Political Freemasonry.

POLITICAL FREEMASONRY .

LONDON , SATUXDAY , AUGUST IS , 1 S 60 .

Under the above title , which every brother Avill acknowledge to be a misnomer , inasmuch as politics and Freemasonry have nothing in common , a very clever paper , suggested "b y Alexander Dumas' " Autobiography of Garibaldi , " appeared in last week's issue of the Manchester Review , and without endorsing any of its

contents or correcting its manifest errors we have reprinted it because we believe that our Craft should " see itself as others see us , " and not sit blindly down knowing that Freemasonry means no harm to Governments , but actuall y inculcates obedience and respect to

all lawfully constituted authority ; whilst such curious speculations as those of M . Alexander Dumas are circulated in one of our great cities as pictures of Freemasonry , although it be the Freemasonry of the Continent and by-gone times . Such being part of our mission , we beg

our readers' attention to the article in question , of which we have not omitted a single word . Comment from us would be superfluous : —

" POLITICAL- JREEMASOXmr . " At the commencement of the present century , when France and England were looking across the Channel at each other in a very unfriendly mood , and when Charles James Fox , as the leader of the ' Advanced Liberalism ' of those dayswas using all his eloquence to persuade the

, House of Commons to place the most implicit reliance on the good faith of France , although he had been one of the most virulent opponents of the French Commercial Treaty , a brisk controversy was kept up in the periodical literature and newspapers regarding what share Freemasonry had had in promoting the French

Revolution . According to the Abbe Barruel , whose book on the Jacobin Conspiracy created a great sensation , the political secret of Freemasonry was ' Liberty , Equality , and Fraternity ; ' but that was not communicated to the ordinary members . Among English Masons only a small number of the whole were initiated . In Ireland

and France the proportions were much larger . In the latter country , five out of every six Freemasons were members of the' inner circle , and the Duke of Orleans was Grand Master .

" The first article in the first number of the Edinburgh Review , published in October , 1802 , consisted of a notice of a work on this much vexed question , by J . J . Mounter , ' De L'Inliuence att-ribuee aux Philosoph . es , aux Francs-Magons , et aux Illumes , sur la Revolution de France . ' Mounier was the antagonist of Mirabeau , and the popular President of the first National Assembly .

His object was to show that the revolution in France was brought about , neither directl y by the combination and conspiracy of the Freemasons , " nor indirectly by the writings of Rousseau , Voltaire , aud their associates . As for the alleged connection of the German Illuminati and the French Jacobins , Mourner showed that the doctrines

of the two sects were essentiall y distinct . The Jacobins preached openly the sacred ri ght of insurrection , and plumed themselves , like certain pamphleteering dip lomatists of the present day , on being able to regenerate a kingdom in a single year . The German Illuminati , on the other hand , were mere speculative dreamers , who taught _ the plilosopical doctrine of the Ri ghts of Man , as ori ginating in the essential individuality of the

individual . From the reviewer s summing up , he does not seem to have formed a very decided opinion on . the matter . The object which the Illuminati had in view ' was probably , in its own nature , unattainable ; and they would have perished by their internal dissensions before they could have given any disturbance to the community . ' ' At the same timehe admitted that ' their constitution

, was a system of manifest usurpation ; and that , independently of the doctrines they taught , their secret association , alone , made them a proper object of reprobation . ' "The subject of political Freemasonry has lately begun to excite a- good deal of attention , from the feet that the Emperor of the French is a member of the

Italian Order of the Carbonari , which lias had so much , to do with the Revolution . The following particulars relating to Freemasonry and the Carbonari , from Dumas preface to his 'Life of Garibaldi , ' are noteworthy as a sign of the times : — "' In 1820 , Carbonarism had begun to spread throughout

Italy . Iu a former work of mine entitled ' Joseph Balsamo , " which , although but a- romance , contains in it much of reality , will bo found a sketch of the history of the ' Illuminati , ' and of Freemasonry . These two powerful antagonists to despotic royalty , whoso device was the three initial letters 'L . P . D ., ' i . c , LUia , Pedilns Distrue , played a part of some importance in that French Revolution . Almost

all tho Jacobins , and a large proportion of the Cordeliers , wore Freemasons , while Philip Egalito held the high office of ' Grand Orient' in the Craft . " 'Napoleon affected to take Freemasonry tinder his protection ; hut under this pretence he managed to divert it from its proper aim : in short , he bout it to his own purposes ,, and turned it into an instrument of despotism . It was net

the first tinio that chains had been forged from sword-blades . Joseph Bonaparte was a Grand Master of the Order ; Oa-mbaceres , Grand Assistant-Master ; and Murat , second Grand . Assistant-Master . The Empress Josephine being- at St-ra-sbui-g , in 1805 , presided at the festival of the adoption of the Free Knights of Paris ; and about this time Eugene de Beauhai-Jiais was elected 'Venerable' of the lodge of St ,

Eugene of Paris . When he was afterwards iu Italy as Viceroy , the ' Grand Orient' of Milan named him 'Master and Sovereign Commander of the Supreme Council of the 32 nd degree ; ' the greatest honour attainable under the statutes of tho Order . "' Bci-nadotto also was a Mason ; his son . Prince Oscar , was Grand Master of the Swedish Lodge ; moreovei" , in the

different Lodges of Paris were successively initiated , Alexander , Duke of Wurfccmbnrg ; Prince Bernard of Sare-Weimar ; and even the Persian Ambassador , Askeri Khan ; the President of tho Senate , Count dc Lacepode , jn'osided as ' Grand Orient of France , ' having- for his officers of honour GeneralsKellermaniijMassena ,, and Soulfc . Princes , ministers , marshals , officers , magistrates , all , indeed , who were remarkable from their glorious career , or eminent from their

position , were ambitions of being admitted as Brethren . Women even wished to have their Lodges : this notion was adopted by Mcsdamos de Calignan , dc Girardin , de Narbonne , and many other ladies of great houses ; but one only amongst them was actually received into the Craft , and she not as a ' sister , ' but as a ' brother . ' That- was no other than the famous Xa-intraillcs , to whom the First Consul had !

given the brevet of a chef d'eseadvon ( major of cavalry ) . '" But it was not in France alone that Freemasonry flourished at that period . The King of Sweden , in 1811 , instituted tho civil order of Masonry . Frederick AVilliam III ., King of Prussia , had , towards the end of the month of July , ha . the year 1800 , sanctioned by edict the constitution of the Grand Lodge of Berlin . The Prince of AA alcs continued to

preside over the Order in England until he became Regent in 1813 . And , in the month of February of tho year ISM , the King of Holland , Frederick William , declared himself protector of the Order , and permitted the Prince Royal , his son , to accept the title of ' Honorary Venerable' ofthe Lodge of "William Frederick of Amsterdam . " ' At tho return of the Bourbons to France , Marshal Bournonville be < r ° -ed Louis XVIII . to place the Fraternity