Knights Templar.

Capt . General ; John Elliott , 1 st . Lieutenant General ; P . B . Clemens . 2 nd Lieutenant General ; Richard Lose , 3 rd Lieutenant Gener il ; AHncent Bird , Treasurer ; W . Foxwell , Chancellor ; John Brown , Conductor ; Josiah Au = ten , Guard ofB . ; Thomas Harvey , Guard of L .: Thomas Heath , Guard of 1 ) . ; G . G . Nieliolh , GiiardofE . ; James Rusbbrook , Guard .

The Prince Of The Blood And The Prince Of The Church.

THE PRINCE OF THE BLOOD AND THE PRINCE OF THE CHURCH .

Cardinal Onllen has improved the occasion cf the Freemasons' ball . He has made it terribly didactic . Mr . Gladstone ' s policy rests upon the theory that tho Roman Catholic laity of Ireland are for all practical purposes a p hantom population . They are the live stock of the island , dumb and docile -. the Cardinal is the farmer with whom the price is to be arranged . Between Mr .

Gladstone and the Cardinal the bargain has , therefore , been struck , and his Eminence takes an early and startling occasion to satisfy the purchaser that he can deliver the stock according to stipulation . The announcement of the Freemasons' loyal and splendid hospitality has been seized for the purpose . Our Roman Catholic fellowcitizens evinced a loyal and kindly alacrity on the

occasion . They counted , it seems , without their host . In every chapel in Dublin was posted the Cardinal's excommunication of all Freemasons , with a detailed notification of their inexorable exclusion from all the sacraments and rites of the Church , and to this was placed his Eminence ' s sign manual . The object being to exhibit at the same time the exhorbitance of his own prerogative , and the

unreasoning obedience of his people , he did wisely in issuing a mandate that was daringly capricious and preposterous . The result is that not one Homnn Catholic —with an exception or two that serve to point thd rule —attended the ball last night . It was understood that the penalt } " - of excommunication would follow . We ask those Roman Catholic gentlemen of education ,

intelligence , and rank , who have themselves been members of the Masonic Brotherhood , could ingenuity devise a body more unexceptionable ? Is it not harmless , moral , and benevolent ? No controversy , political or religious , ever

disturbs the harmony of its meetings—no sectarian bias ever warps or contracts its charity . Conld any institution be imagined so framed to bring men of diverse politics and creeds together in kindly confluence ? They know , as well as we do , how unimpeachable , and how positively admirable , are both the principles and the practice of Masonry . So must Cardinal Cullen—unless

we are to suppose him in a state of ignorance which , implying an absolute inaccessibility to facts and reason , is strictly brutal . Perhaps it is precisely because he understands its humanizing and genial nature that ho abhors it . The Cardinal will have not only separate education , but denominational dancing . A deputation of the overgrown children who are thus managed and

frightened entered the Cardinal ' s sanctum , we are told , on their knees , and , with tears in their eyes , implored his Eminence ' s merciful reconsideration—not of the case of the Masons , whose consignment to eternal perdition they were willing to endorse—but simply of the ball , for whose fiddles and flirtation their orthodox souls hungered and thirsted . Some national sympathies with these

national exercises , it may have been hoped , might move his Eminence , even at the eleventh hour . They were dissappointed . The Irishman may have melted , but the Cardinal was inflexible . It was a characteristic cruelty to make an ostentation of this shocking coup of authority , and its melancholy success . Among the laity , of course , there are zealots who would like to see a Simeon Stylites

on the summit of Nelson ' s Pillar , a procession of flagellants scourging one another round College Green , and a heretic or two undergoing purification in tar-barrels at the foot of Carlisle-bridge . But these bigots are , thank God . very exceptional monsters . The Roman Catholic laity ,

The Prince Of The Blood And The Prince Of The Church.

as a rule , bitterly feel and resent the public insult to which this Cardinal has subjected them . They cannot but deplore the miserable inferences to which the spectacle exposes them . If wo see them thus coerced not only without reason , but to their own knowledge contrary to reason , in the matter of evening parties , what may we not conjecture respecting secret influences

exerted in their electoral and other political functions ? The Cardinal has chosen to inflict upon educated , refined , and loyal persons , the sort of humiliation which Mrs . Starr thought good for Miss Saut-in . But , unlike Mrs . Starr , the Cardinal exhibits his catechumens to the gaze of tho external world in the nakedness of their painful prostration . It is difficult even to advise in such a

matter . One or two Eoman Catholics , it is true , appeared at the ball last night . But these were cases iu which the guest residing within another primacy , was exempt from the Cardinal ' s jurisdiction , which we repeat , was not in a single instance questioned , much less resisted . What escape from such situations is possible for an independent-minded Roman Catholic ? AVe really see none , as

matters stand , short of a renunciation of the system , fciuch a step is not , of course , to be taken at an hour ' s notice , and upon the subject of a ball . It is cruel that such men as we know to abound among the Roman Catholic laity should have , under the alternative of exclusion from the sacraments , to endure a great public insult and mortification . It is from within the Church that reformation invariably begins , and the Cardinal is industriously sowing its seed in , we trust , a not unkindly soil . —DvMiti Evening Mail , Saturday 10 , 1869 .

Public Amusements.

PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS .

CRYSTAL

PALACESEASON 1869 & 1870 . The Season will open on Saturday , tho 1 st May , with a Grand Musical Festival in honour of Rossini . The Orchestra will be on a gigantic scale , and will consist of upwards of 3 , 000 carefully selected performers , includinnthe Orchestras' of the Crystal Palace Company and the Sacred Harmonic Society , the chorus of the London

contingent of the Handel Festival Choir , and numerous other amateur and professionals of the first rank . The programme will include the overtures to " Semiramide , " "La Gazza Ladra , " and "AVilliam Tell" The Stabat Mater will form part of the selection , which will also include the Prayer from "Moses in Egypt" and the great scene of the Blessing of the Banners from the

" Siege of Corinth . " These great works of Rossini have never before been performed by such an imposing force . By special request the Choral March in "Naaman' will be introduced into the programme , and the Festival will be conducted by Sir Michael Costa . Oh the 1 st of May likewise a Transparent Scene , which has been specially painted for the Crystal Palace by Mr .

Matt Morgan , representing the " silver" and ''golden " Illuminations of St . Peter ' s at Rome , will be exhibited in the Concert Hall . Its displays will be accompanied by the music played on the silver trumpets on Easter Day in the Church itself . A series of eight grand summer concerts , on the Handel Orchestra , conducted b y Mr . Manns , will be

g iven on Saturdays in May , June , and July , for which the most eminent artistes will be engaged . The now celebrated "Crystal Palace Band " will be considerably reinforced by the best instrumentalists , and the vocal music will be interspersed with first-class instrumental and choral works suitable for the large orchestra emp loyed . The magnificent displays of fireworks , for which the terrace and grounds of the Palace are so admirably suited , will bo continued through the coining season .