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they flow, and whose tendency is conspicuously good." p. 124.

In the Discourses, another consideration is found, which demands your most serious regard :-" Since many of our forms and operations are necessarily secreted from common inspection, the generality of mankind will make up their opinion of the society from the deportment of its members. This ought to serve as a very powerful call to every one of us, uniformly and openly to display those qualities and virtues so strongly inculcated in our Lodge. To little purpose shall we commend the institution, and boast of the excellence of its principles and purposes, if our lives give not corroborative evidence to our assertions, and prove not the propriety of our encomiums." p. p. 129, 130.

The secrets of your society, more perhaps than any thing, else, have excited, in many minds, distrust and suspicion ; and nothing could so effectually remove all suspicion of the objects of Masonry as an undisguised and united effort to carry into effect your avowed principles of benevolence and peace. That many private acts of beneficence and charity, towards indigent and suffering members, have been perform. ed by your Lodges, is not doubted. And perhaps, as individuals, you are not at all behind your fellow-citizens in other acts of liberality and kindness. Still, to convince those who are unacquainted with your secrets, that public good is the object or the tendency of the institution, something more than has yet appeared as the genuine fruits of masonry, may not only be desirable but indispensible.

Your association has been of long standing and of considerable extent; and its avowed objects and principles have, perhaps, been ever the same. These. if they have any intelligible meaning, are opposed to war, and in favour of peace. Yet I do not recollect any record in history of a serious effort on the part of your societies, either to abolish, or to prevent, war. Notwithstanding all the ties of human, of Christian, and even of masouie brotherhood, have not members of your societies often met in the field of battle and perished by each other s hands? Have they not also, like other inconsistent Christians, too frequently been instigators of

war, while the probability was, that the measures they proposed or urged, would occasion the destruction or misery of many thousands of unoffending fellow-beings, and even many of their masonic brethren? And can such conduct be consistent with those principles of humanity, benevolence, and peace, which have been the " boast" of Free Masons?

The kind treatment which a Mason receives from his brethren, when taken captive in war, has often been mentioned as one of the benefits of the institution. But how inconsiderable is this, when compared with what would probably result, if the influence of your association should be employed, according to its principles, to prevent the dreadful havoc of war? If, in addition to all the other classes of friends of peace, which now exist in Europe and America, the masonic societies should unitedly cast their influence into the same scale, war would soon be stripped of its fascinating attractions, and sink, as it deserves, into general disrepute.

Allowance, however, ought to be made in behalf of FreeMasons, as well as others, for the influence of popular custom during the long and dreadful reign of darkness and barbarity. But is it not to be expected that now, when the horrid gloom is partially dispelled, the masonic fraternity will appear in the front rank of those who shall exert their influence to put an end to a custom, which violates every principle of humanity and benevolence? A respectable number of your brethren have already become members of a Peace Society. They have perceived and felt that the principles of the Peace Society were accordant with the avowed principles and objects of Masonry. Let this conviction and this feeling spread through all the Lodges in this and other countries, and the secrets of your society will cease to be regarded as objections to the masonic institution. The friends of peace will rejoice in your influence, notwithstanding your seerets, when they shall see the proper evidence, that your "intention is PEACE ON EARTH," and your "disposition, GOOD WILL TOWARDS MEN."

Much, very much, may be depending on the part which masonic societies shall take in relation to the cause of peace. But after the frank and public avowal which you have made,

will it not be very extraordinary if you should withhold your influence and exertions, while others are engaged to disseminate the principles and promote the objects which you have declared to be the principles and objects of your institution ? In such a case, the admonitory language of your chaplain might be repeated in your circles with great force and propriety To little purpose shall we commend the institu tion and boast of the excellence of its principles, if our lives give not corroborative evidence to our assertions, and prove not the propriety of our encomiums."

Better things, however, are expected of you, "though we thus speak." You may have been waiting for an invitation to give to your Lodges the form of Peace Societies; or you may have suspended any public movement in favour of the cause of peace, from a desire to see what others could effect without your aid; or that they might be more sensible of their need of your concurrence in a work of such magnitude. Or you may have been making arrangements in private, that all the Lodges should act in concert, and come forward together with all their forces, as the friends of peace. I would rather impute your delay to almost any other cause than to insincerity in stating your principles. But as the object of " PEACE ON EARTH" is now fairly before the public, and as the principles of your institution are known,— until you shall take a decided and active part, the question will continually occur,-Why do the masonic societies, at such a time as this, forbear to give corroborative evidence of their assertions, and to prove the propriety of their encomiums "Why should they fail to evince, by" beneficial effects made visible," that their "intention" is PEACE ON

EARTH ?"

66

"Delays are dangerous ;" and a long delay on your part may involve consequences which you will forever lament. Suppose that, during the interval between the American revolution and the last war in which our country was engaged, the masonic societies in Great Britain and the United States had properly exerted their influence, according to their principles, to prolong the blessings of peace; is it not probable, nay, is it not demonstrable, that they might have prevented

the expenditures, the crimes, and the miseries of the late war? To this question I think no intelligent and honest Mason will ever give a negative answer. Is it not then an awful consideration, that so much blood has been shed, so much suffering endured, and so many souls prematurely hurried into eternity, in consequence of a neglect on the part of men, whose avowed principles bind them to do all they can, to promote peace, and to prevent war? And shall not this consideration excite you to the most faithful exertions to prevent the recurrence of similar calamities ?

P. P.

A FRANK COMMUNICATION, WITH AN IMPORTANT EXTRACT FROM GAILLARD.

To the Author of the Essays entitled "The Friend of Peace."

SIR, I AM one of a very numerous class of your readers, who have been charmed with your philanthropy and admired your zeal. but have despaired of your success. I have not enthusiasm enough, and probably not sufficient purity, to hope, or expect such a reformation in the human character and conduct, as an universal abandonment of war would evince.

I should wish for such an event, as earnestly, as you would, if one could wish in the absence of all hope. Yet, sir, I do not think your essays without use. I think them of great value, of inestimable worth. If they may not be permitted by the constitution of human nature to produce their full effects, yet if they tend, as I sincerely believe they do, to make men think more seriously on this awful subject, if they will make one thoughtless statesman or politician pause, before he gives his vote on the question of an appeal to arms, your labour will not have been in vain. Thousands of human beings may, from a single doubt, so excited, be snatched from premature death, from great suffering, or from what is perhaps worse, extreme pollution and crimes inseparable from a state of war. I have expressed to you in conversation my doubts of the ultimate success of your associa

tion, but I have never thought lightly of your efforts; and to show you my good will toward your institution, I send you a translation of part of the Preface to a modern Freuch work, in which your ideas are very ably enforced., It is not to be despised because it comes from a nation, which has not of late furnished many examples of the pacific virtues. The author is a Monsieur Gaillard, formerly member of the French Academy, and of the Academy of Inscriptions and Belles Lettres in France. I need not say to you, that these titles show not only pretensions to great literary merit, but that the person, who had won them, lived before that revolution, which subverted at the same moment the altar and the throne. The preface is very appropriate, being intended as the apology for a work, entitled the "History of the Rivalship of France and England," printed in 1798, in which the author endeavours to show the folly and frivolousness of their disputes. The translation is too idiomatic, but it is perfectly faithful.

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"Ir is a Frenchman, who undertakes to write the history of the rivalship of France and England, but this Frenchman will endeavour to recollect, that the duty of the historian is to be impartial, and that of all men is to be just. He loves France and respects England too much, and, if he may be permitted to say it, he feels too great self respect, to flatter or to calumniate, when it is his duty to examine and to judge.

All men are brethren, whatever space may separate them, whatever selfish interest may deceive or mislead them. The Frenchman, Englishman, and Spaniard ought to be essentially and naturally friends; "He who loves war, is the only enemy of the human race." An old truth, indeed, but forevLet us never be weary of repeating it, since there are men who are never weary of treading it under their feet. Perhaps human reason is still in its infancy. Europe is pol ished; Europe thinks herself enlightened; still Europe is plunged in WARS!! We applaud ourselves for our intelli

er new.

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