Freemasonry In The United States.

men , because of the peaceableness ancl loyalty , whereby they practically ansivered the cavils of their adversaries , and promoted the honour of the Fraternity , ivho ever flourished in times of peace . So that if a brother should be a rebel against the

State , he is not to be countenanced iu his rebellion , hoiA'ever he may be pitied as an unhappy man , ancl if convicted of no other crime , though the loyal brotherhood must ancl ought to disown his rebellion , and give no umbrage or ground of political

jealousy to the Government for the time being-, they cannot expel him from the lodge , and his relation to it remains indefeasible . " The Grand Master referring to the late civil war says in his address that so far as he is aware , no

serious breech arising out of the late civil strife has occurred ; and that the sister Grand Lodges in the South are fast resuming their labours and reopening their correspondence .

Freemasonry Contrasted With Intolerance.

FREEMASONRY CONTRASTED WITH INTOLERANCE .

Under the above head our contemporary , The Masonic Record of Western India , has the following remarks referring to the Pastoral Letter of the Bishop of Autun , which appeared in our pages some time back : —

If a man were arrested by a policeman , and brought before a magistrate , from whom he inquired the cause of such arrest , what would be thought of that magistrate ivere he to answer , " You have violated no law , but there is an

impression abroad that you are a very dangerous character , concurring in which belief , I now order you to prison . " The case sought to be established against Freemasons by the Pope and the Roman Catholic clergy is precisely the same , for no

authority exists for the censu res heaped upon that calumniated body . HOAV can its opponents legislate on what they do not understand ; for by initiation into the Order only can its secrets be procured . Men , ivho assume to be learned on all

subjects , may assert that they are fully acquainted with its mysteries , which have never been revealed even by the most degraded outcasts of the Order . The circumstance of some bad men havine- been

enrolled in its ranks affords no argument against it ; for to ascribe to its influence their defects of character fully formed , and vices in them apparent , long prior to the age at which they could enter this Order , would be as unjust as to decry religion

because the mass of Christians by profession are sinners in practice . That some bad men were Masons is undeniable , but some of the proudest names emblazoned in the pages of history , ancient and modern , are to be found on the rolls of the Craft is equally true . HOAV often do Ave find our hearts rebound ivith a throb of . o-enerous and noble

emotion on reading of the acts of men , ivho either were , or sought to be , the benefactors of the human race . Six months after the publication of the Pope ' s Allocution , the Bishop of Autun proclaims to the

Catholic world that " Rome has spoken , the cause is ended . " " For the last time the anathema has fallen from the apostolical chair upon the Masonic societies . " This Christian bishop thus affectionately warns his flock : — " As regards those

beloved sheep of ours who may remain deaf to our voice ancl that of the Saviour ' s deputy , while bewailing their blindness , Ave shall pass on them the fearful sentence issued by Jesus Christ himself , " and winds up by conferring power upon his

provicars to refuse Christian burial to deceased Freemasons , and also not to admit any Freemason as a godfather . The dictum of any pope or bishop has never been universally received as infallible authority by

the Catholic world . Is there any man at the present day who will proclaim before an enlightened world his belief in the individual and absolute

infallibility of any pope ? If so , we meet him ivith incontrovertible historical proofs that acts of miscreancy have been performed—freedom trampled on , every principle of liberty outraged , the rights of nations trodden down , the privileges of freemen

sacrificed , the ruthless tyranny of the despot sustained , and the efforts of the patriot to secure constitutional immunities resisted by Papal authority . The Inquisition furnished an additional proof that the Pope may be just as mistaken in his opinions , ancl as culpable in his acts as any other man . We find on reference to

authorities , that the first cause of the institution of Inquisitions Avas for the heavenly purpose of persecuting the Albigenses in the 12 th and 13 th centuries . To depict the enormous atrocities which deluged France with blood ivould

be impossible within these narrow limits ; suffice it then to say , that in the name of the Most High , cruelties ivere practised the very contemplation of ivhich makes the blood run cold . We find the inquisition firmly established in 1198 , by Pope