Freemasonry In France.

casion of the new negociations between the Grand Orient and the Supreme Council , Bro . Dupin ventured to remark that " the pi-oof of the Masonic power remains with the Grand Orient .... that is that which it has assumed . " We should be

justified on every ground in rejecting an ai-oument which proves nothing . The Grand Orient has acquired by regular treaties , the Philosophic Scottish Pdte , the Rig ht of Heredom , and the Rite of Kilwinning . It acquired in 1804 by

, a regular treaty and a money payment , the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite . Forced to yield , by a schism in 1805 , it reclaimed its rights in 1814 , because in the terms of its Constitutions , which are the foundation of the Scottish Rite , the

Sovereign Grand Inspectors-General , at the time in Paris , possessed the power and the right to establish a Supreme Council wherever one no longer existed . If , then , in 1821 some discontented Grand Inspectors-General desired to resume their interrupted work , they could only join the Supreme Council , already in existence , and not create a new one

without arrogating to themselves , a power which they had illegally assumed , for there could be but one Supreme Council in each kingdom . There is another illegality which we must point out , and to which to the present time no one has defended .

The Rite of Perfection , to which Bro . F . Pyron acknowledged to be the Primitive Rite , of the A . and A . Scottish Rite , had never put forward its pretensions in the Symbolic Lodges . Without desiring to enter into further

discussions , we have proved that in 1806 , in its Decree of the 27 th November , the Supreme Council acknowledged the jurisdiction of the Grand Orient over all the lod ges and all the chapters , up to and comprising the Eighteenth Degree .

By the Decree of the 19 th January , 1811 , the Supreme Council declared that it resumed the jurisdiction of the Masonic bodies superior to the 18 th degree , since 1804 over Symbolical Lodges or Rose-Croix ChaptersThe proof isthat in

. , 1821 , when it instituted the " Loge de la « rand Commanderie , " it came next in rotation to the "Grand Loge Centrale , " ai « l gave it the Number 1 .

In establishing itself the Supreme Council committed an irregularity , but in constituting lodges it usurped the rights of the Grand Orient ; it did that which the ancient Inspectors-General never ventured to do , and it was certainly a true remarkthat " if the power is vested in

, the Supreme Council it is that it has taken it from the Grand Orient . " It has taken it contrary to the Grand Constitutions ; contrary to its undertaking ; contrary to its treaties . It was in 1821 that it assumed this

illegal authority , and there cannot be found in the archives of the Supreme Council any proof of an . earlier exercise of such authority . We cannot close this declaration of the rights of the Grand Orient of France over the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite

, without repeating that in 1825 , -in 1835 , and again in 1841 , this Masonic power made , always in the interests of order , new overtures of fusion and alliance which

were invariably repulsed . Even when , in 1841 , it proclaimed that the Lodges of the Grand Orient might receive as visitors the brethren of the Lodges of the Supreme Council , and that the brethren of the Grand Orient would be permitted to visit the Masons of the Supreme Councilthe

, latter replied in a circular , addressed to the lodges in correspondence with it , couched in the following terms : — "Remember well that nothing is changed in our jurisdiction , our Constitution , or our Rite . The Ancient and Accepted

Rite remains entirely without alteration . When you shall be " en rapport , " whether with the Lodges or the Masons under the jurisdiction , of the Grand . Orient of France , you will continue to associate with them with all sentiments of concordof union

, , and of fraternity , that Masonry imposes upon the children of the light . Yet remember that the degrees of which , it may be composed gives them a claim for honours possessed only by Masons invested under the authority of the Supreme

Council . " And now again , in 1876 , although the Grand Orient has expunged from its statutes and regulations all difference between the two jurisdictions in deciding that active Masons can affiliate themselves in Lodges of the Supreme Council , the