FREEMASONRY IN FRANCE.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XII, Issue 13, 18 July 1884, Page 21

FREEMASONRY IN FRANCE.

The following Is the substance of a long article which appeared recently in the Paris Figaro— & paper which cannot be suspected of any leaning towards the Catholic Church. We translate it for the benefit of the Pilot's readers, ana we recommend it to our contemporaries :—,: — , The late Encylical of Pope Leo XIII. on Freemasonry has not failed to evoke vigorous protests, even from those quarters where th» need of the warning wa9 most evident. Thus, the Rppublicin organs declare that the Pope exaggerates things, and, following tha example of Le Temps, that " the picture he draws of the institution contains more romance than reality." But tbe facts remain ; and since the influence of Freemasonry on the development of the Republic's policy is so loudly denied, it becomes necessary to show those who are thus sceptical the fatal part which this association has plnye'd during the past fifteen years in the making of the laws and the whole history of the Government. The Freemasons fill the Senate, the Chamber of Deputies, the public offices. They hold the ministries and the highest positions in the gift of the State. M. Gre>y, President of the French Republic, is a Freemason. So is M. Ferrr, President of the Council ; M. Cazot, presiding officer of the Court of Cassation ; and so. for the most part, are the ambassadors, the undersecretaries of State, the dignitaries of the administration and of the new magistracy. In a word, Freemasonry governs us. In its lodges is concocted the policy under whose oppressive measures we groan. Let it speak for itself, as M. Glaudio Jannet, of the Catholic Institute, does, and no man knows Freemasonry better in itself and in its evil effects on Republican institutions. From his book are taken most of tbe following statements. It has been said that|the Freenaaaons are a non-political association ; but tho-e most nearly interested disdain all dissimulation on the matter. The Lodge, of Friendship in Paris recently issued an expiesssve circular to all the lodges, in view of the necessity of giving a more practical tura to the Republic's policy. " Formerly," cays this document, " Freemasonry was obliged to shelter its doctrines and its philosophical and social tendencies under the mantle of charity and benevolence, inscribing in its statutes these strange words, « It is forbidden to talk politics,' as if politics were not the indispensable basis of social questions." In 1876-77, the great ambition of the lodges was to carry the , elections. They compassed it almost perfectly. The Monde Maconniqiw, chronicling a banquet lately given by a lodge at Besancon, to Messrs. Oudet and Viette, newly-elected senator and deputy of the department, added : " Both gentlemen expressed their gratitude to the lodge, acknowledging that they owed their election to the efforts of the Freemasons." They were right. The lodges will hardly tolerate the accession to any ministerial post of a non-affiLiated Republican. Here are some curious revelations from the Cliainc d' Union : '•' When Grevy was elected, January 30, 1879, the joy of che lodges knew no bounds. The members of the Sovereign Chapter drank the Masonic health of their ' illustrious brother Grivy,' and the orator of the Chapter, added these singular words : ' The friends of liberty and fraternity may rejoice — tlus hour of clemency is about to strike.' " Is this the secret of M. Grevy 's clemency to assassins? But Freemasonry goes further. If it craves power it ia but that it may accomplish its supreme desire — the dechristianisation of France. Gambetta summed up its spirit in his declaration : "Clericalism is the enemy." And as has been truly said by another of the brethren, '• The distinction between clericalism and Catholicism is purely nominal. Practically they are one." ..... The most brutal Atheism now reigns in the French lodges. When ii 1876, the Grand-Orient eliminated from its constitntion the affirmation of the existence of God, and the immortality of the soul, not a single lodge, not one Freemason withdrew from the society. On the contrary, Masonic journals warmly recommended a pamphlet by Brother Caston entitled, " The Enemy is God." And the Atheist Bradlaugh has been elected honorary member of one of the principal lodges of Paris. Tbe lodges dictate the Government's course on religious matters. All the laws directed against religion, the divorce-laws, and the rest, are drawn up in the lodges, and tben submitted to President Grevy for his signature. M. Ferry received a genuine ovation in recognition of the blow he dealt to Christian education in his famous Article 7, and was congratulated by tbe Marseilles Grand Master on having accomplished ' ; a work eminently Masonic" The lodges are especially opposed to the Christian education of girls. " The most desired conquest of Freemasonry," said Brother de Heredia, of the Grand-Orient, a few years since, " is woman ; for she is the last stronghold which the spirit of the dark ages opposes to human progress." , There is one department, the army, where Freemasonry is not; as elsewhere, in the ascendant. Between its principles and military honor, there seems to be a barrier not easily surmounted, Nevertheless, since 1870, several officers have joined the Masonic ranks : and Masonic journals have complacently published their discourses which turn now on universal peace, a^ain on the subordination of military discipline to civic duties, according to v the theory of Major Labordiri;. In 1882, General Billot felt obliged to remind the soldiers of the law forbidding those in active service from joining auy association. But his words had no effect. The lodges, it would seem, are above the law ; or else the favored objects of certain secret exceptions. Here is a danger that appeals to tne heart of every lover of his country Not one member of the municipal council of Paris is a stranger in the lodge. A system of hierarchical promotion is in their favor. After a certain apprenticeship, those who deserve best of Freemasonry become deputies of Paris ; less capable members are recommended for the representation of the rural boroughs.

It was the Municipal Council of Paris, thus made up of Freemaaons, that, even'before the new laws were passed, spoke for the secularisation of the schools and hospitals. And since, it has gone further even than its conceded prerogatives, in carrying out the laws against religion. We mii6t admit it. A secret government weighs upon the country, having for its devoted agenis the greater pare of the men in official positions ; and that Freemansoury whose influence we so long ignored or jested at, is to-day the despotic sovereign of France.