Prejudice Against Freemasonry.*

By artful insinuations , forced constructions , and palpable misrepresentations , modern alarmists have ascribed to the Freemasons principles which they hold in detestation , motives to which they are strangers , and actions of which they were not authors . They blend them with societies to which they have no affinity , mere political clubs whose intentions and pursuits are diametrically opposite to ours , ancl altogether inconsistent both with our rules and dispositions .

For those excesses , those moral and political evils which have of late not only spread war ancl confusion , ancl every evil work through the kingdoms of Europe , but endangered the security and peace of the world , the advocate for Freemasonry has no apology to offer . He contends only that they are not the fruits of his system , and cannot with any truth or justice be ascribed to it , but must be attributed solely to the corrupt schemes and wicked devices of those

designing ancl bad men who were their real authors or abettors . It is possible that the artful and daring heads of " the anti-Christian , the anti-monarchial , and the anti-social conspiracy , " about whom so much has been written ancl said , may have assumed the name of Masons and professed to shelter their secret meetings for plots and cabals under the pretence of holding a lodge . But , God forbid that the innocent should be confounded

with the guilty , or that Freemasonry should be accountable for projects or condemned for practices which it could never countenance . Long and deeply shall we have to regret that the opinion which the public hacl entertained of a peaceable ancl nndesigning society should be thus abused . But the candid observer will do ns the justice to acknowledge that the harmless fold , are not accountable for the mean duplicity , the base designs , or the bloody ravages of the wolves in sheep ' s clothing . *

JL he visionary fancies which modern philosophistsf may have annexed to Freemasonry , the absurd ancl extravagant errors they have attempted to father upon it , are foreign and illegitimate . We disavow ancl disown them . Thev bring discredit upon those who would incorporate such vanities with onr system , but they debase not the purity of our original constitution . They can be urged only to shew the arts ancl wickedness of intriguing ' men ; ancl impeach not the natural tendency of an establishment whose every t

precep , form , and ceremony inculcates virtue , assists order , ancl disposes to peace . Ancl no one supposes it an argument against Christianit y , or that impeaches its divinity , that the corruptions of Popery or the scandals of Mahometanism have been engrafted upon it ; nor is it a reproach to its truth , that false professors and false doctrines have abused the sanction of its name . Such impostures were predicted by the highest authority ; anclwhile they have

, faded away , the permanency of that sublime ancl rational system has been a strong proof of its divine origin ancl superior excellence . Ancl we are assured that genuine Freemasonry will long survive the imitations of imposture and the attacks of misrepresentation . ( To be continued . )