MASONIC CHIT CHAT.

EXTRAORDINARY PROCEEDINGS. At the late meeting of the Legislature of Illinois, a most extraordinary bill was introduced incorporating certain persons as "Conservators" of the Grand Lodge of the State; in effect, placing that Body under guardianship. We have not room for the Bill in our pages. We do not hesitate, however, to declare it an extraordinary, unwise, and unjustifiable mea

in Masonry, by the organization of a secret association to overshadow and overthrow all legitimate authority. The Secretary then read the invitation, when Mr. Fenton proceeded to deliver the address he had prepared for the occasion. It was listened to with breathless attention by an attentive audience for nearly two hours. After the address was deliverd, a vote of thanks was unanimously passed to Mr. Fenton, and it was unanimously resolved that he be requested to furnish a copy for publication, leaving out all esoteric portions thereof, whereupon D. An. derson, of Zion. E. A. Elliott, of Detroit, T W. Cooper, of Union of S. Ó., R. Bullman, of Ashlar, and J. D. Wier, of Charity, were appointed a committee to receive subscriptions, who in a few minutes reported that a large proportion of the needed amount was subscribed and paid at once. It was then resolved that each subscriber be entitled to a pro rata number of the pamphlets when printed, according to the amount subscribed.

DEATH OF R. W. Jos. ROBINSON. We give in a preceding page the Resolutions of the Grand Lodge of Marylaud, announcing the decease of their beloved and faithful Grand Secretary. He was one of the oldest, as he was among the most respectable, Masons in the country, and his death will be universally lamented by the Fraternity. His funeral was attended by the Grand Lodge and by Concordia Lodge, of which he was a member, and every proper respect was paid to his memory. We shall look to some of our Baltimore Brethren for a suitable memoir of him.

A correspondent has furnished us with the following "descriptive roll" of the New York branch of the HAYS-RaymondATWOOD Council so called:-"E. B. Hays, bar-room keeper; H. Thompson, chair-maker and varnisher; B. C. Leveridge, lawyer, re. spectable; H. C. Banks, lawyer, - [this word is unintelligible]; Daniel Sickles, regalia-maker, formerly of the Atwood Grand Lodge; Robt. E. Roberts, newspaper carrier; Hy. J. Seymour, costumer and play. actor; John Innes, porter in a clothes store; Wm H. Jarvis, stone-mason."

LADY'S BOOK for April-rich and beautiful as usual.

AMERICA THE HOME OF MASONRY. WE have had more than one occasion, within the last few years, to refer, not without feelings of gratification, to the marked and wide-spread progress of Masonry in these United States. There has also been the pleasing fact associated with this progress, that it has been altogether in a healthy and right direction, without any admixture or alloy of foreign and unmasonic elements. At one period, not far distant, Masonry was said to be diffusing itself widely and powerfully over the Continent of Europe, and especially throughout Italy: but that was a progress rather adverse, than advantageous to the cause of true Masonry, for it was really a perverting and prostituting of Masonic organizations and institutions to political purposes, which, even if good and honest in themselves, can never be lawfully intruded within the sacred precincts of the Masonic Temple, into which no true worshipper can enter without "putting off from his feet" the shoes sciled with the dust of party-passion and political or religious strife. The whole history of the Carbonari and other secret Societies of Europe, which attained such a dangerous and evil notoriety about forty or fifty years ago, must ever remain as a lofty beacon of warning to keep away all true Masons from that fatal and forbidden coast. On this American Continent, and especially in these free, United States, the progress of Masonry has been rapid and great, as it has been straightforward, legitimate, and, in one word, Masonic.

In reflecting upon the causes and controlling influences which have helped to bring about this favorable position of our Order in these States, we have been led more clearly to discern the natural adaptability and

sympathy, that evidently exist between the political Institutions of our country, and the fundamental principles of Masonry.

However the organs of absolutism and irresponsible power in Europe may dwell with malicious delight on the terrible trials through which the government of these States is now passing, and which they affect to regard as a conclusive demonstration of the failure of the great problem of free popular government, none of them—at least of the more enlightened and influential class-has the hardihood to deny, that our system of gov. ernment,—that is, a sound, well conceived federal self-government of the people, by the people-is, in the abstract, the best, highest, most humane, and most philosophical of all forms of political Constitutions. The best of all arguments in its support is derived from the fact, that its feasibility and durability are found to be in an exact ratio to the virtue, patriotism and intelligence of the people. A nation of slaves and sensualists, of the degraded and the ignorant, are not only unworthy of free institutions, but incapable either of appreciating or enjoying them. Ignorance and vice form the natural dominion of oppression and tyranny. Even supposing for a moment that this unnatural Rebellion should inaugurate the overthrow of our glorious Constitution-a supposition which we believe to have no shadow of foundation, except in the addled brains or envious hearts of the foes of freedom-still we should hold that the success which has attended our great governmental experiment through the long period of three generations of men, has been more than sufficient to demonstrate, not alone the feasibility of the problem itself, but also the truth of the assertion that no other form of government is so beneficial to all the highest interests of the governed.

Where in all the pages of ancient or modern History shall we find results that can bear comparison for one moment, with those exhibited by the history even of these Northern States, or of any one of them, during the last seventy years? We are not of the number of those who would unduly exaggerate our national advantages, or who would ignore our national or individual shortcomings: but a just recognition of the former is due no less to self-respect, than to that gratitude to the Giver of all Good, from whom alone Nations, no less than individuals, derive all prosperity, progress and power. Whether we look then to the criteria of agricultural and commercial prosperity, to the social comfort of the masses, and the good order of the community combined, with so large a share of personal liberty, or to the higher standards of intellectual cultivation and refinement, it is an undoubted fact, that this free, Republican New England ranks to day, as regards the people and country at large, in advance of even the most progressive and refined of the European nations. If we

compare the condition of our people, as regards social comfort and intellectual culture with the people-not some favored class, but the whole people-of France, or England, or Germany, we unquestionably have the advantage, and that to an extent that can only be understood and appreciated from a personal examination of social life in the old world and the new, The older countries of Europe of course are in advance of us in many of the higher walks of scholarship and learning, to whose mature development the ease and wealth of old and settled communities have been more favorable, than the stirring, practical, busy life of a young nation; but in the education of the masses-in the spread of general intelligence in the cultivation, so to speak, of the intellect of the people, New England stands to day unrivalled. Now, if our Democratic Institutions had produced no other result than this, such a fact would, in itself, be sufficient to prove that there existed in those institutions some mighty and most beneficent power, not existing, or not equally developed, in other forms of government. Time and space would fail us, were we to attempt to show the superiority of this to other political systems, but it is unnecessary to enter upon the discussion, which has long since been successfully treated by far abler pens than ours. Rather, taking it for granted that the free federal form of government, justly constituted, and efficiently admin. istered, is the very highest political system known to civilization, or capable of being conceived by man, we will endeavor to trace some of the sympathies and congenialities existing between it and Freemasonry. If these be found very largely to exist, as we believe to be the case, then it follows as a corollary that America-the scene of the most advanced, extensive and liberal form of Federal government, must be pre-eminently the HOME of FREEMASONRY.

Looking rather to the practical bearing of a free, federal Republic, than to its special constitution and enactments, one of its most fundamental principles is, that of the equality and brotherhood of all its members. It recognizes no favored classes or individuals: the only patent of nobility acknowledged by it is the nobility of manhood-of the good, the virtuous and the true! It opens the path to political honor, and to private enterprise, to all who have the energy and perseverance to pursue it. And have we not even more than the counterpart of all this, and that too in a higher and more refined degree, in Masonry? Our Brotherhood opens its welcoming arms to men of every rank, of every creed, of every party, and of every profession; and, if they are good men and true, admits them into the circle of brotherly equality and affection. And upon this great, world-wide band of Brothers, it enjoins the divine precept, that among them "no contention should ever exist, except that noble contention, or

rather emulation, of who best can work and best agree," enjoining also upon each and every one to consider himself a partner in the great jointstock company of Humanity, of the burdens and responsibilities of which he is bound to bear his share.

Again--or rather as the complement of the first great principleDemocratic government is based upon the recognition of the dignity of man as man. In the monarchical governments, whether absolute or limited, of the old world, power and dignity and honor are haughtily usurped and monopolized by a few leading families, to whom the body of the people are little better than "hewers of wood and drawers of water." Even in the celebrated Republics of antiquity, there was an utter failure to recognize this worth and dignity of MAN. With them the glory of the State, and more especially its aggrandizement by conquest, was the all-important end to which every other right and interest was sternly sacrificed. It was not as a MAN, but as a member of the Respublica-the proud Commonwealth of Rome, that the Roman citizen could claim any importance or independence. This gave him a claim to respect abroad, but at home he felt himself to be but an insignificant unit in the vast world-conquering Roman State; Republican in name, but military, grasping and selfish in its whole system and organization and spirit. It was a glory reserved for the Fathers of American Freedom to assert the true rights of manhood, in the Declaration of Independence. In declaring all men to be essentially free, they came forward as the champions of Humanity, the representatives of the common rights of mankind, and they enunciated the true and everlasting principles of civilization, liberty and progress. And of all this we find the exact counterpart, or we should rather say, prototype and exemplar, in Masonry, for long ages before Democratic government was thought of, Masonry was. Its humanity-its deep and intimate sympathy with man as man, is one of the strongly marked characteristics of Masonry, which is ever as sensible of the individual perils, temptations and sufferings of its children, as it is watchful over their personal rights and moral virtues. In fact, instead of regarding man as a mere part of a great organization or machine, it places the character, virtue, and happiness of each individual member in the very front rank of its aims and objects. Its earliest lessons are directed to teaching him to keep his passions in subjection, to cultivate the higher charities and virtues of the soul, and thus to elevate himself morally, intellectually, and spiritually in the scale of Humanity, remembering that with this "Human" the "Divine" is intimately and inseparably united-that "this mortal is yet to put on immortality," and that "as we have borne the image of the Earthy, we shall also bear the image of the Heavenly."