The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1879-07-17
FREEMAsOSRy IN ENGLAND.
Installation of Prince Leopold. of Eng
land ms Master OF the Lodge OF
Antiquity.

| Antiquity
Prince Leopold, of england, has been
installed in the Freemsson's Hall, Lon
don. SIS the master of the lodge of an
tiouity. This event gives the Lon
don Times an excuse for an interesting
editorial on the subject OF royal and
notable freemasons. 1t SEEING that the
Office which Prince Leopold now fills
wss worthily filled BY his great uncle,
the Duke of Sussex, for thirtysfour
wears. This association with a royal
personage is not, however, the only or
the greatest distinction of the lodge OF
ANTIQUITY. William III. was initiated
into masonry in this lodge, which then
bore the name OF st. Paurs. and In
which Sir Christopher Wren Gtficisted
as master for eighteen years. 1t re-
ceived from him what is both treasure
ana a curiosity-that is the mallet or
gsvel used by Charles III. to lay the
| foundation stone of st. PanPs cathedral,
and formed out of piece Of wood OF the
original structure. He also gave It
fragment of the s,0ne of Roman temple,
which stood on the site of the present
cathedral, and which was dug up when
the present foundation was laid. That
treemasonry, substantially the same in
kind as thst which now exists, was prac-
ticed in this country as far back as the
time of Henry vi. is by no means i'm
probable. 1t has been surmised that
the king himself was member OF the
order, though nothing more is proved
/ in support Of this than that he has left
behind him Is manuscript containing
certain parts of the masonic ritual. The
existence of such lodge as that OF an
| tiqulty, working under an immemorlsl
constitution, and over which Sir Chris
topher Wren presided as master, carries
back the order in this country to q PEI
Rod sufficiently remote to satisfy any
reasonable person, and even to endow 1t
with an archie illogical status. 10
However we'll founded the doubts may
be as to the right of freemasons to
claim an ancient origin for their order,
it is Indispensable that the order itself is
widely difused over the earth and
wields an extended power. Not long
ago we published some statistics on this
subject, and these figures could not tail
to produce strong impression. There
is no civilized country in which many
masonic lodges cSn net be found, and
the more civilized the country, the
greater the number of these lodges.
Russia is the only nation concerning
which no masonic statistics are FORTH
coming, the reason being that in Russia
freemasous have long shared with Jews
the antipathy and condemnation of
those in authority. Nowhere do Free
mssons abound more thsn in the United
States, and nowhere are they now held
in higher honor, yet there was g time
when they were the opprobrium of citi-
zsns of the North American republic.
When Miss Martinesu visited the Uni
ted States and wrote her Society in
America" she found the masonic order
the OBJECT of general denUnciation and
antipathy. A curious and interesting
list might be compiled of the distiE~
guished persons who have been 5reema>
secs. Many men of note have been
active members of the order. The sup
position that Cardinal Wolsey presided
ever lodge may be classed among au>
thenticated stories. There is evidence
in favor of Bacon being 8 freenason,
which every understanding reader can
gather from perusal of his " New
Atlanta An ingenious attempt had
been made to prove that Shakespeare
belonged to the craft; but, then, what
is there that Shakespeare has not
been credited with having done
Most of our coantrymen of note
during the last and the present GEN.
turv are known to have been freema-
sons. In Prussia the great Frederick
wss not only treemason, but WAS the
head of the order; both the present
German emperor and the crown prince
have followed the example set them by
the illustrious consolidator OF the Prus>
sian realm. Germany numbers such men
as Lessing, Herder, Fichte and Goethe
in the masonic ranks. The latter, like
bis brother poet Burns, employed his
poetical talents in celebrating the merits
of the order. Late in life Voltsire be-
came & freemason, and the majority OF
noteworthy Frenchmen since his day
have also been members Of the fraternity.
1t is supposed, not without reason, that
the masonic lodges we're instrumental in
fostering the first revolution in France.
Not leng ago the grand lodges in this
country and the United STATES severed
their connection with that of France on
the ground that the latter had expunged
from the formula Of initiation the ex-
preston of belief in 8 deity. Indeed,
the French have always been disposed to
practice freemasonry after fashion OF
| their own.
They even turn the lodge meeting to
very practical purpose-that OF pro-
noting great engineering enterprises.
NJ. LitIre, heing recently mentioned
snlong those persons who deserved
credit for setting on foot q scheme for
piercing the Isthmus of Panama, de-
clared, in explanation, that the project
had really been conceived in the lodge
of Clemente-Amitie. of which he be-
csme a member in 1875. So far as has
been shown, the Ave or six million free
masons who inhabit the earth have never
deserved the denunciations which the
head of the Roman Catholic church has
often leveled against them. Notwith-
standing the condemnation of sue
cessive popes the order fourishes
in such purely Roman Catholic coun.
tries rs France, Spain, Portugal, Italy,
Belgium, Mexico and Brazil. In France
there are 2S7 lodges; in Spain, 800; in
Portugal, %; in Italy, 10; in Belgium,
IS I'm Mexico, Is, and 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 psrlsmentin 8
frenzy of terror passed laws against
-