The Sun.
London, England, 1870-06-23 00:00:00

BROTHERS OF THE MYSTIC TIE

The Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of the
State of New York has commenced its annual session,
and will probably adjourn on Saturday. It is composed
of several hundreds of delegates from the various lodges
throughout .the State, among whom are many of the most
prominent and influential citizens of the interior. To-
day will be laid the ccrner-stone of the new Masonic
Temple to be erected at the corner of Twenty-third-street
and Sixth-avenue. The occasion has called together a
large assemblage of Masons from various parts of the
country, and the public display promises to exceed any-
thing of the kind witnessed in this city for many years
past, several thousand visitors from abroad being in
attendance. During the past twenty-five years the
Masonic fraternity in the United States has increased in
strength and influence very rapidly, and it is now the
most powerful and numerous secret Order among us. It
can boast of at least 500,000 members. After the abduc-
tion of Morgan in 1827 the Order fell into disrepute in
the N orthern* States, and most of the lodges were
discontinued for nearly ten years, until the poli-
tical excitement created by that event had died
away. It was not until about 1840 that Freemasonry
began to revive, but since then it has steadily prospered,
until now it extends into every county, and into the great
majority of towns in the State. Freemasonry flourishes
very extensively in other countries as well as our own.
There are various traditions as to the origin of Free-
masonry, the most generally accepted among the Order
being that it was founded by King Solomon at the build-
ing of the Temple. Some writers trace striking analogies
between it and the cabala of the Egyptian priesthood,
the Eleusinian mysteries and the Essenes ; but the best
authenticated tradition is that the Order was founded by
the roving architects and masons who went about Europe
during the Middle Ages, building Gothic cathedrals,
monasteries, bridges, and other great works. These
subsequently merged into guilds, which finally dropped
the operative, and took on what is now known as specula-
tive masonry. This was the foundation of modern Free-
masonry, and upon it the work and traditions of the
Order, as they exist to-day, have been constructed. It is
a great fallacy to suppose that there is any political or
sectarian purpose sought to be accomplished by the
Order, or that there is any unlawful bond of protection to
criminals who belong to it. It is simply a moral, social,
and charitable institution, which has prospered because
it responds to the natural instinct of brotherhood, and
because it is the means of accomplishing a vast amount of
good, in an unpretending manner.—New York Times,
June Bth.

The Newcastle Daily Express says on Monday
night the village of Catchaate, situate about half a mile
from Annfield Plain was the scene of considerable excite-
ment, consequent on a report that a person named
McMoyle, a miner, had been murdered. Upon inquiry it
,was ascertained that the deceased hadstruck the daughter
of an engineman employed at South Derwent Colliery,
named Robert Blackburn, and that Blackburn, who had
witnessed the assault, immediately came forward 'and
struck McMoyle, who fell to the ground and never
moved afterwards. Blackburn, who is in custody, is
said to be a respectable man.
STRIKE IN THE TIN-PLATE TRADE.—An inef-
fectual attempt has been made to settle a long-standing
dispute in the tin-plate trade at Cookley, near Kidder.
The men offered. to go in at 10 per cent. reduction, but
their employers declined to accede to these terms. New
hands have been imported from Wales, and the works are
guarded by a detachment of county police. The Welsh
workmen live in the works, and have not been outside
them since their arrival. Nearly all the old workpeople
are persons who have worked at the Cookley tin-plate
works from their youth, and the case is one in which arbi-
tration might be tried.