The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1882-05-31
FREE m.soNRYNENGLANn.

LONDON, May 30.-Queen Victoria re-
ceived the Grand Lodge of Free Masons
of England under the presidency of the
Grand Master, His Royal Highness the
Prince of Wales, at Buckingham Palace,
in state on the 5th of May, when an ad-
dress was offered congratulating Her Ma
iesty on her escape from assassination by
lunatic at Windsor recently. This occa-
sion offered the Court Circular an oppor-
tunity of paying the order the following
interesting tribute.
The Free Masons of England, Scotland
and Ireland are distinctly n-political; no
discussion of controversial matters in relig
ion or politics is permitted either at the
meeting of lodge or at the subsequent
banquet In France and Italy there can
be no doubt that Masonry has been led
away from it's original aims and objects and
used for the purpose of forwarding plots
and plans In the british dominions this
has never been the case. and not even in
Ireland, where the Grand Lodge prospers
under the benign rule of the Duke of Alb
ercorn has there ever been an attempt
made to turn the friendship which should
exist among Masons to other and baser
purposes In Germany, Norway, Sweden
and Denmark, in the same way as here, no
political significance is attached to the
gatherings of Free Masons.
The progress which the fraternity has
made in England since the commencement
of the present century is truly astonishing.
In or about the year 1900 there were be-
tween fifty and sixty lodges which acknow-
legged the jurisdiction of the Grand Master
of England, and they numbered at most
some fifteen hundred brethren. At the
present time there are under the rule OF
His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales,
Grand Master of England, no less than
z, 600 lodges, which in all numbered about
10000 to 40, ZOO members. Besides
these there are the Grand Lodges of Scot
land and Ireland, which, though closely
akin to that of England, yet have seperate
rulers They have also enormously in
creased in numbers and power since the
commencement of the nineteenth cent ury.
FREE MASONRY IN AMERICA.
Free Masonry seems to have a peculiar
fascination for the American mind, and we
should be rather under than over estimat
ing the number of the brethren in the
United States if we gave their sum total at
three quarters of q million. 1t has beer
alleged by people hostile to the order, that
Free Masonry in England only fourishes
because a royal prince is at the head ol
| the craft and all his brothers are associated
with it. That this is not the case we havi
| conclusively proved by the quotation az &C
the number of the brethren who exist on
| the continent of America. There can,
however, be no doubt that since the hei
apparent was elected to the position il
| Masonry which he so well and worthily oc
cupies, the craft has, from the fact of it
occupying more public attention, mad,
great strides in the country, and it contin
ues daily to advance further on the patti
to prosperity.
AN ORDER OF MERCY
There is a notion abro Dad that a grea
part of the enormous funds over which tn,
Grand Lodge and its affiliated lodges hav,
control is devoted to banqueting, or in
other words to eating and drinking. This