Correspondence.

sonry , and least of all here , in England , where the high-grades—whether rightly or wrongly is no part of my business now—are reputed to be foreign Freemasonry . How , then , can a friendship for them be an opposition to foreign Freemasonry ? If a Briton prefers England to Ireland , Scotland , or Wales , can it be said he is an enemy of Great Britain ? The

analogy is perfect , inasmuch as the high-grades are part and parcel of the cosmopolitan Freemasonry of the whole world , just as the four sister peoples are equally members of the British Empire . The French writer has been pleased to make me ar person of great importancewhether in irony or no

, is not quite conclusive ; but he attributes to me an object—that of making Freemasonry " into a chapelof-ease to the Anglican-Protestant Church . " This is , certainly , quite a new light on Freemasonry , and convicts the writer of his utter ignorance and want of Masonic knowledgeor he would have known that

, " it is not in the power of any man , or body of men , to make innovations in the body of Masonry . " Much less is it in the power of any one brother , without the sli ghtest influence or desire , to make Freemasonry anything but what it is . The notion is as absurd as its insinuation against a brother is dangerous . It is also

a great pity that his clerical instigator did not inform the French writer that there is no such a hybrid as an Anglican-Protestant — though there is an Anglo-Catholie—Church . It may suit the French writer to ignore all cliurehmanship , just as it suits an Anglican parish priest "to know nothing of religion in Masonry . "

My versatility really must be very great , for no sooner is the last indictment closed , than I am no longer an advoeote for the "Anglican-Protestant " Church , but am turned into a fatalist , and the grounds for this accusation is that I told an inquirer " to do his duty in that state of life unto which it had pleased

God to call him . " Is it necessary to say , what every child is aware of , the words are not mine , hut a sentence from the Catechism ? The French writer tries hard to make it appear that , in whatever condition of life a child is boru , I say lie ought to continue in it . If you , or any of your readers , so understand

the quotation , I am sorry for it . This very remarkable French writer , by way of a elencher , I suppose , asks , " If a man has only duties towards God and his neighbour , has he none towards himself ? " To this most sapient question , I beg leave to say if a man does his duty to God and to his neighbour , he must do his duty to himself .

The French writer proceeds to say that , with such opinions , I should not be able to pass the first examination before the committee of a French lodge . That the three fundamental laws of the Order are liberty equality , and fraternity , and are contrary to my description of the duties and knowledge of a Freemason . This may be the French writer ' s private ideas of what

constitutes Freemasonry , but it is very questionable if such is held by even a small section of the brethren in France , for it must be borne in mind that Freemasonry was introduced into France in 1725 under the English Constitution ; that in 1736 France was made into a Provincial Grand Lodge of England ; that in 1743 it was recognised as the English Grand oi France , and in 1756 at last became an independent Grand Lodge . Now , it cannot be supposed that in

the thirty-one years that it was dependent on this country the three fundamental princi ples of the Order were any other , as they still remain with us , than brotherly love , relief , and truth , and that liberty , equality , and fraternity are the baneful seeds of that philosophy which made the fair land of Gaul a bloodstained sepulchre . We never could have taught such

principles , because liberty has been an inherent property with us , since the days of Magna Charta . Our equality is that no man derogates from his honour , or station , in becoming a Freemason , but how does the French writer look at equality ? He says " These anti-Masonic usages will disappear on the day when

the English brethren shall , at last , free themselves from the fatal oppression that the British aristocracy and prelates exercise over the Order . " God forbid Freemasons should ever see a day when , hy the substitution of the new for the old formula , the three principles should be changed for the false philosophy

which culminates in a baptism of blood . May none of us , or our children ' s children , aid in overturning the Constitution of Old England , or for a visionary liberty throw away the solid blessings we enjoy . We neither want new principles or watchwords , though we have no objection to the French writer's croaking his philosophy till he is hoarse ; but we tell him , he is departing from cosmopolitan Freemasonry , and is not only injuring its fundamental principles , hut

committing overt treason against his mother country . In our lodges politics have no place , and though under the despotisms of the Continent the lodge may be the only spot where men can utter their discontent and plot against the reigning powers , yet here we know nothing of such passions ; brotherly love , relief , and truth are the mainspring of our actionsand so

, long as we look to those principles so long we shall enjoy what we possess , in a happy country , equal laws , true liberty , and content . Perhaps you may think I have treated this attack as of too great an importance , yet I felt , from tho repeated aggressions of the instigator and the

unscrupulous mode he has adopted to make a breach between us , nothing but an open , honest , manly acknowledgment on my part that you are , and may you long continue , the editor of this MAGAZINE and my friend , to whom I am both deeply indebted and ever grateful . Nothing but this , I believed , could

silence the repeated machinations of one who has left no stone unturned to ruin me with the Craft , yourself , and in my daily struggle for bread . Leaving him and his two foreign brethren to such satisfaction as they can derive for the future in knowing that I shall not recur to them again ,

I am , dear Sir and Brother , Yours truly and fraternally , > i * MATTHEW COOKE , 30 O

[ We publish the above just as we have received it , but cannot hel p thinking that Bro . Cooke takes all criticism upon him and us a little too seriousl y , and that he is apt to conjure up phantoms merely for the pleasure of destroying them . So far as we are personally concerned , we are prepared to laugh at attacks which , perhaps , we have ourselves provoked . — ~ En F . M . andM . M . ]