Historical Sketch Of Masonic Events During 1864.

HISTORICAL SKETCH OF MASONIC EVENTS DURING 1864 .

LONDON , SATVKDAY , MAY 20 , 1865 .

{ Continued from page 354 . ) The aspirations of a number of excellent brethren towards reforms in the organisation of Freemasonry are worthy of especial attention . The writer first mooted the subject in the Latonia

some years ago . For two years past it has been discussed in the Bauhiitte in a remarkable manner ; the course of reform has found thereby many zealous , nay over zealous , adherents , enspirited polemics being awakened . The Freimaurer Zeitung

also has taken up the matter , in a series of excellent articles , favourable to a moderate reform . Every intelligent Mason will admit that Freemasonry , no more than any other social institution , can preserve its organisation unaltered for an age ,

if it means to live and flourish , and that , consequently , reforms are urgently called for by the spirit of the age in which we live .

The history of the Craft teaches us that Freemasonry underwent serious alterations from time to time in bygone ages . The confederation has never been proof against the various follies of the times ( Modethorheiten ); but it has shaken them

off again , one by one , and in most parts of Germany it has resumed its original form , though somewhat affected hj the various previous transformations . Its history has cleared itself more and more , and thus the impediments have been

removed that obstructed its path . But , with all due consideration and respect for the institution as it exists , erroneous opinions ought to be rectified by instruction , and undue restrictions , the inheritance from ages of darkness , ought to be

exposed and impugned—considering that with us prejudice itself enjoys a legal recognition and ri ght of existence .

This is the path that , for several years past , has been trodden upon by unpresuming friends of progress , noiselessly , but not altogether unsuccessfully . Their simple and honest aspirations , unadulterated by any selfish motives , have secured

respect and acknowledgment even from such antagonists as considered the traditions of the past as a noli me tang ere , as a construction whose very foundations would be endangered by the slightest movement . All endeavours hitherto made to bring about a general Masonic Congress have failed , however

obvious the expediency of this project may a ] 3 pear ; even the aspirations towards a " salutary reform " have remained sterile on the whole . This result is to be attributed partly to the advocates of' reform themselves . A total want of insight in the

existing circumstances is evinced in most of those wellmeant , but altogether unpractical , extravagant proposals . Many promoters of reform are utterly in . contradiction with themselves , and in varying opposition to their fellow reformers . As an instance of those inconceivable blunders that result

from this mania of changing , we may quote the proposal for the establishment of " Masonry in action , " lately started by Bro . Henne , the author of the valuable treatise " Adhuc Stat . " Bro . Henne , in his project , first abuses the

tame progressists , whose aspirations he asserts tend much less towards progress than return to the " rotten old platform . - ' - ' He bestows much encomium upon the endeavours of the Masonic press to bring about the repeal of the useless and

preposterous high degrees , and then introduces his Freemasonry of the future , whose degrees , seven in number , he designates as follows : — 1 . Apprentices . 2 . Assistants . 3 . Masters .

4 . Warriors of mankind , i . e ., labourers for its material good . 5 . Knights of mankind , i . e ., superintendents of the labours for the material good . 6 . Teachers of mankind , i . e ., labourers for its

intellectaial good . 7 . Priests of mankind , i . e ., superintendents of the labours for intellectual good . Nobody will consider our energetic brother as a lukewarm reformer after a perusal of his joroject ,

by which he overreaches the mark entirely . However we must leave our readers to judge of Bro . Henne ' s production as it deserves . Having alluded to various other adventurous reform projects , the other continues : —As a

counterpart to Bro . Henne ' s "Grand Lodge of the future , " Bro . Schauberg proposes , in the Bauhiitte , for the next general meeting of the association of German Masons , to be held at Eisenach in August , to establish a German National Grand Lodge . Of

course this requires but a firm will and a series of articles as a platform , which Bro . Schauberg is kind enough to supply with the bargain . Bro . Schauberg is a thorough-going reformer . He does away with the illustrious protectors , so obnoxious