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Show EUROPEAN MONARCH'S"' WHO ARE MASONS There arc bnt Three; Edward, William and Osear Sovere igns Eind Active Membership Member-ship Embarrassing. r- (Ex-All ache in Chicago Tribune.) While the secret of the fomnn Catholic confessional confes-sional is universally respected by the courts here in America and in Europe, no matter what tlie belief be-lief of the judges, or the religion of the people, a strong sentiment appears to bo growing up auain-r the grant of any such concession where the secreis of Free .Masonry are concerned. In Alabama and elsewhere in the United States lawsuits have recently re-cently taken place where the tribunals have held that .Masonie vows of secrecy were powerless jo release re-lease the parties and the witnesses in the case from the legal obligations of giving evidence, while at ' Paris a demand has lately been made in tho legislature legis-lature for the compliance by the grand orient of France with the provisions of the statutes, which recpiire th .communication to the government and also the national library of all its laws, rules, pu!-lications pu!-lications and accounts, no matter how confidential. In France, indeed, the u?stiou of revealing th-secrets th-secrets of the craft has developed into an important, parliamentary issue, which is nor altogether surprising sur-prising when it is borne in mind that in Franco as well as in Italy and in several other countries of continental Europe. Free Masonry has become a weighty factor in political life. It is this that renders rulers nowadays so reluctant reluc-tant to be connected with the order, whereas in former times, when it held aloof from politics and devoted itself almost exclusively to philanthropy, there-were many crowned heads and princes of the blood among the brethren. Only three monarchs namely Edward YIl, the Jvaiscr and King Oscar---belong today to the craft, and in each instance they have, since their accession to the throne, ceaed to be active members, and have severed their connection con-nection with the lodges to which they belonged, finding. the obligations of sovereignty incompatible with those of the brotherhood. Thus during the last year of Queen Victoria's reign the discovery that an atheistic 31a sonic lodgo known as the Hiram lodge had been constituted . in London under a charter from the grand orient of France, compelled the then Prince of Wales, in his capacity as grand master of the English rite, to issue a violently worded decree directed against French !Masons, denouncing them as beyond the -Masonic pale, and prohibiting British members of the order from holding any Masonic intercourse with them. May Embarrass King Edward. True, it was in keeping with the attifnde assumed as-sumed by the grand lodge of .England in 1S7T, whm the grand orient of France banished, so to spr-ak. the Almighty from its lodges, excluding in the most rigorous fashion from its ceremonials all acknowledgement acknowl-edgement of or reference to the grand architect of the universe. But in view of the role played by Masonry in the political life of France, whfre most of the leading statesman, from the president of the . republic and the premier downwards, are members of the craft, it. was, to say the least, awkward, and it is easy to see that if circumstances were to arise necessitating the issue of another such attack upon French .Masons by the English grand lodge the connection of King Edward with the latter would not merely endow the manifesto with an official and international character, but would be calculated to impair the friendly relations between the two gov- 1 ernments. ! This danger was brought houip to the king within with-in a few weeks after his accession. For among the earliest petitions which he received after becoming king was an appeal signed, not only by a largo number of Turkish Free MasonsAbut likewise bv thousands of other members of the craft, calling upon him to use his influence to secure tho freodom of a brother Mason. ex-Sultan Murad. who ''for th last quarter of a century has been imprisoned at. Constantinople on the pretext of a mental malady" by his younger brother, the present ruler of the Ottoman Ot-toman empire. It was perhaps fortunate that a few days before this petition reached its destination Edward had surrendered the grand mastership of the order in England to his brother, the Duke of Connaught. since otherwise his Masonic obligations would have, forced him to take some steps in behalf be-half of Murad which might have clashed with the political interest of his kingdom. Emperor William, on succeeding to the throne, with the object of avoiding just such quandaries as these, hastened to sever his connection with thfl craft, nominating his cousin and brother-in-law. Prince Frederick Leopold, to the grand mastership, master-ship, while King Oscar of Sweden showed similar prudence. Napoleon III. however, neglected to take this precaution when -he became emperor of the I French, and it was owing to his Masonic obliga- tions that he gave such powerful support to th5 1 united Italy party south of the Alps in defiance of French interests. For it is hardly necessary to I point out that it was to the advantage of France I that Italy should remain divided up into a number . of petty sovereignties instead of constituting one I united kingdom that would necessarily become a i menace and danger to Franco. i Napoleon was a Mason of the Italian rite, and he had joined the order in his youth, while living ' in Italy, and at a moment when the Italian lodges were the life and soul of tlie movement in favor of the unification of Italy with Rome as its capital. When he ascended the throne of France ho found it convenient to forget his obligations. But Maz-zini, Maz-zini, who was one of the principal dignitaries of the grand orient of Italy, and other influential Italian Masons, lost no time in reminding him of his sol- Q emn pledges, giving him to understand that not only j the enmity of the craft, but also punishment in the j shape of death, would inevitably overtake him un- j less he lived up to his promises. j ' Gets France Into War. s Not merely 'threat. hut bona tide attempts upon ; his life commenced to follow one upon another with I . . . i i ..(Continued on Page Thrcc.J i ' EUROPEAN MONARCHS WHO ARE MASONS. (Continued from Page One.) starting rapidity, until, in 1850, he, to the dismay of all his most sensible counselors and friends, embarked em-barked France in a costly and wholly unnecessary war with Austria for the purpose of driving her out of Lombardy and of uniting the latter, as well as the grand duchy of Tuscany, the duchy of Parma, Par-ma, and a number of other petty sovereignties of the peninsula to what was ihen known as the kingdom king-dom of Sardinia. He likewise gave material support sup-port to the movement winch resulted in the overthrow over-throw of the Kingdom of Naples and its absorption by what is now the Kingdom of Italy. Xapoleon's Masonic friends demanded that he should help them secure possession of Rome. But he realized that his subjects could not tolerate his taking part as sovereign of France in any movement move-ment that had for its object the overthrow of the temporal- sovereignty of the Pope, and that he would risk revolution and the loss of his throne it he continued any longer to yield to the demands of his Italian fellow Masons. It was then that he.caused his cousin. Prince Murat, to become grand piaster of the. French Free Masons,-and proclaimed his intention of protecting the craft in France in order to thoroughly make it clear, both in his own dominions and in Italy, that he had ceased to be a Mason or to be bound by his obligations, although he would remain a friend, of the craft. And in order to give a token of his good will to the latter, he issued a decree bearing the date of 1802 legally recognizing' and authorizing the existence ex-istence of the order of Freemasons in France. It is an irony of fate that this same fraternity should have become 'one of the chief factors in bringing about his downfall and have constituted one of the chief obstacles to any monarchical restoration in France. To what extent the Masons on the continent of Europe interfere in politics may be gathered from the fact that after the collapse of the Boulanger bubble those of his adherents who belonged to the order were subjected to severe disciplinary measures meas-ures by their lodges, not because they had taken part in a political movement, but because they had happened to be on the losing side. In Italy, after Crispi's first visit to the late Prince Bismarck at Friedrichsruhe, he invoked the support of the grand orient at Rome for the Triple Alliance, which was unpopular among the. people. As a reward for his services in the matter, the late Signer Lemni, the grand master-of the craft, was granted by the cabinet of the day the monopoly of purchasing the foreign tobacco needed by the. Italian Ital-ian government, the sale of tobacco in King Victor Emmanuel's dominions being a state monopoly. This enabled Lemni and his Masonic eon feres to realize enormous fortunes within the space of a few years. ' ' : : i. ' , |
