Freemasonry In The City. From The " Saturday Review."

FREEMASONRY IN THE CITY . FROM THE " SATURDAY REVIEW . "

IT a common opinion of those who are not Freemasons that if there were anything in Freemasonry it would have been found out long ago . We may go with the holders of this opinion to this extent , that if you do not want to be found out the best way is to have no secret . It is , however , impressive to ordinary minds to talk mysteriously where no mystery exists ; and we cannot help remarking

that , if Mr . Disraeli is not a Freemason , tho Prince of Wales , for the advantage not only of tho Order , bnt of society in general , should insist on making him ono . He would be far away tho best speaker at a Masonic dinner that ever came out , and would discourse on the antagonism between Popery and Freemasonry with that vague eloquence which is his peculiar gift .

An " emergency meeting , " or , in other words , a dinner of the Great City Lodge of Freemasons , was held on Saturday last , at tho City Terminus Hotel , to celebrate tho facts that tho Lord Mayor is a member of this Lodge and a Past Master of the Order , that the Prince of Wales is Grand Master of tho Order , and that Masonry is generally looking up . A speaker , who described himself

as " father of the Grand Officers of England , " assured tho meeting that Masonry was making great strides , and he added a caution , which strikes us as hardly suitable to tho Great City Lodge , that in all their members quality , and not quantity , should be considered . Wo wonld desire to speak with respect of the " quality" of a Lord Mayor , remarking , at the same time ,

that the " quantity " of him is likely to bo more conspicuous . The " Great City Lodge" probably deserves its name by the greatness of its individual members as well as by their number and importance . The same speaker was less intelligible when ho warned his hearers against seeking Masonry for " private purposes . " The assumption that the Order exists for any purpose

at all except good fellowship is perhaps difficult for outsiders to realize . Men appear to become Masons becanse they like it , and if you do a thing to please yourself you may be said , without any unpleasant imputation , to do it for a private purpose . Almost any kind of association may be useful to its members . A man becomes , when he is young , a member of tho Grocers' or Fishmongers '

Company ; and perhaps , when he is middle-aged or old , he rises to be a governor , sits at well-furnished dining-tables , and helps to dispose of valuable patronage . A lawyer or man of business may do himself some good and no harm by becoming a " Grocer " or " a Fishmonger , " and in the same way it may be useful to become a " Mason . " To impnte or disclaim " private purposes " in such an act seems to us

superfluous . Freemasons meet and dino together , and good dinners promote good feeling , and they may , if it so pleases them , describe themselves as carrying out their " guiding principle "of " peace on earth" and " goodwill amongst men , " by holding an " emergency meeting " for dinner and other purposes at the City Terminus Hotel . This style was invented by tho author of the lines : —

Tho naked every day ho clad When ho put on his clothes . Perhaps , however , we come as near to the " guiding principle" of Freemasonry in this way as in any other . It means good dinners , and good dinners mean whatever after-dinner speakers say they mean . If Mr . Disraeli were a Freemason , ho would make a speech

which nobody could understand , and which everybody would feel to be grand , solemn , mysterious , and suggestive of obscure dangers to the human race , which could only be averted by the potent organization to which tho speaker had tho happiness to belong . Vngue talk about "the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man , " together with " purple , " titles , and an appeal to what may be called tho

" clubablc " instinct of man , make up Freemasonry as sceu from the outside . The " purple" is rivalled or burlesqued by the " regalia" of the Good Templars , and this aud several other associations have indulged in the cheap pleasure of equally sonorous titles . If a retail tradesman finds satisfaction in being called a " W . P . M ., " he is not more silly than certain persons of both

education and position who have created themselves Knights of tho Orders of the Temple and St . John . The love of these distinctions pervades all classes of Englishmen and Americans , and among them tho " purple " of Frcemasony is like the " purple" of the Roman Emperors beside the robes of European Kings . The antiquity and utility of tho Order aro unquestionable . Masons in the middle ages

were necessarily a wandering Craft . They passed from place to place in quest of work , and where they came they needed means to discover themselves to their brethren , and claim their hospitality and help . In tho middle ages writing was a rarit y , and it was always liable to bo forged , and hence the utility of some sign of membership known only to the brethren . This account of the Order and its

use could be embellished by poetical , or religions , or technical language to any desired exteut , to the satisfaction of all Masons , and without harm to anybody else . The antipathy of the Pope to the Order may be sufficiently explained on the principle that two of a trade never agree . The genuine old-established shop for mysteries ia keptby tho successor of St . Peter , and all other wares claiming to bo of the

same kind are spurious . But , notwithstanding the Pope ' s hostility , it appears that tho Freemasons have established a Lodge in Rome , and this fact is regarded as almost equally important with the existence of a Lord Mayor of London , who is a member of a Lodge and a P . M . Indeed , it seems to be anticipated that with the speedy growth of civilisation and enlightenment " emergency

meetings , followed by dinners , will be held in Rome . "We shall , I trust , " says a speaker , " soon hear of meetings like this , where the chief civic dignitaries of Rome will meet their brethren under the banner of a Great City Lodge . " We may hope that when " the chief civic dignitaries of Rome " become Freemasons , their quantity as well as quality will be acceptable to their English brethren . Perhaps by that time turtle-soup aud punch will be available upon

Freemasonry In The City. From The " Saturday Review."

" emergency " at Rome , and no modern representative of the " lean and hungry " Cassius will then be eligible for " purple . " The present year is likely to be , in a Masonic point of view , eventful . The Prince of Wales will be installed as Grand Master in a large and noble Hall , which has been , indeed , erected for other purposes , bnt will now be sanctified and made honourable by the

ceremony . Solomon , as we all know , was a Freemason , bnt it is thought that Solomon , in all his glory , would have been nothing to the installation of the Prince of Wales . The Lord Mayor acknowledges that he has been negligent of his own Masonio duties , and perhaps he and others may have been stimulated to perform those duties zealously by the fact of the Prince of Wales

being Grand Master . The object of the Prince of Wales , and of Masons jrenerally , is , according to the Lord Mayor , to insist that " light shall prevail , " whereas the Pope goes in for darkness . A society which has tho Prince of Wales for its leader and the Pope for its enemy has a double claim on the sympathy of Englishmen , and if it were possible for Englishwomen to become Freemasons

we are sure that under such interesting circumstances they would do so . We believe that there never was a female Freemason , or at least only one , whose picture sometimes serves at village alehouses as the sign of the " Quiet Woman . " Bnt although Eudishwomen cannot love a society of men which keeps or professes to keep a secret from them , they cannot hate that which the Pope condemns

and the Prince of Wales supports . We must own indeed that the desiro of the Grand Master that light shall prevail still leaves in some obscurity the principles of the Craft . A speaker at the dinner assured his hearers that these principles were made manifest by the working of the Great City Lodge . But this , again , is vague and intangible . To say that the object of Freemasons is that "

everything that is good , graceful , honourable , and beneficial , shall stand upward and be put forward , " is merely to say that Freemasons are good Christians and good citizens , which we could readily believe without earnest and reiterated assertions . It is well-known that the builders of the Tower of Babel were the first , or among the first , Freemasons , and King Solomon was

one of the most distinguished members of the Order . The institution has been continued , at least in imagination , down from these remote times in uninterrupted succession to the present day . It is , indeed , objected that this unbroken tradition , if it existed , must have kept alive and handed down much information that has , on the contrary , been utterly lost . But this objection

would not be likely to prevail after dinner . It is at any rate as easy to believe that Freemasonry existed under Solomon as to find tho origin of chivalry in the Trojan war . Indeed , the Freemasonry of tho middle ages , in which bishops were associated , resembled tho orders of knighthood of which the same ages were prolific . The connexion between the practical Masonry which

built cathedrals , and the speculative Masonry which forms lodges . is no doubt perceived by the same discerning eyes which can trace tho lino of official succession from King Solomon to the Prince of Wales . To less acute observation it would appear , however , that Freemasonry declined and almost perished before the Refor . mation , and only revived in England about the time of the Civil

War . Whether it revived or survived , it had wholly lost any practical character at the beginning of the eighteenth century ; but from that time onwards , dukes , princes , and other distinguished persons have held its offices in England , and it spread from this country to Continental Europe , where it encountered opposition and persecution , which were not

unnaturally provoked by the real or affected mystery of its proceedings . The charge against Freemasonry that it was an organized conspiracy atrainst reliction and government is not likely to have been at any time or place well founded . But it is not wonderful that such a charge was made . The probability is that there neither was nor is anything that is good or bad to conceal ; that Freemasonry is only an innocent mystification , and that its symbols and instructions ,

whatever meaning or purpose they may originally have had , are now merely forms retained by the brethren of " free and accepted Masons " for tho purpose of conferring peculiar importance on harmless social meetings . When cigars are kindled towards the close of a Masonic dinner , members may assert , and outsiders would be uncivil if they denied , that the great principle " that light shall prevail " is being supported .

M . W . Bro . J . G . Fleming has been elected Grand Master of Masons in Louisiana , and Bro . J . C . Batcheldcr , M . D ., Grand Secretary . The Grand R . A . Chapter of Louisiana has elected M . E . Comp . S . . 1 . Powell as Grand High Priest , and M . E . Comp . J . 0 . Batchelder , M . D ., Grand Secretary .

111 . Comp . W . R . Whitaker has been chosen M . P . Grand Master of the Grand Council , R . and S . M ., of Louisiana , and Comp . Gustavus Sontag , Grand Recorder . M . W . Bro . N . Van Slyck , Grand Master of Rhode Island , has been invited by the City Commissioners of Providence to lay the corner stone of the New City Hall of that city . The ceremony will take place either in May or June next .

The annual assembly of the Grand Council of Royal , Super-excellent , and select Masters of Pennsylvania , was held in tho City of Harrisburg , ou Wednesday evening , 17 th February 1875 , when tho following officers were elected to serve for the ensuing year : Comp . Christian F . Knapp , of Bloomsburg , M . P . Grand Master , Comp . Geter C . Shidle , of Pittsburgh , R . P . D . Grand Master , Comp . M . Richards

Mnckle , of Philadelphia , R . P . I . Grand Master , Comp . Win . J . Fordney , of Lancaster , R . P . Grand P . C . of W ., Comp . James Brown , of Pittsburgh , R . P . Grand Treasurer , Comp . Chas . E . Meyer , of Philadelphia , R . P . Grand Recorder . The next meeting of the Grand Council will be held at Lancaster , on the 3 rd Wednesday in February 187 G . —New York Courier .