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Article THE PRESENT ASPECTS OF THE MASONIC STRUGGLE IN FRANCE AND BELGIUM. ← Page 2 of 2 Article MORBID TASTES. Page 1 of 1 Article MORBID TASTES. Page 1 of 1 Article MORBID TASTES. Page 1 of 1 Article CONTINUED ROMAN CATHOLIC ATTACKS ON FREEMASONRY. Page 1 of 1 Article Original Correspondence. Page 1 of 2 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Present Aspects Of The Masonic Struggle In France And Belgium.
Supreme Being he is presented with 27 black halls , and initiation is refused to him . I ask you , my very dear brethren , if that is not intolerance ?" and we think that all of our readers will answer at once "Yes , a great deal more . " One fact , they cnv . is worth a thousand arguments , and surely
we want nothing more to convince us what this present agitation is tending to , and what must be the inevitable end , of the recent ill-advised decision of the G . Orient of France . It is a matter to all Anglo-Saxon Freemasons of very deep regret , as if these words are taken out of the constitutional
laws of French Freemasonry there will be but one course open to all Anglo-Saxon Grand Lodges , as far as we can see—that of non-recognition of the G . Orients of France and Belgium . And for this reason , they have by a Masonic " coup d ' etat , " removed , the great and
cosmopolitan teaching of Freemasonry , and in so doing have separated themselves from a million of Anglo-Saxon Freemasons . When Bro . Andre Rousselle in his eloquent address thus expresses himself , we can only feel the greatest astonishment that so able a man can permit himself to
be so deceived by his own theory . " Vous invoquez d ' aborcl l'interpretation fausse et mensongere qui pourrait etre faite de notre vote par les Grands Orients etrangers , et qui aurait peut-•'• tre pour consequence d ' isaler la Marjonnerie Franraise au sein de la Maconnerie
universelle . Vos suppositions ne me touchent guere , parce qu ' ellcs sont purement grattiites et ne reposent sur aucun fondement . Aucune parole , aucun acte des Grands Orients etrangers ne vous autorisent a Ieur preter si genereusement de pareils sentiments d ' excommunication
ou d' ostracisme . Apres les debats aux quels nous nous livrons en ce moment , aucun homme intelligent et honncte , ne pourra dire serieusement que le Grand Orient de France a voulu bannir de ses Loges la croyance en Dieu et en 1 'immortalite de l ' ame , alors , au contraire qu ' au
nom de la liberte absolue de conscience il declare solennellement respecter les convictions , les doctrines , et les croyances de ses membres . Nous n ' entendons pas plus nier qu ' affirmer aucun dogme , afin de demeurer fideles a notre principe et a notre pratique de la solidarite humaine . S'il
plaisait aux Grands Orients etrangers de nous calomnicr , en travestissant nos pensees et en denaturant nos sentiments , libre a eux . L ' opinion publique les juguerait et , tot ou tard , la vt ' rite se ferait jour . " "You then invoke the false and lying interpretation which might be made
of our vote by foreign Grand Orients , and which might have the consequence of isolating French Freemasonry in the bosom of universal Masonry . Your suppositions hardly touch me , because they are purely gratuitous , and rest on no foundation . Not one word , not one act of the foreign G .
Orient authorise you in lending to them so generous like sentiments of excommunication or ostracism . After the debates to which we devote ourselves at this moment , no intelligent and honest man can seriously say , that the Grand Orient of France has wished to banish from its
lodges belief in God , and the immortality of the Soul , because , on the contrary , in the name of absolute liberty of belief of conscience , it declares solemnly that it wishes to respect the conviction , the doctrine , and' the belief of its members . We do not intend to deny or affirm
any dogma , in order to remain faithkil to our principle and practice of human solidarity . If it should please foreign Grand Orients to calumniate us by travestying our thoughts , and giving a non-natural meaning to our opinions , let them do so . The public opinion will judge them , and sooner or later truth will prevail . "
Despite Bro . Rousselle ' s words , we fancy that there will be but one opinion among Anglo-Saxon Masons of the extreme folly and grave impropriety of the course which the French and Bel gian Masons are now pursuing , and of the inevitable isolation which they are preparing for themselves We are heartily sorry for them and for Freemasonry in these countries .
Morbid Tastes.
MORBID TASTES .
We published in the last " Freemason " a most sensible letter from Mr . Sheriff East to the Times , " because we are of opinion that we all
Morbid Tastes.
ought to be greatly obliged to any one who so courageously sets himself , "pro bono publico , " against the " morbidity " of the hour . We thank him very much for his announcement , and we think that he has set an example worthy of universal imitation . With a deep sense of
his own personal responsibility with respect to a most melancholy act of stern but needed justice , Mr . Sheriff' East most truly and clearly points out that the desire to be present at such a mournful sight as an execution in prison by any one who has no call to be there , is a proof of a
morbid mind . We trust that other authorities will with equal wisdom and good sense discourage the attendance on such occasions of those whom neither duty nor necessity have compelled to be present , as the desire to witness all the details of an execution within the walls
of the prison is , in our opinion , almost as vitiated a taste as one can well picture to one ' s mind . There was a famous wit and bon vivant in former days—George Selwyn—who had a peculiar taste for all such scenes of pain and shame , and it has been said that in the dress of one of the
executioner ' s attendants he stood by and witnessed a wreTched individual broken on the wheel at Paris . But then , as Horace Walpole seems to intimate , despite his undoubted wit and remarkable " bon mots , " his conduct was flighty and his habits eccentric . There have been
many persons since George Selwyn to whom the execution of a fellow creature has appeared a sight to be sought after , and their presence at such unwholesome gatherings a matter of becoming pride to themselves . And the taste still lingers amongst us , the same
morbid tendency still prevails in the age in which we live ; and yet we never ourselves could realize , nor do we profess to understand now , why such abnormal conditions of humanity are to be dwelt upon or gloated over by any one with average sensibilities or the normal amount of common
sense . There is nothing ever very heroic , either in criminals or in criminality . The criminals for the most part with whom the law has to deal , have in them little to redeem and nothing to elevate them " above the level of their venal sympathies or their worthless lives . They
are really very common-place scoundrels indeed , whom a round of continued criminality has either hardened into iniquity , or has rendered them impervious to every dictate of honour and humanity . For them there is nothing but the proper surveillance and detection ' of the
police , the stern grasp of the law , the just sentence of the Court of Judicature . They ought to inspire no sympathy , and can claim no admiration on any ground of known ethics or reasonable opinion . No doubt , every now and then , the career of society is startled , and the
annals of crime are darkened , by some special case of malignity , by some awful exhibition of wickedness , by some appalling and even some heart-sickening brutality , yet in such a case , though the tendency of the hour may be to dwell upon the needless details of the reporters'
manipulations , and people often profess an excitement on such topics which they do not really feel , yet there surely should be no morbid desire to hear of the last words or to note the last agonies of the dying criminal . To suppose that any such exceptional literature can do any
of us good , psychologicall y or morally , can either improve , or warn , or edify , or instruct , is one of the greatest fallacies of an unreasoning sensationalism . When the last stern sentence of the law has been passed , and society exacts its needful
Nemesis , the criminal should be left to the solitude of the prison , and the solemn if painful routine of the execution morn , ft may be needful and wise that representatives of the press , and those whom the law properly appoints as the jury , should be present , to witness the fulfilment of
the sad requirements of justice , but for some careless idler or man about town to go to such a scene as a matter of amusement or excitement is about as great a solecism on all that is befitting and all that is becoming , as can , we
venture to think , be possibly conceived by the human mind . There are some vitiated constitutions which require the constant " stimulant " to nerve them to action daily ; there are some palled tastes which demand some hurtful
Morbid Tastes.
excitement to enable them to " kill time'" probably , but for any one desiring to make it part of his day ' s business to attend ( without any call so to do ) , an execution in the morning , to pass away some idle moments , is a reflexion , ( we say nothing of the individual himself )
alike on the reason and the philanthropy of society and the age . We , therefore , are glad to chronicle this most sensible resolution of Mr . Sheriff East , and we feel that the thanks of all are due to him , who deprecate and detest a hateful and harmful
morbidity . The belief in criminals and criminality is happily on the wane amongst us , and no more forms the staple of a vivacious literature , except for reprehension and moral warning . As any detective officer will tell you , if you throw off the veil which sometimes hangs over the deeds
of the daring , and the artifices of the astute , if you reduce the burglar , the "cracksman , " the fence , the murderer to his true character , when the varnish is peeled off , and the petty mystery of accident has vanished , you have to deal with a most uninteresting personage indeed . Crime ,
as we know , begets crime , and few are criminal all at once . But whether it be for the hardened malefactor righteously suffering the well-merited meed of his prosperous criminality , or th . 3 evil doer whom passion , or drink , or revenge , or brutality has hurried to his crime and the gallows , on
him , as our legislature now wisely provides , let the curtain , so to say , of oblivion drop once for all . Society can never be benefitted or edified by the tale of his often excited personal utterances , or the mournful spectacle of his last sufferings . We thank Mr . Sheriff East once again for his very seasonable letter .
Continued Roman Catholic Attacks On Freemasonry.
CONTINUED ROMAN CATHOLIC ATTACKS ON FREEMASONRY .
We shall call attention in our next number to two recent allocutions against Freemasonry , one addressed by the Pope to the Bishop of St . Paul of Brazil and the other an address of the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Malta to his clergy .
Original Correspondence.
Original Correspondence .
[ We do not hold ourselves responsible for , or even as approving or the opinions expressed by our correspondents , but we wish , in a spirit of fair play to all , to permit—within certain necessary limits—free discussion . —ED . ]
GRAND LODGE OF SCOTLAND . To the Editor if the " Freemason . " Dear Sir and Brother , — Many thanks for the insertion of my letter , and I only hope that the " Freemason " is read in every lodge , and by every brother in Scotland . I am convinced that that letter will be approved of by almost every lodge in
Scotland , while it may , at the same time , draw down upon my devoted head the denunciations of some who prefer the wrong to the right ; but I have counted the cost , and am prepared to abide the decision of the Craft . I neither write from disappointment nor revenge . I have no Masonic or personal ambition to serve , nor have I any Masonic brother to sacrifice . 1 write because I have for
years seen the Grand Lodge of Scotland going to ruin , and brethren either cannot , will not , or dare not interpose . To save lif e the surgeon has sometimes to cut off a limb , and to save the life of Grand Lodge of Scotland I have written that letter , but if I cannot save its existence , I will at least expose its defects , that the brethren may brace themselves un to the work of rmnmiinn
Allow me again to notice for a moment the financial condition of Grand Lodge . The financial affairs of any institution are the most easily managed . That is to say , they are matters of fact , and not of sentiment , and every penny , shilling , and pound ought to be accounted for at the end of the financial year , so that the brethren may see at once on which side the balance lies , and brings out the old that short
adage accounts make long friends . But the most extraordinary thing is that we cannot get a statement of facts from anybody . When I say we , I mean Grand Lodge , apart from officials and Grand Committee . We have a Grand Secretary , but no report from him j a Grand Treasurer , but no report from him ; a Finance Committee , but no report from them ; a
Property Committee , but ! no report from them ; there are Trustees for the liquidation of debt fund , but no report from them ; Trustees for the Fund of Benevolence , but no report from them . Everything is midnight darkness , and is it to be wondered at that the brethren are becoming impatient and disheartened ?
If we turn to the Masonic aspect of Grand Lodge things are no better . The Craft know actually nothing about itself . _ No report is printed to show whether we are increasing or decreasing , progressing or retrogressing . We know nothing about how many initiates are annually enrolled , how many diplomas have been issued , how many new charters have been granted , or how many lodges
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Present Aspects Of The Masonic Struggle In France And Belgium.
Supreme Being he is presented with 27 black halls , and initiation is refused to him . I ask you , my very dear brethren , if that is not intolerance ?" and we think that all of our readers will answer at once "Yes , a great deal more . " One fact , they cnv . is worth a thousand arguments , and surely
we want nothing more to convince us what this present agitation is tending to , and what must be the inevitable end , of the recent ill-advised decision of the G . Orient of France . It is a matter to all Anglo-Saxon Freemasons of very deep regret , as if these words are taken out of the constitutional
laws of French Freemasonry there will be but one course open to all Anglo-Saxon Grand Lodges , as far as we can see—that of non-recognition of the G . Orients of France and Belgium . And for this reason , they have by a Masonic " coup d ' etat , " removed , the great and
cosmopolitan teaching of Freemasonry , and in so doing have separated themselves from a million of Anglo-Saxon Freemasons . When Bro . Andre Rousselle in his eloquent address thus expresses himself , we can only feel the greatest astonishment that so able a man can permit himself to
be so deceived by his own theory . " Vous invoquez d ' aborcl l'interpretation fausse et mensongere qui pourrait etre faite de notre vote par les Grands Orients etrangers , et qui aurait peut-•'• tre pour consequence d ' isaler la Marjonnerie Franraise au sein de la Maconnerie
universelle . Vos suppositions ne me touchent guere , parce qu ' ellcs sont purement grattiites et ne reposent sur aucun fondement . Aucune parole , aucun acte des Grands Orients etrangers ne vous autorisent a Ieur preter si genereusement de pareils sentiments d ' excommunication
ou d' ostracisme . Apres les debats aux quels nous nous livrons en ce moment , aucun homme intelligent et honncte , ne pourra dire serieusement que le Grand Orient de France a voulu bannir de ses Loges la croyance en Dieu et en 1 'immortalite de l ' ame , alors , au contraire qu ' au
nom de la liberte absolue de conscience il declare solennellement respecter les convictions , les doctrines , et les croyances de ses membres . Nous n ' entendons pas plus nier qu ' affirmer aucun dogme , afin de demeurer fideles a notre principe et a notre pratique de la solidarite humaine . S'il
plaisait aux Grands Orients etrangers de nous calomnicr , en travestissant nos pensees et en denaturant nos sentiments , libre a eux . L ' opinion publique les juguerait et , tot ou tard , la vt ' rite se ferait jour . " "You then invoke the false and lying interpretation which might be made
of our vote by foreign Grand Orients , and which might have the consequence of isolating French Freemasonry in the bosom of universal Masonry . Your suppositions hardly touch me , because they are purely gratuitous , and rest on no foundation . Not one word , not one act of the foreign G .
Orient authorise you in lending to them so generous like sentiments of excommunication or ostracism . After the debates to which we devote ourselves at this moment , no intelligent and honest man can seriously say , that the Grand Orient of France has wished to banish from its
lodges belief in God , and the immortality of the Soul , because , on the contrary , in the name of absolute liberty of belief of conscience , it declares solemnly that it wishes to respect the conviction , the doctrine , and' the belief of its members . We do not intend to deny or affirm
any dogma , in order to remain faithkil to our principle and practice of human solidarity . If it should please foreign Grand Orients to calumniate us by travestying our thoughts , and giving a non-natural meaning to our opinions , let them do so . The public opinion will judge them , and sooner or later truth will prevail . "
Despite Bro . Rousselle ' s words , we fancy that there will be but one opinion among Anglo-Saxon Masons of the extreme folly and grave impropriety of the course which the French and Bel gian Masons are now pursuing , and of the inevitable isolation which they are preparing for themselves We are heartily sorry for them and for Freemasonry in these countries .
Morbid Tastes.
MORBID TASTES .
We published in the last " Freemason " a most sensible letter from Mr . Sheriff East to the Times , " because we are of opinion that we all
Morbid Tastes.
ought to be greatly obliged to any one who so courageously sets himself , "pro bono publico , " against the " morbidity " of the hour . We thank him very much for his announcement , and we think that he has set an example worthy of universal imitation . With a deep sense of
his own personal responsibility with respect to a most melancholy act of stern but needed justice , Mr . Sheriff' East most truly and clearly points out that the desire to be present at such a mournful sight as an execution in prison by any one who has no call to be there , is a proof of a
morbid mind . We trust that other authorities will with equal wisdom and good sense discourage the attendance on such occasions of those whom neither duty nor necessity have compelled to be present , as the desire to witness all the details of an execution within the walls
of the prison is , in our opinion , almost as vitiated a taste as one can well picture to one ' s mind . There was a famous wit and bon vivant in former days—George Selwyn—who had a peculiar taste for all such scenes of pain and shame , and it has been said that in the dress of one of the
executioner ' s attendants he stood by and witnessed a wreTched individual broken on the wheel at Paris . But then , as Horace Walpole seems to intimate , despite his undoubted wit and remarkable " bon mots , " his conduct was flighty and his habits eccentric . There have been
many persons since George Selwyn to whom the execution of a fellow creature has appeared a sight to be sought after , and their presence at such unwholesome gatherings a matter of becoming pride to themselves . And the taste still lingers amongst us , the same
morbid tendency still prevails in the age in which we live ; and yet we never ourselves could realize , nor do we profess to understand now , why such abnormal conditions of humanity are to be dwelt upon or gloated over by any one with average sensibilities or the normal amount of common
sense . There is nothing ever very heroic , either in criminals or in criminality . The criminals for the most part with whom the law has to deal , have in them little to redeem and nothing to elevate them " above the level of their venal sympathies or their worthless lives . They
are really very common-place scoundrels indeed , whom a round of continued criminality has either hardened into iniquity , or has rendered them impervious to every dictate of honour and humanity . For them there is nothing but the proper surveillance and detection ' of the
police , the stern grasp of the law , the just sentence of the Court of Judicature . They ought to inspire no sympathy , and can claim no admiration on any ground of known ethics or reasonable opinion . No doubt , every now and then , the career of society is startled , and the
annals of crime are darkened , by some special case of malignity , by some awful exhibition of wickedness , by some appalling and even some heart-sickening brutality , yet in such a case , though the tendency of the hour may be to dwell upon the needless details of the reporters'
manipulations , and people often profess an excitement on such topics which they do not really feel , yet there surely should be no morbid desire to hear of the last words or to note the last agonies of the dying criminal . To suppose that any such exceptional literature can do any
of us good , psychologicall y or morally , can either improve , or warn , or edify , or instruct , is one of the greatest fallacies of an unreasoning sensationalism . When the last stern sentence of the law has been passed , and society exacts its needful
Nemesis , the criminal should be left to the solitude of the prison , and the solemn if painful routine of the execution morn , ft may be needful and wise that representatives of the press , and those whom the law properly appoints as the jury , should be present , to witness the fulfilment of
the sad requirements of justice , but for some careless idler or man about town to go to such a scene as a matter of amusement or excitement is about as great a solecism on all that is befitting and all that is becoming , as can , we
venture to think , be possibly conceived by the human mind . There are some vitiated constitutions which require the constant " stimulant " to nerve them to action daily ; there are some palled tastes which demand some hurtful
Morbid Tastes.
excitement to enable them to " kill time'" probably , but for any one desiring to make it part of his day ' s business to attend ( without any call so to do ) , an execution in the morning , to pass away some idle moments , is a reflexion , ( we say nothing of the individual himself )
alike on the reason and the philanthropy of society and the age . We , therefore , are glad to chronicle this most sensible resolution of Mr . Sheriff East , and we feel that the thanks of all are due to him , who deprecate and detest a hateful and harmful
morbidity . The belief in criminals and criminality is happily on the wane amongst us , and no more forms the staple of a vivacious literature , except for reprehension and moral warning . As any detective officer will tell you , if you throw off the veil which sometimes hangs over the deeds
of the daring , and the artifices of the astute , if you reduce the burglar , the "cracksman , " the fence , the murderer to his true character , when the varnish is peeled off , and the petty mystery of accident has vanished , you have to deal with a most uninteresting personage indeed . Crime ,
as we know , begets crime , and few are criminal all at once . But whether it be for the hardened malefactor righteously suffering the well-merited meed of his prosperous criminality , or th . 3 evil doer whom passion , or drink , or revenge , or brutality has hurried to his crime and the gallows , on
him , as our legislature now wisely provides , let the curtain , so to say , of oblivion drop once for all . Society can never be benefitted or edified by the tale of his often excited personal utterances , or the mournful spectacle of his last sufferings . We thank Mr . Sheriff East once again for his very seasonable letter .
Continued Roman Catholic Attacks On Freemasonry.
CONTINUED ROMAN CATHOLIC ATTACKS ON FREEMASONRY .
We shall call attention in our next number to two recent allocutions against Freemasonry , one addressed by the Pope to the Bishop of St . Paul of Brazil and the other an address of the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Malta to his clergy .
Original Correspondence.
Original Correspondence .
[ We do not hold ourselves responsible for , or even as approving or the opinions expressed by our correspondents , but we wish , in a spirit of fair play to all , to permit—within certain necessary limits—free discussion . —ED . ]
GRAND LODGE OF SCOTLAND . To the Editor if the " Freemason . " Dear Sir and Brother , — Many thanks for the insertion of my letter , and I only hope that the " Freemason " is read in every lodge , and by every brother in Scotland . I am convinced that that letter will be approved of by almost every lodge in
Scotland , while it may , at the same time , draw down upon my devoted head the denunciations of some who prefer the wrong to the right ; but I have counted the cost , and am prepared to abide the decision of the Craft . I neither write from disappointment nor revenge . I have no Masonic or personal ambition to serve , nor have I any Masonic brother to sacrifice . 1 write because I have for
years seen the Grand Lodge of Scotland going to ruin , and brethren either cannot , will not , or dare not interpose . To save lif e the surgeon has sometimes to cut off a limb , and to save the life of Grand Lodge of Scotland I have written that letter , but if I cannot save its existence , I will at least expose its defects , that the brethren may brace themselves un to the work of rmnmiinn
Allow me again to notice for a moment the financial condition of Grand Lodge . The financial affairs of any institution are the most easily managed . That is to say , they are matters of fact , and not of sentiment , and every penny , shilling , and pound ought to be accounted for at the end of the financial year , so that the brethren may see at once on which side the balance lies , and brings out the old that short
adage accounts make long friends . But the most extraordinary thing is that we cannot get a statement of facts from anybody . When I say we , I mean Grand Lodge , apart from officials and Grand Committee . We have a Grand Secretary , but no report from him j a Grand Treasurer , but no report from him ; a Finance Committee , but no report from them ; a
Property Committee , but ! no report from them ; there are Trustees for the liquidation of debt fund , but no report from them ; Trustees for the Fund of Benevolence , but no report from them . Everything is midnight darkness , and is it to be wondered at that the brethren are becoming impatient and disheartened ?
If we turn to the Masonic aspect of Grand Lodge things are no better . The Craft know actually nothing about itself . _ No report is printed to show whether we are increasing or decreasing , progressing or retrogressing . We know nothing about how many initiates are annually enrolled , how many diplomas have been issued , how many new charters have been granted , or how many lodges