Freemasonry And The Press.

FREEMASONRY AND THE PRESS .

ZOXDOX , SATURDAY , DECEMBER 22 , 3 S 60 .

The public press of this country has ever been , ns a rule , opposed to Freemasonry . From the time when those great luminaries of journalism , The Craftsman , The Post-boy , and The Flying Post , some hundred aod twenty years since , first attacked our Order , the same spirit of detraction has ever and anon broken out among

the minnows of the fourth estate . The real journalists , the daily and weekly newspapers , have seldom , or ever , exhibited such spleen as those quasi-publicafcions which cannot rise to the dignity of forming or guiding public opinion , but , like crows hovering about a carcase which

lions will not touch , occasionally make Freemasonry a convenient topic for them to indulge their dulness and malevolence .

Freemasonry is a secret society . This it is that causes these pundits ivho are not courted , or consulted , respecting its arcana , to wax wroth . It is not an exhibition , nor a play , at which such critics are invited to assist , and as it does not recognise their " self-imagined importance , it is considered by them fair game for their

wonderful poivers of inquiry . The Critic , which bears the character of being a wellconducted journal , has , in a review of Lyde ' s Asian Mystery , chosen to be facetious at our expense . No doubt the writer thought lie was irresistibl y funny , but

it will be at once recognised , by every one connected with the press , as very ordinary buffoonery , with a tendency to be—as some articles in this otherwise respectable contemporary are—decidedly low ! The remarks to which we allude are as follows : —

"Another part of the Asian mystery , as exemplified in the Ansaireeh , is closely connected with the world-wide mystery of Freemasonry . It appears they have conventional signs of recognition ; they have questions by which they can find out whether a stranger be one of them ; they use in their hooks the seal of Solomon ; they are called Ukliwan , or brethren ; every kind of goodness is inculcated , and every

kind of wickedness prohibited , ivith a result about as gratifying as that which attends the like doctrine on tho part of our Freemasons . It is true that the Ansaireeh rob and plunder and murder the uninitiated without compunction , which Freemasons would never do—at any rate , in a country where there is a pretty vigilant police ; but , on the other hand , we do not find that the Ansaireeh have broiled baby for supper on Saturday nights , or pledge one another in skullfnls of human blood , as was and is now in some places believed to be the custom of Freemasons . Moreover ,

there is this further connection between the two cases : it is a historical fact that the Templars of old had castles mid fastnesses in the immediate neighbourhood of the secret sects ; and ive believe that there is still in Freemasonry a degree knoivn as that of the Templars . We cannot speak with certainty upon that point , though ive can upon a minor one . \ Tc remember perfectly that ive ivere informed , or led

to understand , by a member of a certain university , that the laws of Freemasonry , in which craft he had arrived at a position of dignity , inculcated sobriety and forbade inebriety . We were , therefore , astounded to see the regularity with which he returned from ' a lodge' in a titubatory condition . However , we elicited at last that when tho members became melancholy-sober they 'dissolved thc lodge' and ordered liquor ; and by that ingenious device evaded the good which they were in clanger of' getting from a strict adherence to the rules of Freemasonry . "

It is wonderful that a brother could pen such a paragraph . Yet , unfortunatel y , the writer has really been initiated , though a seceder for some years , and actually boasts of his having " forgotten all it . " To say that Freemasons are restrained from robbery and murder by the presence of the police is as

unwarrantable a falsehood as any man ever breathed . In our fraternity we number thousands of brethren of so nice a sense of honour that they would no more condescend to do as tin ' s writer has done , ancl slander any society , than they would attempt to violate the laws of their country .

It may suit " a literary hack" to asperse the characters of men above reproach , but it ivould be much more to the purpose if he first "took n , look at home . " His broiled baby story is simply ridiculous . ISTo one ever believed such an absurdity . The assertion that he knows

nothing of "Masonic Templars" is totally uncalled forit is proved by his want of gentlemanly feeling ; and every Templar is , what the reviewer can never hope to be—a gentleman . As to his ever having been at a University , that is all "leather and prunella ; " and to state that a lodge evaded the good its members were

likely to derive from the lessons taught within its precincts , and indulge in habitual intemperance , is false and unworthy of a man who has once assumed the name of a brother , and who for the honour of the Craft we are happy to say no longer ranges under its banner . We

take leave of this low detractor by advising him , for the future , to keep his " ' tongue from evil-speaking , lying , and slandering . "

Of late , our Bro . Donald Campbell , by editing Mackey ' s Lexicon of Freemasonry , has stirred up the addle heads of that recondite miscellany , Tho A . thcnisnrn , to attack our Order . He has also brought upon us the much more forcible , but yet more gentle and truthful , remarks of a writer in The Saturday Review . From

our own notice of Bro . Donald Campbell's labours it will be remembered that we entertained no very exalted opinion of that performance , but thought it uncalled for and unwise , in matter , manner , and execution , and to this unfortunate work we owe the attack and venom of the dull article in that dullest of all periodicals , Tit 3 Athenrmtm .

The sapient writer says : — "Why Masonry should have suddenly attracted thc general favour under George I . ive are unable to discover or comprehend . The circumstance of London and its vicinity , then numbering a score of lodges in full activity , ivas , for the period , and compared with previous reigns , established proof of the hold it had taken on a portion at least of the

population . From the capital the fashion spread to the provinces , and probably the movement ivas not altogether unsusceptible of political impulse . The grave assertion of country members , that they were engaged in providing measures for the preservation of all neighbouring architectural remains from further decay , was certainly not creditedand even thenivhen men laughed at everything

; , and believed nothing , universal ridicule was showered on the declaration that Freemasons were in possession of a secret from all participation in ivhieh the outer and profane world was rigorously debarred . " The dullard ' s comprehension who wrote the above