Mark Masonry In Norfolk.

merated . The opening ceremony , which is always of a most impressive character , will be performed by Bvo . D . M . Dewar , Assistant Grand Secretary of England , who will officiate as Worshipful Master , and after tho confirmation of the minutes of the recent Lodge of Emergency , the

revised bye-laws , by which the future Mark Lodge will be governed , will be presented for adoption by the brethren . The ballot for members ancl candidates will then be opened , and such as are eligible will be advanced ; and the resuscitated Lodge having thus been constituted , Bro . H . G .

Barwell , Junior Overseer , will bo installed , by dispensation , as W . M . for the ensuing year . At the close of this interesting rite , the Officers for the year will be elected . Thus it will be seen that a full and important programme is before the brethren who are invited to assemble at

Norwich on Monday next , and the proceedings , as we have said , will be certain to be invested with peculiar interest to Masons in that Province . At the conclusion of the business the brethren and their visitors will be entertained at a banquet , for which special arrangements are being made ,

and of which we hope to give a report in our next issue . The revival of interest amongst Mark Masons in any district is a source of satisfaction to all who are attached members of the degree , and who have the interest of that branch of Freemasonry at heart , We have seen how , in

recent years , the degree has made rapid and important advances , testifying to the increasing popularity of the Mark , and it is eminently satisfactory to note the substantial work of beneficence and charity which is carried forward by those who are foremost in the ranks of that

degree . There is no longer any disposition , as there appeared to be bnt a very few years ago , to set down the Mark as a " side degree , " and more as an ornament than

of any recognised value in connection with the Craft ; but it is now regarded as a link , and a very important one , connecting Craft and Royal Arch Masonry , and containing in itself much that is beautiful and instructive . We are

pleased , therefore , at this additional sign of the revived interest which is being manifested in the degree amongst our Norfolk brethren , whom we wish every success in the enterprise they purpose to start with a new birth on Monday next .

In The Fire.

IN THE FIRE .

FSOM THE VOICE OP MASONET . MEMORIE S of half a century furnish large stores of material for reflection . There was a time when the passions and ignorance of men assumed the throne , and when reason and humanity were forgotten or neglected . A very few of the Freemasons of the present remember those days , and of the times and seasons when the Craft were "passing through the fires j" and yet there area few who

do , for they were in the storm , they felt its power and witnessed its ravages , and the destruction it wrought in the social fabric . I may not now attempt to picture that storm , or describe its fury , or tell of the wrecks left along its pathway . It is enough to say there was discord in tbe home-circle , severance in political affinities , and destruction in the churches . It was the desert . blast , withering every .

thing that was growing and green and beautiful . We sometimes read of the wild excitement of the Crusades—this was its equal in intensity , though more limited in its extent . Mahommed , from being a trader and fortune hunter , assumed the character of a Prophet , in which he could gather more money and exercise more power . The flash of his scimitar was the light to guide the footsteps of his

thoughtless and half-crazed followers . "Arabia ' s desert ranger , " with his vague fanatical notions , coupled with his reckless daring , came near revolutionising the social fabric , of upsetting the thrones , of trampling upon the crowns and re-modelling the kingdoms of the world . Anti-Masonry was as groundless and as visionary as tbe belief in Islamism , and would have been quite as destructive in its

results , and as wide-spread , if it had dared to be . But it was cowardly , mean and grovelling . The United States , it was found , were not Arabia , and the nineteenth century was very different from the seventh . The civilising influence of Christianity , Science and the arts placed a restriction upon fanaticism , and said : " Thns far thou , shalt go , but no farther . " That fanaticism , however , did its

work within the range of its influence , but that range was limited , as is that over which the cyclone sweeps in summer time . But political parties were sundered , churches and religious organisations were wrecked , the pulpit was invaded , and its utterances were shackled , or breathed of fire and sword ; the religious and devout were repelled from the sacraments , as well as from the social circle .

The evil spirit was even breathed into the children at school , and the little school boys were sometimes abused and beaten by older ones because their fathers were Freemasons ! It is almost impossible for people at this day to comprehend tbe bitterness and malignity which at that time pervaded society , turned otherwise respectable persona into semi-demons , and blighted and blasted social life from the church circle to the political hustings , in which childhood and age were

In The Fire.

equally the sufferers , and social life and amenities were driven back for a thousand years—more than half way into barbarism . Snch were the conditions of society and the feelings of men about the years from 1825 to 1830 . Middle New York was tho " stormcentre , " but its ravages extended eastward through Vermont , especially , but more or less through all the New England States ;

westward to north-eastern Ohio , and through Pennsylvania and even into Maryland . Nearly all tho Lodges in Maryland were compelled to give up their charters or close their doors , as well as many Lodges in other States . On " the Reserve , " in Ohio , Lodge halls were destroyed by mobs , the jewels and records stolen and carried away , the members ostracised , their business injured and their families slandered

and abused . And all for what ? To gratify the spirit that moved to the burning of witches , so-called , in New England , and drove Roger Williams to seek peace and safety elsewhere . Such was anti-Masonry in somo portions of the country less than sixty years ago among the pious (?) and intellectual fathers . Is it any better yet ? If The Cynosure utters the same sentiments and breathes the same

spirit ( as I am informed it does ) , it is the equal of the past and has been baptised in the same turgid waters ; and while it merits the execration of every patriot and Christian , public sentiment restrains it , and this is the safety and safeguard of the Craft and of the community . But why this terrible disturbance in the social elements , as well as

in Church and State ? A man in central New York , by the name of Morgan , who it was supposed contemplated an exposure of the "secrets of Masonry , " suddenly disappeared , and notwithstanding the most diligent search was made , he could not be found . Hundreds of similar oases of sudden disappearance have been known , that caused wonder and anxiety ; but in the case of Morgan a wild

fanatioism charged the Freemasons with murdering him ! Governor Clinton , himself a Freemason , and one of the ablest and purest men that ever filled that office in any State , instituted the most searching inquiry into the matter ; he set the proper legal officers of the State to ferret out the facts , and offered large rewards for the apprehension of the guilty parties , if the crime as alleged had been committed .

Several persons were arrested upon suspicion , and all the efforts of the officers were taxed to unravel the mystery , but all proved unavailing ; nothing could be discovered , no evidence of guilt found , and the arrested parties were discharged . All efforts failed , the proseou tions failed , and a reaction in public sentiment finally began . After all the official efforts that were made , encouraged by the offer of large

rewards , it ia not known to this day that a murder was committed , or , if there was , that the Freemasons had any hand in ifc . The whole affair was a miserable hoax , a spectre had been seen—an apparition caused by the shimmering of moonbeams through the branches . Excited imaginations , roused by fanatical or malignant purposes , conceived a theory ; a crime was supposed to have been committed ,

and pretended pietists , for political purposes , charged it upon the Freemasons . The whole waa a groundless fabrication , but the effects were fearful and wide-spread , as well as ruinous in every department of social life , and in all its interests . The question entered largely into politics , and a party was organized on the basis of hostility to Freemasonry , and its members .

In Pennsylvania that party elected a Governor ( Ritner ) and obtained control of State affairs . The acts of folly committed by the party awakened the people to a sense of their danger , and the tide of feeling not only soon subsided , but rolled back like the waves of ocean until it had recovered its normal condition . The Legislature instituted an inquiry relative to Freemasonry , and summoned three

of the best and most prominent men of the State to respond to certain questions , and tell all they knew about "the secrets of Masonry ; " but those three men understood their rights as American citizens , and refused to submit to the star-chamber procedure , or reply to questions the Legislature had no right to ask . They were then threatened with imprisonment for contempt , but like the three

Hebrews of old , they still refused to " bow down and worship the golden image , " and dared the Legislature to execute the infamous threat . But there is the " fiery furnace , and it is heated seven times hotter than usual . " " All right , " they said , " we prefer the prison or the flames to dishonour , and death to disgrace ! " The miserable fanatics in the Legislature quailed in the presence of such an

exhibition of virtue and constancy , and—paused ! The party had felt strong enough to attempt to control the National Government . A convention was held and a distinguished lawyer of Maryland was nominated as its candidate for President of the United States . He was a fine scholar , eminent at the bar , and could plead a pure and blameless life . But all would not do : the

tide had turned . The masses of the people who had watched the movements of the party and the spirit it manifested became alarmed , and the cause and the candidate were both buried under public contempt and indignation . Yet a few , even of to-day , still plead for Blanchard and his co-workers in a cause which is disgraceful to the ministry , the nation , and the age , and to the literature and

intelligence of the nineteenth century . A few encourage and sustain The Cynosure , the mouthpiece of fanatical ignorance and the vehicle of a spirit which would have caused the bigotry of the Middle Ages to blush , and witchcraft burning to disavow its acts and sentiments , — and , if not too late , to " call upon the rocks and mountains to fall " aud hide them from public contempt .

There is a mystery as well as history here . I have not room , nor have I the data at hand , to recount the entire history , and can only refer to some salient points as above . For more than ten years the excitement continued—in Church and State and family , and then it subsided—dying of its own intensity . May we not hope that such an ism will never revive ? It was then a mystery—it is

now a history : and yet the greatest mystery of all is the constancy of many true and faithful Craftsmen under such trying ordeals . To say nothing of men in humbler life , look at the honoured three who were called before the Legislature of Pennsylvania , and threatened with imprisonment because they would not respond to the illegal and impertinent questions that were proposed . Who were they ? George