Masonic Reform.

senfced in new garments apparently framed " with intent to deceive , " liable afc all events to lead the unsophisticated astray , and to breed trouble and annoyance , aud thus it is found necessary for the sentinel to fire off his cannon again , and lay waste

the batteries of the enemy . Enough has been said on the subject of reform in Masonry to have convinced all the reasonable reformers in the world that the chances of their accomplishing a success are infinitesimally small ,

but the fact is , your average reformer is not by any means a reasoning animal . He will talk by the yard , enunciate theories by the bushel , denounce all existing ideas and practices like a trip hammer ; but when he comes to give his notion of Avhat would be the correct thing , you find that he is swimmine in a sea of abstractions

without a foot of solid land in view . W e refer to fche reformer pure and simple , who wants to overturn every existing arrangement , and to begin again the work of creation , and the long toil of man toward his ultimate destiny . We are

satisfied that an out-and-out reformer would cheerfully undertake to remake the physical as well as mental man , and consider the total re-orginisation of society as simple an affair as to invent a new method of cooking beef . These persons are

nothing if nofc ultra . Nothing short of complete tearing doAvn will answer , and a building up , not only with new walls , but on a neAV plan , is the least with which they can consent to be satisfied . With them improvement is mere pottering , putting

neAV wine into old bottles , poulticing a sore place Avhen the scalpel is needed , and needed , according to their ideas , not only to lop off a diseased limb , but to excise the entire body to make room for a

new one . According to our reading and observation , the spirit of this recreative mania has existed at every period of which Ave have a record , without ever having achieved a permanent success . Without going back to fche classics , we may mention Oliver

Gromsvell as being a root and branch reformer whose roundheads the people gladly saw give way to the returning cavaliers , and the rehabitation of the old reo-ime . The French revolution of ' 98 Avas an excellent specimen of the scalpel style of

reform . Society in thafc case was thoroughly demolished , and Madame Guillotine let out enough human life to have reformed the solar system , provided ahvays thafc any good result could be

expected to come from such heroic treatment ; bufc Ave find that when the people had been sufficiently droAvned aud beheaded , they Avere only too glad to get back to the old ways , and dismiss the reformers and their reform . The blatherskites

who in 1826 undertook to put down Masonry , and make us all into good boys in spite of ourselves , who raised a storm which shook the institution to its centre , and echoed through the Church , the State , and the family , and lasting

through a space of ten years , is still nursed in the crooked recesses of some old ladies' brains , only secured , after all , an inglorious failure . The people , as soon as they had time to wipe tbe dust out of their eyes , dropped the An tis , and , under

their favour , Masonry has not only regained what ifc lost , bufc has reached a degree of prosperity infinitely more solid and enduring than all that has proceeded it .

Now comes another class , who want to reform Masonry in another way , but with the same result in vieAv . These are men who claim to be Masons , Avho have undoubtedly passed through the ceremonies , and been assigned a place on the columns ,

and who wish to demonstrate their adaptability to the society by proposing to reform it out of existence , and reach the end it proposes by an entirely different method .

One would naturally suppose that finding the fraternity and its plan of action afc variance with their ideas of the correct thing , they would wifchdraAV , give their energies to something more modern and practical , and leave Masonry to plod

along on foot , far in the rear of the locomotive of modern progrees aud reform . Unfortunately , they do nothing of the kind . The see afc a glance thafc nowhere could there be a finer field for the development of their talents ; nowhere a soil in

which the seed they are prepared to scatter might be expected to result in more thrifty trees , or finer fruit , and so they cling to us like barnacles , and work like beavers to raise a dust where there is in fact no dust to be raised . They constantly ding

in our ears that Masonry is antiquated , effete , behind the age . Granted , cheerfully . Ifc was nofc invented yesterday , nor last week . It has come down to us , from father to son , through many generations , bub ahvays upon condition thtt we should hold it in trust , | to be given intact in substance , and in form , to our successors ; and thus ,