Freemasonry And The Pope.

ance of the aproned fraternity . It really is not quite so clear as one could wish that there would be any particular sin in a true Catholic ' s killing the first Freemason he meets . It is at least certain—as far as infallibility can make it—that the Freemasons are the arch enemies of the Church ,

religion , law , government , truth , morality , and everything else which men count sacred , and that all the heresies , seditions , and revolutions of modern times may be traced to the machinations of this thrice accursed sect . With what stupendous perversity civilised society persists in seeing

nothing in Freemasonry but a somewhat fantastic sort of benefit society , organised for purjaoses of charity and good fellowship ! This is really imbecility in excolsis . The force of infallible folly surely could no further go than in launching this prodigious piece of ecclesiastical

thunder against a body of decent gentlemen whose " machinations , " though they may begin ( for aught we know ) with a droll ceremonial which frightens raw novices half out of their wits , end

in nothing more terrible than good cheer and a mutual benevolence fund . The Pope's last is certainly his best . We have had many curious allocutions in our time , but this beats them all . Serious comment on such a heap of stark raving nonsense is impossible . The spectacle of

absurdity in a towerin g rage , of silliness foaming at the mouth , is one which at once defies and disarms criticism . There is nothing to be said of it except that it is a pity that an ancient institution which has outlived its day cannot make a more respectable preparation for its inevitable end . The

temporal power of the papacy is justly doomed as an offence against civilisation , a wrong to Italy , and a scandal and hindrance to the very religion whose name it takes in vain ; but no chivalrous enemy can desire that it should make itself unnecessarily ridiculous . We sincerely sympathise with those

multitudes of enli ghtened and right-minded Roman Catholics to whom it must be unutterably painful to have to pity a pontiff whom they would fain , if possible , reverence .

Dublin Evening Mail . We echo in our columus to-day the last peal of thunder from the Vatican . It is designed to frighten the Freemasons ; bnt it only makes known the fears of the now impotent thunderer . Amid the empty sound and puerile verbiage of this

allocution , a whispered confession of real motives tells the tale of the crime of Freemasonry in papial eyes : — " A false opinion may arise that the nature of this society is inoffensive , and that this institution has no other end but to succour men

and to aid them m adversity , and that the church has nothing fo fear from this society . Who , however , does not understand that this is far from being the truth ? What does this association of men of all religions , of all creeds , mean ? " It is

truly strange that , wrapped up as it may be in any amount of fustian , the secret design of the Vatican ., heart is never successfully concealed in an allocution . Nothing can be more true than that the papal power has everything to fear from every peaceful and kindly " association of men of all

religions and of all creeds . It is , therefore , the thunder is directed against a form of association which peculiarly tends to unite men in bonds of charity , mutual tolerance , and good-will . The present allocution is , in fact , not merely a denunciation of Freemasons , but a practical comment ,

upon the Roman reading of the divine proclamation of "Peace on earth , good-will to men . " Pio Nono and his sacred consistory proclaim , according to their version , " Peace ou earth to men of goodwill , " but only to those whose will is good toward the papal system . Carried out to its logical end

, the proposal " to strike and rend , " as with a sword , " the Masonic society" is an anathema against all forms of union or association between men of different creeds—it is an edict of non-intercourse

among fellow-subjects , kinsmen , friends . Commenting on the late papal excommunication of the Freemasons , the Steele says : — "A million of our fellow-citizens are struck

with the most terrible engine which the representative of God upen earth can dispose of . It is true they perform their ordinary business just the same as though interdicted from fire and water . The worst that can happen to them is that they cannot be sponsors if they should be asked to do

so ; but this is an occasion which does not oftenpresent itself , aud they may find consolation in the circumstance that will save them the cost of comfits . What interest can the Church of Rome have in thus exposing the impotence of its spiritual chastisements and the complete indifference with

which modern society hears the rumbling of the Church ' s thunder ? What man will give up the title of Freemason , or who will hesitate to become a member of a- lodge , through fear of excommunication ? The era of these papal thunder peals has passed , and the Papacy should renounce these miserable parodies of a past which had its grandeur . "

( New York Beportcr . ) Freemasonry has been denounced and suspected , in consequence of its being a secret Order . _ Secrecy in all things , where secrecy is maintained , is not only consistent with innocence , but is also imperatively enforced by necessity , as well as de-The

manded by every consideration of policy . direct benefits flowing from Masonry are of course intended for , and should be participated m , only by its members—by those who have been regularly initiated into its mysteries , and contribute to its support . They are secured by a knowledge of