Objects Of Masonic Reform.

tions , or omissions , of modern date . To mitigate similar eAdls in kingdoms , states , and societies , Arise nionarchs and rulers haA r e recourse to occasional Reforms of a conservative character Avhich , Avhilst eliminating the most olwious deformities and abuses , yet present , intact , the original features of the communities under their rule , thereby shaping their course to the requirements of the age and yet

retaining—free from spasmodic change—the bequests handed doAvn to them from the practical Avisdom of their ancestors . Where such judicious TOArisions haAre been systematically neglected history tells the tale , and records IIOAV easily good measures might haA r e been adopted , in early stages of discontent , hut haA'e been , over and over again , ignored until , at last , when the poAver to enforce their reception has

A anished , they haA'e been surrendered Avith large changes and additions , such as Avere neither demanded or required ; and Avhen this has been done it has ahvays been too late . Unless something similar is in store for Freemasonry , under the Grand Lodge and Supreme Grand Chapter of England , the signs of the times tells us that a speedy Masonic Reform is imperative in order to discard some of the

anomolies and absurdities , IIOAV becoming encrusted in our system , or they Avill eventually he so burthensomo and intolerable that Reform Avill , at length , become an impossibility—change Avill step in and , Avith ruthless violence uproot the A \ holo , making a clean sweep of good and bad together—and the superstructure our forefathers raised Avill come tumbling about our ears .

"When desperate ills demand a speedy cure , " Distrust is cowardice , and prudence folly . " The nineteenth century is groAving old—it has more than completed half its alloted span—yet What has Freemasonry , as practised under the Grand Lodge and Grand Chapter of England , accomplished for

itself , or for the benefit of mankind at large , during this eventful period 1 We are UOAV in the year of grace 18 G 5 , more than half-a-century distant from that lodge of reconciliation , in 1813 , Avhich so Avantonly reversed and destroyed the fundamental principles of the Order ; discarded much that Avas pure and essential ; totally ignored the Christian belief—the faith of the country—and substituted for it

, and the more ancient usages of Freemasonry , a mass of objectionable puerility . As a recognized society , knoAvn by the name AVC hear , Ave Avant hut tAvo more years to attain the patriarchial ago of one hundred and fifty years—a century and a half of public existence—and the question must often recur to every thoughtful and earnest brother—In this period of time Avhat progress has Freemasonry made 1

( Since the year 1717 , it ivould require a library in itself to chronicle the discoA'eries , and inventions , of the profane in CA ery branch of human thought and science , both for tlie use and luxury as AVOII as the profit and pleasure of mankind ; hut in the production of such benefits , derived from the hidden mysteries of nature and science , art or utility , the Freemason , as a benefactor to man-