Monthly Masonic Summary.

Monthly Masonic Summary .

WHEN these lines meet our readers eyes , the old year Avill have passed away , and a neAV year will have daAvned upon the Avorld and upon the Craft . 1875 has been a most eventful year in some respects to English Freemasonry , and , we may add , also as regards the Order at large everyAvhere . In England the Masonic body , always loyal , has been greatly gratified by the election and installation of the Prince of Wales as

Grand Master of our great fraternity . Those of us who were present in the Albert Hall , April 2 Sth , 1 S 75 , will never forget the gathering or the scene . Never Avas a more enthusiastic or orderly assembly collected together ; never did any arrangements reflect so much credit on those Avho nlanned and conducted them .

Over 7 , 000 Masons were ranged in the gay amphitheatre , and all took their places and left them without confusion and without a hitch . The loyalty of the meeting may be said to haA'o been most strikingly evinced alike iu the reception accorded to the Grand

Master , as in the deafening cheers Avbich greeted his advent and his departure , and Avere continued , more or less , during the Avhole proceedings . It Avas a spectacle Avorthy of the occasion , of th > 5 Order , and of the august Prince

Avhose installation a distinguished and united brotherhood thus hailed with one glad Avelcome and one loyal acclaim ! For the Order itself the Grand Mastershi p of the Prince of Wales was more than a more fact of deA'oted enthusiasm on the

one side , of a courtly pageant on the other . The Prince of Wales , the heir apparent to tho throne , had openly avowed his recognition of our Craft , at a time , too , Avhen the flood gate of ultramontane virulence , and even of Papal condemnationhad opened

, unpit yingly upon onr sodality . At the moment when H . E . IT . the Prince of Wales , as it were , came to our rescue , the most odious imputations on our motives and aims were sedulouslv scattered abroad , in

Avholesalc invective , Avith a proficiency of ecclesiastical and episcopal Billingsgate never before knoAvn , and which Avill hardly ever be subsequently surpassed . For Ave Avere told—Ave the loyal , peaceable , laAV-abiding , charitable , and

warm-hearted Freemasons of England—that Ave belonged to a secret , revolutionary , and infidel order , Avhose efforts Avere characterized everyAvhere by sedition and anarchy ; Avhose one great aim Avas the overthroAv of the home , the altar , and the throne ; ancl in the midst of all this fervour of

ultramontane incrimination , at the very tunc when on every side of us libellers ¦ were many and calumny Avas rampant , the- son ancl successor of our gracious Queen—the daughte ) . ' of a Mason , let us rememberproclaimed himself a Mason too , and IAVO of his brothers openly joined our traduced

fraternity . What more , then , could mendacity do , or falsehood assert ? If the eventual monarch of this realm , thus , openly patronized us by presiding personally over these Avieked Freemasonsit

, Avas epiite clear , either , as Mr . Weller Avould say , that " things Avere going Avrong , " or the Romish accusation Avas a " mockery , a delusion , and a snare . " It was not very likely that tho Prince of Wales Avould place himself at the head of a

revolutionary or socialistic fraternity and hence the effect was wonderful , and the ansAver complete ! Strange indeed that even such a vindication Avas needed for our truly unrevolutionary and beneficent Order , but great is the extent of gullibility , and numerous are the " gobemouches" of society and tho Avorld still .

Indeed , it required all the audacity of Avhich even ultramontane writers and Jesuit clique arecapablo , to venture to scatter Avholesale sneh a " plethora " of abuse , such childish accusations , and such ridiculous allegations . Let us hope that they are ansAveredand that they may profit by Avhat

, amounts to an indignant rebuke . We Avish Ave could add that there Avas any chance of a lull in this hurricane of T