if there was a " mot d ' ordre " just now to continue these futile incriminations of Freemasonry everywhere , and no one can fail to be struck with the peculiar tone running through Mr . Heckethorn ' s work , as if he was writing from a brief , and had to conduct his argument in one

and one only direction , and to one and only one end ! We pass over many of his allegations , which do not deserve notice at our hands , and give a specimen of his inflated style and veracious statements for the amusement , and information , and edification of our brethren .