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Gtmttents . —— PAGE yEEEMASONS' MAGAZINE : — Antithesis 421 Mystic Beauties of Freemasonry 433

JIasonic Jottings , No . 72 425 Masonic Science—Geometry 425 A Relic of Solomon ' s Temple , 426 JIasonic Notes and Queries 427 Correspondence 429 Masonic Sayings aud Doings Abroad 429 MASOSIC MIEKKOE : — Masonic Mems 431

United Grand Lodge 431 CKAJT LODGE MEETINGS : — Metropolitan , 433 Provincial 43 < 1 Scotland 435 Notes on Jlusic and the Drama 437 Poetry 439 List of Lodge , & c , Meetings for ensuing week 440

Antithesis.

ANTITHESIS .

Z 0 ND 02 T , SATURDAY , JT 7 JVE 3 , 1871 .

The nations are at ; strife . Oa all hands the clang of battle sounds vivid in our ears . Germany - lias called off the dogs of war from the throat of her adversary , only to hold them in leash to be slipped again at another foe . Unhappy France

has but passed from a state of invasion to one of civil war . Her insurgents in Paris mock at all control , moral or political , and brand as with contempt their spiritual advisers as " servants of a person styled God . " What peace can there be

for the revolutionary rulers , Thiers and his Assembly , while the insurrection demands continued combat , deadliest carnage ? Nor is the rest of Europe free from the restlessness which the Franco-Prussian conflict has roused . England

and Russia , temporarily reconciled , yet wait but an opportunity to resume inamicable relations . The people of Great Britain cry for an abandonment of the policy which has refused to allow them to interfere * with the quarrels of their neighbours , and

which has prevented them from rushing into antagonism of their own . They almost seem to demand War in order to stave off Revolution . And , on the other hand , the Muscovite , having gained the first step towards his ultimate design ,

proceeds towards the second . Treacherous and stealthy , he moves , as he did in 1853 , making a truculent intention under the cover of religious fervency . The wilfully created—for diplomatic purposes—dissensions between the Russo-Greek and the Roman Catholic churches , are merely the

little cloud m the East that herald the coming stoi'm . Not less farther afield is the presage of coming trouble . From China come incessantly reports , contradicted often only to be as often re-affirmed ,

that the massacres of Tien-tsin are upon the point of being repeated ; that the progress of civilisation is retarded by the refusal of the inhabitants to accept its teachings , and that cruelty and bloodshed are still the delight of the stationary peoples .

In India , also , spite of the efforts made of late to ameliorate the condition of the inhabitants , disaffection is rife . The inundations and famines of the last two years , much though their ill-effects have been reduced by the facilities for transport

and drainage , afforded by the system pursued by the governing authorities , and by the true and generous kindness exhibited by those who have voluntarily gone out into the wilderness of the North-West provinces , to succour in their affliction

their alien and semi-barbarous brethren , have induced a desire for change of rule . This has been subtilely and insidiously fostered by Russia , and her close marcb upon Hindostan from without may at any moment be assisted from within .

And on the Western Continent who shall say that Peace reigns supreme ? Is not Spain , though but half recovered from her own intestinal disturbances , worrying at the throat of the South American States ? Is not Mexico still distracted

by political confusion worse confounded ? Has not the unstatesmanlike attempt of President Grant to force Santo Domingo into annexation with the United States placed that island in a condition of anarchy more defined than before ?

Not only now do Baez and Cabral contend for the pitiful mastery , bub the eastern Haytians have taken the fever of revolution , and are initiating a movement which may turn their President from his precarious seat .

Amidst these various elements of discord shines clear and brightly one Star of the East . Let who will contend , at Washington , at length , after many years there is Peace , blessed , harmonious . For ten years the constant struggle has been waged

between England and the United States on the subject of the Alabama claims . For six years the Fisheries and Reciprocity question have alienated American from Canadian—the people of one half of a great Northern Continent from their neighbours , whose interests are inseparably bound up