part in the French Revolution.

"Napoleon took Masonry under his protection. Joseph Napoleon was Grand Master of the Order. Joachim Murat second Master adjoint. The Empress Josephine being at Strasburg, in 1805, presided over the fete for the adoption of the lodge of True Chevaliers of Paris. At the same time Eugene de Beauharnais was Venerable of the lodge of St. Eugene in Paris. Having come to Italy with the title of Viceroy, the Grand Orient of Milan, named him ]\Iaster and Sovereign Commander of the Supreme Council of the thirty-second grade, that is to say, accorded him the greatest honour which could be given him accord- ing to the Statutes of the Order. Bernadotte was a Mason. His son Oscar was Grand Master of the Swedish lodge. In the different lodges of Paris were successively initiated, Alexander, Duke of Wurtemburg; the Prince Bernard of Saxe-Weimer; even the Persian Ambassador, Askeri Khan. The President of the Senate, Comit de Lacipede, presided over the Grand Orient of France, which had for officers of honour the Generals Kellerman, Messina, and Soult. Princes, Ministers, Marshals, Officers, Magistrates, all the men, in fine, remarkable for their glory or considerable by their position, ambitioned to be made Masons. The women even wished to have their lodges, into which entered Mes de Vaudemont, de Carignan, de Gerarchn, de Narbonne, and many other ladies."
Frere Clavel, in his picturesque history of Freemasonry, says that, " Of all these high personages the Prince Cambaceres was the one who most occupied himself with Masonry. He made it his duty to rally to Masonry all the men in France who were influential by their official position, by their talent, or by their fortune. The personal services which he rendered to many of the brethren ; the eclat which he caused to be given to the lodges in bringing to their sittings by his example and invitations all those illustrious amongst the military and judicial professions and others, contributed powerfully to the fusion of parties and to the consolidation of the imperial throne. In effect under his brilliant and active administration the lodges multiplied ad injinitinn. They were composed of the elect of French society. They became a point of re-union for the partisans of the existmg and of passed regimes. They celebrated in them the feasts of the Emperor. They read in them the biilletins of his victories before they were made public by the press, and able men organized the enthusiasm which gradually took hold of all minds "
£
50 WAR OF ANTICHRIST WITH THE CHURCH.
hands of Bonaparte, and urged him on in his career, watching, at the same time, closely, their own opportunities for the develop- ment of the deadly designs of the sect. Then, they obtained the first places in his Empire for themselves. They put as much mischief into the measures of relief given to conscience as they could. They established a fatal supremacy for secularism in the matter of education. They brought dissension between the Pope and the Emperor. They caused the second confiscation of the States of the Church. They caused and continued to the end, the imprisonment of Pius VII. They were at the bottom of every attack made by Napoleon while Emperor upon the rights of the Church, the freedom and independence of the Supreme Pontiff", and the well-being of religion.
But the chief mistake of Napoleon was the encouragement he gave to Freemasonry. It served his purpose admirably for awhile, that is so long as he served the present and ultimate views of the conspiracy ; for a conspiracy Masonry ever was and ever will be. Even if Cambaceres, Talleyrand, Fouche, and the old leaders of the Illuminati, whom he had taken into his confidence and richly rewarded, should be satisfied, there was a mass of others whom no reward could conciliate, and who, filled with the spirit of the sect, were sure to be ever on the look out for the means to advance the designs of Weishaupt and his inner circle. That inner circle never ceased its action. It held the members of the sect, whom it not only permitted but assisted to attain high worldly honours, completely in its power, and hence in absolute subjection. For them as well as for the humblest member of the secret conclave, the poisoned aqua to])liana and the dagger were ready to do the work of certain death should they lack obedience to those depraved fanatics of one diabolical idea, who were found worthy to be selected by their fellow-conspirators to occupy the highest place of infamy and secret power. These latter scattered secretly amidst the rank and file of the lodges, hundreds of Argus-eyed, skilled plotters, who kept the real power of inner
NAPOLEON AND FREEMASONRY. 5 1
or high Masonry in the hands ot its hidden masters. Masonry from this secret vantage gronnd ceaselessly conspired during the Empire. It assisted the conquests of the victor of Austerlitz and Jena ; and if Deschamps, who quotes from the most reliable sources, is to be trusted, it actually did more for these victories than the great military leader himself. Through its instrumentality, the resources of the enemies of Napoleon were never at hand, tlie designs of the Austrian and other generals opposed to him were thwarted, treason was rife in their camps, and information fatal to their designs was conveyed to the French commander. Masonry was then on his side, and as now the secret resources of the Order, its power of hidden influence and espionage were placed at the disposal of the cause it served. But when Masonry had reason to fear that Napoleon's power might be perpetuated ; when his alliance with the Imperial Family of Austria, and above all, when the consequence of that alliance, an heir to his throne, caused danger to the universal republic it could otherwise assure itself of at his death ; when, too, he began to show a coldness for the sect, and sought means to prevent it from the propagandism of its diabolical aims, then it became his enemy, and his end was not far off.^ Dis-
1 Deschamps says that it was at this period that the order of the Templars (for Masonry is divided into any amount of rites which exercise one over the other a kind of influence in proportion to the members of the inner grades which they contain) was resuscitated in France. It publicly interred one of its members from the Church of St, Antoine. The funeral oration of Jacques Molay was publicly pronounced. Xapoleon permitted this. The danger his permission created was foreseen, and M. de Maistre writes : — " A very remarkable phenomenon is that of the resuscitation of Freemasonry in France, so far, that a brother has been interred solemnly in Paris with all the attributes and ceremonies of the order. The Master who reigns in France does not leave it to be even suspected that such a thing can exist in France without his leave. Judging from his known character and from his ideas upon secret societies, how then can the thing be explained? Is he the Chief, or dupe, or perhaps the one and the other of a society which he thinks he knows, and which mocks him," Illustrating these remarks we have the comments of M. Bagot in his Codes des Franc-Macons, p. 183 : — " The Imperial Government took advantage of its omni- potence, to which so many men, so many institutions, yielded so comjjlacently, in order to dominate over Masonry. The latter became neither afraid nor revolted. What did it desire in effect ? To extend its empire — "It permitted itself to become subject to despotism in order to become sovereign." This gives us the whole reason why Masonry flrst permitted Napoleon to ride, then to reign, then to conquer, and finally to fall.
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tracting councils prevailed in his cabinet. His opponents began to get that information regarding his movements, which he had obtained previously of theirs. Members of the sect urged on his mad expedition to Moscow. His resources were paralyzed ; and he was, in one word, sold by secret, invisible foes into the hands of his enemies, [n Germany, Weishaupt and his party, still living on in dark intrigue, prepared secretly for his downfall. His generals were beaten in detail. He was betrayed, hood- winked, and finally led to his deposition and ruin. He then received with a measure, pressed down and overflowing, and shaken together, the gratitude of the father of lies, incarnate in Freemasonry, in the Illuminati, and kindred Atheistic secret societies. Banished to Elba he was permitted to return to France only in order to meet the fate of an outcast and a prisoner upon the rock of St. Helena, where he died abandoned and persecuted by the dark sect which had used, abused, and betrayed him. So it has continued, as we shall see, to use, to abuse, and to betray every usurper or despot whom it lures into its toils. We shall now glance at its action, the action of —
XI.
Freemasonry after the Fall of Napoleon. It would be very interesting, if we had time, to enter into the many intrigues of that very same body of Illuminati who had planned and executed the Kevolution, and had then created successively the Directory, the Consulate, and the Empire in France, as they now j)Osed in a new capacity as friends to the return of Monarchy in Europe generally. This they did for the purposes of the Freemasons, and in order to keep the power they wielded so long in their own hands, and in the hands of their party. Now, I wish you to note, that Weishaupt, the father of the Illuminati, and the fanatical and deep director of all its operations, was even then living in power and security at Coburg- Gotha; and that his wily confederates were muiisters in evei-y
FREEMASONRY AFTER THE FALL OF NAPOLEON. 53
Court of Europe. Then, as now, the in vmcible determination with which they secreted their quality from the eyes of monarchs as well as of the general public, enabled them to iwse in any character or capacity without fear of being detected as Freemasons, or at least as Illuminati, Since the reign of Frederick the Great, they filled the Court of Berlin. Many minor German Princes continued to be Freemasons. The Duke of Brunswick was the central figure in the first Masonic conspiracy, and though, with the hypocrisy common to the sect, he issued a declaration highly condemnatory of his fellows, it is generally believed that he remained to the end attached to the " regeneration of humanity " in the interests of Atheism. The Court of Vienna was more or less Masonic since the reign of the wretched Joseph II. Alexander of Kussia was educated by La Harpe, a Freemason, and at the very period when called upon to play u principal