Freemasonry In America.

question during the recess to the lodge s failing , the whole proposition was virtually killed . And every true Freemason and lover of his fellow man , may therefore rejoice , and say Amen . So mote it be ! To what extent the virus of this proposition to do a wrong had entered and

contaminated the great body , whose votes as g iven indicate its members , may be noticed by the fact that 332 out of 733 voted in favor of sustaining it . And yet , not one man of those 332 , it may be reliiously believedhad the slightest unkind

g , feeling toward the men whom this proposition of 1875 proposed to stigmatize . The whole movement was led by a zealous , and well meaning Past Grand Master of the Greater Grand Lodge , who has since October last deceased , a lawyer byprofession ,

and who really believed he was in this manner going to solve a difficulty that daily grew greater . And while , during the past year the Foreign Correspondence Committees ( who in this country are a sty le of censors unknown to few in Great Britain ) of the several greater Grand Lodges throughout the United States discussed the " Ohio proposition to recognize

the Negro Grand Lodges as it was termed by some , and to " commit Masonic Suicide " by others , variously and ats the same struck them , according to their respective localities and points of view , not one of the nearly half hundred even hinted , or in any manner made it appear the thought ever entered

their brains that this proposition was virtually and gravely an insult hurled in the face of the lesser Grand Lodge of Ohio . And why ? 1 . The American doctrine , a doctrine which has had but about fifty years of

active life , of one Grand Lodge being sovereign in one State . 2 . The pretended informalit y , emanating from tho handling of the subject in the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts , that the Freemasons of this lesser Grand Lodge of Ohio , in common

with those of all the other U . S . lesser Grand Lodges , are clandestine made Masons , and , 3 . The natural indisposition that Slavery has implanted in the American heart , such heart comprising the feelings of the descendants in this country of English , Irish , Scotch German and French , with a sprinkling of other nationalities , to recognize an equal or a brother in the man whose

Freemasonry In America.

primogeniture begun in slavery in this country , and continued until later years in the ignorance and abasement slavery demanded , and everywhere and always will demand as its necessary support . And yet the very large majority of those English ,

Irish , Scotch German and French descent Americans are proud and boastful in calling themselves Christians , with the Christian ' s Bible as the Great Lig ht of their altar , and in which they may read that God made of one blood all nations of men to dwell on

the Earth together , and Jesus Christ shed his precious blood on the cross to save all men , and restore them to their Creator ' s mercy and love ; while politically they acknowledge having fought for to the death , and decided their faith in the correctness of

the Declaration of their Ancestors , one hundred years ago , " That all ' men are created equal and in freedom , and endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights , among which are life , liberty , and the pursuit of happiness . "

Such is the inconsistency , and the worse , than African slavery to prejudice and expediency , that stamps Freemasonry in America , in this , the one hundred and ( nearly ) fiftieth year of its existence .

Notes On Literature, Science And Art.

NOTES ON LITERATURE , SCIENCE AND ART .

BY BRO . GEORGE MARK . HA 1 I TWEDDELL , Fellow of the Royal Society of Northern Antiquaries , Copenhagen ; Corresponding Member of the Jioyal Historical Society , London ; Honorary Member of the Manchester Literary Club , and of the Whitby Literary and Philosophical Society ,

&* c , &> c . MR . J , CHARLES Cox , F . R . H . S ., has just issued the second volume of his very valuable "Notes on the Churches of Derbyshire , " which fully bears out the commendations I bestowed upon the first

volume . It treats of the Hundreds of the High Peak and Wi ' rksworth , and is dedicated , by permission , to Bishop Hobhouse , " in acknowledgment of the kind and generous help received at his hands in furtherance of the author ' s attempt to