Monthly Masonic Summary.

Monthly Masonic Summary .

Before we shall meet our readers again the Installation of the Prince of Wales as Grand Master will have taken place , amid the loyal enthusiasm of our order . Everything points to a most successful and rejoicing assembly , such as has never been

seen before , and which English Freemasonry " pour les longues annces ne reverra pas . " Prince Leopold has received his third degree , aud the Duke of Connaught will have received it before our readers will

peruse these lines , so that the Prince of Wales will be , like George Prince of Wales , surrounded by his royal brothers , and we shall be reminded of goodly meetings in times long gone and past .

It is satisfactory to note how clear and straig htforward is the position which English Freemasonry assumes , alike to the great pride of its friends , and according to the reluctant admission of its foes .

English Freemasonry , unlike some other foreign bodies studiously eschews political question and abnormal topics , and confines itself to its own mission and its proper duty . Foreign Freemasons sometimes complain of their own authorities , as looking with an unfavourable eye on

themselves and their Masonic labours . In seven cases out of ten the fault is with the Freemasons , not with the lawful authorities . For foreign Freemasons are apt to forget that Freemasonry is a secret society , and that all governments have a

right to object to secret societies discussing the affairs of the State , Now some of our foreign Brethren are most unwise in this respect . They discuss in their Lodges habituall y the most " vexatas quajstiones " of Government and order and social polit y , and

national interests , all which are beyond the sphere of Freemasonry , and they wonder , " That Kings and Courts are watching o ' er their state , And some will doubt , and others will

debate "whether Freemasonry is a safe institution to foster or to patronize . Let the foreign Freemasons imitate us benighted English Freemasons , and they need fear no more any Government's objection .

Masonic literature has received a great addition by the superb Memorial Volume of the Philadelphia Masonic Hall Dedication . It is a credit to American printers , and , above all , to the Superintending

Committee , and to American Freemasonry . The Committee is composed of some of the most distinguished brethren of Pennsylvania . We congratulate them on the re- . suit of their " magnum opus , " and the greater work it so fitly commemorates . L'affaire Bradlaugh has taken a new

phase , in that it appears he was received into a French lodge in 1862 , under the Grand Orient of France , though that lodge is apparently no longer on the official list . This , however , does not , as far as we are concerneddo away with the original

, vicious admission . The High Cross Lodge Brethren are , to a certain extent , relieved from their share of the impropriety of the proceedings , as they received him on the faith of his French certificate . It is a

very untoward event , look at it in whatever lig ht we may . A surreptitious certificate has been published in the Freemason of April 17 th , which must alarm all orderloving Freemasons , and is a great disgrace to its conoocters and issuers .

We shall give our readers a full account of the installation next month . We may remind our readers , that Bro . Hartey has published a very striking lithograph of our Grand Master in his clothing .

We will publish next month a portion of D'Assigny's rare pamphlet , by Bro . Hughan ' s kind permission . X