Rensselaer Standard, Volume 1, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 August 1879 — FREEMASONRY IN ENGLAND. [ARTICLE]

FREEMASONRY IN ENGLAND.

Installation of Prmoe Leopold, of England, as Master of the Lodge of Antiquity. New York Herald. Prince Leopold, of England, has beeu installed at the Freemason’s hall, London, as the Master of the Lodge of Antiquity. This event gives the London limes an excuse for an interesting editorial on the subject of Royal and notable Freemasons. It seems that the office which Prince Leopold now fills was worthily filled by his great unde, the Duke of Sussex, for thirty-four years. This association with a royal personage to not, however, the only one of the greatest distinction of the Lodge of Antiquity. William 111 was Initiated into Masonry in this Lodge, which then bore the name of St Paul’s, and in which Sir Christopher Wreu officiated as Master for eighteen years. It received from him what to both a treasure and a curiosity—that to, the mallet or gavel used by Charles II to lay the foundation stone of St. Paul’s Cathedral, and formed out of a piece of wood of the original structure. He also save It a fragment of the stone of the Roman temple which stood on the site of the present Cathedral, and which was dug up when the foundations were laid. That Freemas >nry, substantially the same as that now which exists, was practiced in this country as far back as the time of Henry VI to by no means improbable. It has been surmised that

the King himself was a member of the Order, though nothing more is proved in support of this than that he left behind him a manuscript containing certain parts of Masonic ritual. The existence of such a Lodge as that of Antiquity, working under an immemorial constitution, and over which Sir Christopher Wren presided as Master, carries back. the Order in this country to a period sufficiently remote to satisfy any reasonable person, and even to endow it with an archseelogical status. However well founded the doubts may be as to the right of Freemasons to claim an ancient origin for their order. it is indisputable that the order itself is widely diffused over the earth and wields an extended power. Not long ago we published ‘ some statistics on this subject, and these figures could not fail to produces strong impression. There is no civilized country in which many Masonic Lodges c»n not be found, and the more civilized the couuRussia is the only nation concerning which no Masonic statistics are forthcoming, the reason being that in Russia Freemasons have long shared with Jews the antipathy and condemnation of those in authority. Nowhere do Freemasons abound more than in the United States, and nowhere are they now held in higher honor; yet there was a time when they were the opprobrium of citizens of the North American Republio. When Mias Martineau visited the United States and wrote her “Society in America” she found the Masonic Order the object of general denunciation and antipathy. A curious aud interesting list might be compiled of the distinguished persons who have been Freemasons. Many men of note have been active members of the order. The supposition that Cardinal Wolsey presided over a lodge may be classed among authenticated stories. There is evidence in favor of Baean being a Freemason, which every understanding reader can gather from a perusal of his “New Atlantis.” An'ingenious attempt has been made to prove that Shakespere belonged to the craft; but, then, what to there that Shakespere has not been credited with having done? Most of our countrymen of note during the last and the present century are known to have been Freemasons, In Prussia the Great Frederick was not only a Freemason, but was the head of the order; both the German Emperor and the Crown Prince have followed the example set them by the illustrious consolidator of the Prussian realm. Germany numbers such men ; as Lessing, Herder, Fichte and Goethe . in the Masonic ranks. The latter, like his brother poet Burns, employed his ! poetical talents in celebrating the mer- 1 its of the order. Late in life Noltaire became a Freemason, and the majoriSy of noteworthy Frenchmen since his ay have also been members of the Fraternity. It is supposed, not without reasou, that the Masonic Lodges were instrumental in fostering the first revolution of France. Not long ago. the Grand Lodges in the country and the United States, severed their connection with that of France on the ground that the totter had expunged from the formula of initiation the expression of belief in a Diety. Indeed, the French have always beeu disposed to practice Freemasonry after a fashion of their own.

They even turn the lodge meeting to a very practical purpose—that of promoting great engineering enterprises. Mr. Dittre, being recently mentioned among those persons who deserve credit for setting on foot a scheme for piercing the Isthmus of Panama, declared in explanation that the project had recently been conceived in the Lodge of Clemente-Amitie, of which he became a member in 1876. So far as hss been showp, the five or six million Freemasons who inhabit the earth have never deserved the denunciations which the head of the Roman Catholic church has often leveled against them. Notwithstanding the condemnation of successive Popes the order flourishes in such purely Roman Catholic countries §s France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Belgium, Mexico, and Brazil. In France there are 287 lodges; in Spain, 300; in Portugal, 22; in Italy, 110; in Belgium, 16; in Mexico, 13, add in Brazil, 265. In the United Kingdom there are nearly two thousand lodges, while in the United States the number nearly reaches ten thousand. During the worst days in English history, when parliament in a frenzy of terror passed laws against secret societies, the society of Freemasonry was speedily exempted. The act of 1799 exempts the lodges of Freemasons from the pains and penalties inflicted upon United Englishmen, Soots men. Britons and Irishmen, doing so on the ground that masonic meeting are in a great measure directed to charitable purposes. The act of 1817, which was intended to carry out the intent of 1799 more effectual, specifically exempts Freemasons and Quakers from its operation. Indeed, those persons who have semi the palatial establishments for the education of the sons and daughters of Freemasons, and the asylums for the okl

aad destitute which are maintained by the English Freemasons, cannot doubt the order amply justifies its existence in the country. When our Royal Princes, says the Times, associate themselves with Freemasonry they not only follow an excellent family example, but they perform duties which can not but heighten their popularity. In undertaking to discharge the active Amotions of Master of the Lodge on Antiquity Prince’Lepold will certainly receive the thanks of all the Freemasons who glory in a lodge which to the center of many venerable and cherished traditions of the craft.—[New York Herald.