Political Freemasonry.

under the protection of a member of his family ; but Louis XVIIL , whose memory was tenacious , had not forgotten the active part which Masonry had taken in the catastrophe of 1793 ; so he refused compliance with the request , by stating that he never would allow a member of his family to form part of any secret society whatever . " ' In Italy , Masonry fell to the ground together with

French domination ; but in its place , after a time , Oarbonarism began to appear , and this association seemed to have taken up the performance of the task which Masonry had abandoned—that of furthering the cause of political emancipation . " 'Two other sects took the same direction , viz ., that of 'The Catholic Apostolicand Roman Congregation ; ' and

, that of ' - The Consistorial Society . ' " ' The members of the Congregation wore as a badge of recognition a cord of straw-coloured silk with five knots . Its members , in the inferior degrees , professed nothing but acts of piety and benevolence ; as to the secrets of the sect —known only to the higher degrees—they wore not allowed to be tittered where there were more than two present ; all

conference ceasing on the appearance of a third person . The pass word of the Coiigregatioiialists was Elottteria , signifying Liberty ; tho secret word was Ode , that is to say Independence . ' ¦ ' This sect , which originated in France among the neocatholics , and included among its members several of our best and most stedfast Republicans , had' crossed the Alps ,

passed into Piedmont , and thence into Lombardy ; there it obtained but few proscbytes , and was soon rooted out by Austrian emissaries , who contrived to lay their hands at Genoa on the diplomas granted to the various members on their initiation , as well as the statutes , and a key to the secret signs of recognition . " ' The ' Consistorial Society ' directed its efforts chiefly

against Austria ; at its head figured those princes of Italy who were unconnected with the house of Hapsburgh , and its president was Cardinal Gonsalvi ; the only prince of Austrian connection who was not excluded from it was tho Duke of Modena . Thence ensued , when the existence of this league was publicly known , tho terrible persecution of the patriots by this prince ; he had to earn forgivuess from

Austria for his desertion of her , and nothing iess than the blood of Menotti , his associate in the conspiracy , sufficed to make his peace with that Power . " 'The Consistorialists aimed at wresting from Francis II . all his Italian dominions , in order to share them among themselves . The Pope , besides his own territory of Rome and tho Romagna , was to have possession of Tuscany for

his share ; the Isle of Elba and the Marches were to bo bestowed on the King of Naples ; Parma , Placcntia , and a part of Lombardy , with the title of king , on the Duke of Modena ; Massa , Carrara , and Lucca , were to he given to the King of Sardinia ; and lastly , the Emperor Alexander , who , from his aversion to Austria , favoured these secret designs , was to have cither Ancona , Civita Vecchia , or Genoa as a Russian foothold in tho Mediterranean .

"' Thus , without consulting national feelings , or the natural territorial limits of different States , this league coolly resolved on sharing souls among themselves , as Arabs do with a captured flock after a razzia , and that right which belongs to tho humblest creature upon the soil of Europe—¦ to choose his own master , and to take service only where it suits him—that right was to be refused to national communities .

" ' Fortunately , one only of all these projects—that which was undertaken by the Carbonari , and one that was not irreconcilable with divine precepts , had a fair chance of being accomplished . " ' Oarbonarism had made its way to , and was thriving vigorously in the Romagna ; it had united itself to the sect of the Guolphs , tho central point of which was at Ancona , and it looked for to

support Bonapartism . _ " ' Lucien Bonaparte was raised to the degree of ' Grand Light ; ' and , in its secret meetings , resolutions were passed , declaring the necessity that existed for wresting power from tho hands of the priests ; the name of Brutus was invoked , and the associates went to work . to prepare the minds of thinking men for a republic .

" 'In the night of the 24 th of June , 1819 , the movement thus prepared broke out ; but it came to the fatal issue so common to first attempts of this kind . Every new faith , religious or political , which is to have apostles and zealous disciples , first requires martyrs . Five Carbonari were shot , and others condemned for life to the galleys ; while some , deemed less guilty , were sentenced to ten years'

imprisonment in a fortress . " 'After this catastrophe , the sect , having learnt pnidence , changed its name , and took that of the ' Latin Society . ' "' At this very time the association was spreading its doctrines in Lombardy , and extending its ramifications into the other States of Italy . In the midst of a ball given at Rovigo bCount Porgiathe Austrian Government caused

y , several persons to bo arrested , and on the following day declared every one who should be affiliated to Oarbonarism , as guilty of high treason . But tho place where the movement was most active , and made the greatest progress , was Naples . Coletta affirms in his history that tho members of the society in that kingdom amounted to the enormous number of six hundred and forty-two thousand ; and ,

according to a document in the Aulic Chancery , that number is even below the mark . The number of the Carbonari , says this paper , amounts to more than eight hundred thousand in the kingdom of the Two Sicilies , and neither the efforts of the police , nor any other vigilance , can check its unceasing growth ; it would therefore be useless to expect to extirpate it altogether .

"' During tho progress of this movement at Naples , political discontent was spreading in Spain , where Riego , another martyr—who left behind him a death-song which has since become a chant of victory—raised , in January , 1820 , the banner of liberty . So groat was his success , hi the first instance , that Ferdinand VII . issued a decree declaring that , as tho will of the people had so decidedly

manifested itself , he ( the king ) had resolved to swear to the Constitution origiiiauy proclaimed by the Cortes in 1812 ; his consent to which had been hitherto refused . ' "Dumas then proceeds to show how rapidly Oarbonarism had succeeded in overthrowing old governments and setting up new ones in their stead ; thus vindicating its olaim to be considered as the rightful heir of the political Freemasons of the first French Revolution era .

" ' This is tho result which Carbonarism had obtained five years after its establishment in Italy : first , the recognition of a Constitution in Spain ; next , a Constitution at Naples ; and , finally , the proclamation of a Constitution in Piedmont . ' "M . Dumas does not bring his sketch of the history of political Freemasonry down to the present day , as that would have brought him upon very dangerous

ground . Had he done so Ave mi ght , perhaps , have had some li ght thrown upon the strange mystery by which tho crime of Orsini , on the 14 th of January , ISfJO , was linked with the liberation of Italy . Looking back , through the strange series of events which have so hurriedly folloAved each other since that event , who can

hel p attributing the present state of affairs in Italy to the unfortunate conspirator rather than to the French Emperor who so narrowly escaped being his victim . "In connection with that event , a singular interest must now be awakened in the minds of the Italian Carbonariwhen they turn to the file of the Moniteur

, , and read the last dying testimony of Orsini , addressed to Louis Napoleon , in which the devoted partisan , within sight of death , tints earnestly besought the Emperor to restore independence to Italy : —¦

" ' To Napoleon III ., Emperor ofthe French . "' The depositions which I have made against myself in tho _ course of the political proceedings which have been instituted on the occasion of tho attempt of the 14 th January are sufficient to send me to the scaffold , and I shall submit to my fate without asking for pardon , both because I will not humiliate myself before hint who has destroyed the reviving liberty of my unhappy country , and because , in the