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Presented  to  the 

LIBRARY  of  the 

UNIVERSITY  OF  TORONTO 

from 

the  estate  of 
ROBERT  KENNY 


THE    SECRET    SOCIETIES    OF    ALL 
AGES    AND    COUNTRIES 


THE 

SECRET  SOCIETIES 

OF  ALL  AGES  AND  COUNTRIES 

A  Comprehensive  Account  of  upwards  of  One  Hundred 

and  Sixty  Secret  Organisations — Religious,  Political, 

and  Social — from  the  most  Remote  Ages 

down  to  the  Present  Time 

Embracing  the  Mysteries  of  Ancient  India,  China,  Japan,  Egypt,  Mexico, 
Peru,  Greece,  and  Scandinavia,  the  Cabbalists,  Early  Christians, 
Heretics,  Assassins,  Thugs,  Templars,  the  Vehm  and 
Inquisition,  Mystics,  Rosicrucians,  Illuminati,  Free- 
masons, Skopzi,  Camorristi,  Carbonari,  Nihilists, 
Fenians,  French,  Spanish, 

^    And  other  Mysterious  Sects 

BY 

CHARLES  WILLIAM  HECKETHORN 

IN  TWO  VOLUMES 
VOL.  II 

NEW  EDITION 
THOEOUGHLY  REVISED  AND  GEEATLY  ENLARGED 


LONDON 
GEORGE     REDWAY 

1897 


ANALYTICAL  TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 

VOL.  II. 
The  numbers  preceding  analytical  headings  refer  to  the  sections. 

PAGES 

AUTHORITIES  CONSULTED xi 

BOOK  XI 

FREEMASONRY 

I.  THE  LEGEND    OF    THE    TEMPLE.  —  383.    Ancestry    of    Hiram    Abiff . 

384.   Hiram,  Solomon,  and   the    Queen    of   Sheba.      385.   Murder  of 
Hiram 3-7 

II.  ORIGIN  AND  TRADITIONS.— 386.  The  First  Masons.      387.  :Periods  of 

Freemasonry.     388.  Freemasonry  derived  from  many  Sources.     389. 
True  History  of  Masonry 8-12 

III.  RITES  AND  CUSTOMS. — 390.  List  of  Rites.      391.  Masonic  Customs. 

392.  Masonic  Alphabet          .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .          13- 1 5 

IV.  THE  LODGE. — 393.  Interior  Arrangement  of  Lodge.      394.  Modern 
Lodge.     395.   Officers.     396.   Opening  the  Lodge  .         .         .         16-18 

V.  GENUINE  AND  SPURIOUS  MASONRY. — 397.  Distinction  between  Genuine 

and    Spurious    Masonry.     398.     Some    Rites    only    deserve    Special 
Mention          ...........          19— 

VI.  CEREMONIES   OP   INITIATION.  —  399.  Ceremonies   of   Initiation  —  The 
Apprentice.      400.     Ceremonies    of    Initiation  —  The   Fellow  -  Craft. 
401.     Ceremony   of   Initiation  and  Story  of    Hiram's    Murder  —  The 
Master  Mason.     402.  The  Legend  Explained.     403.   The  Raising  of 
Osiris.     404.  The  Blazing  Star 21-29 

VII.  THE  HOLY  ROYAL  ARCH. — 405.  Officers.    406.  Ceremonies.    407.  Pass- 
ing the  Veils 3O~33 

VIII.  GRAND  MASTER  ARCHITECT. — 408.  Ceremonial        .        .        .         34-36 

IX.  GRAND  ELECT  KNIGHT  OF  KADOSH. — 409.  The  Term  Kadosh.     410. 
Reception  into  the  Degree.     411.   The  Mysterious  Ladder.     412.  The 
Seven  Steps  ...........          37~39 


vi  CONTENTS 

PAGES 

X.  PRINCE  OF  ROSE-CROIX.  —  413.   Distinct  from   Rosicrucian,  and  has 

various  Names.  414.  Officers  and  Lodges.  415.  Reception  in  the  First 
Apartment  416.  Second  Apartment.  417.  Reception  in  the  Third 
Apartment 4°~43 

XI.  THE  RITES  OF  MIHKAIM  AND  MEMPHIS. — 418.  Anomalies  of  the  Rite  of 
Misraim.     419.  Organisation.     420.  History  and  Constitution.     421. 
Rites  and  Ceremonies.     422.  Rite  of  Memphis      .... 

XII.  MODERN  KNIGHTS  TEMPLARS.— 423.   Origin.      424.   Revival  of  the 
Order.     425.  The  Leviticon.     426.  Ceremonies  of  Initiation         .          47-5° 

XIII.  FREEMASONRY  IN  ENGLAND  AND  SCOTLAND. — 427.  Freemasonry  in 
England.       428.    Freemasonry    in    Scotland.       429.    Modern    Free- 
masonry                   5I~53 

XFV.  FREEMASONRY  IN  FRANCE. — 430.  Introduction  into  France.  431. 
Chevalier  Ramsay.  432.  Philosophical  Rite.  433.  The  Duke 
de  Chartres 54~56 

XV.  THE  CHAPTER  OF  CLERMONT   AND  THE  STRICT  OBSERVANCE. — 434. 
Jesuitical  Influence.     435.  The  Strict  Observance          ...          57,  58 

XVI.  THE  RELAXED  OBSERVANCE.— 436.  Organisation  of  Relaxed  Obser- 
vance.    437.  Disputes  in  German  Lodges.     438.  Rite  of  Zinzendorf. 

439.  African  Architects         ........          59~6o 

XVII.  THE  CONGRESS  OF  WILHELMSBAD.— 440.  Various  Congresses.     441. 
Discussions   at    Wilhelmsbad.       442.    Result    of    Convention.      443. 
Frederick  William  III.  and  the  Masons 61-63 

XVIII.  MASONRY  AND  NAPOLEONISM.— 444.  Masonry  protected  by  Napoleon. 
445.  Spread  of  Freemasonry.     446.  The  Clover  Leaves.     447.  Obse- 
quiousness of  Freemasonry.     448.  Anti-Napoleonic  Freemasonry          64-67 

XIX.  FREEMASONRY,  THE  RESTORATION  AND  THE  SECOND  EMPIRE.  —449. 
The  Society  of  "France  Regenerated."     450.    Priestly  Opposition  to 
Masonry.      451.    Political   Insignificance   of    Masonry.      452.  Free- 
masonry and  Napoleon  III.     453.  Jesuitical  Manoeuvres      .         .          68-71 

XX.  FREEMASONRY  IN  ITALY.— 454.  Whimsical  Masonic  Societies.      455. 
Illuminati  in  Italy.     456.  Freemasonry  at  Naples.     457.  Details  of 
Document.     458.   Freemasonry  at   Venice.     459.   Abatement  under 
Napoleon.     460.  The  Freemasonry  of  the  Present  in  Italy.     461.  Re- 
form needed '  .  72-77 

XXI.  CAGLIOSTRO  AND  EGYPTIAN  MASONRY. —462.   Life  of  Cagliostro. 
463.  The  Egyptian  Rite.    464.  Cagliostro's  Hydromancy.    465.  Lodges 
founded  by  Cagliostro 78-81 

XXII.  ADOPTIVE  MASONRY.— 466.  Historical  Notice.    467.  Organisation. 
468.  Jesuit  Degrees 82, 83 

XXIII.  ANDROGYNOUS  MASONRY.— 469.  Origin  and  Tendency.  470.  Earliest 
Androgynous  Societies.      471.  Other    Androgynous    Societies.      472. 
Various  other  Androgynous  Societies.     473.  Knights  and  Nymphs  of 
the  Rose.     474.  German  Order  of  the  Rose.     475.  Pretended  Objects 

of  the  Order.     476.  Order  of  Harmony.     477.  Mason's  Daughter          84-90 


CONTENTS  vii 

PAGES 

XXIV.  SCHISMATIC  RITES  AND  SECTS.— 478.  Schismatic  Rites  and  Sects. 
479.   Farmassoni.      480.    The  Gormogones.      481.    The   Noachites,  or 
Noachidffi.     482.  Argonauts.     483.  The  Grand  Orient  and  Atheism. 
484.  Ludicrous  Degree 91-95 

XXV.  DIFFUSION   OF    THE   ORDER.  —  485.    Freemasonry  in    Spain    and 
Portugal.     486.  Freemasonry  in  Russia.     487.  Freemasonry  in  Switzer- 
land.    488.  Freemasonry  in  Sweden  and  Poland.     489.  Freemasonry 
in  Holland  and  Germany.     490.  Freemasonry  in  Turkey,  Asia,  Africa, 

and  Oceania.     491.  Freemasonry  in  America        ....          96-99 

XXVI.  PERSECUTIONS  OF  FREEMASONRY. — 492.  Causes    of    Persecution. 
493.  Instances  of  Persecution.     494.  Anti-Masonic  Publications        100-105 

XXVII.  FUTILITY  OF    MODERN  FREEMASONRY. — 495.   Vain  Pretensions 
of    Modern    Freemasonry.       496.    Vanity    of    Masonic    Ceremonial. 
497.  Masonry  diffuses  no  Knowledge.     498.  Decay  of  Freemasonry. 
499.    Masonic    Opinions    of     Masonry.       500.    Masonic    Literature. 
5Ooa.  The  Quatuor  Coronati  Lodge 106-110 

BOOK  XII 

INTERNATIONAL,   COMMUNE,  AND   ANARCHISTS 

501.  Introductory  Remarks.  502.  Socialistic  Schemes.  503.  History  of  the 
International.  504.  Objects  and  Aims  of  International.  5°5-  ^he 
International  in  England.  506.  The  International  Abroad.  507.  The 
International  and  the  Empire.  508.  The  International  and  the  War. 
509.  The  International  and  the  Commune.  510.  Budget  of  the 
International.  511.  Attempt  to  Revive  the  International.  512. 
Anarchists 111-127 


BOOK  XIII 

POLITICAL   SECRET   SOCIETIES 

I.  CHINESE  SOCIETIES. — 513.  Earliest  Secret  Chinese  Societies.     514.  More 

recent  Societies.     515.  Lodges.     516.  Government.     517.  Seal  of  the 
Hung  League.     518.  The  Ko  lao  Hui 128-138 

II.  The  COMUNEROS.  —  519.  Introductory  Remarks.     520.  Earliest  Secret 

Societies  in  Spain.     521.  Freemasonry  in  Spain,  the  Forerunner  of  the 
Comuneros.     522.  The  Comuneros.     523.  Clerical  Societies          .      139-142 

III.  THE  HETAIRIA.— 524.  Origin.     525.  The  Hetairia  of  1812.     526.  The 
Hetairia  of  1814.     527.  Signs  and  Passwords.     528.  Short  Career  of 
Galatis.     529.  Proceedings  of  the  Grand  Arch.     530.  Ipsilanti's  Pro- 
ceedings.   531.  Ipsilanti's  Blunders.    532.  Progress  of  the  Insurrection. 
533.  Ipsilanti's  Approaching  Fall.     534.  Advance  of  the  Turks.     535. 
Ipsilanti's  Difficulties.    536.  Ipsilanti's  Fall.     537.  Ipsilanti's  Manifesto. 
538.  Ipsilanti's  Imprisonment  and  Death.    539.  Fate  of  the  Hetairists. 
540.  Georgakis'  Death.     541.  Farmakis' Death.     542.  Final  Success  of 

the  Hetairia 143-156 


viii  CONTENTS 

PAGES 

IV.  THE  CARBONARI. — 543.  History  of  the  Association.    544.  Real  Origin  of 
the  Carboneria.     545.  The  Vendita  or  Lodge.     546.  Ritual  of  Initiation. 
547.  First  Degree.      548.  The  Second  Degree.      549.  The  Degree  of 
Grand  Elect.     550.  Degree  of  Grand  Master  Grand  Elect.     551.  Sig- 
nification of  the  Symbols.      552.  Other  Ceremonies  and  Regulations. 
553.  The  Ausonian  Republic.      554.   Most  Secret  Carbonaro  Degree. 
555.  De  Witt,  Biographical  Notice  of.     556.  Carbonaro  Charter  pro- 
posed  to   England.       557.  Carbonarism   and  Murat.       558.  Trial  of 
Carbonari.     559.  Carbonarism   and   the   Bourbons.     560.  The  King's 
Revenge.     561.  Revival  of  Carbonarism.     562.  Carbonarism  and  the 
Church.     563.  Carbonarism  in  Northern  Italy.     564.  Carbonarism  in 
France.     565.  Carbonarism  in  Germany.     566.  Carbonarism  in  Spain. 

567.  Giardiniere     ..........     157-177 

V.  MISCELLANEOUS  ITALIAN  SOCIETIES.  — 568.    Guelphic    Knights.      569. 

Guelphs  and  Carbonari.  570.  The  Latini.  571.  The  Centres.  572. 
Italian  Litterateurs.  573.  Societies  in  Calabria  and  the  Abruzzi.  574. 
Giro  Annichiarico.  575.  Certificates  of  the  Decisi.  576.  The  Calderari. 
577.  The  Independents.  578.  The  Delphic  Priesthood.  579.  Egyptian 
Lodges.  580.  American  Hunters.  581.  Secret  Italian  Society  in 
London.  582.  Secret  Italian  Societies  in  Paris.  583.  Mazzini  and 
Young  Italy.  584.  Mazzini,  the  Evil  Genius  of  Italy.  585.  Assassi- 
nation of  Rossi.  586.  Sicilian  Societies.  587.  The  Consistorials.  588. 
The  Roman  Catholic  Apostolic  Congregation.  589.  Sanfedisti  .  178-195 

VI.  NAPOLEONIC   AND   ANTI- NAPOLEONIC   SOCIETIES.— 590.   The   Phila- 
delphians.      591.   The   Rays.       592.    Secret   League    in   Tirol.      593. 
Societies  in  Favour  of  Napoleon.     594.  The  Illuminati.     595.  Various 
other  Sociaties.     596.  The  Accoltellatori 196-201 

VII.  FRENCH  SOCIETIES.— 597.  Various   Societies  after  the  Restoration. 
598.  The  Acting  Company.     599.  Communistic  Societies.     600.  Causes 

of  Secret  Societies  in  France 202-206 

VIII.  POLISH  SOCIETIES.— 601.  Polish  Patriotism.     602.  Various  Revolu- 
tionary Sects.     603.  Secret  National  Government         .         .         .      207-209 

IX.  THE  OMLADINA.— 604.  The  Panslavists 210,211 

X.  TURKISH  SOCIETIES.— 605.  Young  Turkey.    606.  Armenian  Society    212,213 

XI.  THE  UNION  OF  SAFETY.— 607.  Historical  Sketch  of  the  Society  .      214-216 

XII.  TIIK  NIHILISTS.—  608.  Meaning  of  the  term  Nihilist.     609.  Founders 
of  Nihilism.     6lO.  Sergei  Nechayeff.     6il.  Going  among  the  People. 
612.  Nihilism  becomes  Aggressive.     613.  Sophia  Bardina's  and  other 
Trials.     614.  The  Party  of  Terror.     615.  Vera  Zassulic.     6 1 6.  Officials 
Killed  or  Threatened  by  the  Nihilists.     617.  First  Attempts  against  the 
Kmperor'sLife.  618.  Numerous  Executions.  619.  The  Moscow  Attempt 
against  the  Emperor.     620.  Various  Nihilist  Trials.    621.  Explosion  in 
the  Winter  Palace.    622.  Assassination  of  the  Emperor.    623.  The  Mine 
in  Garden  Street.     624.  Constitution  said  to  have  been  Granted  by 
late  Emperor.      625.  The  Nihilist  Proclamation.     626.  The  Emperor's 
Reply  thereto.    627.  Attempt  against  General  Tcherevin.    628.  Trials 
and  other  Events  in  1882.     629.  Coronation,  and  Causes  of  Nihilistic 


CONTENTS  ix 

PAGES 

Inactivity.  630.  Colonel  Sudeikin  shot  by  Nihilists.  631.  Attempt 
against  the  Emperor  at  Gatshina.  632.  Trial  of  the  Fourteen.  633. 
Reconstruction  of  the  Nihilist  Party.  634.  Extension  of  Nihilism. 
635.  Decline  of  Nihilism.  636.  Nihilistic  Proceedings  in  1887.  637. 
Nihilism  in  1888.  638.  Slaughter  of  Siberian  Exiles,  and  Hunger- 
Strikes.  639.  Occurrences  in  1890.  640.  Occurrences  from  1891  to 
Present  Date.  641.  Nihilistic  Finances.  642.  The  Secret  Press. 
643.  Nihilistic  Measures  of  Safety.  644.  The  Nihilists  in  Prison. 
645.  Nihilistic  Emigrants.  646.  Nihilistic  Literature.  647.  Trials  of 
Nihilists 217-256 

XIII.  GERMAN  SOCIETIES.— 648.  The  Mosel  Club.     649.  German  Feeling 
against  Napoleon.     650.  Formation  and  Scope  of  Tugendbund.     651. 
Divisions   among   Members    of    Tugendbund.   ^652.    Activity  of    the 
Tugendbund.    653.  Hostility  of  Governments  against  Tugendbund    257-262 

XIV.  THE  BABIS.  — 654.    Bab,  the  Founder.     655.   Progress  of  Babism. 
656.  Babi  Doctrine.     657.  Recent  History  of  Babism  .         .         .      263-269 

XV.  IRISH  SOCIETIES. — 658.  The  White-Boys.     659.  Right-Boys  and  Oak- 
Boys.    660.  Hearts-of-Steel,  Threshers,  Break-of -Day-Boys,  Defenders, 
United  Irishmen,  Ribbonmen.     661.  Saint  Patrick  Boys.     662.  The 
Orangemen.    663.  Molly  Maguires.    664.  Ancient  Order  of  Hibernians. 
665.    Origin  and  Organisation  of  Fenianism.     666.   Origin  of  Name. 
667.  Fenian  Litany.      668.  Events  from  1865  to  1871.     669.  The  Soi- 
disant  General  Cluseret.      670.    Phoenix    Park   Murders,  and  Conse- 
quences.   671.  Dynamite  Outrages.      672.  The  National  League.    673. 
Comic  Aspects  of  Fenianism.     674.  Events  from  iSSS  to  1896.     675. 
Most  Recent  Revelations 270-287 


BOOK  XIV 

MISCELLANEOUS   SOCIETIES 

676.  The  ABC  Friends.  677.  Abelites.  678.  Academy  of  the  Ancients. 
679.  Almusseri.  680.  Anonymous  Society.  68 1.  Anti-Masonic  Party. 
682.  Anti-Masons.  683.  Apocalypse,  Knights  of  the.  684.  Areoiti. 
685.  Avengers,  or  Vendicatori.  686.  Belly  Paaro.  687.  Californian 
Society.  688.  Cambridge  Secret  Society.  689.  Charlottenburg,  Order 
of.  690.  Church  Masons.  691.  Cong ourde,  The.  692.  Druids,  Modern. 
693.  Duk-Duk.  694.  Egbo  Society.  695.  Fraticelli.  696.  Goats, 
The.  697.  Grand  Army  of  the  Republic.  698.  Green  Island.  699. 
Harugari.  700.  Hemp-smokers,  African.  701.  Heroine  of  Jericho. 
702.  Human  Leopards.  703.  Hunters,  the.  704.  Huse"anawer.  705. 
Indian  (North  American)  Societies.  706.  Invisibles,  the.  707.  Jehu, 
Society  of.  708.  Karpokratians.  709.  Klobbergb'll.  710.  Knights, 
the  Order  of.  711.  Knovv-Nothings.  712.  Ku-Klnx-Klan.  713.  Kurnai 
Initiation.  714.  Liberty,  Knights  of.  7r5-  Lion,  Knights  of  the. 
716.  Lion,  the  Sleeping.  717.  Ludlam's  Cave.  718.  Mad  Councillors. 
719.  Magi,  Order  of  the.  720.  Maharajas.  721.  Mano  Negra.  722. 


CONTENTS 

PAGES 

Melanesian  Societies.  723.  Mumbo- Jumbo.  724.  Odd  Fellows. 
725.  O-Kee-Pa.  726.  Pantheists.  727.  Patriotic  Order  Sons  of 
America.  728.  Phi-Beta-Kappa.  729.  Pilgrims.  730.  Police,  Secret. 
731.  Portuguese  Societies.  732.  Purrah,  the.  733.  Pythias,  Knights 
of.  734.  Rebeccaites.  735.  Redemption,  Order  of.  736.  Red  Men. 
737.  Regeneration,  Society  of  Universal.  738.  Saltpetrers.  739. 
Sikh  Fanatics.  740.  Silver  Circle,  Knights  of  the.  741.  Sonderbare 
Gesellen.  742.  Sophisiens.  743.  Star  of  Bethlehem.  744.  Thirteen, 
the.  745.  Tobaccological  Society.  746.  Turf,  Society  of  the.  747. 
Utopia.  748.  Wahabees 288-326 


ADDENDA  ET  CORRIGENDA 


VOL  I. 

Page  36— Buddha's  Image ;  Work  on  Buddhist  Religion  ;  Budda's  Birth- 
place recently  discovered 327 

Page  45— Temple  of  Hathor 327 

Page  142— Family  of  Waldo 328 

Page  168 — Vehm,  Lindner's  work  on  the 328 

Page  169— Beati  Paoli— John  of  Parma 32§ 

Page  198 — Astrological  Society  in  London   .......  32& 

Page  230 — Master  Pianco  and  the  Rosier ucians    .         .         .         .         .         .329 

Page  231 — Asiatic  Brethren  and  their  Custodian  of  Archives       .         .         .  329 

Page  258 — Meaning  of  term  Garduna 329 

Page  270— The  Camorra,  Laws  against  the 329 

Page  273— The  Camorra,  Grant's  "  Stories  of  Naples  and  the  Camorra"    .  330 

Page  315 — The  German  Union  :  Bahrdt  and  his  mysterious  correspondents  330 


VOL.  II. 

Page  60 — African  Architects  and  their  sections 330 

Page  132— Tae-ping-wang,  the  Chinese  Artista 331 

Page  139 — Europe  after  the  Congress  of  Vienna 331 

Page  159— The  Carbonari:  the  author  of  "The  Memoirs  of  the  Secret 

Societies  of  the  South  of  Italy,  particularly  the  Carbonari" .  331 
Page  207 — Polish  Patriotism  :  Courricre's  opinion  thereof  .  .  .  .331 
Page  259 — Baron  von  Stein  on  the  Tugendbund  and  secret  societies — Baron 

von  Stein,  Privy  Councillor  to  the  Count  Palatine  of  Cologne  332 

Page  260 — The  Tugendbund  and  the  German  rising  .....  332 

Page  278 — Fenians  :  O'Leary's  "  Recollections  of  Fenians  and  Fenianism  "  333 
Page  299 — Human  Leopards  ;  why  so  called — many  secret  societies  on  West 

coast  of  Africa 333 

Page  301— Indian  (North  American)  Societies  :  the  legend  of  Manabozko 

and  Chibiabos                  ........  333 


AUTHORITIES   CONSULTED 


N.B. — The  books  to  the  titles  of  which  an  *  is  prefixed  are  in  the  author's 
own  library. 

CARBONARI. 

*WRIGHTSON,  R.  H.     History  of  Modern  Italy.     London,  1855. 

*CANTU,  C.     II  Conciliatore  e  i  Carbonari.     Milano,  1878. 

^Memoirs  of  the  Secret  Societies  of  the  South  of  Italy,  particularly  the 

Carbonari.     London,  1821. 

SAINT-EDME.     Constitution  des  Carbonari.     Paris,  1821. 
*DEWiTT.     Les  Society's  secretes  de  France  et  d'ltalie.     Paris,  1830. 
ORLOFF.     Memoires  sur  le  royaume  de  Naples. 
COLLETTA.     Storia  del  reame  di  Napoli. 
LE  BLANC.     L'Histoire  de  Dix  Ans. 
GROS.     De  Didier  et  autres  conspirateurs  sous  la  Eestauration.     Paris, 

1841. 
*SANTINI,  L.     Cenno  Storico  sull'  Origine  della  Carboneria  e  suoi  fasti 

nelle  provincie  Napoletane.    MS.     1881.     (This  work  was  specially 

written  for   "Secret  Societies"  by  an    Italian    gentleman    well 

acquainted  with  the  subject.) 
*CRAVEN,  Hon.  R.  K.     A  Tour  through  the  Southern  Provinces  of 

Naples.     4to.     Plates.     London,  1821. 
*PE~PE,  G.     Relation  des  Evenements  Politiques  et  Militaires  a  Naples 

en  i82oet  1821.     Paris,  1822. 

FREEMASONS. 

*BARRUELL,  Abbe.     The  History  of  Jacobinism.     Translated  from  the 

French.     Four  vols.     London,  1 797. 
BAZOT.     Tableau  historique,  philosophique,  et  moral  de  la  Magonnerie 

en  France. 

BEDARRIDE.     De  1'Ordre  magonnique  de  Misraim.     Paris,  1845. 
Vie  de  Joseph  Balsamo.     Paris,  1791. 
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burg,  1786. 

*CARLILE.     Manual  of  Freemasonry.     London,  1845. 
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1844. 

xi 


xii  AUTHOKITIES  CONSULTED 

DE  LA  TIERCE.     Histoire  des  Francs-Ma9ons.     1745. 

DKKMOTT.     The  Ahiman  Rezon. 

I:T,  E.  E.     Verurtlu-ilun^  des  Freiinaurer-Ordens.     Three  vols. 
S.-halfhausen,  1863. 

LM   Martyrs  de  la  Franc-Ma9onnerie  en  Espa^ne.      Paris, 
1854. 

*  FELLOWS.     Mysteries  of  Freemasonry.     London,  1860. 

*|-'IXI>KI.,  .1.  G.  History  of  Freemasonry.  With  Preface  by  D.  Murray 
Lyon.  London,  1871. 

*Fox,  THOS.  L.  Freemasonry.  Account  of  Early  History  of  Free- 
masonry in  England.  London,  1870. 

*Freemasons'  Quarterly  tteview.     London. 

*Freemasonry,  Ritual  of,  including  Account  of  Murder  of  William 
Morgan.  By  a  Traveller  in  the  United  States.  Engravings. 
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HOTCHINSON.     Spirit  of  Freemasonry. 

HELDMANN.  Les  trois  plus  anciens  Monuments  de  la  Confraternite" 
mac,onnique  allemande. 

Le  Monde  Ma9onnique  (periodical  publication).     1859-79. 

Procedures  de  1'Inquisition  de  Portugal  centre  les  Francs- Ma§ons.    1740. 

JOGE.  Le  Globe  ;  Archives  generales  des  Societes  secretes,  non  poli- 
tiques.  Paris. 

LENNING.     Encyclopaedic  der  Freimaurerei. 

LENOIR.     La  Franc- Ma9onnerie  rendue  &  sa  veritable  Origine. 

LINDNER,  W.     Mac-Benach.     Leipsic,  1819. 

*MACKEY.    Lexicon  of  Freemasonry.     London,  1 867. 

*Fatti  ed  Argomenti  intorno  alia  Massoneria.     Geneva,  1862. 

Masonry  the  same  all  over  the  World.     Boston,  1 830. 

*0rigine  de  la  Ma9onnerie  Adonhiramite.     Helyopolis,  1787. 

MOUNIER.  De  1'Influence  attribuee  aux  Philosophes,  aux  Francs- 
Ma9ons  et  aux  Illumines  sur  la  Revolution  de  France.  Paris, 
1801. 

Les  plus  secrets  Mysteres  de  la  Franc-Ma9omierie.  Jerusalem  (Paris), 
'774- 

*OLIVER.     History  of  Initiations.     London,  1841. 

Theocratic  Philosophy  of  Freemasonry.     London,  1840. 

Programma  Massonico  adottato  dalla  Massoneria  Italiana  Ricostituta. 
1863. 

*RAGON.  Cours  philosophique  des  Initiations  anciennes  et  modernes. 
Paris,  1841. 

Manuel  Complet  de  la  Ma9onnerie  des  Dames.     Paris,  1860. 

*RAGON,  J.  M.     La  Francma9onnerie.     Paris,  N.D. 

-MVrissE,  J.  A.  The  Obelisk  of  Freemasonry,  according  to  the  Dis- 
coveries of  Belzoni.  Plates.  New  York,  1880. 

* U'ADXKK,  F.  Leben  und  Schicksale  von  F.  M.  Grossinger.  Frank- 
furt, 1789. 

*  Francs-  M^ons,  L'Ordre  des,  trahi  et  le  Secret  des  Mopses   revele- 
Amsterdam,  1745. 


AUTHORITIES  CONSULTED  xiii 

*Sarsena  oder  der  Vollkommene  Baumeister.     Leipzig,  1860. 

*  Warfare  of  Freemasonry  against  Church  and  State,  The  Secret.  Trans- 
lated from  the  German.  London,  1875. 

*ZSCHOKKE,  H.    Gesammelte  Schriften.    Thirty-six  vols.    Aarau,  1850. 

*ROBISON,  J.  Proofs  of  a  Conspiracy  against  all  the  Religions  and 
Governments  of  Europe.  Second  edition.  London,  1797. 

*SAINT-FE"LIX.     Aventures  de  Cagliostro.     Paris,  1854. 

SAINT- VICTOR.     La  Vraie  Ma§onnerie  dAdoption.     London,  1779. 

The  Secrets  of  Freemasonry  Revealed.     London,  1759. 

A  Master- Key  to  Freemasonry.     London,  1760. 

*SPRATT,  E.  Constitutions  for  the  Use  of  the  Grand  Lodges  in  Ireland. 
Dublin,  1751. 

VERNHES.     Defense  de  1'Ordre  de  Misraim. 

DE  WIDEKIND.     Geschichte  der  Freimaurerei  in  Deutschland. 

OFPEG,  A.  Der  Hammer  der  Freimaurerei  am  Kaiserthrone  der  Habs- 
burger.  Amberg  und  Leipzig,  1880. 

*DALEN,  C.  VAN.  Kalender  fur  Freimaurer  auf  das  Jahr  1894. 
Leipzig,  1894. 

*RHODOCANAKIS,  Prince.  The  Imperial  Constantinian  Order  of  St. 
George.  4to.  London,  1870. 


INTERNATIONAL  AND  COMMUNE. 

Contemporary  journalism  of  various  countries. 
MAZZINI.     Scritti  editi  e  inediti.     Milan,  1861-3. 
Histoire  de  1'Internationale.     Par  Jacques  Populus.     Paris,  1 87 1 . 
*La  Fin  du  Bonapartisme.     Par  E.  de  Pompery.     Paris,  1872. 
*La  Comune  di  Parigi  nel  1871.     Per  J.  Cantu.     Milano,  1873. 
*WRIGHTSON,  R.  H.     History  of  Modern  Italy.     London,  1855. 
*BARONI,  C.     I  Lombardi  nelle  Guerre  Italiane,  1848-9.    Torino,  1856. 
*VILLETARD,  E.     Histoire  de  1'Internationale.     Paris,  1872. 
*YORKE,  O.     Secret  History  of  the  International.     London,  1872. 


IRISH  SOCIETIES. 

^Incipient  Irish  Revolution  :  an  Expose  of  Fenianism  of  To-day. 
London,  1889. 

^WATERS,  THOS.  The  Ribbonman ;  or,  The  Secret  Tribunal.  Glas- 
gow, N.D. 

*MOORE,  THOS.     Life  of  Lord  Edward  Fitzgerald. 

"^Speeches  from  the  Dock  ;  or,  Protests  of  Irish  Patriotism. 

Contemporary  Journalism. 

RUTHERFORD,  JOHN.  The  Secret  History  of  the  Fenian  Conspiracy. 
London,  1877. 


xiv  AUTHORITIES  CONSULTED 

*FROST,  THOS.     The   Secret  Societies  of  the  European   Revolution. 

Two  vols.     London,  1876. 
*LE  CARON,  H.     Twenty-five  Years  in  the  Secret  Service.     London, 

1892. 
*HOPKINS,  T.      Kilmainham  Memories.      The  Story  of  the  Greatest 

Political  Crime  of  the  Century.     London,  1 896. 
*DOWSETT,  C.  F.     Striking  Events  in  Irish  History.     London,  1890. 


MISCELLANEOUS. 

*BLAGDON,  F.  W.     Geography  of  Africa.     Maps  and  plates.     London. 

Der  Abelit.    4to.     Leipzig,  1746. 

Zuverlassige  Nachrichten  Uber  Schonherrs  Leben.     Konigsberg,  1839. 

(Mucker.) 
SCHOOLCRAFT,  H.  R.     History  of  the  Iroquois.     New  York,  1846. 

Algic  Researches.     New  York,  1 839. 

*BELL,  H.  J.     Obeah  :  Witchcraft  in  the  West  Indies.     London,  1893. 
BATEMAN,  C.  S.  LATROBE.     First  Ascent  of  the  Kasai ;   being  some 

Records  of  Service  under  the  Lone  Star.     London,  1889. 
*ROVANI,  GIUSEPPE.     Cento  Anni.     Two  vols.     Milano,  1889. 
WAKE,  C.  S.     Memoirs  of  International  Congress  of  Anthropology. 

Chicago,  1894. 
ROTH,  H.  L.     Aborigines  of  Tasmania.     London,  1890. 

—  Aborigines  of  Hispaniola.     London,  1887. 
MORGAN,  L.  H.     League  of  Ho-de-no-sau-nee,  or  Iroquois.     Rochester 

(New  York),  1851. 

DINAUX,  A.  M.     Les  Socie"te"s  Badines.     Two  vols.     Paris,  1867. 
KINGSLEY,  MARY  H.     Travels  in  West  Africa.     London,  1897. 
HENNE  AM  RHYN,  OTTO.    Das  Buch  der  Mysterien.     Leipzig,  1891. 


POLITICAL. 

*BRUCK,  H.     Geheime  Gesellschaften  in  Spanien.     Mainz,  1881. 

*BARRUELL,  Abbe".  The  History  of  Jacobinism.  Translated  from  the 
French.  Four  vols.  London,  1 797. 

*BLACKETT,  H.  Garibaldi :  His  Life  and  Times.  Illustrated.  London, 
1882. 

*BONNEMERE,  E.     Histoire  de  la  Jacquerie.     Paris,  N.D. 

*Contemporary  Journalism. 

*CANTU,  J.  L'Incendio  di  Parigi  nel  1871.  Milano,  1873.  Lemon- 
nier,  A.  Histoire  de  la  Revolution  de  Paris.  Two  vols.  Bor- 
deaux, 1871. 

*CARRANA,  T.    Delia  Difesa  di  Venezia.     Geneva,  1850. 

*CAUSSIDIERE.  Memoirs  of  Citizen  ;  or,  Secret  History  of  the  Revolu- 
tion of  1848.  Two  vols.  London,  1848. 

*GOLOVINE,  IVAN.    L'Europe  Revolutionnaire.     Paris,  1849. 


AUTHORITIES  CONSULTED  xv 

*GARIBALDI,  G.     Autobiography.     Translated  by  A.  Werner.     Three 

vols.     London,  1889. 
*HODDE,  L.  de  la.     Geschichte  der  Geheimen  Gesellschaften  und  der 

republikanischen  Partei  in  Frankreich  von  1830-1848.     A  us  dem 

Franzosischen.     Basel,  1851. 

*HoRNER,  S.     A  Century  of  Despotism  in  Naples  and  Sicily.     Edin- 
burgh, 1840. 

*LAMMOXIER,  A.     La  Revolution  de  Paris.     Bordeaux,  1871. 
*MAYERS,  Kev.  M.  J.     Note-Book  of  the  late  Civil  War  in  Switzerland 

(Sonderbund  War).     London  and  Zurich,  1848. 
^Monthly   Magazine  and  British   Register.      Fifty-seven  vols.      From 

February  1796  to  July  1824.     London. 

*PLAYFAIR,  WILLIAM.     History  of  Jacobinism.     London,  1795. 
*DUMAS,  A.     Les  Garibaldiens.     Paris,  1868. 
*BEAUMONT-VASSY,  Vicomte  de.     Histoire  des  Etats  Italiens  depuis  le 

Congres  de  Vienne.     Bruxelles,  1851. 
*ROCCA.     Memoirs  of  the  War  of  the  French  in  Spain.     Translated 

by  M.  Graham.     London,  1815. 
*Proces  centre  Demerville  et  autres  prevenus  de  conspiration  contre 

Bonaparte.     Paris,  au  IX. 

*D'ARLINCOURT,  Vte.  de.     L' Italic  Rouge.     Paris,  1850. 
*BARONI,  C.    I  Lombardi  nelle  Guerre  Italiane,  1848-9.    Torino,  1856. 
*Secret  Societies  of  the  Army  for  the  Destruction  of  the  Government 

of  Bonaparte.     London,  1815. 

*Sejour  d'un  Officier  Fran§ais  en  Calabre.     Paris,  1820. 
*Die  Geheimen  Deutschen  Verbindungen  in  der  Schweiz   seit  1833. 

Basel,  1847. 

*MiiLLER,  E.  D.     Politica  Segreta  Italiana.     Torino,  1880. 
SCHLEGEL,  G.     Thian  ti  Hwin  (the  Hung  League).     4to.     1866. 
DOOLITTLE.     Social  Life  of  Chinese.     London,  1869. 
*W ALTON,  W.     The  Revolutions  in  Spain.     Two  vols.     London,  1837. 
^SANTA-ROSA.     La  Re  volution  Pie"montaise  en  1821.     Paris,  1822. 
NIEBUHR,  B.  G.     Ueber  Geheime  Verbindungen  im  preussischen  Staat. 

Berlin,  1815. 
*BROWNE,  E.  G.     A  Traveller's  Narrative  to  illustrate  the  Episode  of 

the  Bab.     Cambridge,  1891. 

SELL,  E.     The  Bab  and  the  Babis.     Madras,  1895. 
GOBINEAU,  J.  A.  de.     Les  Religions  et  les  Philosophies  dans  PAsie 

Centrale.     Paris,  1865. 

•^Parliamentary    Paper:     Further    Correspondence    respecting   Anti- 
Foreign  Riots  in  China.     March,  1892.     Fol. 
*Revue  Retrospective,  ou  Archives  Secretes  du  Dernier  Gouvernement 

[de  France],  1830-1848.     4to.     Paris,  1848. 
*TEDESCHI,  C.     I  Milanesi  a  Venafro.     Milano,  1861. 
*BARTHOLDY,  K.  M.     Geschichte  Griechenlands.     Two  vols.     Leipzig, 

1874- 

*KEIL,   R.     Die   Griindung  der  deutschen  Burschenschaft  in  Jena.. 
Jena,  1883. 


XVI 


AUTHORITIES  CONSULTED 


*STREITER,  J.     Studien  eines  Tirolers.     Leipzig,  1862. 

BARTHOLDY,  J.  L.  S.    Der  Krieg  der  Tyroler  Landleute.    Berlin,  1814. 

ILSE,  L.  F.     Geschichte  der  politischen  Untersuchungen  von  1819-27 

und  YOU  1833-42.     Frankfurt,  1860. 
Rossi,  P.     La  Morte  del  Ministro  Rossi.     Roma,  1848. 
SCHOOLCRAFT,  H.  R.     Notes  on  the  Iroquois.     Albany,  1847. 
CODRINGTON,  R.  H.     The  Melanesians.     Oxford,  1891. 
FERRERO  DELLA  MARINORA.     Un  poco  piu  di  Luce.     Firenze,  1873. 
THOMSON,  J.     The  Straits  of  Malacca.     London,  1875. 
*BAUR,  W.     Das  Leben  des  Freiherrn  vom  Stein.     Berlin,  1891. 


RUSSIAN  POLITICAL  SOCIETIES. 

*Duc,  L.  de.     La  Russie  Contemporaine.     Paris,  1854. 
'*LAVIGNE,  E.     L'Histoire  du  Nihilisme  Russe.     Paris,  1880. 
•^Revelations  of  Russia  in  1 846.     Two  vols.     Plates.     London,  1 846. 
*Russie.     Memoires  Secrets  sur  la  Russie  sur  la  Fin  du  Regne  de 

Catherine  II.  et  sur  Celui  de  Paul  I.     Four  vols.     Paris,  1804. 
MICHAI.OF,  G.     Die  Geheime  Werkstatte  der  Polnischen  Erhebung  von 

1830,  mit  Streiflichtern  auf  Russland  und  Frankreich.     Leipzig, 

1877- 
*SCHNITZLER,  J.  H.     Histoire  Intime  de  la  Russie  sous  Alexandre  et 

Nicolas.     Two  vols.     Paris,  1847. 
*SCHERR,  JOH.     Die  Nihilisten.     Leipzig,  1885. 
*STEPNIAK.    La  Russia  Sotterranea.     Milano,  1882. 
* Underground  Russia.     Translated  from  the  Italian.     London, 

1683. 
*THUN,  A.     Geschichte  der  Revolutionaeren  Bewegungen  in  Russland. 

Leipzig,  1883. 
*  Deutsche  Rundschau,  Geheime  Denkschrift  iiber  die  Nihilistischen 

Umtriebe  vom  Jahre  1875.     June  1881. 
*Unsere  Zeit,  7**  Heft,  1886.     Russlands  innere  Zustande  :  Der  Nihil- 

ismus  und  die  Reformen. 
*Contemporary  Journalism. 

*Century,  January  1888.     Russian  Provincial  Prisons. 
* February  1888.     Russian  Political  Prisons. 


BOOK  XI 

FREEMASONRY 


VOL.  II. 


SECRET   SOCIETIES 

FREEMASONRY 

I 
THE  LEGEND  OF  THE  TEMPLE 

383.  Ancestry  of  Hiram  Abiff. — Solomon  having  deter- 
mined on  the  erection  of  the  temple,  collected  artificers, 
divided  them  into  companies,  and  put  them  under  the  com- 
mand of  Adoniram  or  Hiram  Abiff,  the  architect  sent  to  him 
by  his  friend  and  ally  Hiram,  king  of  Tyre.  According  to 
mythical  tradition,  the  ancestry  of  the  builders  of  the  mystical 
temple  was  as  follows  :  One  of  the  Elohim,  or  primitive  genii, 
married  Eve  and  had  a  son  called  Cain  (i  20)  ;  whilst  Jehovah 
or  Adonai,  another  of  the  Elohim,  created  Adam  and  united 
him  with  Eve  to  bring  forth  the  family  of  Abel,  to  whom 
were  subjected  the  sons  of  Cain,  as  a  punishment  for  the 
transgression  of  Eve.  Cain,  though  industriously  cultivat- 
ing the  soil,  yet  derived  little  produce  from  it,  whilst  Abel 
leisurely  tended  his  flocks.  Adonai  rejected  the  gifts  and 
; sacrifices  of  Cain,  and  stirred  up  strife  between  the  sons  of 
the  Elohim,  generated  out  of  fire,  and  the  sons  formed  out  of 
the  earth  only.  Cain  killed  Abel,  and  Adonai,  pursuing  his 
sons,  subjected  to  the  sons  of  Abel  the  noble  family  that  in- 
vented the  arts  and  diffused  science.1  Enoch,  a  son  of  Cain, 
taught  men  to  hew  stones,  construct  edifices,  and  form  civil 
.societies.  Irad  and  Mehujael,  his  son  and  grandson,  set 
boundaries  to  the  waters  and  fashioned  cedars  into  beams. 
Methusael,  another  of  his  descendants,  invented  the  sacred 
characters,  the  books  of  Tau  and  the  symbolic  T,  by  which 
the  workers  descended  from  the  genii  of  fire  recognised  each 
other.  Lamech,  whose  prophecies  are  inexplicable  to  the 

1  In  the  Purdnas  the  ingenuity  of  the  descendants  of  Cain,  and  the 
degree  of  perfection  to  which  they  carried  the  arts  of  civil  life,  are  highly 
•extolled. 


4  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

profane,  was  the  father  of  Jabal,  who  first  taught  men  how 
to  dress  camels'  skins ;  of  Jubal,  who  discovered  the  harp ; 
of  Naamah,  who  discovered  the  arts  of  spinning  and  weaving  ; 
of  Tubal-Cain,  who  first  constructed  a  furnace,  worked  in 
metals,  and  dug  subterranean  caves  in  the  mountains  to  save 
his  race  during  the  Deluge  ;  but  it  perished  nevertheless,  and 
only  Tubal-Cain  and  his  son,  the  sole  survivors  of  the  glorious 
and  gigantic  family,  came  out  alive.  The  wife  of  Ham, 
second  son  of  Noah,  thought  the  son  of  Tubal-Cain  hand- 
somer than  the  sons  of  men,  and  he  became  progenitor  of 
Nimrod,  who  taught  his  brethren  the  art  of  hunting,  and 
founded  Babylon.  Adoniram,  the  descendant  of  Tubal- 
Cain,  seemed  called  by  God  to  lead  the  militia  of  the  free 
men,  connecting  the  sons  of  fire  with  the  sons  of  thought, 
progress,  and  truth. 

384.  Hiram,  Solomon,  and  the  Queen  of  Sheba. — By  Hiram 
was  erected  a  marvellous  building,  the  Temple  of  Solomon. 
He  raised  the  golden  throne  of  Solomon,  most  beautifully 
wrought,  and  built  many  other  glorious  edifices.  But, 
melancholy  amidst  all  his  greatness,  he  lived  alone,  under- 
stood and  loved  by  few,  hated  by  many,  and  among  others, 
by  Solomon,  envious  of  his  genius  and  glory.  Now  the 
fame  of  the  wisdom  of  Solomon  spread  to  the  remotest  ends 
of  the  earth ;  and  Balkis,  the  Queen  of  Sheba,  came  to  Jeru- 
salem to  greet  the  great  king  and  behold  the  marvels  of  his 
reign.  She  found  Solomon  seated  on  a  throne  of  gilt  cedar 
wood,  arrayed  in  cloth  of  gold,  so  that  at  first  she  seemed 
to  behold  a  statue  of  gold  with  hands  of  ivory.  Solomon 
received  her  with  every  kind  of  festive  preparation,  and  led 
her  to  behold  his  palace  and  then  the  grand  works  of  the 
temple,  and  the  queen  was  lost  in  admiration.  The  king 
was  captivated  by  her  beauty,  and  in  a  short  time  offered  her 
his  hand,  which  the  queen,  pleased  at  having  conquered  this 
proud  heart,  accepted.  But  on  again  visiting  the  temple, 
she  repeatedly  desired  to  see  the  architect  who  had  wrought 
such  wondrous  things.  Solomon  delayed  as  long  as  possible 
presenting  Hiram  Abiff  to  the  queen,  but  at  last  he  was 
obliged  to  do  so.  The  mysterious  artificer  was  brought 
before  her,  and  cast  on  the  queen  a  look  that  penetrated  her 
very  heart.  Having  recovered  her  composure,  she  questioned 
and  defended  him  against  the  ill-will  and  rising  jealousy  of 
the  king.  When  she  wished  to  see  the  countless  host  of 
workmen  that  wrought  at  the  temple,  Solomon  protested  the 
impossibility  of  assembling  them  all  at  once ;  but  Hiram, 
leaping  on  a  stone  to  be  better  seen,  with  his  right  hand 


THE  LEGEND  OF  THE  TEMPLE       5 

described  in  the  air  the  symbolical  Tan,  and  immediately  the 
men  hastened  from  all  parts  of  the  works  into  the  presence 
of  their  master.  At  this  the  queen  wondered  greatly,  and 
secretly  repented  of  the  promise  she  had  given  the  king, 
for  she  felt  herself  in  love  with  the  mighty  architect. 
Solomon  set  himself  to  destroy  this  affection,  and  to  prepare 
his  rival's  humiliation  and  ruin.  For  this  purpose  he  em- 
ployed three  fellow-crafts,  envious  of  Hiram,  because  he  had 
refused  to  raise  them  to  the  degree  of  masters  on  account 
of  their  want  of  knowledge  and  their  idleness.  They  were 
Fanor,  a  Syrian  and  a  mason  ;  Amru,  a  Phoenician  and  a 
carpenter;  and  Metusael,  a  Hebrew  and  a  miner.  The 
black  envy  of  these  three  projected  that  the  casting  of  the 
brazen  sea,  which  was  to  raise  the  glory  of  Hiram  to  its 
utmost  height,  should  turn  out  a  failure.  A  young  work- 
man, Benoni,  discovered  the  plot  and  revealed  it  to  Solomon, 
thinking  that  sufficient.  The  day  for  the  casting  arrived, 
and  Balkis  was  present.  The  doors  that  restrained  the 
molten  metal  were  opened,  and  torrents  of  liquid  fire  poured 
into  the  vast  mould  wherein  the  brazen  sea  was  to  assume 
its  form.  But  the  burning  mass  ran  over  the  edges  of  the 
mould,  and  flowed  like  lava  over  the  adjacent  places.  The 
terrified  crowd  fled  from  the  advancing  stream  of  fire. 
Hiram,  calm,  like  a  god,  endeavoured  to  arrest  its  advance 
with  ponderous  columns  of  water,  but  without  success.  The 
water  and  the  fire  mixed,  and  the  struggle  was  terrible  ;  the 
water  rose  in  dense  steam  and  fell  down  in  the  shape  of 
fiery  rain,  spreading  terror  and  death.  The  dishonoured 
artificer  needed  the  sympathy  of  a  faithful  heart ;  he  sought 
Benoni,  but  in  vain ;  the  proud  youth  perished  in  endeavour- 
ing to  prevent  the  horrible  catastrophe  when  he  found  that 
Solomon  had  done  nothing  to  hinder  it. 

Hiram  could  not  withdraw  himself  from  the  scene  of  his 
discomfiture.  Oppressed  with  grief,  he  heeded  not  the 
danger,  he  remembered  not  that  this  ocean  of  fire  might 
speedily  engulph  him  ;  he  thought  of  the  Queen  of  Sheba, 
who  came  to  admire  and  congratulate  him  on  a  great  triumph, 
and  who  saw  nothing  but  a  terrible  disaster.  Suddenly 
he  heard  a  strange  voice  coming  from  above,  and  crying, 
"  Hiram,  Hiram,  Hiram  ! "  He  raised  his  eyes  and  beheld 
a  gigantic  human  figure.  The  apparition  continued,  "  Come, 
my  son,  be  without  fear,  I  have  rendered  th'ee  incombustible  ; 
cast  thyself  into  the  flames."  Hiram  threw  himself  into  the 
furnace,  and  where  others  would  have  found  death,  he  tasted 
ineffable  delights ;  nor  could  he,  drawn  by  an  irresistible 


6  SECKET  SOCIETIES 

force,  leave  it,  and  asked  him  that  drew  him  into  the  abyss, 
"Whither  do  you  take  me?"  "Into  the  centre  of  the 
earth,  into  the  soul  of  the  world,  into  the  kingdom  of  great 
Cain,  where  liberty  reigns  with  him.  There  the  tyrannous 
envy  of  Adonai  ceases  ;  there  can  we,  despising  his  anger, 
taste  the  fruit  of  the  tree  of  knowledge  ;  there  is  the  home 
of  thy  fathers."  "Who  then  am  I,  and  who  art  thou  ?  " 
"  I  am  the  father  of  thy  fathers,  I  am  the  son  of  Lamech,  I 
am  Tubal-Cain." 

Tubal-Cain  introduced  Hiram  into  the  sanctuary  of  lire, 
where  he  expounded  to  him  the  weakness  of  Adonai  and  the 
base  passions  of  that  god,  the  enemy  of  his  own  creature 
whom  he  condemned  to  the  inexorable  law  of  death,  to  avenge 
the  benefits  the  genii  of  fire  had  bestowed  on  him.  Hiram 
was  led  into  the  presence  of  the  author  of  his  race,  Cain.  The 
angel  of  light  that  begat  Cain  was  reflected  in  the  beauty  of  this 
son  of  love,  whose  noble  and  generous  mind  roused  the  envy 
of  Adonai.  Cain  related  to  Hiram  his  experiences,  sufferings, 
and  misfortunes,  brought  upon  him  by  the  implacable  Adonai. 
Presently  he  heard  the  voice  of  him  who  was  the  offspring  of 
Tubal-Cain  and  his  sister  Naam  ah :  "A  son  shall  be  born 
unto  thee  whom  thou  shalt  indeed  not  see,  but  whose  nume- 
rous descendants  shall  perpetuate  thy  race,  which,  superior 
to  that  of  Adam,  shall  acquire  the  empire  of  the  world  ;  for 
many  centuries  they  shall  consecrate  their  courage  and  genius 
to  the  service  of  the  ever-ungrateful  race  of  Adam,  but  at 
last  the  best  shall  become  the  strongest,  and  restore  on  the 
earth  the  worship  of  fire.  Thy  sons,  invincible  in  thy  name, 
shall  destroy  the  power  of  kings,  the  ministers  of  the  Adonais' 
tyranny.  Go,  my  son,  the  genii  of  fire  are  with  thee  !  "  Hiram 
was  restored  to  the  earth.  Tubal-Cain  before  quitting  him 
gave  him  the  hammer  with  which  he  himself  had  wrought 
great  things,  and  said  to  him :  "  Thanks  to  this  hammer  and 
the  help  of  the  genii  of  fire,  thou  shalt  speedily  accomplish 
the  work  left  unfinished  through  man's  stupidity  and  malig- 
nity." Hiram  did  not  hesitate  to  test  the  wonderful  efficacy 
of  the  precious  instrument,  and  the  dawn  saw  the  great 
mass  of  bronze  cast.  The  artist  felt  the  most  lively  joy,  the 
queen  exulted.  The  people  came  running  up,  astounded  at 
this  secret  power  which  in  one  night  had  repaired  every- 
thing. 

385.  Murder  of  Hiram. — One  day  the  queen,  accompanied 
by  her  maids,  went  beyond  Jerusalem,  and  there  encountered 
Hiram,  alone  and  thoughtful.  The  encounter  was  decisive, 
they  mutually  confessed  their  love.  Had-Had,  the  bird  who 


THE  LEGEND  OF  THE  TEMPLE       7 

filled  with  the  queen  the  office  of  messenger  of  the  genii  of 
fire,  seeing  Hiram  in  the  air  make  the  sign  of  the  mystic  T, 
flew  around  his  head  and  settled  on  his  wrist.  At  this 
Sarahil,  the  nurse  of  the  queen,  exclaimed:  "The  oracle  is 
fulfilled.  Had-Had  recognises  the  husband  which  the  genii 
of  fire  destined  for  Balkis,  whose  love  alone  she  dare  accept !  " 
They  hesitated  no  longer,  but  mutually  pledged  their  vows, 
and  deliberated  how  Balkis  could  retract  the  promise  given 
to  the  king.  Hiram  was  to  be  the  first  to  quit  Jerusalem  ; 
the  queen,  impatient  to  rejoin  him  in  Arabia,  was  to  elude 
the  vigilance  of  the  king,  which  she  accomplished  by  with- 
drawing from  his  finger,  while  he  was  overcome  with  wine, 
the  ring  wherewith  she  had  plighted  her  troth  to  him. 
Solomon  hioted  to  the  fellow-crafts  that  the  removal  of  his 
rival,  who  refused  to  give  them  the  master's  word,  would  be 
acceptable  unto  himself;  so  when  the  architect  came  into 
the  temple  he  was  assailed  and  slain  by  them.  Before  his 
death,  however,  he  had  time  to  throw  the  golden  triangle 
which  he  wore  round  his  neck,  and  on  which  was  engraven 
the  master's  word,  into  a  deep  well.  They  wrapped  up  his 
body,  carried  it  to  a  solitary  hill  and  buried  it,  planting  over 
the  grave  a  sprig  of  acacia. 

Hiram  not  having  made  his  appearance  for  seven  days, 
Solomon,  against  his  inclination,  but  to  satisfy  the  clamour 
of  the  people,  was  forced  to  have  him  searched  for.  The 
body  was  found  by  three  masters,  and  they,  suspecting  that 
he  had  been  slain  by  the  three  fellow-crafts  for  refusing 
them  the  master's  word,  determined  nevertheless  for  greater 
security  to  change  the  word,  and  that  the  first  word  acci- 
dentally uttered  on  raising  the  body  should  thenceforth  be 
the  word.  In  the  act  of  raising  it,  the  skin  came  off  the 
body,  so  that  one  of  the  masters  exclaimed  "  Macbenach  !  " 
("  the  flesh  is  off  the  bones,"  or  the  "brother  is  smitten  "),  and 
this  word  became  the  sacred  word  of  the  masters'  degree. 
The  three  fellow-crafts  were  traced,  but  rather  than  fall  into 
the  hands  of  their  pursuers,  they  committed  suicide,  and  their 
heads  were  brought  to  Solomon.  The  triangle  not  having 
been  found  on  the  body  of  Hiram,  it  was  sought  for  and  at 
last  discovered  in  the  well  into  which  the  architect  had  cast 
it.  The  king  caused  it  to  be  placed  on  a  triangular  altar 
erected  in  a  secret  vault,  built  under  the  most  retired  part  of 
the  temple.  The  triangle  was  further  concealed  by  a  cubical 
stone,  on  which  had  been  inscribed  the  sacred  law.  The 
vault,  the  existence  of  which  was  only  known  to  the  twenty- 
seven  elect,  was  then  walled  up. 


II 

OEIGIN   AND   TEADITIONS 

386.  The  First  Masons. — All  nations,  all  states,  all  corpora- 
tions, to  increase  their  power  and  deduce  from  above  their 
raison  d'etre,  attribute  to  themselves  a  very  ancient  origin. 
This  wish  must  be  all  the  stronger  in  a  society  altogether 
ideal  and  moral,  living  the  life  of  principles,  which  needs 
rather  to  seem  to  be,  not  coeval  with,  but  anterior  and 
superior  to  all  others.  Hence  the  claim  set  up  by  Free- 
masonry of  being,  not  contemporary  with  the  creation  of 
man,  but  with  that  of  the  world ;  because  light  was  before 
man,  and  prepared  for  him  a  suitable  habitation,  and  light  is 
the  scope  and  symbol  of  Freemasonry.  Lest  non-Masonic 
readers  should  think  we  are  joking  as  regards  Masonic  asser- 
tions concerning  the  antiquity  of  the  craft,  we  will  quote  from 
two  Masonic  writers,  one  more  than  a  century  old,  and  one 
quite  of  recent  date :  Edward  Spratt,  in  his  "  Book  of  Con- 
stitutions for  the  Use  of  Lodges  in  Ireland,"  1751,  makes 
Adam  the  first  Mason,  who  "  even  after  his  expulsion  from 
paradise  retained  great  knowledge,  especially  in  geometry." 
Dr.  J.  A.  Weisse,  in  "The  Obelisk  and  Freemasonry,"  pub- 
lished in  1880,  says:  "Freemasonry  commenced  from  the 
Creation,  and  was  established  by  the  family  of  Seth.  The 
Masonic  apron  originated  from  the  covering  or  apron  of  fig- 
leaves,  adopted  by  Adam  and  Eve  after  the  Fall."  Need  I 
quote  more  ? 

Now  in  the  Introduction  (6,  7)  I  have  stated  that  there 
was  from  the  very  first  appearance  of  man  on  the  earth  a 
highly  favoured  and  civilised  race,  possessing  a  full  know- 
ledge of  the  laws  and  properties  of  nature,  and  which  know- 
ledge was  embodied  in  mystical  figures  and  schemes,  such  as 
were  deemed  appropriate  emblems  for  its  preservation  and 
propagation.  These  figures  and  schemes  are  preserved  in 
Masonry,  but  not  in  the  pseudo-Masonry  of  the  majority 
of  craft  members.  The  truest  Masons  at  the  present  day 
are  found  without  the  lodge.  I  shall  endeavour  in  these 


ORIGIN  AND  TRADITIONS  9 

pages  as  much  as  possible  to  teach  Masons  the  real  truths 
hidden  under  the  symbols  and  enigmatical  forms,  which, 
without  a  key,  appear  but  as  absurd  and  debasing  rites  and 
ceremonies.  The  aim  of  all  the  secret  societies  of  which 
accounts  have  been  as  yet  or  will  be  given  in  this  work, 
except  of  those  which  were  purely  political  or  anti-social, 
was  to  preserve  such  knowledge  as  still  survived,  or  to  re- 
cover what  had  been  lost.  And  since  Freemasonry  is,  so 
to  speak,  the  resume  of  the  teachings  of  all  those  societies, 
dogmas  in  accordance  with  one  or  more  of  those  taught  in 
the  ancient  mysteries  and  other  associations  are  to  be  found 
in  Masonry ;  hence  also  it  is  impossible  to  attribute  its  origin 
to  one  or  other  specific  society  preceding  it.  Freemasonry 
is — or  rather  ought  to  be — the  compendium  of  all  primitive 
and  accumulated  human  knowledge. 

387.  Periods  of  Freemasonry. — Masonic  writers  generally 
divide  the  history  of  the  Order  into  two  periods,  the  first 
comprising  the  time  from  its  assumed  foundation  to  the  be- 
ginning of  the  last  century,  during  which  the  Order  admitted 
only  masons,  i.e.  operative  masons  and  artificers  in  some  way 
connected  with  architecture.  The  second  or  present  period, 
they  denominate  the  period  of  Speculative  Masonry,  when 
the  Order  no  longer  chooses  its  members  only  amongst  men 
engaged  in  the  raising  of  material  structures,  but  receives 
into  its  ranks  all  who  are  willing  to  assist  in  building  a 
spiritual  temple,  the  temple  of  universal  harmony  and  know- 
ledge. Yet  persons  not  working  masons  had  ere  then  been 
admitted,  for  the  records  of  a  lodge  at  Warrington,  as  old 
as  1648,  note  the  admission  of  Colonel  Mainwaring  and  the 
great  antiquary  Ashmole.  Charles  I.,  Charles  II.,  and  James 
II.  also  were  initiated.  But  from  what  has  been  said  above, 
it  follows  that  true  Masonry  always  was  speculative,  and  that 
to  deduce  its  origin  from  the  ancient  Dionysiac  or  any  other 
kindred  college  is  only  partly  correct.  The  name  "  masonic  " 
was  adopted  by  the  society  on  its  reconstruction  in  the  last 
century,  because  the  brotherhood  of  builders  who  erected 
the  magnificent  cathedrals  and  other  buildings  that  arose 
during  the  Middle  Ages  had  lodges,  degrees,  landmarks, 
secret  signs,  and  passwords,  such  as  the  builders  of  the 
temple  of  Solomon  are  said  to  have  made  use  of.  The  Free- 
masons have  also  frequently  been  said  to  be  descended  from 
the  Knights  Templars,  and  thus  to  have  for  their  object  to 
avenge  the  destruction  of  that  Order,  and  so  to  be  dangerous 
to  Church  and  State;  yet  this  assertion  was  repudiated  as 
early  as  1535  in  the  "Charter  of  Cologne,"  wherein  the 


io  SECKET  SOCIETIES 

Masons  call  themselves  the  Brethren  of  St.  John,  because 
St.  John  the  Baptist  was  the  forerunner  of  the  Light.  Ac- 
cording to  the  same  document,  the  name  of  Freemasons  was 
first  given  to  the  Brethren  chiefly  in  Flanders,  because  some 
of  them  had  been  instrumental  in  erecting  in  the  province 
of  Hainault  hospitals  for  persons  suffering  from  St.  Vitus's 
dance.  And  though  some  etymologists  pretend  the  name  to 
be  derived  from  massa,  a  club,  with  which  the  doorkeeper 
was  armed  to  drive  away  uninitiated  intruders,  we  can  only 
grant  this  etymology  on  the  principle  enunciated  by  Vol- 
taire, that  in  etymology  vowels  go  for  very  little,  and  conso- 
nants for  nothing  at  all.  The  derivation  from  maison  is  as 
probable  as  any  other  that  is  alleged. 

388.  Freemasonry  derived  from  many  Sources. — But  con- 
sidering that  Freemasonry  is  a  tree  the  roots  of  which  spread 
through  so  many  soils,  it  follows  that  traces  thereof  must  be 
found  in  its  fruit ;  that  its  language  and  ritual  should  retain 
much  of  the  various  sects   and  institutions  it  has  passed 
through   before    arriving   at    their    present    state,    and    in 
Masonry  we  meet  with  Indian,  Egyptian,  Jewish,  and  Chris- 
tian ideas,  terms,  and  symbols. 

389.  True  History  of  Masonry. — The  plain  history  of  Free- 
masonry,   without   the  varnish   and  tinsel  Masonic  writers 
have  bedizened  it  with,  may  be  summed  up  as  follows : — 

In  antiquity  there  were  corporations  of  architects  and 
engineers,  who  undertook  the  building  of  temples  and  sta- 
dia ;  the  "  Dionysiacs  "  in  Greece,  the  "  Collegium  Muriorum  " 
in  Eome  were  such.  They  were  the  prototypes  of  the  asso- 
ciations of  masons,  builders,  carpenters,  who  in  the  Middle 
Ages  flourished,  chiefly  in  Germany  and  England.  These, 
sometimes  numbering  six  to  eight  hundred  members,  made 
contracts  with  monks,  chapters,  and  other  ecclesiastical 
authorities  for  the  erection  of  cathedrals  or  churches.  Even- 
tually they  made  themselves  independent  of  the  Church,  and 
in  the  thirteenth  century  they  formed  an  extensive  building 
association,  originating  at  Cologne,  and  having  lodges,  as 
they  called  the  directing  members,  at  Strasbourg,  Vienna, 
Cologne,  and  Ziirich.  There  were  other  lodges,  but  these 
were  the  most  important.  They  called  themselves  Free 
masons,  and  had  ceremonies  of  initiation.  Towards  the  end 
of  the  sixteenth  century  non-operative  masons  were  admitted 
into  the  fraternity,  who  were  called  "accepted"  Masons; 
they  included  men  distinguished  for  learning  or  high  posi- 
tion. Thus  the  work  in  the  lodges  became  more  symbolical 
than  operative.  The  really  working  masons  and  builders 


ORIGIN  AND  TRADITIONS  1 1 

gradually  dispersed,  and  the  accepted  masons,  whose  expec- 
tations of  being  initiated  into  esoteric  knowledge  in  the 
lodges  were  disappointed,  withdrew  from  them,  so  that  in 
1717  there  were  only  four  lodges  in  London,  which  Dr. 
Desaguliers,  James  Anderson,  and  George  Payne  formed 
into  a  Grand  Lodge,  with  which  modern  Freemasonry,  purely 
symbolical,  though  retaining  the  technical  terms  of  archi- 
tecture, may  be  said  to  begin. 

The  fraternity  was  soon  persecuted ;  the  Popes,  beginning 
with  Clement  XII.,  and  ending  with  the  present  one,  cast 
their  thunderbolts  at  it ;  despotic  rulers  tried  to  suppress  it. 
Of  course  the  Masons  themselves  to  a  great  extent  invited 
this  persecution  by  the  mystery  in  which  they  attempted  to 
shroud  their  principles  and  proceedings,  as  also  by  the  in- 
troduction of  the  "high  degrees."  The  original  Masons  had 
confined  themselves  to  the  three  degrees  existing  among 
operative  builders— apprentice,  fellow-craft,  and  master.  But 
these  did  not  satisfy  the  vanity  of  some  of  the  aristocratic 
members,  or  the  ambition  of  such  as  wished  to  use  the  Order 
for  party  purposes.  The  chevalier  Andreas  Ramsay,  a  par- 
tisan of  the  exiled  Stuarts,  who  asserted  the  Freemasons  to 
be  descended  from  the  Crusaders,  first  gave  the  impulse  to 
the  starting  of  high  degrees,  in  which  political  objects  were 
aimed  at,  and  which,  after  the  country  of  the  Stuarts,  were 
called  Scotch  degrees.  They  were  greatly  multiplied,  and 
the  pursuit  of  these  party  purposes,  of  superstitious  rites, 
and  of  personal  vanity,  invested  every  one  with  still 
increasing  mysteries.  At  last  they  fell  into  the  hands 
of  impostors  and  adventurers,  such  as,  for  instance,  Cag- 
liostro. 

In  Germany  the  Order  was  made  use  of  by  three  parties — 
Reactionaries,  Revolutionaries,  and  knightly  fanatics.  The 
Reactionaries  founded  Rosicrucianism,  in  which  magic,  astro- 
logy, alchemy,  spiritism,  and  superstition  in  general  occupied 
its  cheats  and  dupes,  opposing  religious,  political,  and  scienti- 
fic progress.  The  Revolutionaries,  by  means  of  the  Illuminati, 
who  insinuated  themselves  into  the  Masonic  order,  en- 
deavoured to  bring  about  a  new  political  and  religious  era. 
Knightly  fanaticism  was  transplanted  from  France  into 
Germany  by  the  well-intentioned  but  visionary  Baron  Hund, 
who  about  the  middle  of  the  last  century  founded  the  Masonic 
system  of  the  so-called  Strict  Observance  (435),  which 
followed  the  lines  of  the  Knights  Templars,  from  whom 
Hund  wished  to  derive  the  Masonic  order;  we  shall  see 
that  at  the  Congress  of  Wilhelmsbad  (441)  this  assertion  was 


12  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

negatived.  The  mystery  of  the  ritual,  and  the  splendour  of 
some  of  the  rites,  gained  Freemasonry  many  adherents  in 
France,  where  the  lodges  were  at  last  united  under  a  Grand 
Lodge,  called  the  Grand  Orient,  the  first  Grand  Master  of 
which  was  the  Duke  of  Chartres,  afterwards  Philippe  Egalite*. 
Napoleon,  when  in  power,  appointed  his  brother  Joseph 
Grand  Master  (444). 


Ill 

KITES  AND  CUSTOMS 

390.  List  of  Rites. — Anciently,  that  is,  before  the  rise  of 
modern  Masonry  at  the  beginning  of  the  last  century,  there 
was  but  one  rite,  that  of  the  "  Ancient,  Free  and  Accepted 
Masons,"  or  blue  or  symbolic  Masonry ;  but  vanity,  fancy,  or 
interest  soon  led  to  the  introduction  of  many  new  rites  or 
modifications  of  the  three  ancient  degrees.  The  following 
are  the  names  of  the  rites  now  practised  in  Europe  and 
America : — 

I.  York  rite,  or  Craft  Masonry,  of  which  an  account  will 
be    given.  —  In    America  it   consists    of    seven    degrees : 
The  first  three  as  in  this  country ;  4.  Mark  Master ;  5.  Past 
Master ;   6.   Most  Excellent  Master ;    7.   Holy  Royal  Arch. 
All  these  also  obtain  in  this  country ;  the  Royal  Arch,  being 
the  most  important,  will  be  treated  of  in  full  (405  et  seq.). 

II.  French   or   Modern   rite. — It   consists  of   seven  de- 
grees :    The   first   three   the    same   as   in    Craft    Masonry ; 
4.  Elect;  5.  Scotch  Master;  6.  Knight  of  the  East;  7.  Rose 
Croix.     They  are  all  astronomical. 

III.  Ancient  and  Accepted  Scotch  rite. — It  was  organised 
in  its  present  form  in  France  early  in  the  last  century,  though 
it  derives  its  title  from  the  claim  of  its  founders  that  it  was 
originally  instituted  in  Scotland.     It  is,  next  to  the  York 
rite,  the  most  widely  diffused  throughout  the  Masonic  world. 
The  administrative  power  is  vested  in  Supreme  Grand  Coun- 
cils, and  the  rite  consists  of  thirty-three  degrees,  of  which 
$he  1 2th,  Grand  Master  Architect;  the  i8th,  Prince  Rose- 
Croix  ;  and  the  3Oth,  Grand  Elect  Knight  of  Kadosh,  are  the 
most  interesting,  and  particulars  of  which  will  be  given  under 
separate  heads. 

IV.  Philosophic  Scotch  rite. 

Y.  Primitive  Scotch  rite,  practised  in  Belgium. 

VI.  Ancient  Reformed  rite. 

VII.  Fessler's  rite. 

VIII.  Rite  of  the  Grand  Lodge  of  the  Three  Globes  at 
Berlin. 


I4  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

IX.  Rite  of  Perfection. 

X.  Rite  of  Misraim  (418-42). 

XI.  Rite  of  the  Order  of  the  Temple. 

XII.  Swedish  rite. 

XIII.  Reformed  rite. 

XIV.  Schroeder's  rite. 

XV.  Rite  of  Swedenborg  (see  264). 

XVI.  Rite  of  Zinzendorf. — Count  Zinzendorf,  physician 
of  the  Emperor  Charles  VI.,  invented  this  rite,  which  was 
a  modification  of  the  Ilium inism  of  Avignon,  adding  to  it  the 
mysteries  of  Swedenborg.     His  system  consisted  of  seven 
degrees,   divided    into   three   sections:     I.    Blue   Masonry; 
2.  Red  Masonry  ;  3.  Capitular  Masonry.    The  rite  was  never 
introduced  into  this  country. 

XVII.  Eclectic  rite. — This  was  established  at  Frankfurt  in 
1783  by  Baron  de  Knigge,  for  the  purpose  of  checking  the 
spread  of  the  hautes  grades,  or  philosophic  rites,  which  were 
increasing  excessively.     Eclectic  Masonry  acknowledged  the 
three  symbolic  degrees  only,  but  permitted  each  lodge  to 
select  at  its  option  any  of  the  higher  degrees,  provided  it 
did  not  interfere  with  the  uniformity  of  the  first  three.    But 
the  founder  was  disappointed  in  his  expectations — the  high 
degrees  continued  to  flourish,  and  but  few  Eclectic  lodges 
ever  existed. 

391.  Masonic  Customs. — Some  Masonic  peculiarities  may 
conveniently  be  mentioned  here.  Freemasons  frequently 
attend  in  great  state  at  the  laying  of  the  foundation  stones 
of  public  buildings ;  they  follow  a  master  to  the  grave, 
clothed  with  all  the  paraphernalia  of  their  respective  degrees  ; 
they  date  from  the  year  of  light.  The  Knights  of  the  Sun, 
the  28th  degree  of  the  Scotch  rite,  acknowledge  no  era,  but 
always  write  their  date  with  seven  noughts,  0,000,000.  No 
one  can  be  admitted  into  the  Masonic  order  before  the  age 
of  twenty-one,  but  an  exception  is  made  in  this  country  and 
in  France  in  favour  of  the  sons  of  Masons,  who  may  be 
initiated  at  the  age  of  eighteen.  Such  a  person  is  called  a 
Lewis  in  England,  and  a  Louveteau  in  France.  This  latter 
word  signifies  a  young  wolf ;  and  the  reader  will  remember 
that  in  the  mysteries  of  I  sis  the  candidate  was  made  to  wear 
the  mask  of  a  wolf's  head.  Hence  a  wolf  and  a  candidate  in 
these  mysteries  were  synonymous.  Macrobius,  in  his  "  Satur- 
nalia," says  that  the  ancients  perceived  a  relationship 
between  the  sun,  the  great  symbol  of  those  mysteries,  and 
a  wolf ;  for  as  the  flocks  of  sheep  and  cattle  disperse  at  the 
sight  of  the  wolf,  so  the  flocks  of  stars  disappear  at  the 


KITES  AND  CUSTOMS 


approach  of  the  sun's  light.  We  have  seen  in  the  account  of 
the  French  Workmen's  Unions  (369)  that  the  sons  of  Solomon 
still  call  themselves  wolves.  The  adoption  of  the  louveteau 
into  the  lodge  takes  place  with  a  ceremony  resembling  that 
of  baptism.  The  temple  is  covered  with  flowers,  incense  is 
burnt,  and  the  godfather  is  enjoined  not  only  to  provide  for 
the  bodily  wants  of  the  new-born  member,  but  also  to  bring 
him  up  in  the  school  of  truth  and  justice.  The  child  receives 
a  new  name,  generally  that  of  a  virtue,  such  as  Veracity, 
Devotion,  Beneficence ;  the  godfather  pronounces  for  him 
the  oath  of  apprentice,  in  which  degree  he  is  received  into 
the  Order,  which,  in  case  he  should  become  an  orphan,  sup- 
ports and  establishes  him  in  life.  In  the  United  States  the 
rights  of  a  lewis  do  not  exist. 

392.  Masonic  Alphabet. — The  Masonic  alphabet  preserves 
the  angular  character  of  primitive  alphabets.  Thirteen 
characters  (9  +  4)  compose  the  Masonic  system  of  writing. 
Hence  all  the  sounds  can  only  be  represented  by  means  of 
lines  and  points,  in  the  following  manner  : — 


c.d 


g.T, 


o.p 


i.l 


S.t 


The  letter  a  is  written  _J ;  the  same  sign  with  a  dot  in  it, 
_d,  means  b.  The  sign  >  means  u,  and  with  a  dot  }>,  v. 
Masonic  abbreviations  are  always  indicated  by  three  dots, 
placed  triangularly  ;  thus,  brother  is  abbreviated  B .'.  Lodge 
is  written  L  .'.  or  |jj  .'.  ;  in  the  plural  LL  .'.  or  ff  .*.  Our 
common  alphabet  has  an  equally  simple  origin,  as  well  as 
the  Arabic  numerals ;  they  are  all  contained  in  the  figure — 


A.  borB,  C,  dorD,  E,  F,  C,  H,  I, 

J,  K,  L,M,N,  D,  PorF,  R,K,  X, 
T,U,V,X,Y,Z,D,I,  Z,Z,A 

5,/wb,7.X.  ^, 


IV 
THE  LODGE 

393.  Interior  Arrangement  of  Lodge. — The  arrangement  of 
the  lodge  varies  and  will  vary  according  to  periods  and  de- 
grees, but  certain  general  rules  are  always  followed  in  its 
construction.  In  an  ancient  French  catechism  the  lodge  is 
thus  described:  The  lodge  must  have  a  vaulted  ceiling, 
painted  blue  and  covered  with  golden  stars,  to  represent  the 
heavens.  The  floor  is  called  a  mosaic  floor;  the  term 
"  mosaic  "  being  derived  from  Moses,  i.e.  "  drawn  from  the 
water,"  because  by  its  variegated  colours  it  represents  the 
earth  as  covered  with  flowers  again  after  the  withdrawal  of 
the  waters  of  the  Nile.  There  are  three  windows — one  east, 
one  west,  and  a  third  south.  There  must  also  be  two  or 
three  antechambers,  so  that  the  profane  may  catch  no 
glimpse  of  what  is  going  on  in  the  lodge ;  and  if  some 
stranger  should  nevertheless  intrude,  the  master  exclaims, 
"  It  rains !  "  and  the  lodge  is  ipso  facto  dissolved.  The  lodge 
should  be  always  hung  with  black ;  the  brethren  take  their 
places  according  to  their  rank ;  the  grand  master  in  the  east, 
the  master  in  the  south,  and  the  novices  at  the  north,  because 
they  cannot  yet  stand  the  heat  of  the  sun,  which  only  the  initi- 
ated can.  When  an  apprentice  is  made,  the  lodge  is  brightly 
illuminated.  The  grand  master,  seated  in  his  place,  wears  on 
his  neck,  appended  to  a  large  ribbon,  a  small  square  and  com- 
passes ;  before  him  stands  a  table,  on  which  lie  the  Gospel 
of  St.  John  and  a  small  hammer.  At  his  side  are  the  two 
stewards,  the  first  of  whom  wears  a  level  and  the  second 
a  plumb  of  gold  or  silver.  The  masters  and  fellow-crafts 
stand  around  with  the  apprentices,  all  wearing  white  aprons 
of  lamb's  skin,  and  each  carrying  a  naked  sword.  On  the 
floor  are  designed  figures,  representing  the  steps  that  led  to 
Solomon's  temple,  and  the  two  pillars  Jachin  and  Boaz,  but 
which  in  reality  symbolise  the  summer  and  winter  solstices, 
the  pillars  of  Hercules,  the  two  pillars  of  Seth.  Above  are 
seen  the  sun,  moon,  and  a  large  star.  Jn  the  midst  of  the 

16 


THE  LODGE  17 

floor  is  a  coffin,  in  which  lies  a  man  apparently  dead,  with 
his  face  turned  upward  and  covered  with  his  white  apron 
smeared  with  blood,  one  hand  resting  on  his  breast,  and  the 
other  extended  towards  the  knee.  In  the  corners  of  the 
room  are  substances  easily  combustible,  such  as  sulphur,  to 
kindle  a  fire  instantaneously.  This  apparatus  is  somewhat 
altered  when  a  fellow-craft  or  a  master  is  to  be  made. 

394.  Modern  Lodge. — The  modern  lodge  is  a  large  square 
hall,  always,  if  possible,  situated  due  east  and  west.  Upon 
a  dais  ascended  by  three  steps,  opposite  to  the  door  of 
ingress,  is  seated  the  worshipful  master ;  the  altar  is  placed 
in  the  centre  on  four  steps.  A  sky-blue  canopy,  dotted 
with  stars,  and  having  above  it  the  shining  triangle  with 
the  sacred  name  inscribed  therein,  covers  the  throne.  To 
the  left  of  the  canopy  is  seen  the  sun,  and  to  the  right 
the  moon.  Another  ornament  is  the  blazing  star,  and  the 
point  within  a  circle,  symbolising  the  sun  or  the  universe. 
A  chest  or  ark  also  forms  part  of  the  masonic  furniture. 
It  represents  the  ark  that  was  carried  in  the  processions 
of  ancient  Egypt,  and  contained  seeds  of  various  plants, 
a  winnowing  fan,  and  Osiridis  pudendum.  To  the  west, 
at  the  sides  of  the  door  of  ingress,  stand  two  pillars  of 
bronze,  whose  capitals  represent  pomegranates,  and  bear- 
ing on  their  fronts  the  initials  J.  and  B.  (Jachin  and  Boaz). 
The  senior  and  junior  wardens  sit  near  the  two  columns, 
having  before  them  a  triangular  table,  covered  with  masonic 
emblems.  Around  the  lodge  there  are  ten  other  pillars 
connected  by  an  architrave  with  the  two  pillars  above  men- 
tioned. On  the  altar  are  placed  a  Bible,  a  square,  a  pair  of 
compasses,  and  swords ;  three  candelabra  with  long  tapers 
are  placed,  one  at  the  east  at  the  foot  of  the  steps,  the 
second  at  the  west,  near  the  first  warden,  and  the  third  at 
the  south.  The  room  is  surrounded  with  benches  for  the 
members.  In  the  lodges  called  Scotch,  and  in  English  and 
American  lodges,  the  canopy  that  covers  the  master's  throne 
is  of  crimson  silk.  In  the  United  States,  the  worshipful 
master  wears  a  cap  adorned  with  black  feathers  and  a  large 
cockade  of  the  same  colour.  The  senior  and  junior  wardens 
are  seated  in  niches  with  fringed  drapery,  and  wear,  like 
heralds,  staves  of  ebony  sculptured  like  pillars. 

395-  Officers. — Besides  the  Master  and  the  Wardens,  who 
are  figuratively  called  the  three  lights,  the  lodge  has  other 
officers — the  Orator,  Secretary,  Treasurer,  Master  of  the 
Ceremonies,  Keeper  of  the  Seals,  Architect,  Steward,  Captain 
of  the  Host,  Principal  Sojourner,  Inner  and  Outer  Guard  or 

VOL.  II.  B 


1 8  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

Tyler,  and  others.  Every  official  occupies  a  place  assigned 
to  him,  and  has  his  proper  jewels  and  badges,  like  the 
Egyptian,  Hebrew,  and  Greek  priests.  Thus  beside  the 
jewels  already  mentioned,  the  treasurer  wears  cross  keys; 
the  secretary,  cross  pens :  the  senior  deacon,  a  square  and 
compass,  with  a  sun  in  the  centre;  the  junior  deacon,  a 
square  and  compass,  with  a  moon  in  the  centre ;  the  steward, 
a  cornucopia ;  the  tyler,  cross  swords,  &c.  The  names  of 
most  of  the  officers  sufficiently  indicate  their  duties ;  those 
that  do  not  will  be  explained  as  they  occur. 

396.  Opening  the  Lodge. — The  meetings  are  generally  held 
at  night.  The  worshipful  master,  striking  the  altar  with 
his  mallet,  "  opens  the  labours,"  and  after  having  ascer- 
tained that  the  lodge  is  tyled,  he  turns  to  the  junior 
warden  and  says :  "  Brother  junior  warden,  your  constant 
place  in  the  lodge?"  "In  the  south."  "Why  are  you 
placed  there?"  "To  mark  the  sun  at  its  meridian,  to  call 
the  brethren  from  labour  to  refreshment,  and  from  re- 
freshment to  labour,  that  profit  and  pleasure  may  be  the 
result."  "  Brother  senior  warden,  your  constant  place  in 
the  lodge?"  "In  the  west."  "Why  are  you  placed 
there?"  "To  mark  the  setting  sun;  to  close  the  lodge 
by  the  command  of  the  worshipful  master,  after  seeing 
that  every  one  has  his  just  dues."  "Why  is  the  master 
placed  ia  the  east?"  "  As  the  sun  rises  in  the  east  to  open 
and  enliven  the  day,  so  the  worshipful  master  is  placed  in 
the  east  to  open  and  enlighten  his  lodge,  to  employ  and 
instruct  the  brethren."  "  At  what  hour  are  Masons  accus- 
tomed to  begin  their  labours?"  "At  mid-day."  "What 
hour  is  it,  brother  junior  warden  ? "  "  It  is  mid-day." 
"  Since  this  is  the  hour,  and  all  is  proved  right  and  just,  I 
declare  the  lodge  open."  The  purely  astronomical  bearing 
of  all  this  is  self-evident,  but  will  be  more  fully  discussed 
hereafter. 


GENUINE  AND  SPURIOUS  MASONRY 


397.  Distinction  'between  Genuine  and  Spurious  Masonry. — 
Modern  Freemasonry  is  divided  into  genuine  and  spurious. 
The  former  embraces  the  degrees  of  Entered  Apprentice, 
Fellow-Craft,  and  Master  Mason,  which  are  known  by  the 
comprehensive  name  of  Symbolic,  and  also  of  Blue  Masonry, 
because  the  decorations  are  of  that  colour,  the  colour  of  the 
celestial  canopy  (27,  42,  85),  which  Blue  Masonry  is  the  only 
Masonry  acknowledged  by  the  Grand  Lodge  of  England; 
the  latter  term,  i.e.  spurious,  is  applied  to  all  other  degrees. 
Without  the  Royal  Arch  degree  Blue  Masonry  is  incom- 
plete, for  we  have  seen  in  the  Legend  of  the  Temple  that, 
through  the  murder  of  Hiram,  the  Master's  word  was  lost ; 
that  word  is  not  recovered  in  the  Master's  degree,  its  sub- 
stitute only  being  given;   but  that  lost  word  is  recovered 
in  the  Royal  Arch  degree.     Blue  Masonry,  in  fact,  answers 
to  the  lesser  mysteries  of   the  ancients,   where  in  reality 
nothing  but  the  exoteric  doctrines  were  revealed ;    whilst 
spurious    Masonry,    or    all    subsequent    degrees  —  for    no 
one    can    be    initiated    into    them   who    has    not    passed 
through   the  first   three   degrees — answers   to   the   greater 
mysteries. 

398.  Some  Rites  only  deserve  Special  Mention. — It  would 
be  a  useless  and  unprofitable  task  to  fully  detail  all  the 
ceremonies  practised  in  the  lodges  of  Blue  Masonry;    and 
I  shall,  therefore,  confine  myself  to  giving  such  particulars 
of  the  three  degrees  as  are  most  characteristic  of  the  in- 
stitution.     As   to   spurious   Masonry,  its  almost   countless 
degrees  form  an  incoherent  medley  of  opposite  principles, 
founded   chiefly   on    Christian   traditions   and    institutions, 
orders  of  knighthood,   contested  theological  opinions,   his- 
torical events ;  in  fact,  every  important  event  or  institution 
has   afforded   models   for   masonic   mimicry.      Of   such   as 


20  SECKET  SOCIETIES 

have  been  distinguished  either  by  a  philosophical  spirit  or 
influential  action  on  the  progress  of  mankind  I  shall  speak 
at  some  length.  The  reader  will,  however,  bear  in  mind 
that  the  ceremonies  vary  in  different  lodges  and  different 
countries,  and  that  much  that  follows  must  be  taken  as 
typical,  being  modified  according  to  local  and  other  con- 
ditions and  circumstances. 


VI 
CEKEMONIES  OF  INITIATION 

THE  APPRENTICE,   FELLOW-CRAFT,   AND   MASTER   MASON 

399.  Ceremonies  of  Initiation.  —  The  Apprentice.  —  The 
novice  that  is  to  be  initiated  into  the  first  or  apprentice 
degree  is  led  into  the  lodge  building  by  a  stranger,  and 
introduced  into  a  remote  chamber,  where  he  is  left  alone 
for  a  few  minutes.  He  is  then  deprived  of  all  metal  he 
has  about  him ;  his  right  knee,  and  sometimes  his  left  side, 
are  uncovered,  and  the  heel  of  his  left  shoe  is  trodden 
down.  These  ceremonies  are  supposed  by  some  writers 
on  the  craft  to  be  of  Jesuitical  origin.  The  deprivation  of 
metals  is  to  typify  the  vow  of  poverty,  the  baring  of  the 
breast  and  knee  is  intended  to  prevent  the  admission  of 
women,  and  the  treading  down  the  heel  of  the  shoe  to 
remind  the  candidate  that  Ignatius  de  Loyola,  who  had  a 
bad  foot,  thus  began  his  pilgrimage.  His  eyes  are  ban- 
daged, and  he  is  led  into  the  closet  of  reflection,  where 
he  is  told  to  stay  without  taking  off  the  bandage,  until 
he  hears  three  knocks.  At  the  signal,  on  uncovering  his 
eyes  he  beholds  on  the  walls,  hung  with  black,  inscriptions 
like  the  following: — "If  idle  curiosity  draw  thee  hither, 
depart ! "  "If  thou  be  afraid  of  being  enlightened  con- 
cerning thy  errors,  it  profits  thee  not  to  stay  here."  "If 
thou  value  human  distinctions,  go  hence;  here  they  are 
not  known."  After  a  deal  of  palaver  between  the  brother 
who  introduces  the  novice  and  the  master,  the  candidate, 
having  his  eyes  again  bandaged  and  a  cord  passed  round 
his  neck,  is  introduced  into  the  middle  of  the  brethren, 
his  guide  pointing  a  naked  sword  to  his  breast.  He  is 
then  questioned  as  to  his  object  in  coming  hither,  and  on 
answering  that  he  comes  to  be  initiated  into  the  secrets 
of  Masonry,  he  is  led  out  of  the  lodge  and  back  again  to 
confuse  him.  A  large  square  frame  covered  with  paper, 
such  as  circus-riders  use,  is  then  brought  forward  and  held 


22  SECKET  SOCIETIES 

by  two  brethren.  The  guide  then  asks  the  master :  "  What 
shall  we  do  with  the  profane?"  To  which  the  master 
replies:  "Shut  him  up  in  the  cave."  Two  brethren  seize 
the  postulant  and  throw  him  through  the  paper-screen  into 
the  arms  of  two  other  brethren  who  stand  ready  to  receive 
him.  The  folding  doors,  hitherto  left  open,  are  then  shut 
with  great  noise,  and,  by  means  of  an  iron  ring  and  bar, 
the  closing  with  massive  locks  is  imitated,  so  that  the 
candidate  fancies  himself  shut  up  in  a  dungeon.  Some 
time  then  elapses  in  sepulchral  silence.  All  at  once  the 
master  strikes  a  smart  blow,  and  orders  the  candidate  to  be 
placed  beside  the  junior  warden,  and  to  be  made  to  kneel. 
The  master  then  addresses  several  questions  to  him,  and 
instructs  him  on  his  duties  towards  the  Order.  The  candi- 
date is  then  offered  a  beverage,  with  the  intimation  that  if 
any  treason  lurks  in  his  heart,  the  drink  will  turn  to  poison. 
The  cup  containing  it  has  two  compartments,  the  one  hold- 
ing sweet,  the  other  bitter  water;  the  candidate  is  then 
taught  to  say :  "I  bind  myself  to  the  strict  and  rigorous 
observance  of  the  duties  prescribed  to  Freemasons;  and  if 
ever  I  violate  my  oath" — (here  his  guide  puts  the  sweet 
water  to  his  lips,  and  having  drunk  some,  the  candidate 
continues) — "I  consent  that  the  sweetness  of  this  drink 
be  turned  into  bitterness,  and  that  its  salutary  effect  be- 
come for  me  that  of  a  subtle  poison."  The  candidate  is 
then  made  to  drink  of  the  bitter  water,  whereupon  the 
master  exclaims:  "What  do  I  see?  What  means  the 
sudden  alteration  of  your  features?  Perhaps  your  con- 
science belies  your  words?  Has  the  sweet  drink  already 
turned  bitter?  Away  with  the  profane!  This  oath  is 
only  a  test;  the  true  one  comes  after."  The  candidate 
persisting  nevertheless  in  his  determination,  he  is  led  three 
times  round  the  lodge ;  then  he  is  dragged  over  broken 
chairs,  stools,  and  blocks  of  wood ;  this  trial  over,  he  is  told 
to  mount  the  "endless  stairs,"  and  having,  as  he  supposes, 
attained  a  great  height,  to  cast  himself  down,  when  he  only 
falls  a  few  feet.  This  trial  is  accompanied  by  great  noise, 
the  brethren  striking  on  the  attributes  of  the  order  they 
carry  in  their  hands,  and  uttering  all  kinds  of  dismal  shouts. 
As  a  further  trial,  he  is  then  passed  through  fire,  rendered 
harmless  by  well-known  conjuring  tricks ;  his  arm  is  slightly 
pricked,  and  a  gurgling  noise  being  produced  by  one  of  the 
brethren,  the  candidate  fancies  that  he  is  losing  much  blood. 
Finally,  he  takes  the  oath,  the  brethren  standing  around 
him  with  drawn  swords.  The  candidate  is  then  led  between 


CEREMONIES  OF  INITIATION  23 

the  two  pillars,  and  the  brethren  place  their  swords  against 
his  breast.  The  master  of  the  ceremonies  loosens  the  ban- 
dage without  taking  it  off.  Another  brother  holds  before 
him  a  lamp  that  sheds  a  brilliant  light.  The  master  re- 
sumes :  "  Brother  senior  warden,  deem  you  the  candidate 
worthy  of  forming  part  of  our  society?"  "Yes."  "What 
do  you  ask  for  him?"  "Light."  "Then  let  there  be 
light !  "  The  master  gives  three  blows  with  the  mallet,  and 
at  the  third  the  bandage  is  taken  off,  and  the  candidate 
beholds  the  light,  which  is  to  symbolise  that  which  is  to 
fill  his  understanding.  The  brethren  drop  their  swords, 
and  the  candidate  is  led  to  the  altar,  where  he  kneels,  whilst 
the  master  says :  "  In  the  name  of  the  Grand  Architect 
of  the  universe,  and  by  virtue  of  the  powers  vested  in 
me,  I  create  and  constitute  thee  masonic  apprentice  and 
member  of  this  lodge."  Then  striking  three  blows  with 
his  mallet  on  the  blade  of  the  sword,  he  raises  the  new 
brother,  girds  him  with  the  apron  of  white  lamb's  skin, 
gives  him  a  pair  of  white  gloves  to  be  worn  in  the  lodge, 
and  another  to  be  given  to  the  lady  he  esteems  most,  a 
symbolical  gift  which  need  not  be  further  explained.  He 
is  then  again  led  between  the  two  pillars,  and  received  by 
the  brethren  as  one  of  them.  Such  is  the  proceeding  the 
apprentice  has  to  go  through;  a  few  more  details  may  be 
added. 

One  question  put  to  him  is  :  "  Have  you  seen  your  master 
to-day  ?  "  "  Yes."  "  How  was  he  clothed  ?  "  "  In  a  yellow 
jacket  and  blue  pair  of  breeches."  The  explanation  is :  the 
master  is  the  compasses,  the  yellow  jacket  is  the  brass  body, 
and  the  blue  breeches  are  the  steel  points.  He  is  also  asked: 
"  How  old  are  you  ?  "  "  Under  seven."  This  answer  implies 
that  he  has  not  passed  to  the  fellow-crafts  degree,  seven  years 
being  the  term  of  an  apprenticeship  in  Freemasonry,  as  it  is 
in  other  trades.  The  password  is  Boaz,  the  sign  holding 
the  hand  horizontally,  with  the  thumb  turned  up  towards  the 
right  ear,  to  remind  the  apprentice  of  his  oath,  on  taking  which 
he  promises :  "  These  several  points  [keeping  the  secrets  of 
the  order]  I  solemnly  swear  to  observe  without  evasion, 
equivocation,  or  mental  reservation,  under  no  less  a  penalty 
on  the  violation  of  any  of  them,  than  to  have  my  throat  cut 
across,  my  tongue  torn  out  by  the  root,  and  my  body  buried  in 
the  sand  of  the  sea."  The  grip  is  given  by  a  distinct  pressure 
of  the  right  hand  thumb  on  the  first  joint  from  the  wrist  of 
the  right  hand  forefinger,  grasping  the  finger  with  the  hand. 

400.  Ceremonies  of  Initiation.  —  The  Fellow-Craft.  —  The 


24  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

second  degree  of  symbolic  Freemasonry  is  that  of  fellow-craft. 
The  apprentice,  who  asks  for  an  increase  of  salary,  is  not 
conducted  to  the  lodge  like  the  profane  by  an  unknown 
brother,  nor  are  his  eyes  bandaged,  because  the  light  was 
made  for  him,  but  moves  towards  the  lodge  holding  in  his 
hand  a  rule,  one  of  whose  ends  he  rests  on  the  left  shoulder. 
Having  reached  the  door,  he  gives  the  apprentice's  knock, 
and  having  been  admitted  and  declared  the  purpose  for  which 
he  comes,  he  five  times  perambulates  the  lodge,  whereupon 
he  is  told  by  the  master  to  perform  his  last  apprentice's  work. 
He  then  pretends  to  square  the  rough  ashlar.  After  a  deal 
of  instruction,  very  useless  and  pointless,  he  takes  the  oath, 
in  which  he  swears  to  keep  the  secrets  entrusted  to  him. 
Then  there  follows  some  more  lecturing  on  the  part  of  the 
master,  chiefly  on  geometry,  for  which  Masons  profess  a  great 
regard,  and  to  which  the  letter  G  seen  in  the  lodge  within  an 
irradiation  or  star  is  said  to  refer. 

The  oath  of  the  fellow-craft  is  rather  more  atrocious  than 
that  of  the  apprentice.  He  swe'ars,  in  addition  to  his  former 
obligations,  to  keep  the  secrets  of  the  crafts,  and  to  do  so 
under  no  less  a  penalty  than  to  have  his  left  breast  cut  open, 
his  heart  torn  therefrom  and  given  to  the  ravenous  birds  of 
the  air  and  the  devouring  beasts  of  the  field.  With  reference 
to  this  oath  the  sign  is  given  by  placing  the  hand  with  the 
thumb  turned  up  on  his  breast;  the  password  is  Jachin, 
sometimes  Shibboleth.  The  grip  is  given  by  a  distinct 
pressure  of  the  thumb  of  the  right  hand  between  the  joints 
of  the  first  and  middle  fingers  of  the  right  hand. 

40 1 .  Ceremony  of  Initiation  and  Story  of  Hiram's  Murder. — 
The  Master  Mason. — At  the  reception  of  a  master,  the  lodge 
or  "middle  chamber"  is  draped  with  black,  with  death's 
heads,  skeletons,  and  cross  bones  painted  on  the  walls.  A 
taper  of  yellow  wax,  placed  in  the  east,  and  a  dark  lantern 
formed  of  a  skull  having  a  light  within,  which  shines  forth 
through  the  eye-holes,  placed  on  the  altar  of  the  most  worship- 
ful master,  give  just  sufficient  light  to  reveal  a  coffin,  wherein 
the  corpse  is  represented  either  by  a  lay-figure,  a  serving 
brother,  or  the  brother  last  made  a  master.  On  the  coffin  is 
placed  a  sprig  of  acacia,  at  its  head  is  a  square,  and  at  its  foot, 
towards  the  east,  an  open  compass.  The  masters  are  clothed 
in  black,  and  wear  large  azure  sashes,  on  which  are  represented 
masonic  emblems,  the  sun,  moon,  and  seven  stars.  The 
object  of  the  meeting  is  said  to  be  the  finding  of  the  word 
of  the  master  that  was  slain.  The  postulant  for  admission  is 
introduced  after  some  preliminary  ceremonies,  having  his 


CEREMONIES  OF  INITIATION  25 

two  arms,  breasts,  and  knees  bare,  and  both  heels  slipshod. 
He  is  told  that  the  brethren  assembled  are  mourning  the 
death  of  their  grand  master,  and  asked  whether  perhaps  he 
was  one  of  the  murderers ;  at  the  same  time  he  is  shown  the 
body  or  figure  in  the  coffin.  Having  declared  his  innocence 
of  any  share  in  that  crime,  he  is  informed  that  he  will  on  this 
occasion  have  to  enact  the  part  of  Hiram  (385),  who  was 
slain  at  the  building  of  Solomon's  temple,  and  whose  history 
he  is  about  to  be  told.  The  brother  or  figure  in  the  coffin 
has  in  the  meantime  been  removed,  so  that  when  the  aspirant 
looks  at  it  again,  he  finds  it  empty.  The  story  of  the  murder 
of  Hiram  is  then  related.  But  the  deed  is  not,  as  in  the 
Legend  of  the  Temple,  attributed  to  Solomon's  jealousy, 
but  simply  to  Hiram's  refusal  to  communicate  the  master's 
word  to  three  fellow-crafts.  The  various  incidents  of  the 
story  are  scenically  enacted  on  the  postulant.  "  Hiram,"  the 
master  continues,  "  having  entered  the  temple  at  noon,  the 
three  assassins  placed  themselves  at  the  east,  west,  and  south 
doors,  and  Hiram  refusing  to  reveal  the  word,  he  who  stood 
at  the  east  door  cut  Hiram  across  the  throat  with  a  twenty- 
four-inch  gauge.  Hiram  flew  to  the  south  door,  where  he 
received  similar  treatment,  and  thence  to  the  west  door, 
where  he  was  struck  on  the  head  with  a  gavel,  which  occa- 
sioned his  death."  The  applicant,  at  this  part  of  the  recital, 
is  informed  that  he  too  must  undergo  trials,  and  is  not  to 
sink  under  the  influence  of  terror,  though  the  hand  of  death 
be  upon  him.  He  is  then  struck  in  the  forehead  and  thrown 
down,  and  shams  a  dead  man.  The  master  continues  :  "  The 
ruffians  carried  the  body  out  at  the  west  door,  and  buried  it 
at  the  side  of  a  hill " — here  the  postulant  is  placed  in  the 
coffin — "in  a  grave,  on  which  they  stuck  a  sprig  of  acacia  to 
mark  the  spot.  Hiram  not  making  his  appearance  as  usual, 
Solomon  caused  search  to  be  made  for  him  by  twelve  trusty 
fellow-crafts  that  were  sent  out,  three  east,  three  west,  three 
south,  and  three  north.  Of  the  three  who  went  east,  one 
being  weary,  sat  down  on  the  brow  of  a  hill  to  rest  himself, 
and  in  rising  caught  hold  of  a  twig  " — here  a  twig  of  that 
plant  is  put  into  the  hand  of  the  aspirant  lying  in  the  coffin — 
"which  coming  up  easily,  showed  that  the  ground  had  been 
recently  disturbed,  and  on  digging  he  and  his  companions 
found  the  body  of  Hiram."  A  similar  occurrence  is  related  in 
^Eneis,  iii.  22-29,  where  ^Eneas,  in  plucking  up  a  shrub  on  the 
side  of  a  hill,  discovers  the  murder  of  Polydorus.  "  Hiram's 
body  was  in  a  mangled  condition,  having  lain  fourteen  days, 
whereupon  one  of  those  present  exclaimed  Macbenach  !  which 


26  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

means  *  the  flesh  is  off  the  bones/  or  '  the  brother  is  smitten,' 
and  became  the  master's  word,  as  the  former  one  was  lost 
through  Hiram's  death ;  for  though  the  other  two  masters, 
Solomon  and  Hiram,  king  of  Tyre,  knew  it,  it  could  only  be 
communicated  by  the  three  grand  masters  conjointly."  The 
covering  of  the  grave  being  green  moss  and  turf,  other 
bystanders  exclaimed,  Muscus  domus,  Dei  gratia !  which, 
according  to  Masonry,  is,  "  Thanks  be  unto  God,  our  master 
has  got  a  mossy  house ! "  The  exclamation  shows  that 
the  Hebrew  builders  of  Solomon's  temple  possessed  a  familiar 
knowledge  of  the  Latin  tongue !  The  body  of  Hiram  could 
not  be  raised  by  the  apprentice's  or  fellow-craft's  grip,  but 
only  by  the  master's,  or  the  lion's  grip,  as  it  is  called.  All 
this  is  then  imitated  by  the  master  raising  the  aspirant  in  the 
coffin,  who  is  then  told  the  word,  signs,  and  grips,  and  takes 
the  oath,  promising  to  keep  the  masonic  secrets  under  no 
less  a  penalty  than  to  have  his  body  severed  in  two,  his 
bowels  torn  thereout  and  burnt  to  ashes,  and  those  ashes 
scattered  to  the  four  cardinal  points.  The  grip  is  given  by 
a  distinct  pressure  of  the  thumb  between  the  joints  of  the 
middle  and  ring  fingers.  The  password  is  "  Tubal-Cain." 
There  are  three  signs,  the  most  important  being  the  penal 
sign,  which  is  given  by  drawing  the  hand  across  the  centre 
of  the  body,  dropping  it  to  the  side,  and  then  raising  it  again 
to  place  the  point  of  the  thumb  on  the  navel.  The  grip  is 
the  first  of  the  five  points  of  fellowship,  and  consists  in 
taking  hold  of  each  other's  wrists  with  the  points  of  the 
fingers.  The  second  point  is  placing  the  right  foot  parallel 
with  the  right  foot  on  the  inside ;  the  third,  right  knee  to 
right  knee ;  the  fourth,  right  breast  to  right  breast ;  and 
the  fifth,  hand  over  shoulder,  supporting  the  back.  It  is 
in  this  position,  and  only  in  a  whisper,  that  the  word  "  Maha- 
bone,"  or  "  Macbenach,"  is  given,  the  first  meaning  "  the 
death  of  a  brother,"  and  the  second  "the  brother  is 
smitten." 

402.  The  Legend  Explained. — Taken  literally,  the  story  of 
Hiram  would  offer  nothing  so  extraordinary  as  to  deserve  to 
be  commemorated  after  three  thousand  years  throughout 
the  world  by  solemn  rites  and  ceremonies.  The  death  of  an 
architect  is  not  so  important  a  matter  as  to  have  more  honour 
paid  to  it  than  is  shown  to  the  memory  of  so  many  philo- 
sophers and  learned  men  who  have  lost  their  lives  in  the 
cause  of  human  progress.  But  history  knows  nothing  of 
him.  His  name  is  only  mentioned  in  the  Bible,  and  it  is 
simply  said  of  him  that  he  was  a  man  of  understanding  and 


CEKEMONIES  OF  INITIATION  27 

cunning  in  working  in  brass.  Tradition  is  equally  silent 
concerning  him.  He  is  remembered  nowhere  except  in 
Freemasonry ;  the  legend,  in  fact,  is  purely  allegorical,  and 
may  bear  a  twofold  interpretation,  cosmological  and  astro- 
nomical. 

Cosmologically,  we  find  represented  therein  the  dualism  of 
the  two  antagonistic  powers,  which  is  the  leading  feature 
of  all  Eastern  initiations.  The  dramatic  portion  of  the 
mysteries  of  antiquity  is  always  sustained  by  a  deity  or 
man  who  perishes  as  the  victim  of  an  evil  power,  and  rises 
again  into  a  more  glorious  existence.  In  the  ancient 
mysteries,  we  constantly  meet  with  the  record  of  a  sad 
event,  a  crime  which  plunges  nations  into  strife  and  grief, 
succeeded  by  joy  and  exultation. 

Astronomically,  again,  the  parallel  is  perfect,  and  is  in  fact 
only  another  version  of  the  legend  of  Osiris.  Hiram  represents 
Osiris,  i.e.  the  sun.  The  assassins  place  themselves  at  the  west, 
south,  and  east  doors,  that  is,  the  regions  illuminated  by  the 
sun ;  they  bury  the  body,  and  mark  the  spot  with  a  sprig  of 
acacia.  Twelve  persons  play  an  important  part  in  the  tragedy, 
viz.  the  three  murderers  (fellow-crafts),  and  nine  masters. 
This  number  is  a  plain  allusion  to  the  twelve  signs  of  the 
zodiac,  and  the  three  murderers  are  the  three  inferior  signs 
of  winter,  Libra,  Scorpio,  and  Sagittarius.  Hiram  is  slain  at 
the  west  door,  the  sun  descends  in  the  west.  The  acacia 
of  Freemasonry  is  the  plant  found  in  all  the  ancient  solar 
allegories,  and  symbolising  the  new  vegetation  to  be  antici- 
pated by  the  sun's  resurrection.  The  acacia  being  looked 
upon  by  the  ancients  as  incorruptible,  its  twigs  were  preferred 
for  covering  the  body  of  the  god-man  to  the  myrtle,  laurel, 
and  other  plants  mentioned  in  the  ancient  mysteries.  Hiram's 
body  is  in  a  state  of  decay,  having  lain  fourteen  days ;  the 
body  of  Osiris  was  cut  into  fourteen  pieces  (51).  But  accord- 
ing to  other  statements,  the  body  was  found  on  the  seventh 
day ;  this  would  allude  to  the  resurrection  of  the  sun,  which 
actually  takes  place  in  the  seventh  month  after  his  passage 
through  the  inferior  signs,  that  passage  which  is  called  his 
descent  into  hell.  Hiram  can  only  be  raised  by  the  lion's 
grip.  It  is  through  the  instrumentality  of  Leo  that  Osiris  is 
raised ;  it  is  when  the  sun  re-enters  that  sign  that  he  regains 
his  former  strength,  that  his  restoration  to  life  takes  place. 
Masons  in  this  degree  call  themselves  the  "children  of  the 
widow,"  the  sun  on  descending  into  his  tomb  leaving  nature 
— of  which  Masons  consider  themselves  the  pupils — a  widow  ; 
but  the  appellation  may  also  have  its  origin  in  the  Mani- 


28  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

chjean  sect,  whose  followers  were  known  as  the  "  sons  of  the 
widow"  (112). 

403.  The   Raising   of  Osiris. — A   painting   found   on  an 
Egyptian  mummy,  now  in  Paris,  represents  the  death  and 
resurrection  of  Osiris,  and  the  beginning,  progress,  and  end 
of  the  inundation  of  the  Nile.    The  sign  of  the  Lion  is  trans- 
formed into  a  couch,  upon  which  Osiris  is  laid  out  as  dead ; 
under  the  couch  are  four  canopi  or  jqrs  of  various  capacities, 
indicating  the  state  of  the  Nile  at  different  periods.     The 
first  is  terminated  by  the  head  of  Sirius,  or  the  Dog- Star, 
which  gives  warning  of  the  approach  of  the  overflow  of  the 
river ;  the  second  by  the  head  of  the  Hawk,  the  symbol  of 
the  Etesian  wind,  which  tends  to  swell  the  waters ;  the  third 
by  the  head  of  a  Heron,  the  sign  of  the  south  wind,  which 
contributes  to  propel  the  water  into  the  Mediterranean  ;  and 
the  fourth  by  that  of  the  Virgin,  which  indicates  that  when 
the  sun  had  passed  that  sign  the  inundation  would  have 
nearly  subsided.     To  the  above  is  superadded  a  large  Anubis, 
who  with  an  emphatic  gesture,  turning  towards  Isis,  who  has 
an  empty  throne  on  her  head,  intimates  that  the  sun,  by  the 
aid  of  the  Lion,  had  cleared  the  difficult  pass  of  the  tropic  of 
Cancer,  and  was  now  in  the  sign  of  the  latter ;  and  although 
in  a  state  of  exhaustion,  would  soon  be  in  a  condition  to 
proceed  on  his  way  to  the  south.      The  empty  throne  is 
indicative  of  its  being  vacated  by  the  supposed  death  of 
Osiris.      The  reason  why  the   hawk   represents  the   north 
wind  is,  because  about  the  summer  solstice,  when  the  wind 
blows  from  north  to  south,   the  bird  flies  with  the  wind 
towards  the  south   (Job  xxxix.    26).      The  heron   signifies 
the   south   wind,   because   this   bird,  living   on   the  worms 
hatched  in  the  mud  of  the  Nile,  follows  the  course  of  the 
river  down  to  the  sea,  just  as  the  south  wind  does.     To  know 
the   state  of   the   Nile,   and   therefore   their  own   personal 
prospects,  the  Egyptians  watched  the  birds ;  hence  among 
other  nations,  who  did  not  know  the  principle  by  which  the 
Egyptians  went,  arose  divination  by  the  flight  of  birds.1 

404.  The  Blazing  Star. — The  representation  of  a  blazing 
star  found  in  every  masonic  lodge,  and  which  Masons  declare 

1  Hamlet  says,  "lam  but  mad  north-north-west;  when  the  wind  is 
southerly  I  know  a  hawk  from  a  hand-saw."  Thomas  Capell,  the  editor  of 
the  Oxford  edition  of  Shakespeare,  changes  "hand-saw"  to  "hernshaw," 
which  renders  the  passage  intelligible  ;  for  hernshaw  is  only  another  name 
for  the  heron  ;  and  Hamlet,  though  feigning  madness,  yet  claims  sufficient 
sanity  to  distinguish  a  hawk  from  a  hernshaw,  when  the  wind  is  southerly 
— that  is,  in  the  time  of  the  migration  of  the  latter  to  the  north — and  when 
the  former  is  not  to  be  seen. 


CEREMONIES  OF  INITIATION  29 

to  signify  prudence — though  why  a  star  should  have  such  a 
meaning  they  would  be  at  a  loss  to  tell — is  the  star  Sirius, 
the  dog-star,  mentioned  above,  the  inundation  of  the  Nile 
occurring  when  the  sun  was  under  the  stars  of  the  Lion. 
Near  the  stars  of  the  Cancer,  though  pretty  far  from  the 
band  of  the  zodiac  towards  the  south,  and  a  few  weeks  after 
their  rising,  the  Egyptians  saw  in  the  morning  one  of  the 
most  brilliant  stars  in  the  whole  heavens  ascending  the 
horizon.  It  appeared  a  little  before  the  rising  of  the  sun ; 
they  therefore  pitched  upon  this  star  as  the  infallible  sign  of 
the  sun's  passing  under  the  stars  of  Leo,  and  the  beginning 
of  the  inundation.  As  it  thus  seemed  to  be  on  the  watch 
and  give  warning,  they  called  it  "  Barker,"  "Anubis,"  "  Thot," 
all  meaning  the  "  dog."  Its  Hebrew  name,  "  Sihor,"  in  Greek 
became  "Seirios,"  and  in  Latin  "Sirius."  It  taught  the 
Egyptians  the  prudence  of  retiring  into  the  higher  grounds ; 
and  thus  Masons,  ignorant  of  the  origin  of  the  symbol,  yet 
give  it  its  original  emblematic  signification. 


VII 
THE   HOLY  EOYAL  ARCH 

405.  Officers. — The  members  of  this  degree  (founded  about 
the  year  1766)  are  denominated  "companions."     There  are 
nine  officers,  the  chief  of  whom  (in  England)  is  Zerubbabel, 
a  compound  word,  meaning  "the  bright  lord,  the  sun."     He 
rebuilds  the  temple,  and  therefore  represents  the  sun  risen 
again.     The  next  officer  is  Jeshua,  the  high-priest ;  the  third, 
Haggai,  the  prophet.    These  three  compose  the  grand  council. 
Principals  and  senior  and  junior  sojourners  form  the  base; 
Ezra  and  Nehemiah,  senior  and  junior  scribes,  one  on  each 
side;   janitor  or  tyler  without  the  door.      The  companions 
assembled  make  up  the  sides  of  the  arch,  representing  the 
pillars  Jachin  and  Boaz.     In  front  of  the  principals  stands 
an  altar,  inscribed  with  the  names  of  Solomon,  Hiram,  king 
of  Tyre,  and  Hiram  Abiff. 

406.  Ceremonies.  —  On   entering   the   chapter,    the  com- 
panions give  the  sign  of  sorrow,  in  imitation  of  the  ancients 
mourning  for  the  loss  of  Osiris.     Nine  companions  must  be 
present  at  the  opening  of  a  royal  arch  chapter;  not  more  nor 
less  than  three  are  permitted  to  take  this  degree  at  the  same 
time,  the  two  numbers  making  up  the  twelve,  the  number 
of  zodiacal  signs.     The  candidates  are  prepared  by  tying  a 
bandage  over  their   eyes,  and  coiling  a  rope  seven   times 
round  the  body  of  each,  which  unites  them  together,  with 
three  feet  of  slack  rope  between  them.      They  then  pass 
under  the  living  arch,  which  is  made  by  the  companions 
either  joining   their    hands   and    holding   them  up,  or  by 
holding  their  rods  or  swords  so  as  to  resemble  a  Gothic 
arch.      This   part   of  the   ceremony   used   to  be   attended 
in  some  lodges  with  a  deal  of  tomfoolery  and  rough  horse- 
play.    The  companions  would  drop  down  on  the  candidates, 
who   were  obliged  to  support  themselves  on   their   hands 
and  knees ;   and  if  they  went  too  slowly,  it  was  not  un- 
usual for  one  or  more  of  the  companions  to  apply  a  sharp 
point  to  their  bodies  to  urge  them  on.     Trials,  such  as  the 


THE  HOLY  KOYAL  AECH  31 

candidates  for  initiation  into  the  ancient  mysteries  had  to  go 
through,  were  also  imitated  in  the  royal  arch.  But  few,  if 
any,  lodges  now  practise  these  tricks,  fit  only  for  Christmas 
pantomimes.  The  candidates,  after  taking  the  oath,  de- 
clare that  they  come  in  order  to  assist  at  the  rebuilding  of 
Solomon's  temple,  whereupon  they  are  furnished  with  pick- 
axes, shovels,  and  crowbars,  and  retire.  After  a  while, 
during  which  they  are  supposed  to  have  been  at  work  and 
to  have  made  a  discovery,  they  return,  and  state  that  on 
digging  for  the  new  foundation  they  discovered  an  under- 
ground vault,  into  which  one  of  them  was  let  down  and 
found  a  scroll,  which  on  examination  turns  out  to  be  the 
long-lost  book  of  the  law.  They  set  to  work  again,  and 
discover  another  vault,  and  under  that  a  third.  The  sun 
having  now  gained  his  meridian  height,  darts  his  rays  to  the 
centre  and  shines  on  a  white  marble  pedestal,  on  which  is  a 
plate  of  gold.  On  this  plate  is  a  double  triangle,  and  within 
the  triangles  some  words  they  cannot  understand ;  they 
therefore  take  the  plate  to  Zerubbabel.  There  the  whole 
mystery  of  Masonry — as  far  as  known  to  Masons — is  un- 
veiled; what  the  Masons  had  long  been  in  search  of  is  found, 
for  the  mysterious  writing  in  a  triangular  form  is  the  long- 
lost  sacred  word  of  the  Master  Mason,  which  Solomon  and 
King  Hiram  deposited  there,  as  we  have  seen  in  the  master's 
degree  (402).  This  word  Jabulon  =  Jah  +  Bel  +  On,  Hebrew, 
Assyrian,  and  Egyptian  names  of  tha  sun,  is  the  logos 
of  Plato  and  St.  John,  the  omnific  word;  but  the  above 
compound  name,  intended  to  bear  the  same  import,  is 
substituted  by  modern  Masons.  It  is  communicated  to  the 
candidates  in  this  way  :  The  three  principals  and  each  three 
companions  form  the  triangles,  and  each  of  the  three  takes 
his  left-hand  companion  by  the  right-hand  wrist,  and  his 
right-hand  companion  by  the  left-hand  wrist,  forming  two 
distinct  triangles  with  the  hands,  and  a  triangle  with  their 
right  feet,  amounting  to  a  triple  triangle,  and  then  pro- 
nounce the  following  words,  each  taking  a  line  in  turn  : — 

"  As  we  three  did  agree, 
In  peace,  love,  and  unity, 
The  sacred  word  to  keep, 
So  we  three  do  agree, 
In  peace,  love,  and  unity, 
The  sacred  word  to  search, 
Until  we  three, 

Or  three  such  as  we,  shall  agree 
This  royal  arch  chapter  to  close." 


32  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

The  right  hands,  still  joined  as  a  triangle,  are  raised  as  high 
as  possible,  and  the  word  given  at  low  breath  in  syllables,  so 
that  each  companion  has  to  pronounce  the  whole  word.  It 
is  not  permitted  to  utter  this  omnific  word  above  the  breath ; 
like  the  name  "Jehovah  "  or  "  Oum,"  it  would  shake  heaven 
and  earth  if  pronounced  aloud.  Zerubbabel  next  makes  the 
new  companions  acquainted  with  the  five  signs  used  in  this 
degree,  and  invests  them  with  the  badges  of  Royal  Arch 
Masonry — the  apron,  sash,  and  jewel.  The  character  on  the 
apron  is  the  triple  Tau,  one  of  the  most  ancient  of  emblems, 
and  Masons  call  it  the  emblem  of  emblems,  "with  a  depth 
that  reaches  to  the  creation  of  the  world  and  all  that  is 
therein."  This  triple  Tau  is  a  compound  figure  of  three  T's, 
called  Tau  in  Greek.  Now  this  Tau  or  T  is  the  figure  of  the 
old  Egyptian  Nilometer,  used  to  ascertain  the  height  of  the 
inundation.  It  was  a  pole  crossed  with  one  or  more  trans- 
verse pieces.  As  on  the  inundation  depended  the  subsistence, 
the  life  of  the  inhabitants,  the  Nilometer  became  the  symbol 
of  life,  health,  and  prosperity,  and  was  thought  to  have  the 
power  of  averting  evil.  It  thence  became  an  amulet,  and  in 
this  manner  was  introduced  among  masonic  symbols. 

407.  Passing  the  Veils. — In  some  chapters  the  ceremony 
called  "passing  the  veils"  is  omitted,  but  to  make  the 
account  of  Royal  Arch  Masonry  complete  I  append  it  here. 
The  candidate  is  introduced  blindfold,  his  knees  bare,  and 
his  feet  slipshod,  with  a  cable-tow  round  his  waist.  The 
high-priest  reads  Exod.  iii.  1-6,  and  13,  14,  and  the  candi- 
date is  informed  that  "I  am  that  I  am "  is  the  password 
from  the  first  to  the  second  veil.  He  is  also  shown  a  bush 
on  fire.  He  is  then  led  to  the  second  veil,  which,  on  giving 
the  password,  he  passes,  and  beholds  the  figure  of  a  serpent 
and  Aaron's  rod.  The  high-priest  reads  Exod.  iv.  1-5,  and 
the  candidate  is  told  to  pick  up  the  rod  cast  down  before 
him,  that  the  act  is  the  sign  of  passing  the  second  veil,  and 
that  the  passwords  are  "  Moses,  Aaron,  and  Eleazar."  He 
then  passes  the  guard  of  the  third  veil.  The  high-priest 
reads  Exod.  iv.  6-9,  and  the  candidate  is  informed  that  the 
leprous  hand  and  the  pouring  out  of  the  water  are  the  signs 
of  the  third  veil,  and  that  "  Holiness  to  the  Lord  "  are  the 
passwords  to  the  sanctum  sanctorum.  He  is  shown  the  ark 
of  the  covenant,  the  table  of  shewbread,  the  burning  in- 
cense, and  the  candlestick  with  seven  branches.  Then 
follow  long  lectures  to  explain  the  words  and  symbols,  but 
their  quality  may  be  inferred  from  the  following  specimen : 
— "  This  triangle  is  also  an  emblem  of  geometry.  And  here 


THE  HOLY  KOYAL  ARCH  33 

we  find  the  most  perfect  emblem  of  the  science  of  agri- 
culture ;  not  a  partial  one  like  the  Basilidean,  calculated  for 
one  particular  clime,  but  universal ;  pointed  out  by  a  pair  of 
compasses  issuing  from  the  centre  of  the  sun,  and  suspending 
a  globe  denoting  the  earth,  and  thereby  representing  the  in- 
fluence of  that  luminary  over  the  creation,  admonishing  us 
to  be  careful  to  perform  every  operation  in  its  proper  season, 
that  we  lose  not  the  fruits  of  our  labour."  What  a  farmer 
would  say  to,  or  what  profit  he  could  derive  from,  this  uni- 
versal "  science  of  agriculture,"  or  whether  he  needs  the 
"  admonishing  "  symbol,  I  am  at  a  loss  to  imagine.  The 
triple  Tau,  according  to  the  lecture,  means  templum  Hieroso- 
lymce,  also  clams  ad  thesaurum,  res  ipsa  pretiosa,  and  several 
other  things  equally  true.  "But,"  continues  the  lecturer, 
"these  are  all  symbolical  definitions  of  the  symbol,  which 
is  to  be  simply  solved  into  an  emblem  of  science  in  the 
human  mind,  and  is  the  most  ancient  symbol  of  that 
kind,  the  prototype  of  the  Cross,  and  the  first  object  in 
every  religion  or  human  system  of  worship.  This  is  the 
grand  secret  of  Masonry,  which  passes  by  symbols  from 
superstition  to  science."  How  far  all  this  is  from  the  true 
meaning  of  the  cross  and  triple  Tau  may  be  seen  by  refer- 
ence to  53. 


VOL.  II. 


VIII 
GRAND  MASTER  ARCHITECT 

408.  Ceremonial. — In  this,  the  twelfth  degree  of  the  ancient 
Scotch  rite,  the  chapter,  or  lodge,  represents  the  Temple  of 
Solomon  in  three  compartments.  The  first  to  the  west,  hung 
with  white,  is  the  vestibule.  On  its  northern  side  is  the 
tomb  of  Hiram,  also  white  ;  to  the  south  stands  the  Brazen 
Sea.  The  centre  of  the  lodge,  divided  from  the  vestibule  by 
a  white,  and  from  the  Holy  of  Holies  by  a  red,  curtain 
represents  the  interior  of  the  temple.  On  its  floor  is  the 
Scotch  carpet,  showing  the  three  walls  round  the  temple ;  to 
the  north  of  the  carpet  stands  the  golden  table  with  the 
shewbread,  to  the  south  the  candlestick  with  seven  branches. 
The  altar  of  incense  is  placed  on  the  carpet  itself,  and  above 
it  hangs  the  Blazing  Star,  strongly  illuminated.  The  east 
is  the  Holy  of  Holies.  In  the  centre  is  an  altar,  raised  on 
seven  steps ;  the  altar  represents  the  ark  of  the  covenant, 
on  which  are  placed  two  cherubims,  surmounted  by  the  sign 
of  the  glory  of  God,  consisting  of  a  transparent  disc,  having 
in  its  centre  a  triangle,  inscribed  with  7,  7,  74.  The  per- 
petual holy  fire  burns  in  a  vase  on  the  ark.  Eighty-one 
lights  burn  on  the  steps,  which,  however,  are  lighted  up  only 
when  the  candidate  is  to  be  shown  the  light  of  the  Holy  of 
Holies.  The  Master  sits  at  a  small  table,  with  a  red  cloth, 
and  having  on  this  the  word  of  the  Order  and  the  vestment 
of  the  candidate.  The  brethren  wear  an  apron  embroidered 
and  lined  with  red.  From  a  sash,  worn  from  the  right 
shoulder  to  the  left  hip,  the  pentagon  is  suspended,  or  a  gold 
medal,  on  both  sides  of  which  are  engraved  the  orders  of 
architecture.  The  master  is  called  "  The  Most  Powerful 
Grand  Architect,"  the  two  wardens  are  called  "  Ancient 
Scotch  Grand  Masters,"  and  the  brethren  "Perfect  Archi- 
tects." 

The  usual  questions  and  answers  are  put  at  the  opening 
of  the  lodge.  Here  are  a  few  of  them : — 

"  Where  does  the  Most  Powerful  Grand  Architect  dwell  ?  " 

34 


GRAND  MASTER  ARCHITECT  35 

"In  the  east,  in  the  Holy  of  Holies." 

"Why?" 

"  That  he,  being  placed  close  to  the  fountain  of  all  light, 
may  point  out  to  the  brethren  the  way  by  which  they  may 
emerge  from  darkness  into  light." 

"  How  is  this  done  ?  " 

"  By  opening  the  temple ;  by  advice,  direction,  and  exa- 
mination of  the  work  of  the  Scotch  Architects." 

"  Give  me  the  password." 

"  Zididiac,  or  Zedekiah."     Occasionally  it  is  "Rabacim." 

"  Give  me  the  holy  word." 

The  brethren  form  a  chain  to  the  Grand  Master,  and 
whisper  the  word  into  each  other's  ears.  We  shall  presently 
see  what  it  is. 

The  questions  are  continued :  "  What  hour  is  it  ?  " 

"The  first  hour  of  the  last  day  of  the  last  year  in  which 
Solomon's  temple  was  finished." 

The  brethren  hold  up  their  swords  and  greet  one  another 
by  crossing  them ;  then  rest  them  on  their  left  arms,  take 
off  their  hats,  kneel  down,  and  during  the  prayer  that  follows 
make  the  Grand  Scotch  sign,  i.e.  the  hand  at  the  forehead. 
The  prayer  being  over,  the  brethren  rise,  put  on  their  hats, 
and  the  lodge  is  declared  to  be  open  for  the  reception  of  the 
candidate,  who  is  introduced  with  a  great  deal  of  ceremony, 
being  blindfolded,  wearing  the  master's  apron,  and  slippers 
on  his  feet,  and  whom  the  Grand  Master  of  Ceremony 
declares  to  be  a  Hiramite,  called  by  the  unanimous  voice 
of  the  Ancient  Scotch  to  become  a  perfect  Architect,  to 
assist  in  building  up  the  Holy  of  Holies.  He  is  made  to 
kneel  with  his  right  knee  on  a  stool  in  front  of  the  tomb  or 
coffin,  where  he  is  catechised  as  to  his  intentions,  and  all 
being  satisfactory,  he  is  led  five  times,  and  then  again 
seven  times  round  the  apartment,  and  finally  his  eyes  are 
unbandaged,  the  tomb  of  Hiram  is  pointed  out  to  him,  as 
also  the  letter  G  in  the  Blazing  Star,  which  letter  stands 
for  "Gnosis,"  the  "inheritance  of  Perfect  Architects." 
Then  ensues  a  good  deal  more  catechising  and  lecturing, 
and  finally  the  new  brother  has  to  take  the  oath,  which 
binds  him,  however,  to  nothing  more  than  to  secrecy,  and 
the  fulfilment  of  certain  moral  duties.  The  members  again 
go  through  a  number  of  evolutions  round  or  on  the  carpet ; 
their  swords  are  drawn,  held  up,  crossed,  and  sheathed  again. 
Then  the  candidate  has  his  eyes  bandaged  again ;  the 
brethren  kneel  down,  their  faces  being  turned  to  the  Holy 
of  Holies,  in  which  the  eighty-one  lights  are  now  lighted ; 


36  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

the  curtain  is  drawn  up,  a  handful  of  powder  is  thrown  on 
the  altar  of  incense,  and  the  bandage  taken  off  the  can- 
didate's eyes ;  the  Grand  Master  makes  an  edifying  moral 
speech,  the  brethren  flourish  their  swords,  and  forming  a 
circle  bring  them  as  much  as  possible  in  a  point  over  the 
new  brother's  head,  who  is  now  declared  a  Perfect  Ancient 
Scotch  Architect,  touched  with  the  sword  on  the  right  and 
left  shoulder,  the  breast  and  the  back,  and  the  sword  is  then 
handed  to  him  by  the  Grand  Master,  who  concludes  with 
another  long  speech.  As  the  candidate  naturally  expects  to 
be  let  into  some  kind  of  secret,  he  is  told  that  the  holy 
word  is  "Jehovah,"  which  however  is  never  pronounced  out 
of  the  Holy  of  Holies.  There  is  also  the  word  "  Gomer,"  but 
its  meaning  is  not  explained. 

Such  is  an  outline  of  the  twelfth  degree  of  the  Ancient 
Scotch  rite.  It  reminds  me  of  what  Lessing,  the  celebrated 
German  author,  said  after  he  had  been  made  a  Mason.  The 
master  having  expressed  a  hope  that  Lessing  had  found 
nothing  against  the  state,  religion,  and  morals  in  the  Order, 
Lessing  replied,  "  No,  I  wish  I  had,  for  then  I  should  have 
found  at  least  something !  " 


IX 
GRAND  ELECT  KNIGHT  OF  KADOSH 

409.  The  Term  Kadosh. — This  degree,  the  thirtieth  of  the 
ancient  and  accepted  Scotch  rite,  contains  a  beautiful  astro- 
nomical allegory,  and  is  probably  derived  from  Egypt.     The 
term  Kadosh  means  "holy"  or  "elect."     (Every  person  in 
the  East,  preferred  to  a  post  of  honour,  carried  a  staff,  to 
indicate  that  he  was  Kadosh  or  elect,  or  that  his  person  was 
sacred ;  whence  eventually  the  name  came  to  be  applied  to 
the  staff  itself,  and  hence  the  derivation  of  caduceus,  the  staff 
of  Mercury,  the  messenger  of  the  gods.) 

410.  Reception  into  the  Degree. — There  are  four  apartments ; 
the  initiation  takes  place  in  the  fourth.     They  symbolise  the 
seasons.     The  first  apartment  is  hung  with  black,  lit  up  by  a 
solitary  lamp  of  triangular  form,  and  suspended  to  the  vaulted 
ceiling.     It  communicates  with  a  kind  of  cave  or  closet  of 
reflection,  containing  symbols  of  destruction  and  death.    The 
candidate,  after  having  been  left  there  some  time,  passes 
into  the  second  apartment,  which  is  draped  with  white ;  two 
altars  occupy  the  centre ;  on  one  is  an  urn  filled  with  burn- 
ing spirits  of  wine,  on  the  other  a  brazier  with  live  coal,  and 
incense  beside  it.     The  candidate  now  faces  the  sacrificing 
priest,  who  addresses  some  words  of  admonition  to  him,  and 
having  burned  some  incense,  directs  him  to  the  third  apart- 
ment.    It  is  hung  with  blue,  and  the  vaulted  ceiling  covered 
with  stars.     Three  yellow  tapers  light  up  this  room.     This  is 
the  areopagus.     The  candidate,  having  here  given  the  requi- 
site explanation  as  to  the  sincerity  of  his  intentions  and  pro- 
mises of  secrecy,  is  introduced  into  the  fourth  apartment, 
hung  with  red.     At  the  east  is  a  throne  surmounted  by  a 
double  eagle,  crowned,  with  outspread  wings  and  holding  a 
sword  in  his  claw.     In  this  room,  lighted  up  with  twelve 
yellow  tapers,  the  chapter  takes  the  title  of  "  senate  " ;  the 
brethren  are  called  "knights."     In  this  room  also  stands  the 
mysterious  ladder. 

411.  The  Mysterious  Ladder. — It  has  seven  steps,  which 

37 


38  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

symbolise  the  sun's  progress  through  the  seven  signs  of  the 
zodiac  from  Aries  to  Libra,  both  inclusive.  This  the  candi- 
date ascends,  receiving  at  every  step  the  explanation  of  its 
meaning  from  a  hierophant,  who  remains  invisible  to  the 
candidate,  just  as  in  the  ancient  mysteries  the  initiating 
priest  remained  concealed,  and  as  Pythagoras  delivered  his 
instructions  from  behind  a  veil.  When  the  candidate  has 
ascended  the  ladder,  and  is  on  the  last  step,  the  ladder  is 
lowered  and  he  passes  over  it,  because  he  cannot  retire  the 
same  way,  as  the  sun  does  not  retrograde.  He  then  reads 
the  words  at  the  bottom  of  the  ladder,  Ne  plus  ultra.  The 
last  degree  manufactured  is  always  the  ne  plus  ultra,  till 
somebody  concocts  one  still  more  sublime,  which  then  is  the 
ne  plus  ultra,  till  it  is  superseded  by  another.  What  sublimity 
masonic  degrees  will  yet  attain,  and  where  they  will  stop,  no 
one  can  tell. 

412.  The  Seven  Steps. — The  name  of  the  first  step  is 
Isedakah,  which  is  defined  "righteousness,"  alluding  to  the 
sun  in  the  vernal  equinox  in  the  month  of  March,  when  the 
days  and  nights  are  equal  all  over  the  world,  and  the  sun 
dispenses  his  favours  equally  to  all. 

The  second  step  is  Shor-lalan,  "white  ox"  figuratively. 
This  is  the  only  step  the  definition  of  which  is  literally  true, 
which,  as  it  might  lead  to  a  clue  to  the  meaning  of  the  mys- 
terious ladder,  is  thus  falsely  denominated  figurative.  Taurus, 
the  bull,  is  the  second  sign  of  the  zodiac,  into  which  the  sun 
enters  on  the  2 1  st  April.  His  entry  into  this  sign  is  marked 
by  the  setting  of  Orion,  who  in  mythological  language  is 
said  to  be  in  love  with  the  Pleiades ;  and  by  the  rising  of 
the  latter. 

The  third  step  is  called  Mathok,  "  sweetness."  The  third 
sign  is  Gemini,  into  which  the  sun  enters  in  the  pleasant 
month  of  May.  "Canst  thou  hinder  the  sweet  influences 
of  the  Pleiades,  or  loose  the  bands  of  Orion  ?  "  (Job).  Now, 
the  Pleiades  were  denominated  by  the  Romans  Vergilice, 
from  their  formerly  rising  when  the  spring  commenced,  and 
their  sweet  influences  blessed  the  year  by  the  beginning  of 
spring. 

The  fourth  step  is  Emunah,  "truth  in  disguise."  The 
fourth  sign  is  Cancer,  into  which  the  sun  enters  in  June. 
Egypt  at  this  period  is  enveloped  in  clouds  and  dust,  by 
which  means  the  sun,  which  figuratively  may  be  called  truth, 
is  obscured  or  disguised. 

The  fifth  step  is  Hamal  saggi,  "great  labour."  The  fifth 
sign  is  Leo.  The  great  labour  and  difficulties  to  which  the 


GKAND  ELECT  KNIGHT  OF  KADOSH  39 

sun  was  supposed  to  be  subject  in  passing  this  sign  have 
already  been  alluded  to  (403). 

The  sixth  step  is  Sabbal,  "  burden  or  patience."  The  sixth 
sign  through  which  the  sun  passes  is  Virgo,  marked  by  the 
total  disappearance  of  the  celestial  Hydra,  called  the  Hydra 
of  Lerna,  from  whose  head  spring  up  the  Great  Dog  and 
the  Crab.  Hercules  destroys  the  Hydra  of  Lerna,  but  is 
annoyed  by  a  sea-crab,  which  bites  him  in  the  foot.  When- 
ever Hercules  lopped  off  one  of  the  monster's  heads  two 
others  sprang  up,  so  that  his  labour  would  have  been  endless, 
had  he  not  ordered  his  companion  lolas  to  sear  the  blood 
with  fire. 

The  seventh  step  is  named  Gemunah^  JBinah,  Jebunah, 
"retribution,  intelligence,  prudence."  The  seventh  sign  is 
Libra,  into  which  the  sun  enters  at  the  commencement  of 
autumn,  indicated  by  the  rising  of  the  celestial  Centaur,  the 
same  that  treated  Hercules  with  hospitality.  This  constella- 
tion is  represented  in  the  heavens  with  a  flask  full  of  wine 
and  a  thyrsus,  ornamented  with  leaves  and  grapes,  the  sym- 
bols of  the  products  of  the  seasons.  The  sun  has  now  arrived 
at  the  autumnal  equinox,  bringing  in  his  train  the  fruits  of 
the  earth ;  and  recompense  is  made  to  the  husbandman  in 
proportion  to  his  prudence  and  intelligence. 

The  ladder  will  remind  the  reader  of  the  ladder  of  the 
Indian  mysteries  ;  of  the  ladder  seen  by  Jacob  in  his  dream  ; 
the  pyramids  with  seven  steps;  and  the  seven  caverns  of 
various  nations. 

Formerly — it  may  be  so  now  in  some  lodges — one  of  the 
tests  the  aspirant  to  this  degree  had  to  undergo  was  to  kill 
the  murderer  of  Hiram  with  a  dagger,  to  bring  his  head  to 
the  altar,  and  drink  blood  out  of  a  skull.  The  candidate, 
being  blindfolded,  had  to  place  his  hand  on  the  beating 
heart  of  a  sheep,  the  wool  around  that  part  having  been 
shaved  off,  and,  having  stabbed  the  victim,  he  was  freed  from 
the  bandage,  and  was  shown  a  bleeding  head,  made  of  wax, 
which,  however,  was  immediately  removed,  to  prevent  his 
discovering  the  deception. 


PRINCE  OF  ROSE-CROIX 

413.  Distinct  from  Eosicrucian,  and  has  various  Names. — 
This,  the  eighteenth  degree  of  the  ancient   and  accepted 
Scotch  rite,  is  one  of  the  most  generally  diffused  of  the 
higher  degrees  of  Masonry.      It  is  often  confounded  with 
the  cabalistic  and  alchemistic  sect  of  the  Rosicrucians ;  but 
there  is  a  great  distinction  between  the  two.     The  name  is 
derived  from  the  rose  and  the  cross,  and  has  no  connection 
with  alchemy;  the  import  of  the  rose  has  been  given  in 
another  place.     The  origin  of  the  degree  is  involved  in  the 
greatest  mystery,  as  already  pointed  out.     The  degree  is 
known  by  various  names,  such  as   "  Sovereign  Princes  of 
Rose-Croix,"  "  Princes  of  Rose-Croix  de  Heroden,"  i.e.  the 
holy  house,  i.e.  the  Temple,  and  sometimes  "  Knights  of  the 
Eagle  and  Pelican."     It  is  considered  the  ne  plus  ultra  of 
Masonry,  which,  however,  is  the   case  with  several  other 
degrees. 

414.  Officers  and  Lodges. — The  presiding  officer  is  called 
the  "Ever  Most  Perfect  Sovereign,"  and  the  two  wardens 
are  styled  "Most  Excellent  and  Perfect  Brothers."     The 
degree  is  conferred  by  a  body  called  a  "  Chapter  of  the 
Sovereign  Princes  of  Rose-Croix,"  and  in  three  apartments, 
the  first  representing  Mount  Calvary,  the  second  the  site 
and  scene  of  the  Resurrection,  and  the  third  Hell.     It  will 
thus  be  seen  that  it  is  a  purely  Christian  degree,  and  there- 
fore not  genuine  Masonry,  but  an  attempt  to  christianise 
Freemasonry.     The  first  apartment  is  hung  with  black,  and 
lighted  with  thirty-three  lights  upon  three  candlesticks  of 
eleven  branches.     Each  light  is  enclosed  in  a  small  tin  box, 
and  issues  its  light  through  a  hole  of  an  inch  diameter. 
These  lights  denote  the  age  of  Christ.     In  three  angles  of 
the  room,  north-east,  south-east,  and  south-west,  are  three 
pillars  of  the  height  of  a  man,  on  the  several  chapiters  of 
which  are  inscribed  the  names  of  Faith,  Hope,  and  Charity. 
Every  lodge  has  its  picture  descriptive  of  its  form,  and  of 


PRINCE  OF  ROSE-CROIX  41 

the  proper  place  of  its  officers  and  emblems.  On  the  east, 
at  the  south  and  north  angles,  the  sun  and  moon  and  a  sky 
studded  with  stars  are  painted ;  the  clouds  very  dark.  An 
eagle  is  seen  beating  the  air  with  his  wings,  as  an  emblem 
of  the  supreme  power.  Besides  other  allegorical  paintings, 
there  is  also  one  of  a  cubic  stone,  sweating  blood  and  water. 
On  the  stone  is  a  rose,  and  the  letter  J,  which  means  the 
expiring  Word.  The  space  round  the  picture,  representing 
the  square  of  the  lodge,  is  filled  with  darkness,  to  represent 
what  happened  at  the  crucifixion.  Below  it  are  all  the 
ancient  tools  of  masonry,  with  the  columns  divided  and 
broken  into  many  parts.  Lower  down  is  the  veil  of  the 
temple  rent  in  twain.  Before  the  master  is  a  little  table, 
lighted  by  three  lights,  upon  which  the  Gospel,  compasses, 
square,  and  triangle  are  placed.  All  the  brethren  are  clothed 
in  black,  with  a  black  scarf  from  the  left  shoulder  to  the 
right  side.  An  apron,  white,  bordered  with  black :  on  the 
flap  are  a  skull  and  cross-bones,  between  three  red  roses ;  on 
the  apron  is  a  globe  surmounted  by  a  serpent,  and  above  the 
letter  J.  The  master  and  the  other  officers  wear  on  the  neck 
a  wide  ribbon  of  black  mohair,  from  which  hangs  the  jewel, 
a  golden  compass,  surmounted  by  a  triple  crown,  with  a 
cross  between  the  legs,  its  centre  being  occupied  by  a  full- 
blown rose ;  at  the  foot  of  the  cross  is  a  pelican  feeding  its 
young  from  its  breast ;  on  the  other  side  is  an  eagle  with 
wings  displayed.  The  eagle  is  the  emblem  of  the  sun,  the 
"  sun  of  righteousness  " ;  the  pelican,  of  course,  alludes  to 
Christ  shedding  His  blood  for  the  human  race ;  the  cross 
and  the  rose  explain  themselves. 

415.  Reception  in  the  First  Apartment. — The  candidate 
is  clothed  in  black,  decorated  with  a  red  ribbon,  an  apron 
doubled  with  the  same  colour,  and  a  sword  and  scarf.  After 
much  preliminary  ceremony,  he  is  introduced  into  the  apart- 
ment, and  told  by  the  master  that  the  word  that  is  lost  and 
which  he  seeks  cannot  be  given,  because  confusion  reigns 
among  them,  the  veil  of  the  temple  is  rent,  darkness  covers 
the  earth,  the  tools  are  broken,  &c. ;  but  that  he  need  not 
despair,  as  they  will  find  out  the  new  law,  that  thereby  they 
may  recover  the  word.  He  is  then  told  to  travel  for  thirty- 
three  years.  The  junior  warden  thereupon  conducts  him 
thirty-three  times  round  the  lodge,  pointing  out  to  him  the 
three  columns,  telling  him  their  names,  Faith,  Hope,  and 
Charity,  and  bidding  him  remember  them,  as  henceforth 
they  must  be  his  guides.  After  a  little  more  talk,  he  is 
made  to  kneel  with  his  right  knee  upon  the  Gospel  and  take 


42  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

the  following  oath: — "I  promise  by  the  same  obligations  I 
have  taken  in  the  former  degrees  of  Masonry  never  to  reveal 
the  secrets  of  the  Knight  of  the  Eagle,  under  the  penalty 
of  being  for  ever  deprived  of  the  true  word ;  that  a  river  of 
blood  and  water  shall  issue  continually  from  my  body,  and, 
under  the  penalty  of  suffering  anguish  of  soul,  of  being 
steeped  in  vinegar  and  gall,  of  having  on  my  head  the  most 
piercing  thorns,  and  of  dying  upon  the  cross;  so  help  me 
the  Grand  Architect  of  the  Universe."  The  candidate  then 
receives  the  apron  and  sash,  both  symbols  of  sorrow  for  the 
loss  of  the  word.  A  dialogue  ensues,  wherein  the  hope  of 
finding  the  word  is  foreshadowed;  whereupon  the  master 
and  brethren  proceed  to  the  second  apartment,  where  they 
exchange  their  black  aprons  and  sashes  to  take  red  ones. 

416.  Second  Apartment. — This   apartment  is  hung  with 
tapestry ;    three  chandeliers,   with   thirty-three   lights,   but 
without  the  boxes,   illuminate  it.     In  the   east  there  is  a 
cross  surrounded  with  a  glory  and  a  cloud ;  upon  the  cross 
is  a  rose  of  paradise,  in  the  middle  of  which  is  the  letter  G. 
Below  are  three  squares,  in  which  are  three  circles,  having 
three  triangles,  to  form  the  summit,  which  is  allegorical  of 
Mount  Calvary,   upon  which  the    Grand  Architect  of  the 
Universe  expired.     Upon  this  summit  is  a  blazing  star  with 
seven  rays,  and  in  the  middle  of  it  the  letter  G  again.     The 
eagle  and  pelican  also  reappear  here.     Below  is  the  tomb. 
In  the  lower  part  of  the  square  are  the  compasses,  drawing- 
board,  crow,  trowel,  and  square.     The  cubic  stone,  hammer, 
and  other  tools  are  also  represented. 

417.  Reception  in  the  Third  Apartment. — But  the  second 
point  of  reception  takes  place  in  a  third  apartment,  which  is 
made  as  terrifying  as  possible,  to  represent  the  torments  of 
hell.     It  has  seven  chandeliers  with  grey  burning  flambeaux, 
whose  mouths  represent  death's-heads  and  cross-bones.    The 
walls  are  hung  with  tapestry,  painted  with  flames  and  figures 
of  the  damned.     The  candidate,  on  presenting  himself  as  a 
searcher  of  the  lost  word,  has  his  sash  and  apron  taken  from 
him,  as  not  humble  enough  to  qualify  him  for  the  task,  and 
is  covered  with  a  black  cloth  strewn  with  dirty  ashes,  so  that 
he  can  see  nothing,  and  informed  that  he  will  be  led  to  the 
darkest  of  places,  from  which  the  word   must  come  forth 
triumphant  to  the  glory  and  advantage  of  Masonry.     In  this 
condition  he  is  led  to  a  steep  descent,  up  and  down  which 
he  is  directed  to  travel,  after  which  he  is  conducted  to  the 
door,  and  has  the  black  cloth  removed.     Before  him  stand 
three  figures  dressed  as  devils.     He  then  parades  the  room 


PKINCE  OF  EOSE-CROIX  43 

three  times,  without  pronouncing  a  word,  in  memory  of  the 
descent  into  the  dark  places,  which  lasted  three  days.  He 
is  then  led  to  the  door  of  the  apartment,  covered  with  black 
cloth,  and  told  that  the  horrors  through  which  he  has  passed 
are  as  nothing  in  comparison  with  those  through  which  he 
has  yet  to  pass;  therefore  he  is  cautioned  to  summon  all 
his  fortitude.  But  in  reality  all  the  terrible  trials  are  over, 
for  he  is  presently  brought  before  the  master,  who  asks : 
"Whence  come  you  ?  "  "  From  Judeea." — "  Which  way  did 
you  come?"  "By  Nazareth." — "Of  what  tribe  are  you 
descended?"  "  Judah." — "Give  me  the  four  initials?" 
"  I.N.R.I."— "  What  do  these  letters  signify  ?  "  "  Jesus  of 
Nazareth,  King  of  the  Jews." — "  Brother,  the  word  is  found ; 
let  him  be  restored  to  light."  The  junior  warden  quickly 
takes  off  the  cloth,  and  at  the  signal  of  the  master,  all  the 
brethren  clap  their  hands  three  times  and  give  three  huzzas. 
The  candidate  is  then  taught  the  signs,  grips,  and  password. 
The  master  then  proceeds  to  the  instruction  of  the  newly- 
made  Knight  of  the  Eagle  or  Prince  Rose-Croix,  which 
amounts  to  this,  that  after  the  erection  of  Solomon's  temple 
masons  began  to  neglect  their  labours,  that  then  the  cubical 
stone,  the  corner-stone,  began  to  sweat  blood  and  water,  and 
was  torn  from  the  building  and  thrown  among  the  ruins  of 
the  decaying  temple,  and  the  mystic  rose  sacrificed  on  a 
cross.  Then  masonry  was  destroyed,  the  earth  covered  with 
darkness,  the  tools  of  masonry  broken.  Then  the  blazing 
star  disappeared,  and  the  word  was  lost.  But  masons  having 
learnt  the  three  words,  Faith,  Hope,  and  Charity,  and  follow- 
ing the  new  law,  masonry  was  restored,  though  masons  no 
longer  built  material  edifices,  but  occupied  themselves  in 
spiritual  buildings.  The  mystic  rose  and  blazing  star  were 
restored  to  their  former  beauty  and  splendour. 

The  degree  was  purely  Jesuitical,  and  its  object  the  restora- 
tion of  the  Stuart  family. 


XI 
THE  RITES  OF  MISRAIM  AND  MEMPHIS 

418.  Anomalies  of  the  Rite  of  Misraim. — Another  of  those 
diversities,  which  may  be  called  the  constant  attendants  of 
the  life  of  vast  associations,  is  the  rite  of   "  Misraim,"  so 
called  from  its  falsely  pretending  to  trace  its  origin  back 
to  the  Egyptian  King  Menes,  or  Misraim.     What  chiefly 
distinguishes   it   from   other   rites,   and   renders   it   totally 
different  from  masonic  institutions,  is  the  supreme  power 
given  to  the  heads,  whose  irremovability  we  have  seen  abol- 
ished, in  order  to  open  the  lodges  to  the  forms  of  genuine 
democracy.     This  rite  is  essentially  autocratic.     One  man, 
with  the  title  of  ''Absolute  Sovereign  Grand  Master,"  rules 
the  lodges,  and  is  irresponsible — an  extraordinary  anomaly  in 
the  bosom  of  a  liberal  society  to  behold  a  member  claiming 
that  very  absolute  power  against  which  Freemasonry  has 
been  fighting  for  centuries ! 

419.  Organisation. — The  rite  of  Misraim  was  founded  by 
Cagliostro  at  a  time  when  there  was  already  a  question  of 
even  further  reducing  the  number  of  the  Scotch  rite  of 
thirty-three  degrees,  practically  reduced  to  five.    Then  arose 
the  rite  of  Misraim  with  ninety  degrees,  arranged  in  four 
sections,  viz.:    I.  Symbolic;    2.   Philosophic;    3.   Mystical; 
4.  Cabalistic;   which  were  divided  into  seventeen  classes. 
The   rites   are  a   medley  of   Scotch   rites,   Martinism,   and 
Templarism,  and  the  absolute  Grand  Masters  arrogate  to 
themselves  the  right  of  governing  all  masonic  lodges  through- 
out the  world.    The  foundations  of  this  system  were  laid  at 
Milan  in   1805,  by   several  Masons  who  had  been  refused 
admission  into  the  Supreme  Grand  Council.      During  the 
first  year   and   for  some   time  after   postulants  were  only 
admitted  as  far  as  the  87th  degree ;  the  other  three,  com- 
plementing the  system,  embraced   the  unknown  superiors. 
Jews  are  the  chief   supporters  of  this  rite.      To  show  its 
character,  details  of  some  of  the  degrees  are  here  given. 

420.  History  and  Constitution. — From  Milan,  the  Order 


THE  KITES  OF  MISRAIM  AND  MEMPHIS      45 

spread  into  Dalmatia,  the  Ionian  Islands,  and  the  Neapo- 
litan territory,  where  it  produced  a  total  reform  in  a  chapter 
of  Eosicrucians,  the  "  Concordia,''*  established  in  the  Abruzzi. 
It  was  not  till  1814  that  the  rite  of  Misraim  was  introduced 
into  France,  where  the  pompous  denominations  of  its  endless 
hierarchy  met  with  no  slight  success.  Never  had  such  titles 
been  heard  of  in  Masonry:  Supreme  Commander  of  the  Stars, 
Sovereign  of  Sovereigns,  Most  High  and  Most  Powerful 
Knight  of  the  Rainbow,  Sovereign  Grand  Prince  Hiram, 
Sovereign  Grand  Princes,  &c. ;  these  were  some  of  the  titles 
assumed  by  the  members.  The  trials  of  initiation  were  long 
and  difficult,  and  founded  on  what  is  recorded  of  the  Egyptian 
and  Eleusinian  mysteries.  In  the  first  two  sections  the 
founders  of  the  rite  seem  to  have  attempted  to  bring  together 
all  the  creeds  and  practices  of  Scotch  Masonry  combined 
with  the  mysteries  of  Egypt ;  and  in  the  last  two  sections  all 
the  chemical  and  cabalistic  knowledge  professed  by  the  priests 
of  that  country,  reserving  for  the  last  three  degrees  the 
supreme  direction  of  the  Order.  Attempts  were  made  to 
introduce  it  into  Belgium,  Sweden,  and  Switzerland,  and 
also  into  Ireland,  and  latterly  into  England ;  but  everywhere 
it  is  in  a  languishing  condition.  The  Grand  Orient  of  France 
has  never  recognised  the  rite  as  a  part  of  Masonry,  though  it 
has  three  lodges  in  Paris. 

421.  Rites  and  Ceremonies. — The  Order  celebrates  two 
equinoctial  festivals,  the  one  called  "The  Reawakening  of 
Nature,"  and  the  other,  "The  Repose  of  Nature."  In  the 
69th  degree,  designated  as  "  Knight  of  Khanuka,  called 
Hynaroth,"  particular  instructions  are  given  as  to  man's  rela- 
tion to  the  Deity,  and  the  cabalistic  mediation  of  the  angels. 
The  Supreme  Council  of  the  8/th  degree  has  three  apart- 
ments :  the  first  is  draped  in  black,  representing  chaos,  and 
lighted  up  with  one  light  only.  The  second  apartment  has 
three  lights,  and  its  walls  are  hung  with  green,  typifying 
hope.  The  third  apartment  has  seventy-two  lights,  with  a 
transparency  showing  the  word  Jehovah  over  the  throne,  and 
another  similar  one  over  the  entrance  door,  all  symbolising 
the  zodiac  and  the  sun.  The  sign  is  raising  both  hands 
towards  heaven ;  the  grip  consists  in  crossing  the  hands,  and 
the  passwords  are :  I  am — We  are ;  Nature — Truth.  In  the 
88th  degree  the  hall  of  reception  is  oval,  and  hung  with  sea- 
green.  The  Sgih  degree  has  the  password  Lux  ex  tenebris ; 
and  the  QOth  degree  holds  its  meetings  in  a  circular  room, 
and  its  password  is  Sophia,  or  Wisdom ;  its  sacred  word  is 
Isis,  to  which  the  answer  is  Osiris.  In  this  rite,  altogether 


46  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

modern,  we  meet  with  gnostic  and  cabalistic  words  and 
conceits — a  phenomenon  which  were  impossible  did  not 
gnostic  ideas  permeate  all  the  veins  of  the  masonic  body. 

422.  Rite  of  Memphis. — It  is  a  copy  of  the  rite  of  Misraim, 
and  was  founded  at  Paris  in  1839,  an^  afterwards  extended 
to  Brussels  and  Marseilles.  It  was  composed  of  ninety-one 
degrees,  arranged  in  three  sections  and  seven  classes.  A 
large  volume  printed  at  Paris,  with  the  ambitious  title  of 
"The  Sanctuary,"  gives  an  account  of  all  the  sections  and 
their  scope.  The  first  section  teaches  morality,  and  explains 
the  symbols;  the  second  instructs  in  physical  science,  the 
philosophy  of  history,  and  explains  the  poetical  myths  of 
antiquity,  its  scope  being  to  promote  the  study  of  causes  and 
origins.  The  third  and  last  section  exhausts  the  story  of  the 
Order,  and  is  occupied  with  high  philosophy,  studying  the 
religious  myth  at  the  different  epochs  of  mankind. 


XII 
MODERN  KNIGHTS  TEMPLARS 

423.  Origin. — We  read  that  several  lords  of  the  Court  of 
Louis  XIV.,  including  the  Duke  de  Gramont,  the  Marquis 
of  Biran,  and  Count  Tallard,  formed  a  secret  society,  whose 
object  was  pleasure.     The  society  increased.     Louis  XIV., 
having  been  made  acquainted  with  its   statutes,  banished 
the  members  of  the  Order,  whose  denomination  was,  "  A 
slight   Resurrection   of   the   Templars."     In    1705,    Philip 
Duke  of  Orleans  collected  the  remaining  members  of  the 
society  that  had  renounced  its  first  scope  to  cultivate  politics. 
A  Jesuit  father,  Bonanni,  a  learned  rogue,  fabricated  the 
famous  list  of  supposititious  Grand  Masters  of  the  Temple 
since  Molay,  beginning  with  his  immediate  successor,  Lar- 
menius.     No   imposture   was   ever   sustained   with   greater 
sagacity.     The  document  offered  all  the  requisite  character- 
istics of  authenticity,  and  was  calculated  to  deceive  the  most 
experienced  palseologist.     Its  object  was  to  connect  the  new 
institution  with  the  ancient  Templars.    To  render  the  decep- 
tion more  perfect,  the  volume  containing  the  false  list  was 
filled  with  minutes  of  deliberations  at  fictitious  meetings 
under  false  dates.     Two  members  were  even  sent  to  Lisbon 
to  obtain,  if  possible,  a  document  of  legitimacy  from  the 
"  Knights  of  Christ,"  an  Order  founded  on  the  ruins  of  the 
Order  of  the  Temple.    The  deputies,  however,  were  unmasked, 
and  very  badly  received — one  had  to  take  refuge  in  England, 
the  other  was  transported  to  Africa,  where  he  died. 

424.  Revival  of  the  Order. — But  the  society  was  not  dis- 
couraged ;  it  grew,  and  was  probably  the  same  that  concealed 
itself  before  the  outbreak  of  the  Revolution  under  the  vulgar 
name  of  the  Society  of  the  Bull's  Head,  and  whose  members 
were  dispersed  in  1792.     At  that  period  the  Duke  of  Cosse- 
Brissac  was  Grand  Master.     When  on  his  way  to  Versailles 
with  other  prisoners,  there  to  undergo  their  trial,  he  was 
massacred,  and  Ledru,  his  physician,  obtained  possession  of 

47 


48  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

the  charter  of  Larmenius  and  the  MS.  statutes  of  1705. 
These  documents  suggested  to  him  the  idea  of  reviving  the 
Order;  Fabr^-Palaprat,  a  Freemason,  was  chosen  Grand 
Master.  Every  effort  was  made  to  create  a  belief  in  the 
genuineness  of  the  Order.  The  brothers  Fabre\  Arnal,  and 
Leblond  hunted  up  relics.  The  shops  of  antiquaries  supplied 
the  sword,  mitre,  and  helmet  of  Molay,  and  the  faithful  were 
shown  his  bones,  withdrawn  from  the  funeral  pyre  on  which 
he  had  been  burned.  As  in  the  Middle  Ages,  the  society 
exacted  that  aspirants  should  be  of  noble  birth  ;  such  as  were 
not  were  ennobled  by  the  society.  Fourteen  honest  citizens 
of  Troyes  on  one  occasion  received  patents  of  nobility  and 
convincing  coats  of  arms.  During  the  Revolution  the  Order 
was  dissolved,  but  partly  restored  during  the  Directorate. 
After  the  establishment  of  the  Empire  the  members  re-elected 
Dr.  Fabr4  de  Palaprat;  Napoleon  favoured  the  Order,  because 
it  promoted  community  between  his  new  nobility  and  the 
members  of  the  old  aristocracy.  Under  the  Restoration  the 
liberal  tendencies  of  the  Order  rendered  it  suspect,  and  at 
the  instigation  of  the  Jesuits  the  Grand  Master  was  repeatedly 
sent  to  prison.  To  restore  the  Order  to  its  original  purpose — 
fighting  the  infidels — the  members  endeavoured  to  obtain 
an  island  in  the  Mediterranean  ;  Sir  Sidney  Smith,  later  on, 
wanted  to  make  it  the  means  of  suppressing  piracy  along  the 
African  coast. 

425.  The  Leviticon. — The  society  was  at  first  catholic, 
apostolic,  Roman,  and  rejected  Protestants ;  but  Fabr^  sud- 
denly gave  it  an  opposite  tendency.  Having  acquired  a 
Greek  MS.  of  the  fifteenth  century,  containing  the  Gospel  of 
St.  John,  with  readings  somewhat  differing  from  the  received 
version,  preceded  by  a  kind  of  introduction  or  commentary, 
called  "Leviticon,"  he  determined,  towards  1815,  to  apply 
its  doctrines  to  the  society  governed  by  him,  and  thus  to 
transform  an  association,  hitherto  quite  orthodox,  into  a 
schismatic  sect.  This  Leviticon  is  nothing  but  the  well- 
known  work  with  the  same  title  by  the  Greek  monk,  Nice- 
phorus.  He,  having  been  initiated  into  the  mysteries  of  the 
Sufites,  who  to  this  day,  in  the  bosom  of  Mohammedanism 
preserve  the  dismal  doctrines  of  the  Ishmaelites  of  the  lodge 
of  Cairo  (141),  attempted  to  introduce  these  ideas  into  Chris- 
tianity, and  for  that  purpose  wrote  the  "Leviticon,"  which 
became  the  Bible  of  a  small  number  of  sectaries ;  but  perse- 
cution put  an  end  to  them.  This  singular  MS.  was  trans- 
lated into  French  in  1822,  and  printed,  with  modifications 
and  interpolations,  by  Palaprat  himself.  This  publication 


MODERN  KNIGHTS  TEMPLARS  49 

was  the  cause  of  a  schism  in  the  Order  of  the  Temple.  Those 
knights  that  adopted  its  doctrines  made  them  the  basis  of  a 
new  liturgy,  which  they  rendered  public  in  1833  in  a  kind 
of  Johannite  church  called  the  Temple,  and  consecrated  with 
great  pomp ;  a  society  of  Ladies  of  the  Temple  was  also 
formed  at  the  same  time. 

426.  Ceremonies  of  Initiation. — The  lodges  in  this  degree 
are  called  encampments,  and  the  officers  take  their  names 
from  those  that  managed  the  original  institution  of  the 
Knights  Templars.  The  penal  signs  are  the  chin  and  beard 
sign  and  the  saw  sign.  The  grand  sign  is  indicative  of  the 
death  of  Christ  on  the  cross.  There  is  a  word,  a  grip,  and 
passwords,  which  vary.  The  knights,  who  are  always 
addressed  as  "  Sir  Knights,"  wear  knightly  costume,  not 
omitting  the  sword.  The  candidate  for  installation  is  "  got 
up "  as  a  pilgrim,  with  sandals,  mantle,  staff,  cross,  scrip, 
and  wallet,  a  belt  or  cord  round  his  waist,  and  in  some 
encampments  a  burden  on  his  back,  which  is  made  to  fall 
off  at  the  sight  of  the  cross.  On  his  approach,  an  alarm  is 
sounded  with  a  trumpet,  and  after  a  deal  of  pseudo-military 
parley  he  is  admitted,  and  a  -saw  is  applied  to  his  forehead 
by  the  second  captain,  whilst  all  the  Sir  Knights  are  under 
arms.  The  candidate,  being  prompted  by  the  master  of  the 
ceremonies,  declares  that  he  is  a  weary  pilgrim,  prepared  to 
devote  his  life  to  the  service  of  the  poor  and  sick,  and  to  pro- 
tect the  holy  sepulchre.  After  perambulating  the  encamp- 
ment seven  times  he  repeats  the  oath,  having  first  put  away 
the  pilgrim's  staff  and  cross  and  taken  up  a  sword.  In  this 
oath  he  swears  to  defend  the  sepulchre  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  against  all  Jews,  Turks,  infidels,  heathens,  and  other 
opposers  of  the  Gospel.  "  If  ever  I  wilfully  violate  this 
my  solemn  compact,"  he  continues,  "  as  a  Brother  Knight 
Templar,  may  my  skull  be  sawn  asunder  with  a  rough  saw, 
my  brains  taken  out  and  put  in  a  charger  to  be  consumed 
by  the  scorching  sun,  and  my  skull  in  another  charger,  in 
commemoration  of  St.  John  of  Jerusalem,  that  first  faithful 
soldier  and  martyr  of  our  Lord  and  Saviour.  Furthermore, 
may  the  soul  that  once  inhabited  this  skull  appear  against 
me  in  the  day  of  judgment.  So  help  me  God."  A  lighted 
taper  is  afterwards  put  into  his  hand,  and  he  circumambulates 
the  encampment  five  times  "in  solemn  meditation";  and 
then  kneeling  down  is  dubbed  knight  by  the  grand  com- 
mander, who  says,  "  I  hereby  instal  you  a  masonic  knight 
hospitaller  of  St.  John  of  Jerusalem,  Palestine,  Rhodes,  and 
Malta,  and  also  a  Knight  Templar."  The  grand  commander 

VOL.  II.  D 


50  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

next  clothes  him  with  the  mantle,  and  invests  him  with  the 
apron,  sash,  and  jewel,  and  presents  him  with  sword  and 
shield.  He  then  teaches  him  the  so-called  Mediterranean 
password  and  sign.  The  motto  of  the  Knight  Templar  is, 
In  hoc  signo  vinces.  In  England  the  encampment  of  Baldwin, 
which  was  established  at  Bristol  by  the  Templars  who  re- 
turned with  Richard  I.  from  Palestine,  still  continues  to  hold 
its  regular  meetings,  and  is  believed  to  have  preserved  the 
ancient  costume  and  ceremonies  of  the  Order.  There  is 
another  encampment  at  Bath,  and  a  third  at  York,  from 
which  three  emanated  all  the  other  encampments  in  Great 
Britain  and  America.  In  some  of  the  encampments  the 
following  is  the  concluding  part  of  the  ceremony : — One  of 
the  equerries  dressed  as  a  cook,  with  a  white  nightcap  and 
apron  and  a  large  kitchen  knife  in  his  hand,  suddenly  rushes 
in,  and,  kneeling  on  one  knee  before  the  new  Sir  Knight, 
says,  "  Sir  Knight,  I  admonish  you  to  be  just,  honourable, 
and  faithful  to  the  Order,  or  I,  the  cook,  will  hack  your  spurs 
from  off  your  heels  with  my  kitchen  knife." 


XIII 

FREEMASONRY  IN  ENGLAND  AND 
SCOTLAND 

427.  Freemasonry  in  England. — The  authentic  history  of 
Freemasonry,  i.e.  operative  Masonry,  in  England  dates  from 
Athelstan,  from  whom  his  brother  Edwin  obtained  a  royal 
charter  for  the  Masons,  by  which  they  were  empowered  to 
meet  annually  in  a  general  assembly,  and  to  have  the  right 
to  regulate  their  own  Order.    And,  according  to  this  charter, 
the  first  Grand  Lodge  of  England  met  at  York  in  926,  when 
all  the  writings  and  records  extant,  in  Greek,  Latin,  French, 
and  other  languages,  were  collected;  and  constitutions  and 
charges  in  conformity  with  ancient  usages,  so  far  as  they 
could  be  gathered  therefrom,  were  drawn  up  and  adopted. 
The  Old  York  Masons  were  on  that  account  held  in  especial 
respect,  and  Blue  or  genuine  Masonry  is  still  distinguished 
by  the  title  of  the  York  rite.     After  the  decease  of  Edwin, 
Athelstan  himself  presided  over  the  lodges ;  and  after  his 
death,  the  Masons  in  England  were  governed  by  Dunstan, 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury  in  960,  and  Edward  the  Confessor 
in  1041.     Down  to  the  present  time  the  grand  masters  have 
been  persons  of  royal  blood,  sometimes  the  king  himself. 
Till  the  beginning  of  the  last  century,   as  already  stated 
(390),  they  were  operative  masons,  and  the  monuments  of 
their  activity  are  still  found  all  over  the  land  in  abbeys, 
monasteries,  cathedrals,  hospitals,    and   other   buildings   of 
note.     There  were,  indeed,  periods  when  the  Order  was  per- 
secuted by  the  State,  but  these  were  neither  so  frequent  nor 
so  long  as  in  other  countries. 

428.  Freemasonry  in  Scotland. — Tradition  says  that  on  the 
destruction  of  the  Order  of  Templars,  many  of  its  members 
took  refuge  in  Scotland,  where  they  incorporated  themselves 
with  the  Freemasons,  under  the  protection  of  Kobert  Bruce, 
who  established  the  chief  seat  of  the  Order  at  Kilwinning. 
There  is  a  degree  of  Prince  of  Kose-Croix  de  Heroden,  or 


52  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

Herddom,  as  it  is  called  in  French.  This  Heroden,  says  an 
old  MS.  of  the  ancient  Scotch  rite,  is  a  mountain  situated 
in  the  north-west  of  Scotland,  where  the  fugitive  Knights 
Templars  found  a  safe  retreat;  and  the  modern  Order  of 
Rose-Croix  claims  the  kingdom  of  Scotland  and  Abbey  of 
Kilwinning  as  having  once  been  its  chief  seat  of  government. 
By  some  writers,  however,  it  is  asserted  that  the  word  He're'- 
dom  is  simply  a  corruption  of  the  Latin  expression  hceredium, 
signifying  "an  heritage,"  and  alludes  to  the  castle  of  St. 
Germain,  the  residence  of  Charles  Stuart  the  Pretender, 
to  further  whose  restoration  the  Order  of  Rose-Croix  was 
invented.  The  subject  is  in  a  state  of  inextricable  confusion, 
but  scarcely  worth  the  trouble  of  elucidation.  King  Robert 
Bruce  endeavoured,  like  other  princes  before  and  after  him, 
to  secure  for  himself  the  supreme  direction  of  those  associa- 
tions, which,  though  not  hostile  to  the  reigning  power,  could 
by  their  organisation  become  the  foci  of  danger.  It  is  the 
common  opinion  that  this  king  reserved  for  himself  and  his 
successors  the  rank  of  grand  master  of  the  whole  Order,  and 
especially  of  the  lodge  of  He"r£doin,  which  was  afterwards 
transferred  to  Edinburgh. 

429.  Modern  Freemasonry. — At  the  beginning  of  the  last 
century  the  operative  period  of  Masonry  may  be  said  to  have 
come  to  an  end.  In  1716,  there  being  then  only  four  lodges 
existing  in  London,  a  proposition  was  made  and  agreed  to 
that  the  privilege  of  Masonry  should  no  longer  be  restricted 
to  operative  masons — we  have  seen  that  it  had  ere  then  been 
broken  through  (389) — but  should  extend  to  men  of  various 
professions,  provided  they  were  regularly  initiated  into  the 
Order.  Thus  began  the  present  era  of  Masonry,  retaining 
the  original  constitutions,  the  ancient  landmarks,  symbols, 
and  ceremonies.  The  society,  proclaiming  brotherly  love, 
relief,  and  truth  as  their  guiding  principles,  obtained  a  wider 
field  for  their  operations,  and  more  freedom  in  their  mode  of 
action.  But  to  what  does  this  action  amount  ?  To  eating, 
drinking,  and  mummery.  There  is  nothing  in  the  history  of 
modern  Masonry,  in  this  country  at  least,  that  deserves  to 
be  recorded.  The  petty  squabbles  between  Lodges  and 
Orders  may  help  to  fill  masonic  newspapers,  but  for  the 
world  at  large  they  have  no  interest ;  and  as  to  any  useful 
knowledge  to  be  propagated  by  Masons,  that  is  pure  delusion. 
Yet,  considering  that  the  Order  reckons  its  members  by 
hundreds  of  thousands,  its  pretensions  and  present  condition 
and  prospects  merit  some  consideration ;  and  it  must  be 
admitted  that  its  charities,  in  England  at  least,  are  adminis- 


FREEMASONRY  IN  ENGLAND  AND  SCOTLAND     53 

tered  on  a  somewhat  munificent  scale.  In  that  respect 
honour  is  due  to  the  English  craft.  And  Masons,  at  all 
events  French  Masons,  object  to  their  association  being 
called  a  "Benevolent  Society,"  for  when  in  1861  M.  de 
Persigny  qualified  them  as  such,  the  Masons  protested  against 
it,  saying  that  their  charities  were  the  outcome,  and  not  the 
object,  of  their  meetings.  Moreover,  their  benevolence  is 
not  commensurate  with  their  diffusion,  and  on  the  Continent 
is  controlled  by  political  considerations;  thus  the  lodge 
Philadelphia,  at  Verviers,  in  1874,  declined  to  subscribe  to 
the  Red  Cross  Association,  because  in  the  Spanish  war  their 
succour  would  be  extended  to  Carlists  as  well  as  to  the 
Constitutionals. 


XIV 
FREEMASONRY  IN  FRANCE 


430.  Introduction  into  France. — Freemasonry  was   intro- 
duced into  France  by  the  partisans  of  James  and  the  Pre- 
tender, as  a  possible  means  of  reseating  the  Stuart  family 
on  the  English  throne.     Not  satisfied  with  turning  masonic 
rites  to  unforeseen  and  illegitimate  uses,  new  degrees  were 
added  to  those  already  existing,   such  as  those  of   "Irish 
Master,"    "Perfect    Irish    Master,"    and    "Puissant    Irish 
Master,"  and  by  promises  of  the  revelation  of  great  secrets, 
and   leading  them   to   believe   that   Freemasons  were   the 
successors   of   the  Knights  Templars,  the   nobility  of   the 
kingdom  were  attracted  towards  the    Order,  and  liberally 
supported  it  with  their  means  and  influence.    The  first  lodge 
established  in  France  was  that  of  Dunkirk  (1721),  under 
the  title  of  "  Friendship  and  Fraternity."    The  second,  whose 
name  has  not  been  handed  down,  was  founded  in  Paris  in 
1725  by  Lord  Derwentwater.     Other  followers  of  the  Pre- 
tender established  other  lodges,  of  all  which  Lord  Derwent- 
water was  the  grand  master,  until  that  nobleman  lost  his 
life  for  his  devotion  to  the  cause  of  the  Stuarts  in  1746. 

431.  Chevalier  Ramsay. — The   Chevalier  Ramsay,  also  a 
devoted  adherent  of  the  house  of  Stuart,  endeavoured  more 
effectually  to  carry  out  the  views  of  his  predecessors,  and 
in  1730  attempted  in  London  to  lay  the  basis  of  a  masonic 
reform,  according  to  which  the  masonic  legend  referred  to 
the  violent  death  of  Charles  I.,  while  Cromwell  and  his  par- 
tisans represented  the   assassins   to  be  condemned  in  the 
lodge.     He  therefore  proposed  to  the  Grand  Lodge  of  Eng- 
land to  substitute  in  the  place  of  the  first  three  degrees 
those  of  Scotch  Mason,  Novice,  and  Knight  of  the  Temple, 
which  he  pretended  to  be  the  only  true  and  ancient  ones, 
having   their   administrative   centre   in   the    Lodge  of    St. 
Andrew  at  Edinburgh.     But  the  Grand  Lodge  at  once  re- 
jected his  views,  whose  objects  it  perceived.     Ramsay  went 
to  Paris,  where  he  met  with  great  success.     His  system  gave 

54 


FREEMASONRY  IN  PRANCE  55 

rise  to  those  higher  degrees  which  have  since  then  been 
known  by  the  name  of  the  Ancient  Scotch  rite.  Many  of 
these  innovations  made  up  for  their  want  of  consistency  with 
masonic  traditions  by  splendour  of  external  decorations  and 
gorgeousness  of  ceremonies.  But  the  hautes  grades  of  the 
French,  and  the  philosophic  degrees  of  the  Ancient  Scotch 
rite,  are  not  innovations,  but  illustrations  of  pure  symbolic 
Masonry. 

432.  Philosophical  Rites. — Philosophy  indeed  began  to  in- 
sinuate itself  into  Masonry,  simplifying  the  rites  and  puri- 
fying its  doctrines.     Among  the  philosophic  degrees  then 
introduced,  that  of  the  "  Knights  of  the  Sun  "  is  noteworthy. 
Its  declared  scope  was  to  advocate  natural,  in  opposition  to 
revealed,   religion.     There   is  but  one  light  in  the   lodge, 
which  shines  from  behind  a  globe  of  water,  to  represent  the 
sun.     It  has  some  resemblance   to  the    "  Sublime    Knight 
Elected."     But,  on  the  other   hand,  by   these  innovations 
systems  multiplied,  and  the  Order  served  as  a  pretext  and 
defence  of  institutions  having  no  connection  with  Masonry. 
Cabala,  magic,  conjuration,  divination,  alchemy,  and  demon- 
ology  were  taught  in  the  lodges.     These  abuses  led  to  the 
establishment  of  an  administrative  centre  at  Arras  in  1747. 
Another  was  founded  at  Marseilles  in  1751.     Three  years 
afterwards  the  Chevalier  de  Bonneville  founded  in  Paris  a 
chapter  of  the  high  degrees,  with  the  title,  afterwards  become 
famous,  of  the  "  Chapter  of  Clermont,"  and  lodged  it  in  a 
sumptuous  palace  built  by  him  in  a  suburb  of  Paris.     The 
system  adopted  was  to  some  extent  that  of  Ramsay.     Another 
chapter,  in  opposition  to  his,  was  founded  in  1762,  with  the 
title  of  "  Council  of  the  Knights  of  the  East."     In  1766, 
the  Baron  Tschudy  founded  the  Order  of  the  "  Blazing  Star," 
in  which  ideas  derived  from  the  Temple  and  the  Jesuits 
were  strangely  intermingled. 

433.  The  Duke  de  Chartres. — Freemasonry  in  France  was 
not  without  influence  on  the    Revolution.     The   Duke   de 
Chartres  having  been  elected  grand  master,  all  the  lodges 
were  united  under  the  Grand  Orient ;  hence  the  immense 
influence  he  afterwards  wielded.     The  mode  of  his  initiation 
is  thus  related :  Before  becoming  grand  master  he  was  re- 
ceived into  the  degree  of  Knight  of  Kadosh.     Five  brethren 
introduced  him  into  a  hall,  representing  a  grotto  strewn  with 
human  bones,  and  lighted  up  with  sepulchral  lamps.    In  one 
of  the  angles  was  a  lay  figure  covered  with  royal  insignia. 
The  introducers  bade  him  lie  down  on  the  ground  like  one 
dead,  naming  the  degrees  through  which  he  had  already 


56  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

passed,  and  repeating  the  former  oaths.  Afterwards,  they 
extolled  the  degree  into  which  he  was  about  to  be  received. 
Having  bidden  him  to  rise,  he  was  made  to  ascend  a  high 
ladder,  and  to  throw  himself  from  the  top.  Having  then 
armed  him  with  a  dagger,  they  commanded  him  to  strike 
the  crowned  figure,  and  a  liquid  resembling  blood  spurted 
from  the  wound  over  his  hands  and  clothes.  He  was  then 
told  to  cut  off  the  head  of  the  figure.  Finally,  he  was  informed 
that  the  bones  with  which  the  cave  was  strewn  came  from 
the  body  of  James  Molay,  Grand  Master  of  the  Order  of  the 
Temple,  and  that  the  man  whom  he  had  stabbed  was  Philip 
the  Fair,  King  of  France.  The  Grand  Orient  was  established 
in  a  mansion  formerly  belonging  to  the  Jesuits  in  Paris,  and 
became  a  revolutionary  centre.  The  share  the  Grand  Orient, 
the  tool  of  the  Duke  de  Chartres,  took  in  the  events  of  the 
French  Revolution  is  matter  of  public  history. 


XV 


THE  CHAPTER  OF  CLERMONT  AND  THE 
STRICT  OBSERVANCE 


434.  Jesuitical  Influence. — Catholic  ceremonies,  unknown 
in  ancient  Freemasonry,  were  introduced  from  1735  to  1740, 
in  the  Chapter  of  Clermont,  so  called  in  honour  of  Louis  oi: 
Bourbon,  Prince  of  Clermont,  at  the  time  grand  master  of 
the  Order  in  France.  From  that  time,  the  influence  of  the 
Jesuits  on  the  fraternity  made  itself  more  and  more  felt. 
The  candidate  was  no  longer  received  in  a  lodge,  but  in  the 
city  of  Jerusalem ;  not  the  ideal  Jerusalem,  but  a  clerical 
Jerusalem,  typifying  Rome.  The  meetings  were  called 
Capitula  Canonicorum,  and  a  monkish  language  and  asce- 
ticism prevailed  therein.  In  the  statutes  is  seen  the  hand 
of  James  Lainez,  the  second  general  of  the  Jesuits,  and  the 
aim  at  universal  empire  betrays  itself,  for  at  the  reception  of 
the  sublime  knights  the  last  two  chapters  of  the  Apocalypse 
are  read  to  the  candidate — a  glowing  picture  of  that  universal 
monarchy  which  the  Jesuits  hoped  to  establish.  The  sect 
spread  very  rapidly,  for  when  Baron  Hund  came  to  Paris 
in  1742,  and  was  received  into  the  highest  Jesuit  degrees 
he  found  on  his  return  to  Germany  that  those  degrees  were 
already  established  in  Saxony  and  Thuringia,  under  the 
government  of  Marshall,  whose  labours  he  undertook  to 
promote. 

435.  The  Strict  Observance. — From  the  exertions  of  these 
two  men  arose  the  "Rite  of  Strict  Observance,"  so  called, 
because  Baron  Hund  introduced  into  it  a  perfectly  monkish 
subordination,  and  which  seemed  also  for  a  time  intended  to 
favour  the  tragic  hopes  of  the  house  of  Stuart ;  for  Marshall, 
having  visited  Paris  in  1741,  there  entered  into  close  con- 
nection with  Eamsay  and  the  other  adherents  of  the  exiled 
family.  To  further  this  object,  Hund  mixed  up  with  the 
rites  of  Clermont  what  was  known  or  supposed  to  be  known 
of  the  statutes  of  the  Templars,  and  acting  in  concert  with 


58  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

Marshall,  overran  Germany  with  a  sect  of  new  Templars,  not 
to  be  confounded  with  the  Templars  that  afterwards  joined 
the  masonic  fraternity.  But  Hund  seems  after  all  to  have 
rendered  no  real  services  to  the  Stuarts ;  though  when 
Charles  Edward  visited  Germany,  the  sectaries  received  him 
in  the  most  gallant  manner,  promising  him  the  most  exten- 
sive support,  and  asking  of  him  titles  and  estates  in  a  kingdom 
which  he  had  yet  to  conquer.  Thus  he  was  brought  to  that 
state  of  mental  intoxication  which  afterwards  led  him  to 
make  an  absurd  entry  into  Rome,  preceded  by  heralds,  who 
proclaimed  him  king.  Hund  seems,  in  the  sad  story  of  the 
Stuarts,  to  have  acted  the  part  of  a  speculator ;  and  the  rite 
of  the  Strict  Observance,  permeated  by  the  Jesuitical  leaven, 
had  probably  an  aim  very  different  from  the  re-establishment 
of  the  proscribed  dynasty.  It  is  certain  that  at  one  time 
the  power  of  the  New  Templars  was  very  great,  and  prepared 
the  way  for  the  Illuminati. 


XVI 
THE  RELAXED  OBSERVANCE 

436.  Organisation  of  Relaxed  Observance. — In   1767,  there 
arose  at  Vienna  a  schism  of  the  Strict  Observance ;  the  dis- 
sentients, who  called  themselves  "  Clerks  of   the   Relaxed 
Observance " — the  nickname   of   Relaxed    Observance   had 
originally  been  applied  by  the  members  of  the  Strict  Obser- 
vance, as  a  term  of  contempt  to  all  other  rites — declaring 
that  they  alone  possessed  the  secrets  of  the  association,  and 
knew  the  place  where  were  deposited  the  splendid  treasures 
of  the  Templars.      They  also  claimed  precedence,  not  only 
over  the  rite  of  Strict  Observance,  but  also  over  all  Masonry. 
Their  promises  and  instructions  revolved  around  the  philo- 
sopher's stone,  the  government  of  spirits,  and  the  millennium. 
To  be  initiated  it  was  necessary  to  be  a  Roman  Catholic,  and 
to  have  passed  through  all  the  degrees  of  the  Strict  Observ- 
ance.    The  members  knew  only  their  immediate  heads  ;  but 
Doctor  Stark,  of  Konigsberg,  a  famous  preacher,  and  Baron 
Raven,   of   Mecklenburg,   were    well-known   chiefs    of   the 
association. 

437.  Disputes  in  German  Lodges. — Before  the  establishment 
of  the  Strict  Observance,  various  German  lodges  had  already 
introduced  the  Templar  system ;  hence  disputes  of  all  kinds 
arose,  and  a  convention  was  held  at  Brunswick  on  22nd  May 
1775  to  arrange  the  differences.     Dr.  Stark  presented  him- 
self ;  he  was  a  disciple  of  Schropfer  and  of  Gugumos,  who 
called  himself  high- priest,  knight,  prince,  possessor  of  the 
philosopher's  stone,  of  the  secret  to  evoke  the  spirits  of  the 
dead,  &c.     Stark  declared  to  the  members  of  the  convention 
that  he  was  called  Archimedes  ab  aquila  fulva,  that  he  was 
chancellor  of  the  Grand  Chapter  of  Scotland,  and  had  been  in- 
vited by  the  brethren  of  that  supreme  body  to  instruct  them  in 
the  true  principles  of  the  Order.     But  when  he  was  asked  to 
produce  his  credentials,  he  refused.     The  Brunswickers,  how- 
ever, thinking  that  the  brethren  of  Aberdeen  might  possess 
some  secrets,  sent  a  deputation  thither ;  but  the  good  folks  of 

59 


60  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

Aberdeen  knew  even  less  than  their  German  friends,  for  they 
knew  only  the  first  three  degrees.  Stark,  though  found  out, 
was  not  to  be  put  down,  but  wrote  a  book  entitled  "The 
Coping  Stone,"  in  which  he  represented  the  Strict  Observance 
as  hostile  to  religion,  society,  and  the  state. 

438.  Rite  of  Zinzendorf. — This  was  not  the  first  attack 
made  on  the  system  of  Hund.     In  1766,  Count  Zinzendorf, 
chief  physician  in  the  Prussian  army,  who  had  been  received 
into  the  Strict  Observance,  was  struck  from  the  list  of  members 
of  the  lodge  of  the  Three  Globes.     In  revenge,  he  founded  at 
Berlin  and  Potsdam  lodges  on  the  Templar  system,  which, 
however,  he  soon  abandoned,  and  composed  a  new  rite,  in- 
vented by  himself,  and  consisting  of  seven  degrees,  which 
was  protected  by  Frederick  the  Great.    The  new  Order  made 
fierce  and  successful  war  both  on  the  Strict  and  the  Relaxed 
Observance. 

439.  African  Architects. — About  1 76 5, Brother  Von  Kopper 
instituted  in  Prussia,  under  the  auspices  of  Frederick  II.,  the 
Order  of   "African  Architects,"  who  occupied   themselves 
with  historical  researches,  mixing  up  therewith  masonry  and 
chivalry.     The  order  was  divided  into  eleven  degrees.     They 
erected  a  vast  building,  which  contained  a  large  library,  a 
museum  of  natural  history,  and  a  chemical  laboratory.     Until 
1786,  when  it  was  dissolved,  the  society  awarded  every  year 
a  gold  medal  with  fifty  ducats  to  the  author  of  the  best 
memoir  on  the  history  of  Masonry.     This  was  one  of  the  few 
rational  masonic  societies.     The  African  Architects  did  not 
esteem   decorations,  aprons,   collars,  jewels,  &c.      In   their 
assemblies  they  read  essays,  and  communicated  the  results 
of  their  researches.      At  their  simple  and  decorous  banquets, 
instructive  and  scientific  discourses  were  delivered.     While 
their  initiations  were  gratuitous,  they  gave  liberal  assistance 
to  zealous  but  needy  brethren.     They  published  many  im- 
portant works  on  Freemasonry. 


XVII 
THE  CONGRESS  OF  WILHELMSBAD 


440.  Various  Congresses. — To  put  an  end  to  the  numerous 
disputes  raging  among  masonic  bodies,  various  congresses 
were  held.     In  1778,  a  congress  was  convened  at  Lyons  ;  it 
lasted  a  month,  but  was  without  result.     In  1785,  another 
was  held  at  Paris,  but  the  time  was  wasted  in   idle  dis- 
putes with  Cagliostro.     The  most  important  was  that  which 
assembled  at  Wilhelmsbad  in  1782,  under  the  presidency 
of  the  Duke  of  Brunswick,  who  was  anxious  to  end  the  dis- 
cord reigning  among  German  Freemasons.     It  was  attended 
by  Masons  from  Europe,   America,  and  Asia.      From    an 
approximative   estimate,   it   appears  that   there  were  then 
upwards  of  three  millions  of  Masons  in  the  different  parts 
of  the  globe. 

441.  Discussions  at   Wilhelmsbad. — The    statements   con- 
tained in  Dr.    Stark's  book,   "  The   Coping  Stone "   (437), 
concerning  the  influence  of  the  Jesuits  in  the  masonic  body, 
formed  one  of  the  chief  topics  discussed.     Some  of  the  chiefs 
of  the  Strict  Observance  produced  considerable  confusion  by 
being  unable  to  give  information  concerning  the  secrets  of 
the  high  degrees,  which  they  had  professed  to  know  ;  or  to 
render  an  account  of  large  sums  they  had  received  on  behalf 
of  the  Order.    The  main  point  was  to  settle  whether  Masonry 
was  to  be  considered  as  a  continuation  of  the  Order  of  the 
Templars,  and  whether  the  secrets  of  the  sect  were  to  be 
sought  for  in  the  modern  Templar  degrees.      After  thirty 
sittings,  the  answer  was  in  the  negative ;  the  chiefs  of  the 
Strict  Observance  were  defeated,  and  the  Duke  of  Brunswick 
suspended  the  Order  for  three  years,  from  which  blow  it 
never  recovered.     The  Swedes  professed  to  possess  all  the 
secrets  ;  the  Duke  of  Brunswick  hastened  to  Upsala  to  learn 
them,  but  found  that  the  Swedes  knew  no  more  than  the 
Germans  ;  whence  new  dissensions  arose  between  the  Masons 
of  the  two  nations. 

442.  Result  of  Convention. — The  result  of  the  convention 

61 


62  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

of  Wilhelmsbad  was  the  retention  of  the  three  symbolical 
degrees,  with  the  addition  of  a  new  degree,  that  of  the 
"  Knights  of  Beneficence,"  which  was  based  on  the  principles 
enunciated  in  St.  Martin's  book,  Des  JSrreurs  et  de  la  V6rit6, 
and  the  Tableau  Naturel.  The  foundation  of  the  new  Order 
was  attributed  to  the  influence  of  the  Jesuits,  because  the 
three  initial  letters  of  Chevaliers  Bienfaisants,  C.H.B.,  are 
equal  to  3,  8,  2=  13,  signifying  the  letter  N,  meaning  Nostri. 
Another  result  was  a  league  between  Masonry  and  the 
Illuminati — and  it  is  still  a  matter  of  speculation  whether 
these  latter  were  not  behind  the  Jesuits — brought  about  by 
the  exertions  of  Spartacus  or  Weishaupt,  who  had  long  ago 
discerned  the  influence  he  could  obtain  by  the  co-operation 
of  the  Masons,  whom  he,  of  course,  employed  as  his  un- 
conscious tools.  But  Jesuitical  influence,  at  that  time,  was 
too  powerful  to  be  overcome ;  they  sided  with,  and  thus 
strengthened  the  influence  of,  the  duke ;  hence  the  opposi- 
tion of  Germany  to  the  principles  of  the  French  Revolution, 
which  broke  out  soon  after — an  opposition  which  was  like 
discharging  a  rocket  against  a  thunderbolt,  but  which  was 
carried  to  its  height  by  the  manifesto  of  the  Duke  of  Bruns- 
wick, so  loudly  praised  by  courtly  historians,  and  of  which 
the  German  princes  made  such  good  use  as  to  induce  the 
German  confederacy  to  surround  France  with  a  fiery  line  of 
deluded  patriotism.  Freemasonry  had  been  made  the  tool 
of  prince-  and  priest -craft,  though  occasionally  it  turned 
the  tables  on  the  prince,  an  instance  of  which  is  recorded 
in  the  next  paragraph. 

443.  Frederick  William  III.  and  the  Masons. — The  sudden 
retreat  of  the  King  of  Prussia  of  this  name,  after  having 
invaded  France  in  1792,  has  never  been  satisfactorily  ex- 
plained. Dr.  E.  E.  Eckert,  in  his  "Magazine  of  Evidence 
for  the  Condemnation  of  the  Masonic  Order,"  writes  as 

follows,  quoting  from  a  private  letter  from  M.  V z,  of 

Paris,  to  Baron  von  S z,  at  Vienna,  which  he  qualifies  as 

"thoroughly  reliable": — "The  King  of  Prussia  had  crossed 
our  frontiers;  he  was  I  believe,  at  Verdun  or  Thionville. 
One  evening  a  confidential  attendant  gave  him  the  masonic 
sign,  and  took  him  into  a  subterranean  vault,  where  he  left 
him  alone.  By  the  light  of  the  lamps  illuminating  the 
room,  the  king  saw  his  ancestor,  Frederick  the  Great, 
approaching  him.  There  could  be  no  mistake  as  to  his 
voice,  dress,  gait,  features.  The  spirit  reproached  the  king 
with  his  alliance  with  Austria  against  France,  and  com- 
manded him  immediately  to  withdraw  therefrom.  You 


THE  CONGRESS  OF  WILHELMSBAD  63 

know  that  the  king  acted  accordingly,  to  the  great  disgust 
of  his  allies,  to  whom  he  did  not  communicate  the  reasons 
of  his  withdrawal.  Some  years  afterwards  our  celebrated 
actor  Fleury,  who  acquired  such  reputation  by  his  per- 
formance at  the  Thddtre  Frangais  in  "The  Two  Pages/' 
in  which  piece  he  represented  Frederick  the  Great  to  per- 
fection, confessed  that  he  acted  the  ghost  when  Frederick 
William  III.  was  mystified  by  an  appearance,  which  had 
been  planned  by  General  Dumouriez."  Dumouriez  was  a 
Freemason. 


XVIII 
MASONRY  AND  NAPOLEONISM 

444.  Masonry  protected  ly  Napoleon.— "Wife  renewed  court 
frivolities  and  military  pomp,  the  theatrical  spirit  of  Masonry 
revived.  The  institution,  so  active  before  and  during  the 
Involution,  because  it  was  governed  by  men  who  rightly 
understood  and  worthily  represented  its  principles,  during 
the  Empire  fell  into  academic  puerilities,  servile  compliance, 
and  endless  squabbles.  That  period,  which  masonic  writers] 
attached  to  the  latter  and  pleased  with  its  apparent  splen- 
dour, call  the  most  flourishing  of  French  Masonry,  in  the 
eyes  of  independent  judges  appears  as  the  least  important 
and  the  least  honourable  for  the  masonic  order.  Napoleon 
at  first  intended  to  suppress  Freemasonry,  in  which  the 
dreaded  ideologists  might  easily  find  a  refuge.  The  re- 
presentative system  of  the  Grand  Orient  clashed  with  his 
monarchical  principles,  and  the  oligarchy  of  the  Scotch  rite 
aroused  his  suspicions.  The  Parisian  lodges,  however,  prac- 
tised in  the  art  of  flattery,  prostrated  themselves  before  the 
First  Consul,  prostrated  themselves  before  the  Emperor,  and 
sued  for  grace.  The  suspicions  of  Napoleon  were  not  dis- 
sipated; but  he  perceived  the  policy  of  avoiding  violent 
measures,  and  of  disciplining  a  body  that  might  turn  against 
The  lodges  were  inundated  with  the  lowest  police 
agents,  who  rapidly  attained  the  highest  degrees,  and  seized 
at  the  very  outset  the  clue  of  any  political  intrigue  which 
might  be  concocted  there.  Napoleon,  after  considerable 
hesitation,  declared  in  favour  of  the  Grand  Orient,  and  the 
Scotch  rite  had  to  assume  the  second  place.  A  single  word 
Of  Napoleon  had  done  more  to  establish  peace  between  them 
than  all  former  machinations.  The  Grand  Orient  became  a 
court  office,  and  Masonry  an  army  of  employe's.  The  Grand 
Mastership  was  offered  to  Joseph  Napoleon,  who  accepted  it 
though  never  initiated  into  Freemasonry,  with  the  consent 

his  brother,  who,  however,  for  greater  security,  insisted 
on  having  his  trusty  arch-chancellor  Carnbace"res  appointed 


MASONRY  AND  NAPOLEONISM  65 

Grand  Master  Adjunct,  to  be  in  reality  the  only  head  of  the 
Order.  Gradually  all  the  rites  existing  in  France  gave  in 
their  adhesion  to  the  imperial  policy,  electing  Cambace'res  as 
their  chief  dignitary,  so  that  he  eventually  possessed  more 
masonic  titles  than  any  other  man  before  or  after  him.  In 
1805  he  was  made  Grand  Master  Adjunct  of  the  Grand 
Orient;  in  1806,  Sovereign  Grand  Master  of  the  Supreme 
Grand  Council ;  in  the  same  year,  Grand  Master  of  the  rite 
of  Heroden  of  Kilwinning ;  in  1 807,  Supreme  Head  of  the 
French  rite ;  in  the  same  year,  Grand  Master  of  the  Philo- 
sophic Scotch  rite ;  in  1 808,  Grand  Master  of  the  Order  of 
Christ ;  in  1 809,  National  Grand  Master  of  the  Knights 
of  the  Holy  City ;  in  the  same  year,  Protector  of  the  High 
Philosophic  Degrees.  As  every  new  lodge  established  in 
France  had  to  pay  the  grand  master  a  heavy  fee,  Masonry 
yielded  to  him  an  annual  revenue  of  two  millions  of  francs. 

445.  Spread  of  Freemasonry. — But  masonic  disputes  soon 
again  ran  high.  The  arch-chancellor,  accustomed  and  at- 
tached to  the  usages  and  pomps  of  courts,  secretly  gave  the 
preference  to  the  Scotch  rite,  with  its  high-sounding  titles 
and  gorgeous  ceremonies.  The  Grand  Orient  carried  its 
complaints  even  to  Napoleon,  who  grew  weary  of  these 
paltry  farces — he  who  planned  grand  dramas ;  and  at  one 
time  he  had  determined  on  abolishing  the  Order  altogether, 
but  Carnbace'res  succeeded  in  arresting  his  purpose,  showing 
him  the  dangers  that  might  ensue  from  its  suppression — 
dangers  which  must  have  appeared  great,  since  Napoleon, 
who  never  hesitated,  hesitated  then,  and  allowed  another 
to  alter  his  views.  Perhaps  he  recognised  the  necessity  in 
French  society  of  a  body  of  men  who  were  free  at  least  in 
appearance,  of  a  kind  of  political  safety-valve.  The  French 
had  taken  a  liking  to  their  lodges,  where  they  found  a 
phantom  of  independence,  and  might  consider  themselves 
on  neutral  ground,  so  that  a  masonic  writer  could  say  :  "  In 
the  bosom  of  Masonry  there  circulates  a  little  of  that  vital 
air  so  necessary  to  generous  minds."  The  Scotch  rite, 
secretly  protected,  spread  throughout  the  French  depart- 
ments and  foreign  countries,  and  whilst  the  Grand  Orient 
tried  to  suppress  it,  and  to  prevent  innovations,  elected  a 
"  Director  of  Rites,"  the  Supreme  Grand  Council  established 
itself  at  Milan,  and  elected  Prince  Eugene  Grand  Master  of 
the  Grand  Orient  of  Italy.  The  two  highest  masonic  autho- 
rities, which  yet  had  the  same  master  in  Cambace'res,  and 
the  same  patron  in  Napoleon,  continued  to  combat  each 
other  with  as  much  fury  as  was  shown  in  the  struggle  be- 
VOL.  II.  E 


66  SECEET  SOCIETIES 

tween  France  and  England.  But  having  no  public  life,  no 
parliamentary  debates,  no  opposition  journals,  the  greater 
part  of  the  population  took  refuge  in  the  lodges,  and  every 
small  town  had  its  own.  In  1812,  there  existed  one  thousand 
and  eighty-nine  lodges,  all  depending  on  the  Grand  Orient ; 
the  army  had  sixty-nine,  and  the  lodge  was  opened  and 
closed  with  the  cry,  Vive  VEmpereur! 

446.  The  Clover  Leaves. — This  was  an  Order  founded  in 
Germany  about  1808  by  John  de  Witt,  called  Von  Dorring 
(555),  a  member  of  almost  every  secret  society  then  exist- 
ing, embracing  some  of  the  greatest  German  statesmen,  to 
further  the  plans  of  Napoleon,  in  the  hope  that  his  successes 
might  lead  to  the  mediatisation  of  all  German  states,  which, 
with  France,  were  to  form  but  one  empire.     The  name  was 
derived  from  the  fact  that  three  members  only  were  known 
to  one  another. 

447.  Obsequiousness  of  Freemasonry. — Napoleon,  unable  and 
unwilling  to  suppress  Freemasonry,  employed  it  in  the  army, 
in  the  newly-occupied  territories,  and  in  such  as  he  intended 
to  occupy.      Imperial  proselytism  turned   the   lodges  into 
schools  of  Napoleonism.     But  one  section  of  Masonry,  under 
the  shadow  of  that  protection,  became  the  very  contrary, 
anti-Napoleonic ;  and  not  all  the  lodges  closed  their  accus- 
tomed labours  with  the  cry  of    Vive  VEmpereur!      It  is, 
however,  quite  certain  that  Napoleon  by  means  of  the  masonic 
society  facilitated  or  secured  his  conquests.     Spain,  Germany, 
and  Italy  were  covered  with  lodges — antechambers,  more 
than  any  others,  of  prefectures  and  military  command — pre- 
sided over  and  governed  by  soldiers.     The  highest  dignitaries 
of  Masonry  at  that  period  were  marshals,  knights  of  the 
Legion  of  Honour,  nobles  of  ancient  descent,  senators,  coun- 
cillors, all  safe  and  trusty  persons ;  a  state  that  obeyed  the 
orders  of  Cambaceres,  as  he  obeyed  the  orders  of  Napoleon. 
Obsequiousness  came  near  to  the  ridiculous.     The  half-yearly 
words  of  command  of  the  Grand  Orient  retrace  the  history 
of  Napoleonic  progress.     In  1800,  "Science  and  Peace";  in 
1802,  after  Marengo,  "Unity  and  Success";  in  1804,  after 
the  coronation,  " Contentment  and  Greatness";  after  the 
battle  of  Friedland,  "Emperor  and  Confidence";  after  the 
suppression  of  the  tribune,  "  Fidelity  " ;  at  the  birth  of  the 
King  of  Rome,  "Posterity  and  Joy";  at  the  departure  of 
the  army  for  Russia,  "Victory  and  Return" — terrible  victory, 
and  unfortunate  return ! 

448.   Anti- Napoleonic  Freemasonry. — Napoleon,  we   have 
seen,  made  a  league  with  Freemasonry  to  obtain  its  support. 


MASONKY  AND  NAPOLEONISM  67 

He  is  also  said  to  have  made  certain  promises  to  it ;  but  as 
he  failed  to  keep  them,  the  Masons  turned  against  him,  and 
had  a  large  share  in  his  fall.  This,  however,  is  not  very 
probable,  and  is  attributing  too  much  influence  to  an 
Order  which  had  only  recently  recovered  itself.  Still,  the 
anti-Napoleonic  leaven  fermented  in  the  Masonic  society. 
Savary,  the  minister  of  police,  was  aware  of  it  in  1810,  and 
wanted  to  apply  to  the  secret  meetings  of  Freemasons  the 
article  of  the  penal  code,  forbidding  them ;  but  Cambace'res 
once  more  saved  the  institution,  which  saved  neither  him  nor 
his  patron.  Freemasonry,  if  not  by  overt  acts,  at  least  by 
its  indifference,  helped  on  the  downfall  of  Napoleon.  But  it 
was  not  altogether  inactive,  for  even  whilst  the  Napoleonic 
star  illumined  almost  alone  the  political  heavens  of  Europe, 
a  Masonic  lodge  was  formed  whose  object  was  the  restora- 
tion of  the  Bourbons,  whose  action  may  be  proved  by  official 
documents  to  have  extended  through  the  French  army,  and 
led  to  the  seditious  movements  of  1813. 


XIX 

FREEMASONRY,  THE  RESTORATION  AND 
THE  SECOND  EMPIRE 

449.  The  Society  of  "France  Regenerated" — The  Restora- 
tion, whose  blindness  was  only  equalled  by  its  mediocrity — 
which,  unable  to  create,  proposed  to  itself  to  destroy  what 
even  time  respects,  the  memories  and  glories  of  a  people — 
could  not  please  Freemasonry  much.     Hostile  to  Napoleon 
in  his  last  years,  it  could  not  approve  of  the  conduct  of  the 
new  government.     At  all  events,  the  Freemasons  held  aloof y 
though  cynics  might  suggest  that  this  was  done  with  a  view 
of  exacting  better  terms.     In  the  meanwhile,  a  society  was 
formed  in  Paris,  which,  assuming  masonic  forms  and  the 
title  of  "  France  Regenerated,"  became  an  instrument  of 
espionage  and  revenge  in  the  hands  of  the  new  despot.    But 
the  very  government  in  whose  favour  it  acted,  found  it  neces- 
sary within  a  year  from  its  foundation  silently  to  suppress 
it ;  for  it  found  the  rabid  zeal  of  these  adherents  to  be  more 
injurious  to  its  interests  than  the  open  opposition   of  its- 
avowed  enemies. 

450.  Priestly  Opposition  to  Masonry. — The  Masonic  propa- 
ganda, however,  was  actively  carried  on.     The  priests,  on 
their  part,  considered  the  moment  come  for  inaugurating  an 
anti-masonic  crusade.     Under  Napoleon  the  priesthood  could 
not  breathe;   the   court  was  closed  against  it,  except  on 
grand  occasions,  when  its  presence  was  needed  to  add  out- 
ward pomp  to  imperial  successes.     As  the  masters  of  cere- 
monies, the  priests  had  ceased  in  France  to  be  the  councillors 
and  confessors  of  its  rulers;  but  now  they  reassumed  those 
functions,  and  the  Masons  were  at  once  recommended  to  the 
hatred  of  the  king  and  the  mistrust  of  the  public.     They 
were  represented  as  abettors   of  rationalism  and  regicide; 
the  consequence  was,  that  a  great  many  lodges  were  closed, 
though,  on  the  other  hand,  the  rite  of  Misraim  was  estab- 
lished in  Paris  in  1816,  whose  mother  lodge  was  called  the 
"  Rainbow,"  a  presage  of  serenity  and  calm,  which,  however, 

68 


THE  RESTORATION  AND  SECOND  EMPIRE     69 

did  not  save  the  society  from  police  persecution.  In  1821, 
this  lodge  was  closed,  and  not  reopened  till  1830.  Towards 
the  same  time  was  founded  the  lodge  of  "  Trinosophists." 
In  1821,  the  Supreme  Grand  Council  rose  to  the  surface 
again,  and  with  it  the  disputes  between  it  and  the  Grand 
Orient.  To  enter  into  their  squabbles  would  be  a  sad  waste 
of  time,  and  I  therefore  pass  them  over. 

451.  Political  Insignificance  of  Masonry. — The  Freemasons 
are  said  to  have  brought  about  the  July  revolution  of  1830, 
but  proofs  are  wanting,  and  I  think  they  may  be  absolved 
from  that  charge.     Louis-Philippe,  who  was  placed  on  the 
throne  by  that  revolution,  took  the  Order  under  his  protec- 
tion, and  appointed  his  son,  the  Duke  of  Orleans,  Grand 
Master.      On  the  Duke's  death,  in  1842,   his  brother,   the 
Duke  de  Nemours,  succeeded  him  in  the  dignity.     In  this 
latter  year,  the  disputes  between  the  Grand  Orient  and  the 
Supreme  Grand  Council  were  amicably  settled.     Again  we 
are  told  that  at  a  masonic  congress  held  at  Strasburg  the 
foundations  of   the  revolution   of    1848    were   laid.     It   is 
certain  that  Cavaignac,  Lamartine,  Ledru-Rollin,  Prudhon, 
Louis  Blanc,   Marrast,   Vilain,   Pyat,  and  a  great  number 
of   German    republicans,    attended   that   congress,   but   for 
this  reason  it  cannot  strictly  be  called  a  masonic,  it  was 
rather  a  republican,  meeting.     On  the  establishment  of  the 
Provisional  Government  after  the  revolution  of   1848,  the 
Freemasons   gave  in  their  adhesion   to   that  government; 
on  which  occasion  some  high-flown  speeches  about  liberty, 
equality,  and  fraternity  were  made,  and  everybody  congratu- 
lated his  neighbour  that  now  the  reign  of  universal  brother- 
hood had  begun.     But  the  restoration  of  the  Empire,  which 
followed  soon  after,  showed  how  idle  all  this  oratory  had 
been,  and  how  the  influence  of  Masonry  in  the  great  affairs 
of  the  world  really  is  nil. 

452.  Freemasonry  and  Napoleon  III. — Again  the  Napo- 
leonic air  waves  around  the   Grand  Orient.     The  nephew 
showed  himself  from  the  first  as  hostile  to  Freemasonry  as 
his  uncle  had  been ;  but  the  decree  prohibiting  the  French 
lodges  from  occupying  themselves  with  political  questions, 
under  pain  of  the  dissolution  of  the  Order,  did  not  appear 
until   the    ^th    September   1850.     In  January    1852,  some 
superior  members  of  the  Order  proposed  to  offer  the  dignity 
of  Grand  Master  to  Lucien  Murat,  the  President's  cousin. 
The  proposal  was  unanimously  agreed  to;  and  on  the  I9th 
of  the  same  month  the  new  Grand  Master  was  acknowledged 
by  all  the  lodges.     He  held  the  office  till  1861,  when  he  was 


70  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

obliged  to  resign  in  consequence  of  the  masonic  body  having 
passed  a  vote  of  censure  upon  him  for  his  expressions  in 
favour  of  the  temporal  power  of  the  Pope,  uttered  in  the 
stormy  discussion  of  the  French  Senate  in  the  month  of 
June  of  that  year.  The  Grand  Orient  was  again  all  in  con- 
fusion. Napoleon  III.  now  interfered,  especially  as  Prince 
Napoleon  was  proposed  for  the  office  of  Grand  Master  ; 
which  excited  the  jealousy  of  the  Muratists,  who  published 
pamphlets  of  the  most  vituperative  character  against  their 
adversaries,  who  on  their  side  replied  with  corresponding 
bitterness.  Napoleon  imposed  silence  on  the  litigants,  pro- 
hibited attendance  at  lodges,  promised  that  he  himself 
would  appoint  a  Grand  Master,  and  advised  his  cousin  to 
undertake  a  long  voyage  to  the  United  States.  Deprived 
of  the  right  of  electing  its  own  chief,  the  autonomy  of 
Freemasonry  became  an  illusion,  its  programme  useless, 
and  its  mystery  a  farce.  In  the  meanwhile,  the  quarrels 
of  the  partisans  of  the  different  candidates  calmed  down ; 
Prince  Napoleon  returned  from  America;  Murat  resigned 
himself  to  this  defeat,  as  to  others,  and  the  Emperor  forgot 
all  about  Freemasonry.  At  last,  in  January  1862,  there 
appeared  a  decree  appointing  Marshal  Magnan  to  be 
Grand  Master.  A  Marshal !  The  nephew,  in  this  instance, 
as  in  many  others,  had  taken  a  leaf  out  of  his  uncle's 
book. 

453.  Jesuitical  Manoeuvres. — Napoleonic  Freemasonry,  not 
entirely  to  lose  its  peculiar  physiognomy,  ventured  to  change 
its  institutions.  Jesuitism  cast  loving  eyes  on  it,  and  drew 
it  towards  itself,  as  in  the  days  of  the  Strict  Observance. 
Murat  threw  out  his  net,  but  was  removed  just  when  it 
was  most  important  for  the  interests  of  the  Jesuits  that 
he  should  have  remained.  He  proposed  to  transform  the 
French  lodges — of  which,  in  1852,  there  were  325,  whilst 
in  1 86 1  only  269  could  be  found — into  societies  of  mutual 
succour,  and  to  abandon  or  submit  the  higher  masonic 
sphere  of  morality  and  humanity  to  the  society,  which  in 
these  last  sixty  years  has  already  overcome  and  incorporated 
the  whole  Roman  clergy,  once  its  rivals,  and  by  oblique 
paths  also  many  of  the  conservative  sects  of  other  creeds. 
Murat  did  not  succeed,  but  others  may ;  and  though  the 
Masons  say  that  Jesuitism  shall  not  succeed,  yet,  how  is 
Freemasonry,  that  professes  to  meddle  neither  with  politics 
nor  religion,  to  counteract  the  political  and  religious  machi- 
nations of  the  Jesuits  ?  And  even  if  Freemasonry  had  the 
same  weapons,  are  there  men  among  the  Order  able  to  wield 


THE  EESTOEATION  AND  SECOND  EMPIRE     71 

them  with  the  ability  and  fearlessness  that  distinguish  the 
followers  of  Loyola  ?     I  fear  not. 

Besides,  the  Masons,  though  they  talk  loudly  of  fraternisa- 
tion and  equality,  when  driven  at  bay  become  the  stanchest 
conservatives,  wherefore  the  International  at  Lyons,  in  the 
year  1870,  solemnly  excommunicated  Freemasonry,  and  in 
1880  exacted  from  every  candidate  for  admission  to  the 
society  a  declaration  that  he  was  not  a  Mason. 


XX 
FREEMASONRY  IN  ITALY 

454.  Whimsical  Masonic  Societies. — We  have  but  few 
notices  of  the  early  state  of  Freemasonry  in  Italy.  We 
are  told  that  in  1512  there  was  founded  at  Florence  a  society 
under  the  name  of  "  The  Trowel,"  composed  of  learned  and 
literary  men,  who  indulged  in  all  kinds  of  whimsical  freaks, 
and  who  may  have  served  as  prototypes  to  the  Order  of  "  The 
Monks  of  the  Screw,"  established  towards  the  end  of  the  last 
century  in  Ireland.  Thus  at  one  time  they  would  meet  in 
the  lodge,  dressed  as  masons  and  labourers,  and  begin  to 
erect  an  edifice  with  trays  full  of  macaroni  and  cheese,  using 
spices  and  bonbons  for  mortar,  and  rolls  and  cakes  for 
stones,  and  building  up  the  whole  with  all  kinds  of  comes- 
tibles. And  thus  they  went  on  until  a  pretended  rain  put 
an  end  to  their  labours.  At  another  time  it  was  Ceres,  who, 
in  search  of  Proserpine,  invited  the  Brethren  of  the  Trowel 
to  accompany  her  to  the  infernal  regions.  They  followed 
her  through  the  mouth  of  a  serpent  into  a  dark  room,  and 
on  Pluto  inviting  them  to  the  feast,  lights  appeared,  and  the 
table  was  seen  to  be  covered  with  black,  whilst  the  dishes 
on  it  were  foul  and  obscene  animals,  and  bones  of  dead 
men,  served  by  devils  carrying  shovels.  Finally  all  this 
vanished,  and  a  choice  banquet  followed.  This  Society  of 
the  Trowel  was  in  existence  in  1737.  The  clergy  endea- 
voured to  suppress  it,  and  would  no  doubt  have  succeeded, 
but  for  the  accession  of  Francis,  Duke  of  Tuscany,  who  had 
been  initiated  in  Holland,  and  who  set  free  all  the  Freemasons 
that  had  been  incarcerated,  and  protected  the  Order.  But 
the  remembrance  of  that  persecution  is  preserved  in  the 
rituals,  and  in  the  degree  of  "  Magus,"  the  costume  is  that 
of  the  Holy  Office,  as  other  degrees  commemorate  the  inquisi- 
tors of  Portugal  and  Spain. 

455.  llluminati  in  Italy. — The  sect  of  the  Illuminati,  of 
whom  Count  Filippo  Strozzi  was  a  warm  partisan,  soon  after 
spread  through  Italy,  as  well  as  another  Order,  affiliated  with 


FREEMASONRY  IN  ITALY  73 

the  Illuminati,  mystical  and  alchymistical,  and  in  opposition 
to  the  Rosicrucians,  called  the  "  Initiated  Brethren  of  Asia," 
which  had  been  founded  at  Vienna.  It  only  accepted  can- 
didates who  had  passed  through  the  first  three  degrees  of 
the  York  rite.  Like  Egyptian  Masonry,  it  worshipped  the 
Tetragrammaton,  and  combined  the  deepest  and  most  philo- 
sophical ideas  with  the  most  curious  superstitions. 

456.  Freemasonry  at  Naples. — In  the  kingdom  of  Naples 
the  Masons   amounted   to   many   thousands.     An   edict  of 
Charles  III.  (1751),  and  another  of  Ferdinand  IV.  (1759), 
closed  the  lodges,  but  in  a  short  time  the  edicts  became 
a  dead  letter,  and  in  vain  did  the  minister,  Tanucci,  hostile 
to  the  institution,  seek  to  revive  them.     The  incident  of  a 
neophyte  dying  a  few  days  after  his  initiation  gave  a  pretext 
for  fresh  persecution.     The  Masons,  assembled  at  a  banquet, 
were  arrested;  and  in  vain  did  Levy,  a  lawyer,  undertake  their 
•defence.     He  was  expelled  the  kingdom  ;  his  book  in  favour 
of  the  Order  was  publicly  burnt  by  the  executioner.     But 
Queen  Caroline,  having  dismissed  Tanucci,  again  sanctioned 
masonic  meetings,  for  which  she  received  the  thanks  of  the 
Grand  Orient  of  France.     It  would  seem,  however,  that  in  a 
very  few  years  Freemasonry  again  had  to  hide  its  head,  for 
in  1767  we  hear  of  it  as  a  "secret"  society,  whose  existence 
has  just  been  discovered.     The  document  which  records  this 
discovery  puts  the  number  of  Freemasons  at  64,000,  which 
probably  is  an  exaggeration  ;  still,  among  so  excitable  a  popu- 
lation as  that  of  Southern  Italy,  secret  societies  at  all  times 
found  plenty  of  proselytes. 

457.  Details  of  Document. — The  document  referred  to  says  : 
At  last  the  great  mine  of  the  Freemasons  of  Naples  is  dis- 
covered, of  whom  the  name,  but  not  the  secret,  was  known. 
Two  circumstances  are  alleged  by  which  the  discovery  was 
brought  about :  a  dying  man  revealed  all  to  his  confessor, 
that  he  should  inform  the  king  thereof ;  a  knight,  who  had 
been  kept  in  great  state  by  the  society,  having  had  his  pen- 
sion withheld,  betrayed  the  Grand  Master  of  the  Order  to  the 
king.     This  Grand  Master  was  the  Duke  of  San  Severe. 
The  king  secretly  sent  a  confidential  officer  with  three  dra- 
goons to  the  duke's  mansion,  with  orders  to  seize  him  before 
he  had  time  to  speak  to  any  one,  and  bring  him  to  the  palace. 
The  order  was  carried  out ;  but  a  few  minutes  after  a  fire 
broke  out  in  the  duke's  mansion,  destroying  his  library,  the 
real  object  being,  as  is  supposed,  to  burn  all  writings  having 
reference  to  Freemasonry.     The  fire  was  extinguished,  and 
the  house  guarded  by  troops.     The  duke  having  been  brought 


74  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

before  the  king,  openly  declared  the  objects,  systems,  sealsr 
government,  and  possessions  of  the  Order.  He  was  sent  back 
to  his  palace,  and  there  guarded  by  troops,  lest  he  should  be 
killed  by  his  former  colleagues.  Freemasons  have  also  been 
discovered  at  Florence,  and  the  Pope  and  the  Emperor  have 
sent  thither  twenty -four  theologians  to  put  a  stop  to  the  dis- 
order. The  king  acts  with  the  greatest  mercy  towards  all 
implicated,  to  avoid  the  great  dangers  that  might  ensue  from 
a  contrary  course.  He  has  also  appointed  four  persons  of 
great  standing  to  use  the  best  means  to  destroy  so  abominable 
a  sect ;  and  has  given  notice  to  all  the  other  sovereigns  of 
Europe  of  his  discovery,  and  the  abominable  maxims  of  the 
sect,  calling  upon  them  to  assist  in  its  suppression,  which  it 
will  be  folly  in  them  to  refuse  to  do.  For  the  Order  does  not 
count  its  members  by  thousands,  but  by  millions,  especially 
among  Jews  and  Protestants.  Their  frightful  maxims  are- 
only  known  to  the  members  of  the  fifth,  sixth,  and  seventh 
lodges,  while  those  of  the  first  three  know  nothing,  and 
those  of  the  fourth  act  without  knowing,  what  they  do. 
They  derive  their  origin  from  England,  and  the  founder  of 
the  sect  was  that  infamous  Cromwell,  first  bishop,  and  then 
lover  of  Anne  Boleyn,  and  then  beheaded  for  his  crimes, 
called  in  his  day  "the  scourge  of  rulers."  He  left  the  Order 
an  annual  income  of  £10,000  sterling.  It  is  divided  into 
seven  lodges :  the  members  of  the  seventh  are  called  Assessors ; 
of  the  sixth,  Grand  Masters  ;  of  the  fifth,  Architects  ;  of  the 
fourth,  Executors  (here  the  secret  ends) ;  of  the  thirdr 
Ruricori  (!) ;  of  the  second  and  first,  Novices  and  Proselytes. 
Their  infamous  idea  is  based  on  the  allegory  of  the  temple  of 
Solomon,  considered  in  its  first  splendour,  and  then  overthrown 
by  the  tyranny  of  the  Assyrians,  and  finally  restored — there- 
by to  signify  the  liberty  of  man  after  the  creation  of  the  world,, 
the  tyranny  of  the  priesthood,  kings,  and  laws,  and  the  re- 
establishment  of  that  liberty.  Then  follow  twelve  maxims 
in  which  these  opinions  and  aims  are  more  fully  expounded, 
from  which  it  appears  that  they  were  not  very  different  from 
those  of  all  other  republican  and  advanced  politicians. 

458.  Freemasonry  at  Venice. — The  Freemasons  were  at 
first  tolerated  at  Venice,  but  in  1686  the  government  sud- 
denly took  the  alarm,  and  ordered  the  closing  of  all  lodges,  and 
banished  the  members ;  but  the  decree  was  very  leniently 
executed,  and  a  lodge  of  nobles  having  refused  to  obey, 
the  magistrates  entered  it  at  a  time  when  they  knew  no 
one  to  be  there.  The  furniture,  ornaments,  and  jewels  were 
carried  out  and  publicly  burnt  or  dispersed,  but  none  of  th& 


FKEEMASONRY  IN  ITALY  75 

brethren  were  in  any  way  molested.  A  lodge  was  re-estab- 
lished afterwards,  which  was  discovered  in  1785,  when  all  its 
contents  were  again  burnt  or  otherwise  destroyed.  From  the 
ritual,  which  was  found  among  the  other  effects,  it  appears 
that  the  candidate  for  initiation  was  led,  his  eyes  being 
bandaged,  from  street  to  street,  or  canal  to  canal,  so  as  to 
prevent  his  tracing  the  locality,  to  the  Eio  Marino,  where 
he  was  first  conducted  into  a  room  hung  with  black,  and 
illumined  by  a  single  light ;  there  he  was  clothed  in  a  long- 
garment  like  a  winding  sheet,  but  black ;  he  put  011  a  cap 
something  like  a  turban,  and  his  hair  was  drawn  over  his 
face,  and  in  this  elegant  figure  he  was  placed  before  a 
looking-glass,  covered  with  a  black  curtain,  under  which 
were  written  the  words,  "  If  thou  hast  true  courage,  and 
an  honest  desire  to  enter  into  the  Order,  draw  aside  the 
curtain,  and  learn  to  know  thyself."  He  might  then  remove 
the  bandage  and  look  at  himself.  He  was  then  again  blind- 
folded, and  placed  in  the  middle  of  the  room,  while  thirty 
or  forty  members  entered  and  began  to  fight  with  swords. 
This  was  to  try  the  candidate's  courage,  who  was  himself 
slightly  wounded.  The  bandage  was  once  more  removed, 
and  the  wound  dressed.  Then  it  was  replaced,  and  the 
candidate  taken  to  a  second  apartment,  hung  with  black  and 
white,  and  having  in  the  middle  a  bed  covered  with  a  black 
cloth,  on  the  centre  of  which  was  a  white  cross,  whilst 
on  either  side  was  represented  a  white  skeleton.  The  can- 
didate was  laid  on  the  bed,  the  bandage  being  removed, 
and  he  was  there  left  with  two  tapers,  the  one  white,  the 
other  yellow.  After  having  been  left  there  for  some  time, 
the  brethren  entered  in  a  boisterous  manner,  beating  dis- 
cordant drums.  The  candidate  was  to  show  no  sign  of 
trepidation  amidst  all  these  elaborate  ceremonies ;  and  then 
the  members  embraced  him  as  a  brother,  and  gave  him 
the  name  by  which  he  was  henceforth  to  be  known  in  the 
society. 

459.  Abatement  under  Napoleon. — During  the  reign  of 
Napoleon  I.,  numerous  lodges  were  founded  throughout 
Italy ;  and  it  cannot  be  denied  by  the  greatest  friends  of  the 
Order,  that  during  that  period  Freemasonry  cut  a  most  pitiful 
figure.  For  a  society  that  always  boasted  of  its  independence 
of,  and  superiority  to,  all  other  earthly  governments, to  forward 
addresses  such  as  the  following  to  Napoleon,  seems  something 
like  self-abasement  and  self-stultification : — "  0  Napoleon  ! 
thy  philosophy  guarantees  the  toleration  of  our  natural  and 
divine  religion.  We  render  thee  honour  worthy  of  thee  for  it, 


76  SECKET  SOCIETIES 

and  thou  shalt  find  in  us  nothing  but  faithful  subjects,  ever 
devoted  to  thy  august  person  !  " 

460.  The  Freemasonry  of  the  Present  in  Italy. — Very  little 
need,  or  can,  be  said  as  regards  the  active  proceedings  of 
Italian  masonic  lodges  of  the  present  day,  though  they  have 
been  reconstituted  and  united  under  one  or  two  heads.  But 
their  programme  deserves  attention,  as  pointing  out  those 
reforms,  needed  not  only  in  Italy,  but  everywhere  where 
Freemasonry  exists.  The  declared  object,  then,  of  Italian 
Freemasonry  is,  the  highest  development  of  universal  philan- 
thropy; the  independence  and  unity  of  single  nations,  and 
fraternity  among  each  other ;  the  toleration  of  every  religion, 
and  absolute  equality  of  worship;  the  moral  and  material 
progress  of  the  masses.  It  moreover  declares  itself  indepen- 
dent of  every  government,  affirming  that  Italian  Freemasonry 
will  not  recognise  any  other  sovereign  power  on  earth  but 
right  reason  and  universal  conscience.  It  further  declares 
— and  this  deserves  particular  attention — that  Freemasonry 
is  not  to  consist  in  a  mysterious  symbolism,  vain  ceremonies, 
or  indefinite  aspirations,  which  cover  the  Order  with  ridicule. 
Again,  Masonry  being  universal,  essentially  human,  it  does 
not  occupy  itself  with  forms  of  government,  nor  with  transi- 
tory questions,  but  with  such  as  are  permanent  and  general. 
In  social  reforms  abstract  theories,  founded  on  mystical 
aspirations,  are  to  be  avoided.  The  duty  of  labour  being 
the  most  essential  in  civil  society,  Freemasonry  is  opposed 
to  idleness.  Religious  questions  are  beyond  the  pale  of  Free- 
masonry. Human  conscience  is  in  itself  inviolable  ;  it  has  no 
concern  with  any  positive  religion,  but  represents  religion 
itself  in  its  essence.  Devoted  to  the  principle  of  fraternity, 
it  preaches  universal  toleration ;  comprehends  in  its  ritual 
many  of  the  symbols  of  various  religions,  as  in  its  syncretism 
it  chooses  the  purest  truths.  Its  creed  consists  in  the  worship 
of  the  Divine,  whose  highest  conception,  withdrawn  from 
every  priestly  speculation,  is  that  of  the  Great  Architect  of 
the  Universe ;  and  in  faith  in  humanity,  the  sole  interpreter 
of  the  Divine  in  the  world.  As  to  extrinsic  modes  of  wor- 
ship, Freemasonry  neither  imposes  nor  recommends  any, 
leaving  to  every  one  his  free  choice,  until  the  day,  perhaps 
not  far  distant,  when  all  men  will  be  capable  of  worshipping 
the  Infinite  in  spirit  and  in  truth,  without  intermediaries 
and  outward  forms.  And  whilst  man  in  his  secret  relations 
to  the  Infinite  fecundates  the  religious  thought,  he  in  his 
relations  to  the  Universe  fecundates  the  scientific  thought. 
Science  is  truth,  and  the  most  ancient  cultus  of  Freemasonry. 


FKEEMASONKY  IN  ITALY  77 

In  determining  the  relations  of  the  individual  to  his 
equals,  Freemasonry  does  not  restrict  itself  to  recommending 
to  do  unto  others  what  we  wish  others  would  do  unto  us ; 
but  inculcates  to  do  good,  oppose  evil,  and  not  to  submit  to 
injustice  in  whatsoever  form  it  presents  itself.  Freemasonry 
looks  forward  to  the  day  when  the  iron  plates  of  the  Monitor 
and  the  Merrimac  will  be  beaten  into  steam-ploughs ;  when 
man,  redeemed  by  liberty  and  science,  shall  enjoy  the  pure 
pleasures  of  intelligence ;  when  peace,  fertilised  by  the 
wealth  and  strength  now  devoted  to  war,  shall  bring  forth, 
the  most  beautiful  fruit  of  the  tree  of  life. 

461.  Reform  needed. — Greatly,  therefore,  is  the  academic 
puerility  of  rites  to  be  regretted,  which  drags  back  into 
the  past  an  institution  that  ought  to  launch  forward  into 
the  future.  It  is  self-evident  that  Freemasonry  in  this  state 
cannot  last,  that  a  reform  is  necessary ;  and  as  De  Castro, 
from  whom  the  above  is  taken,  thinks  that  it  would  be  an 
honour  to  Italy  to  be  the  leader  in  such  a  reform,  it  would 
be  an  honour  to  any  country  that  initiated  it.  Masonry 
ought  not  to  be  an  ambulance,  but  a  vanguard.  It  is  em- 
barrassed by  its  excessive  baggage,  its  superfluous  symbols. 
Guarding  secrets  universally  known,  it  cannot  entertain 
secrets  of  greater  account.  Believing  itself  to  be  the  sole 
depositary  of  widely-spread  truths,  it  deprives  itself  and  the 
world  of  other  truths.  In  this  perplexity  and  alternative  of 
committing  suicide  or  being  born  anew,  what  will  Masonry- 
decide  on  ? 


XXI 
CAGLIOSTRO  AND  EGYPTIAN  MASONRY 

462.  Life,  of  Cagliostro. — Joseph  Balsamo,  the  disciple 
and  successor  of  St.  Germain,  who  pretended  at  the  Court 
of  Louis  XV.  to  have  been  the  contemporary  of  Charles  V., 
Francis  I.,  and  Christ,  and  to  possess  the  elixir  of  life  and 
many  other  secrets,  had  vaster  designs  and  a  loftier  ambition 
than  his  teacher,  and  was  one  of  the  most  active  agents  of 
Freemasonry  in  France  and  the  rest  of  Europe.  He  was  born 
at  Palermo  in  1743,  and  educated  at  two  convents  in  that  city, 
where  he  acquired  some  chemical  knowledge.  As  a  young 
man,  he  fell  in  with  an  Armenian,  or  Greek,  or  Spaniard, 
called  Althotas,  a  kind  of  adventurer,  who  professed  to 
possess  the  philosopher's  stone,  with  whom  he  led  a  roving 
life  for  a  number  of  years.  What  became  of  Althotas 
at  last  is  not  positively  known.  Balsamo  at  last  found 
his  way  to  Rome,  where  he  married  the  beautiful  Lorenza 
Feliciani,  whom  he  treated  so  badly,  that  she  escaped  from 
him ;  but  he  recovered  her,  and  acquired  great  influence 
over  her  by  magnetically  operating  upon  her.  There  is  no 
doubt  that  he  was  a  powerful  magnetiser.  Visiting  Germany, 
he  was  initiated  into  Freemasonry,  in  which  he  soon  began 
to  take  a  prominent  part.  He  also  assumed  different  titles, 
such  as  that  of  Marquis  of  Pellegrini,  but  the  one  he  is  best 
known  by  is  that  of  Count  Cagliostro ;  and  by  his  astuteness, 
impudence,  and  some  lucky  hits  at  prophesying,  he  acquired 
a  European  notoriety  and  made  many  dupes,  including 
persons  of  the  highest  rank,  especially  in  France,  where  he 
founded  many  new  masonic  lodges.  He  was  the  author  of 
a  book  called  "  The  Rite  of  Egyptian  Masonry,"  which  rite 
he  established  first  in  Courland,  and  afterwards  in  Germany, 
France,  and  England.  After  having  been  banished  from 
France,  in  consequence  of  his  implication  in  the  affair  of  the 
queen's  necklace,  and  driven  from  England  by  his  creditors, 
he  was  induced  by  his  wife,  who  was  weary  of  her  wander- 
ing life,  and  anxious  once  more  to  see  her  relations,  to  visit 

78 


CAGLIOSTEO  AND  EGYPTIAN  MASONRY      79 

Koine,  where  he  was  arrested  on  the  charge  of  attempting 
to  found  a  masonic  lodge,  against  which  a  papal  bull  had 
recently  been  promulgated,  and  thrown  into  the  Castle  of  St. 
Angelo,  in  1789.  He  was  condemned  to  death,  but  the 
punishment  was  commuted  to  perpetual  imprisonment.  His 
wife  was  shut  up  in  a  convent,  and  died  soon  after.  Having 
been  transferred  to  the  Castle  of  San  Leo,  he  attempted  to 
strangle  the  monk  sent  to  confess  him,  in  the  hope  of  escap- 
ing in  his  gown ;  but  the  attempt  failed,  and  it  is  supposed 
that  he  died,  a  prisoner,  in  1795. 

463.  The  Egyptian  Rite. — The  Egyptian  rite  invented  by 
Cagliostro  is  a  mixture  of  the  sacred  and  profane,  of  the 
serious  and  laughable.  Having  discovered  a  MS.  of  George 
Cofton,  in  which  was  propounded  a  singular  scheme  for 
the  reform  of  Freemasonry  in  an  alchymistic  and  fantastic 
sense,  Cagliostro  founded  thereon  the  bases  of  his  masonic 
system,  taking  advantage  of  human  credulity,  enriching 
himself,  and  at  the  same  time  seconding  the  action  of  other 
secret  societies.  He  gave  his  dupes  to  understand  that  the 
scope  of  Egyptian  Masonry  was  to  conduct  men  to  perfection 
by  means  of  physical  and  moral  regeneration ;  asserting  that 
the  former  was  infallible  through  the  prima  materia  and 
the  philosopher's  stone,  which  assured  to  man  the  strength 
of  youth  and  immortality,  and  that  the  second  was  to  be 
achieved  by  the  discovery  of  a  pentagon  that  would  restore 
man  to  his  primitive  innocence.  This  rite  indeed  is  a  tissue 
of  fatuities  it  would  not  be  worth  while  to  allude  to,  did  it 
not  offer  matter  for  study  to  the  philosopher  and  moralist. 
Cagliostro  pretended  that  the  rite  had  been  first  founded 
by  Enoch,  remodelled  by  Elias,  and  finally  restored  by  the 
Grand  Copt.  Both  men  and  women  were  admitted  into 
the  lodges,  though  the  ceremonies  for  each  were  slightly 
different,  and  the  lodges  for  their  reception  entirely  distinct. 
In  the  reception  of  women,  among  other  formalities  there 
was  that  of  breathing  into  the  face  of  the  neophyte,  saying, 
"  I  breathe  upon  you  this  breath  to  cause  to  germinate  in 
you  and  grow  in  your  heart  the  truth  we  possess ;  I  breathe 
it  into  you  to  strengthen  in  you  good  intentions,  and  to 
confirm  you  in  the  faith  of  your  brothers  and  sisters.  We 
constitute  you  a  legitimate  daughter  of  true  Egyptian  adop- 
tion and  of  this  worshipful  lodge."  One  of  the  lodges  was 
called  "  Sinai,"  where  the  most  secret  rites  were  performed  ; 
another  "Ararat,"  to  symbolise  the  rest  reserved  for  Masons 
only.  Concerning  the  pentagon,  Cagliostro  taught  that  it 
would  be  given  to  the  masters  after  forty  days  of  inter- 


8o  SECEET  SOCIETIES 

course  with  the  seven  primitive  angels,  and  that  its  pos- 
sessors would  enjoy  a  physical  regeneration  for  5557  years, 
after  which  they  would  through  gentle  sleep  pass  into 
heaven.  The  pentagon  had  as  much  success  with  the  upper 
ten  thousand  of  London,  Paris,  and  St.  Petersburg,  as  the 
philosopher's  stone  ever  enjoyed ;  and  large  sums  were  given 
for  a  few  grains  of  the  rejuvenating  prima  materia. 

464.  Cagliostro's   Hydromancy. — But  beside  masonic  de- 
lusions, Cagliostro  made  use  of  the  then  little  understood 
wonders  of  magnetism  to  attract  adherents;    and  as  many 
persons  are  seduced  by  the  wine-cup,  so  he  made  dupes  of 
many  by  means  of  the  water-bottle,  which  device,  as  might 
be  shown,  was  very  ancient,  and  consisted  in  divination  by 
hydromancy.     A  child,    generally  a  little   girl,   and  called 
the  Dove,  was  made  to  look  into  a  bottle  of  water,  and  see 
therein  events,  past,  present,  and  to  come  ;  and  as  Cagliostro 
was  really  a  man  of  observation,  he  made    many   shrewd 
guesses  as  to  the  future,  and  sometimes  fortune  favoured 
him — as  in  the  case  of  Schropfer  (280,  437),  one  of  the  leaders 
of  the  Illuminati,  who  refused  to  join  the  Egyptian  rite ;  the 
little  girl  declared  that  in  less  than  a  month  Schropfer  would 
be  punished.     Now  it  so  happened  that  within  that  period 
Schropfer  committed  suicide,  which  of  course  gave  an  im- 
mense lift  to  Cagliostro  and  his  bottle.      In  this  respect 
indeed    Cagliostro  was  a  forerunner  of  our  modern  spiri- 
tualists ;  and  as  he  did  not  keep  his  occult  power  a  secret 
from  all,  but  freely  communicated  it,  magical  practices  were 
thus  introduced  into  the  lodges,   which  brought  discredit 
on  the  institution.     And  all  this  occurred  at  the  period  of 
the  Encyclopedists,  and  on  the  eve  of  mighty  events  ! 

465.  Lodges  founded  by  Cagliostro. — He  founded  the  first 
lodge,  gorgeously  fitted  up,  at  Paris  in  a  private  house,  and 
another  one  in  his  own  house.     A  third  was  founded  at 
Lyons,  for  which  a  special  grand  building  was-  erected.     It 
was  declared  the  Mother  Lodge,  and  called  "Triumphant 
Wisdom."     Its  patent  ran  thus : 

"  Honour,  Wisdom, 

Union, 
Beneficence,  Comfort. 

"We  Grand  Copt,  in  all  eastern  and  western  parts  of 
Europe,  Founder  and  Grand  Master  of  Egyptian  Masonry, 
make  known  to  All,  who  may  read  this,  that  during  our  stay 
at  Lyons  many  members  of  the  Lodge  of  the  Orient  and 
Ordinary  Rite,  which  has  adopted  the  distinguishing  title  of 


CAGLIOSTRO  AND  EGYPTIAN  MASONRY      81 

'  Wisdom,'  have  expressed  their  ardent  wish  to  place  them- 
selves under  our  rule,  to  be  enlightened  in  true  Masonry. 
We  are  pleased  to  accede  to  their  wish,"  &c. 

Lodges  also  were  founded  at  Strasburg,  a  ladies'  lodge 
at  The  Hague,  another  at  Roveredo,  another  at  Mitau,  and 
a  very  grand  one  near  Basle,  in  a  sumptuous  temple,  erected 
for  the  purpose.  The  good  citizens  of  Basle  always  ap- 
proached it  with  feelings  of  awe,  because  they  imagined 
Cagliostro  destined  it  to  be  his  tomb. 


VOL.  II. 


XXII 
ADOPTIVE  MASONRY 

466.  Historical  Notice. — According  to  one  of  the  funda- 
mental laws  of  Masonry — and  a  rule  prevailing  in  the  greater 
mysteries  of  antiquity — women  cannot  be  received  into  the 
Order.     Women  cannot  keep  secrets,  at  least  so  Milton  says, 
through  the  mouth  of  Dalila — 

"  Granting,  as  I  do,  it  was  a  weakness 
In  me,  but  incident  to  all  our  sex, 
Curiosity,  inquisitive,  importune 
Of  secrets  ;  then  with  like  infirmity 
To  publish  them  ;  both  common  female  faults." 

But  we  have  already  seen  that  Cagliostro  admitted  women 
to  the  Egyptian  rite ;  and  when  at  the  beginning  of  the 
eighteenth  century  several  associations  sprang  up  in  France, 
which  in  their  external  aspect  resembled  Freemasonry,  but 
did  not  exclude  women,  the  ladies  naturally  were  loud  in 
their  praise  of  such  institutions,  so  that  the  masonic  brother- 
hood, seeing  it  was  becoming  unpopular,  had  recourse  to  the 
stratagem  of  establishing  "adoptive"  lodges  of  women,  so 
called  because  every  such  lodge  had  finally  to  be  adopted  by 
some  regular  masonic  lodge.  The  Grand  Orient  of  France 
framed  laws  for  their  government,  and  the  first  lodge  of 
adoption  was  opened  in  Paris  in  1775,  in  which  the  Duchess 
of  Bourbon  presided,  and  was  initiated  as  Grand  Mistress  of 
the  rite.  The  Revolution  checked  the  progress  of  this  rite, 
but  it  was  revived  in  1805,  when  the  Empress  Josephine 
presided  over  the  "  Loge  Impe"riale  d'Adoption  des  Francs- 
Chevaliers  "  at  Strasburg.  Similar  lodges  spread  over  Europe, 
Great  Britain  excepted ;  but  they  soon  declined,  and  are  at 
present  confined  to  the  place  of  their  origin. 

467.  Organisation. — The  rite  consists  of  the  same  degrees 
as  those  of  genuine  Masonry.     Every  sister,  being  a  digni- 
tary, has  beside  her  a  masonic  brother  holding  the  corre- 
sponding rank.     Hence  the  officers  are  a  Grand  Master  and 


ADOPTIVE  MASONRY  83 

a  Grand  Mistress,  an  Inspector  and  an  Inspectress,  a  Depositor 
and  a  Depositrix,  a  Conductor  and  a  Conductress.  The 
business  of  the  lodge  is  conducted  by  the  sisterhood,  the 
brethren  only  acting  as  their  assistants;  but  the  Grand 
Mistress  has  very  little  to  say  or  to  do,  she  being  only  an 
honorary  companion  to  the  Grand  Master.  The  first,  or 
apprentice's,  degree  is  only  introductory ;  in  the  second,  or 
companion,  the  scene  of  the  temptation  in  Eden  is  emblemati- 
cally represented ;  the  building  of  the  tower  of  Babel  is  the 
subject  of  the  mistress's  degree ;  and  in  the  fourth,  or  that 
of  perfect  mistress,  the  officers  represent  Moses,  Aaron,  and 
their  wives,  and  the  ceremonies  refer  to  the  passage  of  the 
Israelites  through  the  wilderness,  as  a  symbol  of  the  passage 
of  men  and  women  through  this  to  another  and  better  life. 
The  lodge-room  is  tastefully  decorated,  and  divided  by  cur- 
tains into  four  compartments,  each  representing  one  of  the 
four  quarters  of  the  globe,  the  eastern,  or  farthermost,  repre- 
senting Asia,  where  there  are  two  splendid  thrones,  decorated 
with  gold  fringe,  for  the  Grand  Master  and  the  Grand  Mis- 
tress. The  members  sit  on  each  side  in  straight  lines,  the 
sisters  in  front  and  the  brothers  behind  them,  the  latter 
having  swords  in  their  hands.  All  this  pretty  playing  at 
Masonry  is  naturally  followed  by  a  banquet,  and  on  many 
occasions  by  a  ball.  At  the  banquets  the  members  use  a 
symbolical  language  ;  thus  the  lodge-room  is  called  "  Eden," 
the  doors  "barriers,"  a  glass  is  called  a  "lamp,"  water 
"white  oil,"  wine  "red  oil";  to  fill  your  glass  is  "to  trim 
your  lamp,"  &c. 

468.  Jesuit  Degrees. — The  Jesuits,  qui  vont  fourrer  leur 
nez  partout,  soon  poked  it  into  Adoptive  Masonry — for  to 
get  hold  of  the  women  is  to  get  hold  of  the  better  half  of 
mankind — and  founded  new  lodges,  or  modified  existing 
ones  of  that  rite  to  further  their  own  purposes.  Thus  it  is 
that  a  truly  monkish  asceticism  was  introduced  into  some  of 
them,  by  the  Jesuits  divided  into  ten  degrees ;  and  we  find 
such  passages  in  the  catechism  as  these  :  "Are  you  prepared, 
sister,  to  sacrifice  life  for  the  good  of  the  catholic,  apostolic 
Roman  Church  ?  "  The  tenth  or  last  degree  was  called  the 
"Princess  of  the  Crown,"  and  a  great  portion  of  the  ritual 
treats  of  the  Queen  of  Sheba.  This  rite  was  established  in 
Saxony  in  I/79-1 

1  For  another  adoptive  order,  the  "  Heroine  of  Jericho,"  see  Miscellaneous 
Societies,  Book  XIV.,  §  701. 


XXIII 
ANDROGYNOUS  MASONRY 


469.  Origin  and  Tendency. — Gallantry  already  makes  its 
appearance  in  Adoptive  Masonry ;  and  this  gallantry,  which 
for  so  many  ages  was  the  study  of  France,  and  was  there 
reduced  to  an  ingenious  art,  manufactured  on  its  own  account 
rites  and  degrees  that  were  masonic  in  name  only.     Politics 
were  dethroned  by  amorous  intrigues ;  and  the  enumerators 
of  great  effects  sprung  from  trifling  causes  might  in  this 
chapter  of  history  find  proofs  of  what  a  superficial  and  acci- 
dental thing  politics  are,  when  not  governed  by  motives  of 
high  morality,  nor  watched  by  the  incorruptible  national 
conscience.      And   Androgynous   Masonry   did   not   always 
confine   itself  to  an   interchange  of   compliments   and  the 
pursuit  of  pleasure ;  still,  as  a  rule,  its  lodges  for  the  initia- 
tion of  males  and  females — defended  by  some  of  their  advo- 
cates as  founded  on  Exod.  xxxviii.  8 — are  a  whimsical  form 
of  that  court  life  which  in  France  and  Italy  had  its  poets 
and  romancers ;  and  which  rose  to  such  a  degree  of  impu- 
dence and  scandal  as  to  outrage  the  modesty  of  citizens  and 
popular  virtue.     It  is  a  page  of  that  history  of  princely 
corruption,  which  the  French  people  at  first  read  of  with 
laughter,  then  with  astonishment,  finally  with  indignation ; 
and  which  inspired  it  with  those  feelings  which  at  last  found 
their  vent  in  the  excesses  of  the  great  Revolution.     Every 
Revolution  is  a  puritanical  movement,  and  the  simple  and 
neglected  virtue  of  the  lowly-born  avenges  itself  upon  the 
pompous  vices  of  their  superiors. 

470.  Earliest  Androgynous  Societies. — Some  of  these  were 
founded  in  France  and  elsewhere  by  an  idle,  daring,   and 
conquering  soldiery.     As  their  type  we  may  take  the  Order 
of  the  "  Knights  and  Ladies  of  Joy,"  founded  with  extra- 
ordinary success  at  Paris  in  1696,  under  the  protection  of 
Bacchus  and  Venus,  and  whose  printed  statutes  are  still  in 
existence ;  and  that  of  the   "  Ladies  of  St.  John  of  Jeru- 
salem," and  the  "  Ladies  of  St.  James  of  the  Sword  and 

84 


ANDBOGYNOUS  MASONRY  85 

Calatrava."  They,  as  it  were,  served  as  models  to  the 
canonesses,  who,  till  the  end  of  the  last  century,  brought 
courtly  pomp  and  mundane  pleasures  into  the  very  cloisters 
of  France,  and  compelled  austere  moralists  to  excuse  it  by 
saying  that  it  was  dans  le  gout  de  la  nation. 

471.  Other  Androgynous  Societies. — In  the  Order  of  the 
"  Companions  of  Penelope,  or  the  Palladium  of  Ladies," 
whose  statutes  are  said  to  have  been  drawn  up  by  Fe'ne'lon 
(with  how  much  truth  is  easily  imagined),  the  trials  consist 
in  showing  the  candidate  that  work  is  the  palladium  of 
women ;  whence  we  may  assume  the  pursuits  of  this  society 
to  have  been  very  different  from  the  equivocal  occupations 
of  other  Orders.  The  Order  of  the  "  Mopses  "  owed  its  origin 
to  a  religious  scruple.  Pope  Clement  XII.  having  issued,  in 
1738,  a  Bull  condemning  Freemasonry,  Clement  Augustus, 
Duke  of  Bavaria  and  Elector  of  Cologne,  instituted,  under 
the  above  name  (derived  from  the  German  word  Mops,  a 
young  mastiff,  the  symbol  of  fidelity),  what  was  pretended  to 
be  a  new  society,  but  what  was,  in  fact,  only  Freemasonry 
under  another  name.  Immediately  after  their  establishment 
the  Mopses  became  an  androgynous  order,  admitting  females 
to  all  the  offices  except  that  of  Grand  Master,  which  was 
for  life ;  but  there  was  a  Grand  Mistress,  elected  every  six 
months.  Their  ceremonies  were  grotesque.  The  candidate 
for  admission  did  not  knock,  but  scratch  at  the  door,  and, 
being  purposely  kept  waiting,  barked  like  a  dog.  On  being 
admitted  into  the  lodge  he  had  a  collar  round  his  neck,  to 
which  a  chain  was  attached.  He  was  blindfolded,  and  led 
nine  times  round  the  room,  while  the  Mopses  present  made 
as  great  a  din  as  possible  with  sticks,  swords,  chains,  shovels, 
and  dismal  bowlings.  He  was  then  questioned  as  to  his 
intentions,  and  having  replied  that  he  desired  to  become  a 
Mops,  was  asked  by  the  master  whether  he  was  prepared  to 
kiss  the  most  ignoble  part  of  that  animal.  Of  course  this 
raised  the  candidate's  anger ;  but  in  spite  of  his  resistance, 
the  model  of  a  dog,  made  of  wax,  wood,  or  some  other 
material,  was  pushed  against  his  face.  Having  taken  the 
oath,  he  had  his  eyes  unbandaged,  and  was  taught  the  signs, 
which  were  all  of  a  ludicrous  description.  In  1777  there 
was  established  in  Denmark  the  androgynous  order  of 
the  "  Society  of  the  Chain,"  to  which  belongs  the  honour 
of  having  founded,  and  of  maintaining  at  its  own  expense, 
the  Asylum  for  the  Blind  at  Copenhagen,  the  largest  and 
best  managed  of  similar  institutions  in  Europe.  The  Order 
of  "  Perseverance,"  the  date  of  whose  foundation  is  un- 


86  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

known,  but  which  existed  in  Paris  in  1777,  and  was  sup- 
ported by  the  most  distinguished  persons,  had  a  laudable 
custom,  which  might  be  imitated  by  other  societies,  viz.,  to 
inscribe  in  a  book,  one  of  which  is  still  extant,  the  praise- 
worthy actions  of  the  male  and  female  members  of  the  asso- 
ciation. But  one  of  the  most  deserving  masonic  androgynous 
institutions  was  that  of  the  "  Sovereign  Chapter  of  the  Scotch 
Ladies  of  France,"  founded  in  1810,  and  divided  into  lesser 
and  greater  mysteries,  and  whose  instructions  aimed  chiefly 
at  leading  the  neophyte  back  to  the  occupations  to  which 
the  state  of  society  called  him  or  her.  To  provide  food  and 
work  for  those  wanting  either,  to  afford  them  advice  and 
help,  and  save  them  from  the  cruel  alternative  of  crime — 
such  was  the  scope  of  this  society,  which  lasted  till  the  year 
1828.  The  fashion  of  androgynous  lodges  was  revived  in 
Spain  in  1877.  From  the  Chaine  cC  Union,  a  masonic  pub- 
lication, we  learn  that  several  such  lodges  were  formed  about 
that  date,  receiving  ladies  of  the  highest  rank.  Thus  the 
Countess  Julia  A ,  belonging  by  birth  to  the  Austrian- 
Hungarian  nobility,  and  by  her  connections  to  Spain,  was 
initiated  into  the  lodge  Fraternitad  Iberica  on  the  I4th  June 
1880 ;  and  the  Grand  Orient  of  Spain  initiated  ladies  into  all 
the  mysteries  of  masonry,  just  as  if  they  were  men. 

472.  Various  other  Androgynous  Societies. — The  Society  of 
the  "Wood-store  of  the  Globe  and  Glory"  was  founded  in 
1747  by  the  Chevalier  de  Beauchene,  a  lively  boon  companion, 
who  was  generally  to  be  found  at  an  inn,  where  for  very  little 
money  he  conferred  all  the  masonic  degrees  of  that  time  ; 
a  man  whose  worship  would  have  shone  by  the  great  tun  of 
Heidelberg,  or  at  the  drinking  bouts  of  German  students. 
The  Wood-store  was  supposed  to  be  in  a  forest,  and  the 
meetings,  which  were  much  in  vogue,  took  place  in  a  garden 
outside  Paris,  called  "  New  France,"  where  assembled  lords 
and  clowns,  ladies  and  grisettes,  indulging  in  the  easy  cos- 
tumes and  manners  of  the  country.  Towards  the  middle  of 
the  eighteenth  century,  there  was  established  in  Brittany 
the  Order  of  the  "Defoliators." 

In  the  Order  of  "Felicity,"  instituted  in  Paris  in  1742, 
and  divided  into  the  four  degrees  of  midshipman,  captain, 
chief  of  a  squadron,  and  vice-admiral,  the  emblems  and  terms 
were  nautical :  sailors  were  its  founders,  and  it  excited  so 
much  attention,  that  in  1746  a  satire,  entitled,  "The  Means 
of  reaching  the  highest  Hank  in  the  Navy  without  getting 
Wet,"  was  published  against  it.  Its  field  of  action  was 
the  field  of  love.  A  Grand  Orient  was  called  the  offing,  the 


ANDROGYNOUS  MASONRY  87 

lodge  the  squadron,  and  the  sisters  performed  the  fictitious 
voyage  to  the  island  of  Felicity  sous  la  voile  des  freres  et 
pilote'es  par  eux ;  and  the  candidate  promised  "never  to 
receive  a  foreign  ship  into  her  port  as  long  as  a  ship  of  the 
Order  was  anchored  there." 

The  Order  of  the  "  Lovers  of  Pleasure  "  was  a  military 
institution,  a  pale  revival  of  the  ceremonies  of  chivalry  and 
the  courts  of  love,  improvised  in  the  French  camp  in  Galicia. 
From  the  discourse  of  one  of  the  orators  we  select  the 
following  passage  :  "Our  scope  is  to  embellish  our  existence, 
always  taking  for  our  guide  the  words,  '  Honour,  Joy,  and 
Delicacy.'  Our  scope,  moreover,  is  to  be  faithful  to  our 
country  and  the  august  sovereign  who  fills  the  universe  with 
his  glorious  name,  to  serve  a  cause  which  ought  to  be  grateful 
to  every  gentle  soul,  that  of  protecting  youth  and  innocence, 
and  of  establishing  between  the  ladies  and  ourselves  an 
eternal  alliance,  cemented  by  the  purest  friendship."  This 
society,  it  is  said,  was  much  favoured  by  Napoleon  I.,  and 
hence  we  may  infer  that  its  aim  was  not  purely  pleasure ; 
at  all  events,  it  is  remarkable  that  a  society,  having  masonic 
rites,  should  have  given  its  services  to  the  "august  sovereign" 
who  had  just  withdrawn  his  support  from  genuine  Free- 
masonry. 

473.  Knights  and  Nymphs  of  the  Rose. — This  Order  was 
founded  in  Paris  in  1778  by  Chaumont,  private  secretary  to 
Louis- Philippe  d'Orle'ans,  to  please  that  prince.  The  chief 
lodge  was  held  in  one  of  the  famous  petites  maisons  of  that 
epoch.  The  great  lords  had  lodges  in  their  own  houses. 
The  Hierophant,  assisted  by  a  deacon  called  "  Sentiment," 
initiated  the  men,  and  the  Grand  Priestess,  assisted  by  the 
deaconess  called  "Discretion,"  initiated  the  women.  The 
age  of  admission  for  knights  was  "the  age  to  love,"  that 
of  ladies  "the  age  to  please  and  to  be  loved."  Love  and 
mystery  were  the  programme  of  the  Order ;  the  lodge  was 
called  the  Temple  of  Love,  which  was  beautifully  adorned 
with  garlands  of  flowers  and  amorous  emblems  and  devices. 
The  knights  wore  a  crown  of  myrtle,  the  nymphs  a  crown  of 
roses.  During  the  time  of  initiation  a  dark  lantern,  held  by 
the  nymph  of  Discretion,  shed  a  dim  light,  but  afterwards 
the  lodge  was  illuminated  with  numerous  wax  candles.  The 
aspirants,  laden  with  chains,  to  symbolise  the  prejudices  that 
kept  them  prisoners,  were  asked,  "What  seek  you  here?" 
to  which  they  replied,  "Happiness."  They  were  then  ques- 
tioned as  to  their  private  opinion  and  conduct  in  matters  of 
gallantry,  and  made  twice  to  traverse  the  lodge  over  a  path 


88  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

covered  with  love-knots,  whereupon  the  iron  chains  were 
taken  off,  and  garlands  of  flowers,  called  "chains  of  love," 
substituted.  The  candidates  were  then  conducted  to  the 
altar,  where  they  took  the  oath  of  secrecy ;  and  thence  to 
the  mysterious  groves  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  Temple 
of  Love,  where  incense  was  offered  up  to  Venus  and  her  son. 
If  it  was  a  knight  who  had  been  initiated,  he  exchanged  his 
crown  of  myrtle  for  the  rose  of  the  last  initiated  nymph ; 
and  if  a  nymph,  she  exchanged  her  rose  for  the  myrtle  crown 
of  Brother  Sentiment.  The  horrors  of  the  Revolution  scat- 
tered these  knights  and  nymphs,  who,  like  thoughtless  chil- 
dren, were  playing  on  a  volcano. 

474.  German  Order  of  the  Rose. — Another  order  of   the 
Rose   was   founded   in   Germany  in    1784  by  one   Francis 
Matthaus  Grossinger,  who  ennobled  himself   by  assuming 
the  title  of  Francis  Rudolph  von  Grossing.     He  was  born 
in  1752  at  Komorn,  in  Hungary;  his  father  was  a  butcher, 
his  mother  the  daughter  of  a  tanner.     Grossing  was  a  Jesuit, 
but  on  the  suppression  of  the  Order  he  led  a  wandering  life, 
and  eventually  reached  Vienna,  where  he  obtained  the  pro- 
tection of  the  father  confessor  of  the  empress,  who  in  1777 
granted  him  a  pension  of  six  hundred  florins,  which,  however, 
he  lost  by  her  death.    He  then  lived  by  all  kinds  of  swindling, 
and  finally  founded  a  philanthropic  order,  which,  after  the 
name  of  the  supposititious  grand  mistress,  the  Lady  of  Rosen- 
wald,  he  called  the  "  Order  of  the  Rose."      He  was  very 
successful  at  Halle,  where  he  lived,  in  initiating  dupes,  on 
whose  contributions  he  lived  in  great  style.     "When  he  be- 
came too  notorious  at  Halle   he   transmigrated  to  Berlin, 
where  he  continued  his  expensive  style  of  living,  got  into 
debt,  was  arrested,  but  made  his  escape,  after  having  swindled 
the  Berliners  out  of  twenty  thousand  dollars. 

475.  Pretended  Objects  of  the  Order. — The  Order  professed 
to  pursue  the  loftiest  philosophic  and  educational  objects. 
None  but  men  and  women  endowed  with  noble  souls  were 
to  be  admitted,  and  no  member  was  to  reveal  the  name  of 
•iny  other  member,  nor  what  was  discussed  in  the  lodges, 
to  outsiders.     Masonry  was  the  model  for  the  Order  of  the 
Rose,  the  latter  adopting  all  the  good,  and  rejecting  all  the 
bad  of  the  former.     The  ribbon  of  the  Order  consisted  of 
pink  silk,  both  ends  terminating  in  three  points  ;   it  was 
marked  with  a  rose,  and  the  name  of  the  member,  with  the 
date  of  his  or  her  reception.     Under  this  was  a  large  seal, 
displaying   a  rose,  surrounded    by  a  wreath    of    the    same 
flowers ;   the  ribbon  was  further  adorned  with  a  kind  of 


ANDROGYNOUS  MASONRY  89 

silhouette,  supposed  to  represent  the  Lady  of  Rosenwald, 
so  indistinct  and  blurred,  as  to  look  more  like  a  blot  than  a 
portrait.  Members  also  were  furnished  with  a  small  ticket, 
giving  the  explanation  of  certain  terms  used  by  Grossing  in 
his  "Rules  and  Regulations  "  ;  thus  Freemasons  were  called 
"  Gamblers  "  ;  Jesuits,  "  Foxes  "  ;  Illuminati,  "  Wasps  "  ; 
Ghost-seers,  "Gnats,"  &c.  The  "Rules"  were  called  "A 
Shell  or  Case  for  Thorns "  ;  members,  to  recognise  each 
other,  would  say,  "  Thorns,"  to  which  the  other  would 
reply,  "  Forest,"  after  which  each  would  produce  his  ribbon 
and  ticket.  In  1786  the  Order  counted  about  one  hundred 
and  twenty  members,  but  having  no  innate  vitality,  being,  in 
fact,  but  a  company  of  triflers,  many  of  them  withdrew  on 
finding  the  whole  Order  but  a  scheme  of  Grossing  to  put 
money  into  his  pocket,  and  so  it  was  swept  away  into  the 
limbus  of  fashionable  follies. 

476.  Order  of  Harmony. — The  Order  of  the  Rose  having 
collapsed,  Grossing  in  1788  founded,  under  a  fictitious  name, 
the  "  Order  of  Harmony."     He  published  a  book  alleged  to 
be  translated  from  the  English,  and  entitled,  "  Harmony,  or  a 
Scheme  for  the  Better  Education  of  the  Female  Sex,"  and 
wrote  in  the  Preface,  "  This  '  Harmony '  is  not  to  be  con- 
founded  with    that    Chdteau   en   Espagne,  with    which   the 
founder  of  the  Order  of  the  Rose  for  some  years  deluded 
the  ladies  of  Germany."    The  Order  of  Harmony  was  said  to 
have  been  founded  by  Seth,  the  third  son  of  Adam,   to 
have  reckoned  among  its  members  Moses  and  Christ,  and  to 
be  the  refuge  of  persecuted  humanity  and  innocence.     The 
founder  abused  princes  and  priests,  proposed  the  establish- 
ment of  convents,  in  which  ladies  were  to  take  the  vows  of 
chastity,  obedience,  and  poverty,  but  only  for  a  year  at  a  time ; 
a  bank  was  also  to  be  founded  in  connection  with   them. 
And  the  writer  finally  proposed  that  a  monument  should 
be  erected  to  the  promoter  of  the  Order  as  a  benefactor  of 
mankind!    When  Grossing  was  arrested  in  1788  at  Rotenburg 
(Prussia),  for  all  kinds  of  swindling  transactions,  a  number 
of  diplomas  were  found  among  his  papers,  with  the  names  of 
ladies  who  were  to  be  admitted  to  the  Order  filled  in.     But 
the  interference  of  the  vulgar  police  brushed  the  bloom  of 
romance  off  the  scheme,  and  the  Order  of  Harmony  perished, 
a  still-born  babe !     Grossing,  however,  managed  to  effect  his 
escape,  by  making  his  guards  drunk ;  what  became  of  him 
afterwards  is  not  on  record. 

477.  Masons  Daughter. — This  is  an  androgynous  degree 
invented  in  the  Western  States  of  America,  and  given  to 


90  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

master  masons,  their  wives,  and  unmarried  sisters  and 
daughters.  It  refers  to  circumstances  recorded  in  chapters 
xi.  and  xii.  of  St.  John's  Gospel.  In  these  women's  lodges 
the  banqueting  hall  is  divided  into  East,  West,  South,  and 
North  sides  (the  four  walls) ;  the  grand  mistress  sits  in  the 
East ;  the  temple  or  lodge  is  called  Eden ;  the  doors  are 
called  barriers,  the  glasses,  lamps,  the  wine  is  called  red  oil ; 
to  put  oil  in  the  lamps  is  to  fill  the  glasses,  to  extinguish  the 
lamp  is  to  drink  the  wine,  to  "  fire  !  "  is  to  drink.  The  sign 
is  to  place  the  hands  on  the  breast,  so  that  the  right  lies  on 
the  left,  and  the  two  thumbs  joining  form  a  triangle.  The 
word  is  "  Eve,"  repeated  five  times.  Gentlemen  are  allowed 
to  be  present.  As  the  reader  will  have  observed,  the  degree 
is  an  imitation  of  the  Loge  Imperiale  d'Adoption  des  Francs- 
Chevaliers,  described  in  §  466. 


XXIV 

SCHISMATIC  KITES  AND  SECTS 

478.  Schismatic  Rites  and  Sects. — The  pretended  derivation 
of  Freemasonry  from  the  Knights  Templars  has  already  been 
referred  to  ;  but  Masonry,  the  system,  not  the  name,  existed 
before  the  Order  of  the  Temple,  and  the  Templars  them- 
selves had  masonic  rites  and  degrees  three  hundred  years 
before  their  downfall.  Those  who,  however,  maintain  the 
above  view  say  that  the  three  assassins  symbolise  the  three 
betrayers  of  the  Order,  and  Hiram  the  Grand  Master  Molay  ; 
and  according  to  the  ritual  of  the  Grand  Lodge  of  the  Three 
Globes,  a  German  degree,  the  lights  around  the  coffin  signify 
the  flames  of  the  pile  on  which  Molay  was  burnt.  To  the 
Rosicrucians  and  to  certain  German  lodges  Hiram  is  Christ, 
and  the  three  assassins,  Judas  that  betrays,  Peter  that  denies 
Him,  and  Thomas  that  disbelieves  His  resurrection.  The 
ancient  Scotch  rite  had  its  origin  in  other  false  accounts  of 
the  rise  of  the  Order.  In  the  last  century  schisms  without 
number  arose  in  the  masonic  body.  It  would  be  impossible 
in  a  work  like  this  to  give  particulars  of  all ;  we  have  already 
done  so  of  several ;  a  few  more  may  be  briefly  referred  to. 
The  Moravian  Brothers  of  the  Order  of  Religious  Free- 
masons, or  Order  of  the  "Mustard  Seed,"  was  a  German 
rite  founded,  circa  1712,  by  Count  Zinzendorf,  the  same  who 
afterwards  invented  the  rite  already  described  in  §  438. 
Some  authorities  assert  this  Order  of  the  "Mustard-Seed" 
to  have  originated  in  England  in  1708,  and  thence  to 
have  spread  to  Holland  and  Germany,  and  to  have  been 
adopted  by  Zinzendorf,  circa  1712-14,  when  he  was  a  student 
at  Halle.  The  mysteries  were  founded  on  the  passage  in 
St.  Mark  iv.  30-32,  in  which  Christ  compares  the  king- 
dom of  heaven  to  a  grain  of  mustard-seed.  The  brethren 
recognised  each  other  by  a  ring  inscribed  with  the  words  : 
"No  one  of  us  lives  for  himself."  The  jewel  was  a  cross 
of  gold,  surmounted  by  a  mustard-plant  with  the  words : 

91 


92  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

"What  was  it  before?  Nothing."  The  members  met  every 
year  in  the  chapel  of  the  Castle  of  Gnadenstadt,  and  also 
kept  the  I5th  March  and  i6th  April  as  holy  days. 
Nearly  all  the  degrees  of  the  Scotch  rite  are  schismatic. 
In  like  manner,  all  the  English  and  American  orders  of 
chivalry,  and  their  conclaves  and  encampments,  are  parodies 
of  ancient  chivalry. 

In  1758,  Lacoriie,  a  dancing-master,  and  Pirlet,  a  tailor, 
invented  the  degree  of  the  "  Council  of  the  Emperors  of 
the  East  and  West,"  whose  members  assumed  the  titles  of 
"  Sovereign  Prince  Masons,  Substitutes  General  of  the  Royal 
Art,  Grand  Superintendents  and  Officers  of  the  Grand  and 
Sovereign  Lodge  of  St.  John  of  Jerusalem."  The  ritual 
consisted  of  twenty-five  degrees,  and  as  it  was  calculated 
by  its  sounding  titles  and  splendour  of  ritual  to  flatter  the 
vanity  of  the  frivolous,  it  was  at  first  very  successful ;  and 
Lacorne  conferred  on  one  of  his  creatures,  a  Hebrew,  the 
degree  of  Inspector,  and  sent  him  to  America  to  spread 
the  Order  there.  In  1797,  other  Jews  added  eight  new 
degrees,  giving  to  this  agglomeration  of  thirty-three  pom- 
pous degrees  the  title  of  "Ancient  and  Accepted  Scotch 
Rite."  The  Grand  Orient  of  France,  seeing  its  own  influence 
declining,  proposed  advantageous  and  honourable  terms  to 
the  Supreme  Grand  Council  which  was  at  the  head  of  the 
Scotch  rite,  and  an  agreement  was  come  to  in  1804.  The 
Grand  Orient  retaining  the  first  name,  received  into  its  bosom 
the  Supreme  Grand  Council  and  the  rich  American  symbolism. 
But  the  connection  did  not  prosper,  and  was  dissolved  in 
1805.  Again,  what  is  called  Mark-Masonry  in  England  is, 
by  some  masonic  authorities,  considered  spurious ;  whilst  in 
Scotland  and  Ireland  it  is  held  to  be  an  essential  portion  of 
Freemasonry.  These  are  curious  anomalies.  About  1869 
His  Imperial  Highness  the  Prince  Rhodocanakis  introduced 
into  England  the  "  Order  of  the  Red  Cross  of  Constantino 
and  Rome,"  which,  however,  being  violently  opposed  by  the 
Supreme  Grand  Council  of  the  33rd,  came  to  an  untimely 
end  soon  after.  The  S.G.C.  threatened  any  member  of  the 
"Ancient  and  Accepted"  who  should  dare  even  to  merely 
visit  this  new  Order  with  expulsion  from  the  fraternity. 
And  the  S.G.C.  actually  sent  a  "  Sovereign  Tribunal  "  to 
Manchester  to  try  a  brother,  who  had  snapped  his  fingers 
at  the  Council  and  said  he  did  not  care  for  the  "  Sovereign." 
How  it  all  ended  is  pleasantly  related  in  the  pages  of  Tlie 
Rectangular,  January  and  April  1871. 

479.  Farmassoni. — There  is  a  Gnostic  sect  in  Russia  whom 


SCHISMATIC  EITES  AND  SECTS  93 

the  Eussians  identify  with  the  Freemasons,  and  therefore 
call  "  Farmassoni,"  a  corruption  of  franc-masons.  The  Far- 
massoni regard  priesthood  and  ritual  as  a  pagan  depravation 
of  the  faith  and  of  the  true  doctrine ;  they  seek,  as  much  as 
possible,  to  spiritualise  Christianity,  and  to  ground  it  solely 
on  the  Bible  and  the  inward  illumination  of  believers.  The 
earliest  traces  of  them  are  to  be  found  at  the  end  of  the 
seventeenth  century,  and  their  appearance  coincides  with 
that  of  certain  German  mystics  and  theosophists  in  Moscow. 
The  most  important  of  these  was  a  Prussian  sub-officer,  who 
was  carried  to  Moscow,  having  been  taken  prisoner  by  the 
Eussians  during  the  Seven  Years'  War. 

480.  The  G-ormogones. — This  Order  was  founded  in  England 
in  1724.     The  names  and  birthplaces  of  the  members  were 
written  in  cipher,  and  the   Order  was  said  to  have  been 
brought  by  a  Chinese  mandarin  (a  Jesuit  missionary?)  to 
England,  it  being  in  great  repute  in  China  (Eome),  and 
to  possess  extraordinary  secrets.     It  held  a  chapter  at  the 
Castle  Tavern,  London,  but  was  dissolved  in   1738.     It  is 
supposed  to  have  been  an  attempt  of  the  Jesuits,  by  the  help 
of  masonic  ceremonies,  to  gain  converts  to  Catholicism,  and 
that  Earn  say,  the  inventor  of  the  so-called  higher  degrees, 
had  something  to  do  with  it.     I  have  vainly  endeavoured 
to  trace  the  origin  and  meaning  of  the  term  Gormogones. 
According  to  one  account  I  have  seen  it  was  also  called  the 
Order  of  the  Gormones,  and  was  said  to  have  been  instituted 
for  the  reception  of  individuals  not  considered  sufficiently 
advanced  for  admission  to  the  lodges. 

481.  The  Noachites.  or  Noachidce. — This  Order,  founded  in 
the  last  quarter  of  the  last  century,  assumed  the  high-sound- 
ing title  of  "The  Fraternity  of  the  Eoyal  Ark  Mariners, 
Mark,  Mark  Master,  Elected  of  Nine,   Unknown,  Fifteen, 
Architect,    Excellent   and    Superexcellent   Masons."      They 
professed  to  be  the  followers  of  Noah — which  no  doubt  they 
were  in  one  respect — and  therefore  also  called  themselves 
Noachites  or  Noachidse.     Their  president,  Thomas-Boothby 
Parkyns,  Lord  Eancliffe,  bore  the  title  of  Grand  Noah,  and 
the  lodge  was  called  the  Eoyal  Ark  Vessel.     The  brother 
mariners  in  the  lodge  wore  a  broad  sash,  representing  a  rain- 
bow, with  an  apron  fancifully  decorated  with  an  ark.  dove, 
&c.     Their  principal  place  of  meeting  was  at  the  Surrey 
Tavern,  Surrey  Street,  Strand.     They  had  a  poet,  Brother 
Ebenezer  Sibley,  who  was  a  doctor  of  medicine  and  an  astro- 
loger to  boot,  who,  like  too  many  masonic  poets,  wrote  in- 
different couplets.      This  Order   must   not   be  confounded 


94  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

with  the  "Noachite  or  Russian  Knight,"  which  is  the  2ist 
degree  of  the  Ancient  Scotch  rite. 

482.  Argonauts. — This  Order  was  founded,  for  his  amuse- 
ment,   by   a   Freemason,    Konrad   von    Rhetz,    residing   at 
Riddagshausen,  near  Brunswick.     He  had  been  the  master 
of  a  lodge  of  the  Relaxed  Observance,  but  fell  out  with  his 
brethren,  and  ceased  from  visiting  any  lodge.      Near  his 
residence  there  is  a  large  lake  with  an  island  in  the  centre. 
On  this  he  built  a  temple  and  provided  boats  to  carry  visitors 
to  it,  where,  if  they  desired  it,  they  were  initiated  into  the 
new  Order.     Persons  of  position  and  of  either  sex  might 
claim  reception  as  a  matter  of  right,  and  many  Brunswick 
Freemasons  belonged  to  it.     The  Grand  Master,  or  Grand 
Admiral  as  he  was  called,  entertained  all  visitors  free  of 
expense,  nor  was   there    any    charge    for   initiation.      The 
greeting  was  "  Long  live  pleasure  !  "     The  temple  was  built 
in  the  antique  style,  though  with  quaint  decorations  and  a 
few  paintings  and  engravings.     There  were  also  cupboards 
containing  the  insignia  of  the   Order.      The  officers  were 
styled   Steersman,   Chaplain,   and   so  on ;    the  others  were 
simple   Argonauts.      The   jewel  was  a   silver   anchor  with 
green  enamel.     On  the  founder's  death  in  1787  the  Order 
was  dissolved  ;  no  trace  remains  of  the  temple. 

483.  The  Grand  Orient  and  Atheism. — In  1877  the  Grand 
Orient  abolished  in  the  lodges  the   acknowledgment  of  a 
belief  in  God,  introduced  into  the  ritual  in  1854,  which  has 
led  to  a  rupture  between  it  and  the  Grand  Lodge  of  England. 
The  influence  of  Masonry,  both  social  and  political,  in  France 
being  universal,  it  is  the  foundation  and  support  of  the  war 
made  on  the  priesthood  with  a  view  chiefly  to  deprive  them 
of  the  education  of  youth.     The  Spanish  and  Dutch  Grand 
Lodges   approved   of   the   action   of    the    Grand   Orient  in 
suppressing  the  name  of   God  in   the  ritual  of   admission. 
There    is    no   doubt    that    Continental    Masonry    aims    at 
the   abolition   not   only   of    the   Roman   Catholic    Church, 
but  of   the  human   mind's   blind   surrender   to   any   creed 
whatever. 

484.  Ludicrous  Degree. — The  following  lodge  was  actually 
established  about   1717.     Some  joyous  companions,  having 
passed  the  degree  of  craft,   resolved  to  form  a  lodge  for 
themselves.     As  none  of  them  knew  the  master's  part,  they 
at  once  invented  and  adopted  a  ritual  which  suited  every 
man's  humour.     Hence  it  was  ordered  that  every  person 
during  initiation  should  wear  boots,   spurs,   a   sword,    and 
spectacles.    The  apron  was  turned  upside  down.    To  simplify 


SCHISMATIC  KITES  AND  SECTS  95 

work  of  the  lodge,  they  abolished  the  practice  of  study - 
ig  geometry,  excepting  that  form  mentioned  by  Hudibras — 

"  For  he,  by  geometric  scale, 
Could  take  the  size  of  pots  of  ale  ; 
Resolve  by  sines  and  tangents  straight, 
If  bread  or  butter  wanted  weight." 

)me  of  the  members  proved  that  a  good  knife  and  fork  in 
16  hands  of  a  dexterous  brother,  over  proper  materials, 
rould  give  greater  satisfaction  and  add  more  to  the  rotun- 
lity  of  the  lodge  than  the  best  scale  and  compass  in  Europe  ; 
adding  that  a  line,  a  square,  a  parallelogram,  a  rhombus,  a 
rhomboid,  a  triangle,  a  trapezium,  a  circle,  a  semi-circle,  a 
quadrant,  a  parabola,  a  hyperbola,  a  cube,  a  parallelepipedon, 
a  prism,  a  prismoid,  a  pyramid,  a  cylinder,  a  curve,  a  cylin- 
droid,  a  sphere,  a  spheroid,  a  paraboloid,  a  cycloid,  a  para- 
centric, frustums,  segments,  sectors,  gnomons,  pentagons, 
hexagons,  polygons,  ellipses,  and  irregular  figures  of  all  sorts, 
might  be  drawn  and  represented  upon  bread,  beef,  mutton, 
ham,  fowls,  pies,  &c.,  as  demonstratively  as  upon  sheets  of 
paper  or  the  tracing-board,  and  that  the  use  of  the  globes 
might  be  taught  and  explained  as  clearly  and  briefly  upon 
two  bottles  as  upon  any  twenty-eight  inch  spheres. 


XXV 
DIFFUSION   OF  THE    ORDER 


485.  Freemasonry  in  Spain  and  Portugal. — In  1726,  the 
Grand  Lodge  of  England  granted  a  patent  for  the  establish- 
ment of  a  lodge  at  Gibraltar;  another  was  founded  in  the 
following  year  at  Madrid,  which,  declaring  itself  independent 
of  foreign  supervision,  established  lodges  at  Cadiz,  Barcelona, 
Valladolid,  and  other  places.  The  Inquisition,  seeing  the 
danger  that  threatened  the  Church,  persecuted  the  Order ; 
hence  some  mystery  surrounds  the  labours  of  the  brother- 
hood in  the  Iberian  peninsula.  But  in  the  troubles 
which  distressed  Spain  during  the  Napoleonic  wars,  the 
masonic  lodges  were  politically  very  active.  They  were 
suppressed  again  by  Ferdinand  VII.,  and  up  to  the  year 
1868  were  but  few  in  number,  and  disguised  under  various 
names.  Since  that  year  they  have  rapidly  increased,  and 
there  are  now  more  than  360  lodges  in  Spain.  The  Spanish 
Grand  Lodge  has  154  lodges  under  its  jurisdiction;  the 
Grand  Orient  of  Spain  about  162  ;  the  Lusitanian  Grand 
Orient  about  40  lodges.  There  are,  moreover,  about  40  lodges 
subject  to  foreign  Grand  Lodges.  The  number  of  Spanish 
Masons  may  amount  to  30,000. 

In  Portugal,  the  first  lodges  were  founded,  not  under 
English,  but  under  French  auspices ;  but  English  influence 
soon  made  itself  felt  in  the  establishment  of  additional  lodges, 
though  in  great  secrecy ;  which,  however,  did  not  save  many 
Freemasons  from  becoming  the  victims  of  the  Inquisition. 

486.  Freemasonry  in  Russia. — In  1731,  Freemasonry  dared 
to  oppose  itself  to  Russian  despotism,  which  not  fearing,  and 
probably  despising  it,  did  not  molest  it.  The  times  were 
unpropitious.  The  sanguinary  Biren  ruled  the  Empress 
Anne,  whom  by  means  of  the  amorous  fascination  he  exer- 
cised upon  her,  he  easily  persuaded  to  commit  all  kinds  of 
folly  and  cruelty ;  and  Masonry,  though  it  knew  itself  to  be 
tolerated,  yet  did  not  feel  secure,  and  cautiously  kept  itself 

in  the  background.    In  1740,  England  founded  a  lodge  at  St. 

96 


DIFFUSION  OF  THE  ORDER  97 

Petersburg,  and  sent  thither  a  Grand  Master.  The  Order 
spread  in  the  provinces,  and  in  1763  the  lodge  "Clio"  was 
opened  at  Moscow.  Catherine  II.  wished  to  know  its  statutes, 
perceiving  the  advantage  or  injury  they  might  bring  to  her 
government  as  she  either  promoted  or  persecuted  the  associa- 
tion. In  the  end  she  determined  to  protect  the  Order ;  and 
in  a  country  where  the  court  leads  opinion,  lodges  soon  be- 
came the  fashion.  But  Masonry  thus  becoming  the  amuse- 
ment of  a  wealthy  nobility,  it  soon  lost  sight  of  its  primitive 
objects.  In  no  other  country  probably  did  the  brotherhood 
possess  such  gorgeous  temples ;  but,  deprived  of  the  vivify- 
ing and  invigorating  air  of  liberty,  its  splendour  could  not 
save  it  from  a  death  of  inanition. 

487.  Freemasonry  in  Switzerland.  —  English  proselytism, 
always  the  most  active,  established  a  lodge  at  Geneva  in  1737, 
whose  first  Grand  Master  was  George  Hamilton.     Two  years 
afterwards,  the  foreigners  dwelling  at  Lausanne  united  and 
founded  the  lodge  called  the  "  Perfect  Union  of  Foreigners." 
Lodges  were  also  opened  at  Berne ;   but  the  manoeuvres  of 
the  Grand  Lodges  of   the   States  surrounding  Switzerland 
introduced  long  and  fierce  dissensions.     In   1765,  the  Strict 
Observance  founded  at  Basle  the  lodge  "  Liberty,"  which 
became  the  mother-lodge  of  many  others,  and,  calling  itself 
the  "  German  Helvetic  Directory,"  chose  for  its  chief  the 
celebrated  Lavater.     Then  followed  suppressions ;    but  the 
Order  revived,  and  in  1844  the  different  territorial  Grand 
Lodges  united  into  one  federal  Grand  Lodge,  called  "  Alpina," 
which  revised  the  ancient  statutes.     The  Swiss  Freemasons 
intend  to  erect  a  grand  temple,  which  perhaps  could  no- 
where find  a  more  fitting  site  than  in  a  country  where  four 
nations  of  diverse  languages  and  races  dwell  in  perfect  liberty. 

488.  Freemasonry    in    Sweden    and    Poland. — In     1748, 
Sweden  already  had  many  and  flourishing  lodges.     In  1754 
was  instituted  the  Grand  Lodge  of  Sweden,  under  a  patent 
from  the  Grand  Lodge  of  Scotland ;  it  afterwards  declared 
its  autonomy,  which  has  been  recognised  by  all  the  masonic 
bodies  of  Europe.     In  the  most  ancient  Swedish  ritual  we 
meet  for  the  first  time  in  Europe  with  the  cry  and  sign  of 
distress  of  the  sons  of  Adoniram  (383) :  "  To  me,  the  sons  of 
the  widow ! " 

Freemasonry,  at  first  suppressed  in  Poland,  was  revived 
under  Stanislaus  Augustus,  and  the  auspices  of  the  Grand 
Orient  of  France,  who  established  lodges  in  various  towns  of 
that  country.  These  united  in  1784  to  form  a  Grand  Orient, 
having  its  seat  at  Warsaw. 

VOL.  ir.  G 


98  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

489.  Freemasonry  in  Holland  and  Germany. — In  Holland 
the  Freemasons  opened  a  lodge  in  1731,  under  the  warrant 
of  the  Grand  Lodge  of  England  ;  it  was,  however,  only  what 
is  called  a  lodge  of  emergency,  having  been  called  to  initiate 
the  Duke  of   Tuscany,   afterwards  Francis  I,   Emperor  of 
Germany  (454).     The  first  regular  lodge  was  established  at 
The  Hague  in  1734,  which,  five  years  after,  took  the  name  of 
"Mother-lodge."     Numerous  lodges  were  opened  throughout 
the  country,  and  also  in  the  Dutch  colonies ;  and  the  Free- 
masons founded  many  schools,  with  the  avowed  object  of 
withdrawing  instruction  from  clerical  influence. 

In  Germany  lodges  were  numerous  as  early  as  the  middle 
of  last  century,  so  that  in  the  present  one  we  have  witnessed 
the  centenaries  of  many  of  them — as,  for  instance,  in  1837, 
of  that  of  Hamburg;  in  1840,  of  that  of  Berlin;  in  1841, 
of  those  of  Breslau,  Baireuth,  Leipzig,  and  many  more. 

490.  Freemasonry  in  Turkey,  Asia,  Africa,  and  Oceania. — 
The  Order  also  spread  into  Turkey,  where,  however,  as  may 
be  supposed,  for  a  long  time  it  led  but  a  harassed  existence. 
Lodges  were   established   at   Constantinople,    Smyrna,   and 
Aleppo ;  and  it  may  be  mentioned,  as  a  fact  in  favour  of 
Freemasonry,  that  the  Turkish  Freemasons  are  in  a  more 
advanced  state  of  civilisation  than  is  usual  among  Orientals 
generally.     They  reject  polygamy,  and  at  the  masonic  ban- 
quets the  women  appear  unveiled ;  so  that  whatever  their 
western  sisters  may  have  to  say  against  Masonry,  the  women 
of  the  East  certainly  are  gainers  by  the  introduction  of  the 
Order. 

The  most  important  masonic  lodges  of  Asia  are  in  India  ; 
they  are  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Grand  Lodges  of 
England  and  Scotland. 

Freemasonry  was  introduced  into  Africa  by  the  establish- 
ment of  a  lodge  at  Cape  Coast  Castle  in  1735.  There  are 
now  lodges  at  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope;  in  the  islands  of 
Mauritius,  Madagascar,  and  St.  Helena ;  and  at  Algiers, 
Tunis,  Morocco,  Cairo,  and  Alexandria. 

Lodges  have  existed  since  1828  at  Sydney,  Melbourne, 
Parramatta,  and  other  places ;  in  all,  about  two  hundred. 

491.  Freemasonry  in  America. — The  first  lodge  established 
in  Canada  was  at  Cape  Breton,  in  the  year  1745.     Lodges 
existed  from  as  early  a  period  in  the  West  Indian  Islands. 
On  the  establishment  of  the  Brazilian  empire,  a  Grand  Lodge 
was  initiated;  and  in   1825,  Don  Pedro  I.  was  elected  its 
Grand  Master.     In  1825,  the  Grand  Lodge  of  Mexico  was 
instituted,  where  the  Liberals  and  Federalists  joined   the 


DIFFUSION  OF  THE  ORDER  99 

York  rite,  whilst  the  Clerics,  Monarchists,  and  Centralizers 
adopted  the  Scotch  rite,  the  two  parties  carrying  on  a  re- 
lentless war.  Texas,  Venezuela,  and  the  turbulent  republics 
of  South  America,  all  had  their  masonic  lodges,  which  were 
in  many  cases  political  clubs  in  disguise.  Thus  the  assassi- 
nation of  Garcia  Moreno,  the  President  of  the  Republic  of 
Ecuador,  in  1875,  was  the  work  of  the  masonic  clubs.  The 
murderer,  one  R-ajo,  on  being  promised  his  life  if  he  would 
denounce  his  accomplices,  coolly  replied  :  "  It  would  be  use- 
less to  save  my  life ;  if  you  spared  it,  my  companions  would 
soon  take  it ;  I  would  rather  be  shot  than  stabbed." 

The  lodges  in  the  territory  now  forming  the  United  States 
date  as  far  back  as  1729.  Until  the  close  of  the  revolutionary 
war  these  were  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Grand  Lodge  of 
England  ;  but  almost  every  State  of  the  Union  now  has  its 
own  Grand  Lodge,  independent  of  all  foreign  power. 

In  different  parts  of  the  globe  there  are  about  90  Grand 
Lodges,  nearly  12,000  lodges,  numbering  altogether  about 
12,500,000  members;  of  the  active  members,  or  such  as 
regularly  attend  lodges  and  pay  annual  subscriptions,  there 
may  be  half  that  number. 


XXVI 
PERSECUTIONS  OF  FREEMASONRY 

492.  Causes  of  Persecution. — The  secrecy  with  which  the 
masonic  brotherhood  has  always  surrounded  its  proceedings 
is  no  doubt  highly  grateful  to  the  members,  but  it  has  its 
drawbacks.      The  outside  world,  who   cannot   believe   that 
masonic  meetings,  which  are  so  jealously  guarded  against  the 
intrusion  of  non-Masons,  have  no  other  purpose  than  the  re- 
hearsal of  a  now  totally  useless  and  pointless  ritual,  followed 
by  conviviality,  naturally  assume  that  there  must  be  some- 
thing more  behind ;  and  what  seems  to  fear  the  light  is 
usually  supposed  to  be  evil.     Hence  all  governments,  as  long 
as  they  did  not  know  what  modern  Freemasonry  really  is, 
persecuted  and  endeavoured  to  suppress  it.     But  as  soon  as 
they  discovered  its  real  scope  and  character,  they  gave  it  their 
support,  feeling  quite  convinced  that  men  who  could  find 
entertainment  in  the  doings  of  the  lodges,  would  never,  as  it 
is  popularly  called,  set  the  Thames  on  fire.     One  of  the  first 
persecutions  against  Freemasonry  arose  in  Holland  in  1734. 
A  crowd  of  ignorant  fanatics,  incited  thereto  by  the  clergy, 
broke  into  a  lodge  at   Amsterdam,  and   destroyed   all   its 
furniture  and  ornaments ;  but  the  town  clerk  having,  at  the 
suggestion  of  the  Order,  been  initiated,  the  States-General, 
upon  his  report,  sanctioned  the  society,  many  of  the  chief 
persons  becoming  members.     Of  course,  when  lodges  were 
turned  into  political  clubs,  and  the  real  business  of  Masonry 
was  cast  aside  for  something  more  serious,  the  matter  assumed 
a  very  different  aspect.     The  persecutions  here  to  be  men- 
tioned will  therefore  be  such  only  as  took  place  against  Free- 
masonry, legitimately  so  called. 

493.  Instances  of  Persecution. — Pope  Clement  XII.,  in  1 738, 
issued  a  decree  against  the  Order,  which  was  followed  by  a 
more  severe  edict  next  year,  the  punishment  therein  awarded 
for  being  found  guilty  of  practising  Freemasonry  being  con- 
fiscation and  death,  without  hope  of  mercy.     This  was  a 
signal  of  persecution  in  the  countries  connected  with  Home. 


PERSECUTIONS  OF  FREEMASONRY          101 

The  parliament  of  Paris,  however,  refused  to  register  the 
papal  bull ;  and  an  apology  for  the  Order  was  published  at 
Dublin.  But  Philip  V.  of  Spain  declared  the  galleys  for  life, 
or  punishment  of  death  with  torture  to  be  the  doom  of  Free- 
masons ;  a  very  large  number  of  whom  he  caused  to  be 
arrested  and  sentenced.  Peter  Torrubia,  Grand  Inquisitor  of 
Spain,  having  first  made  confession  and  received  absolution, 
entered  the  Order  for  the  express  purpose  of  betraying  it. 
He  joined  in  1751,  and  made  himself  acquainted  with  the 
entire  ramifications  of  the  craft ;  and  in  consequence  members 
of  ninety-seven  lodges  were  seized  and  tortured  on  the  rack. 
Ferdinand  VI.  declared  Freemasonry  to  be  high-treason,  and 
punishable  with  death.  When  the  French  became  masters 
of  Spain,  Freemasonry  was  revived  and  openly  practised,  the 
members  of  the  Grand  Lodge  of  Madrid  meeting  in  the  hall 
previously  occupied  by  their  arch-enemy  the  Inquisition. 
With  the  return  of  Ferdinand  VII.,  who  re-established  the 
Inquisition,  the  exterminating  process  recommenced.  In 
1814,  twenty-five  persons  suspected  of  Freemasonry  were 
dragged  in  chains  to  confinement ;  but  the  subsequent  arrests 
were  so  numerous,  that  no  correct  account  is  obtainable,  nor 
can  the  ultimate  fate  of  the  accused  be  recorded.  One  of 
the  noblest  victims  of  the  Spanish  Inquisition  and  the  Holy 
Alliance  was  Riego,  the  "  Hampden  of  Spain,"  who  was 
atrociously  murdered  by  hanging  at  Madrid  in  1823.  "  Have 
I  got  you,  you  Freemason,  you  son  of  the  devil !  you  shall 
pay  for  all  you  have  done ! "  howled  the  hangman,  before 
strangling  him.  In  1824,  a  law  was  promulgated,  command- 
ing all  Masons  to  declare  themselves,  and  deliver  up  all  their 
papers  and  documents,  under  the  penalty  of  being  declared 
traitors.  The  Minister  of  War,  in  the  same  year,  issued  a 
proclamation,  outlawing  every  member  of  the  craft ;  and  in 
1827,  seven  members  of  a  lodge  in  Granada  were  executed  ; 
while  in  1828,  the  tribunals  of  the  same  city  condemned  the 
Marquis  of  Lavrillana  and  Captain  Alvarez  to  be  beheaded 
for  having  founded  a  lodge.  In  1848,  Masons  were  no  longer 
executed,  but  sent  to  the  galleys  ;  as  late  as  the  year  1854, 
members  of  masonic  lodges  were  seized  and  imprisoned. 

In  1735,  several  noble  Portuguese  instituted  a  lodge  at 
Lisbon,  under  the  Grand  Lodge  of  England,  of  which  George 
Gordon  was  Master  ;  but  the  priests  immediately  determined 
on  putting  it  down.  One  of  the  best-known  victims  of  the 
Inquisition  was  John  Coustos,  a  native  of  Switzerland,  who 
was  arrested  in  1743,  and  thrown  into  a  subterranean 
dungeon,  where  he  was  racked  nine  times  in  three  months 


102  SECEET  SOCIETIES 

for  not  revealing  the  secrets  of  Masonry.  He  had,  however, 
to  appear  in  an  auto-da-fd,  and  was  sentenced  to  five  years' 
work  as  a  galley  slave  ;  but  the  British  Government  claiming 
him  as  a  subject,  he  was  released  before  the  term  of  his 
punishment  expired.  Thirty-three  years  passed  without 
anything  more  being  heard  of  Freemasonry  in  Portugal ; 
but  in  1776,  two  members  of  the  craft  were  arrested,  and 
remained  upwards  of  fourteen  months  in  prison.  In  1792, 
Queen  Maria  I.  ordered  all  Freemasons  to  be  delivered  over 
to  the  Inquisition  ;  a  very  few  families  escaped  to  New  York, 
where  they  landed  with  the  words,  Asylum  quccrimus.  Among 
their  American  brethren  they  found  not  only  an  asylum,  but 
a  new  home.  The  French  Empire  ushered  in  better  days ; 
but  with  the  restoration  of  the  old  regime  came  the  former 
prejudices  and  persecutions.  In  1818,  John  VI.  promulgated 
from  the  Brazils  an  edict  against  all  secret  societies,  includ- 
ing Freemasonry;  and,  again  in  1823,  a  similar  though 
more  stringent  proclamation  appeared  in  Lisbon.  The 
punishment  of  death  therein  awarded  was  afterwards 
reduced  to  fine  and  transportation  to  Africa. 

In  Austria,  the  papal  bulls  provoked  persecutions  and 
seizures;  hence  arose  the  Order  of  the  Mopses  (471),  which 
spread  through  Holland,  Belgium,  and  France.  In  1747, 
thirty  Masons  were  arrested  and  imprisoned  at  Vienna. 
Maria  Theresa,  having  been  unable  to  discover  the  secrets 
of  the  Order,  issued  a  decree  to  arrest  all  Masons,  but  the 
measure  was  frustrated  by  the  good  sense  of  the  Emperor 
Joseph  II.,  who  was  himself  a  Mason,  and  therefore  knew 
that  the  pursuits  of  the  Order  were  innocent  enough. 
Francis  I.,  at  the  Diet  of  Ratisbon  in  1794,  demanded  the 
suppression  of  all  masonic  societies  throughout  Germany, 
but  Hanover,  Brunswick,  and  Prussia  united  with  the 
smaller  States  in  refusing  their  assent. 

The  history  of  Freemasonry  in  Central  Italy  during  the 
last  century  and  this,  as  may  be  supposed,  is  a  mere  re- 
petition of  sufferings,  persecutions,  and  misfortunes;  the 
members  of  the  craft  being  continually  under  punishment, 
through  the  intolerance  of  the  priesthood  and  the  inter- 
ference of  the  civil  power. 

But  persecution  was  not  confined  to  Catholic  countries. 
Even  in  Switzerland,  the  Masons  at  one  time  were  perse- 
cuted. The  Council  of  Berne,  in  1745,  passed  a  law  with 
certain  degrees  of  punishment  for  members  of  lodges ; 
which  law  was  renewed  in  1782.  It  is  now  abrogated. 
Frederick  I.,  King  of  Sweden,  a  very  few  years  after  the 


PEESECUTIONS  OF  FREEMASONRY          103 

introduction  (1736)  of  Freemasonry,  forbade  it  under  penalty 
of  death.  At  present  the  king  is  at  the  head  of  the  Swedish 
craft.  The  King  Frederick  Augustus  III.  of  Poland  caused, 
in  1730,  enactments  to  be  published,  forbidding,  under  pain 
of  severe  punishment,  the  practice  of  Freemasonry  in  his 
kingdom.  In  1757,  the  Synod  of  Stirling  adopted  a  re- 
solution debarring  all  Freemasons  from  the  ordinances  of 
religion.  In  1799,  Lord  Radnor  proposed  in  the  English 
Parliament  a  bill  against  secret  societies,  and  especially 
against  Freemasonry;  and  a  similar  but  equally  fruitless 
attempt  against  the  Order  was  made  in  1814  by  Lord 
Liverpool.  The  Society  is  now  acknowledged  by  law ;  the 
Prince  of  Wales  is  at  the  head  of  the  craft. 

494.  Anti-  Masonic  Publications.  —  One  of  the  earliest 
English  publications  against  Freemasonry  is  "The  Free- 
masons ;  an  Hudibrastic  Poem"  (London,  1723).  It  is 
written  in  the  coarsest  style  of  invective,  describing  the 
Masons  as  a  drunken  set  of  revellers,  practising  all  kinds 
of  filthy  rites.  Several  works  of  no  literary  merit  appeared 
at  various  intervals  between  1726  and  1760,  professing  to 
reveal  the  masonic  secrets,  but  their  authors  evidently  knew 
nothing  of  the  craft.  In  1768,  a  rabid  parson  published  a 
sermon,  entitled  "Masonry,  the  Way  to  Hell."  It  is  beneath 
criticism.  Numerous  works  of  a  similar  tendency,  or  pro- 
fessing to  reveal  what  Masonry  was,  thenceforth  appeared 
at  short  intervals  in  England,  France,  Germany,  and  Italy, 
such  as  "  Les  Plus  Secrets  Mysteres  de  la  Ma^onnerie " ; 
"Le  Maschere  Strappate"  (The  Masks  torn  off);  "The 
Veil  Removed,  or  the  Secret  of  the  Revolutions  fostered 
by  Freemasonry " ;  Robison's  "  Proofs  of  a  Conspiracy 
against  all  the  Religions  and  Governments  of  Europe 
carried  on  in  the  Secret  Meetings  of  Freemasons,  Illuminati, 
and  Reading  Societies/'  a  work  which  must  have  astonished 
the  Masons  not  a  little,  and  for  which  they  were  no  doubt 
in  their  hearts  very  grateful  to  the  author,  for  he  makes  the 
Masons  out  to  be  very  terrible  fellows  indeed.  The .  work 
of  the  Abbe"  Barruel  is  of  the  same  stamp ;  it  is  entitled, 
"Me"moires  pour  servir  a  1'Histoire  du  Jacobinisme,"  and 
is  noteworthy  for  nothing  but  absence  of  critical  power  and 
honesty  of  statement.  The  Jesuits,  though  imitating  the 
ritual  of  the  Masons,  have  naturally  always  been  their 
enemies,  generally  secretly,  but  sometimes  openly,  as,  for 
instance,  through  the  Italian  zappatori  (labourers),  whose 
avowed  object  was  the  destruction  of  the  Masonic  Order. 
Protestants  also  have  written  fiercely  against  the  Order, 


104  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

Lindner's  "Mac-Benach"  (1818),  and  Hengstenberg's  and 
Moller's  in  quite  recent  years,  are  samples  of  such  writings. 

One  of  the  most  voluminous  works  against  Freemasonry 
is  that  of  Dr.  E.  E.  Eckert,  of  Dresden.  It  is  in  three  thick 
volumes,  printed  at  various  places  (1852-80).  The  title  is, 
"  Proofs  for  the  Condemnation  of  Freemasonry  as  the 
Starting  Point  of  all  Destructive  Activity."  He  sees 
Masonry  everywhere,  even  in  Chinese  secret  societies ! 
According  to  Eckert,  Freemasons  were  the  originators  of 
the  Illuminati  and  Burschenschaft  in  Germany,  of  the 
Jacobins  and  Juste  Milieu  in  France,  of  the  Carbonari  in 
Italy,  of  the  Liberals  in  Spain,  and  the  Giovine  Italia ! 
He  was  expelled  from  Berlin  in  consequence  of  his  attacks 
on  highly-placed  Masons.  The  latest  work  of  importance 
hostile  to  Masonry  is  by  the  late  Pere  Deschamps,  in  three 
large  volumes,  entitled,  "  Les  Societe's  Secretes  et  la  Societe  " 
(Paris  and  Avignon,  1882-83).  The  writer,  a  priest,  sees  only 
evil  in  the  fraternity,  and,  in  fact,  all  evil  in  the  world — 
political,  social,  moral — is  due  to  the  occult  action  of  the 
Masons,  whose  object  is  the  overthrow  of  all  religion, 
morality,  and  justice.  In  1873,  a  German  work,  entitled, 
"  The  Secret  Warfare  of  Freemasonry  against  Church  and 
State"  (an  English  translation  was  published  in  1875),  had 
brought  the  same  charges  against  the  Society's  action  on 
the  Continent.  And  Masonry  continues  to  be  the  bugbear 
of  the  Church.  In  1875,  Pope  Pius  IX.  fulminated  a  bull 
against  the  Order;  in  1884,  shortly  after  the  installation  of 
the  Prince  of  Wales  as  Grand  Master  Mark-Mason,  the  Pope 
issued  an  encyclical,  Httmanum  genus,  in  which  he  denounced 
the  Order  as  criminal,  impious,  revolutionary,  and  everything 
bad ;  towards  the  end  of  September  of  this  present  year 
(1896)  an  anti-masonic  congress,  convoked  by  the  Church, 
was  held  at  Trent,  and  attended  by  about  six  hundred 
priests,  presided  over  by  Cardinal  Agliardi,  armed  with  the 
Pope's  brief  condemning  Freemasonry.  The  whole  proceed- 
ing was  an  exact  counterpart  of  the  meeting  held  on  the 
ist  February  1762,  when  "  many  gentlemen,  eminent  for  their 
rank  and  character,"  including  "Pomposo"  Johnson,  "were, 
by  the  invitation  of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Aldrich,  assembled  "  to  in- 
quire into  the  noises  made  by  the  Cock-lane  ghost.  Sitting 
with  closed  doors,  the  Congress  discussed  Miss  Diana 
Vaughan,  who,  in  a  book  published  by,  or  attributed  to  her, 
described  how  at  an  early  age  she  was  initiated  into  Free- 
masonry, and  that  in  American  lodges  she  had  frequent 
interviews  with  Lucifer,  and  some  of  his  imps.  The  truth  or 


PERSECUTIONS  OF  FREEMASONRY         105 

untruth  of  this  statement  was  seriously  debated  by  the 
"learned  divines"  assembled  at  Trent!  And  they  left  the 
matter  in  doubt.  The  reverend  fathers  seem  to  have  been 
particularly  shocked  at  the  liberties  taken  with  the  devil's 
personality ;  yet  they  must  know  that  the  devil  has  for  ages 
been  an  object  of  ridicule,  the  theme  of  ribald  songs  and 
jokes  even  in  the  mystery  plays. 

Dr.  Bataille  wrote  a  book  entitled,  "  The  Devil  in  the 
Nineteenth  Century,"  which  is  a  specimen  of  the  grossest 
superstition,  which  was  ridiculed  in  a  reply  afterwards  pub- 
lished by  a  Count  H.  C.,  and  wherein  he  regrets  that  a  large 
number  of  high  personages,  particularly  among  the  clergy, 
should  have  been  thus  imposed  upon.  Dr.  Bataille  in  his 
book  referred  largely  to  devil-worship  in  the  East;  Count 
H.  C.  contradicts  most  of  the  doctor's  statements. 


XXVII 
FUTILITY  OF  MODERN  FREEMASONRY 

495.  Vain  Pretensions  of  Modern  Freemasonry. — After  this 
necessarily  compressed  account  of  Freemasonry,  past  and  pre- 
sent, the  question  naturally  suggests  itself — What  is  its  present 
use  ?  Are  its  pretensions  not  groundless  ?  Is  it  not  an 
institution  which  has  outlived  the  object  of  its  foundation  ? 
Is  not  its  present  existence  a  delusion  and  an  anachronism  ? 
Since  all  that  is  said  and  done  in  the  lodges  has  for  many 
years  been  in  print,  is  the  holding  out  of  the  communication 
of  secrets  not  a  delusion,  and  the  imposition  of  childish  oaths 
not  a  farce  ?  The  answers  to  all  these  questions  must  be 
unfavourable  to  Freemasonry.  When  Masonry  was  purely 
operative,  it  had  its  uses ;  when  it  became  speculative,  it  was 
more  useful  still  in  its  earlier  stages,  at  least  on  the  Con- 
tinent, and  indirectly  in  this  country  also ;  for  either  by 
itself,  or  in  conjunction  with  other  societies,  such  as  the 
Illuminati,  it  opposed  the  political  despotism,  then  prevalent 
all  over  Europe,  and  formed  an  anti- Inquisition  to  clerical 
obscurantism  and  oppression,  wherefore  it  was  persecuted 
by  Protestant  and  Roman  Catholic  rulers  alike.  The  rapid 
progress  achieved  in  modern  times  by  humanity  and  tolera- 
tion, is  undoubtedly  due  to  the  tendency  which  speculative 
Masonry  took  in  the  last,  and  to  its  political  activity  in  all 
countries,  except  England,  in  this  century.  Founded  in 
ages  when  the  possession  of  religious  and  scientific  know- 
ledge was  the  privilege  of  the  few,  it  preserved  that 
knowledge — then  indeed  a  small  rivulet  only — from  being 
choked  up  by  the  weeds  of  indifference  and  superstition  ;  but 
now  that  that  small  rivulet  has  been  overtaken  by,  and  swal- 
lowed up  in,  the  boundless,  ever-advancing  ocean  of  modern 
science,  which  may  boldly  proclaim  its  discoveries  to  the 
world,  a  society  that  professes  to  keep  knowledge  for  the 
few  is  but  a  retrograde  institution.  Philo,  about  1780,  pro- 
perly defined  English  Masonry,  as  it  then  was,  and  is  to-day  : 
"  The  lodges  indiscriminately  receive  members,  go  through 
ceremonies,  play  at  mysteries  without  understanding  them, 
eat,  drink,  and  digest  well,  and  now  and  then  bestow  alms — 
such  are  the  formal  English  lodges." 

106 


FUTILITY  OF  MODERN  FREEMASONRY      107 

496.  Vanity  of  Masonic  Ceremonial. — There  are  thousands 
of  excellent  men  who  have  never  seen  the  inside  of  a  lodge, 
and  yet   are  genuine   Freemasons,  i.e.  liberal-minded   and 
enlightened  men,  devoted  to  the  study  of  Nature  and  the 
progress  of  mankind,  moral  and  intellectual ;  men  devoid  of 
all   political   and   religious   prejudices,  true    cosmopolitans. 
And  there  are  thousands  who  have  passed  through  every 
masonic  degree,  and  yet    are  not  Masons  ;  men  who  take 
appearances  for  realities,  the  means  for  the  end,  the  cere- 
monies of  the  lodge  for  Freemasonry.     But  the  lodge,  with 
all  its  symbols,  is  only  the  form  of  the  masonic  thought.     In 
the  present  age,  however,  this  form,  which  was  very  suitable, 
nay,  necessary,  for  the  time  when  it  was  instituted,  becomes 
an  anachronism.     The  affectation  of  possessing  a  secret  is 
a  childish  and  mischievous  weakness.      The  objects  modern 
Masons  profess  to  pursue  are  brotherly  love,  relief,  and  truth  ; 
surely  the  pursuit  of  these  objects  cannot  need  any  secret 
rites,   traditions,   and  ceremonies.      In   spite  of   the  great 
parade  made  in  masonic  publications  about  the  science  and 
learning  peculiar  to  the  craft,  what  discovery  of  new  scientific 
facts  or  principles  can  Masons  claim  for  the  Order  ?     Nay, 
are  well-known  and  long-established  truths  familiar  to  them, 
and  made  the  objects  of  study  in  the  lodges  ?     Nothing  of 
the  kind.    That  noble  character,  the  Emperor-King  Frederick 
III.,  who  had  early  in  life  been  initiated,  resigned  the  Grand- 
Mastership   when,    after   patient  and  diligent  inquiry,    for 
which  his  exalted  position  gave  him  exceptional  facilities, 
he,  in  spite  of  a  secret  inclination  to  the  contrary,  became 
satisfied  of  the  unsoundness  and  vanity  of  masonic  pretensions. 

497.  Masonry   diffuses   no    Knowledge. — We   get   neither 
science  nor  learning  from  a  Mason,  as  a  Mason.     The  Order, 
in   fact,   abjures   religious   and   political  discussion  in  this 
country,  and  yet  it  pretends  that  to  it  mankind  is  indebted 
for  its  progress,  and  that,  were  it  abolished,  mental  darkness 
would  again  overshadow  the  world.     But  how  is  this  pro- 
gress to  be  effected,  if  the  chronic  diseases  in  the  existing 
religious  and  political  systems  of  the  world  are  not  to  be 
meddled  with  ?     As  well  might  an  association  for  the  ad- 
vancement of  learning   abjure  inquiry   into   chemical    and 
mechanical  problems,  and  then  boast  of  the  benefits  it  con- 
ferred on  science !     It  is  Hamlet  with  the  part  of  Hamlet 
omitted.     If  then  Masonry  wishes  to  live  on,  and  be  some- 
thing more  than  a  society  of  Odd  Fellows  or  Druids,  more 
lodges  must  be  formed  by  educated  men — and  fewer  by  the 
mere  publicans  and  other  tradesmen  that  now  found  lodges  to 


io8  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

create  a  market  for  their  goods — who  might  do  some  good 
by  teaching  moral  and  natural  philosophy  from  a  deeper 
ground  than  the  scholastic  and  grossly  material  basis  on 
which  all  teaching  at  present  is  founded,  and  by  rescuing 
science  from  the  degraded  position  of  handmaiden  to  mere 
physical  comfort,  into  which  modern  materialism  has  forced  it. 
498.  Decay  of  Freemasonry. — The  more  I  study  Free- 
masonry, the  more  I  am  repelled  by  its  pretences.  The 
facility  and  frequency  with  which  worthless  characters  are 
received  into  the  Order ;  the  manner  in  which  all  its  statutes 
are  disregarded;  the  dislike  with  which  every  brother  who 
insists  on  reform  is  looked  upon  by  the  rest ;  the  difficulty 
of  expelling  obnoxious  members ;  the  introduction  of  many 
spurious  rites,  and  the  deceptiveness  of  the  rites  themselves, 
designed  to  excite  curiosity  without  ever  satisfying  it;  the 
puerility  of  the  symbolism  ;  the  paltriness  of  the  secret  when 
revealed  to  the  candidate,  and  his  ill-concealed  disgust  when 
at  last  he  gets  behind  the  scenes  and  sees  through  the  rotten 
canvas  that  forms  so  beautiful  a  landscape  in  front — all  these 
too  plainly  show  that  the  lodge  has  banished  Freemasonry. 
And  like  monasticism  or  chivalry,  it  is  no  longer  wanted. 
Having  no  political  influence,  and  no  political  aspirations, 
or,  when  it  has  such  aspirations  revealing  them  by  insane 
excesses,  such  as  the  citation  before  masonic  tribunals  of 
Napoleon  III.,  the  Emperor  of  Germany,  the  Crown  Prince, 
the  Pope,  and  Marshal  Prim,  by  French,  Italian,  and  Spanish 
Masons  respectively,and  after  afarcical  sham  trial,  condemning 
the  accused  so  cited — to  which  summons  of  course  they  paid 
no  attention — to  death,  or  in  plain  English,  to  assassination, 
a  crime  really  perpetrated  on  the  person  of  Marshal  Prim ; 
being  no  longer  even  a  secret  society — for  a  society  sanc- 
tioned by  the  State,  as  Freemasonry  is,  cannot  be  called  a 
secret  society ;  having  no  industrial  or  intellectual  rally  ing- 
point — it  must  eventually  die  from  sheer  inanition.  It  may 
prolong  its  existence  by  getting  rid  of  all  the  rites  and  cere- 
monies which  are  neither  simple  nor  grand,  nor  founded  on 
any  authority  or  symbolic  meaning,  and  by  renouncing  the 
silly  pretence  of  secrets,1  and  undertaking  to  teach  what  I 
have  sketched  in  various  portions  of  this  work,  concerning 
the  origin  and  meaning  of  Masonry  and  its  symbols,  illustrat- 
ing its  teaching  by  the  ornaments  and  practice  of  the  lodges. 
This  seems  to  be  the  only  ground  on  which  Freemasonry 
could  claim  to  have  its  lease  of  existence,  as  Freemasonry, 

1  "  Un  secrete,  che  sanno  tre, 

Un  secreto  mai  non  e." — Italian  Proverb. 


FUTILITY  OF  MODERN  FREEMASONRY     109 

renewed,  for  not  even  the  Masonic  marriages,  introduced  by 
French  lodges,  will  perpetuate  its  existence.  I  have  before  me 
accounts  of  two  such  marriages,  performed  without  the  usual 
ecclesiastic  or  civil  ceremonies,  the  one  in  the  lodge  La 
France  Ma^onnique  in  Paris  in  1887,  and  the  other  in  a 
lodge  at  Toulouse,  in  the  same  year,  as  also  of  two  others, 
celebrated  in  Paris,  in  1882,  when  M.  Elyse'e  Reclus,  a  Free- 
mason, and  one  of  the  five  well-known  Anarchist  brothers, 
gave  away  two  of  his  daughters  to  two  brothers,  at  a  dinner 
held  in  a  private  house,  simply  declaring  the  two  couples 
by  that  mere  declaration  to  be  married.  But  the  ladies  do 
not  approve  of  these  hole-and-corner  espousals. 

499.  Masonic  Opinions  of  Masonry. — Masons  have  been 
very  indignant  with  me  for  making  these  statements;  but 
honest  members  of  the  craft  know,  and  occasionally  admit, 
that  I  am  right.  In  1798  a  Mason  wrote  in  the  Monthly 
Magazine,  "The  landlord  (who  is  always  a  brother)  pro- 
motes harmony,  as  it  is  called,  by  providing  choice  suppers 
and  good  liquors,  the  effects  of  which  are  late  hours  and  ineb- 
riety ;  and  thus  are  made  up  two-thirds  of  modern  lodges." 
And  again :  "  Hogarth  was  a  member  of  the  fraternity,  and 
actually  served  the  office  of  Grand  Steward  in  1735,  .  .  . 
yet  in  his  picture  of  ;  Night,'  one  of  the  most  conspicuous 
figures  is  that  of  a  master  of  a  lodge  led  home  drunk  by  the 
tyler."  The  too  facile  admission  of  worthless  members  is 
regretted  by  the  same  writer,  as  it  is  by  modern  Masons  (e.g. 
Freemason,  26th  June  1875). 

Brother  John  Yarker  in  his  "  Notes  on  the  Scientific  and 
Religious  Mysteries  of  Antiquity  "  (Hogg,  1 872),  a  zealous 
Mason,  says:  "As  the  masonic  fraternity  is  now  governed, 
the  craft  is  fast  becoming  the  paradise  of  the  bon  vivant,  of 
the  'charitable'  hypocrite,  who  .  .  .  decorates  his  breast 
with  the  'charity  jewel';  .  .  .  the  manufacturer  of  paltry 
masonic  tinsel;  the  rascally  merchant  who  swindles  in  hun- 
dreds and  even  thousands,  by  appealing  to  the  tender  con- 
sciences of  those  few  who  do  regard  their  0.  B.'s,  and  the 
Masonic  '  Emperors  '  and  other  charlatans,  who  make  power 
or  money  out  of  the  aristocratic  pretensions  which  they  have 
tacked  on  to  our  institution,  ad  captandum  vulgus"  This 
I  think  is  enough  to  show  that  my  censures  are  well  founded. 

500.  Masonic  Literature. — It  is  almost  absurd  to  talk  of 
masonic  literature;  it  scarcely  exists.  Except  the  works 
written  by  Oliver,  Mackey,  Findel,  and  Ragon,  there  is 
scarcely  anything  worth  reading  about  Freemasonry,  of 
which  a  Freemason  is  the  author.  The  countless  lectures 
by  brethren,  with  a  few  exceptions,  consist  of  mere  truisms 


I  io  SECKET  SOCIETIES 

and  platitudes.  Its  periodical  literature — in  this  country  at 
all  events — is  essentially  of  the  Grub  Street  kind,  consisting 
of  mere  trade-circulars,  supported  by  puffing  masonic  trades- 
men and  vain  officials,  who  like  to  have  their  working  in 
the  lodge  trumpeted  forth  in  a  fashion  which  occasionally 
trenches  on  imbecility,  as  could  readily  be  shown  by  extracts 
from  newspaper  reports.  All  attempts  permanently  to 
establish  masonic  periodicals  of  a  higher  order  have  hitherto 
failed  from  want  of  encouragement.  The  fact  is,  men  of 
education  take  very  little  interest  in  Masonry,  for  it  has 
nothing  to  offer  them  in  an  intellectual  point  of  view ;  be- 
cause even  Masons  who  have  attained  to  every  ne  plus  ultra 
of  the  institution,  know  little  of  its  origin  and  meaning. 

5oo<z.  The  Quatuor  Coronati  Lodge. — The  literary  short- 
comings of  Masonry  I  have,  in  the  interests  of  truth,  and  as 
an  impartial  historian  been  compelled  to  point  out  in  the 
previous  section,  have  been  recognised  by  intelligent  Masons, 
and  such  recognition  has,  in  1884,  led  to  the  foundation  of 
the  Quatuor  Coronati  Lodge.  Members  must  be  possessed 
of  literary  or  artistic  qualifications ;  to  belong  to  it,  there- 
fore, is  in  itself  a  distinction,  and,  as  may  be  supposed,  the 
lodge  is  composed  chiefly  of  well-known  masonic  historians 
and  antiquaries,  and  thus  occupies  a  position  totally  dif- 
ferent from  all  other  masonic  lodges.  Its  objects  are  the 
promotion  of  masonic  knowledge,  by  papers  read  and  dis- 
cussions thereon  in  the  lodge ;  by  the  publication  of  its 
transactions,  and  the  reprinting  of  scarce  and  valuable 
works  on  Freemasonry,  such  as  MSS.,  e.g.  "The  Masonic 
Poem"  (circa  1390),  the  earliest  MS.  relating  to  Free- 
masonry; Matthew  Cooke's  Harleian  and  Lansdowne  MSS.; 
or  printed  works,  as  e.g.,  "Anderson's  Constitutions"  of 
1738,  or  Reproductions  of  Masonic  Certificates.  All  these 
have  been  issued  by  this  lodge  in  volumes,  entitled  "  Ars 
Quatuor  Coronatorum,"  well  printed,  and  expensively  illus- 
trated. Connected  with  the  lodge  is  a  "  Correspondence 
Circle,"  whose  members  reside  in  all  parts  of  the  globe,  and 
form  a  literary  society  of  Masons,  aiming  at  the  progress  of 
the  craft.  But  by  progress  can  only  be  meant  extension 
of  Masonry;  the  "Transactions"  and  "Reprints"  can  add 
nothing  to  the  knowledge  the  best-informed  members  already 
possess ;  but  the  "  Reprints,"  by  their  aesthetic  sumptuous- 
ness  and  the  learned  comments  accompanying  them,  invest 
Masonry  with  a  dignity  which  may  attract  to  it  more  of  the 
intelligence  of  mankind  than  it  has  hitherto  done,  and  the 
labours  of  Quatuor  Coronatorum  therefore  deserve  the  hearty 
support  of  the  craft. 


BOOK   XII 

INTERNATIONAL,  COMMUNE,  AND 
ANARCHISTS 


INTEKNATIONAL,   COMMUNE,   AND 
ANARCHISTS 

501.  Introductory  Remarks. — There  exists  at  present  in  a 
state  of  suspended  animation  an  association  of  working — or 
rather,  talking — men,  pretending  to  have  for  its  object  the 
uniting  in  one  fraternal  bond  the  workers  of  all  countries, 
and  the  advocating  of  the  interests  of  labour,  and  those  only. 
Though  it  protests  against  being  a  secret  society,  it  yet 
indulges  in  such  underhand  dealings,  insidiously  endeavour- 
ing to  work  mischief  between  employers  and  employed,  and 
aiming  at  the  subversion  of  the  existing  order  of  things, 
that  it  deserves  to  be  denounced  with  all  the  societies  pro- 
fessedly secret.  In  this  country  its  influence  is  scarcely  felt, 
because  the  English  workmen  that  join  it  are  numerically 
few :  according  to  the  statement  of  the  secretary  of  the 
International  himself,  the  society  in  its  most  palmy  days 
counted  only  about  8000  English  members — and  these,  with 
here  and  there  an  exception,  belonged  to  the  most  worthless 
portion  of  the  working  classes.  It  ever  is  chiefly  the  idle  and 
dissipated  or  unskilled  artizan  who  thinks  his  position  is  to 
be  improved  by  others  and  not  by  himself.  To  hear  the 
interested  demagogues  and  paid  agitators  of  the  "Inter- 
national," or  of  "  Unions,"  the  working  classes  would  seem 
to  be  exceptionally  oppressed,  and  to  labour  under  disad- 
vantages greater  than  any  that  weigh  upon  other  sections 
of  the  community.  Yet  no  other  class  is  so  much  protected 
by  the  legislature,  and  none,  except  the  paupers,  pay  less 
towards  the  general  expenses  of  the  country  in  direct  or 
indirect  taxation.  The  wages  a  skilled  artizan  can  earn 
are  higher  than  the  remuneration  obtainable  by  thousands 
of  men,  who  have  enjoyed  a  university  education,  or  sunk 
money  in  some  professional  apprenticeship ;  whilst  he  is 
free  from  the  burden  incident  to  maintaining  a  certain  social 
status.  His  hours  of  labour  are  such  as  to  leave  him  plenty 
of  leisure  for  enjoyment,  especially  in  this  country  ;  and  as 
regards  extra  holidays,  he  is  on  the  whole  pretty  liberally 
dealt  with,  especially  by  the  large  employers  of  labour,  the 
capitalists,  against  whom  the  street-spouters,  who  for  their 

VOL.   II.  ir3  II 


1 14  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

own  advantage  get  up  public  demonstrations,  are  always 
inveighing  in  a  manner  which  would  be  simply  ridiculous, 
were  it  not  mischievous.  But  then  if  they  did  not  constantly 
attempt  to  render  the  workman  dissatisfied  with  his  lot,  their 
occupation  would  be  gone.  And  so,  as  the  doctors  who, 
for  want  of  patients,  get  up  hospitals  for  the  cure  of  par- 
ticular diseases,  try  to  persuade  every  man  they  come  in 
contact  with,  that  he  is  suffering  from  some  such  disease ; 
so  these  agitators  endeavour  to  talk  the  workman  into  the 
delusion  that  he  is  the  most  unfortunate  and  most  oppressed 
individual  under  the  sun.  To  wish  to  act  for  one's  self  and 
work  out  one's  own  salvation  is  no  doubt  very  praiseworthy ; 
but  workmen  ought  to  bear  in  mind  that  they  may  be  the 
tools  of  ambitious  men  in  their  own  class,  who  look  upon 
and  use  them  as  such  for  their  own  purposes,  men  who  want 
to  be  generals  commanding  soldiers.  But  the  soldiers  of 
the  Unions  are  not  worth  much.  Those  workmen  who  are 
not  satisfied  with  adhering  to  the  statutes  of  the  society  in 
order  to  get  rid  of  troublesome  appeals,  and  to  avoid  being 
molested  by  their  comrades,  but  who  fervently  embrace  its 
principles  and  count  upon  their  success,  usually  are  the 
most  idle,  the  least  saving,  the  least  sober.  The  fanatics  of 
the  Unions,  those  who  ought  to  form  their  principal  strength, 
are  formed,  not  by  the  6litet  but  by  the  scum  of  the  working 
classes.  The  chiefs  are  not  much  better.  The  more  intelli- 
gent and  honest  founders  of  such  societies  have  gradually 
withdrawn  from  them  in  disgust. 

502.  Socialistic  Schemes. — Schemes  for  the  regeneration  of 
mankind  have  been  hatched  in  every  age,  from  Plato  and  his 
Republic  down  to  Louis  Blanc's  Organisation  du  Travail,  and 
the  International.  Many  communistic  movements  took  place 
in  the  sixteenth  century,  and  the  brief  history  of  the  Ana- 
baptist kingdom  of  Munster  presents  striking  resemblances 
with  that  of  the  Commune  of  Paris.  Babeuf  and  the  Con- 
spiracy of  the  Equals  remind  us  of  the  demagogues  who 
filled  Paris  with  blood  and  fire.  The  collegia  opificum 
of  Rome,  the  guilds  of  France  and  Germany,  the  trades- 
corporations,  the  compagnonnage — all  these  were  the  fore- 
runners of  modern  trade-unions  and  the  International. 
The  systems  of  Saint-Simon,  Fourier,  Cabet,  Louis  Blanc, 
and  Owen  also  had  their  day.  In  this  country  no  law 
has  been  passed  against  trade-unions,  and  therefore  they 
flourish  here,  and  have  led  to  deplorable  events,  such  as  the 
Sheffield  outrages,  which,  for  diabolical  fury,  deserve  to  be 
placed  side  by  side  with  the  doings  of  the  Commune.  The 


INTERNATIONAL,  COMMUNE,  &c.  115 

reader  will  probably  remember  the  fact  that  men  who  had 
belonged  to  the  Sheffield  trade-unions,  but  withdrew  from 
them,  were  assassinated,  their  houses  blown  up,  and  every 
imaginable  kind  of  tyranny  and  persecution  practised  upon 
them  for  the  space  of  some  fifteen  years.  Still,  as  the  majority 
of  the  Parisian  workmen  were  innocent  of  the  crimes  of 
the  Commune,  so  the  trade-unions  were  not  answerable  for 
the  doings  of  a  restricted  number  of  their  members.  But 
these  trade-unions,  dating  from  about  the  year  1833,  are 
still  to  be  condemned,  because  they  are  the  instigators  and 
upholders  of  strikes,  the  greatest  curse,  not  on  the  hated 
capitalist,  but  on  the  poor  workman.  Now  the  International 
was  a  combination  of  trade-unions,  with  the  additional  poison 
of  Communism  diffused  throughout  its  system. 

503.  History  of  the  International. — The  first  attempt  at 
an  international  society  was  made  by  a  small  number 
of  German  workmen  in  London,  who  had  been  expelled 
from  France  in  1839  for  taking  part  in  the  dmeute  in 
Paris.  Its  members  consisted  of  Germans,  Hungarians, 
Poles,  Danes,  and  Swedes.  Of  the  few  English  mem- 
bers, Ernest  Jones  was  one.  The  society  was  on  friendly 
terms  with  the  English  Socialists,  the  Chartists,  and  the 
London  French  Democratic  Society.  Out  of  that  friendship 
sprang  the  Society  of  the  Fraternal  Democrats,  who  were  in 
correspondence  with  a  number  of  democratic  societies  in 
Belgium.  In  November  1847  a  German  Communist  Con- 
ference was  held  in  London,  at  which  Dr.  Karl  Marx  was 
present.  In  the  manifesto  then  put  forth,  it  was  declared 
that  the  aim  of  the  Communists  was  the  overthrow  of  the 
rule  of  the  capitalists  by  the  acquisition  of  political  power. 
The  practical  measures  by  which  this  was  to  be  effected  were 
the  abolition  of  private  property  in  land ;  the  centralisation 
of  credit  in  the  hands  of  the  State — the  leading  agitators  of 
course  to  be  the  chiefs  of  the  State — by  means  of  a  national 
bank ;  the  centralisation  of  the  means  of  transport  in  the 
hands  of  the  State ;  national  workshops ;  the  reclamation 
and  improvement  of  land ;  and  the  gratuitous  education  of 
all  the  children.  But  all  these  fine  schemes  of  amelioration, 
or  rather  spoliation,  in  consequence  of  the  Revolution  of 
February  1 848,  ended  in  smoke  ;  and  it  was  not  till  the  year 
1859,  when  the  London  builders'  dispute  arose,  that  new 
alliances  among  the  working-men  were  formed.  In  1860 
a  Trade  Unionist,  Manhood  Suffrage,  and  Vote  by  Ballot 
Association  was  established.  As  if  it  had  not  enough  of 
what  might  be  called  legitimate  work  to  do,  the  association 


ii6  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

also  undertook  to  agitate  in  favour  of  Poland,  for  which 
purpose  it  co-operated  with  the  National  League  for  the 
Independence  of  Poland.  The  London  International  Exhi- 
bition of  1862  induced  the  French  Government  to  assist 
many  French  workmen  with  means  to  visit  that  exhibition ; 
"a  visit,"  said  the  French  press,  "which  will  enable  our 
workmen  to  study  the  great  works  of  art  and  industry, 
remove  the  leaven  of  international  discord,  and  replace 
national  jealousies  by  fraternal  emulation."  It  is  impos- 
sible to  say  how  far  these  French  workmen  studied  the 
works  of  art  and  industry  exhibited  in  1862,  but  it  is  quite 
certain  that  the  old  leaven  of  international  discord,  which 
up  to  that  time  had  not  been  very  formidable,  was  speedily 
replaced  by  a  new  leaven  of  social  discord,  not  so  virulent  at 
first,  it  is  true,  as  it  subsequently  became  in  the  after-days  of 
the  International.  Many  of  the  original  members  of  this  as- 
sociation, in  fact,  eventually  withdrew  from  it,  as  they  refused 
to  be  identified  with  its  excesses,  which  had  not  been  planned 
or  foreseen  by  its  founders.  On  the  5th  of  August,  all  the 
delegates  met  at  a  dinner  given  to  them  by  their  English 
colleagues  at  Freemasons'  Hall,  when  an  address  was  read 
which  formed,  as  it  were,  the  foundation-stone  of  "the  Inter- 
national. The  Imperial  Commission  that  had  enabled  the 
French  workmen  to  visit  the  London  Exhibition  had  no 
doubt  furnished  them  with  return  tickets ;  but  several  of 
the  artizans  made  no  use  of  their  second  halves,  since  profit- 
able employment  in  London  was  found  for  them  by  their 
English  brethren,  so  that  they  might  form  connecting  links 
between  the  workmen  of  the  two  countries.  The  next  year 
a  new  meeting  was  found  necessary.  There  was  no  longer 
an  Exhibition,  nor  subsidies  from  the  Imperial  Government 
to  pay  travelling  expenses.  The  pretext,  however,  was  found 
in  a  demonstration  just  then  made  in  favour  of  Poland.  Six 
French  delegates  having  mulcted  their  mates  in  contributions 
towards  the  pleasant  trip,  came  over,  and  the  democrats  of 
London  and  Paris  were  invited  to  co-operate  in  the  libera- 
tion of  Poland,  and  to  form  an  international  working-men's 
alliance.  Various  meetings  were  held,  and  all  the  stale 
twaddle  concerning  Poland  and  the  emancipation  of  the 
working  classes  talked  over  again.  A  central  committee  of 
working-men  of  different  countries,  to  have  its  seat  in  Lon- 
don— truly  England  is  the  political  and  social  dunghill  of 
Europe  ! — was  appointed,  and  a  collection  of  course  followed, 
which  at  the  most  important  meeting  realised  three  guineas. 
A  paltry  sum  after  so  much  talk !  The  members  of  the 


INTERNATIONAL,  COMMUNE,  &c.  117 

committee,  holding  its  powers  by  the  resolution  of  the  public 
meeting  held  on  September  28,  1864,  at  St.  Martin's  Hall, 
then  declared  the  International  Working-Men's  Association 
to  be  established ;  and  congresses  were  appointed  to  be  held 
at  different  times  and  places,  to  decide  on  the  measures  to 
be  taken  to  found  the  working-men's  Eldorado.  Many 
societies  at  first  were  affiliated,  but  dissensions  soon  broke 
out  among  them,  and  many,  such  as  the  Italian  Working- 
Men's  Society,  withdrew  again.  In  1866,  a  meeting  or  con- 
gress was  held  at  Geneva,  where  it  was  decided  that  an 
inquiry  into  the  condition  of  the  working  classes  of  all 
countries  should  be  made  respecting  rate  of  wages,  hours 
of  labour,  &c.  And  this  inquiry,  which  never  was  made  on 
the  part  of  the  International,  was  to  be  a  preliminary  to 
practical  measures — no  wonder  that  the  association  produced 
nothing  practical.  At  this  Geneva  Congress  resolutions 
were  passed  in  favour  of  transferring  railways  and  other 
means  of  locomotion  to  the  people,  and  of  destroying  the 
monopoly  of  the  great  companies  "that  subject  the  working 
classes  to  arbitrary  laws,  assailing  both  the  dignity  of  man 
and  individual  liberty."  Resolutions  were  also  passed  in 
favour  of  direct  taxation.  How  this  suggestion  would  be 
received  by  the  working-man  has  very  pleasantly  been 
pointed  out  by  Punch  or  some  other  comic  paper:  "Mrs. 
Brown  (loq.) — '  Well,  Mrs.  Jones,  my  husband  says  that  if 
they  tax  him,  he  will  take  it  out  in  parish  relief.' "  The 
abolition  of  standing  armies  and  the  independence  of  Poland 
— Poland  again — were  also  decided  on.  Both  these  points 
are  still  decided  on,  and  will  probably  remain  at  the  same 
interesting  stage  of  progress  a  little  longer. 

504.  Objects  and  Aims  of  International. — To  sum  up  what 
was  proposed  at  the  latter  congresses :  Quarries,  coal 
and  other  mines,  as  well  as  railways,  shall  belong  to  the 
social  collectivity,  represented  by  the  State ;  but  by  the 
State  regenerated,  that  will  concede  them,  not,  as  now,  to 
capitalists,  but  to  associations  of  workmen.  The  soil  shall 
be  granted  to  agricultural  associations ;  canals,  roads,  tele- 
graphs, and  forests  shall  belong  collectively  to  society. 
Contracts  of  lease,  or  letting,  shall  be  converted  into  con- 
tracts of  sale ;  that  is  to  say,  capital  shall  no  longer  be 
entitled  to  claim  interest.  If  I  borrow  £1000,  I  shall  have 
paid  off  the  debt  in  twenty  years  by  an  annual  payment  of 
£  50.  Such  were  the  doctrines  of  this  society,  whose  motto 
was,  La  propriety  c'est  le  vol.  All  these,  however,  were  clothed 
in  very  fine  words — "economic  evolution,"  "social  collec- 


ii8  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

tivity,"  "  scientific  and  rational  exploitation,"  "  social  liquida- 
tion," &c.  No  congress  met  in  1870,  in  consequence  of  the 
war  ;  but  the  programme  that  was  to  have  formed  the  subject 
of  discussion  has  been  published.  The  first  question  was : 
On  the  necessity  of  abolishing  the  public  debt.  The  third  : 
Concerning  practical  means  for  converting  landed  and 
funded  property  into  social  property.  The  fifth :  Condi- 
tions of  co-operative  production  on  a  national  scale.  The 
Belgian  Committee  proposed  as  an  additional  question : 
Concerning  the  practical  means  for  constituting  agricultural 
sections  in  the  International.  Thus  private  property  was  to 
be  abolished,  private  enterprise  destroyed,  and  the  poison  of 
Communism,  with  which  large  towns  are  now  infected,  to  be 
diffused  throughout  the  country.  What  would  these  men 
have  done  could  they,  according  to  their  intention,  have  met 
in  Paris  in  1870?  The  pertinacity  with  which  the  cause  of 
Poland  is  sought  to  be  identified  with  the  objects  of  the 
International  has  already  been  alluded  to.  Poland  seems  a 
mine  that  can  never  be  exhausted.  Thousands  of  rogues 
and  vagabonds  of  all  countries  have  fattened,  are  fattening, 
and  will  yet  fatten  on  this  carcass,  as  burnt-out  tradesmen 
have  been  known  to  flourish  on  the  fire  by  which  they  lost 
everything ! 

505.  The  International  in  England. — In  this  country,  as 
we  have  seen,  the  International  had  only  a  limited  success. 
It  indeed  held  public  meetings  and  demonstrations,  and  led 
to  some  insignificant  riots,  for  the  occurrence  of  which  our 
Government  of  course  was  very  much  to  blame.  There  were, 
indeed,  alarmists  who  were  led  astray  by  the  "bounce"  of 
the  International,  and  who  thus  invested  it  with  greater 
importance  than  intrinsically  attached  to  it.  Thus  a  Paris 
paper  contained  a  letter  from  a  London  correspondent,  which 
gave  an  awful  picture  of  the  danger  threatening  this  country 
from  the  spread  of  socialistic  doctrines.  The  writer  said  : 
"The  whole  of  this  vast  empire  is  permeated  by  secret 
societies.  The  International  here  holds  its  meetings  almost 
publicly.  It  is  said  that  the  greater  number  of  the  dis- 
possessed princes  of  India,  a  good  number  of  officers  belong- 
ing to  the  army  and  navy,  as  well  as  members  of  Parliament, 
and  even  ministers,  are  affiliated  to  it  (!).  The  Government 
is  aware  of  the  infernal  plan  by  which,  at  a  given  moment, 
the  public  buildings  of  London  are  to  be  exposed  to  the  fate 
which  befell  so  many  in  Paris.  Boats  are  already  waiting  on 
the  Thames  to  receive  the  treasures  of  the  Bank  of  England 
— an  easy  prey,  say  the  conspirators — as  soon  as  the  main 


INTERNATIONAL,  COMMUNE,  &c.  119 

artery  of  the  Strand  shall  have  been  burnt,  and  the  public 
buildings,  the  barracks  especially,  shall  have  been  blown  np, 
as  was  three  years  ago  the  Clerkenwell  prison."  Perhaps  the 
writer  was  only  joking ;  and  if  I  thought  the  leaders  of  the 
International  possessed  any  Machiavellian  talent,  I  should 
say  they  themselves  caused  the  letter  to  be  written  to  give 
the  world  an  exaggerated  idea  of  their  power — therein  imi- 
tating the  President  of  the  London  Republican  Club,  who 
boasted  of  his  power  of  pulling  down  the  monarchy,  as  that 
would  be  the  readiest  means  of  attracting  fresh  members  ; 
for  the  idea  of  belonging  to  a  powerful  and  universally 
diffused  brotherhood  exercises  a  great  fascination  over  the 
minds  of  only  partially  educated  men,  such  as  form  the  bulk 
of  the  working  classes. 

506.  The  International  Abroad.  —  Abroad,   however,   its 
action  was  much  more  marked.     It  fomented  serious  riots 
in  Holland,  Belgium,  and  France ;  and  in  the  last-named 
country    it    especially    stimulated    Communism,    and    sup- 
ported  the    Paris    Commune   in    all    its    atrocities,    which 
were  spoken  of  in  the  most  laudatory  terms  in  the  then 
recently  published  pamphlet,  "  The  Civil  War  in  France " 
(Truelove,  1871).     But  even  continental  workmen  have  ere 
this  discovered  the  hollowness  of  the  International.     The 
working  engineers  of  Brussels,  instead  of  receiving  during  a 
recent  strike  fifteen  francs  weekly,  as  promised,  were  paid 
only  six  francs  ;  and  having  imposed  upon  the  masters  an 
augmentation  of  fifty  per  cent,  on  overtime,  the  masters,  in 
order  to  avoid  this  ruinous  tariff,  had  no  work  performed 
after  the  regular  hours.     The  men,  finding  themselves  losers 
by  this  rule,  enforced  on  them  by  the  International,  sent 
in  their  resignations  as  members  of  the  society,  which  they 
described  as  the  "  Leprosy  of  Europe,"  and  the  "  Company 
of  Millionaires  ...  on  paper."      At  a  conference  held  in 
London,  the  Russian  delegate  urged  that  his  country  espe- 
cially offered  an  excellent  field  for  the  spread  of  socialist 
doctrines,  and  that  the  students  were  quite  ripe  for  revolu- 
tion.   Wherefore  it  was  decided  that  a  special  appeal  should 
be  addressed  to  the  Russian  students  and  workmen. 

507.  The  International  and  the  Empire. — At  the  time  when 
the  International  was  founded,  the  French  Empire  was  as 
yet  in  all  its  strength.     None  of  the  parties  that  secretly 
strove  against  it  seemed  to  have  any  chance  of  success ;  nor 
from   their   political   and  social  characteristics  could  these 
parties,  though  all  bent  on  the  overthrow  of   the  empire, 
coalesce  and  act  as  one  combined  force.     The  International 


120  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

refused  to  ally  itself  to  any  of  them  or  to  meddle  with 
politics,  but  declared  social  questions  paramount  to  all 
political  considerations ;  and  to  the  position  thus  assumed  by 
the  association  it  was  due  that  the  Imperial  Government  did 
not  molest  it,  but  that  the  ministers  allowed  it  to  develop 
itself,  hoping  at  the  convenient  moment  to  win  it  over  to 
their  interest.  These  ministers  considered  themselves  very 
profound  politicians,  when  they  had  fomented  a  quarrel  be- 
tween Prussia  and  Austria ;  trusting,  when  these  two  powers 
should  mutually  have  exhausted  each  other,  to  seize  the 
Rhenish  provinces.  They  looked  upon  themselves  as  small 
Machiavellis  when  they  permitted  the  International  to  grow 
in  order  some  day  to  use  it  against  a  mutinous  bourgeoisie. 
The  Emperor  had  an  opportunity  on  September  2,  at  Sedan, 
and  the  Empress  on  September  4,  at  Paris,  to  judge  of  the 
value  of  such  policy.  However,  the  scheme  of  the  associa- 
tion having  been  settled  in  London  in  1 864,  the  organisers 
opened  at  Paris  a  bureau-  de  correspondance,  which  was  neither 
formally  interdicted  nor  regularly  authorised  by  the  Prefect 
and  the  Minister.  But  the  constantly-growing  power  of  the 
International,  shown  by  the  strikes  of  Roubaix,  Amiens, 
Paris,  Geneva,  &c.,  after  a  time  compelled  the  Government 
either  to  direct  or  to  destroy  it.  The  Parisian  manifesto  read 
at  Geneva  was  stopped  at  the  French  frontier;  but  M. 
Rouher  agreed  to  admit  it  into  France,  if  the  association 
would  insert  some  passages  thanking  the  Emperor  for  what 
he  had  done  for  the  working  classes — a  suggestion  which 
was  received  with  derision  by  the  members.  In  the  mean- 
time the  old  revolutionary  party  looked  with  suspicion 
on  the  foundation  of  the  International ;  for,  as  this  last 
declared  that  it  would  not  meddle  with  politics,  the  others 
called  out,  Treason !  and  thus  the  two  parties  were  soon 
in  a  condition  of  violent  opposition.  In  1867,  the  Con- 
gress of  Lausanne  voted  against  war,  but  at  the  same 
moment  the  other  fraction  of  the  demagogues,  assembled  at 
Geneva,  under  pretence  of  forming  a  congress  of  peace, 
declared  war  to  all  tyrants  and  oppressors  of  the  people. 
However,  the  two  parties,  the  bourgeois  demagogues  and  the 
workmen  demagogues,  eventually  united ;  and  thus  it  came 
to  pass  that  by  virtue  of  this  pact  the  International  took  part 
in  two  revolutionary  manifestations  which  occurred  about  six 
weeks  after — the  one  at  the  tomb  of  Manin  in  the  cemetery 
of  Montmartre,  and  the  other  on  the  following  day  on  the 
Boulevard  Montmartre,  to  protest  against  the  French  occupa- 
tion of  Rome.  The  International  having  thus  been  carried 


INTERNATIONAL,  COMMUNE,  &c.  121 

away  to  declare  war  against  the  Government,  the  latter  de- 
termined to  prosecute  it.  The  association  was  declared  to 
be  dissolved,  and  fifteen  of  the  leaders  were  each  fined  one 
hundred  francs.  The  International  taking  no  notice  of  the 
decree  of  dissolution,  a  second  prosecution  was  instituted, 
and  nine  of  the  accused  were  condemned  to  imprisonment 
for  three  months.  The  International  now  hid  itself  amidst 
the  multitude  of  working-men's  societies  of  all  descriptions 
that  were  either  authorised  or  at  least  tolerated,  and  made 
enormous  progress,  so  that  its  chiefs  at  last  declared  them- 
selves able  to  do  without  any  extraneous  support.  The 
International,  said  one  of  the  speakers  at  the  Basle  Congress 
( 1 869),  is  and  must  be  a  state  within  states ;  let  these  go 
on  as  suits  them,  until  our  state  is  the  strongest.  Then, 
on  the  ruins  of  these,  we  shall  erect  our  own  fully  pre- 
pared, such  as  it  exists  in  every  section.  The  Volksstimme, 
the  Austrian  organ  of  the  society,  said  :  "  To  us  the  red 
flag  is  the  symbol  of  universal  love  of  mankind.  Let  our 
enemies  beware  lest  they  transform  it  against  themselves  into 
a  flag  of  terror/'  To  have  an  organ  of  its  own  the  Inter- 
national founded  the  Marseillaise,  with  Rochefort  for  its 
chief,  his  association  therewith  having  induced  certain  capi- 
talists to  find  the  necessary  funds.  Another  personage  with 
whom  it  became  connected  was  General  Cluseret  (669). 
Cluseret,  as  an  adventurer,  always  on  the  look-out  for  what 
might  turn  up,  saw  the  power  such  an  association  as  the 
International  might  command,  and  the  latter  found  in  him  a 
willing  tool.  From  a  letter  he  addressed  from  New  York  to 
Varlin,  on  February  17,  1870,  it  also  appears  that  all  the 
crimes  of  which  he  has  since  then  been  guilty,  were  pre- 
meditated, and  that  he  had  from  the  first  resolved  not  to 
perish  without  involving  Paris  in  his  fall.  "  On  that  day  " 
(of  the  downfall  of  Louis  Napoleon),  he  says,  "on  that 
day,  we  or  nothing.  On  that  day  Paris  must  be  ours, 
or  Paris  must  cease  to  exist."  That  this  feeling  was  shared 
by  other  members  of  the  association  may  be  inferred  from 
the  fact  that,  at  the  house  of  one  of  the  affiliated  was 
found  a  dictionary  which  formed  the  key  of  their  secret 
correspondence.  Now,  besides  the  usual  words,  we  find 
such  as  nitre-glycerine  and  picrate  of  potash ;  at  the  house 
of  another,  recipes  were  discovered  for  the  manufacture  of 
nitre-glycerine,  and  of  various  other  explosive  compounds. 
Some  of  the  recipes  were  followed  by  such  directions  as 
these  "To  be  thrown  in  at  windows,"  "To  be  thrown  into 
gutters,"  &c.  The  attempted  plebiscite  in  support  of  the 


122  SECKET  SOCIETIES 

reforms  voted  by  the  Senate,  in  January  1870,  was  violently 
opposed  by  the  International,  who  declared  in  favour  of  a 
republic.  On  the  occasion  of  the  plot  of  the  Orsini  shells, 
the  society,  in  defending  itself  against  the  charge  of  having 
had  any  share  in  it,  declared  that  it  did  not  war  against 
individual  perpetrators  of  coups  d'ttat,  but  that  it  was  a 
permanent  conspiracy  of  all  the  oppressed,  which  shall  exist 
until  all  capitalists,  priests,  and  political  adventurers  shall 
have  disappeared.  Such  a  declaration  of  war  against  all 
men  that  had  any  interest  in  the  maintenance  of  public 
order,  and  especially  against  many  men  forming  the  then 
Imperial  Government,  naturally  induced  a  third  prosecution. 

Thirty-eight  members  were  indicted,  many  of  whom  we 
meet  again  as  active  members  of  the  Commune.  Some  were 
acquitted,  others  condemned  to  one  year's  imprisonment. 
No  one  suspected  that  the  names  of  these  obscure  workmen, 
condemned  as  members  of  a  secret  society,  would  soon  be 
connected  with  the  most  horrible  disasters  of  Paris,  and  that 
these  men,  sentenced  to  such  slight  punishments,  would  at 
the  end  of  a  year  reappear  before  a  military  tribunal,  after 
having  for  two  months  and  a  half  filled  terrified  Paris  with 
pillage,  murder,  and  incendiary  fires. 

508.  The  International  and  the  War, — The  International 
condemned  all  war  except  war  against  bourgeois,  capitalists, 
monopolists,  parasites  —  that  is  to  say,  the  classes  that 
live  not  by  manual  labour,  but  by  intellectual  work,  or  the 
savings  of  any  kind  of  labour.  It  abolished  national  wars, 
to  replace  them  by  social  war.  For  this  reason  it  so  perti- 
naciously insisted  on  the  abolition  of  all  standing  armies, 
which  are  of  course  great  obstacles  to  its  own  plans.  It 
therefore  protested  against  the  Franco-Prussian  war,  but  as 
this  opposition  ended  in  mere  talk,  it  need  not  further  be 
dilated  on.  Its  only  results  were  to  consign  some  of  the 
most  violent  opponents  to  prison ;  and  there  is  no  proof  that 
one  single  soldier  of  the  regular  Prussian  army,  or  even  of 
the  Landwehr,  deserted  or  refused  to  fight,  in  order  to  remain 
faithful  to  the  theories  of  the  society.  In  France  the  affi- 
liated of  the  International  were  only  brave  in  civil  war. 

On  September  3,  1870,  the  disaster  of  Sedan  became 
known  at  Paris.  On  the  next  day,  Lyons,  Marseilles, 
Toulouse,  and  Paris  proclaimed  the  Kepublic.  This  simul- 
taneous movement  was  the  result  of  an  understanding 
existing  between  the  leading  members  of  the  International 
in  the  various  parts  of  France  ;  but  that  the  "  Jules  Favres 
and  Gambettas,"  that  vermine  bouryeoise,  as  the  International 


INTERNATIONAL,  COMMUNE,  &o.  123 

called  them,  should  obtain  any  share  of  power,  was  very 
galling  to  the  demagogues.  At  Lyons  and  Marseilles,  how- 
ever, the  supreme  power  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  lowest 
wretches.  The  Commune  installed  at  Lyons  began  its  work 
by  raising  the  red  flag — that  of  the  International.  At  Paris 
the  association  pretended  at  first  to  be  most  anxious  to  fight 
the  Prussians.  When  the  battalions  were  sent  to  the  front, 
however,  it  was  found  that  those  comprising  most  Inter- 
nationals were  the  most  ready  "  to  fall  back  in  good  order," 
or  even  to  flee  in  great  disorder  at  the  first  alarm ;  and 
General  Clement  Thomas  pointed  out  this  instructive  fact 
to  the  readers  of  the  Journal  Officiel.  But  when  a  few 
Prussian  regiments  entered  Paris,  the  International,  through 
its  central  committee,  announced  that  the  moment  for  action 
was  come  ;  and  so  the  members  seized  the  cannons  scattered 
in  various  parts  of  the  city,  and  then  began  that  series  of 
excesses,  for  which  the  Commune  will  always  enjoy  an  in- 
famous notoriety. 

509.  The  International  and  the  Commune. — One  would 
have  supposed  that  the  International  would  disavow  the 
Communists ;  but,  on  the  contrary,  it  approved  of  their 
proceedings.  Flames  were  still  ascending  from  the  Hotel 
de  Ville,  when  already  numerous  sections  of  the  Inter- 
national throughout  Europe  expressed  their  admiration  of 
the  conduct  of  the  Parisian  outcasts. 

At  Zurich,  at  a  meeting  of  the  members  of  the  Inter- 
national, it  was  declared  that  "  the  struggle  maintained  by 
the  Commune  of  Paris  was  just  and  worthy,  and  that  all 
thinking  men  ought  to  join  in  the  contest." 

At  Brussels  the  Belgian  section  of  the  International  pro- 
tested against  the  prosecution  of  the  malefactors  of  Paris. 
At  Geneva,  two  days  before  the  entrance  of  the  Versaillais 
into  Paris,  an  address  to  the  Commune  was  voted,  declaring 
that  it  (the  Commune)  represented  "the  economic  aspira- 
tions of  the  working  classes."  The  German  Internationalists 
were  no  less  positive  in  their  praise  of  the  Communists : 
"  We  are  ready  to  defend  the  acts  of  the  Commune  at  all 
times,  and  against  all  comers,"  said  a  socialistic  paper  pub- 
lished at  Leipzig.  The  Italians  sent  an  address  to  the 
Commune,  ending  thus:  "To  capital  which  said,  Ye  shall 
starve,  they  replied :  We  will  live  by  our  labour.  To 
despotism  they  replied:  We  are  free!  To  the  cannons 
and  chassepots  of  the  reactionnaires  they  opposed  their 
naked  breasts.  They  fell,  but  fell  as  heroes !  Now  the 
reaction  calls  them  bandits.  Shall  we  permit  it  ?  No ! 


i24  SECEET  SOCIETIES 

Let  us  invite  our  brethren  to  our  homes,  and  protect  them. 
The  principles  of  the  Commune  are  ours ;  we  accept  the 
responsibility  of  their  acts."  The  English  Internationalists 
were  too  few  to  prove  their  approbation  of  the  Commune 
by  any  public  demonstration ;  but  in  private  they  did  so 
very  energetically.  One  of  the  members  even  declared 
that  the  good  time  "was  really  coming."  "Soon,"  said 
he,  "we  shall  be  able  to  dethrone  the  Queen  of  England, 
turn  Buckingham  Palace  into  a  workshop,  and  pull  down 
the  York  column,  as  the  noble  French  people  has  pulled 
down  the  Vendome  column."  (Be  it  observed  here,  that 
as  this  column  chiefly  commemorated  French  victories  over 
the  Germans,  this  act  of  vandalism  has  by  some  authorities 
been  attributed  to  the  influence  of  Prussian  gold  liberally 
distributed  to  certain  patriotic  members  of  the  Commune.) 
But  the  London  section  of  the  International  clearly  put 
forth  its  views  on  the  conduct  of  the  Commune.  The 
pamphlet,  "The  Civil  War  in  France,"  published  for  the 
council  by  Truelove,  256  High  Holborn,  the  office  of  the 
International,  is  a  continuous  panegyric  on  the  Commune, 
and  was  at  first  signed  by  all  the  members  of  the  council ; 
but  two  of  them,  Lucraft  and  Odger,  afterwards  withdrew 
their  names,  stating  that  they  had,  in  the  first  instance, 
been  appended  without  their  knowledge — which  appeared 
to  be  the  fact. 

510.  Budget  of  the  International. — One  portion  of  the 
organisation  of  the  International,  and  that  the  most  im- 
portant— for  the  chiefs,  of  course ! — its  budget,  remains  to 
be  noticed.  It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  say  that  there  was  a 
total  absence  of  official  accounts ;  but  the  following  details, 
referring  to  France  and  Belgium,  will  give  some  idea  as  to 
the  way  in  which  funds  were  raised  and  applied.  Every 
member  on  his  admission  paid  a  fee  of  fifty  centimes,  for 
which  he  received  his  admission  card,  which  was  renewed 
annually  and  gratuitously.  He  had  also  to  pay  a  minimum 
annual  tax  of  ten  centimes,  to  go  towards  the  general  ex- 
penses of  the  association.  Then  each  federation  imposed  a 
special  tax  for  its  own  expenses.  At  Lyons  and  Paris  this 
amounted  to  ten  centimes  per  month.  Thus  it  appears  that 
the  annual  tax  was  very  light,  amounting  only  to  one  franc 
thirty  cents,  which  was  not  paying  too  dear  for  the  honour 
of  belonging  to  a  society  that  aspired  to  the  government  of 
the  world,  and  commenced  by  burning  it.  But  this  honour 
could  be  had  at  a  still  cheaper  rate ;  for  the  Swiss  branch 
charged  its  members  only  ten  centimes  a  year.  Yet  even 


INTERNATIONAL,  COMMUNE,  &c.  125 

these  small  sums  seemed  difficult  to  be  got  in,  and  the 
statutes  were  very  severe  upon  defaulters.  But  there  were 
taxes  to  pay  to  the  sections,  which  raised  the  yearly  con- 
tributions to  seven  or  eight  francs.  Nor  was  this  all.  In 
the  various  legal  prosecutions  the  society  had  to  undergo 
there  was  frequent  reference  to  the  caisse  federative  du  sou, 
though  the  expression  was  nowhere  exactly  defined.  So  far 
as  has  been  ascertained  it  alluded  to  a  voluntary  weekly 
subscription  of  five  centimes,  collected  in  workshops  and 
factories,  from  workmen  who  did  not  belong  to  the  associa- 
tion, but  intended  to  join  it,  or  to  support  it  without  joining 
it.  In  the  statutes  of  the  Parisian  branch,  Article  9  further 
said  that  the  council  may,  if  necessary,  vote  larger  sums  than 
the  general  budget  would  justify,  and  proportionately  increase 
the  amount  of  contributions  payable  by  the  members.  But 
the  most  powerful  arm  of  the  association,  when  any  particular 
object  was  to  be  attained,  such,  for  instance,  as  the  success 
of  a  strike,  was  subscription.  Thus  the  successful  termina- 
tion of  the  strike  in  the  building  trade  of  Geneva  in  1 868, 
was  thought  of  such  importance  as  to  call  forth  unusual 
exertions.  But  the  delegate  who  was  sent  to  London  to 
collect  subscriptions  from  the  English  workmen  met  with 
but  slight  success;  not  because  these  were  niggardly,  but 
because,  in  spite  of  their  avowed  hatred  of  state  forms  and 
aristocratic  deliberation,  they  yet  so  closely  imitated  both, 
that  the  Genevese  workmen  might  have  been  starved  into 
submission  before  the  English  workmen  had  resolved  to 
succour  them,  had  not  the  Parisian  workmen  at  once  sub- 
scribed ten  thousand  francs.  What  these  annual  subscriptions 
may  have  amounted  to,  it  is  impossible  to  tell.  No  doubt 
the  total  was  very  great,  considering  the  large  number  of 
members ;  and  yet  it  was  insufficient,  in  consequence  of  the 
strikes  that  were  constantly  taking  place  at  all  places  and 
times.  The  journals  were  full  of  the  fine  phrases  used  by  the 
chiefs  of  the  International  concerning  the  sufferings  of  the 
workmen  reduced  by  infamous  capitalists  to  the  point  of 
forsaking  their  work  and  of  leaving  the  workshops  where 
their  misery  was  turned  to  account.  A  confidential  letter  of 
Varlin,  one  of  the  chiefs  of  the  Paris  federation,  which  was 
brought  into  court  at  the  trial  of  the  International  on  June 
22,  1 870,  at  Paris,  however,  showed  that  the  chiefs  did  not 
speak  quite  so  feelingly  of  these  sufferings,  when  they  are 
not  expected  to  be  heard  by  their  dupes:  "This  strike 
which  we  declared  closed  ten  days  ago,  leaves  four  hundred 
workmen  on  our  hands.  The  day  before  yesterday  they 


126  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

wanted  to  destroy  their  former  workshops  and  drive  away 
the  mogs  that  had  taken  their  places.  Fortunately  we  re- 
strained them,  but  we  are  greatly  bothered  by  this  affair 
(nous  sommes  bien  embSte's  par  cette  affaire)." 

511.  Attempt  to  Revive  the  International. — An  International 
Trades  Union  Congress  was  held  in  London  in  1888  for  the 
avowed  purpose  of  reviving  the  International,  which  collapsed 
in  1 87 1 ,  though  branches  of  it,  such  as  the  Jurassic  Federa- 
tion of  Workmen,  the  International  Brethren,  the  Council  of 
Dynamite,  at  whose  meetings  in  Chicago  the  editor  of  Freilieit 
presided,  continue  to  vegetate.    But  the  discussions  as  to  the 
means  of  physically  and  morally  raising  the  working  classes 
as  yet  remain  mere  talk.     As  one  of  the  speakers  at  the 
London  Congress  remarked,  "The  chief  difficulty  in  the  way 
of  the  reconstruction  of  the  International  lies  in  the  apathy 
and  indifference  of  the  workmen  themselves,"  which  shows 
that  the  workmen  are  after  all  not  such  fools  as  agitators 
think  or  wish  them  to  be. 

512.  Anarchists. — The  fear  of  hell,  the  only  means  known 
to  the  churches  of  all  denominations,  to  keep  men  from 
vice,  has  never  been  an  efficient  one  for  that  purpose.     In 
the  Middle  Ages,  which,  we  are  told,  were  permeated  by 
deep  religious  feeling,  club-law,  persecution  of  the  Jews, 
and  inhuman  cruelties  indulged  in  by   Church  and  State 
were  the  rule.     The  latter  two  have  in  our  days  become 
more  civilised,  but  the  masses  retain  their  sting,  and  men 
are  driven  by  wretchedness  to  attempt  its  removal  by  the 
destruction  of  all  existing  order.     Karl  Marx  in  1864  first 
thought  of  consolidating  this  principle  by  a  secret  society, 
the   International  Union  of   Working-Men.      In   1868  the 
Russian,  Michael  Bakunin,  and  the  Belgian,  Victor  Dave, 
infused  into  the  association  the  poison  of  Anarchism,  which 
in  1871  produced  the  Paris  Commune.     But  disputes  arose 
between  the  more  moderate  members,  the  Social  Democrats, 
and  the  Anarchists  in  1872,  who  thenceforth  formed  two 
distinct  camps.     The  social  democrat  and  bookbinder,  John 
Most   (born    1846),   joined    the   Anarchists,   and   in    1879 
founded  in  London  the  Freiheit,  an  Anarchist  paper  of  the 
most  violent  character.     In  1883  the  Anarchists  attempted 
to  blow  up  the  German  Emperor  and  those  around  him  at 
the  unveiling  of  the  monument  in  the  Niederwald ;  the  two 
ringleaders  were  caught  and  beheaded,   but  in    1885   Dr. 
Rumpf,  a  high  police  official,  who  had  been  instrumental 
in  securing  the  conviction  of  the  criminals,  was  assassinated 
at  Frankfort-on-the-Main ;  only  the  least  important  of  the 


INTERNATIONAL,  COMMUNE,  &c.  127 

assassins,  Julius  Lieske,  twenty-two  years  of  age,  was  dis- 
covered and  beheaded.  Most  then  founded  another  more 
secret  society  of  propagandists,  to  which  only  the  leading 
members  of  the  association  were  admitted.  When  the 
Freilieit  applauded  the  Phoenix  Park  murders  it  was  sup- 
pressed, but  reappeared  in  Switzerland,  and  lastly  in  the 
United  States,  to  which  Most  in  1882  emigrated,  and  the 
propaganda  of  Anarchism,  whose  secret  chief  seat  was  at 
Chicago,  made  rapid  progress  in  the  States,  as  well  as  in 
Europe,  and  culminated  in  the  dynamite  outrages  at  Chicago, 
assassinations  at  Strasburg,  Stuttgart,  Vienna,  and  Prague. 

In  the  latter  city,  early  in  1883,  a  secret  council  of 
Anarchists  condemned  the  prefect  of  the  police,  who  had 
had  some  of  the  assassins  arrested,  to  death ;  lots  were 
drawn  as  to  who  was  to  do  the  deed,  and  it  fell  on  a 
journeyman  glove-maker,  named  Dressier,  who,  however, 
committed  suicide  to  escape  becoming  a  murderer.  But 
before  his  death  he  had  written  a  letter  to  his  parents, 
revealing  the  existence  of  the  society ;  the  information  it 
gave  enabled  the  police  to  arrest  the  most  important 
members.  On  the  4th  July  1883,  a  shoe  manufacturer  in 
one  of  the  most  frequented  suburban  streets  of  Vienna  was 
set  upon  in  his  house  by  two  individuals,  who  held  a 
sponge  saturated  with  chloroform  to  his  face  until  he 
became  unconscious,  when  he  was  robbed  of  782  florins. 
Some  weeks  after  the  crime  was  traced  to  an  Anarchist 
association,  and  seventeen  men  and  two  women  were  arrested, 
who,  after  investigation,  were  found  to  be  members  of  a 
secret  association,  whose  aim,  according  to  pamphlets  found 
on  them,  was  to  do  away  with  the  throne,  altar,  and  money- 
bags, and  to  establish  a  Red  Republic.  Small  associations, 
it  appeared,  consisting  of  from  five  to  nine  members  each, 
had  been  formed  among  the  Radical  workmen,  each  member 
being  bound  to  establish  another  such  small  circle.  The 
trial  appears  to  have  broken  up  the  society,  though  Anar- 
chists in  most  countries  of  Europe  and  other  parts  of 
the  world  remain  very  active,  openly  avowing  the  results 
they  aim  at,  results  in  themselves  impracticable,  and  which, 
if  they  could  be  attained,  would  render  the  existence  of 
society  and  of  civilisation  impossible.  The  Anarchists, 
who  wish  to  reform  the  world,  should  begin  by  reforming 
themselves. 


BOOK  XIII 

POLITICAL  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

1  These  were  days,  when  my  heart  was  volcanic, 
As  the  scoriae  rivers  that  roll, 
As  the  lavas,  that  restlessly  roll 
Their  sulphurous  currents  down  Yanik, 

In  the  clime  of  the  boreal  pole  ; 
That  groan  as  they  roll  down  Mount  Yanik, 
In  the  clime  of  the  ultimate  pole." 

E.  A.  FOE. 


VOL.  II.  I29 


CHINESE  SOCIETIES 

513.  Earliest  Secret  Chinese  Societies. — The  earliest  notice 
we  have  of  a  secret  Chinese  league  is  towards  the  close 
of  the  Han  dynasty  (A.D.  185).  Three  patriots,  having 
then  associated  themselves,  defended  the  throne  against  the 
"  Yellow  Cap  "  rebels,  a  society  numbering  among  its  mem- 
bers the  flower  of  Chinese  litterateurs.  From  that  time  until 
the  establishment  of  the  present  Tartar  dynasty  (twelfth 
century),  the  League  showed  few  signs  of  vitality.  Bat  at 
the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century  five  monks  and  seven 
other  persons  bound  themselves  by  an  oath,  which  they 
ratified  by  mixing  blood  from  the  arm  of  each,  and  drinking 
it  in  common,  to  overthrow  the  Tsings,  the  present  Tartar 
dynasty,  and  restore  the  Mings,  the  dispossessed  Chinese 
dynasty.  The  name  of  the  society  they  founded  was  Pe- 
lin-kiao,  or  the  White  Lily.  The  members  relied  on  a 
prophecy  that  one  of  them  should  be  emperor  of  China. 
The  leaders  were  Wang-lung  and  a  bonze  named  Fan-ui. 
The  former  made  himself  master  of  the  town  of  Shoo-chang- 
hien,  but  was  soon  driven  thence,  and  eventually  captured, 
and  executed  with  many  of  his  followers.  In  1777  the 
Pe-lin-kiao  again  appeared,  only  to  be  defeated  again ;  the 
heads  of  the'  leaders,  including  those  of  two  women,  were 
cut  off  and  placed  in  cages  for  public  inspection.  In  1800 
a  sect  called  the  Wonderful  Association,  and  another,  called 
the  Tsing-lien-kiao,  supposed  to  be  the  Pe-lin-kiao  under  a 
new  name,  conspired  against  the  ruling  dynasty,  but  un- 
successfully. Under  the  reign  of  the  Emperor  Kia-King 
(1799-1820)  arose  the  Th'ien-Hauw-Hoi'h,  that  is,  the  family 
of  the  Queen  of  Heaven,  spread  through  Cochin-China, 
Siam,  and  Corea,  with  its  headquarters  in  the  southern 
provinces  of  the  empire.  The  society  on  being  discovered 
and,  as  it  was  thought,  exterminated,  arose  again  under 
the  name  of  the  Great  Hung  League  ;  Hung  literally  means 
flood,  and  the  leaders  adopted  the  name  to  intimate  that 


1 32  SECRET    SOCIETIES 

their  society  was  to  flood  the  earth.  To  avoid  the  appear- 
ance of  all  belonging  to  one  society,  they  gave  different 
names — some  borrowed  from  previously  existing  sects — to 
the  branches  they  established.  Thus  they  were  known  as 
the  Triad  Society,  the  Blue  Lotus  Hall,  the  Golden  Orchid 
District,  and  others.  These  soon  attracted  the  attention  of 
Government,  and  for  some  time  they  were  kept  in  check. 
About  1826  the  chief  leader  of  the  League  was  one  Kwang 
San.  It  was  reported  that,  to  make  himself  ferocious  he 
once  drank  gall,  taken  out  of  a  murdered  man's  body,  mixed 
with  wine.  He  resided  chiefly  at  the  tin-mines  of  Loocoot, 
where  the  brethren  then  swarmed.  The  directing  power 
was  vested  in  three  persons;  the  chief,  with  the  title  of 
Koh,  i.e.  the  Elder;  the  two  others  took  that  of  Hiong 
Thi,  i.e.  Younger  Brothers.  In  the  Malacca  branches  the 
three  chiefs  were  called  Tai-Koh,  eldest  brother,  Ji-Koh, 
second  brother,  and  San-Koh,  third  brother.  The  oath  of 
secrecy  was  taken  by  the  aspirant  kneeling  before  an  image, 
under  two  sharp  swords.  Whilst  the  oath  was  being  ad- 
ministered the  Hiong  Thi  had  also  to  kneel,  the  one  on  the 
right,  the  other  on  the  left  of  the  aspirant,  and  hold  over 
his  head  the  swords  in  such  a  fashion  as  to  form  a  triangle. 
The  oath  contained  thirty-six  articles,  of  which  the  following 
was  the  most  important: — "I  swear  that  I  shall  know 
neither  father  nor  mother,  nor  brother  nor  sister,  nor  wife 
nor  child,  but  the  brotherhood  alone;  where  the  brother- 
hood leads  or  pursues,  there  I  shall  follow  or  pursue ;  its  foe 
shall  be  my  foe."  The  aspirant,  with  a  knife,  then  made  an 
incision  into  his  finger,  and  allowed  three  drops  of  blood  to 
fall  into  a  cup  of  arrack ;  the  three  officials  did  the  same 
thing,  and  then  drank  the  liquor.  In  order  further  to  ratify 
the  oath,  the  newly-sworn  member  cut  off  the  head  of  a 
white  cock,  which  was  to  intimate  that  if  he  proved  untrue, 
his  head  should  be  cut  off. 

514.  More  recent  Societies. — In  1850  Tae-ping-wang,  the 
noted  revolutionary  leader,  made  a  fresh  attempt  to  restore 
the  Ming  dynasty,  from  whom  he  pretended  to  be  descended. 
With  his  defeat  and  death  the  League  again  subsided  into 
obscurity.  In  the  spring  of  1863  a  quantity  of  books  were 
accidentally  found  by  the  police  in  the  house  of  a  Chinaman, 
suspected  of  theft,  at  Padang  (Sumatra),  containing  the 
laws,  statutes,  oaths,  mysteries  of  initiation,  catechism,  de- 
scription of  flags,  symbols,  and  secret  signs  of  the  League, 
all  of  which  were  published  in  English  in  a  4to  volume  at 
Batavia  in  1866.  But  this  discovery  showed  the  League  to 


CHINESE  SOCIETIES  133 

be  still  in  existence,  and  about  the  year  1 870  it  started  into 
activity  again ;  in  Sarawak  it  assumed  such  a  threatening 
aspect  that  the  Government  made  a  law  decreeing  death  to 
every  member  ipso  facto.  The  disturbances  at  Singapore  in 
1 872  also  were  due  to  the  secret  societies  of  the  Chinese  in 
the  Straits  Settlements.  On  that  occasion  the  Sam- Sings, 
or  "fighting  men,"  were  the  chief  rioters,  taking  the  part  of 
the  street  hawkers,  against  whom  some  severe  regulations 
had  been  issued.  Murder  and  incendiarism,  torturing  and 
maiming,  are  the  usual  practices  of  the  League,  which  again 
made  itself  very  obnoxious  in  1883  and  1885.  The  section 
of  the  "  Black  Flag,"  the  remnant  of  the  Taepings,  as  also 
the  "White  Lily,"  were  the  most  active  in  their  demonstra- 
tions against  the  Tsing  dynasty.  The  last  police  reports 
from  the  protected  state  of  Perak,  in  the  Malay  Peninsula, 
say  that  in  1888  secret  societies  "caused  endless  trouble 
and  anxiety,"  although  in  1887  four  members  of  the  Ghee 
Hin  Association  were  sentenced  to  twenty  years'  imprison- 
ment for  conducting  an  agency  for  their  society.  Half  the 
Chinese  in  Perak  are  members  of  secret  societies,  tickets 
being  found  upon  them  whenever  the  police  have  occasion 
to  search  them. 

The  Straits  Times  of  the  I7th  September  1889  contained 
full  particulars  of  the  trial  of  a  number  of  prisoners  who 
were  proved  to  be  members  of  the  Ghee  Hin  or  Sam  Tian 
secret  society  at  Sarawak.  The  six  leaders  were  shot ; 
eleven,  being  active  members,  carrying  out  orders  of  the 
leaders,  beating,  frightening,  or  murdering  non- members, 
were  sentenced  to  receive  six  dozen  strokes  with  a  rattan, 
to  have  their  heads  shaved,  to  be  imprisoned  during  the 
Kajah's  pleasure  ;  seven  others,  against  whom  no  specific 
charges  were  made  out,  were  dismissed  on  swearing  to  have 
no  further  dealings  with  the  society. 

Towards  the  end  of  the  year  1895  a  number  of  Moham- 
medans rose  against  the  Chinese  Government  and  captured 
the  capital  of  the  province  of  Kansu ;  the  secret  societies  in 
Central  China  joined  the  Mohammedan  insurgents.  Their 
success,  however,  was  of  short  duration ;  in  the  month  of 
December  of  the  same  year  the  insurrection  was  crushed, 
and  some  fifteen  of  the  leaders  were  captured  and  beheaded. 
Others  made  their  escape.  Among  these  was  Sun  Yet  Sun, 
or,  as  he  is  also  called,  Sun  Wen,  a  medical  man,  well  known 
in  Hong-Kong.  His  being  made  a  prisoner  in  the  house  of 
the  Chinese  Ambassador  in  London  in  the  month  of  October 
1896,  until,  at  the  instance  of  Lord  Salisbury,  he  was  re- 


134  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

leased,  is  no  doubt  fresh  in  the  memory  of  the  reader.  He 
asserted  that  he  was  kidnapped  by  the  Chinese  Ambassador's 
people,  by  being  induced  to  walk  into  the  Ambassador's 
house ;  but  it  is  a  curious  circumstance  that  San  Wen,  who 
evidently  knew  something  of  London,  should  not  have  known 
where  the  Chinese  Embassy  was  located,  especially  after  all 
the  excitement  caused  by  Li  Hung  Chang's  visit  to  the 
Continent  and  to  England. 

In  justice  to  the  Taepings  and  other  secret  associations 
in  China,  it  must  be  stated  that  the  insurrection  was  and 
is  the  war  of  an  oppressed  nationality  against  foreign  in- 
vaders. The  Mantchoos  or  Tsing  dynasty  are  an  alien  tribe, 
ruling  over  the  vast  Chinese  empire ;  their  government  is 
one  of  the  most  despotic  the  world  has  ever  seen ;  their  laws 
are  so  ruthless  and  unjust,  that  it  would  seem  they  could 
never  be  carried  out,  did  not  the  blood  of  millions,  perishing 
by  every  kind  of  frightful  death  that  the  most  diabolical 
cruelty  could  invent,  attest  the  fact  of  their  being  obeyed. 
Yet  British  ministers  did  sanction  the  enlistment  of  British 
officers — Bible  Gordon  being  their  leader,  what  a  satire ! — 
and  men  in  the  service  of  the  Mantchoos,  whom  they  further 
supplied  with  arms  and  artillery. 

515.  Lodges. — From  the  book  published  at  Batavia,  and 
mentioned  above,  we  extract  the  following  information  : — 

The  lodge  is  built  in  a  square,  surrounded  by  walls,  which 
are  pierced  at  the  four  cardinal  points  by  as  many  gates ; 
the  faces  are  adorned  by  triangles,  the  mystic  symbol  of 
union.  Within  the  enclosure  is  the  hall  of  fidelity  and 
loyalty,  where  the  oaths  of  membership  are  taken.  Here 
also  stand  the  altar,  and  the  precious  nine-storied  pagoda, 
in  which  the  images  of  the  five  monkish  founders  are  en- 
shrined. The  lodges,  of  course,  only  appear  in  out-of-the- 
way  places,  where  they  are  safe  from  the  observation  of 
the  Mandarins ;  in  towns  and  populous  neighbourhoods  the 
lodge  is  dispensed  with  ;  the  meetings  are  held  at  the  house 
of  the  president.  The  instruments  of  the  lodge  are  numerous. 
First  in  importance  is  the  diploma;  then  there  are  numerous 
flags ;  there  is  th'e  "  bushel,"  which  contains  among  other 
articles  the  "red  staff,"  with  which  justice  is  done  to 
offenders  against  the  laws  of  the  society;  the  scissors,  with 
which  the  hair  of  the  neophytes  is  cut  off;  a  jade  foot 
measure,  a  balance,  an  abacus,  &c. 

516.  Government. — The  supreme  government  is  vested  in 
the  grand  masters  of  the  five  principal  lodges,  and  the  affairs 
of  each  lodge  are  administered  by  a  president,  a  vice-president, 


CHINESE  SOCIETIES  135 

one  master,  two  introducers,  one  fiscal,  thirteen  coun- 
cillors, several  agents,  who  are  otherwise  known  as  "  grass 
shoes,"  "  iron  planks,"  or  "  night  brethren,"  and  some 
minor  officials,  who,  as  indicative  of  their  rank,  wear  flowers 
in  their  hair. 

In  times  of  peace  the  ranks  of  the  society  are  filled  up  by 
volunteers,  but  when  the  League  is  preparing  to  take  the  field, 
threats  and  violence  are  used  to  secure  members.  The  neo- 
phyte, as  in  Royal  Arch  Masonry,  is  introduced  to  the  Hall  of 
Fidelity  under  the  "  bridge  of  swords,"  formed  by  the  brethren 
holding  up  their  swords  in  the  form  of  an  arch  ;  he  then 
takes  the  oath,  and  has  his  queue  cut  off,  though  this  ceremony 
is  dispensed  with  if  he  lives  amongst  Chinese  who  are  faith- 
ful to  the  Tartar  rule  ;  his  face  is  washed,  and  he  exchanges 
his  clothes  for  a  long  white  dress,  as  a  token  of  purity,  and 
the  commencement  of  a  new  life.  Straw  shoes,  signs  of 
mourning,  are  put  on  his  feet.  He  is  then  led  up  to  the 
altar,  and  offers  up  nine  blades  of  grass  and  an  incense  stick, 
while  an  appropriate  stanza  is  repeated  between  each  offering. 
A  red  candle  is  then  lighted,  and  the  brethren  worship  heaven 
and  earth  by  pledging  three  cups  of  wine.  This  done,  the 
seven-starred  lamp,  the  precious  imperial  lamp,  and  the  Hung 
lamp  are  lighted,  and  prayer  is  made  to  the  gods,  beseeching 
them  to  protect  the  members.  The  oath  is  then  read,  and  each 
member  draws  some  blood  from  the  middle  finger,  and  drops 
it  into  a  cup  partly  filled  with  wine.  Each  neophyte  having 
drunk  of  the  mixture,  strikes  off  the  head  of  a  white  cock,  as 
a  sign  that  so  all  unfaithful  brothers  shall  perish.  Then  each 
new  brother  receives  his  diploma,  a  book  containing  the  oath, 
law,  and  secret  signs,  a  pair  of  daggers,  and  three  Hung 
medals.  The  secret  signs  are  numerous,  and  by  means  of 
them  a  brother  can  make  himself  known  by  the  way  in  which 
he  enters  a  house,  puts  down  his  umbrella,  arranges  his  shoes, 
holds  his  hat,  takes  a  cup  of  tea,  and  performs  a  number  of 
other  actions. 

Henry  Pottinger,  in  a  despatch  to  Lord  Aberdeen  (1843), 
perhaps  alludes  to  a  secret  society,  saying :  "  The  song  being 
finished,  Ke-Ying,  the  Chinese  commissioner,  having  taken 
from  his  arm  a  gold  bracelet,  gave  it  to  me,  informing  me, 
at  the  same  time,  that  he  had  received  it  in  his  tender 
youth  from  his  father,  and  that  it  contained  a  mysterious 
legend,  and  that,  by  merely  showing  it,  it  would  in  all  parts 
of  China  assure  me  a  fraternal  reception." 

517.  Seal  of  the  Hung  League. — Every  member  of  the 
Hung  League  is  provided  with  a  copy  of  its  seal,  which  is 


136  SECEET  SOCIETIES 

printed  in  coloured  characters  on  silk  or  calico.  The  original 
is  kept  in  the  custody  of  the  Tai-Koh.  Various  descriptions 
of  it  have  been  given,  and  as  they  differ,  it  may  be  pre- 
sumed that  there  are  more  seals  than  one.  But  all  of  them 
are  pentagonal,  and  inscribed  with  a  multitude  of  Chinese 
characters,  the  translations  given  showing  no  real  meaning  ; 
the  whole  is  a  riddle,  which  it  is  scarcely  worth  while  attempt- 
ing to  solve.  To  give  but  one  sample.  In  an  octagonal  space 
enclosed  within  the  pentagon  there  are  sixteen  characters, 
which,  according  to  the  interpreters,  signify:  "The  eldest 
brother  unites  to  battle-order ;  every  one  prepares  himself 
(at  the)  signal  (of  the)  chief.  (The)  swollen  mountain 
stream  spreads  itself  (into)  canals ;  ten  thousand  of  years  is 
(he)  this  day."  By  many  members  it  is  worn  as  a  charm, 
and  great  care  is  taken  to  conceal  its  meaning  from  the 
uninitiated.  As  a  charm,  the  seal  may  be  as  effective  against 
wounds  or  death  in  battle  as  were  the  amulets  furnished  in 
the  fifteenth  century  by  the  hangman  of  Passau,  until  a  soldier 
had  the  curiosity  to  open  one,  and  read,  "  Coward,  defend 
thyself ! " 

518.  The  Ko  lao  Hui. — The  secret  society  which  at  the 
present  day  seems  most  powerful  in  China,  is  that  known  by 
the  above  name.  It  was  at  first  a  purely  military  association, 
whose  object  was  mutual  protection  against  the  plunder  and 
extortion  practised  by  the  civil  officials  in  dealing  with  the 
pay  and  maintenance  of  the  troops.  It  is  believed  that  the 
initiation  consists  in  killing  a  cock  and  drinking  the  blood, 
either  by  itself,  or  mixed  with  wine.  It  is  also  believed  to 
use  a  planch ette,  whose  movements  are  attributed  to  occult 
influence ;  gradually  persons  not  connected  with  the  army 
were  admitted ;  the  ticket  of  membership  is  a  small  oblong 
piece  of  linen  or  calico,  stamped  with  a  few  Chinese  charac- 
ters. The  possession  of  one  of  these,  if  discovered,  entails 
immediate  execution  by  the  authorities. 

The  society  is  anti- foreign  and  anti-missionary,  and  is 
believed  to  be  at  the  bottom  of  all  the  riots  against  foreigners, 
and  especially  against  foreign  missionaries,  which  have  lately 
occurred  in  China.  Of  course,  as  long  as  missionaries,  instead 
of  making  it  their  business  to  convert  the  heathens  at  home, 
will  go  among  people  who  don't  want  them,  and  in  China  will 
establish  themselves  outside  Treaty  limits,  they  ought  to  be 
prepared  to  take  the  risks  they  voluntarily  incur,  but  when- 
ever attacked,  they  make  the  Chinese  Government  pay  them 
liberally  for  any  inconvenience  or  loss  they  may  have  suffered 
— of  course,  with  the  assistance  of  English  gun-boats.  In  1 89 1 


CHINESE  SOCIETIES  137 

the  Ko  lao  Hui,  which  is  also  anti-dynastic,  caused  inflam- 
matory placards  to  be  posted  up  in  various  parts  of  the 
empire,  which  the  authorities  immediately  tore  down,  only 
to  be  posted  up  afresh  ;  the  society  also  distributed  anti- 
missionary  pamphlets,  with  titles  such  as  this  :  "  The  Devil 
Doctriners  ought  to  be  killed,"  wherein  the  missionaries 
are  charged  with  every  kind  of  crime  against  morals  and 
life ;  the  Eoman  Catholics  are  more  severely  handled  than 
the  Protestants. 

In  September  1891  it  would  appear  that  the  society  was 
organising  a  rising  against  the  Government,  and  a  Mr.  C.  W. 
Mason,  a  British  subject,  and  a  fourth-class  assistant  in  the 
Customs  at  Shanghai,  was  implicated  in  the  project,  he 
having  been  instrumental  in  introducing  arms  and  dynamite 
into  the  country  for  the  use  of  the  conspirators.  He  was 
sentenced  to  nine  months'  imprisonment  with  hard  labour, 
and  he  was  further,  at  the  expiration  of  that  period,  to  find 
two  sureties  of  $2500  to  be  of  good  behaviour,  and  fail- 
ing in  this  he  was  to  be  deported  from  China.  This  latter 
happening  on  his  release,  he  was  sent  out  of  the  country  in 
September  1892. 

In  November  1891  a  famous  Ko  lao  Hui  leader  named 
Chen-kin-Lung  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Chinese  Govern- 
ment. He  had  been  staying  at  an  inn  with  about  thirty  of 
his  followers.  Gagged  and  bound,  he  was  taken  on  board  a 
steam-launch  kept  ready  to  start,  and  carried  to  Shanghai. 
His  examination  was  conducted  with  the  greatest  secrecy  by 
the  magistrate  and  deputies  of  the  Viceroy  and  the  Governor. 
On  his  person  were  found  several  official  documents  issued 
by  the  Ko  lao  Hui,  and  a  short  dagger  with  a  poisoned 
blade.  He  was  addressed  in  the  despatches  as  the  "  Eighth 
Great  Prince,"  and  was  evidently  the  commander  of  a  strong 
force.  Three  examinations  were  held,  but  Chen  preserved 
the  strictest  silence.  Torture  was  employed,  but  in  vain ; 
the  only  words  that  could  be  extracted  from  him  were, 
"  Spare  yourselves  the  trouble  and  me  the  pain  ;  be  con- 
vinced that  there  are  men  ready  to  sacrifice  their  lives  for 
the  good  of  a  cause  which  will  bring  happiness  to  this 
country  for  thousands  of  generations  to  come."  Then  more 
gentle  means  were  employed,  but  with  what  result  is  not 
known.  The  Hui  League  has  various  offshoots,  which  being 
known  to  be  in  reality  mutual  aid  societies,  are  secret 
societies  in  name  only,  and  therefore  attract  but  little 
attention  from  the  Government.  One  of  the  largest  of 
these  offshoots  is  the  "  Golden  Lily  Hui,"  which  flourishes 


138  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

in  the  western  provinces  of  China.  Its  members  are  divided 
into  four  sections,  respectively  marshalled  under  the  white, 
the  black,  the  red,  and  the  yellow  flag. 

That  the  popular  feeling  against  Christian  missionaries  in 
China  is  very  strong  cannot  be  denied,  and  for  the  last  twof 
or  three  years  has  displayed  itself  in  frequent  attacks  on 
their  persons  and  property.  Even  at  the  present  time  such 
outbreaks  are  almost  regularly  reported  in  the  European 
press.  A  pretty  plain  intimation  was  given  to  Sir  Ruther- 
ford Alcock  on  his  bidding  adieu  to  a  high  Chinese  official. 
"  I  wish,"  said  that  functionary,  "  now  you  are  going  home, 
you  would  take  away  with  you  your  opium,  and  your 
Christian  missionaries." 

A  law  passed  in  1 889  in  the  Straits  Settlements  for  the 
suppression  of  Chinese  secret  societies,  according  to  a  report 
issued  in  1892  by  the  Protector  of  Chinese  in  those  settle- 
ments, has  led  to  the  disappearance  of  those  dangerous 
organisations.  But  it  is  admitted  that  it  will  take  many 
years  for  the  Triad  element  to  become  extinct ;  the  action  of 
the  Hung  League  is  merely  suspended,  and  out  of  it  have 
sprung  many  minor  societies,  as  offshoots  from  the  parent 
society,  who  send  gangs  of  roughs  to  brothels,  coolie-depots, 
music  halls  and  shops,  demanding  monthly  contributions, 
under  threat  of  coming  in  force  and  interrupting  the  busi- 
ness of  the  establishment.  The  fighting  men  of  these 
societies  are  kept  in  the  lodges  by  the  head  men  on  the 
proceeds  of  the  exactions  thus  levied.  The  expulsion  of  the 
head  men,  as  the  speediest  remedy  of  these  evils,  has  been 
tried,  with  as  yet  only  partial  success. 


II 

THE  COMUNEROS 


519.  Introductory  Eemarks. — The  downfall  of  Napoleon, 
by  a   pleasant   fiction,    invented   by   historians   who   write 
history  philosophically,  that  is,  chisel  and  mould  history  to 
fit  systems  drawn  from  their  inner  consciousness,  is  said  to 
have  made  Europe  free.    True,  the  battle  of  Waterloo  and  the 
Congress  of  Vienna  restored  the  kings  to  their  thrones,  but 
to  say  that  Europe  was  thereby  made  free  is  false.     Instead 
of  one  mighty  eagle  hovering  over  Europe,  the  limbs  of  that 
ancient  Virgin  were  now  torn  to  pieces  by  a  flock  of  harpies  ; 
instead  of  one  mighty  ruler,  a  host  of  petty  tyrants  returned 
to  revel  in  the  delights  of  a  terreur  blanche.     Religious  des- 
potism, by  the  restoration  of  the  pope,  was  to  be  the  fit  pre- 
lude to  the  political  tyranny  which  followed  the  "Restoration." 
But  the  Napoleonic  meteor,  in  its  flight  across  Europe,  had 
shed  some  of  its  light  into  the  dense  brains  even  of  the  most 
slavishly  loyal  German  peasant,  accustomed  to  look  up  to 
the    kingly,   princely,   or  grand-ducal   drill-sergeant  as  his 
heaven-appointed  Landesvater,  so  that  he  began  to  doubt  the 
ruler's   divine    mission.      Hence   secret   societies   in   everv 
country  whose  king  had  been  restored  by  the  Congress  of 
Vienna — in  Spain,  France,  Italy,  Germany,  Austria.     Some 
of  those  secret  societies  had  been  fostered  by  the  princes 
themselves,  as  long  as  their  own  restoration  was  the  object 
aimed  at;  but  when  the  societies  and  the  nations  they  repre- 
sented demanded  that  this  restoration  should  involve  con- 
stitutional privileges   and  the  rights  of   free  citizens,  the 
"  restored "   kings   turned    against    their   benefactors,   and 
conspired  to  suppress  them.     But  such  is  the  gratitude  of 
kings.      However,  turn  we  to  the  secret  societies  formed 
to   undo   the   evils  wrought   by  Waterloo.      I   begin  with 
Spain. 

520.  Earliest  Secret  Societies  in  Spain. — Even  before  the 
French  Revolution  there  existed  in  Spain  secret  societies, 
some  averse  to  monarchical  government,  others  in  favour 

139 


1 40  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

of  clerocracy.  Among  the  latter  may  be  mentioned  the 
" Concepcionistas,"  or  "Defenders  of  the  Immaculate  Concep- 
tion" (523),  who  carried  their  zeal  for  Ferdinand  VII.  and 
their  tenderness  for  the  Church  to  such  a  degree  as  to  desire 
the  return  of  the  blessed  times  of  the  Holy  Inquisition. 
They  also  sought  to  get  hold  of  the  management  of  public 
affairs,  to  turn  them  to  their  own  profit;  and  the  dismal 
administration  of  the  Bourbons  shows  that  they  partly 
succeeded.  Probably  from  this  association  arose  that  of 
the  "  Defenders  of  the  Faith,"  Jesuits  in  disguise,  who  in 
1820  spread  themselves  over  Spain,  taking  care  of  the 
throne  and  altar,  and  still  more  of  themselves.  During 
the  reign  of  Ferdinand  VII.  also  arose  the  "  Realists,"  who, 
to  benefit  themselves,  encouraged  the  king  in  his  reactionary 
policy. 

521.  Freemasonry  in  Spain,  the  Forerunner  of  the  Comu- 
neros.— After  the   French  invasion    of    1809,  Freemasonry 
was  openly  restored  in  the  Peninsula,  and  a  Grand  Orient 
established  at  Madrid ;  but  it  confined  itself  to  works   of 
popular  education  and  charity,  entirely  eschewing  politics. 
The  fall  of  Joseph  and  the  Restoration  again  put  an  end 
to  these  well-meant  efforts.     In   1816,  some  of  the  officers 
and    soldiers,    returned   from    French   prisons,    joined   and 
formed  independent   lodges,   establishing   a   Grand    Orient 
at   Madrid,  very   secret,  and   in    correspondence  with   the 
few   French   lodges   that   meddled   with   politics.      Among 
the  latter  is  remembered  the  lodge  of  the    "Sectaries  of 
Zoroaster,"  which  initiated  several  Spanish  officers  residing 
in  Paris,  among  others  Captain  Quezada,  who   afterwards 
favoured  the  escape  of  the  patriot  Mina.     The  revolution  of 
the  island  of  Leon  was  the  work  of  restored  Spanish  Masonry, 
which  had  long  prepared  for  it  under  the  direction  of  Quiroga, 
Riego,  and  five  members  of  the  Cortes. 

522.  The  Comuneros. — After  the  brief  victory,  badly-con- 
cealed jealousies  broke  forth  ;  many  of  the  brethren  seceded 
and  formed  in  1821  a  new  society,  the  "Confederation  of  the 
Communists"  (Comuneros),  which  name  was  derived  from  that 
memorable  epoch  of  Spanish  history  when  Charles  V.  attempted 
to  destroy  the  ancient  liberties,  and  thus  provoked  the  revolu- 
tion of  the  Commons  in  1520,  which  was  headed  by  John 
Padilla,  and  afterwards  by  his  heroic  wife,  Maria  Pacheco. 
In  the  battle  of  Villalar  the  Comuneros  were  defeated  and 
scattered,  and  the  revolution  was  doomed.     The  new  Comu- 
neros,  reviving   these  memories,  declared  their  intentions, 
which  could  not  but  be  agreeable  to  Young  Spain ;  nearly 


THE  COMUNEROS  141 

sixty  thousand  members  joined  the  society :  women  could  bo 
initiated,  who  had  their  own  lodges  or  torres,  or  towers,  as 
their  meetings  were  called,  and  which  were  presided  over  by  a 
"  Grand  Castellan."  The  scope  of  the  society  was  to  promote 
by  all  means  in  its  power  the  freedom  of  mankind ;  to  defend 
in  every  way  the  rights  of  the  Spanish  people  against  the 
abuses  and  encroachments  of  royal  and  priestly  power ;  and 
to  succour  the  needy,  especially  those  belonging  to  the 
society.  Some  of  the  more  advanced  of  the  Comuneros  were 
for  beheading  the  king,  or  exiling  him  to  the  Havannah, 
on  the  principle  that  to  put  a  house,  whether  domestic  or 
national,  in  order,  it  was  first  necessary  to  get  rid  of  all 
greedy  hangers-on  and  parasites,  and  the  Spanish  throne 
and  the  royal  family  of  Spain  with  them  came  under  the 
above  designations.  But  the  nation  thought  otherwise. 
On  being  initiated  the  candidate  was  first  led  into  the 
"hall  of  arms,"  where  he  was  told  of  the  obligations 
and  duties  he  was  about  to  undertake.  His  eyes  having 
been  bandaged  he  was  conducted  to  another  room,  where, 
after  he  had  declared  that  he  wished  to  be  admitted  into 
the  confederation,  a  member  acting  as  sentinel  exclaimed: 
"  Let  him  advance,  I  will  escort  him  to  the  guard-house 
of  the  castle."  Then  there  was  imitated  with  great  noise 
the  lowering  of  a  drawbridge,  and  the  raising  of  a  port- 
cullis ;  the  candidate  was  then  led  into  the  guard-room,  un- 
bandaged,  and  left  alone.  The  walls  were  covered  with  arms 
and  trophies,  and  with  patriotic  and  martial  inscriptions. 
Being  at  last  admitted  into  the  presence  of  the  governor,  the 
candidate  was  thus  addressed :  "  You  stand  now  under  the 
shield  of  our  chief  Padilla ;  repeat  with  all  the  fervour  you 
are  capable  of  the  oath  I  am  about  to  dictate  to  you." 
By  this  oath,  the  candidate  bound  himself  to  fight  for  con- 
stitutional liberty,  and  to  avenge  every  wrong  done  to  his 
country.  The  new  knight  then  covered  himself  with  the 
shield  of  Padilla,  the  knights  present  pointed  their  swords  at 
it,  and  the  governor  continued:  "The  shield  of  our  chief 
Padilla  will  cover  you  from  every  danger,  will  save  your  life 
and  honour;  bat  if  you  violate  your  oath  this  shield  shall 
be  removed,  and  these  swords  buried  in  your  breast."  Both 
the  Masons  and  Comuneros  sought  to  gain  possession  of 
superior  political  influence.  The  former,  having  more  ex- 
perience, prevailed  in  the  elections  and  formed  the  ministry. 
Hence  a  contest  that  agitated  the  country  and  injured  the 
cause  of  liberty.  In  1832,  the  Comuneros  endeavoured  to 
overthrow  the  Freemasons,  but  unsuccessfully.  Still  Masons 


142  SECEET  SOCIETIES 

and  Comuneros  combined  to  oppose  the  reactionary  party. 
They  also  succeeded  in  suppressing  Carbonarism,  which  had 
been  introduced  into  Spain  by  some  refugee  Italians.  These 
societies,  in  fact,  though  professing  patriotic  views,  were 
nothing  but  egotistical  cliques,  bent  on  their  own  aggrandise- 
ment. How  little  they  were  guided  by  fixed  principles  is 
shown  by  their  conduct  in  Spanish  America.  In  Brazil  they 
placed  on  the  throne  Don  Pedro,  and  in  Mexico  they  estab- 
lished a  republican  form  of  government,  just  as  it  best  suited 
their  own  private  interests.  But  such  is  the  practice  of  most 
patriots. 

523.  Clerical  Societies. — But  the  royal  party  also  formed 
secret  societies.  Among  these  we  have  mentioned  the  "Con- 
cepcionistas,"  or  "Defenders of  the  Immaculate  Conception," 
founded  in  1823  (see  520  ante),  with  the  sanction,  if  not  at 
the  instigation,  of  Ferdinand  VII.  This  was  followed  in 
1825  by  the  "Defenders  of  the  Faith,"  also  previously  re- 
ferred to,  and  in  1827  by  a  third,  known  as  the  "Destroying 
Angels."  The  existence  of  the  last  is  denied  by  clerical 
writers,  but  that  it  did  exist,  and  that  the  Minister  Calomarde 
was  its  chief,  are  facts  proved  beyond  dispute.  The  doings 
of  these  clerical  secret  societies  covered  the  king,  a  des- 
picable character  in  every  way,  with  disgrace,  and  involved 
the  country  in  constant  internecine  war  and  ruin,  which  are 
matters  belonging  to  history.  But  as  specially  concerning 
the  secret  societies  of  Spain,  it  should  be  mentioned  that 
at  that  period  they  were  split  up  into  four  distinct  parties : 
(i)  the  Aristocratic,  who  received  great  support  from  Eng- 
land ;  its  objects  were  the  restoration  of  the  constitution, 
and  a  change  of  dynasty.  (2)  The  Mineros,  whose  head 
was  General  Mina.  They  were  chiefly  military  men,  closely 
allied  with  the  Aristocrats,  and  largely  subsidised  by  Eng- 
land. The  American  Government,  with  a  view  to  the  con- 
quest of  Mexico,  also  favoured  them.  Opposed  to  them 
were  (3)  the  Republicans,  whose  designation  indicates  their 
object.  (4)  The  Comuneros,  who,  though  also  desiring  a 
republican  form  of  government  in  Spain,  opposed  the  plans 
of  the  third  party. 


Ill 

THE  HETAIRIA 

524.  Origin. — The  secret   society  which   bore  the  above 
Greek  name,   signifying  the  "  Union  of  Friends,"  is,   like 
Carbonarism,    one    of    the    few    secret    associations    which 
attained  its  objects,  because  it  had  a  whole  people  to  back 
it  up ;  a  support  which  the  Nihilists,  for  instance,  lack  as 
yet,  and  hence  the  present  non-success  of  the  latter.     The 
origin  of  the  Hetairia  may  be  traced  back  to  the  Greek  poet 
Constantinos  Rhigas,  who  lived  in  the  later  half  of  the  last 
century,    and   who   plotted   a    Greek    insurrection    against 
Turkey,  but  was   by  the  Austrian  Government,  in  whose 
territory  he  was  then  travelling,  basely  delivered  up  to  the 
Porte,  and  executed  at  Belgrade  in  1798.     But  the  Hetairia 
he  had  founded  was  not  destroyed  by  his  death  ;   its  prin- 
ciples survived,  and  a  new  Hetairia  was  founded  in  1812,  on 
lines  somewhat  different,  however,  from  those  of  the  old 
society. 

525.  The  Hetairia  of  1812. — In  1812  a  society  was  formed 
at  Athens,  which  called  itself  the   "  Hetairia  Philomuse." 
Since  Lord  Elgin  had  carried  off  whole  cargoes  of  antiques, 
the   need  was   felt  of  protecting   the   Greek   treasures   of 
antiquity.     The  object  of  the  Philomuse,  therefore,  was  to 
preserve  relics  of  ancient  art,  to  found  museums,  libraries, 
and  schools.      At  the  same  time  the  members  hoped  by 
peaceful  means  to  improve  the  social  and  political  condition 
of  Greece.     They  were  conservative  enough  to  place  their 
hopes  on  princes  and  the  Congress  of  Vienna.     Count  Capo 
d'Istria,   the  private  secretary  of  the  Czar,   who  possessed 
in  the  highest  degree  the  confidence  of  his  master,  did  his 
best  to  gain  the  goodwill  of  the  Congress.     The  princes  and 
diplomatists,  composing  it,   had  then  drained   the   cup   of 
pleasure  to  the  dregs,  and  it  seemed  to  them  a  pleasing 
variation  to  surround  themselves,   amidst  fetes,   balls,  and 
amateur  theatricals,  with  the   halo  of   ancient  Hellenistic 
interests.     Ministers,  princes,  kings,  were  ready  to  wear  the 


144  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

golden  or  iron  ring,  on  which  the  ancient  Attic  obolus  was 
engraved,  the  countersign  of  the  Philomuse.  The  Emperor 
Alexander,  the  Crown  Princes  of  Bavaria  and  Wiirtemberg, 
joined  the  society  and  subscribed  to  its  funds.  But  these 
were  not  the  men  or  the  means  to  deliver  Greece  from  the 
Turkish  yoke,  which  had  been  the  object  of  Rhigas,  and  of 
those  who  thought  like  him. 

526.  Tlte  Hetairia  0/1814. — Hence  in  1814  a  new  Hetairia 
was  founded  with  purely  political  objects.  It  was  called  the 
11  Hetairia  "  or  "  Society  of  Friends  "  only,  and  stood  to  the 
Philomuse  in  the  same  relation  the  sword  stands  to  the  pen. 
It  was  founded  at  Odessa,  where  Greek  and  Russian  interests 
always  met,  by  a  little-known  merchant,  Ikufas,  of  Arta, 
and  two  other  obscure  men  of  honour,  Athanasius  Tsakaloff 
and  the  Freemason,  E.  Xanthos,  of  Patmos.  These  men 
determined  to  achieve  what  Europe  refused  to  do — to  raise 
the  Cross  above  the  Crescent ;  and  in  the  course  of  years 
they  succeeded.  The  fate  of  Rhigas  taught  them  secrecy. 
Tsakaloff,  who  had  years  before  formed  a  secret  league  of 
Greek  youths  settled  in  Paris,  had  some  experience  as  to  ex- 
ternal forms,  and  so  had  Xanthos  as  a  Freemason.  The  number 
of  grades  of  their  Hetairia  was  seven — Brethren,  Appren- 
tices, Priests  of  Eleusis,  Shepherds,  Prelates,  Initiated,  and 
Supreme  Initiated.  The  latter  two  grades  were  invested  with 
a  military  character,  and  directly  intended  for  war.  The 
candidates  for  initiation  had  to  kneel  down,  at  night,  in  an 
oratory,  and  to  swear  before  a  painting  of  the  Resurrection, 
fidelity,  constancy,  secrecy,  and  absolute  obedience.  Little, 
however,  was  imparted  on  admission  to  a  higher  degree,  the 
object  being  mainly  to  render  the  initiation  more  impressive. 
The  brother  was  told  to  have  his  arms  ready,  and  fifty  cart- 
ridges in  his  cartridge-box ;  the  Priest,  that  the  object  of  the 
Hetairia  was  the  deliverance  of  Greece :  but  like  all  secret 
societies,  this  one  did  not  remain  untainted  from  egotism, 
falsehood,  and  humbug  in  general.  As  the  priests  were 
allowed  to  introduce  neophytes,  who  had  to  pay  them  certain 
amounts  of  money,  the  office  of  priest  was  much  sought  after ; 
but  it  must  have  appeared  strange  to  many  of  the  candidates, 
that  whilst  the  priest  bade  them  swear  on  the  Gospel,  he  at 
the  same  time  informed  them  that  he  initiated  them  on  the 
strength  of  the  power  conferred  on  him  by  the  High-Priest 
of  Eleusis.  The  leaders,  further,  did  not  hesitate  to  boast  of 
a  secret  understanding  with  the  Court  of  St.  Petersburg, 
yea,  it  was  intimated  that  Alexander  was  the  Grand  Arch. 
The  Hetairists  have  been  blamed  for  all  this ;  but  it  cannot 


THE  HETAIRIA  145 

be  expected  that  a  revolutionary  military  league  should  in 
all  points  be  faultless,  and  keep  within  the  rules  of  civic 
honesty.  Legal  means  were  of  no  avail;  cunning  and  deceit 
are  the  weapons  of  the  oppressed.  Politicians  have  to 
accommodate  themselves  to  the  fancies  and  prejudices  of 
men. 

527.  Signs  and  Passwords. — Some  of  the  signs  and  pass- 
words were  common  to  all  the  degrees,   but  others  were 
known  to  the  higher  grades  only,  each  of  which  had  its 
peculiar  mysteries.     The  Brethren  saluted  by  placing  the 
right  hand  on  their  friend's  breast,  and  uttering  the  Albanian 
word  sipsi  (pipe),  to  which  the  other,  if  initiated,  responded 
with  sarroukia  (sandals).     The  Apprentices  pronounced  the 
syllable  Lon,  and  the  person  addressed,  if  in  the  secret,  com- 
pleted the  word  by  uttering  the  syllable  don.     In  the  higher 
grades  the  formulas  were  more  complex.    The  mystical  words 
of  the  Priests  were,    "  How  are  you  ?  "  and  "  As  well  as 
you  are ; "  and  again,  "  How  many  have  you  ?  "  and  "  As 
many  as  you  have."     If  the  person  accosted  had  reached  the 
third  degree,  he  understood  the  mystical  sense  of  the  question, 
and  replied,  "  Sixteen."      To  be  sure  of  his  man  the  ques- 
tioner  then   asked,    "  Have   you  no  more  ? "  to  which  his 
equally  cautious  friend  replied,  "  Tell  me  the  first,  and  I  will 
tell  you  the  second."     The  first  then  pronounced  the  first 
syllable  of  a  Turkish  word  meaning  justice,  and  the  other 
completed  it  by  uttering  the  second  syllable.     The  sign  of 
recognition  was  given  by  a  particular  touch  of  the  right 
hand,  and  making  the  joints  of  the  fingers  crack,  afterwards 
folding  the  arms  and  wiping  the  eyes.     The  Prelates  pressed 
the  wrist,  in  shaking  hands,  with  the  index  finger,  reclined 
the  head  on  the  left  hand,  and  pressed  the  right  on  the 
region  of  the  heart.     The  Prelate  addressed  responded  by 
rubbing  the  forehead.     If  in  doubt,  the  mystical  phrases  of 
the  Priests  of  Eleusis  were  repeated,  and  if  the  answers  were 
correctly  given,  the  two  repeated  alternately  the  syllables  of 
the  mysterious  word  va-an-va-da. 

528.  Short  Career  of  Galatis. — The  sect  consisted  at  first 
of  but  few  members.     In  1819  the  Directory  or  Grand  Arch 
was  composed  of  the  three  founders  only  and  four  other 
persons :    Galatis,   Komizopulos,  A.  Sekeris,  and  A.   Gazis, 
with  whom  afterwards  were  joined  Leventis,  Dika'os,  Ignatios, 
and  Mavrocordato,  and  finally,  Patsimadis  and  Alexander 
Ipsilanti.     Galatis  early  betrayed,   and  almost  ruined,  the 
cause  of  the  Hetairia.     Exceedingly  vain  of  his  admission 
to  the  Grand  Arch,  he  went  to  St.  Petersburg,  where  he 

VOL.  ir.  K 


146  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

proclaimed  himself  as  the  ambassador  of  the  Hellenes,  in 
consequence  of  which  the  police  arrested  him,  and  an  exa- 
mination of  his  papers  revealed  the  whole  secret  of  the 
Hetairia.  The  Czar,  vacillating  between  his  philo-Hellenism 
and  the  fear  of  revolution,  was  persuaded  by  Capo  d'Istria  to 
set  Galatis  free,  and  even  to  award  him  compensation  in 
money  for  his  imprisonment.  Later  on,  when  Sknfas  con- 
ceived the  bold  idea  of  attacking  the  enemy  in  his  very 
capital,  and  had  therefore  settled  at  Constantinople,  Galatis 
excited  the  suspicion  of  thinking  more  of  his  own  advantage 
than  of  that  of  his  country  ;  he  was  always  asking  for  money, 
and  when  this  was  refused  him,  he  uttered  threats,  whilst 
alluding  to  his  intimacy  with  Halet  Effendi,  the  Minister 
and  favourite  of  Mahmoud.  Thereupon  the  Hetairia  decided 
that  he  must  be  removed.  Towards  the  end  of  1818  he  was 
ordered  on  a  journey ;  a  few  trusted  Hetairists  were  his 
companions.  One  day,  while  he  was  resting  near  Hermione, 
under  a  tree,  a  Hetairist  suddenly  discharged  his  pistol  at 
him.  With  the  cry,  "What  have  I  done  to  you?  "  he  ex- 
pired. The  murderers,  with  a  strange  mingling  of  ferocity 
and  sentimentality,  cut  these  last  words  of  his  into  the  bark 
of  the  tree. 

529.  Proceedings  of  the  Grand  Arch. — Skufas  had  died 
some  months  before,  but  thanks  to  the  stupidity  of  the 
Turkish.  Government,  Constantinople  remained  the  seat  of 
the  league.  The  Grand  Arch  met  at  Xantho's  house  and 
instituted  a  systematic  propaganda.  In  all  the  provinces  of 
Turkey  and  adjoining  states  "Ephori"  superintendents  were 
appointed,  who  each  had  his  own  treasury,  and  authority  to 
act  in  his  district  for  the  best  of  the  common  cause ;  only 
in  very  important  cases  he  was  to  refer  to  the  Grand  Arch. 
Gazis  undertook  preparing  the  mainland  ;  Greek  soldiers, 
who  had  just  then  returned  from  Russia,  were  sent  to  the 
Morea  and  the  island  of  Hydra.  But  it  was  essential  to  gain 
possession  of  the  most  important  military  point  in  the  Morea, 
of  Mani,  usually  called  Maina,  and  by  means  of  the  patriarch 
Gregor,  who  was  initiated  into  the  secret  of  the  Hetairia, 
Petros  Mavromichalis,  the  powerful  governor  of  Maina,  was 
seduced  from  his  allegiance.  The  emissaries  of  the  Hetairia 
knew  how  to  reconcile  tribes  who  had  for  centuries  been  at 
feud,  and  to  gain  them  for  their  cause,  so  that  in  1820  the 
Hetairia  had  secret  adherents  all  over  the  Peloponnesus, 
on  the  Cyclades,  Sporades,  on  the  coasts  of  Asia  Minor,  the 
Ionian  Islands,  and  even  in  Jerusalem.  It  was  now  felfc 
to  be  necessary  to  appoint  a  supreme  head ;  the  choice  lay 


THE  HETAIRIA  147 

between  Capo  d'Istria  and  Alexander  IpsilantL  The  former 
was  a  diplomatist,  the  latter  a  soldier.  Capo  d'Istria  de- 
clined to  mix  himself  up  in  the  matter,  at  least  openly, 
because  his  master,  the  Emperor  Alexander,  was  unwilling 
to  appear  as  the  protector  of  the  Hetairia.  Ipsilanti  under- 
took its  direction  ;  and  as  soon  as  it  was  known  that  he  had 
done  so,  the  hopes  of  the  conspirators  of  the  eventual  support 
of  Russia  rose  to  fever-heat,  and  Ipsilanti  in  1820  found  it 
advisable  to  leave  St.  Petersburg  and  go  to  Odessa,  to  be 
more  in  the  centre  of  the  movement.  But  though  a  soldier, 
he  was  no  general,  and  allowed  himself  to  be  carried  away 
by  the  enthusiasm  he  saw  around  him.  Though  contri- 
butions in  cash  came  in  so  slowly  that  he  had  to  make 
private  loans,  he  lost  none  of  his  confidence.  In  July  he 
appointed  Georgakis  commander  of  the  "army  of  the 
Danube,"  and  Perrhiivos  chief  of  the  "army  of  Epirotes." 
He  himself  intended  to  enter  the  Peloponnesus,  and  to  set 
up  at  Maina  the  standard  of  independence,  fancying  that 
the  Peloponnesus  was  a  fortified  camp,  outnumbering  in 
soldiers  the  Turkish  contingents.  But  he  was  soon  con- 
vinced of  this  error,  and  he  was  advised  to  make  his  first 
attempt  against  the  Turkish  power  in  the  Danubian  princi- 
palities ;  and  though  other  counsellors  rejected  this  proposal, 
Jpsilanti  decided  to  adopt  it,  guided  by  the  fact  that  the 
treaties  between  Russia  and  the  Porte  forbade  the  entry 
of  an  army  into  the  Principalities,  unless  with  the  consent 
of  both  parties.  Should  the  Porte,  in  consequence  of  the 
Hetairist  rising,  send  troops  to  Bucharest,  Russia  would  be 
bound  to  support  the  Greeks. 

530.  Ipsilanti 's  Proceedings.  —  Further  hesitation  became 
impossible.  A  certain  Asimakis,  a  member  of  the  Hetairia, 
in  conjunction  with  the  brother  of  the  murdered  Galatis, 
betrayed  to  the  Turkish  police  all  the  details  of  the  con- 
spiracy. Kamarinos,  who  had  been  to  St.  Petersburg,  on 
his  return  publicly  revealed  the  futility  of  Russian  promises; 
to  silence  him  the  Hetairists  had  him  assassinated.  They 
also  endeavoured  to  take  advantage  of  the  quarrel  which  had 
broken  out  between  Ali  Pasha  and  the  Sultan,  whose  best 
troops  were  then  occupied  in  besieging  Janina,  Ali  Pasha's 
capital.  Ali,  being  sorely  pressed  by  the  Turks,  promised 
the  Hetairia  his  help,  their  cause  being  his — the  overthrow  of 
the  Sultan.  The  Suliotes,  also,  his  ancient  enemies,  were 
won  over  by  him,  partly  in  consequence  of  the  bad  treatment 
they  received  from  the  Turks,  whose  side  they  had  at  first 
adopted,  and  partly  because  their  leaders  were  initiated 


148  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

into  the  secret  of  the  Hetairia,  in  whose  success  they  saw 
the  recovery  of  their  ancient  territory,  from  which  Ali  had 
expelled  them.  In  March  1821,  Ipsilanti  took  up  his  resi- 
dence at  Jassy,  whence  he  issued  pompous  proclamations 
to  the  Greeks,  Moldavians,  and  Wallachians,  and  also  sent 
a  manifesto  to  the  princes  and  diplomatists,  who  were  then 
assembled  for  the  settlement  of  the  Neapolitan  revolution, 
inviting  Europe,  but  especially  Russia,  to  favour  the  cause  of 
Greek  independence.  But  the  result  of  the  latter  step  was 
fatal  to  it.  Metternich's  policy  was  totally  opposed  to  it ;  and 
the  Emperor  Alexander,  who  had  just  proclaimed  his  anti- 
revolutionary  views,  as  applied  to  the  Italian  rising,  could 
not  repudiate  them  when  dealing  with  the  Greek  question. 
Knowing  nothing  of  the  share  his  favourite,  Capo  d'Istria 
had  in  it,  and  of  the  underhand  promises  of  Russian  help  the 
latter  had  made  to  the  Hetairia,  he  assured  the  Emperor 
Francis,  Metternich,  and  Bernstorff,  of  his  adherence  to 
the  Holy  Alliance,  and  his  opposition  to  any  revolution, 
with  such  zeal  and  mystical  unction,  that  his  listeners 
were  "deeply  moved."  Ipsilanti's  action  was  utterly  re- 
proved; his  name  was  removed  from  the  Russian  Army 
List ;  the  Russian  troops  on  the  Pruth  were  instructed 
under  no  pretence  to  take  any  part  in  the  disturbances  in 
the  Principalities ;  and  the  Porte  was  informed  that  the 
Russian  Government  was  a  total  stranger  to  them.  Capo 
d'Istria  was  compelled  to  write  to  his  friend,  whom  he 
had  secretely  encouraged,  that  "  he  must  expect  no  support, 
either  moral  or  material,  from  Russia,  which  could  be  no 
party  to  the  secret  undermining  of  the  Turkish  Empire  by 
means  of  secret  societies." 

531.  Ipsilanti's  Blunders. — Ipsilanti,  since  his  arrival  at 
Jassy,  had  taken  none  of  the  steps  which  might  have  in- 
sured the  success  of  his  enterprise.  He  did  nothing  towards 
centralising  the  Government,  or  concentrating  his  troops. 
He  seemed  satisfied  with  looking  upon  the  Principalities  as 
a  Russian  depot,  and  to  be  waiting  for  the  hand  of  the  Czar 
to  raise  him  on  the  Greek  throne.  As  if  the  victory  were 
already  won,  he  bestowed  civil  and  military  appointments 
on  the  swarms  of  relations  and  flatterers  who  surrounded 
him.  Chiefs  of  a  few  hundred  adventurers  were  grandly 
called  generals ;  he  placed  his  brothers  on  the  staffs  of  his 
imaginary  army  corps,  whilst  he  neglected  and  snubbed  men 
who  might  have  greatly  advanced  the  revolution;  he  favoured 
worthless  creatures,  such  as  Karavias,  who,  with  a  band  of 
Arnaut  mercenaries,  had  surprised  and  cut  down  the  Turkish 


THE  HETAIRIA  149 

garrison  of  Galatz,  plundered  the  town,  desecrated  the 
churches,  and  committed  every  kind  of  outrage.  Ipsilanti 
shut  his  eyes  when  the  rabble  of  Jassy,  on  hearing  of  the 
horrors  committed  at  Galatz,  suddenly  attacked  the  Turks 
peacefully  residing  in  the  former  town,  and  murdered 
them  in  cold  blood.  He  further  committed  a  great  mis- 
take in  imprisoning  a  rich  banker  on  some  frivolous  pre- 
tence, and  only  releasing  him  on  his  paying  a  ransom  of 
sixty  thousand  ducats.  This  act  drove  a  great  many  wealthy 
people  to  take  refuge  on  Eussian  or  Austrian  territory,  and 
many  others  to  wish  for  the  restoration  of  Turkish  authority, 
whose  oppression  was  not  quite  so  ominous  as  that  of  the 
newly-arrived  "  liberators." 

532.  Progress  of  the  Insurrection. — At  last  Ipsilanti,  with 
an    army   of    two    thousand    men,    whose    numbers    were 
everywhere  proclaimed  to  be  ten  thousand,  left  Jassy  for 
Bucharest.      At    Fokshany,    on    the   borders    of    the    two 
Principalities,  he  issued  another  proclamation  to  the  "  Da- 
cians,"  which  was  as  unsuccessful  as  the  former.     On  the 
other  hand,  his  army  was  here  reinforced  by  the  Arnauts  of 
Karavias,  and  later  on  by  two  hundred  Greek  horsemen,  led 
by  Georgakis,  one  of  the  most  heroic  of  the  Greek  patriots. 
About   this   time,    also,    according   to   the   pattern   of    the 
Thebans,    five   hundred   youths,  belonging   to   the   noblest 
and  richest  families,  formed  themselves  into  a  Sacred  Bat- 
talion.    They  were  clothed  in  black,  and  displayed  on  their 
breasts  a  cross  with  the  words,  "  In  this  sign  you  shall  con- 
quer."   Their  hats  were  decorated  with  a  skull  and  cross- 
bones  !     Still,  this  battalion  henceforth  distinguished  itself 
above   all  the  other  troops  of   Ipsilanti  by  discipline   and 
valour.     But   the  chief,  instead  of   affording  those   youths 
an  opportunity  of   displaying  their  zeal,  damped  it  by  his 
delays    and   slow  advance.      He  did  not   reach   Bucharest 
before   the   Qth    April.      Here  the   higher   clergy  and   the 
remaining  Boyars  declared  their  adhesion  to  the  cause,  in 
the  hope  that  the  leaders  of  irregular  troops  who  had  joined 
Ipsilanti  would  do  the  same,  and  thus  subordinate  the  anar- 
chical elements  of  the  revolution  to  the  general  object.     But 
this   hope  was  only  partially  fulfilled.     Georgakis,  indeed, 
placed  himself  under  Ipsilanti's  orders,  but  other  leaders, 
like   Savas  and  Vladimiresko,  were  far  from  following  this 
example.      It  was  even  said  that  the  former  was  secretly 
working  towards  the  restoration  of  Turkish  supremacy. 

533.  Ipsilanti  s  Approaching  Fall. — In   this  crisis,   Ipsi- 
lanti's chief  occupation  was  the  erection  of  a  theatre  and 


150  SECEET  SOCIETIES 

engaging  comedians,  whilst  he  himself  was  more  of  a 
comedian  than  a  general.  He  daily  showed  himself  in  the 
gorgeous  uniform  of  a  Russian  general.  A  numerous  staff 
of  officers  rushed  from  morning  till  night,  with  aimless 
activity,  through  the  streets  of  Bucharest.  Wealthy  people 
were  visited  with  arbitrary  requisitions ;  the  soldiers  of  the 
Hetairia  lived,  without  discipline,  at  the  expense  of  citizens 
and  peasants;  the  Sacred  Battalion  only  refrained  from 
these  excesses.  Under  these  circumstances  arrived  the  de- 
cision from  Laybach,  and  with  it  the  curse  of  the  Church. 
The  Patriarch  laid  Ipsilanti  and  the  Hetairia  under  the  ban  ; 
Sovas  and  Vladimiresko  now  openly  joined  the  Rumelian 
opposition  to  the  Greek  cause ;  the  Boyars  and  the  clergy 
withdrew  from  it,  and  from  the  other  classes  of  the  people 
there  had  never  been  any  real  prospect  of  support.  Ipsilanti 
endeavoured  to  weaken  the  force  of  the  double  blow  which 
had  befallen  him  by  asserting  that  the  ban  of  diplomacy  and 
the  Church  was  a  mere  form  behind  which  the  Czar  and  the 
Patriarch  wished  to  conceal  their  secret  sympathy  with  the 
Hetairia.  He  asserted  that  Capo  d'Istria  had  secretly  in- 
formed him  that  the  Hetairists  were  not  to  lay  down  their 
arms  before  having  learnt  the  issue  of  the  proposals  made  by 
Russia  to  the  Turks  in  favour  of  the  Greeks.  In  the  name 
of  the  Greek  nation  he  addressed  a  number  of  demands  to 
the  C^ar  and  his  Ambassador  at  Constantinople,  declaring 
that  he  would  not  relinquish  the  position  he  had  assumed 
until  these  demands  were  complied  with.  Minds  bolder 
than  his  advised  him  to  make  his  way  through  Bulgaria 
to  Epirus,  to  relieve  Ali  Pasha,  closely  besieged  in  Janina, 
and  with  the  latter's  help  to  set  Greece  free.  But  Ipsilanti 
was  not  made  of  the  stuff  to  execute  so  daring  a  coup-de- 
main  ;  and  when  Vladimiresko  strongly  supported  the  plan, 
Ipsilanti  felt  convinced  that  he  and  others  intended  to  lead 
him  into  a  trap  by  luring  him  out  of  the  Principalities.  He 
therefore,  instead  of  moving  towards  the  Danube,  on  the 
1 3th  April,  with  his  small  army,  and  scarcely  any  artillery, 
turned  northwards  to  the  Carpathians,  distributing  his 
soldiers  in  so  wide  a  belt  that  if  the  Turks  had  had  any 
forces  ready  they  might  easily  have  exterminated  Ipsilanti's 
army  piecemeal.  The  revolutionary  chief  intended,  should 
the  Turks  seriously  threaten  him,  to  take  refuge  on  Austrian 
territory,  hoping,  through  the  intercession  of  the  Russian 
Ambassador  at  Constantinople,  to  secure  a  free  passage  for 
himself  and  his  followers.  The  Russian  Government  having 
permitted  the  advance  of  Turkish  troops  into  the  Princi- 


THE  HETAIRIA  151 

palities  to  quell  the  insurrection,  Ipsilanti  had  to  be  prepared 
for  a  speedy  encounter.  In  fact,  under  the  pretence  of  in- 
tending resistance,  he  ordered  intreiichments  to  be  thrown 
up,  and  his  troops  to  be  exercised  in  the  use  of  the  bayonet, 
whilst  he  amused  them  again  with  the  fable  of  Russian 
assistance. 

534.  Advance  of  the  Turks. — In  the  second  week  of  May 
the  Turks  crossed  the  Danube.  The  Pasha  of  Braila  under- 
took the  recovery  of  Galatz,  which  had  been  taken  by  Kara- 
vias.  The  first  encounter  took  place  before  that  town  on 
the  1 3th  May,  on  which  occasion  the  Hetairists,  by  their 
bravery,  redeemed  many  of  the  mistakes  committed  by  their 
leaders.  About  seven  hundred  of  the  insurgents  held  three 
redoubts  on  the  road  to  Braila ;  they  had  two  guns.  Their 
position  had  been  so  skilfully  chosen  by  their  chief,  Atha- 
nasius  of  Karpenisi,  that  it  seemed  possible  to  defend  it  for 
a  long  time  against  a  fivefold  number  of  Turks.  But  the 
majority  of  the  defenders  consisted  of  rabble  sailors  taken 
from  the  ships  in  the  harbour,  and  of  the  robbers  and  mur- 
derers who,  under  the  leadership  of  Karavias,  had  rendered 
themselves  infamous,  and  now  felt  little  inclination  to  sacri- 
fice themselves  for  a  foreign  cause.  As  soon  as  the  Turks 
prepared  for  the  attack,  the  bulk  of  them  fled,  leaving  it  to 
Athanasius  and  the  few  Greeks  to  engage  in  the  fight.  The 
unequal  conflict  lasted  till  night ;  the  redoubts  were  bravely 
held  by  the  small  number  of  Greeks;  and  when  darkness 
came,  and  the  fighting  was  suspended,  the  Greeks  practised 
a  trick  to  make  their  escape.  They  hung  their  cloaks  out- 
side the  redoubts,  and  the  Turks,  taking  the  cloaks  for  men, 
fired  at  them  ;  at  the  same  time  the  Greeks  had  loaded  their 
guns  in  such  a  way,  as  to  go  off  one  after  another  as  soon  as 
the  garrison  should  have  left  the  redoubts,  by  which  means 
the  attention  of  the  Turks  would  be  diverted  from  the 
fugitives.  The  ruse  succeeded ;  the  Greeks  escaped,  first  to 
a  small  peninsula  at  the  mouth  of  the  Pruth,  and  thence  to 
Jassy.  The  greatest  disorder  prevailed  in  that  town.  Prince 
Kantakuzeno,  to  whom  Ipsilanti  had  entrusted  its  defence, 
could  maintain  himself  but  a  few  days.  In  the  middle  of 
June,  when  tho  Turkish  troops  advanced  against  him,  he 
retreated  to  Bessarabia,  advising  Athanasius  and  the  other 
Greeks  to  do  the  same.  But  these  pronounced  him  a 
despicable  coward;  they,  they  said,  were  determined  to 
defend  the  Greek  cause  to  the  last,  and  to  die  honourably 
or  to  conquer.  With  four  hundred  men  and  eight  guns 
they  resisted,  behind  a  weak  barricade  of  trees,  near  Skuleni, 


152  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

for  eight  days  a  vastly  superior  enemy,  and  by  their  heroic 
conduct  threw  a  final  halo  round  the  Moldavian  insurrection. 
Athanasius  met  with  the  death  of  a  patriot.  Nearly  a  thou- 
sand Turks  had  fallen ;  three  hundred  Greeks  perished  in  the 
fight  or  in  the  waters  of  the  Pruth,  the  remnant  took  refuge 
on  the  opposite  bank. 

535.  Ipsilanti' s   Difficulties. — Moldavia  was   lost;   in  the 
meantime  the  Pasha  of  Silistria  had  entered  Bucharest  011 
the  29th  May ;  Ipsilanti,  perfectly  helpless,  was  encamped 
at  Tergovist.     His  troops,  even  the  Sacred  Battalion,  were 
thoroughly   demoralised ;    his   dissensions   with    Savas   and 
Vladimiresko  continued.      The  former  had  readily  surren- 
dered Bucharest  to  the  Turks,  and  had  followed  Ipsilanti, 
whom  on  the  first  favourable  opportunity  he  intended  to 
take  prisoner  to  give  him  up  to  the  Turks.     Vladimiresko 
prepared  to  withdraw  to  Little  Wallachia,  there  to  await  the 
result  of  his  negotiations  with  the  Turks ;  he  had  proposed 
to  the  Pasha  of   Silistria  to  have  Ipsilanti  and  Georgakis 
assassinated.     But  his  treachery  became  known  to  his  in- 
tended victims ;  Georgakis  suddenly  appeared  in  his  camp, 
took  him  prisoner  in  the  midst  of  his  officers,  and  carried 
him  to  Tergovist.     On  being  taken  before  Ipsilanti  he  pro- 
tested his  innocence,  declaring  that  he  had  only  been  trying 
to  draw  the  Turks  into  a  snare  ;  but  Ipsilanti  ordered  him  at 
once  to  be  shot. 

536.  Ipsilanti 's  Fall. — Ipsilanti  intended  to  occupy  the 
strategically    important    village    of    Dragatschau,    but    the 
rapid  advance  from  Bucharest  of  the  Turkish  vanguard  left 
him  no  time  to  do  so.     On  the  8th  June  it  encountered  a 
Greek  division  under  Anastasius  of  Argyrokastro ;  another 
division,  sent  for  the  support  of  the  Greeks  from  Tergovist, 
under  the  command  of  Dukas,  betook  themselves  to  their 
heels,  with  their  leader  at  their  head,  and  spread  such  con^- 
sternation  in  the  camp  at  Tergovist,  that  Ipsilanti's  troops, 
leaving  their  baggage  behind,  took  to  flight.     Ipsilanti  there- 
upon with  great  difficulty  made  his  way  to  Ribnik,  with  a 
view  of  being  near  the  Austrian  frontier,  which  he  intended 
to  cross,  if  necessary.    In  spite  of  the  losses  he  had  sustained, 
he  still  commanded  7500  men,  with  four  guns.     Georgakis 
considered   the   opportunity   favourable   by   an    attack    on 
Dragatschau,  which  the  Turks  had  occupied  with  two  thou- 
sand men,  to  raise  the  sinking  courage  of  his  troops.     His 
dispositions  were  skilfully  arranged  to  surround  the  enemy, 
inferior  in  numbers,  and  on  the  iQth  June  1821,  five  thou- 
sand insurgents  were  concentred  on  the  heights  surrounding 


THE  HETAIRIA  153 

the  village,  entirely  cutting  off  the  retreat  of  the  Turks. 
Ipsilanti's  corps  had  not  yet  arrived.  Georgakis  sent  messen- 
ger after  messenger  to  hasten  the  advance  of  Ipsilanti,  that 
he  might  share  in  the  honours  of  the  day.  The  Turks  were 
aware  of  their  dangerous  position.  Towards  mid-day  they 
attempted  a  debouch  from  the  village  to  occupy  a  height  in 
front  of  it ;  but  the  attempt  miscarried,  the  Greeks  would 
not  give  way.  Thereupon  the  Turks  set  fire  to  the  village, 
in  order  to  effect  their  retreat  under  the  shelter  of  tho 
flames.  Karavias,  whom  Ipsilanti  had  appointed  colonel 
of  the  cavalry,  considered  it  a  favourable  moment  to  gather 
cheap  laurels ;  he  took  the  burning  of  the  village  as  a  sign 
of  the  flight  and  defeat  of  the  Turks;  envious  of  Georgakis, 
he  designed  to  rob  him  of  the  honour  of  this  easy  victory, 
and  in  spite  of  orders  to  the  contrary,  to  adventure  with  his 
five  hundred  horsemen  on  storming  the  village.  He  per- 
suaded Nicholas  Ipsilanti  to  support  the  mad  attempt  with 
the  Sacred  Battalion  and  his  artillery,  and,  heated  with  wine, 
without  even  communicating  with  his  chief,  he  led  his  men 
across  the  bridge  leading  to  the  village.  The  Turks  at  first 
retreated, as,  in  fact,  they  had  already  commenced  a  retrograde 
movement,  apprehending  a  general  attack.  But  when  they 
discovered  that  Karavias  and  the  Sacred  Battalion  only  were 
coming  against  them,  they  wheeled  round  and  first  threw  tho 
cavalry  into  disorder ;  the  Sacred  Battalion,  tender  youths 
having  but  lately  assumed  arms,  could  not  resist  the  hardy 
veteran  Spahis.  They  fell,  "  like  blooming  boughs  "  under 
the  woodcutter's  hatchet.  Georgakis  arrived  in  time  to  re- 
cover the  standard  and  two  guns  and  rescue  the  remainder, 
about  one  hundred  men,  of  the  Sacred  Battalion.  About 
thirty  of  the  Arnauts,  and  twenty  of  Georgakis'  devoted 
band,  were  also  slain.  By  this  defeat  Ipsilanti's  last  hopo 
was  destroyed.  Having  taken  refuge  at  Kosia,  he  nego- 
tiated with  the  Austrian  Government  for  permission  to  cross 
the  frontier.  His  safety  was  in  danger  from  his  own  people. 
They  talked  of  handing  him  over  to  the  Turks  and  earning 
the  price  set  on  his  head.  All  discipline  disappeared. 
The  Hetairists  robbed  and  murdered  one  another.  Among 
the  few  men  of  faith  and  honour,  Georgakis  was  one  of  the 
most  prominent.  Though  he  would  have  preferred  Ipsilanti 
remaining,  he  assisted  his  flight.  Then  he  joined  his  friend 
Farmakis  at  Adjile,  to  continue,  faithful  to  his  oath,  the 
struggle  for  Greece. 

537.  Ipsilanti's  Manifesto. — Ipsilanti,  true  to  his  system 
of  deceit,  continued  to  spread  false  reports  and  letters,  stating 


154  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

that  the  Emperor  Francis  had  declared  war  against  the  Porte, 
that  Austrian  troops  would  occupy  the  Principalities,  and  that 
he  was  going  to  have  an  interview  with  the  Imperial  governor. 
But  once  on  Austrian  territory,  Ipsilanti,  who  there  called 
himself  Alexander  Komorenos,  was  seized  and  imprisoned  in 
Fort  Arad.  There  he  attempted  to  justify  his  forsaking  his 
companions  in  arms  by  shifting  the  want  of  success  oft'  his 
shoulders  on  those  of  others.  In  a  boastful  manifesto  he 
said:  "  Soldiers!  But  no,  I  will  not  disgrace  this  honourable 
name  by  applying  it  to  you.  Cowardly  hordes  of  slaves! 
your  treachery,  and  the  plots  you  have  hatched,  compel  me 
to  leave  you.  From  this  moment  every  bond  between  you 
and  me  is  severed ;  to  me  remains  the  disgrace  of  having 
commanded  you.  You  have  even  robbed  me  of  the  glory  of 
dying  in  battle.  Run  to  the  Turks  ;  purchase  your  slavery 
with  your  lives,  with  the  honour  of  your  wives  and  children." 

538.  Ipsilanti' s Imprisonment  and  Death. — Treaties  between 
Austria  and  Turkey  stipulated  that  fugitives  from  either  side 
were  only  to  be  received  on  condition  of  their  being  rendered 
harmless.     Consequently,  Ipsilanti  was  compelled  to  declare 
in  writing,  and  on  his  honour,  that  he  would  make  no  attempt 
at  flight.     He  then  was,  like  a  common  criminal,  taken  to 
the  fortress  of  Munkacs,  surrounded  by  marshes,  and  obliged 
to  take  up  his  residence  in  a  miserable  garret.     For  years 
he  remained  in  close  confinement,  and  only  when  his  health 
began  to  give  way  was  he  permitted  to  take  up  his  residence 
in  a  less  unhealthy  prison  at  Theresienstadt,  a  fortified  place 
of  Bohemia.     In  1827,  at  the  intercession  of  the  Emperor  of 
Russia,  he  was  set  free,  but  died  next  year,  as  it  was  said, 
of  a  broken  heart.     He  had  lived  to  see  his  followers  per- 
secuted and  slain,  his  family  ruined,  and  himself  unable  to 
assist,  when  the  people  of  Greece,  more  successful  than  the 
Hetairists  of  the  Principalities,  fought  for  liberty  and  their 
fatherland.    Romance  has  thrown  its  halo  around  the  prisoner 
of  Munkacs,  and  the  Greeks  ended  in  beholding  in  him  the 
martyr  of  Greek  freedom. 

539.  Fate   of  the   Hetairists. — The   insurrection  may  be 
considered  to  have  ended  with  Ipsilanti's  flight;  the  remnant 
of  his  followers  now  fought  for  honour  only.     Readily  sup- 
ported by  the  people — as  foolishly  as  ever  supporting  their 
oppressors — the  Turks  made  rapid  progress  in  annihilating 
the  remains  of  Ipsilanti's  army.     Such  Hetairist  leaders  as 
surrendered  on  good  faith  were  mercilessly  executed.     The 
traitor  Savas,  in    spite  of  the  zeal  he  had  shown  in  the 
Turkish   cause,   shared  the   same   fate ;    he   was    shot    at 


THE  HETAIRIA  155 

Bucharest,  together  with  his  officers  and  soldiers,  and  their 
heads  were  sent  to  Constantinople. 

540.  Georgakis'    Death. — Georgakis   and    Farmakis,    the 
bravest   and    truest   leaders   of   the   insurgents,    remained. 
They  were  determined  not  to  entrust  their  lives  either  to 
Austrian  protection  or  Turkish  pity,  and  therefore  again 
made  their  way  into  Moldavia.      Georgakis,   who  was  ill, 
had  to  be  carried  on  a  litter.     During  the  long  and  painful 
march  the  number  of  his  followers  was  reduced  to  three 
hundred  and  fifty.      The  peasants  everywhere  betrayed  to 
the  Turks  in  pursuit  every  one  of  his  movements,  and  even 
before  reaching  the  Moldavian  frontier  he  was  surrounded 
on  all  sides.     Moreover,  he  was  imprudent  enough  to  take 
refuge  in  a  cul-de-sac,  by  fortifying  the  monastery  of  Sekko, 
which,  with   but   one   outlet,   is  situate   in   a  deep   gorge. 
However,  on,the  iyth  September,  he  successfully  drove  back 
the  first  attack  of  the  Turkish  vanguard,  and  his  confidence 
increased.      He   was,  moreover,    induced  by  a  treacherous 
letter   of   the    Greek   bishop,    Romanes,    not    to  allow  the 
treasures  of  the  monastery  to  fall  into  Turkish  hands,  to 
prolong  his  stay.     This  decision  proved  fatal  to  the  remnant 
of  the  Hetairia.     On  the  2Oth   September,  four  thousand 
Turks,   led  by  Roumanian  peasants  on  hitherto  unknown 
paths,  made  their  appearance  in  the  rear  of  the  monastery, 
traversing  the  Greek  lines  of  defence,  and  cutting  off  the 
defenders  of  the  monastery,  placed  at  the  entrance  of  the 
gorge,  from  their  comrades.     Farmakis  threw  himself  into 
the  main  building  of  the  monastery,  while  Georgakis,  with 
eleven    companions,    took   refuge  in  the  bell-tower.      The 
Turks  set  fire  to  piles  of  wood  close  to  it.      "I  shall  die 
in  the  flames  ;  fly,  if  you  choose,  I  open  you  the  door ! "  the 
intrepid  chief  exclaimed ;  at  the  same  time  he  threw  down 
the  door,  flung  a  firebrand  into  the  powder-stores,  and  in 
this  way  buried  the  Turks  who  had  forced  their  way  in,  and 
ten  of  his  companions,  in  the  ruins.     Only  one  of  the  Greeks 
escaped,  as  if  by  a  miracle. 

541.  Farmakis'  Death. — Farmakis  held  the  monastery  for 
eleven  days  longer,  after  which  time  his  ammunition  and 
stores  of   food  were  exhausted.      On  the  4th  October  he 
agreed  to  a  favourable  capitulation,  which   the  Pasha   of 
Braila  and  the  Austrian  Consul  (!)  guaranteed.      The  be- 
sieged were  promised  an  honourable  free  marching  off  with 
their  arms.     But  in  the  night,  before  the  conclusion  of  the 
treaty,  thirty-three  of  Farmakis'  soldiers — two  hundred  alto- 
gether— made  their  escape,  because  they  did  not  trust  the 


156  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

Turkish  promises.  Those  who  remained  had  to  regret  their 
confidence.  On  the  following  day  the  Turks  slaughtered 
the  soldiers  ;  the  officers  were  carried  to  Silistria,  and  there 
executed  ;  Farmakis  was  sent  to  Constantinople,  where,  after 
having  been  cruelly  racked,  he  was  beheaded. 

542.  Final  Success  of  the  Hetairia. — Thus  the  real  Hetairia 
perished,  but  its  overthrow  was  not  without  benefit  to  the 
cause ;  for  by  the  brutalities  committed  by  the  Turks  who 
occupied  the  Principalities,  there  arose  a  series  of  compli- 
cations between  the  Cabinets  of  St.  Petersburg  and  Con- 
stantinople, which  at  last  led  to  an  open  quarrel.  Ipsilanti 
lived  to  see  the  issue  of  the  diplomatic  fencing  in  the 
beginning  of  the  Russo-Turkish  war  of  1828  and  1829, 
when  the  real  Greek  people,  with  genuine  means,  accom- 
plished to  the  south  of  the  Balkans  what  he  had  vainly 
attempted  with  artificial  ones  in  the  north.  But  in  this 
the  action  of  the  Hetairia,  still  existing  as  a  remnant, 
played  only  a  secondary  part,  and  hence  we  may  here  fitly 
conclude  the  history  of  this  secret  society. 


IV 
THE  CABBONARI 

543.  History  of  the  Association. — Like  all  other  associa- 
tions, the  Carbonari,  or  charcoal-burners,  lay  claim  to  a  very 
high  antiquity.  Some  of  the  less  instructed  have  even  pro- 
fessed a  descent  from  Philip  of  Macedon,  the  father  of 
Alexander  the  Great,  and  have  attempted  to  form  a  high 
degree,  the  Knight  of  Thebes,  founded  on  this  imaginary 
origin.  Others  go  back  only  so  far  as  the  pontificate  of 
Alexander  III.,  when  Germany,  to  secure  herself  against 
rapacious  barons,  founded  guilds  and  societies  for  mutual 
protection,  and  the  charcoal-burners  in  the  vast  forests  of 
that  country  united  themselves  against  robbers  and  enemies. 
By  words  and  signs  only  known  to  themselves,  they  afforded 
each  other  assistance.  The  criminal  enterprise  of  Kunz  de 
Kauffungen  to  carry  off  the  Saxon  princes,  8th  July  1455, 
failed  through  the  intervention  of  a  charcoal-burner,  though 
his  intervention  was  more  accidental  than  prearranged. 
And  in  1514  the  Duke  Ulrich  of  Wlirtemberg  was  compelled 
by  them,  under  threat  of  death,  to  abolish  certain  forest  laws, 
considered  as  oppressive.  Similar  societies  arose  in  many 
mountainous  countries,  and  they  surrounded  themselves  with 
that  mysticism  of  which  we  have  seen  so  many  examples. 
Their  fidelity  to  each  other  and  to  the  society  was  so  great, 
that  it  became  in  Italy  a  proverbial  expression  to  say,  "  On 
the  faith  of  a  Carbon  aro."  At  the  feasts  of  the  Carbonari,  the 
Grand  Master  drinks  to  the  health  of  Francis  I.,  King  of 
France,  the  pretended  founder  of  the  Order,  according  to  the 
follovving  tradition : — During  the  troubles  in  Scotland  in 
Queen  Isabella's  time — this  Isabella  is  purely  mythical — 
many  illustrious  persons,  having  escaped  from  the  yoke  of 
tyranny,  took  refuge  in  the  woods.  In  order  to  avoid  all 
suspicion  of  criminal  association,  they  employed  themselves 
in  cutting  wood  and  making  charcoal.  Under  pretence  of 
carrying  it  for  sale,  they  introduced  themselves  into  the 
villages,  and  bearing  the  name  of  real  Carbonari,  they  easily 


158  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

met  their  partisans,  and  mutually  communicated  their  dif- 
ferent plans.  They  recognised  each  other  by  signs,  by  touch, 
and  by  words,  and  as  there  were  no  habitations  in  the  forest, 
they  constructed  huts  of  an  oblong  form,  with  branches  of 
trees.  Their  lodges  (vendite)  were  subdivided  into  a  number 
of  baracche,  each  erected  by  a  Good  Cousin  of  some  distinc- 
tion. There  dwelt  in  the  forest  a  hermit  of  the  name  of 
Theobald;  he  joined  them,  and  favoured  their  enterprise. 
He  was  proclaimed  protector  of  the  Carbonari.  Now  it 
happened  that  Francis  I.,  King  of  France,  hunting  on  the 
frontiers  of  his  kingdom  next  to  Scotland  (sic),  or  following 
a  wild  beast,  was  parted  from  his  courtiers.  He  lost  himself 
in  the  forest,  but  stumbling  on  one  of  the  baracche,  he  was 
hospitably  entertained,  and  eventually  made  acquainted  with 
their  secret  and  initiated  into  the  Order.  On  his  return  to 
France  he  declared  himself  its  protector.  The  origin  of  this 
story  is  probably  to  be  found  in  the  protection  granted  by 
Louis  XII.  and  continued  by  Francis  I.  to  the  Waldenses, 
who  had  taken  refuge  in  Dauphine".  But  neither  the  Hewers 
nor  the  Carbonari  ever  rose  to  any  importance,  or  acted  any 
conspicuous  part  among  the  secret  societies  of  Europe  till 
the  period  of  the  Revolution.  As  to  their  influence  in  and 
after  that  event,  we  shall  return  to  it  anon. 

The  Theobald  alluded  to  in  the  foregoing  tradition,  is  said 
to  have  been  descended  from  the  first  Counts  of  Brie  and 
Champagne.  Possessed  of  rank  and  wealth,  his  fondness 
for  solitude  led  him  to  leave  his  father's  house,  and  retire 
with  his  friend  Gautier  to  a  forest  in  Suabia,  where  they 
lived  as  hermits,  working  at  any  chance  occupation  by  which 
they  could  maintain  themselves,  but  chiefly  by  preparing 
charcoal  for  the  forges.  They  afterwards  made  several  pil- 
grimages to  holy  shrines,  and  finally  settled  near  Vicenza, 
where  Gautier  died.  Theobald  died  in  1066,  and  was  canon- 
ised by  Pope  Alexander  III.  From  his  occupation,  St. 
Theobald  was  adopted  as  the  patron  saint  of  the  Carbonari, 
and  is  invoked  by  the  Good  Cousins  in  their  hymns ;  and  a 
picture,  representing  him  seated  in  front  of  his  hut,  is  usually 
hung  up  in  the  lodge. 

544.  Real  Orif/in  of  the  Carboneria. — The  first  traces  of  a 
league  of  charcoal-burners  with  political  objects  appear  in  the 
twelfth  century,  probably  caused  by  the  severe  forest  laws 
then  in  existence.  About  that  period  also  the  Fcndeurs 
(hewers),  large  corporations  with  rites  similar  to  those  of  the 
Carbonari,  existed  in  the  French  department  of  the  Jura, 
where  the  association  was  called  le  Ion  cousinage  (the  good 


THE  CARBONARI  159 

cousinship),  which  title  was  also  assumed  by  the  Carbonari. 
Powerful  lords,  members  of  the  persecuted  Order  of  the 
Temple,  seeing  the  important  services  men  scattered  over  so 
large  an  extent  of  country  could  render,  entered  into  secret 
treaties  with  them.  It  further  appears  that  the  Fcndeurs 
formed  the  first  and  the  Carbonari  the  second,  or  higher, 
degree  of  the  society  collectively  called  the  Carboneria.  It 
is  also  probable  that  before  the  French  Revolution  the  then 
French  Government  attempted  by  means  of  the  society,  which 
then  existed  at  Genoa  under  the  name  of  the  Royal  Car- 
boneria,  to  overthrow  the  ancient  oligarchical  government 
and  annex  Genoa  to  France.  It  is  certain  that  from  1770 
to  1790  most  of  the  members  of  the  French  chambers 
belonged  to  the  Order  of  the  Fendeurs,  which  continued  to 
exist  even  under  Napoleon  I.  The  Carboneria  was  intro- 
duced into  Southern  Italy  by  returning  Neapolitan  exiles, 
who  had  been  initiated  in  Germany  and  Switzerland,  and  as 
early  as  1807  Salicetti,  the  Neapolitan  minister  of  police, 
spoke  of  a  conspiracy  instigated  by  the  Carbonari  against 
the  French  army  in  the  Neapolitan  states.  But  the  society 
was  as  yet  powerless ;  when,  however,  the  Austrian  war 
broke  out  in  1809,  and  French  troops  had  largely  to  be 
withdrawn  from  Italy,  the  first  and  head  Vendita  was  formed 
at  Capua,  its  rules  and  ordinances  being  written  in  English, 
because  the  English  Government  desired  to  employ  the 
society  as  a  lever  for  the  overthrow  of  Napoleon.  Before, 
however,  proceeding  with  the  history  of  the  Order,  we  will 
give  particulars  of  their  ritual  and  ceremonies. 

545.  The  Vendita  or  Lodge. — From  the  "  Code  of  Carbon- 
arism"  we  derive  the  following  particulars  respecting  the 
lodge : — It  is  a  room  of  wood  in  the  shape  of  a  barn.  The 
pavement  must  be  of  brick,  in  imitation  of  the  mosaic  floor 
of  the  Masons'  lodge,  the  interior  furnished  with  seats  without 
backs.  At  the  end  there  must  be  a  block  supported  by  three 
legs,  at  which  sits  the  Grand  Master ;  at  the  two  sides  there 
must  be  two  other  blocks  of  the  same  size,  at  which  sit  the 
orator  and  secretary  respectively.  On  the  block  of  the  Grand 
Master  there  must  be  the  following  symbols : — a  linen  cloth, 
water,  salt,  a  cross,  leaves,  sticks,  fire,  earth,  a  crown  of  white 
thorns,  a  ladder,  a  ball  of  thread,  and  three  ribbons,  one  blue, 
one  red,  and  one  black.  There  must  be  an  illuminated 
triangle,  with  the  initial  letters  of  the  password  of  the 
second  rank  in  the  middle.  On  the  left  hand  there  must  be 
a  triangle,  with  the  arms  of  the  Vendita  painted.  On  the 
right  three  transparent  triangles,  each  with  the  initial  letters 


160  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

of  the  sacred  words  of  the  first  rank.  The  Grand  Master, 
and  first  and  second  assistants,  who  also  sit  each  before  a 
large  wooden  block,  hold  hatchets  in  their  hands.  The 
masters  sit  along  the  wall  of  one  side  of  the  lodge,  the 
apprentices  opposite. 

546.  Ritual  of  Initiation. — The  ritual  of  Carbonarism,  as 
it  was  reconstituted  at  the  beginning  of  the  present  century, 
was  as  follows.  In  the  initiation : — 

"The  Grand  Master  having  opened  the  lodge,  says,  First 
Assistant,  where  is  the  first  degree  conferred  ? 

A.  In  the  hut  of  a  Good  Cousin,  in  the  lodge  of  the 
Carbonari. 

G.  M.  How  is  the  first  degree  conferred  ? 

A.  A  cloth  is  stretched  over  a  block  of  wood,  on  which 
are  arranged  the  bases,  firstly,  the  cloth  itself,  water,  fire, 
salt,  the  crucifix,  a  dry  sprig,  a  green  sprig.  At  least  three 
Good  Cousins  must  be  present  for  an  initiation ;  the  intro- 
ducer, always  accompanied  by  a  master,  remains  outside 
the  place  where  are  the  bases  and  the  Good  Cousins.  The 
master  who  accompanies  the  introducer  strikes  three  times 
with  his  foot  and  cries :  '  Masters,  Good  Cousins,  I  need 
succour.'  The  Good  Cousins  stand  around  the  block  of  wood, 
against  which  they  strike  the  cords  they  wear  round  the 
waist  and  make  the  sign,  carrying  the  right  hand  from  the 
left  shoulder  to  the  right  side,  and  one  of  them  exclaims, 
'  I  have  heard  the  voice  of  a  Good  Cousin  who  needs  help, 
perhaps  he  brings  wood  to  feed  the  furnaces.'  The  introducer 
is  then  brought  in.  Here  the  Assistant  is  silent,  and  the 
Grand  Master  begins  again,  addressing  the  new-comer: — 
'My  Good  Cousin,  whence  come  you? 

/.  From  the  wood. 

G.  M.  Whither  go  you  ? 

/.  Into  the  Chamber  of  Honour,  to  conquer  my  passions, 
submit  my  will,  and  be  instructed  in  Carbonarism. 

G.  M.  What  have  you  brought  from  the  wood  ? 

/.  Wood,  leaves,  earth. 

Cr.  M.  Do  you  bring  anything  else  ? 
,     /.  Yes ;  faith,  hope,  and  charity. 

Cr.  M.  Who  is  he  whom  you  bring  hither  ? 
.    /.  A  man  lost  in  the  wood. 

G.  M.  What  does  he  seek  ? 

/.  To  enter  our  order. 
•     G.  M.  Introduce  him.' 

The  neophyte  is  then  brought  in.  The  Grand  Master 
puts  several  questions  to  him  regarding  his  morals  and 


THE  CARBONARI  161 

religion,  and  then  bids  him  kneel,  holding  the  crucifix,  and 
pronounce  the  oath:  'I  promise  and  bind  myself  on  my 
honour  not  to  reveal  the  secrets  of  the  Good  Cousins ;  not 
to  attack  the  virtue  of  their  wives  or  daughters,  and  to 
afford  all  the  help  in  my  power  to  every  Good  Cousin  need- 
ing it.  So  help  me  God  !  " 

547.  First  Degree. — After  some  preliminary  questioning, 
the  Grand  Master  addresses  the  novice  thus  :  "  What  means 
the  block  of  wood  ? 

N.  Heaven  and  the  roundness  of  the  earth. 

G.  M.  What  means  the  cloth  ? 

N.  That  which  hides  itself  on  being  born. 

a.  M.  The  water? 

N.  That  which  serves  to  wash  and  purify  from  original 
sin. 

G.M.  The  fire? 

N.  To  show  us  our  highest  duties. 

G.  M.  The  salt? 

N.  That  we  are  Christians. 

G.  M.  The  crucifix  ? 

N.  It  reminds  us  of  our  redemption. 

G.  M.  What  does  the  thread  commemorate  ? 

N.  The  Mother  of  God  that  spun  it. 

G.  M.  What  means  the  crown  of  white  thorns  ? 

N.  The  troubles  and  struggles  of  Good  Cousins. 

G.  M.  What  is  the  furnace  ? 

N.  The  school  of  Good  Cousins. 

G.  M.  What  means  the  tree  with  its  roots  up  in  the  air  ? 

N.  If  all  the  trees  were  like  that,  the  work  of  the  Good 
Cousins  would  not  be  needed." 

The  catechism  is  much  longer,  but  I  have  given  only  so 
much  as  will  suffice  to  show  the  kind  of  instruction  imparted 
in  the  first  degree.  Without  any  explanations  following, 
one  would  think  one  was  reading  the  catechism  of  one  of 
those  religions  improvised  on  American  soil,  which  seek  by 
the  singularity  of  form  to  stir  up  the  imagination.  But  as 
in  other  societies,  as  that  of  the  Illuminati,  the  object  was 
not  at  the  first  onset  to  alarm  the  affiliated ;  his  disposition 
had  first  to  be  tested  before  the  real  meaning  of  the  ritual 
was  revealed  to  him.  Still,  some  of  the  figures  betray  them- 
selves, though  studiously  concealed.  The  furnace  is  the 
collective  work  at  which  the  Carbonari  labour ;  the  sacred 
fire  they  keep  alive,  is  the  flame  of  liberty,  with  which  they 
desire  to  illumine  the  world.  They  did  not  without  design 
choose  coal  for  their  symbol ;  for  coal  is  the  fountain  of 

VOL.  II.  L 


1 62  SECEET  SOCIETIES 

light  and  warmth,  that  purifies  the  air.  The  forest  repre- 
sents Italy,  the  wild  wood  of  Dante,  infested  with  wild 
beasts — that  is,  foreign  oppressors.  The  tree  with  the  roots 
in  the  air  is  a  figure  of  kingdoms  destroyed  and  thrones 
overthrown.  Catholic  mysticism  constantly  reappears ;  the 
highest  honours  are  given  to  Christ,  who  was  indeed  the 
Good  Cousin  of  all  men.  Carbonarism  did  not  openly  assail 
religious  belief,  but  made  use  of  it,  endeavouring  to  simplify 
and  reduce  it  to  first  principles,  as  Freemasonry  does.  The 
candidate,  as  in  the  last-named  Order,  was  supposed  to  per- 
form journeys  through  the  forest  and  through  fire,  to  each 
of  which  a  symbolical  meaning  was  attached ;  though  the 
true  meaning  was  not  told  in  this  degree.  In  fact,  to  all 
who  wished  to  gain  an  insight  into  the  real  objects  of 
Carbonarism,  this  degree  could  not  suffice.  It  was  necessary 
to  proceed. 

548.  The  Second  Degree. — The  martyrdom  of  Christ  occupies 
nearly  the  whole  of  the  second  degree,  imparting  to  the 
catechism  a  sad  character,  calculated  to  surprise  and  terrify 
the  candidate.  The  preceding  figures  were  here  invested 
with  new  and  unexpected  meanings,  relating  to  the  minutest 
particulars  of  the  crucifixion  of  the  Good  Cousin  Jesus ; 
which  more  and  more  led  the  initiated  to  believe  that  the 
unusual  and  whimsical  forms  with  stupendous  artifice  served 
to  confound  the  ideas  and  suspicions  of  their  enemies,  and 
cause  them  to  lose  the  traces  of  the  fundamental  idea.  In 
the  constant  recurrence  to  the  martyrdom  of  Christ  we 
may  discern  two  aims — the  one  essentially  educational,  to 
familiarise  the  Cousin  with  the  idea  of  sacrifice,  even,  if 
necessary,  of  that  of  life  ;  the  other,  chiefly  political,  intended 
to  gain  proselytes  among  the  superstitious,  the  mystics,  the 
souls  loving  Christianity,  fundamentally  good,  however,  pre- 
judiced, because  loving,  and  who  constituted  the  greater 
number  in  a  Roman  Catholic  country  like  Italy — then  even 
more  than  now.  The  catechism,  as  already  observed,  has 
reference  to  the  Crucifixion,  and  the  symbols  are  all  explained 
as  representing  something  pertaining  thereto.  Thus  the 
furnace  signifies  the  Holy  Sepulchre ;  the  rustling  of  the 
leaves  symbolises  the  flagellation  of  the  Good  Cousin  the 
Grand  Master  of  the  Universe ;  and  so  on.  The  candidate 
for  initiation  into  this  degree  has  to  undergo  further  trials. 
He  represents  Christ,  whilst  the  Grand  Master  takes  the 
name  of  Pilate,  the  first  councillor  that  of  Caiaphas,  the 
second  that  of  Herod ;  the  Good  Cousins  generally  are  called 
the  people.  The  candidate  is  led  bound  from  one  officer  to 


THE  CARBONARI  163 

the  other,  and  finally  condemned  to  be  crucified ;  but  he  is 
pardoned  on  taking  a  second  oath,  more  binding  than  the 
first,  consenting  to  have  his  body  cut  in  pieces  and  burnt, 
as  in  the  former  degree.  But  still  the  true  secret  of  the 
Order  is  not  revealed. 

549.  The  Degree  of  Grand  Meet. — This  degree  is  only  to  be 
conferred  with  the  greatest  precautions,  secretly,  and  to  Car- 
bonari known  for  their  prudence,  zeal,  courage,  and  devotion 
to  the  Order.  Besides,  the  candidates,  who  shall  be  intro- 
duced into  a  grotto  of  reception,  must  be  true  friends  of  the 
liberty  of  the  people,  and  ready  to  fight  against  tyrannical 
governments,  who  are  the  abhorred  rulers  of  ancient  and 
beautiful  Ausonia.  The  admission  of  the  candidate  takes 
place  by  voting,  and  three  black  balls  are  sufficient  for  his 
rejection.  He  must  be  thirty- three  years  and  three  months  old, 
the  age  of  Christ  on  the  day  of  His  death.  But  the  religious 
drama  is  now  followed  by  one  political.  The  lodge  is  held 
in  a  remote  and  secret  place,  only  known  to  the  Grand  Masters 
already  received  into  the  degree  of  Grand  Elect.  The  lodge 
is  triangular,  truncated  at  the  eastern  end.  The  Grand 
Master  Grand  Elect  is  seated  upon  a  throne.  Two  guards, 
from  the  shape  of  their  swords  called  flames,  are  placed 
at  the  entrance.  The  assistants  take  the  name  of  Sun 
and  Moon  respectively.  Three  lamps,  in  the  shape  of  sun, 
moon,  and  stars,  are  suspended  at  the  three  angles  of  the 
grotto  or  lodge.  The  catechism  here  reveals  to  the  candidate 
that  the  object  of  the  association  is  political,  and  aims  at  the 
overthrow  of  all  tyrants,  and  the  establishment  of  universal 
liberty,  the  time  for  which  has  arrived.  To  each  prominent 
member  his  station  and  duties  in  the  coming  conflict  are 
assigned,  and  the  ceremony  is  concluded  by  all  present 
kneeling  down,  and  pointing  their  swords  to  their  breasts, 
whilst  the  Grand  Elect  pronounces  the  following  formula  : — 
"  I,  a  free  citizen  of  Ausonia,  swear  before  the  Grand  Master 
of  the  Universe,  and  the  Grand  Elect  Good  Cousin,  to  de- 
vote my  whole  life  to  the  triumph  of  the  principles  of  liberty, 
equality,  and  progress,  which  are  the  soul  of  all  the  secret 
and  public  acts  of  Carbonarism.  I  promise  that,  if  it  be 
impossible  to  restore  the  reign  of  liberty  without  a  struggle, 
I  will  fight  to  the  death.  I  consent,  should  I  prove  false  to 
my  oath,  to  be  slain  by  my  Good  Cousins  Grand  Elects  ;  to 
be  fastened  to  the  cross  in  a  lodge,  naked,  crowned  with 
thorns ;  to  have  my  belly  torn  open,  the  entrails  and  heart 
taken  out  and  scattered  to  the  winds.  Such  are  our  con- 
ditions; swear!"  The  Good  Cousins  reply:  "We  swear." 


1 64  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

There  was  something  theatrical  in  all  this  ;  but  the  organisers 
no  doubt  looked  to  the  effect  it  had  on  the  minds  of  the 
initiated.  If  on  this  ground  it  could  not  be  defended,  then 
there  is  little  excuse  for  judicial  wigs  and  clerical  gowns, 
episcopal  gaiters,  aprons,  and  shovel-hats,  lord  mayors'  shows, 
parliamentary  procedure,  and  royal  pageants. 

550.  Degree  of  Grand  Master  Grand  Elect. — This,  the 
highest  degree  of  Carbonarism,  is  only  accessible  to  those 
who  have  given  proofs  of  great  intelligence  and  resolution. 
The  Good  Cousins  being  assembled  in  the  lodge,  the  candi- 
date is  introduced  blindfolded ;  two  members,  representing 
the  two  thieves,  carry  a  cross,  which  is  firmly  planted  in  the 
ground.  One  of  the  two  pretended  thieves  is  then  addressed 
as  a  traitor  to  the  cause,  and  condemned  to  die  on  the  cross. 
He  resigns  himself  to  his  fate,  as  fully  deserved,  and  is  tied 
to  the  cross  with  silken  cords ;  and,  to  delude  the  candidate, 
whose  eyes  are  still  bandaged,  he  utters  loud  groans.  The 
Grand  Master  pronounces  the  same  doom  on  the  other  robber, 
but  he,  representing  the  non-repentant  one,  exclaims  :  "  I 
shall  undergo  my  fate,  cursing  you,  and  consoling  myself 
with  the  thought  that  I  shall  be  avenged,  and  that  strangers 
shall  exterminate  you  to  the  last  Carbonaro.  Know  that  I 
have  pointed  out  your  retreat  to  the  chiefs  of  the  hostile 
army,  and  that  within  a  short  time  you  shall  fall  into  their 
hands.  Do  your  worst."  The  Grand  Elect  then  turns  to 
the  candidate,  and,  alluding  to  the  punishment  awarded  to 
traitors  as  done  on  the  present  occasion,  informs  him  that  he 
also  must  be  fastened  to  the  cross  if  he  persists  in  his  inten- 
tion to  proceed,  and  there  receive  on  his  body  the  sacred 
marks,  whereby  the  Grand  Masters  Grand  Elects  of  all  the 
lodges  are  known  to  each  other,  and  must  also  pronounce 
the  oath,  whereupon  the  bandage  will  be  removed,  he  will 
descend  from  the  cross,  and  be  clothed  with  the  insignia  of 
the  Grand  Master  Grand  Elect.  He  is  then  firmly  tied  to 
the  cross,  and  pricked  three  times  on  the  right  arm,  seven 
times  on  the  left,  and  three  times  under  the  left  breast. 
The  cross  being  erected  in  the  middle  of  the  cave,  that 
the  members  may  see  the  marks  on  the  body,  on  a  given  sign, 
the  bandage  being  removed,  the  Cousins  stand  around  the 
candidate,  pointing  their  swords  and  daggers  at  his  breast, 
and  threatening  him  with  even  a  worse  death  should  he  turn 
traitor.  They  also  watch  his  demeanour,  and  whether  he 
betrays  any  fear.  Seven  toasts  in  his  honour  are  then 
drunk,  and  the  Grand  Elect  explains  the  real  meaning  of  the 
symbols,  which  may  not  be  printed,  but  is  only  to  be  written 


THE  CABBONAM  165 

down,  and  zealously  guarded,  the  owner  promising  to  burn 
or  swallow  it,  rather  then  let  it  fall  into  other  hands.  The 
Grand  Master  concludes  by  speaking  in  praise  of  the  revolu- 
tion already  initiated,  announcing  its  triumph  not  only  in  the 
peninsula,  but  everywhere  where  Italian  is  spoken,  and  ex- 
claims :  "  Very  soon  the  nations  weary  of  tyranny  shall  cele- 
brate their  victory  over  the  tyrants  ;  very  soon  "...  Here 
the  wicked  thief  exclaims :  "  Very  soon  all  ye  shall  perish !  " 
Immediately  there  is  heard  outside  the  grotto  the  noise  of 
weapons  and  fighting.  One  of  the  doorkeepers  announces 
that  the  door  is  on  the  point  of  being  broken  open,  and  an 
assault  on  it  is  heard  directly  after.  The  Good  Cousins  rush 
to  the  door  placed  behind  the  crosses,  and  therefore  unseen  by 
the  candidate  ;  the  noise  becomes  louder,  and  there  are  heard 
the  cries  of  Austrian  soldiers;  the  Cousins  return  in  great 
disorder  as  if  overpowered  by  superior  numbers,  say  a  few 
words  of  encouragement  to  the  candidate  fastened  to  the 
cross,  and  disappear  through  the  floor,  which  opens  beneath 
them.  Cousins,  dressed  in  the  hated  uniform  of  the  foreigner, 
enter  and  marvel  at  the  disappearance  of  the  Carbonari. 
Perceiving  the  persons  on  the  crosses,  they,  on  finding  them 
still  alive,  propose  to  kill  them  at  once ;  they  charge  and  pre- 
pare to  shoot  them,  when  suddenly  a  number  of  balls  fly  into 
the  cave,  the  soldiers  fall  down  as  if  struck,  and  the  Cousins 
re-enter  through  many  openings,  which  at  once  close  behind 
them,  and  shout :  "  Victory !  Death  to  tyranny !  Long  live 
the  republic  of  Ausonia  !  Long  live  liberty  !  Long  live  the 
government  established  by  the  brave  Carbonari !  "  In  an  in- 
stant the  apparently  dead  soldiers  and  the  two  thieves  are 
carried  out  of  the  cave  ;  and  the  candidate  having  been  helped 
down  from  the  cross,  is  proclaimed  by  the  Grand  Master,  who 
strikes  seven  blows  with  his  axe,  a  Grand  Master  Grand  Elect. 
551.  Signification  of  the  Symbols. — Not  to  interrupt  the 
narrative,  the  explanation  of  the  meaning  of  the  symbols, 
given  in  this  last  degree,  was  omitted  in  the  former  para- 
graph, but  follows  here.  It  will  be  seen  that  it  was  not 
without  reason  that  it  was  prohibited  to  print  it.  The  cross 
serves  to  crucify  the  tyrant  that  persecutes  us.  The  crown 
of  thorns  is  to  pierce  his  head.  The  thread  denotes  the  cord 
to  lead  him  to  the  gibbet ;  the  ladder  will  aid  him  to  mount. 
The  leaves  are  nails  to  pierce  his  hands  and  feet.  The  pick- 
axe will  penetrate  his  breast,  and  shed  his  impure  blood.  The 
axe  will  separate  his  head  from  his  body.  The  salt  wilt  pre- 
vent the  corruption  of  his  head,  that  it  may  last  as  a  monument 
of  the  eternal  infamy  of  despots.  The  pole  will  serve  to  put 


1 66  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

his  head  upon.  The  furnace  will  burn  his  body.  The  shovel 
will  scatter  his  ashes  to  the  wind.  The  baracca  will  serve  to 
prepare  new  tortures  for  the  tyrant  before  he  is  slain.  The 
water  will  purify  us  from  the  vile  blood  we  shall  have  shed. 
The  linen,  will  wipe  away  our  stains.  The  forest  is  the  place 
where  the  Good  Cousins  labour  to  attain  so  important  a 
result.  These  details  are  extracted  from  the  minutes  of  the 
legal  proceedings  against  the  conspiracy  of  the  Carbonari. 

552.  Other    Ceremonies   and   Regulations. — The  candidate 
having  been  received  into  the  highest  degree,  other  Good 
Cousins  entered  the  cave,  proclaiming  the  victory  of  the 
Carbonari  and  the  establishment  of  the  Ausonian  republic, 
whereupon  the  lodge  was  closed.     The  members  all  bore 
pseudonyms,  by  which  they  were  known  in  the  Order.     These 
pseudonyms  were  entered  in  one  book,  whilst  another  con- 
tained their  real  names  ;  and  the  two  books  were  always  kept 
concealed  in  separate  places,  so  that  the  police,  should  they  find 
one,  should  not  be  able  to  identify  the  conspirator.    Officers 
of  great  importance  were  the  Insinuators,  Censors,  Scrutators, 
and  Coverers,  whose  appellations  designate  their  duties.    The 
higher  officers  were  called  Great  Lights.     Some  of  the  affi- 
liated,  reserved  for  the  most  dangerous   enterprises,   were 
styled  the  Forlorn  Hope;  others  Stabene,  or  the  "  Sedentary," 
who  were  not  advanced  beyond  the  first  degree,  on  account 
of  want  of  intelligence  or  courage.     Like  the  Freemasons, 
the  Carbonari  had  their  own  almanacs,  dating  their  era  from 
Francis  I.     They  also  had  their  passwords  and  signs.     The 
decorations  in  the  Apprentice  degree  were  three  ribbons — 
black,  blue,  and  red  ;  and  in  the  Master's  degree  they  wore  a 
scarf  of  the  same  three  colours.   The  ritual  and  the  ceremonies, 
as  partly  detailed  above,  were  probably  strictly  followed   on 
particularly  important  occasions  only ;  as  to  their  origin,  little 
is   known  concerning   it — most   likely  they  were  invented 
among  the  Neapolitans.  Nor  were  they  always  and  at  all  places 
alike,  but  the  spirit  that  breathed  in  them  was  permanent 
and  universal ;    and  that  it  was  the  spirit  of  liberty  and 
justice  can  scarcely  be  denied,  especially  after  the  events  of 
the  last  decades.      The  following  summary  of  a  manifesto 
proceeding  from  the  Society  of  the  Carbonari  will  show  this 
very  clearly. 

553.  The  Ausonian  Republic. — The  epoch  of  the  following 
document,  of  which,  however,  an  abstract  only  is  here  given, 
is  unknown.     The  open  proceedings  of  Carbonarism  give  us 
no  clue,  because  in  many  respects  they  deviate  from  the 
programme  of  this  sectarian  charter;  sectarian,  inasmuch  as 


THE  CARBON AKI  167 

the  document  has  all  the  fulness  of  a  social  pact.  But  to 
whatever  time  these  statutes  belong,  they  cannot  be  read 
without  the  liveliest  interest. 

Italy,  to  which  new  times  shall  give  a  new  name,  sonorous 
and  pure,  Ausonia  (the  ancient  Latin  name),  must  be  free 
from  its  threefold  sea  to  the  highest  summit  of  the  Alps. 
The  territory  of  the  republic  shall  be  divided  into  twenty- 
one  provinces,  each  of  which  shall  send  a  representative  to 
the  National  Assembly.  Every  province  shall  have  its  local 
assembly ;  all  citizens,  rich  or  poor,  may  aspire  to  all  public 
charges ;  the  mode  of  electing  judges  is  strictly  laid  down  ; 
two  kings,  severally  elected  for  twenty-one  years,  one  of 
whom  is  to  be  called  the  king  of  the  land,  the  other  of  the 
sea,  shall  be  chosen  by  the  sovereign  assembly;  all  Ausonian 
citizens  are  soldiers ;  all  fortresses  not  required  to  protect 
the  country  against  foreigners  shall  be  razed  to  the  ground ; 
new  ports  are  to  be  constructed  along  the  coasts,  and  the 
navy  enlarged ;  Christianity  shall  be  the  State  religion,  but 
every  other  creed  shall  be  tolerated ;  the  college  of  cardinals 
may  reside  in  the  republic  during  the  life  of  the  pope  reign- 
ing at  the  time  of  the  promulgation  of  this  charter — after 
his  death,  the  college  of  cardinals  will  be  abolished ;  heredi- 
tary titles  and  feudal  rights  are  abolished ;  hospitals,  charit- 
able institutions,  colleges,  lyceums,  primary  and  secondary 
schools,  shall  be  largely  increased,  and  properly  allocated ; 
punishment  of  death  is  inflicted  on  murderers  only,  trans- 
portation to  one  of  the  islands  of  the  republic  being  sub- 
stituted for  all  other  punishments  ;  monastic  institutions  are 
preserved,  but  no  man  can  become  a  monk  before  the  age 
of  forty-five,  and  no  woman  a  nun  before  that  of  forty, 
and  even  after  having  pronounced  their  vows,  they  may 
re-enter  their  own  families.  Mendicity  is  not  allowed ;  the 
country  finds  work  for  able  paupers,  and  succour  for  invalids. 
The  tombs  of  great  men  are  placed  along  the  highways; 
the  honour  of  a  statue  is  awarded  by  the  sovereign  assembly. 
The  constitutional  pact  may  be  revised  every  twenty-one 
years. 

554.  Most  Secret  Carlonaro  Degree. — It  was  stated  in  sect. 
550  that  the  Grand  Master  Grand  Elect  was  the  highest  Car- 
bonaro  degree.  But  this  requires  qualification ;  there  was 
one  still  higher,  called  the  Seventh,  to  which  few  members 
were  admitted.  To  the  Principi  Summo  Patriarcho  alone 
the  real  object  of  Carbonarism  was  revealed,  and  that  its 
aims  were  identical  with  those  of  the  Illuminati  (356). 
Witt  von  Dorring  (b.  1800),  an  initiate,  tells  us  in  his 


168  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

Autobiography,  that  the  candidate  swore  destruction  to  every 
government,  whether  despotic  or  democratic.  "  The  Summo 
"Maestro,"  he  says,  " laughs  at  the  zeal  of  the  common 
Carbonari,  who  sacrifice  themselves  for  Italian  liberty  and 
independence ;  to  him  this  is  not  the  object,  but  a  means. 
I  received  this  degree  under  the  name  of  Giulio  Alessandro 
Jerimundo  Werther  Domingone."  As  there  were  two  modes 
of  initiation,  one  in  open  lodge  and  another  by  "  communica- 
tion," the  supreme  chief  notifying  by  a  document  to  the  new 
member  his  election,  which  was  done  in  De  Witt's  case,  he 
never  took  the  oath  of  secrecy,  and  thus  considered  himself 
at  liberty  to  divulge  what  had  been  communicated  to  him. 

555.  De  Witt,  Biographical  Notice  of. — As  Jean  de  Witt 
was  a  prominent  character  in  the  secret  associations  of  this 
century,  we  give  a  few  biographical  notes  concerning  him. 
Born  in  1800  at  Altona,  he  was  early  placed  under  the 
tuition  of  Pastor  Meier  of  Alsen,  who  had  been  a  member 
of  the  Jacobin  club.  At  the  age  of  seventeen  he  went  to 
the  University  of  Kiel,  and  afterwards  to  that  of  Jena ; 
in  1818  he  joined  the  Burschenschaft,  and  was  soon  after 
initiated  into  the  sect  of  the  Black  Knights,  in  consequence 
of  which  he  had  to  flee  to  England,  where  he  contributed  many 
articles  on  German  politics  and  princes  full  of  scandalous 
details  to  the  Morning  Chronicle.  Invited  by  his  maternal 
uncle,  the  Baron  Eckstein,  Inspector-General  of  the  Ministry 
of  Police,  to  come  to  Paris,  he  there  became  acquainted 
with  Count  Serre,  Minister  of  Justice,  who  protected  him, 
whilst  De  Witt  was  in  close  communication  with  French 
and  Italian  conspirators.  In  1821  he  was  at  Geneva  as 
Inspector-General  of  Swiss  and  German  Carbonari.  He 
was  soon  after  seized  in  Savoy,  and  thence  taken  to  Turin, 
where,  however,  the  Austrian  Field-Marshal  Bubna,  who 
then  commanded  all  the  troops  in  Upper  Italy,  and  who  was 
a  Freemason,  treated  him  with  the  greatest  respect,  for  as 
a  Freemason  De  Witt  occupied  a  much  higher  rank  than 
Bubna ;  and  when  the  ambassadors  of  all  the  Courts  at  Turin, 
that  of  England  excepted,  insisted  on  De  Witt's  extradition 
to  their  respective  states,  he  allowed  him,  on  his  giving  his 
word  of  honour  to  make  no  attempt  at  escape,  to  go  to 
Milan,  where  he  was  received  with  great  honour  in  the 
house  of  the  Chief  of  Police,  Baron  von  Gohausen.  Bubna 
had  made  himself  personally  answerable  to  his  government 
for  the  safe  custody  of  De  Witt,  and  this  latter  had  pro- 
mised not  to  escape,  though  he  was  allowed  to  go  about 
almost  like  a  freeman.  But  when  he  found  that  the  Austrian 


THE  CARBONARI  169 

authorities  intended  to  begin  his  trial,  he  wrote  to  Bubna 
that  he  was  determined  to  make  his  escape.  Orders  were 
sent  to  watch  him  closely;  but  within  a  week  he  was  in 
possession  of  false  keys,  which  fitted  all  the  doors  of  his 
prison,  and  the  head  gaoler,  who  had  shown  himself  too 
zealous  in  watching  him,  was  transferred  to  Mantua,  and 
1 200  lire  were  provided  for  his  journey.  He  escaped  to 
Genoa,  intending  thence  to  sail  for  Spain,  where  he  was 
sure  of  meeting  with  friends,  but  finding  all  vessels  bound 
for  that  country  under  close  police  surveillance,  he  made  his 
way  into  Switzerland.  Under  different  names  and  various 
disguises  he  stayed  there  and  in  Germany  for  about  a  year. 
All  the  German  Governments  offered  a  large  reward  for  his 
apprehension,  and  at  last  he  was  seized  at  Bayreuth,  though 
he  had  previously  been  warned  that  the  police  were  on  his 
traces,  a  warning  which  could  only  have  come  from  highly- 
placed  officials.  And  as  soon  as  he  was  taken  some  of  them 
waited  on  him  with  offers  of  friendship  and  protection.  But 
Berlin  was  then  the  seat  of  the  Prussian  masonic  chiefs, 
and  through  them  De  Witt  was  secretly  informed  of  all  the 
charges  which  would  be  brought  against  him,  and  the  result 
was  that  he  was  acquitted  of  them  all,  and  restored  to 
liberty,  as  also  was  Cousin,  a  fellow-conspirator  and  fellow- 
prisoner.  Cesare  Cantu,  the  Italian  historian,  accuses  De 
Witt  of  having,  by  his  own  admission,  been  thoroughly 
initiated  into  all  the  revolutionary  plots  in  Europe  but  in 
order  to  betray  them,  and  stir  up  discord  among  them  (see 
II  Conciliatore  e  i  Carbonari,  Milano,  1878,  p.  164).  De 
Witt's  subsequent  career  seems  to  lend  some  support  to  this 
charge.  In  1828  he  married  a  wealthy  lady,  and  purchased 
an  estate  in  Upper  Silesia,  where  he  was  living  in  1855, 
professing  highly  conservative  principles,  in  fact,  to  such 
a  degree  as  to  be  charged  with  belonging  to  the  Ultra- 
montanes,  in  consequence  of  which  he  was  detested,  and 
frequently  attacked,  by  the  democratic  party. 

556.  Carbonaro  Charter  proposed  to  England. — A  charter 
or  project,  said  to  have  been  proposed  by  the  Carbonari  to 
the  English  Government  in  1813,  when  the  star  of  Napoleon 
was  fast  declining,  is  to  the  following  effect : — Italy  shall  be 
free  and  independent.  Its  boundaries  shall  be  the  three 
seas  and  the  Alps.  Corsica,  Sardinia,  Sicily,  the  seven 
islands,  and  the  islands  along  the  coasts  of  the  Mediter- 
ranean, Adriatic,  and  Ionian  Seas  shall  form  an  integral 
portion  of  the  Roman  Empire.  Rome  shall  be  the  capital  of 
the  empire.  ...  As  soon  as  the  French  shall  have  evacuated 


1 70  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

the  peninsula,  the  new  emperor  shall  be  elected  from  among 
the  reigning  families  of  Naples,  Piedmont,  or  England.  Illyria 
shall  form  a  kingdom  of  itself,  and  be  given  to  the  King  of 
Naples  as  an  indemnity  for  Sicily.  This  project  in  some  re- 
spects widely  differs  from  the  one  preceding  it,  and  there  is 
great  doubt  whether  it  ever  emanated  from  the  Carbonari. 

557.  Carbonarism  and  Murat. — The  excessive  number  of 
the  affiliated  soon  disquieted  rulers,  and  especially  Murat, 
King  of  Naples,  whose  fears  were  increased  by  a  letter  from 
Dandolo,  Councillor  of  State,  saying :  "  Sire,  Carbonarism  is 
spreading  in  Italy ;  free  your  kingdom  from  it,  if  possible, 
because  the  sect  is  opposed  to  thrones."  Maghella,  a  native 
of  Genoa,  who  became  Minister  of  Police  under  Murat,  ad- 
vised that  king,  on  the  other  hand,  to  declare  openly  against 
Napoleon,  and  to  proclaim  the  independence  of  Italy,  and  for 
that  purpose  to  favour  the  Carbonari ;  but  Murat  was  too 
irresolute  to  follow  the  course  thus  pointed  out,  and  declared 
against  the  Carbonari.  The  measures  taken  by  him,  how- 
ever, only  increased  the  activity  of  the  sect  and  the  hopes 
of  the  banished  Bourbons,  who  in  the  neighbouring  Sicily 
watched  every  turn  of  affairs  that  might  promise  their 
restoration.  Murat  proscribed  the  sect,  which  induced  it  to 
seek  the  assistance  of  England,  as  we  have  already  seen. 
It  also  grew  into  favour  with  the  Bourbons  and  Lord  William 
Bentinck.  The  emissaries  sent  to  Palermo,  to  come  to  terms 
with  the  exiled  royal  family,  returned  to  Naples  with  a  plan 
fully  arranged,  the  results  of  which  were  soon  seen  in  Cala- 
bria and  the  Abruzzi.  The  promise  of  a  constitution  was 
the  lure  with  which  England — whose  chief  object,  however, 
was  the  overthrow  of  Napoleon — attracted  the  sectaries ;  the 
Bourbons,  constrained  by  England,  promised  the  Neapolitans 
a  liberal  constitution  on  their  being  restored  to  the  throne. 
The  Prince  of  Moliterno  suggested  to  England  that  the  only 
means  of  defeating  France  was  to  favour  Italian  unity  ;  and 
the  idea  was  soon  widely  promulgated  and  advocated  through- 
out the  country.  Murat  sent  General  Manhes  against  the 
Carbonari,  with  orders  to  exterminate  them.  Many  of  the 
leaders  were  captured  and  executed,  but  the  sect,  neverthe- 
less, succeeded  in  effecting  a  partial  and  temporary  revolution 
in  favour  of  the  Bourbons  ;  which,  however,  was  soon  quelled 
by  the  energetic  measures  of  Queen  Caroline  Murat,  who 
was  regent  during  her  husband's  then  absence.  About  this 
time,  also,  dissensions  arose  among  the  members  of  the  sect ; 
its  leaders,  seeing  the  difficulty  of  directing  the  movements 
of  so  great  a  confederacy,  conceived  the  plan  of  a  reform, 


THE  CARBONAKI  171 

and  executed  it  with  secrecy  and  promptitude.  The  mem- 
bers who  were  retained  continued  to  bear  the  name  of  Car- 
bonari, while  those  who  were  expelled,  according  to  some 
accounts,  took  that  of  Calderari  (Braziers),  and  an  implacable 
hatred  arose  between  the  rival  sects.  Murat  wavered  for 
some  time  between  the  two  parties,  and  at  last  determined 
on  supporting  the  Carbonari,  who  were  most  numerous.  But 
it  was  too  late.  They  had  no  confidence  in  him ;  and  they 
also  knew  his  desperate  circumstances.  Murat  fell. 

558.  Trial  of  Carbonari. — An  extensive  organisation  for 
the  union  of  all  secret  Carbonaro  societies  was  discovered 
in   1817  by  an  attempt,  which  was  to  have  been  made  at 
Macerata,  on  the  24th  June  in  that  year,  to  raise  the  standard 
of  revolt,  but  which  failed  through  a  mere  accident — the  pre- 
mature firing  of  two  muskets.     A  great  many  of  the  leading 
Carbonari   were  apprehended,  and  conveyed  to  the    Castle 
of  St.  Angelo  and  other  prisons  in  Rome,  where  they  were 
tried  in  October  1818  by  order  of  the  pope;  five  of  them 
were  sentenced  to  death,  but  the  pope  mitigated  their  pun- 
ishment to  perpetual  confinement  in  a  fortress ;  three  were 
sentenced  to  the  galleys  for  life,   which   punishment  was 
reduced  by  the  pope  to  ten  years.      We  learn  from  this 
Roman  trial  that  the  Republican  Brother  Protectors — one  of 
the  branches  of  Carbonarism — swore  over  a  phial  of  poison 
and  a  red-hot  iron,  "never  to  divulge  the  secrets  of  the  society, 
and  to  submit  in  case  of  perjury  to  the  punishment  of  dying 
by  poison,  and  having  their  flesh  burnt  by  the  red-hot  iron." 

559.  Carbonarism   and  the   Bourbons. — King  Ferdinand, 
having,  to  recover  his  crown,  favoured  the  Carbonari,  when 
he  thought  himself  again  firmly  seated  on  the  throne,  and 
secretly  disliking  the  society,  endeavoured  to  kick  down  the 
ladder  by  which  he  had  mounted.     The  Carbonari,  who  had 
restored  not  only  the  king,  but  order  in   Calabria  and  the 
Abruzzi,  and  rendered  roads  and  property  secure — the  Car- 
bonari, so  highly  extolled  at  one  time,  that  the  pope  had 
ordered  priests  and  monks  to  preach,  that  making  the  signs 
of  the  Carbonaro  would  suifice  to  justify  Saint  Peter  to  open 
the  gate  of  Paradise — these  same  Carbonari  were  now  declared 
the  enemies  of  God  and  man.     The  king  refused  to  keep  the 
promises  he  had  made,  and  forbade  the  holding  of  Carbonari 
meetings.     The  Prince  of  Canosa,  who  became  Minister  of 
Police  in  1819,  determined  to  exterminate  them.     For  this 
purpose  he  formed  the  Brigands,  who  had  played  a  part  in 
the  sanguinary  scenes  of  1799,  into  a  new  society,  of  which  he 
himself  became  the  head,  inviting  all  the  old  Calderari  to  join 


i;2  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

him,  on  account  of  their  enmity  to  the  Carbonari.  He  re- 
quired them  to  take  the  following  oath  : — "  I,  A.  B.,  promise 
and  swear  upon  the  Trinity,  upon  this  cross  and  upon  this 
steel,  the  avenging  instrument  of  the  perjured,  to  live  and 
die  in  the  Roman  Catholic  and  Apostolic  faith,  and  to 
defend  with  my  blood  this  religion  and  the  society  of 
True  Friendship,  the  Calderari.  I  swear  never  to  offend, 
in  honour,  life,  or  property,  the  children  of  True  Friend- 
ship, &c.  I  swear  eternal  hatred  to  all  Masonry,  and  its 
atrocious  protectors,  as  well  as  to  all  Jansenists,  Materialists 
(Molinists  ?),  Economists,  and  Illuminati.  I  swear,  that  if 
through  wickedness  or  levity  I  suffer  myself  to  be  perjured, 
I  submit  to  the  loss  of  life,  and  then  to  be  burnt,  &c."  But 
the  king  having  learnt  what  his  Minister  had  been  attempt- 
ing without  his  knowledge,  deprived  him  of  his  office  and 
banished  him  ;  and  thus  his  efforts  came  to  nothing.  In 
1819  took  place  the  rising  at  Cadiz,  by  which  the  King  of 
Spain,  Ferdinand  VII. ,  was  compelled  to  give  Spain  consti- 
tutional privileges.  This  again  stirred  up  the  Carbonari ; 
but  there  was  no  unanimity  in  their  counsels,  and  their  in- 
trigues only  led  to  many  being  imprisoned  and  others 
banished.  An  attempt  made  in  1 820  extorted  a  constitution ; 
the  leader  was  the  Abbe  Menichini.  The  influence  of  the 
Carbonari  increased ;  lodges  were  established  everywhere. 
Between  1815  and  1820,  in  the  Neapolitan  states  alone, 
more  than  two  hundred  thousand  members  were  affiliated, 
comprising  all  classes,  from  the  palace  to  the  cottage ;  it 
included  priests,  monks,  politicians,  soldiers.  Giampietro 
was  then  chief  of  the  Neapolitan  police,  who  used  the  most 
cruel  means  to  suppress  the  sect ;  but  public  discontent  was 
brought  to  a  climax  in  July  1820,  when  two  officers,  Morelli 
and  Silvati,  with  one  hundred  and  twenty  non-commissioned 
officers  and  privates,  deserted  from  their  regiment  at  Nola, 
and,  accompanied  by  the  priest  Menichini  and  some  leading 
Carbonari,  took  the  road  to  Avellino.  Lieutenant-Colonel 
De  Concili,  also  a  Carbonaro,  who  was  in  command  of  the 
troops  at  Avellino,  joined  the  insurgents.  When  the  news  of 
these  events  reached  Naples,  the  students  of  the  University, 
as  well  as  many  of  the  soldiers  forming  the  garrison  of  the 
capital,  hastened  to  De  Concili''s  camp.  The  house  of  the 
advocate  Colletta  became  the  centre  of  action  at  Naples  ;  all 
the  Carbonari  prepared  to  second  the  action  of  their  brethren. 
The  king,  advised  to  send  General  Pepe  against  the  insur- 
gents, declined  the  proposal,  because  Pe'pe  was  suspected  of 
being  a  Liberal.  In  his  stead  he  sent  General  Carrascosa, 


THE  CARBONARI 


173 


who  left  Naples  on  the  4th  July ;  on  the  5th  he  despatched 
General  Nunziante  from  Nocera,  and  General  Campana  from 
Salerno,  against  the  insurgents.  Carrascosa,  unwilling  to 
shed  the  blood  of  his  countrymen,  wished  to  negotiate.  But 
before  he  could  do  so,  General  Campana  had  suffered  a 
defeat,  and  the  soldiers  of  Nunziante  raised  the  standard  of 
the  Carbonari,  and,  joining  the  troops  of  De  Concili,  placed 
themselves  under  his  command.  Carrascosa,  with  the  king's 
connivance,  proposed  to  bribe  the  leaders  of  the  insurrection 
with  large  sums  of  money  to  give  up  the  enterprise  and  leave 
the  country,  but  before  he  had  an  opportunity  of  making  the 
attempt,  the  soldiers  remaining  in  Naples,  as  well  as  the 
population,  rose  against  the  king,  who  found  himself  entirely 
forsaken.  He  was  compelled  to  yield.  The  Duke  of  Picco- 
tellis  and  five  other  Carbonari  presented  themselves  in  the 
palace  and  compelled  the  king  to  grant  them  a  personal 
interview,  at  which  they  demanded  the  immediate  publication 
of  a  Constitution.  The  king  promised  one  in  "  perhaps  two 
hours."  Piccotellis  drawing  out  his  watch  held  it  up  to  the 
king's  face  and  said,  "  It  is  now  one  o'clock  in  the  morning ; 
at  three  o'clock  the  Constitution  must  be  proclaimed."  And 
he  turned  his  back  on  the  king,  and  with  his  attendants  left 
the  room.  The  king  granted  the  Constitution,  though  with 
the  mental  reserve  of  overthrowing  it  on  the  first  favourable 
opportunity.  He  swore,  nevertheless,  in  the  most  solemn 
manner  to  keep  it;  the  Carbonari  leaders  were  invited  to 
Naples;  the  king's  son,  the  Duke  of  Calabria,  became  a 
member  of  the  sect,  a  fatal  concession  on  its  part,  for  now 
all  its  secrets,  signs,  words,  and  symbols  were  openly  pro- 
claimed ;  Carbon arism,  in  fact,  was  cunningly  betrayed  by 
the  king  and  his  satellites.  Russia,  Austria,  and  Prussia 
threatened  to  interfere  in  Neapolitan  affairs  in  favour  of 
Ferdinand ;  at  a  secret  meeting  of  some  of  the  oldest  Car- 
bonari it  was  proposed  to  shut  up  the  king  in  the  Castle  of 
St.  Eleno.  Unfortunately  this  advice  was  not  immediately 
acted  on.  The  Holy  Alliance,  to  save  the  king's  life,  which 
they  knew  to  be  in  danger,  invited  him  to  join  the  congress 
at  Laybach,  that,  in  common  with  the  European  potentates, 
he  might  assist  in  the  settlement  of  the  affairs  of  his  own 
kingdom.  Unwisely  the  Neapolitan  parliament  allowed  him 
to  depart;  yet  even  on  board  ship  the  treacherous  despot 
repeated  his  assurances  of  maintaining  the  Constitution  he 
had  granted  his  subjects.  But  on  his  arrival  at  Laybach 
he  declared  that,  in  granting  the  Constitution,  he  had  only 
yielded  to  superior  force,  and  that  he  was  determined  to 


174  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

return  to  Naples  as  an  absolute  monarch.  The  pope  absolved 
him  from  the  oath  he  had  taken,  and  even  in  a  solemn  ency- 
clical commanded  priests  to  violate  the  secret  of  the  confes- 
sional whenever  wives,  mothers,  sisters,  or  daughters  had 
declared  relations  to  belong  to  the  sect  of  the  Carbonari. 
At  the  request  of  Ferdinand  himself  an  Austrian  army  of 
50,000  men,  with  a  Russian  army  in  reserve,  marched  upon 
Naples.  The  king  on  his  way  south  stopped  at  Florence, 
where  he  decorated  the  Chapel  of  the  Annunciation  with 
gorgeous  gold  and  silver  lamps,  and  the  inscription  :  "  Marice 
genitrici  Dei  Ferd.  I.  Utr.  Sic.  rex,  Don.  d.d.  anno  1821  ob 
pristinum  imperil  decus,  ope  eius  prestantissima  recuperatum. 
(To  Mary,  the  Mother  of  God,  Ferdinand  I,  King  of  the  Two 
Sicilies,  for  the  restored  splendour  of  the  kingdom,  by  means 
of  her  most  valiant  help,  dedicated  these  in  the  year  1821.) 
Proving  once  more,  if  proof  were  necessary,  that  "  blood- 
thirsty tyrants  are  most  zealous  saints."  Every  one  of  the 
king's  immediate  attendants  had  upon  him  a  new  cockade 
bearing  the  inscription :  "  Viva  Vassoluto  potere  di  Ferdi- 
nando  I. !  " 

560.  The  King's  Revenge. — General  Pepe",  who  in  his  youth 
had  for  three  years  been  a  prisoner  in  the  horrible  prison  of 
Marettimo — a  rock-hewn  cistern  turned  into  a  dungeon — 
endeavoured  to  arrest  the  advance  of  the  foreigner,  but  his 
raw  militia  were  ill  prepared  to  meet  the  disciplined  forces 
of  Austria,  who  defeated  Pe'pe'  at  Rieti,  and  followed  up  this 
victory  by  marching  on  the  23rd  March  into  Naples.     Then 
the  king  glutted  his  desire  for  vengeance.      All  the  past 
treaties  with  his  subjects  were  considered  as  void,  and  all 
previous  acts  of  pardon  annulled.     Not  a  day  passed  without 
the  sound  of  the  bell  tolling  for  an  execution ;  thousands  of 
the  most  respected  citizens  of  Naples  were  condemned  to 
horrible  dungeons  in  the  penal  islands  off  Sicily  and  Naples 
or  the  rock-dungeons  of  San  Stefano  and  Pantelleria,  while 
numbers  fled  the  country  as  exiles.     Morelli  and  Silvati  were 
hanged  for  having  deserted  their  standard,  and  been  the 
prime  movers  of  the  revolution.     But  the  king  had  entered 
into  a  treaty  with  his  people,  and  sworn  to  uphold  the  Con- 
stitution he  had  granted  in  consequence  of  the  revolution, 
hence  their  execution  is  condemned  by  logic  and  justice. 

561.  Revival  of  Oarbonarism. — Carbonarism  marks  a  tran- 
sition period  in  the  history  of  secret  societies.     From  secret 
societies  occupied  with  religion,  philosophy,  and  politics  in 
the  abstract,  it  leads  us  to  the  secret  societies  whose  objects 
are  more  immediately  and  practically  political.     And  thus  in 


THE  CARBONARI  175 

France,  Italy,  and  other  States,  it  gave  rise  to  numerous  and 
various  sects,  wherein  we  find  the  men  of  thought  and  those 
of  action  combining  for  one  common  object — the  progress, 
as  they  understood  it,  of  human  society.  Carbonarism,  in 
fact,  was  revived  about  the  year  182 5,  and  some  ten  years 
after  combined,  or  rather  coalesced,  with  the  society  known 
as  Young  Italy,  whose  aims  were  identical  with  those  of  the 
Carbonari — the  expulsion  of  the  foreigner  from  Italian  soil, 
and  the  unification  of  Italy. 

The  Duke  of  Modena  had  for  some  time  coquetted 
with  the  Carbonari,  in  the  hope  of  obtaining  through  them 
the  sovereignty  of  the  minor  duchies,  the  kingdom  of  Sar- 
dinia and  the  Lombardo- Venetian  states,  and  had  thus 
encouraged  Menotti,  the  foremost  patriot  of  Central  Italy, 
in  counting  on  his  help  in  driving  out  the  foreigner.  When, 
however,  he  found  that  France,  on  whose  co-operation  he  had 
relied,  would  disappoint  him,  he  abandoned  the  Carbonari 
and  denounced  them,  but  they  compelled  the  Duke  to  fly 
to  Mantua.  They  also  drove  Maria  Louisa,  the  Duchess  of 
Parma,  and  widow  of  Napoleon  I.,  into  exile.  But  their 
triumph  lasted  only  twenty-eight  days.  At  the  end  of  that 
period  the  Duke  of  Modena  and  the  Duchess  of  Parma  were 
restored  by  the  assistance  of  Austrian  troops,  and  the  Duke 
caused  Menotti  to  be  hanged.  From  that  day  the  prisons 
of  Modena  were  filled  with  Italian  patriots.  Count  Charles 
Arrivabene  said  of  them,  "  No  words  can  give  an  idea  of  the 
horrors  of  the  prisons  of  Modena  when  I  saw  them.  .  .  . 
Excepting  the  infamous  dens  of  the  Papal  and  Neapolitan 
states,  there  is  nothing  that  can  be  compared  with  them." 

But  Carbonarism  continued  to  be  at  work  under  the  name 
of  Unita  Italiana,  whose  signs  and  passwords  were  made 
public  by  the  prosecution  it  underwent  at  Naples  in  1850. 

562.  Carbonarism  and  the  Church. — The  Carbonari  in  the 
Roman  States  aimed  at  the  overthrow  of  the  papal  power, 
and  chose  the  moment  when  the  pope  was  expected  to  die  to 
carry  out  their  scheme.    They  had  collected  large  forces  and 
provisions  at  Macerata ;  but  the  sudden  recovery  of  the  pope 
put  a  stop  to  the  enterprise.      The  leaders  were   betrayed 
into  the  hands  of  the  government,  and  some  of  them  con- 
demned  to  death  and  others   to   perpetual   imprisonment, 
though  the  pope  afterwards  commuted  the  sentences  (558). 

563.  Carbonarism  in  Northern  Italy. — In  Lombardy  and 
Venetia  also  the  Carbonari  had  their  lodges,  and  their  object 
was  the  expulsion  of  the  foreigner,  the  Austrian.     The  most 
important  and  influential  was  the  Italian  Federation.     But 


176  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

here  also  they  failed ;  and  among  the  victims  of  the  failure 
were  Silvio  Pellico,  Confalonieri,  Castiglia,  Torelli,  Maroncelli, 
and  many  others,  who,  after  having  been  exposed  on  the 
pillory  at  Milan  and  other  places,  were  sent  to  Spielberg  and 
other  German  fortresses. 

564.  Carbonarism   in   France. — Carbonarism    \vas    intro- 
duced into  France  under  the  names  of  Adelphes  or  Phila- 
delphians,  by  Joubert  and  Dugied,  who  had  taken  part  in 
revolutionary  movements  in  their  own  country  in  1820,  and 
after  having  for  some  time  taken  refuge  in  Italy,  where  they 
had  joined  the  Carbonari,  brought  their  principles  to  France 
on  their  return  from   their   expatriation.     The    sect  made 
rapid  progress  among  the  French ;  all  the  students  at  the 
different   universities   became   members,    and   ventas   were 
established  in  the  army.      Lafayette  was  chosen  their  chief. 
Lodges  existed  at  La  Rochelle,  Poitiers,   Niort,   Bordeaux, 
Colmar,  Neuf-Brisach,  and  Belfort,  where,  in  1821,  an  un- 
successful  attempt   was   made    against    the    government — 
unsuccessful,  because  in  this,  as  in  other  attempts,  the  govern- 
ment knew  beforehand  the  plans  of  the  conspirators,  betrayed 
to  them  by  false  Carbonari.     Risings  in  other  places  equally 
failed ;  and  though  the  society  continued  to  exist,  and  had  a 
share  in  the  events  of  the  revolution  of  1830,  still,  considering 
the  number  of  its  members,  and  the  great  resources  and  in- 
fluence it  consequently  possessed,  it  cannot  be  said  to  have 
produced  any  adequate  results. 

565.  Carbonarism  in  Germany. — Carbonari  lodges  existed 
in  all  parts  of  Germany,  but  I  will  mention  one  only,  because 
of  the  excitement  its  discovery  caused  at  the  time.     In  1849 
the  police  of  Bremen  arrested  one  Hobelmann,  who  was  tutor 
in  the  family  of  a  Thuringian  nobleman,  and  who  proved  to 
be  the  chief  of  a  Carbonaro  sect  calling  itself  the  Todtenbund, 
or  "  Society  of  Death,"  since  its  aim  was  to  kill  all  who 
should  oppose  its  objects.     Its  statutes,  and  a  long  list  of 
persons  condemned  to  death,  were  found  by  the  police. 

566.  Carbonarism  in  Spain. — The  sect  was  introduced  into 
Spain  by  refugee  Italians  about  1820,  spreading  chiefly  in 
Catalonia,  without,   however,   acquiring   much   influence  at 
first.     Their  importance  dates  from  the  time  of  the  quarrel 
between  the  Spanish  Freemasons  and  the  Comuneros  (1822), 
when  they  sided  with  the  former ;  but  when  the  Freemasons 
and  the  Comuneros  were  reconciled  (1823),  the  Carbonari 
were  opposed  by  both  parties,  and  lost  all  influence  (522). 

567.  Giardiniere. — As  the  Freemasons  had  their  Adoptive 
Lodges,  so  the  Carbonari  admitted  women,  who  were  collec- 


THE  CARBONARI  177 

tLvely  called  giardiniere,  garden-women,  each  sister  taking 
the  name  of  a  flower.  Their  mission,  of  course,  was  to 
act  as  lures  or  spies.  But  they  also  fulfilled  higher  func- 
tions ;  they  alleviated  the  condition  of  the  prisoners  of  des- 
potism, especially  in  Italy,  where  many  lady  members  of  the 
Societd  della  Misericordia  were  Giardiniere,  and,  having  free 
access  to  the  Austrian  prisons  in  Piedmont,  supplemented 
the  scanty  food  allowed  to  the  imprisoned  Carbonari  by  the 
authorities  with  liberal  additions. 


VOL.  II. 


V 
MISCELLANEOUS  ITALIAN  SOCIETIES 

568.  Guelphic  Knights. —  One  of  the  most  important  socie- 
ties that  issued,  about  the  year  1816,  from  the  midst  of  the 
Carbonari  was  that  of  the  Guelphic  Knights,  who  were  very 
powerful  in  all  parts  of  Italy.     A  report  of  the   Austrian 
police  says :  "This  society  is  the  most  dangerous,  on  account 
of  its  origin  and  diffusion,  and  the  profound  mystery  which 
surrounds  it.     It  is  said  that  this  society  derives  its  origin 
from  England  or  Germany."     Its  origin,  nevertheless,  was 
purely  Italian.     The  councils  consisted  of  six  members,  who, 
however,  did  not  know  each  other,  but  intercommunicated 
by  means  of  one  person,  called  the  "  Visible,"  because  he 
alone  was  visible.     Every  council  also  had  one   youth  of 
undoubted  faith,  called  the  "  Clerk,"  to  communicate  with 
students  of  universities,  and  a  youth  called  a  "  Friend,"  to 
influence  the  people ;  but  neither  the  Clerk  nor  the  Friend 
were  initiated  into  the  mysteries  of  the  Order.    Every  council 
assumed  a  particular  name,  such  as  "Virtue,"   "Honour," 
"  Loyalty,"   and  met,  as   if   for   amusement   only,   without 
apparatus  or  writing  of  any  kind.     A  supreme  council  sat 
at  Bologna ;  there  were  councils  at  Florence,  Venice,  Milan, 
Naples,    &c.      They   endeavoured   to   gain   adherents,   who 
should  be  ignorant  of  the  existence  of  the  society,  and  should 
yet  further  its  ends.     Lucien  Bonaparte  is  said  to  have  been 
a  "  great  light "  among  them.     Their  object  was  the  inde- 
pendence of  Italy,  to  be  effected  by  means  of  all  the  secret 
societies  of  the  country  united  under  the  leadership  of  the 
Guelphs. 

569.  Guelphs   and   Carbonari. — The    Guelphs  in    reality 
formed  a  high  vendita  or  lodge  of  the  Carbonari,  and  the 
chiefs  of  the  Carbonari  were  also  chiefs  among  the  Guelphs  ; 
but  only  those  that  had  distinct  offices  among  the  Carbonari 
could  be  admitted  among  the  Guelphs.     There  can  be  no 
doubt  that  the  Carbonari,  when  the  sect  had  become  very 

numerous,  partly  sheltered  themselves  under  the  designation 

178 


ITALIAN  SOCIETIES  179 

of  Guelphs  and  Adelphi  or  Independents,  by  affiliating  them- 
selves to  these  societies. 

570.  The  Latini. — This  sect  existed  about   1817.     Only 
those  initiated  into  the  higher  degrees  of  Carbonarism  could 
become  members.     In  their  oath  they  declared :  "  I  swear 
to  employ  every  means  in  my  power  to  further  the  happi- 
ness of  Italy.     I  swear  religiously  to  keep  the  secret  and 
fulfil  the  duties  of  this  society,  and  never  to  do  aught  that 
could  compromise  its  safety;  and  that  I  will  only  act  in 
obedience  to  its  decisions.     If  ever  I  violate  this  oath,  I  will 
submit  to  whatever  punishment  the  society  may  inflict,  even 
to  death."     The   most   influential   vendite  were   gradually 
merged  in  this  degree. 

571.  The  Centres. — An  offshoot  of  Carbonarism  was  the 
society  formed  in  Lombardy,  under  the  designation  of  the 
"Centres."     Nothing  was  to  be  written;  and  conversation 
on  the  affairs  of  the  Order  was  only  to  take  place  between 
two  members  at  a  time,  who  recognised  each  other  by  the 
words,  "  Succour  to  the  unfortunate,"  and  by  raising  the 
hand  three  times  to  the  forehead,  in  sign  of  grief.     The 
Centres  once  more  revived  the  hopes  of  Murat.     A  rising 
was  to  take  place  under  his  auspices  against  the  detested 
Austrians ;  the  ringing  of  the  bells  of  Milan  was  to  be  the 
signal  for  the  outbreak ;  and  it  is  said  that  "  Vespers  "  had 
been  arranged,  from  which  no  Austrian  was  to  escape  alive. 
But  on  the  appointed  day  fear  or  horror  held  the  hand  that 
was  to  have  given  the  signal,  that  of  General  Fontanelli. 
Hence,   fatal  delay  and  the  discovery  of  the  secret.     For 
Bellegarde  or   Talleyrand    sent   a   certain  Viscount   Saint- 
Aignan  among  the  conspirators,  who  after  having  discovered 
all  their  plans,  betrayed  them  to  Austria,  and  was  never 
heard  of  again.    Austria  seized  the  ringleaders  and  instituted 
proceedings  against  them,  which  lasted  about  three  years, 
and  were   finally   closed   by  delivering — it   is   not   known 
why,  but  probably  through  Carbonaro  influence — very  mild 
sentences  against  the  conspirators. 

572.  Italian    Litterateurs.  —  This    sect,    introduced    into 
Palermo  in   1823,  had  neither  signs  nor  distinctive  marks. 
In  every  town  there  was  a  delegate,  called  the  "  Radical," 
who  could  affiliate  unto  himself  ten  others  or  more,  acquir- 
ing the  name  of  "decurion,"  or  "centurion."     The  initiated 
were  called  "  sons,"  who  in  their  turn  could  affiliate  unto 
themselves  ten  others,  and  these  could  do  the  same  in  their 
turn ;  so  that  thus  a  mighty  association  was  formed.     The 
initiated  were  called   "  Brethren  Barabbas,"   Christ   repre- 


i So  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

sentiug  the  tyrant,  and  Barabbas  the  people — a  singular 
confusion  of  ideas,  by  which  the  victim  slain  on  the  cross 
for  the  redemption  of  human  conscience  and  thought  was 
considered  as  an  example  and  upholder  of  tyranny.  But 
it  was  a  symbolism  which  concealed  juster  ideas,  and  more 
conformable  with  truth.  They  recognised  each  other  by 
means  of  a  ring,  and  attested  their  letters  by  the  well- 
known  initials  I.  N.  R.  I.  The  society  was  much  feared 
and  jealously  watched,  and  helped  to  fill  the  prisons.  It 
only  ceased  when  other  circumstances  called  forth  other 
societies. 

573.  Societies  in  Calabria  and  the  Abruzzi. — These  dis- 
tricts, by  their  natural  features  and  the  disposition  of  their 
inhabitants,  were  at  all  times  the  favourite  resorts  of  con- 
spirators.     We   there    find   the    sects    of    the    "European 
Patriots  or  White  Pilgrims,"  the  "  Philadelphians,"  and  the 
"Decisi,"  who  thence  spread  into  other  Italian  provinces, 
with   military  organisation,   arms,   and   commanders.      The 
first  two  partly  came  from  France ;  nor  were  their  opera- 
tions, as  the  names  intimate,  confined  to  the  peninsula.    The 
lodges  of  the  "Decisi"  (Decided)  were  called  "Decisions," 
as  the  assemblies  of  the  Patriots  were  called  "  Squadrons," 
each  from  forty  to  sixty  strong,  and  those  of  the  Philadel- 
phians, "Camps."     The  Decisi,  whose  numbers  amounted 
perhaps  to  forty  thousand,   held  their  meetings  at  night, 
carefully  guarded  by  sentinels ;  and  their  military  exercises 
took  place  in  solitary  houses,  or  suppressed  convents.    Their 
object  was  to  fall  upon  Naples  and  proclaim  a  republic ;  but 
circumstances  were  not  propitious.    Their  leader,  Giro  Anni- 
chiarico,  a  priest,  was  a  man  of  great  resources  and  vast 
influence,  so  that  it  was  necessary  to  despatch  against  him 
General  Church,  who  captured  him  and  had  him  shot.     As 
Giro  was  rather  a  remarkable  personage,  a  brief  account  of 
him  may  not  be  uninteresting. 

574.  Giro  Annichiarico. — This    priest   was   driven   from 
society  by  his  crimes.     He  was  accused  of  murder,  com- 
mitted in  a  fit  of  jealousy,  and  sentenced  to  fifteen  years  of 
exile,  although  there  is  strong  reason  to  believe  that  he  was 
innocent.      But   instead  of   being   permitted   to   leave  the 
country,  according  to  the  sentence,  he  was  for  four  years 
kept  in  prison,   whence  at  last  he  made  his  escape,  took 
refuge  in  the  forests,  and  placed  himself  at  the  head  of  a 
band  of  outlaws,  and,  as  his  enemies  declare,  committed  all 
kinds  of  enormities.     At  Martano,  they  say,  he  penetrated 
into  one  of  the  first  houses  of  the  place,  and.  after  having 


ITALIAN  SOCIETIES  181 

offered  violence  to  its  mistress,  massacred  lier  with  all  her 
people,  and  carried  off  96,000  ducats.  He  was  in  corre- 
spondence with  all  the  brigands ;  and  whoever  wished  to  get 
rid  of  an  enemy,  had  only  to  address  himself  to  Giro.  On 
being  asked,  after  his  capture,  how  many  persons  he  had 
killed  with  his  own  hand,  he  carelessly  answered,  "  Who  can 
remember  ?  Perhaps  sixty  or  seventy."  His  activity,  arti- 
fice, and  intrepidity  were  astonishing.  He  was  a  first-rate 
shot  and  rider ;  his  singular  good  fortune  in  extricating  him- 
self from  the  most  imminent  dangers  acquired  for  him  the 
reputation  of  a  necromancer,  upon  whom  ordinary  means  of 
attack  had  no  power.  Though  a  priest  himself,  and  exer- 
cising the  functions  of  one  when  he  thought  it  expedient,  he 
was  rather  a  libertine,  and  declared  his  clerical  colleagues  to 
be  impostors  without  any  faith.  He  published  a  paper  against 
the  missionaries,  who,  according  to  him,  disseminated  illiberal 
opinions  among  the  people,  and  forbade  them  on  pain  of 
death  to  preach  in  the  villages,  "because,  instead  of  the  true 
principles  of  the  Gospel,  they  taught  nothing  but  fables  and 
impostures."  Probably  Giro  was  pretty  correct  in  his  esti- 
mate of  their  performances.  He  could  be  generous  on 
occasions.  One  day  he  surprised  General  D'Octavio,  a  Cor- 
sican,  in  the  service  of  Murat — who  pursued  him  for  a  long 
time  with  a  thousand  men — walking  alone  in  a  garden. 
Giro  discovered  himself,  remarking,  that  the  life  of  the 
general,  who  was  unarmed,  was  in  his  hands;  "but,"  said 
he,  "  I  will  pardon  you  this  time,  although  I  shall  no  longer 
be  so  indulgent  if  you  continue  to  hunt  me  about."  So 
saying,  he  leaped  over  the  wall  and  disappeared.  His  phy- 
siognomy was  rather  agreeable;  he  was  of  middle  stature, 
well  made,  and  very  strong.  He  had  a  verbose  eloquence. 
Extremely  addicted  to  pleasure,  he  had  mistresses,  at  the 
period  of  his  power,  in  all  the  towns  of  the  province  over 
which  he  was  continually  ranging.  When  King  Ferdinand 
returned  to  his  states  on  this  side  the  Taro,  he  recalled  such 
as  had  been  exiled  for  political  opinions.  Giro  attempted  to 
pass  for  one  of  these,  but  a  new  order  of  arrest  was  issued 
against  him.  It  was  then  that  he  placed  himself  at  the  head 
of  the  Decisi.  Many  excesses  are  laid  to  their  charge.  A 
horde  of  twenty  or  thirty  of  them  overran  the  country  in 
disguise,  masked  as  punchinellos.  In  places  where  open 
force  could  not  be  employed,  the  most  daring  were  sent  to 
watch  for  the  moment  to  execute  the  sentences  of  secret 
death  pronounced  by  the  society.  It  was  thus  that  the  jus- 
tice of  the  peace  of  Luogo  Rotondo  and  his  wife  were  killed 


1 82  SECKET  SOCIETIES 

in  their  own  garden  ;  and  that  the  sectary,  Perone,  plunged 
his  knife  into  the  bowels  of  an  old  man  of  seventy,  and 
afterwards  massacred  his  wife  and  servant,  having  introduced 
himself  into  their  house  under  pretence  of  delivering  a  letter. 
As  has  already  been  intimated,  it  was  finally  found  necessary 
to  send  an  armed  force,  under  the  command  of  General 
Church,  against  this  band  of  ruffians.  Many  of  them  having 
been  taken,  and  the  rest  dispersed,  Giro,  with  only  three 
companions,  took  refuge  in  one  of  the  fortified  farm-houses 
near  Francavilla,  but  after  a  vigorous  defence  was  obliged 
to  surrender.  The  Council  of  War,  by  which  he  was  tried, 
condemned  him  to  be  shot.  A  missionary  offered  him  the 
consolations  of  religion.  Ciro  answered  him  with  a  smile, 
"Let  us  leave  alone  this  prating;  we  are  of  the  same  pro- 
fession; don't  let  us  laugh  at  one  another.''  On  his  arrival 
at  the  place  of  execution,  Ciro  wished  to  remain  standing ; 
he  was  told  to  kneel,  and  did  so,  presenting  his  breast.  He 
was  then  informed  that  malefactors  like  himself  were  shot 
with  their  backs  to  the  soldiers ;  he  submitted,  at  the  same 
time  advising  a  priest,  who  persisted  in  remaining  near  him, 
to  withdraw,  so  as  not  to  expose  himself.  Twenty-one  balls 
took  effect,  four  in  the  head,  yet  he  still  breathed  and  mut- 
tered in  his  throat ;  the  twenty-second  put  an  end  to  him. 
This  fact  was  confirmed  by  all  the  officers  and  soldiers  pre- 
sent at  his  death.  "  As  soon  as  we  perceived,"  said  a  soldier 
very  gravely,  "that  he  was  enchanted,  we  loaded  his  own 
musket  with  a  silver  ball,  and  this  destroyed  the  spell." 
After  the  death  of  the  leader,  some  two  hundred  and 
thirty  persons  were  brought  to  trial;  nearly  half  of  them, 
having  been  guilty  of  murder  and  robbery  with  violence, 
were  condemned  to  capital  punishment,  and  their  heads  ex- 
posed near  the  places  of  their  residence,  or  in  the  scene  of 
their  crimes. 

575.  Certificates  of  the  Decisi. — To  render  the  account  of 
the  Decisi  as  complete  as  it  need  be,  I  subjoin  a  copy  of  one 
of  their  patents  or  certificates  : — 


ITALIAN  SOCIETIES  183 

Tristezza.  ATorte. 


Death's  x^— \         Death's 

**•       S(alentina).       D(ecisione).       (  Seal>   \      He!ld- 

(Salute).  V__"y 

N°  F.  £randi  Muratori. 
L.  D.  D.  G.  T.—E.  D.  T.  D.  U.1 

II  Mbrtale  Gaetano  Caffieri  e  un  F.  D.  A'umero  Quinto, 
appartenente  alia  De  del  Tonante  Giove,  sparsa  sulla 
super ficie  della  Terra,  per  la  sua  De  avuto  il  piacere  di 
far  parte  in  questa  R.  S.  D.  Noi  dunque  invitiamo 
tutte  le  Societa  J^ilantropiche  a  prestar  il  loro  braccio 
forte  al  medesimo  ed  a  soccorerlo  ne'  suoi  bisogni,  essendo 
egli  giunto  alia  De  di  acquistare  la  iiberta  o  Morte. 
Oggi  li  29  Ottobre  1817. 

Pietro  Gargaro.  II  G.  M.  D.  N°.  1. 

V°.  de  Serio  2°  Deciso 

Gaetano  Caffieri        f       ^\ 

Cross  bones.     Registratore  de' MortL    (    SeaL  j    Cross  bones. 
Terror.  V^    '        Struggle. 


Translation. 

The  Salentine  Decision. 

Health  ! 
No.  5,  Grand  Masons. 

The  Decision  of  Jupiter  Tonans  (the  name  of  the  lodge)  hopes  to 
make  war  against  the  tyrants  of  the  universe,  &c. 

The  mortal  Gaetano  Caffieri  is  a  Brother  Decided,  No.  5,  belonging  to 
the  Decision  of  Jupiter  the  Thunderer,  spread  over  the  face  of  the  earth, 
has  had  the  pleasure  to  belong  to  this  Salentine  Republican  Decision.  We 
invite,  therefore,  all  Philanthropic  Societies  to  lend  their  strong  arm  to 
the  same,  and  to  assist  him  in  his  wants,  he  having  come  to  the  decision 
to  obtain  liberty  or  death.  Dated  this  day,  the  2Qth  October  1817. 

Pietro  Gargaro,  the  Decided  Grand  Master,  No.  i. 
Vito  de  Serio,  Second  Decided. 
Gaetano  Caffieri,  Registrar  of  the  Dead. 

1  That  is :  La  Decisione  di  Giove  Tonante— Esterminatore  del  Tiranni 
dell'  Universe. 


1 84  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

The  letters  in  italics  in  the  original  were  written  in  blood. 
The  upper  seal  represents  fasces  planted  upon  a  death's  head, 
surmounted  by  the  Phrygian  cap,  and  flanked  by  hatchets  ; 
the  lower,  thunderbolts  casting  down  royal  and  imperial 
crowns  and  the  tiara.  The  person  in  whose  favour  the  certifi- 
cate is  issued,  figures  himself  among  the  signatures  with  the 
title  of  Registrar  of  the  Dead,  that  is,  of  those  they  immolated 
to  their  vengeance,  of  whom  they  kept  a  register  apart. 
The  four  points  observable  after  the  signature  of  Pietro 
Gargaro  indicate  his  power  of  passing  sentence  of  death. 
When  the  Decisi  wrote  to  any  one  to  extort  contributions, 
if  they  added  these  four  points,  it  was  known  that  the  person 
they  addressed  was  condemned  to  death  in  case  of  disobedi- 
ence. If  the  points  were  not  added  he  was  threatened  with 
milder  punishment.  Their  colours,  yellow,  red,  and  blue, 
surrounded  the  patent. 

576.  The  Calderari. — This  society,  alluded  to  before,  is 
of  uncertain  origin.     Count  Orloff,  in  his  work,  "Memoirs 
on  the  Kingdom  of  Naples,"  says  they  arose  in  1813,  when 
the  reform  of  Carbonarism  took  place.     Canosa,  on  the  other 
hand,  in  a  pamphlet  published  at  Dublin,  and  entitled,  "  The 
Mountain  Pipes,"  says  they  arose  at  Palermo,  and  not  at 
Naples.     In  the  former  of  these  towns  there  existed  different 
trade  companies,  which  had  enjoyed  great  privileges,  until 
they  lost  them  by  the  constitution  of  Lord  William  Bentinck. 
The  numerous  company  of  braziers  (calderari)  felt  the  loss 
most  keenly,  and  they  sent  a  deputation  to  the  Queen  of 
Naples,  assuring  her  that  they  were  ready  to  rise  in  her  de- 
fence.   The  flames  of  the  insurrection  were  communicated  to 
the  tanners  and  other  companies,  and  all  the  Neapolitan  emi- 
grants in  Sicily.      Lord  William  Bentinck  put  the  emigrants 
on  board  ship  and  sent  them  under  a  neutral  flag  to  Naples, 
where  Murat  received  them  very  kindly.     But  they  were  not 
grateful.      Immediately  on  their  arrival  they  entered  into 
the   secret  societies    then    conspiring    against   the    French 
Government,  and  their  original  name  of  Calderari  was  com- 
municated by  them  to  the  conspirators,  before  then  called 
"  Trinitarii."     We  have  seen  that  on  the  return  of  Ferdinand, 
Prince  Canosa  favoured  the  Calderari.     He  styled  them  the 
Calderari  of  the  Counterpoise,  because  they  were  to  serve  as 
such  to  Carbonarism.     The  fate  of  Canosa  and  that  of  the 
Calderari  has  already  been  mentioned  (557,  559). 

577.  The  Independents. — Though  these  also  aimed  at  the 
independence  of  Italy,  yet  it  appears  that  they  were  not  dis- 
inclined to  effect  it  by  means  of  foreign  assistance.     The 


ITALIAN  SOCIETIES  185 

report  at  that  time  was  that  they  actually  once  intended  to 
offer  the  crown  of  Italy  to  the  Duke  of  Wellington  ;  but  this 
is  highly  improbable,  since  our  Iron  Duke  was  not  at  all 
popular  in  Italy.  But  it  is  highly  probable  that  they  sought 
the  co-operation  of  Russia,  which,  since  1815,  maintained 
many  agents  in  Italy — with  what  purpose  is  not  exactly 
known  ;  the  collection  of  statistical  and  economical  informa- 
tion was  the  ostensible  object,  but  Austria  looked  on  them 
with  a  very  suspicious  eye,  and  watched  them  narrowly. 
The  Independents  had  close  relations  with  these  Russian 
agents,  probably,  as  it  is  surmised,  with  a  view  of  turning 
Russian  influence  to  account  in  any  outbreak  against 
Austria. 

578.  The   Delphic   Priesthood. — This   was   another   secret 
society,  having  the  same  political  object  as  the  foregoing. 
The  Delphic  priest,  the  patriotic  priest,  the  priest  militant, 
spoke  thus:    "My  mother  has  the  sea  for  her  mantle,  high 
mountains  for  her  sceptre  ;  "  and  when  asked  who  his  mother 
was,  replied  :    "The  lady  with  the  dark  tresses,  whose  gifts 
are  beauty,  wisdom,  and  formerly  strength :  whose  dowry  is 
a  nourishing  garden,  full  of  flagrant  flowers,  where  bloom  the 
olive  and  the  vine ;  and  who  now  groans,    stabbed  to  the 
heart."    The  Delphics  entertained  singular  hopes,  and  would 
invoke  the  "remedy  of  the  ocean"  (American  auxiliaries) 
and  the  epoch  of  "  cure  "  (a  general  European  war).     They 
called  the  partisans  of  France  "  pagans,"  and  those  of  Austria, 
"monsters";  the  Germans  they  styled  "savages."      Their 
place  of  meeting  they  designated  as  the  "ship,"  to  fore- 
shadow the  future  maritime  greatness  of  Italy,  and  the  help 
they   expected   from    over   the    sea;    their    chief   was   the 
"  pilot." 

579.  Egyptian  Lodges. — Immediately  after  the  downfall 
of  Napoleon,  societies  were  formed  also  in  foreign  countries 
to  promote  Italian  independence.     The  promoters  of  these 
were  chiefly  exiles.     Distant  Egypt  even  became  the  centre 
of  such  a  propaganda ;  and  under  the  auspices  of  Mehernet 
Ali,  who  aspired  to  render  himself  independent  of  the  Sub- 
lime  Porte,  there   was    established    the   Egyptian    rite   of 
Cagliostro  with  many  variations,  and  under  the  title  of  the 
"  Secret   Egyptian  Society."      Under   masonic   forms,    the 
Pacha  hoped  to  further  his  own  views;  and  especially,  to 
produce  political  changes  in  the  Ionian  Islands  and  in  Italy, 
he  scattered  his  agents  all  over  the  Mediterranean  coasts. 
Being  masonic,  the  society  excluded  no  religion ;  it  retained 
the  two  annual  festivals,  and  added  a  third  in  memory  of 


1 86  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

Napoleon,  whose  portrait  was  honoured  in  the  lodge.  The 
rites  were  chiefly  those  of  the  ancient  and  accepted  Scotch. 
Women  were  admitted,  Turks  excluded  ;  and  in  the  lodges 
of  Alexandria  and  Cairo,  the  Greek  and  Arab  women 
amounted  to  more  than  three  hundred.  The  emissaries, 
spread  over  many  parts  of  Europe,  corresponded  in  cipher ; 
but  of  the  operations  of  the  society  nothing  was  ever  posi- 
tively known. 

580.  American  Hunters. — The  Society  of  the  "American 
Hunters"  was  founded  at  Ravenna,  shortly  after  the  pro- 
secutions  of    Macerata,    and   the   measures   taken    by    the 
Austrian  Government,  in  1818,  against  the  Carbonari.     Lord 
Byron  is  said  to  have  been  at  its  head,  having  imbibed  his 
love  for  Italy  through  the  influence  of  an  Italian  beauty, 
the  Countess  Guiccioli,  whose  brother  had  been  exiled  a 
few   years   before.      Its   ceremonies    assimilated   it   to   the 
"  Comuneros  "  of  Spain,  and  it  seems  to  have  had  the  same 
aims  as  the  Delphic  Priesthood.     The  saviour  was  to  come 
from  America,  and  it  is  asserted  that  Joseph  Bonaparte,  the 
ex- King  of  Spain,  was  a  member  of  the  society.     It  is  not 
improbable  that  the  partisans  of  Napoleon  gathered  new 
hopes  after  the  events  of    1815.     A  sonnet,  of  which  the 
first  quatrain  is  here  given,  was  at  that  time  very  popular 
in  Central  Italy,  and  shows  the  direction  of  the  political 
wind — 

"  Scandalised  by  groaning  under  kings  so  fell, 
Filling  Europe  with  dismay  in  ev'ry  part, 
We  are  driven  to  solicit  Bonaparte 
To  return  from  Saint  Helena  or  from  hell." 

The  restored  sect  made  itself  the  centre  of  many  minor 
sects,  among  which  were  the  "  Sons  of  Mars,"  so  called 
because  composed  chiefly  of  military  men ;  of  the  "  Artist 
Brethren  "  ;  "  the  Defenders  of  the  Country  "  ;  the  "  Friends 
of  Duty ; "  and  others,  having  the  simpler  and  less  com- 
promising forms  of  Carbonarism.  In  the  sect  of  the  "  Sons 
of  Mars,"  the  old  Carbonari  vendita  was  called  "bivouac"  ; 
the  apprentice,  "volunteer";  the  good  cousin,  "corporal"; 
the  master,  "sergeant";  the  grand  master,  "commander"; 
and  the  chief  dignitaries  of  Carbonarism  still  governed,  from 
above  and  unseen,  the  thoughts  of  the  sect.  Many  other 
sects  existed,  of  which  scarcely  more  than  the  names  are 
known,  the  recapitulation  of  which  would  only  weary  the 
reader. 

581.  Secret  Italian  Society  in  London. — London  was  a  great 
centre  of  the  sectaries.     In  1822,  a  society  for  liberating 


ITALIAN  SOCIETIES  187 

Italy  from  the  Austrian  yoke  was  formed  in  that  city, 
counting  among  its  members  many  distinguished  Italian 
patriots.  Austria  took  the  alarm,  and  sent  spies  to  discover 
their  plans.  These  spies  represented  the  operations  of  the 
society  as  very  extensive  and  imminent.  An  expedition 
was  to  sail  from  the  English  coasts  for  Spain,  to  take  on 
board  a  large  number  of  adherents,  land  them  on  the  Italian 
shores,  and  spread  insurrection  everywhere.  The  English 
general,  Eobert  Wilson,  was  said  to  be  at  the  head  of  the 
expedition  ;  of  which,  however,  nothing  was  ever  heard,  and 
the  Austrian  Government  escaped  with  the  mere  fright. 

582.  Secret  Italian  Societies  in  Paris, — A  society  of  Italians 
was  formed  in  Paris,  in  1829;  and  in  1830,  French  Liberals 
formed  a  society  under  the  title  of  "  Cosmopolitans,"  whose 
object  was  to  revolutionise  all  the  peoples  of  the  Latin  race, 
and  form  them  into  one  grand  confederacy.  La  Fayette 
was  at  its  head,  but  the  man  who  was  the  real  leader  of 
the  movement  was  totally  unknown  to  the  public.  Henry 
Misley  seemed  occupied  only  in  the  sale  of  the  nitre  and  wheat 
of  his  native  country,  Modena,  and  afterwards  was  engaged 
in  the  construction  of  railways  in  Italy  and  Spain.  But 
he  was  the  intimate  friend  of  Menotti,  and  the  connecting 
link  between  the  Italian  Carbonari  and  the  revolutionary 
movement  in  France.  He  was  also  active,  from  1850  to 
1852,  in  placing  Louis  Napoleon  at  the  head  of  the  French 
nation,  co-operating  with  Lord  Palmerston,  who,  as  a  Mason, 
was  the  great  friend  and  protector  of  the  European  revolu- 
tion, and  was  the  first  to  recognise  Louis  Napoleon  as 
Emperor  of  the  French,  not  hesitating,  to  further  his  objects, 
to  falsify  despatches  which  had  already  received  the  royal 
signature.  But  when  Garibaldi,  in  1864,  visited  England, 
Lord  Palmerston  co-operated  with  Victor  Emmanuel  and 
Louis  Napoleon  in  restraining  the  Italian  patriot  from  com- 
ing in  contact  with  the  revolutionary  leaders  then  in  this 
country,  lest  he,  in  conjunction  with  them,  should  plan 
expeditions,  which  might  have  interfered  with  his  (Lord 
Palmerston's)  or  the  King  of  Italy's  plans.  Garibaldi  was 
surrounded  with  a  brilliant  suite,  and  overwhelmed  with 
official  fetes.  Then  Dr.  Fergusson  declared  that  Garibaldi's 
health  demanded  his  immediate  return  to  Italy.  His  in- 
tended visit  to  Paris  was  stopped  by  the  Duke  of  Sutherland 
taking  him  in  his  yacht  to  the  Mediterranean ;  but  Mazzini 
informed  Garibaldi  of  the  scheme  to  keep  him  an  honoured 
prisoner,  and  Garibaldi  insisted  at  Malta  on  returning  at 
once  to  Caprera. 


1 88  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

583.  Mazzini  and  Young  Italy. — Joseph  Mazzini,  who 
sixty  years  ago  was  a  prisoner  in  Fort  Savona  for  revolu- 
tionary speeches  and  writings,  may  be  looked  upon  as  the 
chief  instigator  of  modern  secret  societies  in  Italy  having 
revolutionary  tendencies.  The  independence  and  unity  of 
their  country,  with  Rome  for  its  capital,  of  course  were  the 
objects  of  Young  Italy.  One  of  the  earliest  of  these  societies 
was  that  of  the  Apophasimenes,  many  of  whom  Mazzini  drew 
over  to  his  "  Young  Italy"  association. 

Here  are  some  of  the  articles  of  the  "  Organisation  of 
Young  Italy"  : — i.  The  society  is  founded  for  the  indispen- 
sable destruction  of  all  the  governments  of  the  Peninsula,  in 
order  to  form  one  single  State  with  the  republican  govern- 
ment. 2.  Fully  aware  of  the  horrible  evils  of  absolute  power, 
and  the  even  worse  results  of  constitutional  monarchies,  we 
must  aim  at  establishing  a  republic,  one  and  indivisible.  30. 
Those  who  refuse  obedience  to  the  orders  of  this  secret 
society,  or  reveal  its  mysteries,  die  by  the  dagger  without 
mercy.  31.  The  secret  tribunal  pronounces  sentence,  and 
appoints  one  or  two  affiliated  members  for  its  execution.  32. 
Who  so  refuses  to  perform  such  duty  assigned  to  him,  dies 
on  the  spot.  33.  If  the  victim  escapes,  he  shall  be  pursued, 
until  struck  by  the  avenging  hand,  were  he  on  the  bosom  of 
his  mother  or  in  the  temple  of  Christ.  34.  Every  secret 
tribunal  is  competent  not  only  to  judge  guilty  adepts,  but  to 
put  to  death  any  one  it  finds  it  necessary  to  condemn. — 
(Sig.)  Mazzini. 

We  have  seen,  in  the  account  of  the  Mafia  (329),  that 
Mazzini  constantly  recommended  the  use  of  the  dagger — 
though  he  took  good  care  to  avoid  personal  danger ;  and,  to 
give  but  one  instance,  that  he  did  not  hesitate  to  employ  it, 
by  proxy,  was  proved  in  the  case  of  Signer  Emiliani,  who 
was  assassinated,  by  Mazzini's  order,  which  is  still  existing, 
signed  by  Mazzini,  and  countersigned  by  the  secretary  La 
Cecilia,  in  the  streets  of  Rhodez,  a  town  in  the  department 
of  the  Aveyron,  seventy  miles  from  Toulouse.  Mazzini  had 
come  from  Geneva  on  purpose  to  sit  in  judgment  on  Signer 
Emiliani,  who  was  accused  of  having  opposed  the  plans  of 
the  Mazzinists. 

Committees  were  established  in  all  parts  of  the  Peninsula  ; 
the  presses,  not  only  of  Italy,  but  also  of  Marseilles,  London, 
and  Switzerland,  were  largely  employed  to  disseminate  the 
views  of  the  conspirators ;  and  the  police,  though  they  con- 
sidered themselves  well  informed,  were  always  at  fault. 
Thus  Livio  Zambeccari,  a  leading  member,  went  from 


ITALIAN  SOCIETIES  189 

Bologna  to  Naples,  thence  into  Sicily,  held  interviews  with 
the  conspirators,  called  meetings,  and  returned  to  Bologna, 
whilst  the  police  of  Naples  and  Sicily  knew  nothing  at  all 
about  it.  General  Antonini,  under  a  feigned  name,  went  to 
Sicily,  passed  himself  off  for  a  daguerreotypist,  and  lived 
in  great  intimacy  with  many  of  the  officials  without  being 
suspected.  A  Piedmontese  officer,  who  had  fought  in  the 
Spanish  and  Portuguese  revolutionary  wars,  arrived  at  Mes- 
sina under  a  Spanish  name,  with  letters  of  introduction  from 
a  Neapolitan  general,  which  enabled  him  to  visit  and  closely 
inspect  the  citadels,  this  being  the  object  of  his  journey. 
Letters  from  Malta,  addressed  to  the  conspirators,  were  inter- 
cepted by  the  police,  but  recovered  from  them  before  they  had 
read  them,  by  the  address  and  daring  of  the  members  of  Young 
Italy.  A  thousand  copies  of  a  revolutionary  programme,  printed 
at  Marseilles,  were  smuggled  into  Italy  in  a  despatch  addressed 
to  the  Minister  Delcaretto.  Though  occasionally  the  corre- 
spondence fell  into  the  hands  of  the  authorities — as,  for 
instance,  on  the  4th  June  1832,  the  Custom-house  officers  of 
Genoa  seized  on  board  the  steamer  Sully,  coming  from  Mar- 
seilles, a  trunk  full  of  old  clothes,  addressed  to  Mazzini's 
mother,  in  the  false  bottom  of  which  were  concealed  a  large 
number  of  letters  addressed  to  members  of  Young  Italy, 
revolutionary  proclamations,  lists  of  lodges,  and  instructions 
as  to  the  proposed  rising.  Then  the  revolutionary  corre- 
spondence was  carried  on  by  means  of  the  official  letters 
addressed  to  the  Minister  Santangelo,  at  Palermo.  A  well- 
known  Spanish  general,  who  was  one  of  the  conspirators, 
whose  departure  and  object  had  been  publicly  announced  in 
the  French  papers,  went  from  Marseilles  to  Naples,  and  the 
police  were  unable  to  catch  him.  Italian  and  other  Conti- 
nental revolutionists  in  those  days,  and  later  on,  received 
much  moral  support  from  Lord  Palmerston,  wherefore  it 
was  a  saying  of  Austrian  Conservatives — 

"  If  the  devil  has  a  son, 
Surely  it's  Lord  Palmerston." 

Panizzi  also,  a  Carbonaro,  exiled  from  Italy,  and  for  many 
years  Chief  Librarian  of  the  British  Museum,  was  an  ardent 
supporter  of  Italian  unification. 

584.  Mazzini,  the  Evil  Genius  of  Italy. — Gregory  XVI.  died 
in  1846.  The  Italians  thought  this  the  favourable  moment 
for  general  action,  and  the  revolutions  of  Eome,  Naples, 
Palermo,  Florence,  Milan,  Parma,  Modena,  and  Venice  fol- 
lowed in  quick  succession.  But  they  failed,  and  their  failure — 


190  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

notably  that  of  the  operations  of  Charles  Albert — was  due 
to  the  political  intrigues  carried  on  by  the  Mazzinists,  who 
tampered  with  the  fidelity  and  discipline  of  the  Sardinian 
army.  Mazzini,  in  those  days,  ruined  the  national  cause, 
and  rejoiced  in  that  ruiD,  because  he  was  not  the  leader  of 
the  enterprise.  Later  on,  his  Roman  triumvirate  led  to  the 
French  occupation  of  Rome,  and  to  the  return  to  that  city 
of  Italy's  greatest  curse,  the  pope.  Many  of  Garibaldi's 
noble  efforts  were  thwarted  or  frustrated  by  Mazzini's  revo- 
lutionary fanaticism  ;  and  yet — such  is  the  mockery  of 
Fate ! — that  selfish  demagogue  who,  to  gratify  his  political 
crotchets,  sent  hundreds  of  misguided  youths  to  a  violent 
death,  has  a  statue  in  the  Palazzo  del  Municipio  at 
Genoa,  an  honour  which  posterity  will  certainly  rescind. 
Like  O'Donovan  Rossa,  he  planned  his  murderous  schemes 
at  a  safe  distance,  taking  care  never  to  imperil  himself 
personally,  and  if  danger  came  near,  to  run  away.  In  the 
expedition  to  Savoy  in  January  1834,  Mazzini  at  Carra 
bran dished  his  rifle  to  rush  to  the  combat,  but  was  con- 
veniently seized  by  a  fit  and  carried  across  the  border  in 
safety.  In  1833  Louis  Mariotti  (a  pseudo-name),  provided 
with  a  passport  and  money  by  Mazzini,  attempted  Charles 
Albert's  life;  shortly  after  another  man  made  the  same 
attempt — he  had  a  dagger  which  was  proved  to  have  be- 
longed to  Mazzini :  this  hero  was  one  of  the  first  to  take 
flight  when  Radetzky  entered  Milan.  When  in  that  city 
he  thwarted  the  endeavours  of  the  royal  commissioners  to 
procure  men  and  money,  and  fed  the  republican  animosities 
towards  the  Piedmontese  in  every  part  of  Italy.  The  king 
knew  of  the  Mazzinian  manoeuvres,  and  therefore  did  not 
make  peace  after  his  defeat,  for  the  republicans  would  have 
said  he  had  thrown  up  the  cause  of  Italy. 

585.  Assassination  of  Rossi. — This  adventurer  was  born 
at  Carrara,  and  began  his  public  career  as  a  member  of  the 
provisional  government  of  Bologna,  when  Murat  attempted 
the  conquest  of  Italy.  At  his  master's  defeat,  he  fled  into 
Switzerland,  where  the  Diet  entrusted  him  with  the  revision 
of  the  pact  of  1815  ;  in  the  changes  he  proposed,  radicalism 
was  carried  to  its  utmost  limits,  and  aimed  at  the  overthrow 
of  the  Federal  Government.  With  such  antecedents,  it  was 
but  natural  that  Rossi  became  a  member  of  Young  Italy  ; 
though  Mazzini  placed  no  faith  in  him,  for  he  knew  that  the 
ci-devant  Carbonaro  had  no  fixed  political  convictions.  For 
this  once  violent  demagogue,  having,  in  the  July  revolution 
of  1830,  assisted  Louis  Philippe  to  ascend  the  French  throne, 


ITALIAN  SOCIETIES  191 

accepted  from  him  the  title  of  count  and  peer  of  France, 
and  was  sent  as  ambassador  to  Rome.  Though  he  had  once 
belonged  to  the  secret  societies  of  Italy,  and  by  Gregory  XVI. 
been  designated  as  the  political  renegade,  he  eventually 
accepted  office  under  Pius  IX.,  who  in  1848,  a  short  time 
before  his  flight  from  Borne,  had  no  one  to  appeal  to,  to 
form  a  new  ministry,  but  this  very  adventurer,  who  did  so 
by  keeping  three  of  the  portfolios  in  his  own  hands,  viz., 
those  of  Finances,  Interior,  and  Police,  whilst  the  other 
ministers  mutually  detested  each  other ;  a  fact  from  which 
Eossi  expected  to  derive  additional  advantages.  His  poli- 
tical programme,  which  excluded  all  national  participation 
or  popular  influence,  filled  Young  Italy  with  rage.  At  a 
meeting  of  Young  Italy,  held  at  the  Hotel  Feder  at  Turin, 
the  verdict  went  forth  :  Death  to  the  false  Carbonaro !  By 
a  prearranged  scheme  the  lot  to  kill  Rossi  fell  on  Canino, 
a  leading  man  of  the  association,  not  that  it  was  expected 
that  he  would  do  the  deed  himself,  but  his  position  and 
wealth  were  assumed  to  give  him  the  most  ready  means  of 
commanding  daggers.  A  Mazzinian  society  assembled  twice 
a  week  at  the  Roman  theatre,  Capranica.  At  a  meeting  of 
one  hundred  and  sixteen  members,  it  was  decided,  at  the 
suggestion  of  Mazzini,  that  forty  should  be  chosen  by  lot  to 
protect  the  assassin.  Three  others  were  elected  by  the  same 
process — they  were  called  feratori ;  one  of  them  was  to  slay 
the  minister. 

The  1 5th  of  November  1848,  the  day  fixed  upon  for  the 
opening  of  the  Roman  Chambers,  was  also  that  of  Rossi's 
death.  He  received  several  warnings,  but  ridiculed  them. 
Even  in  going  to  the  Chancellerie,  he  was  addressed  by  a 
priest,  who  whispered  to  him,  "  Do  not  go  out ;  you  will  be 
assassinated."  "They  cannot  terrify  me,"  he  replied;  "the 
cause  of  the  Pope  is  the  cause  of  God,"  which  is  thought  by 
some  to  have  been  a  very  noble  answer,  but  which  was  simply 
ridiculous,  because  not  true,  and  was,  moreover,  vile  hypo- 
crisy on  the  part  of  a  man  with  his  antecedents.  When 
Rossi  arrived  at  the  Chancellerie,  the  conspirators  were 
already  awaiting  him  there.  One  of  them,  as  the  minister 
ascended  the  staircase,  struck  him  on  the  side  with  the  hilt 
of  a  dagger,  and  as  Rossi  turned  round  to  look  at  his 
assailant,  another  assassin  plunged  his  dagger  into  Rossi's 
throat.  The  minister  soon  after  expired  in  the  apartments 
of  Cardinal  Gozzoli,  to  which  he  had  been  carried.  At  that 
very  instant  one  of  the  chiefs  of  Young  Italy  at  Bologna, 
looking  at  his  watch,  said,  "A  great  deed  has  just  been 


192  SECEET  SOCIETIES 

accomplished  ;  we  no  longer  need  fear  Kossi."  The  estima- 
tion in  which  llossi  was  held  by  the  Chamber  cannot  have 
been  great,  for  the  deputies  received  the  news  of  his  death 
with  considerable  sang-froid;  and  at  night  a  torchlight 
procession  paraded  the  streets  of  Rome,  carrying  aloft  the 
dagger  which  had  done  the  deed,  whilst  thousands  of  voices 
exclaimed,  "  Blessed  be  the  hand  that  struck  Eossi !  Blessed 
be  the  dagger  that  struck  him  !  "  A  pamphlet,  published  at 
Eome  in  1850,  contains  a  letter  from  Mazzini,  in  which  occur 
the  words :  "  The  assassination  of  Eossi  was  necessary  and 
just." 

In  the  first  edition  I  added  to  the  foregoing  account  the 
following  note : — 

"  P.S. — Since  writing  the  above  I  have  met  with  documents 
which  induce  me  to  suspend  my  judgment  as  to  who  were 
the  real  authors  of  Eossi's  assassination.  From  what  I  have 
since  learnt  it  would  seem  that  the  clerical  party,  and  not 
the  Carbonari,  planned  and  executed  the  deed.  Persons 
accused  of  being  implicated  in  the  murder  were  kept  in 
prison  for  more  than  two  years  without  being  brought  to 
trial,  and  then  quietly  got  away.  Eossi,  shortly  before  his 
death,  had  levied  contributions  to  the  extent  of  four  million 
scudi  on  clerical  property,  and  was  known  to  plan  further 
schemes  to  reduce  the  influence  of  the  Church.  But  the 
materials  for  writing  the  history  of  those  times  are  not  yet 
accessible." 

More  than  twenty  years  after  the  above  was  written,  now 
in  1896,  the  question  is  as  much  involved  in  doubt  as  ever. 
True,  one  Santa  Constantini,  a  radical  fanatic,  as  he  was 
called  on  his  conviction,  has  been  proved  to  have  struck  the 
fatal  blow,  but  as  to  who  instigated  him  to  do  the  deed, 
opinions  are  still  divided ;  the  secret  has  not  oozed  out. 
The  reasons  for  attributing  the  death  of  Eossi  to  the 
Carbonari  or  the  Jesuits  are  of  equal  weight  on  both  sides. 

The  assassination  of  Eossi  and  the  commotions  following 
it,  led,  as  is  well  known,  to  the  pope's  flight  to  Gaeta. 
During  his  absence  from  Eome,  Mazzini  was  the  virtual 
ruler  of  that  city,  which  was  during  his  short  reign  the 
scene  of  the  greatest  disorders,  of  robberies,  and  assassina- 
tions. But  Eome  gained  nothing  by  the  restoration  of  the 
pope  through  French  arms ;  the  papalians,  when  once  more 
in  power,  raged  as  wildly  against  the  peaceful  inhabitants  as 
the  Mazzinists  had  done.  The  Holy  Father  personally,  and 
the  cardinals  and  other  dignitaries  of  the  Church,  caused 
thousands  of  the  inhabitants  of  Eome  to  be  cast  into  noisome 


ITALIAN  SOCIETIES  193 

dungeons,  many  of  them  underground,  where  they  were 
starved  or  killed  by  bad  treatment,  or  after  long-delayed 
trials  condemned  to  the  most  unjust  punishments.  I  could 
give  numerous  instances,  did  they  enter  into  the  scope 
of  this  work.  The  subsequent  action  of  Carbonarism,  its 
renewal  of  the  war  against  the  pope,  the  collapse  of  the 
latter's  army,  largely  composed  of  Irish  loafers,  who  entered 
Rome  in  potato  sacks,  with  a  hole  for  the  head  and  two 
for  the  arms,  and  his  final  overthrow,  are  matters  of  public 
history. 

586.  Sicilian  Societies. — Sicily  did  not  escape  the  general 
influence.     In   1827  there  was  formed  a  secret  society  in 
favour  of  the  Greek  revolution,  the  "Friends  of  Greece," 
who,  however,  also  occupied  themselves  with  the  affairs  of 
Italy.     There  was  also  the   "  Secret  Society  of  the  Five," 
founded  ten  years  before  the  above,   which  prepared  the 
insurrection  of  the   Greeks.     In  Messina  was  formed  the 
lodge  of  the  "  Patriotic  Reformers,"  founded  on  Carbonarism, 
which  corresponded   with   lodges   at    Florence,    Milan,  and 
Turin,  by  means  of  musical  notes.     But  the  Sicilian  Car- 
bonari did  not  confine  themselves  to  political  aims :  to  them 
was  due  in  a  great  measure  the  security  of  the  roads  through- 
out the  island,  which  before  their  advent  had  been  terribly 
infested  by  malefactors  of  every  kind,  who  almost  daily  com- 
mitted outrages  against  peaceful  travellers. 

587.  The    Consistorials. —  But    the    conspirators    against 
thrones  and  the  Church  were  not  to  have  it  all  their  own 
way ;  clerical  associations  were  formed  to  counteract  their 
efforts.      The    sect   of   the    "  Consistorials "    aimed    at   the 
preservation  of  feudal  and  theocratic  dominion.     The  rich 
and  ambitious  patricians  of  Rome  and  other  Italian  states 
belonged  to  it;  Tabot,  an  ex- Jesuit  and  Confessor  to  the 
Holy  Father,  was  the  ruling  spirit.     It  is  said  that  this 
society  proposed  to  give  to  the  Pope,  Tuscany ;  the  island 
of  Elba  and  the  Marches,  to  the  King  of  Naples ;  Parma, 
Piacenza,  and  a  portion  of  Lombardy,  with  the  title  of  King, 
to  the   Duke    of   Modena ;   the   rest   of   Lombardy,  Massa 
Carrara,  and  Lucca,  to  the  King  of  Sardinia ;  and  to  Russia, 
which,  from  jealousy  of  Austria,  favoured  these  secret  designs, 
either  Ancona,  or  Genoa,  or  Civita  Vecchia,  to  turn  it  into 
their  Gibraltar.     From  documents  found  in  the  office  of  the 
Austrian  governor  at  Milan,  it  appears  that  the  Duke  of 
Modena,   in    1818,   presided  at  a  general   meeting   of  the 
Consistorials,  and  that  Austria  was  aware  of  the  existence 
and  intentions  of  the  society. 

VOL.  n.  N 


194  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

588.  The  Roman  Catholic  Apostolic  Congregation. — It  was 
formed  at  the  period  of  the  imprisonment  of  Pius  VII.    The 
members  recognised  each  other  by  a  yellow  silk  ribbon  with 
five  knots ;  the  initiated  into  the  lower  degrees  heard  of 
nothing  but  acts  of  piety  and  charity  ;  the  secrets  of  the 
society,  known  to  the  higher  ranks,  could  only  be  discussed 
between  two ;  the  lodges  were  composed  of  five  members  ; 
the  password  was  " Eleutheria,"  i.e.  Liberty;  and  the  secret 
word  "Ode,"  i.e.  Independence.     This  sect  arose  in  France, 
among  the  Neo-catholics,  led  by  Lammenais,  who  already, 
in  the  treatise  on  "Religious  Indifference,"  had  shown  that 
fervour  which  afterwards  was  to  carry  him  so  far.     Thence 
it  passed  into  Lombardy,  but  met  with  but  little  success, 
and  the  Austrians  succeeded  in  obtaining  the  patents  which 
were  given  to  the  initiated,  two  Latin  texts  divided  by  this 

/~i      I     ^i 

sign ,  meaning  Congregazione   Catholica  Apostolica 

-\      I      \\ 

Romana,  and  their  statutes  and  signs  of  recognition.  Though 
devoted  to  the  independence  of  Italy,  the  Congregation  was 
not  factious ;  for  it  bound  the  destinies  of  nations  to  the 
full  triumph  of  the  Roman  Catholic  religion.  Narrow  in 
scope,  and  restricted  in  numbers,  it  neither  possessed  nor, 
perhaps,  claimed  powers  to  subvert  the  political  system. 

589.  Sanfedisti. — This  society  was  founded  at  the  epoch 
of  the  suppression  of  the  Jesuits.     There  existed  long  before 
then  in  the  Papal  States  a  society  called  the  "Pacific"  or 
"Holy  Union,"  which  was  established  to  defend  religion, 
the  privileges  and  jurisdiction  of  Rome,  and  the  temporal 
power  of  the  popes.    Now  from  this  society  they  derived  the 
appellation  of  the  Society  of  the  Holy  Faith,  or  Sanfedisti. 
The  way  in  which  the  existence   of  the  society  was  dis- 
covered, was  curious.     A  friend  of  De  Witt  (555)  during 
carnival  time  in   1821,  entered  a  shop  in  the  Contrada  di 
Po  at  Turin  to  purchase  a  costume.     He  was  examining  a 
cassock,  when  he  noticed  a  pocket  in  it,  containing  some 
papers.     He  bought  it  and  took  it  home.     The  papers  gave 
the  statutes,  signs,  passwords,  &c.,  of  the  Sanfedisti.     The 
owner   of   the   cassock,   one    of   the   highest   initiates,   had 
been  struck  by  apoplexy,  and  his  belongings  had  been  sold. 
Finding  themselves  discovered,  the  Sanfedisti  changed  the 
password  and  sign,  making,  instead  of  the  former  one,  an 
imperceptible  cross  with  the  left  hand  on  the  left  breast. 
They  had  been  in  existence  long  before  1821  ;  in  Franco 
they  conspired  against  Napoleon,  who  sent  about  twenty  of 
them  to  prison  at  Modena,  whence  they  were  released  by 


ITALIAN  SOCIETIES  195 

Francis  IV.  The  supposed  chiefs,  after  1815,  were  the 
Duke  of  Modena  and  Cardinal  Consalvi.  The  first  had 
frequent  secret  interviews  with  the  cardinals,  and  even  the 
King  of  Sardinia  was  said  to  be  in  the  plot.  Large  sums 
also  are  said  to  have  been  contributed  by  the  chiefs  to 
carry  on  the  war  against  Austria,  which,  however,  is  doubt- 
ful. Some  attribute  to  this  society  the  project  of  divid- 
ing Italy  into  three  kingdoms,  expelling  the  Austrians  and 
the  King  of  Naples;  others,  the  intention  of  dividing  it 
into  five,  viz.,  Sardinia,  Modena,  Lucca,  Rome,  and  Naples ; 
and  yet  others — and  these  latter  probably  are  most  in  the 
right — the  determination  to  perpetuate  the  status  quo,  or  to 
re-establish  servitude  in  its  most  odious  forms.  They  also 
intrigued  with  Russia,  though  at  certain  times  they  would 
not  have  objected  to  subject  all  Italy  politically  to  the 
Austrian  eagle,  and  clerically  to  the  keys  of  St.  Peter. 
Their  machinations  at  home  led  to  much  internal  dissension 
and  bloodshed ;  their  chief  opponents  were  the  Carbonari. 
At  Faenza  the  two  parties  fought  against  one  another  under 
the  names  of  "Cats"  and  "Dogs."  They  caused  quite 
as  much  mischief  and  bloodshed  as  any  of  the  bands  of 
brigands  that  infested  the  country,  and  their  code  was  quite 
as  sanguinary  as  that  of  any  more  secular  society.  They 
swore  with  terrible  oaths  to  pursue  and  slay  the  impious 
liberals,  even  to  their  children,  without  showing  pity  for  age 
or  sex.  Under  the  pretence  of  defending  the  faith,  they 
indulged  in  the  grossest  licentiousness  and  most  revolting 
atrocity.  In  the  Papal  States  they  were  under  the  direc- 
tion of  the  inquisitors  and  bishops,  who,  especially  under 
Leo  XII.,  gave  them  the  greatest  encouragement;  in  the 
kingdom  of  Naples,  under  the  immediate  orders  of  the  police. 
They  spread  all  over  Germany,  where  Prince  Hohenloh- 
Schillingsfiirst,  Bishop  of  Sardica,  protected  them.  Prince 
Julius  de  Polignac  was  head  of  the  society  in  France. 


VI 

NAPOLEONIC  AND  ANTI-NAPOLEONIC 

SOCIETIES 


590.  The  PhiladelpJiians. — As  early  as  the  year  1780  a 
society  of  about  sixty  young  men  had  formed  at  Besan^on  a 
masonic  lodge  under  the  above  name.  Colonel  James  Joseph 
Oudet,  who,  though  he  served  under  Napoleon,  hated  him, 
and  had  for  some  time  been  looking  out  for  dupes  to  assist 
him  in  bringing  back  to  France  the  detested  Bourbon  race, 
whose  secret  agent  he  was,  pitched  on  the  members  of  that 
lodge,  still  composed  of  enthusiastic,  but  inexperienced, 
youths,  as  suitable  for  his  purpose.  Having  been  initiated 
into  nearly  every  secret  society  in  Europe,  Oudet  soon  in- 
vested the  Philadelphians  with  all  the  machinery  of  one  on  a 
more  elaborate  scale  than  they  had  hitherto  thought  neces- 
sary. According  to  the  approved  pattern,  every  member 
assumed  a  pseudonym ;  Oudet  called  himself  Philopcemen ; 
General  Moreau,  who,  as  we  shall  see,  succeeded  him  as  chief 
of  the  Order,  took  the  name  of  Fabius,  and  so  on.  Oudet 
further  created  a  dignity,  sovereign,  monarchical  and  abso- 
lute, with  which,  of  course,  he  invested  himself,  and  under 
which  were  two  degrees :  the  first,  that  of  Frank  Federate, 
and  the  second,  that  of  Frank  Judge;  this  second  degree 
comprehended  the  complement  of  all  the  secrets,  up  to  the 
secret  belonging,  and  known  to  the  supreme  chief  alone. 
But  to  give  his  adepts  something  to  think  and  talk  about,  he 
told  them  the  establishment  of  a  Sequanese  (from  Sequana, 
Seine)  republic  was  his  object,  whilst  he  really  intended  the 
total  overthrow  of  Napoleon.  He  introduced  the  Philadel- 
phian  rites  into  the  army,  simultaneously  into  the  9th,  68th, 
and  69th  regiments  of  the  line,  into  the  2Oth  of  dragoons, 
the  1 5th  of  light  infantry,  and  from  thence  into  all  the  army. 
Bonaparte  heard  of  the  society,  and  suspected  Oudet,  who 
was  sent  back  to  his  corps,  which  then  occupied  the  garrison 

of  St.  Martin,  in  the  Isle  of  Hne*.     General  Moreau  took  his 

196 


ANTI-NAPOLEONIC  SOCIETIES  197 

place,  but  shortly  after  had  to  resign  it  again  to  Oudet,  he, 
Moreau,  having  been  implicated  in  the  conspiracy  of  Piche- 
gru.  Before  then  the  conspiracy  of  Arena  to  assassinate 
Bonaparte  had  been  discovered,  and  a  book,  seized  among 
the  papers  of  Arena,  and  entitled  "The  Turk  and  the  French 
Soldier,"  certainly  was  written  by  Oudet.  The  Philadel- 
phians  next  attempted  to  seize  Bonaparte  while  traversing 
the  forests  and  mountains  of  the  Jura  attended  by  a  very 
small  retinue ;  but  the  attempt  failed,  one  of  the  Order 
having  betrayed  the  plot.  Oudet  was  killed  at  the 
battle  of  Wagram  (1809),  and  with  his  death  the  society 
collapsed. 

591.  The  Rays. — During  the  power  of  Napoleon,  he  was 
opposed  by  secret  societies  in  Italy,  as  well  as  in  France. 
But  his  fall,  which  to  many  seemed  a  revival  of  liberty,  to 
others  appeared  as  the  ruin  of  Italy ;  hence  they  sought  to 
re-establish  his  rule,  or  at  least  to  save  Italian  nationality 
from  the   wreck.     The   "Rays"  were  an  Anti-Napoleonic 
society,  composed  of  officials  from  all  parts,  brought  together 
by  common  dangers  and  the  adventures  of  the  field.     They 
had  lodges  at  Milan  and  Bologna.     The  Sanfedisti  also  were 
an  Anti-Napoleonic  society  (589). 

592.  Secret  League  in  Tirol. — A  very  powerful  association 
against  Napoleon  was    in  the  year  1809  formed  in  Tirol. 
This   country  had  by  the  treaty  of  Presburg  (1805)  been 
ceded   by  Austria  to  Bavaria.     But  the  Tirolese,  strongly 
attached  to  their  former  master,  resented  the  transfer,  and 
when  in   1808  a  renewal  of  the  war  between  France  and 
Austria  was  imminent,  secret  envoys,  among   whom  was  the 
already  famous  Andreas  Hofer,  were  sent  to  Vienna  to  con- 
cert measures  for   reuniting   the  Tirol  with  Austria.     But 
in  consequence  of  the  battle  of  Wagram,  and  the  truce  of 
Znaim,  which  followed  it,  Tirol  was  again   surrendered  to 
French  troop?.  Then  the  Tirolese,  betrayed  by  Austria,  formed 
a  number  of  secret  societies  among  themselves,  to  drive  out 
the  French.     The  results  of  these  associations  are  matters  of 
history ;  but  to  show  how  the  secret  societies  worked, and  tested 
the  character  and  loyalty  of  some  of  the  leading  members,  the 
following  incident,  communicated  by  the  hero  of  the  adven- 
ture, may  be  mentioned.     He  had  once  enjoyed  Napoleon's 
confidence,  but  having  unjustly  become  suspected  by  him, 
he  was  obliged  to  take  refuge  in  the  most  alpine  part  of  the 
Austrian  provinces,  in  Tirol.     There  he  formed  connections 
with  one  of  the  societies  for  the  overthrow  of  Napoleon,  and 
went  through  a  simple  ceremony  of  initiation.     Two  months 


198  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

elapsed  after  this  without  his  hearing  any  more  of  the  society, 
when  at  last  he  received  a  letter  asking  him  to  repair  to  a 
remote  place,  where  he  was  to  meet  a  number  of  brothers 
assembled.  He  went,  but  found  no  one.  He  received  three 
more  similar  summonses,  but  always  with  the  same  result. 
He  received  a  fifth,  and  went,  but  saw  no  one.  He  was  just 
retiring,  disgusted  with  the  often-repeated  deception,  when 
he  heard  frightful  cries,  as  from  a  person  in  distress.  He 
hastened  towards  the  spot  whence  they  proceeded,  and  found 
a  bleeding  body  lying  on  the  ground,  whilst  he  saw  three 
horsemen  making  their  escape  in  the  opposite  direction,  who, 
however,  fired  three  shots  at  him,  but  missing  him.  He  was 
about  to  examine  the  body  lying  at  his  feet  when  a  detach- 
ment of  armed  force,  attracted  by  the  same  cries,  darted 
from  the  forest ;  the  victim  on  the  ground  indicated  our 
hero  as  his  assailant.  He  was  seized,  imprisoned,  accused 
by  witnesses  who  declared  they  had  seen  him  commit  the 
murder — for  the  body  of  the  person  attacked  had  been  re- 
moved as  dead — and  he  was  sentenced  to  be  executed  the 
same  night,  by  torchlight.  He  was  led  into  a  courtyard, 
surrounded  by  ruinous  buildings,  full  of  spectators.  He  had 
already  ascended  the  scaffold,  when  an  officer  on  horseback, 
and  wearing  the  insignia  of  the  magistracy,  appeared,  an- 
nouncing that  an  edict  had  gone  forth  granting  a  pardon  to 
any  man  condemned  to  death  for  any  crime  whatever,  who 
could  give  to  justice  the  words  of  initiation  and  signs  of  re- 
cognition of  a  secret  society,  which  the  officer  named ;  it 
was  the  one  into  which  the  ci-devant  officer  of  Napoleon 
had  recently  been  received.  He  was  questioned  if  he  knew 
anything  about  it ;  he  denied  all  knowledge  of  the  society, 
and  being  pressed,  became  angry  and  demanded  death. 
Immediately  he  was  greeted  as  a  brave  and  faithful  brother, 
for  all  those  present  were  members  of  the  secret  society,  and 
had  knowingly  co-operated  in  this  rather  severe  test. 

593.  Societies  in  Favour  of  Napoleon. — Many  societies  in 
favour  of  the  restoration  of  Napoleon  were  formed,  such  as 
the  "  Black  Needle,"  the  "  Knights  of  the  Sun,"  "  Universal 
Regeneration,"  &c.  They  were  generally  composed  of  the 
soldiers  of  the  great  captain,  who  were  condemned  to  in- 
activity, and  looked  upon  the  glory  of  their  chief  as  some- 
thing in  which  they  had  a  personal  interest.  Their  aim  was 
to  place  Napoleon  at  the  head  of  confederated  Italy,  under 
the  title  of  "  Emperor  of  Rome,  by  the  will  of  the  people 
and  the  grace  of  God."  The  proposal  reached  him  early  in 
the  year  1815.  Napoleon  accepted  it  like  a  man  who  on 


NAPOLEONIC  SOCIETIES  199 

being  shipwrecked  perceives  a  piece  of  wood  that  may  save 
him,  and  which  he  will  cast  into  the  fire  when  he  has  reached 
the  land.  The  effects  of  these  plots  are  known — Napoleon's 
escape  from  Elba,  and  the  reign  of  a  hundred  days. 

According  to  secret  documents,  the  machinations  of  the 
Bouapartists  continued  even  in  1842,  the  leaders  being 
Peter  Bonaparte,  Lady  Christina  Stuart,  the  daughter  of 
Lucien  Bonaparte,  the  Marchioness  Pepoli,  the  daughter  of 
the  Countess  Lipona  (Caroline  Murat),  and  Count  Rasponi. 
Then  appeared  the  sect  of  the  "Italian  Confederates,"  first 
called  "Platonica,"  which  in  1842  extended  into  Spain. 
Another  sect,  the  "  Illuminati,  Vindicators  or  Avengers  of 
the  People,"  arose  in  the  Papal  States;  also  those  of  "Re- 
generation," of  "Italian  Independence,"  of  the  "Com- 
munists," the  "Exterminators,"  &c.  Tuscany  also  had  its 
secret  societies — that  of  the  "Thirty-one,"  the  "National 
Knights,"  the  "Revolutionary  Club,"  &c.  A  "Communistic 
Society  "  was  formed  at  Milan  ;  but  none  of  these  sects  did 
more  than  excite  a  little  curiosity  for  a  time.  Scarcely  any- 
thing of  their  ritual  is  known. 

594.  The  Illuminati. — This  society,  not  to  be  confounded 
with  an  earlier  one  of  the  same  name  (351  et  seq.~),  was  founded 
in   France,   but  meeting  with  too  many  obstacles  in  that 
country,  it  spread  all  over  Italy.     Its  object  was  to  restore 
the  Napoleon  family  to  the  French  throne,  by  making  Marie- 
Louise  regent,  until  the  King  of  Rome  could  be  set  on  the 
throne,  and  by  bringing  Napoleon  himself  from  St.  Helena, 
to  command  the  army.       The   society  entered  into   corre- 
spondence with  Las  Casas,  who  was  to  come  to  Bologna, 
the  chief  lodge,  and  arrange  plans ;  but  the  scheme,  as  need 
scarcely  be  mentioned,  never  came  to  anything. 

595.  Various  other  Societies. — At  Padua  a  society  existed 
whose    members    called    themselves    Sdvaggi,    "  Savages," 
because  the   German  democrat,   Marr,  had  said,  that  man 
must  return  to  the  savage  state  to  accomplish  something 
great.     They  cut  neither  their  nails  nor  their  hair,  cleaned 
neither  their  clothes  nor  boots;  the  medical  students  who 
were  members  of  the  sect  surreptitiously  brought  portions  of 
human  bodies  from  the  dissecting-rooms  of  the  hospitals  to 
their  meetings,  over  which  the  initiated  performed  wild  and 
hideous  ceremonies.     Not  being  able  to  obtain  human  blood 
for  the  purpose,  they  purchased  bullocks'  blood  in  which  to 
drink  death  to  tyrants.     One  of  the  members  having  over- 
gorged  himself  was  found  dead  in  the  street.     The  medical 
examination  of  his  body  led  to  the  discovery  of  the  cause, 


200  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

and  by  the  police  inquiry  resulting  therefrom,  to  the  ex- 
posure of  the  society,  their  statutes,  oaths,  and  ceremonies. 

The  members  of  the  Unit  a  Jtaliana,  discovered  at  Naples 
in  1850,  recognised  each  other  by  a  gentle  rubbing  of  noses. 
They  swore  on  a  dagger  with  a  triangular  blade,  with  the 
inscription,  "  Fraternity — Death  to  Traitors — Death  to 
Tyrants,"  faithfully  to  observe  all  the  laws  of  the  society, 
on  pain,  in  case  of  want  of  faith,  to  have  their  hearts  pierced 
with  the  dagger.  Those  who  executed  the  vengeance  of  the 
society  called  themselves  the  Committee  of  Execution.  In 
1849  the  grand  council  of  the  sect  established  a  "  Committee 
of  Stabbers,"  comitato  de  pugnalatori.  The  heads  of  the 
society  were  particular  as  to  whom  they  admitted  into  it; 
the  statutes  say,  "  no  ex-Jesuits,  thieves,  coiners,  and  other 
infamous  persons  are  to  be  initiated."  The  ex- Jesuits  are 
placed  in  good  company  truly  ! 

In  1849  a  society  was  discovered  at  Ancona  calling  itself 
the  "  Company  of  Death,"  and  many  assassinations,  many  of 
them  committed  in  broad  daylight  in  the  streets  of  the  town, 
were  traced  to  its  members.  The  "  Society  of  Slayers," 
Ammazzatori,  at  Leghorn ;  the  "  Infernal  Society,"  at  Sini- 
gaglia ;  the  "  Company  of  Assassins,"  Sicarii,  at  Faenza ; 
the  "Terrorists"  of  Bologna,  were  associations  of  the  same 
stamp.  The  "  Barbers  of  Mazzini,"  at  Rome,  made  it  their 
business  to  "  remove "  priests  who  had  rendered  them- 
selves particularly  obnoxious.  Another  Bolognese  society 
was  that  of  the  "Italian  Conspiracy  of  the  Sons  of 
Death,"  whose  object  was  the  liberation  of  Italy  from 
foreign  sway. 

596.  The  Accoltellatori. — A  secret  society,  non-political, 
was  discovered,  and  many  of  its  members  brought  to  trial,  at 
Ravenna,  in  1874.  Its  existence  had  long  been  surmised, 
but  the  executive  did  not  dare  to  interfere ;  some  private 
persons,  indeed,  tried  to  bring  the  assassins  to  justice,  but 
wherever  they  succeeded  a  speedy  vengeance  was  sure  to 
follow.  To  one  shopkeeper  who  had  been  particularly  active 
a  notice  was  sent  that  his  life  was  forfeited,  and  the  same 
night  a  placard  was  posted  up  upon  the  shutters  of  his  shop 
announcing  that  the  establishment  was  to  be  sold,  as  the 
proprietor  was  going  away.  In  many  cases  there  were 
witnesses  to  the  crimes,  and  yet  they  dared  not  interfere 
nor  give  evidence.  One  of  the  gang  at  last  turned  traitor ; 
he  gave  the  explanation  of  several  "mysterious  disappear- 
ances," and  the  names  of  the  murderers.  The  gang  had 
become  too  numerous,  and  amongst  the  number  there  were 


ANTI-NAPOLEONIC  SOCIETIES  201 

members  whose  fidelity  was  suspected.  It  was  resolved  to 
sacrifice  them.  They  were  watched,  set  upon  and  murdered 
by  their  fellow-accomplices.  This  society  was  known  as  the 
Accoltellatori,  literally  "knifers" — cut-throats.  It  originally 
consisted  of  twelve  members  only,  who  used  to  meet  in  the 
Cafe  Mazzavillani — a  very  appropriate  name;  mazza  means 
a  club  or  bludgeon,  and  villano,  villainous — at  Kavenna, 
where  the  fate  of  their  victims  was  decided.  The  trial 
ended  in  most  of  the  members  being  condemned  to  penal 
servitude. 


VII 
FRENCH  SOCIETIES 


597.  Various  Societies  after  the  Restoration. — One  would 
think  that,  according  to  the  "philosophical"  historians,  no 
nation  ought  to  have  been  more  content  and  happy,  after 
being  delivered  from  their  tyrant  Napoleon,  than  the  French. 
But,  in  accordance  with  what  I  said  in  sect.  519,  no  nation 
had  more  reason  to  be  dissatisfied  and  unhappy  through  the 
restoration  of  a  king  "  by  grace  of  God  "  and  "  right  divine." 
Draconian  statutes  were  promulgated  by  the  Chambers,  the 
mere  tools  of  Louis  XVIII.,  which  led  to  the  formation  of  a 
secret  society  called  the  "Associated  Patriots,"  whose  chief 
scenes  of  operation  were  in  the  south  of  France.  But 
Government  had  its  spies  everywhere;  many  members  of 
the  society  were  arrested  and  sentenced  to  various  terms  of 
imprisonment.  Three  leaders,  Pleignier,  a  writing-master, 
Carbonneau,  a  leather-cutter,  and  Tolleron,  an  engraver, 
were  sentenced  to  death,  led  to  the  place  of  execution  with 
their  faces  concealed  by  black  veils,  as  parricides  were 
formerly  executed,  and  before  their  heads  were  cut  off,  their 
right  hands  were  severed  from  their  arms — for  had  they  not 
raised  them  against  their  father,  the  king?  The  conspiracy 
of  the  Associated  Patriots  collapsed.  But  other  societies 
arose.  In  1820  the  society  of  the  "  Friends  of  Truth,"  con- 
sisting of  medical  students  and  shopmen,  was  established  in 
Paris,  but  was  soon  suppressed  by  the  Government.  The 
leading  members  made  their  escape  to  Italy,  and  on  their 
return  to  France  founded  a  Carbonaro  society,  the  leader- 
ship of  which  was  given  to  General  Lafayette.  It  made  two 
attempts  to  overthrow  the  Government,  one  at  Belfort,  and 
another  at  La  Kochelle,  but  both  were  unsuccessful,  and  the 
Carbonaro  society  was  dissolved.  The  society  of  the  "  Shirt- 
less," founded  by  a  Frenchman  of  the  name  of  Manuel,  who 
invoked  Sampson,  as  the  symbol  of  strength,  had  but  a  very 
short  existence.  That  of  the  "  Spectres  meeting  in  a  Tomb," 
which  existed  in  1822,  and  whose  object  was  the  overthrow  of 


FEENCH  SOCIETIES  203 

the  Bourbons,  also  came  to  a  speedy  end.  The  "  New  Re- 
form of  France,"  and  the  "  Provinces,"  which  were  probably 
founded  in  1820,  only  admitted  members  already  initiated 
into  Carbonarism,  Freemasonry,  the  European  Patriots, 
or  the  Greeks  in  Solitude.  A  mixture  of  many  sects,  they 
condensed  the  hatred  of  many  ages  and  many  orders  against 
tyranny,  and  prescribed  the  following  oath :  "  I,  M.  N., 
promise  and  swear  to  be  the  eternal  enemy  of  tyrants,  to 
entertain  undying  hatred  against  them,  and,  when  oppor- 
tunity offers,  to  slay  them."  In  their  succinct  catechism 
were  the  following  passages  :  "  Who  art  thou  ? "  "  Thy 
friend." — "  How  knowest  thou  me  ?  "  "  By  the  weight  press- 
ing on  thy  brow,  on  which  I  read  written  in  letters  of  blood, 
To  conquer  or  die." — "What  wilt  thou?"  "Destroy  the 
thrones  and  raise  up  gibbets." — "By  what  right?"  "By 
that  of  nature." — "For  what  purpose?"  "To  acquire  the 
glorious  name  of  citizen." — "And  wilt  thou  risk  thy  life?" 
"  I  value  life  less  than  liberty." 

Another  sect  was  that  of  the  "  New  French  Liberals," 
which  existed  but  a  short  time.  It  was  composed  of  but  few 
members  ;  they,  however,  were  men  of  some  standing,  chiefly 
such  as  had  occupied  high  positions  under  Napoleon.  They 
looked  to  America  for  assistance.  They  wore  a  small  black 
ribbon  attached  to  their  watches,  with  a  gold  seal,  a  piece  of 
coral,  and  an  iron  or  steel  ring.  The  ribbon  symbolised  the 
eternal  hatred  of  the  free  for  oppressors ;  the  coral,  their 
American  hopes;  the  ring,  the  weapon  to  destroy  their 
enemies :  and  the  gold  seal,  abundance  of  money  as  a  means 
of  success. 

After  the  July  revolution  in  1830,  the  students  of  the 
Quartier  Latin  formed  the  society  of  "  Order  and  Progress," 
each  student  being,  in  furtherance  of  these  objects,  provided 
with  a  rifle  and  fifty  cartridges.  And  if  they  nevertheless 
did  not  distinguish  themselves,  they  afforded  the  Parisians  a 
new  sensation.  About  three  o'clock  on  the  afternoon  of  the 
4th  January  1831,  the  booming  of  the  great  bell  of  Notre 
Dame  was  heard,  and  one  of  the  towers  of  the  cathedral  was 
seen  to  be  on  fire.  The  police,  who,  though  forewarned  of 
the  intended  attempt,  had  taken  no  precautionary  measures, 
speedily  made  their  way  into  the  building,  put  out  the  fire, 
and  arrested  six  individuals,  young  men,  nineteen  or  twenty 
years  old,  and  their  leader,  a  M.  Considere.  The  young 
men  were  acquitted,  Considere  was  sentenced  to  five  years' 
imprisonment.  And  thus  ended  this  farcical  insurrection. 

Another  association,  called  the  "  Society  of  Schools,"  ad- 


204  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

vocated  the  abolition  of  the  universities  and  the  throwing 
open  of  all  instruction  to  the  public  gratuitously.  The 
"  Constitutional  Society,"  directed  by  a  man  who  had  power- 
fully supported  the  candidature  of  the  Duke  of  Orleans, 
Cauchois-Lemaire,  insisted  on  the  suppression  of  monopolies, 
the  more  equal  levy  of  taxes,  electoral  reform,  and  the  aboli- 
tion of  the  dignity  of  the  peerage.  The  "  Friends  of  the 
People "  was  another  political  society,  one  section  of  which, 
called  the  "  Rights  of  Man,"  adopted  for  its  text-book  the 
"Declaration  of  the  Rights  of  Man"  by  Robespierre,  and 
drew  to  itself  many  minor  societies,  too  numerous,  and  in 
most  cases  too  unimportant,  to  be  mentioned.  Their  efforts 
ended  in  the  useless  insurrection  of  Lyons  on  the  I3th  and 
1 4th  April  1834. 

598.  The  Acting  Company. — But  a  separate  corps  of  the 
Rights  of  Man,  selected  from  among  all  the  members,  was 
formed  and  called  the  Acting  Company,  under  the  command 
of  Captain  Kersausie,  a  rich  nobleman  with  democratic  pre- 
dilections. On  certain  days  the  loungers  on  the  boulevards 
would  notice  a  crowd  of  silent  promenaders  whom  an  un- 
known object  seemed  to  draw  together.  No  one  understood 
the  matter  except  the  police ;  the  chief  of  the  Acting  Com- 
pany was  reviewing  his  forces.  Accompanied  by  one  or  two 
adjutants  he  would  accost  the  chief  of  a  group,  whom  he 
recognised  by  a  sign,  hold  a  short  conversation  with  him,  and 
pass  on  to  another ;  the  police  agents  would  follow,  see  him 
enter  a  carriage,  which  was  kept  in  waiting,  drive  up  to  a 
house  which  had  a  back  way  out,  whence  he  would  gain  one 
of  his  own — for  he  had  several — residences,  and  keep  in- 
doors for  three  or  four  days. 

The  Rights  of  Man  society  arranged  the  plot,  proposed 
by  Fieschi,  to  assassinate  the  king,  Louis  Philippe,  on  the 
28th  July  1835.  Delahodde,  the  police  spy,  in  his  Memoirs, 
says  that  by  the  imprudence  of  one  of  the  conspirators, 
Boireau,  the  police  obtained  a  hint  of  what  was  intended, 
but  that  it  was  so  vague,  that  it  could  not  be  acted  on. 
This  is  evidently  said  to  screen  the  police,  for  on  the  trial 
of  Fieschi  and  the  other  conspirators,  it  was  proved  that  on 
the  morning  of  the  attempt  Boireau  had  sent  a  letter — 
doing  which  was  not  a  mere  imprudence — to  the  Prefect 
of  Police,  giving  full  information  as  to  the  means  to  be 
employed,  the  individuals  engaged  in  the  plot,  and  the  very 
house  in  which  the  infernal  machine  was  placed — all  which 
was  more  than  a  mere  hint — but  the  letter  was  thrown  aside 
by  the  Prefect  as  not  worth  reading!  The  failure  of  the 


FRENCH  SOCIETIES  205 

attempt  broke  up  the  society  of  the  Rights  of  Man,  but  the 
remnants  thereof  formed  themselves  in  the  same  year  into 
a  new  society,  called  the  "  Families,"  under  the  leadership 
of  Blanqui  and  Barbes.  Admission  to  this  new  society  was 
attended  with  all  the  mummery  and  mystification  considered 
necessary  to  form  an  orthodox  initiation.  Its  object,  of 
course,  was  the  overthrow  of  the  monarchical  government 
and  the  establishment  of  a  republic ;  but  the  society  having 
in  1836  been  discovered  and  suppressed,  many  of  its  leaders 
being  sent  to  prisons,  the  members  who  remained  at  liberty 
reconstituted  themselves  into  a  new  society,  called  the 
"  Seasons,"  into  the  meeting- place  of  which  the  candidate 
was  led  blindfolded,  and  swore  death  to  all  kings,  aristo- 
crats, and  other  oppressors  of  mankind,  and  to  sacrifice  his 
own  life,  if  needful,  in  the  cause.  On  the  I2th  May  the 
"  Seasons,"  led  by  Blanqui  and  Barbes,  rose  in  insurrection, 
but  were  defeated  by  the  Government.  Blanqui  was  sen- 
tenced to  be  transported,  and  Barb&s  condemned  to  death ; 
the  king,  however,  commuted  the  sentence  of  the  latter  to 
imprisonment.  After  a  time  the  "  Seasons"  were  reorganised, 
and  about  1840,  Communism  first  began  to  be  active  in 
Paris,  and  various  attempts  were  made  against  the  king's 
life.  Considering  the  number  of  police  spies  in  the  pay 
of  Government,  it  is  surprising  that  secret  societies  should 
have  continued  to  flourish,  and  should  at  last  have  succeeded 
in  overthrowing  the  throne  of  Louis  Philippe.  The  spies 
would  get  themselves  introduced  into  the  secret  societies, 
and  then  betray  them.  One  of  the  most  notorious  of  these 
spies  was  Lucien  Delahodde,  who  sent  his  reports  to  Govern- 
ment under  the  pseudonym  of  "Pierre."  When,  in  con- 
sequence of  the  revolution  of  1848,  "Citizen"  Caussidiere 
became  Prefect  of  Police,  and  overhauled  the  secret  archives 
of  that  department,  he  found  voluminous  papers,  containing 
more  than  a  thousand  informations,  signed  "  Pierre,"  proving 
that  the  writer  had  got  hold  of  all  the  secrets  of  the  "  Rights 
of  Man,"  the  "Families"  (though  strong  suspicion  rests 
on  Blanqui  of  having  supplied  the  Minister  of  the  Interior 
with  a  secret  report  on  the  latter,  when  under  sentence  of 
death),  the  "  Seasons,"  and  sold  them  to  the  Government. 
But  who  was  this  Pierre?  Unluckily  for  himself  Lucien 
Delahodde,  or  Pierre  himself,  wrote  a  letter  to  Caussidiere, 
asking  to  be  employed  in  the  police.  Caussidiere  was 
struck  by  the  writing,  compared  it  with  that  of  the  secret 
reports,  and  found  it  to  be  identical.  Delahodde  was  invited 
to  meet  Caussidiere  at  the  Luxembourg,  where  he  was  made 


206  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

to  confess,  and  declare  in  writing,  that  he  was  the  author 
of  all  the  reports  signed  "  Pierre."  Some  members  of  the 
provisional  government  were  for  shooting  him,  but  he  got 
off  with  a  few  months'  imprisonment  in  the  Conciergerie. 
On  recovering  his  liberty  Delahodde  went  to  London,  where 
he  published  a  small  journal,  attacking  the  Republic  and  the 
Republicans. 

599.  The  Communistic  societies  of  the  Travailleurs  jfiyali- 
taires  and  Communistes  lUoolutionnaires  introduced  some  of 
their  members  into  the  provisional  government  that  preceded 
the  accession  of  Louis  Napoleon ;  and  their  influence  even  to 
the  present  day  is  too  notorious  to  need  specification  here. 
The  "Mountaineers,"  or  "Reds  of  the  Mountain,"  a  revival 
of  the  name  given  during  the   French   Revolution  to  the 
leaders  of  the  Jacobins,  was  one  of  the  societies  that  brought 
about  the  events  of  1848.     According  to  the  Univers  of  the 
2nd  February  1852,  they  swore  on  a  dagger,  "I  swear  by 
this  steel,  the  symbol  of  honour,  to  combat  and  destroy  all 
political,  religious,  and  social  tyrannies."     Secret  societies 
continued  to  play  at  hide-and-seek  after  the  accession  of 
Louis  Napoleon,  but  were  not  immediately  put  down,  though 
he  issued  the  most  severe  prohibitions  against  them,  and  the 
members   who  could  be  apprehended  were  condemned  to 
transportation  to  Cayenne  or  Algiers ;   they  continued  to 
exist  for  some  years  after  the  coup  d'etat. 

600.  Causes  of  Secret  Societies  in  France. — The  succession 
of    secret   associations   against   the   government    of    Louis 
Philippe  is  not  to  be  wondered  at.     The  king  himself  was 
solely  bent  on  the  aggrandisement   of   his   own   dynasty, 
either  by  foreign  marriages,  or  conferring  on  the  members 
of  his  own  family  every  office  in  the  state  which  could  secure 
the  paramount  power  in  directing  the  destinies  of  France. 
The  princes  had  re-established  the  orgies  of  the  Regency ; 
the  court,  the  ministers,  the  aristocrats,  the  inferior  func- 
tionaries made  the  public  offices  and  national  institutions 
the  objects  of  shameful  corruption ;  the  deputies  speculated 
with  their  political  functions ;  peers  of  France  patronised 
gambling  in  the  funds  and  railway  scrip  ;  princes,  ministers, 
ambassadors,  and  other  personages  in  high  positions  were 
constantly  making  their  appearance  in  the  assize  courts  and 
found  guilty  of  swindling,  forgery,  rape,  and  murder ;  com- 
mercial and  manufacturing  interests  were  fearfully  depressed, 
hence  the  frequent  risings  of  the  working  classes ;  hence 
secret  associations  to  put  an  end  to  this  rotten  condition 
of  society. 


VIII 
POLISH  SOCIETIES 

60 1.  Polish  Patriotism. — It  is  the  fashion  to  express  great 
sympathy  with  the  Poles  and  a  corresponding  degree  of 
indignation  against  Russia,  Austria,  and  Prussia;  the  Poles 
are  looked  upon  as  a  patriotic  race,  oppressed  by  their  more 
powerful  neighbours.  But  all  this  rests  on  mere  misappre- 
hension and  ignorance  of  facts.  The  Polish  people  under 
their  native  rulers  were  abject  serfs.  The  aristocracy  were 
everything,  and  possessed  everything ;  the  people  possessed 
nothing,  not  even  political  or  civil  rights,  when  these  clashed 
with  the  whims  or  interests  of  the  nobles.  It  is  these  last 
whose  power  has  been  overthrown — it  is  they  who  make  war 
on  and  conspire  against  Russia,  to  recover  (as  is  admitted  by 
some  of  their  own  writers)  their  ancient  privileges  over  their 
own  countrymen,  who  blindly,  like  most  nations,  allow  them- 
selves to  be  slaughtered  for  the  benefit  of  those  who  only  seek 
again  to  rivet  on  the  limbs  of  their  dupes  the  chains  which 
have  been  broken.  It  is  like  the  French  and  Spaniards  and 
Neapolitans  fighting  against  their  deliverer  Napoleon,  to 
bring  back  the  Bourbon  tyrants,  and  with  them  the  people's 
political  nullity,  clerical  intolerance,  lettres  de  cachet,  and  the 
Inquisition.  How  John  Bull  has  been  gulled  by  these  Polish 
patriots !  Many  of  them  were  criminals  of  all  kinds,  who 
succeeded  in  breaking  out  of  prison,  or  escaping  before  they 
could  be  captured ;  and,  managing  to  come  over  to  this  coun- 
try, have  here  called  themselves  political  fugitives,  victims 
of  Russian  persecution,  and  have  lived  luxuriously  on  the 
credulity  of  Englishmen!  Moreover,  the  documents  pub- 
lished by  Adolf  Beer  from  the  Vienna,  and  by  Max  Duncker 
from  the  Berlin  archives  (1874),  show  that  the  statement  of 
Frederick  the  Great,  that  the  partition  of  Poland  was  the  only 
way  of  avoiding  a  great  European  war,  was  perfectly  true. 

602.  Various  Revolutionary  Sects. — One  of  the  first  societies 
formed  in  Poland  to  organise  the  revolutionary  forces  of  the 
country  was  that  of  the  "True  Poles";  but,  consisting  of 


208 


SECRET  SOCIETIES 


few  persons  only,  it  did  not  last  long.  In  1818  another 
sect  arose,  that  of  "National  Freemasonry,"  which  borrowed 
the  rites,  degrees,  and  language  of  Freemasonry,  but  aimed 
at  national  independence.  The  society  was  open  to  persons 
of  all  classes,  but  sought  chiefly  to  enlist  soldiers  and  officials, 
so  as  to  turn  their  technical  knowledge  to  account  in  the  day 
of  the  struggle.  But  though  numerous,  the  society  lasted 
only  a  few  years ;  for  disunion  arose  among  the  members, 
and  it  escaped  total  dissolution  only  by  transformation.  It 
altered  its  rites  and  ceremonies,  and  henceforth  called  itself 
the  "Scythers,"  in  remembrance  of  the  revolution  of  1794, 
in  which  whole  regiments,  armed  with  scythes,  had  gone 
into  battle.  They  met  in  1821  at  Warsaw,  and  drew  up 
a  new  revolutionary  scheme,  adopting  at  the  same  time  the 
new  denomination  of  "  Patriotic  Society."  In  the  mean- 
while the  students  of  the  University  of  Wilna  had  formed 
themselves  into  a  secret  society ;  which,  however,  was  dis- 
covered by  the  Russian  Government  and  dissolved.  In 
1822  the  Patriotic  Society  combined  with  the  masonic 
rite  of  "Modern  Templars,"  founded  in  Poland  by  Captain 
Maiewski ;  to  the  three  rites  of  symbolical  masonry  was 
added  a  fourth,  in  which  the  initiated  swore  to  do  all  in  his 
power  towards  the  liberation  of  his  country.  These  com- 
bined societies  brought  about  the  insurrection  of  1830.  In 
1834  was  established  the  society  of  "Young  Poland";  one 
of  its  most  distinguished  members  and  chiefs  being  Simon 
Konarski,  who  had  already  distinguished  himself  in  the  insur- 
rection of  1830.  He  then  made  his  escape,  and  in  order 
better  to  conceal  himself  learned  the  art  of  watchmaking. 
Having  returned  to  Poland  and  joined  "  Young  Poland," 
he  was  discovered  in  1838,  and  subjected  to  the  torture  to 
extort  from  him  the  names  of  his  accomplices.  But  no 
revelations  could  be  obtained  from  him,  and  he  bore  his 
sufferings  with  such  courage  that  the  military  governor  of 
Wilna  exclaimed,  "  This  is  a  man  of  iron ! "  A  Russian 
officer  offered  to  assist  him  in  escaping,  and  being  detected, 
was  sent  to  the  Caucasian  army  for  life.  Konarski  was 
executed  in  1839,  the  people  tearing  his  clothes  to  pieces 
to  possess  a  relic  of  him.  The  chains  he  had  been  loaded 
with  were  formed  into  rings  and  worn  by  his  admirers. 
Men  like  these  redeem  the  sins  of  many  so-called  "Polish 
patriots." 

603.  Secret  National  Government. — Some  time  before  the 
outbreak  of  the  Crimean  war  a  secret  national  government 
was  formed  in  Poland,  of  course  with  the  object  of  organising 


POLISH  SOCIETIES  209 

an  insurrection  against  Russia.  Little  was  known  for  a 
long  time  about  their  proceedings.  Strange  stories  were 
circulated  of  midnight  meetings  in  subterranean  passages ; 
of  traitors  condemned  by  courts  composed  of  masked  and 
hooded  judges,  from  whose  sentence  there  was  no  appeal 
and  no  escape ;  of  domiciliary  visits  from  which  neither  the 
palace  nor  the  hovel  was  exempt ;  and  of  corpses  found 
nightly  in  the  most  crowded  streets  of  the  city,  or  on  the 
loneliest  wastes  of  the  open  country,  the  dagger  which 
had  killed  the  victim  bearing  a  label  stamped  with  the 
well-known  device  of  the  insurrectionary  committee.  So 
perfectly  was  the  secret  of  the  modern  Vehmgericht  kept 
that  the  Russian  police  were  completely  baffled  in  their 
attempts  to  discover  its  members.  At  that  period  the  Poles 
were  divided  into  two  parties,  the  "  whites  "  and  the  "  reds"  ; 
the  former  representing  the  aristocratic,  the  latter  the  demo- 
cratic element  of  the  nation.  Each  had  its  own  organisation. 
The  whites  were  mostly  in  favour  of  strictly  constitutional 
resistance ;  the  reds  were  for  open  rebellion  and  an  imme- 
diate appeal  to  arms.  But  a  union  was  brought  about  be- 
tween the  two  parties  in  consequence  of  the  conscription 
introduced  by  Russia  into  Poland  in  1863,  which  set  fire  to 
the  train  of  rebellion  that  had  so  long  been  preparing.  But 
Langiewicz,  the  Polish  leader,  having  been  defeated,  the 
movements  of  the  insurgents  in  the  open  field  were  arrested  ; 
though  the  rebellion  was  prolonged  in  other  ways,  chiefly 
with  a  view  of  inducing  the  Western  Powers  to  interfere  in 
behalf  of  Poland.  But  these  naturally  thought  that  as  the 
Polish  people,  the  peasantry,  had  taken  very  little  share 
in  the  insurrection,  and  as  Alexander  II.  had  really  intro- 
duced a  series  of  reforms  which  materially  improved  the 
position  of  his  Polish  subjects,  there  was  no  justification  for 
the  outbreak ;  and  therefore  justice  was  allowed  to  take  its 
course.  Subsequent  attempts  at  insurrection,  with  a  view 
to  re-establish  the  independence  of  Poland,  were  defeated 
by  the  action  of  Italian  and  other  revolutionary  sects,  be- 
cause, as  Petrucelli  della  Gatina  declared  in  the  Chamber  of 
Deputies  at  Turin  in  1864,  the  Poles,  being  Roman  Catholics, 
would,  immediately  on  their  emancipation,  throw  themselves 
at  the  feet  of  the  pope  and  offer  him  their  swords,  blood, 
and  fortunes.  These  revolutionists  are  far  more  astute  than 
our  beloved  diplomatists. 


VOL.  II. 


IX 
THE  OMLADINA 

604.  The  Panslavists. — The  desire  of  the  Sclavonic  races, 
comprising  Bohemians,  Moravians,  Silesians,  Poles,  Croats, 
Servians,  and  Dalmatians,  to  be  united  into  one  grand  con- 
federation, is  of  ancient  date.  It  was  encouraged  by  Russia 
as  early  as  the  days  of  Catherine  II.  and  of  Alexander  I.,  who, 
as  well  as  their  successors,  hoped  to  secure  for  themselves 
the  hegemony  in  this  confederation.  But  the  Sclavonians 
dreaded  the  supremacy  of  Russia,  and  in  the  earlier  days 
the  Sclavonian  writers  subject  to  Austria  wished  to  give  the 
proposed  Panslavist  movement  the  appearance  more  of  an 
intellectual  and  literary,  than  of  a  political  and  social  league. 
But  the  European  revolution  of  1848  infused  a  purely 
political  tendency  into  Panslavist  ideas,  which  already  in 
June  of  the  above  year  led  to  a  Sclavonic-democratic  insur- 
rection at  Prague,  which,  however,  was  speedily  put  down, 
Prince  Windischgratz  bombarding  the  town  during  two 
days.  The  further  progress  of  the  Panslavistic  movement 
is  matter  of  public  history;  but  a  society  arose  out  of  the 
Sclavonic  races,  whose  doings  have  of  late  been  brought  into 
prominence ;  this  society  is  the  Omladina.  The  exact  date 
of  the  origin  of  this  society  is  not  at  present  known  ;  probably 
it  arose  at  the  time  when  the  Italian  party  of  action,  led 
by  Mazzini,  about  1863,  attempted,  by  assisting  the  so-called 
national  party  of  Servia,  Montenegro,  and  Roumania,  to 
cripple  Austria  in  Italy,  and  so  render  the  recovery  of  the 
Venetian  territory  more  easy.  Simon  Deutsch,  a  Jew,  who 
had  been  expelled  from  Austria  for  his  revolutionary  ideas, 
and  afterwards,  on  the  same  grounds,  from  Constantinople, 
who  was  the  friend  of  Gambetta,  an  agent  of  the  International, 
and  of  "  Young  Turkey,"  was  one  of  the  most  active  members 
of  the  society,  whose  inner  organisation  was  known  as  the 
Society  Slovanska  Liga,  the  Slav  Limetree.  This  latter, 
however,  did  not  attract  the  attention  of  the  authorities  till 
1876,  when  its  chief,  Miletich,  a  member  of  the  Hungarian 


THE  OMLADINA  211 

Diet,  was  arrested  at  Nensalz.  But  the  society  continued 
to  exist,  and  occasionally  gave  signs  of  life,  as,  for  instance, 
in  1882,  when  it  seriously  talked  of  deposing  the  Prince  of 
Montenegro,  and  electing  Menotti  Garibaldi  perpetual  presi- 
dent of  the  federation  of  the  Western  Balkans.  At  last, 
in  January  1894,  seventy-seven  members  of  the  Omladina, 
including  journalists,  printers,  clerks,  and  artisans,  mostly 
very  young  men,  were  put  on  their  trial  at  Prague  for  being 
members  of  a  secret  society,  and  guilty  of  high  treason. 
When  the  arrests  began,  one  Mrva,  better  known  as  Rigoletto 
di  Toscana,  was  assassinated  by  Dolezal,  who  afterwards  was 
seized,  and  was  one  of  the  accused  included  in  the  prosecu- 
tion. This  Mrva  had  been  a  member  of  the  Omladina,  and 
was  said  to  be  a  police  spy.  He  made  careful  notes  of  all 
the  proceedings  of  the  society,  as  also  of  another  with  which 
he  was  connected,  and  which  was  called  "  Subterranean 
Prague,"  the  object  of  which  was  to  undermine  the  houses 
of  rich  men,  with  a  view  to  robbing  them.  His  papers  and 
pocket-books,  which  after  his  death  fell  into  the  hands  of 
the  police,  served  largely  in  drawing  up  the  indictment 
against  the  Omladina.  The  result  of  the  trial,  ended  on  the 
2 1  st  February  1 894,  was  that  all  the  prisoners  but  two  were 
convicted  and  sentenced  to  terms  of  imprisonment  ranging 
from  seven  months  to  eight  years.  Whether  the  Omladina 
is  killed  or  only  scotched,  remains  to  be  seen ;  probably  it 
is  the  latter,  for  the  Panslavic  movement  it  represents  is 
alive,  and  will  some  day  lead  to  the  solution  of  the  Eastern 
question.  For  Panslavism — of  which  the  Omladina  was  tho 
outcome — means  Muscovite  patriotism,  and  its  war-cry, 
"Up  against  the  unbelieving  Turkish  dogs!"  finds  an  echo 
in  all  Kussia ;  and  though  the  Berlin  Congress  has  for  a  timo 
checked  the  progress  of  Panslavism,  yet,  as  we  said  above,  it 
is  alive. 


TURKISH    SOCIETIES 

605.  Young  Turkey. — The  vivifying  wave  of  revolutionary 
ideas  which  swept  over  Europe  in  the  first  half  of  this  cen- 
tury extended  even  to  Turkey,  and,  in  imitation  of  its  effects 
in  other  countries,  produced  a  Young  Turkey,  as  it  had  pro- 
duced a  Young  Germany,  a  Young  Poland,  a  Young  Italy, 
and  so  on.     Mr.  David  Urquhart,  as  violent  a  Turcophile  as 
he  was  a  Russophobe,  attributed  to  Moustapha  Fazyl-Pacha, 
whom  he  calls  a  Turkish  "Catiline,"  the  doubtful  honour 
of  having  been  the  founder  of  Young  Turkey,  whose  aims 
were  the  abolition  of  the  Koran  and  of  the  Sultan's  authority, 
the  emancipation,  in  fact,  of  Turkey  from  religious  and  civil 
despotism.     The  society  did  not  make  much  progress  in  the 
earlier  half  of  the  century,  hence,  in  1 867,  a  new  association 
with  the  same  title,  and  under  the  same  chief,  was  formed 
at  Constantinople,  Paris,  and  London.     Its  objects  were  the 
same  as  those  of  the  first  society,  with  the  additional  aim  of 
destroying  Russian  influence  in  the  East  by  the  emancipation 
of  the  Christian  subjects  of  the  Porte.     The  members  of  the 
directing  committee  in  Paris  and  London  were  Zia  Bey, 
A  ghia-Eff endi,  Count  Plater,  a  Pole,  living  at  Zurich,  Kemal 
Bey,  and  Simon  Deutsch.    The  chief  agent  of  the  committee 
at  Constantinople  was  M.  Bonnal,  a  French  banker  at  Pera. 
Moustapha  Pacha  agreed  to  contribute  annually  three  hun- 
dred thousand  francs  to  the  funds  of  the  association.    Murad 
Bey,  the  brother  of  the  present  Sultan,  is  now  the  leader  of 
the  Young  Turkey  party,  of  which  Midhat  Pacha  was  a 
prominent  member.     Murad  Bey  attributes  to  the  Sultan 
himself  and  the  palace  camarilla  all  the  evils  from  which  the 
country  is  now  suffering. 

606.  Armenian  Society. — We  shall  see  further  on  (637) 
that  the  Armenians  of  Russia  formed  a  secret  society  against 
that  country  in  1888  ;  recent  events  (1896)  have  prominently 
brought  before  Europe  the  existence  in  Turkey  of  Armenian 
societies.     They  are  organised  in  the  same  way  as  the  old 
venditas  of  the  Carbonari ;  that  is  to  say,  the  committees  do 
not  know  one  another,  nor  even  the  central  committee  from 
which  they  receive  orders.     They  number  five,  and  comprise 
altogether  about  two  hundred  members.     Each  committee 


TURKISH  SOCIETIES  213 

has  a  significant  name.  They  are  called  Huntchak  (Alarm), 
Frochak  (Flag),  Abdag  (Bellows),  Gaizag  (Thunderbolt),  and 
Votchintchak  (Destruction).  The  last  two  are  the  most  re- 
cently created.  The  committees  act  according  to  a  plan  fixed 
by  the  occult  central  committee.  Thus  the  Huntchak  orga- 
nised the  demonstration  in  1895  at  the  Porte,  while  the 
attack  on  the  Ottoman  Bank  (1896)  devolved  on  the  Frochak 
committee.  There  remain  three,  who  will  have  to  act  suc- 
cessively. In  the  following  month  of  October  the  Armenian 
revolutionary  leaders  sent  a  letter  to  the  French  Embassy  at 
Constantinople,  threatening  further  outrages.  The  latest 
detailed  account  of  the  society,  published  in  December  1896, 
says  :  The  discovery  of  seditious  papers  found  in  the  posses- 
sion of  Armenian  conspirators,  when  arrested  in  December 
1896  at  Kara  Hissar  Charki,  reveals  all  the  details  of  the 
revolutionary  programme,  circulated  by  the  leaders  of  the  in- 
surrection, and  imposed  on  their  adherents.  The  programme 
includes  thirty-one  draconic  rules,  to  which  the  members  of 
the  numerous  Armenian  bands  have  to  submit.  For  instance, 
each  band  must  be  composed  of  at  least  seven  members,  who 
take  an  oath  that  they  will  submit  to  torture,  and  even  to 
death,  rather  than  betray  the  secrets  of  the  society.  By  Rule 
14  the  band  is  ordered  to  carry  off  into  the  mountains  any 
unjust  or  cruel  Ottoman  official,  to  compel  him  to  reveal  any 
State  secret  which  he  may  possess,  and  even  to  put  him  to 
death.  Rule  1 5  authorises  the  band  to  attack  and  plunder 
the  mails  and  couriers,  but  it  must  not  assail  any  person 
found  travelling  alone  on  the  roads,  unless  it  is  absolutely 
necessary  in  the  interest  of  the  band  to  do  so.  Any  member 
showing  cowardice,  when  fighting,  is  to  be  shot  at  once.  The 
chief  is  the  absolute  master  of  the  band,  and  may  punish 
as  he  chooses  any  member  with  whom  he  is  dissatisfied. 
Amongst  some  of  the  most  stringent  clauses  is  one  which 
orders  the  members  to  act  as  spies  upon  each  other,  and  to 
report  to  the  chief  all  the  doings  and  movements  of  one 
another.  One  of  the  characteristic  features  of  the  Armenian 
revolution  is  the  use  of  numerous  disguises,  which  enable 
them  to  go  secretly  through  towns  and  circulate  arms  and 
seditious  literature,  pamphlets,  and  even  pictures,  with  the 
view  of  inciting  the  Armenian  population  against  the  Im- 
perial Government.  The  English  agitation  of  the  present 
day  in  favour  of  the  Armenians  shows  the  crass  ignorance 
existing  in  this  country  as  to  the  true  character  of  that  people. 
If  the  Armenians  were  worthy  of,  or  fit  for,  the  liberty  they 
claim,  they  would  do  as  the  Swiss — a  poor  nation,  whilst  the 
Armenians  are  rich — did  five  hundred  years  ago  in  fighting 
Austria — they  would  fight  Turkey. 


XI 
THE  UNION   OF  SAFETY 

607.  Historical  Sketch  of  Society. — Russia  has  ever  been  a 
hotbed  of  secret  societies,  but  to  within  very  recent  times 
such  societies  were  purely  local ;  the  Russian  people  might 
revolt  against  some  local  oppression,  or  some  subaltern  tyrant, 
but  they  never  rose  against  the  emperor,  they  never  took  up 
arms  for  a  political  question.  Whatever  secret  associations 
were  formed  in  that  country,  moreover,  were  formed  by  the 
aristocracy,  and  many  of  them  were  of  the  most  innocent 
nature  ;  it  was  at  one  time  almost  fashionable  to  belong  to 
such  a  society,  as  there  are  people  now  who  fancy  it  an 
honour  to  be  a  Freemason.  But  after  the  wars  of  Napoleon, 
the  sectarian  spirit  spread  into  Russia.  Some  of  the  officers 
of  the  Russian  army,  after  their  campaigns  in  Central  Europe, 
on  their  return  to  their  native  country  felt  their  own  degrada- 
tion and  the  oppression  under  which  they  existed,  and  con- 
ceived the  desire  to  free  themselves  from  the  same.  In  1822 
the  then  government  of  Russia  issued  a  decree,  prohibiting 
the  formation  of  a  new,  or  the  continuance  of  old,  secret 
societies.  The  decree  embraced  the  masonic  lodges.  Every 
employe  of  the  State  was  obliged  to  declare  on  oath  that  he 
belonged  to  no  secret  society  within  or  without  the  empire  ; 
or,  if  he  did,  had  immediately  to  break  off  all  connection 
with  them,  on  pain  of  dismissal.  The  decree  was  executed 
with  great  rigour ;  the  furniture  of  the  masonic  lodges  was 
sold  in  the  open  streets,  so  as  to  expose  the  mysteries  of 
masonry  to  ridicule.  When  the  State  began  to  prohibit  secret 
societies,  it  was  time  to  form  some  in  right  earnest.  Alex- 
ander Mouravief  founded  the  Union  of  Safety,  whose  rites 
and  ceremonies  were  chiefly  masonic — frightful  oaths, daggers, 
and  poison  figuring  largely  therein.  It  was  composed  of  three 
classes — Brethren,  Men,  and  Boyards.  The  chiefs  were  taken 
from  the  last  class.  The  denomination  of  the  last  degree 
shows  how  much  the  aristocratic  element  predominated  in 
the  association,  which  led,  in  fact,  to  the  formation  of  a 


THE  UNION  OF  SAFETY  215 

society  still  more  aristocratic,  that  of  the  "  Russian  Knights," 
which  aimed  at  obtaining  for  the  Russian  people  a  constitu- 
tional charter,  and  counteracting  the  secret  societies  of 
Poland,  whose  object  was  to  restore  Poland  to  its  ancient 
state,  that  is  to  say,  absolutism  on  the  part  of  the  nobles, 
and  abject  slavery  on  the  part  of  the  people.  The  two  socie- 
ties eventually  coalesced  into  one,  under  the  denomination 
of  the  "  Union  for  the  Public  Weal " ;  but,  divided  in  its 
counsels,  it  was  dissolved  in  1821,  and  a  new  society  formed 
under  the  title  of  the  "  Union  of  the  Boyards."  The  pro- 
gramme of  this  union  at  first  was  to  reduce  the  imperial 
power  to  a  level  with  that  of  the  President  of  the  United 
States,  and  to  form  the  empire  into  a  federation  of  provinces. 
But  gradually  their  views  became  more  advanced ;  a  republic 
was  proposed,  and  the  emperor,  Alexander  I.,  was  to  be  put 
to  death.  The  more  moderate  and  respectable  members 
withdrew  from  the  society,  and  after  a  short  time  it  was 
dissolved,  and  its  papers  and  documents  carefully  burnt. 
The  revolutions  of  Spain,  Naples,  and  Upper  Italy  led 
Pestel,  a  man  who  had  been  a  member  of  all  the  formei 
secret  societies,  to  form  a  new  one,  with  the  view  of  turning 
Russia  into  a  republic ;  the  death  of  Alexander  again  formed 
part  of  the  scheme.  But  circumstances  were  not  favour- 
able to  the  conspirators,  and  the  project  fell  to  the  ground. 
Another  society,  called  the  North,  sprang  into  existence,  of 
which  Pestel  again  was  the  leading  spirit.  In  1824,  the 
"  Union  of  the  Boyards  "  heard  of  the  existence  of  the  Polish 
Patriotic  Society.  It  was  determined  to  invite  their  co- 
operation. The  terms  were  speedily  arranged.  The  Boyards 
bound  themselves  to  acknowledge  the  independence  of 
Poland ;  and  the  Poles  promised  to  entertain  or  amuse  the 
Archduke  Constantine  at  Warsaw  whilst  the  devolution  was 
being  accomplished  in  Russia.  Both  countries  were  to  adopt 
the  republican  form  of  government.  This  latter  condition, 
however,  made  by  the  Poles,  displeased  the  Boyards,  who, 
themselves  lusting  after  power,  did  not  see  in  a  republic  the 
opportunity  of  obtaining  it.  The  Boyards  therefore  united 
themselves  with  another  society,  that  of  the  "  United  Slavo- 
nians," founded  in  1823  by  a  lieutenant  of  artillery,  named 
Borissoff,  small  in  numbers,  but  daring.  As  the  name  implied, 
it  proposed  a  Slavonian  confederation  under  the  names  of 
Russia,  Poland,  Hungary,  Bohemia,  Moravia,  Dalmatia,  and 
Transylvania.  The  insurrection  was  on  the  point  of  breaking 
out ;  but  the  Emperor  Alexander  had  already  (in  June  1823), 
by  the  revelations  of  Sherwood,  an  Englishman  in  Russian 


216  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

service,  who  was  ennobled,  received  some  intimation  of  the 
plot,  but  seems  to  have  neglected  taking  precautions  ;  whilst 
he  was  lying  ill  at  Taganrog,  Count  De  Witt  brought  him 
further  news  of  the  progress  of  the  conspiracy,  but  the 
emperor  was  too  near  his  death  for  active  measures.  He 
died,  in  fact,  a  few  days  after  of  typhoid  fever  he  had  caught 
in  the  Crimea.  It  was  rumoured  that  he  died  of  poison,  but 
such  was  not  the  case :  the  report  of  Sir  James  Wylie,  who 
was  with  him  to  the  last,  disproves  the  rumour.  Besides,  it 
is  certain  that  the  conspirators  were  guiltless  of  the  emperor's 
death,  since  it  took  them  unprepared  and  scattered  at  incon- 
venient distances  over  the  empire.  Immediately  on  Alex- 
ander's death  General  Diebitsch,  commanding  at  Kieff, 
ordered  Colonel  Pestel  and  about  a  dozen  officers  to  be 
arrested.  But  the  conspirators  did  not  therefore  give  up 
their  plan.  They  declared  Nicholas,  who  succeeded  Alex- 
ander, to  be  a  usurper,  his  elder  brother  Constantine  being 
the  rightful  heir  to  the  throne.  But  Constantine  had  some 
years  before  signed  a  deed  of  abdication  in  favour  of  his 
brother,  which  however  was  not  publicly  known ;  and  Alex- 
ander I.  having  died  without  naming  his  successor,  the  con- 
spirators took  advantage  of  this  neglect  to  further  their  own 
purposes.  But  they  were  not  supported  by  the  bulk  of  the 
army  or  the  people ;  still,  when  it  came  to  taking  the  oath 
of  fidelity  to  the  new  emperor,  an  insurrection  broke  out 
at  St.  Petersburg,  which  was  only  quelled  by  a  cruel  and 
merciless  massacre  of  the  rebellious  soldiers.  Pestel,  with 
many  others,  was  executed,  but  his  equanimity  never  deserted 
him,  and  he  died  with  sealed  lips,  though  torture  is  said  to 
have  been  employed  to  wring  confessions  from  him.  Prince 
Troubetskoi,  who  had  been  appointed  Dictator  by  the  con- 
spirators, but  who  at  the  last  moment  pusillanimously 
betrayed  them,  was  nevertheless  by  the  merciless  Nicholas  I. 
exiled  to  Siberia  for  life,  and  condemned  for  fourteen  years 
to  work  in  the  mines,  and  he  belonged  to  a  family  which  had, 
with  the  Romanoffs,  competed  for  the  throne ! 

These  secret  societies,  with  another  discovered  at  Moscow 
in  1838,  whose  members  were  some  of  the  highest  nobles  of 
the  empire,  and  who  were  punished  by  being  scattered  in 
the  army  as  private  soldiers — these  secret  societies  were  the 
precursors  of  the  Nihilists,  whose  history  we  have  now  to  tell. 


XII 
THE  NIHILISTS 


"There  are  alarmists  who  confer  upon  the  issuers  of  these  revolu- 
tionary [Nihilistic]  tracts  the  dignified  title  of  a  secret  society,  .  .  .  but 
the  political  atmosphere  of  the  country  [Russia]  ...  is  no  longer  so 
favourable  as  it  used  to  be  to  their  development." 

— ATHENAEUM,  2gth  January  1870. 

"A  political  movement  that  is  perhaps  the  most  mysterious  and 
romantic  the  world  has  ever  known." — ATHENAEUM,  23?-^  September  1882. 

"Nihilism  is  the  righteous  and  honourable  resistance  of  a  people 
crushed  under  an  iron  foe  ;  Nihilism  is  evidence  of  life.  .  .  .  Nihilism 
is  crushed  humanity's  only  means  of  making  the  oppressor  tremble." 
— WENDELL  PHILLIPS  (in  speech  at  Harvard  University). 

608.  Meaning  of  the  term  Nihilist. — When  the  first  edition 
of  this  work  was  published,  but  scanty  information  concern- 
ing this  society  had  as  yet  reached  Western  Europe.  As  will 
be  seen  by  the  first  quotation  above,  its  scope  and  importance 
were  at  that  date  not  understood ;  twelve  years  after,  the 
same  publication  in  eloquent  and — coming  from  such  an 
authority — significant  language  paid  due  honour  to  it.  And 
indeed  since  1870  the  Nihilists  have  made  their  existence 
known  to  the  world  both  by  burning  words  and  astounding 
deeds,  which  we  will  record  as  concisely  as  possible. 

The  term  "  Nihilist "  was  first  used  by  Turgheneff,  the 
novelist,  in  his  "  Fathers  and  Sons,"  where  one  of  the  char- 
acters, Arkadi,  describes  his  friend  Bazaroff  as  a  "Nihilist." 
"  A  Nihilist  ?  "  says  his  interlocutor.  "  As  far  as  I  understand 
the  term,  a  Nihilist  is  a  man  who  admits  nothing." — "Or 
rather,  who  respects  nothing,"  is  the  reply.  "A  man  who 
bows  to  no  authority,  who  accepts  no  principle  without 
examination,  however  high  this  principle  may  stand  in  the 
opinions  of  men."  This  was  Turgheneff 's  original  definition 
of  a  Nihilist ;  at  present  he  means  something  very  different. 
The  term  was  at  first  used  in  a  contemptuous  sense,  but 
afterwards  was  accepted  from  party  pride  by  those  against 
whom  it  was  employed,  just  as  the  term  of  Gueux  had  in  a 


218  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

former  age  been  adopted  by  the  nobility  of  the  Nether- 
lands. 

609.  Founders  of  Nihilism. — The  original  Nihilists  were 
not  conspirators  at  all,   but   formed  a  literary  and  philo- 
sophical society,  which,  however,  now  is  quite  extinct.     It 
nourished  between   1860  and    1870.     Its  transformation  to 
the  actual  Nihilism  is  due,  in  a  great  measure,  to  the  Paris 
Communists  and  the  International,  whose  proceedings  led 
the  youth  of  Russia  to  form  secret  societies,  having  for  their 
object  the  propagation  of  the  Liberal  ideas  which  had  long 
before  then  been  preached  by  Bakunin  and  Herzen,  who 
may  indeed  be  looked  upon  as  the  real  fathers  of  Nihilism, 
with  whom  may  be  joined  Cernisceffski,  who,  in  1863,  pub- 
lished his  novel,  "What  is  to  be  Done?"  for  which  he  was 
sentenced  to  exile  in  Siberia,  but  which  mightily  stirred  up 
the  revolutionary  spirit  of   Russia.     Herzen,  who  died  in 
1 869,  aimed  only  at  a  peaceful  transformation  of  the  Russian 
empire;    but  Bakunin,   who  died   in    1878,  dreamt  of   its 
violent  overthrow  by  means  of  a  revolution  and  fraternisa- 
tion  with   other    European    States    equally   revolutionised. 
Even  during  his  lifetime  an  ultra-Radical  party  was  formed, 
having  for  its  organ  the  Onward,  founded  in  1874  by  Lavroff, 
whose  programme  was,  "  The  party  of  action  is  not  to  waste 
its  energies  on  future  organisation,  but  to  proceed  at  once 
to  the  work  of  destruction." 

610.  Sergei  Nechayeff. — Another  important  and  influential 
personage  in  the  early  days  of  Nihilism  was  Sergei  Nechayeif, 
a  self-educated  man,  and  at  the  time  when  he  first  became 
active  as  a  conspirator,  in  1869,  a  teacher  at  a  school  in  St. 
Petersburg.     He  advocated  the  overthrow,  though  not  the 
death,  of  the  Tsar.     But  the  conspiracy  was  prematurely 
discovered ;  Nechayeff  had  an  intimate  friend,  the  student 
Ivanoff,  but  ultimately  they  disagreed  in  political  matters, 
and  Ivanoff,  declaring  that  his  friend  was  going  too  far, 
threatened  to  leave  the  secret  association.     This  was  looked 
upon  as  an  act  of  treason,  and  on  the  2 1  st  November  1 869 
Nechayeff  slew  Ivanoff  in  a  grotto  near  the  Academy  of 
Agriculture  at  Moscow.     This  murder  led  to  the  discovery 
of  the  society,  and  eighty-seven  members  thereof  were  tried 
in  1871.     Prince  Cherkesoff  was  implicated  in  this  attempt; 
he  had  on  several  occasions  supplied  the  required  funds. 
He  was  deprived  of  his  rights  and  privileges,  and  banished 
to    Siberia  for   five   years.     Nechayeff   himself   escaped  to 
Switzerland,  but  so  great  were  his  powers  of  organisation 
and  persuasion  that  the  Russian  Government  set  a  high 


THE  NIHILISTS  219 

price  on  his  head,  and  finally  succeeded  in  obtaining  his 
extradition  from  Switzerland,  no  less  than  2O,OOO  francs  being 
paid  to  the  Zurich  Prefect  of  Police,  Pfenniger,  who  facili- 
tated the  extradition,  which,  according  to  all  accounts,  was 
more  like  an  act  of  kidnapping.  The  Municipal  Council 
strongly  protested,  and  passed  a  resolution  that  even 
'common  criminals  should  not  be  given  up  to  such  Govern- 
ments as  those  of  Russia  and  Turkey.  Nechayeff  was  sen- 
tenced to  twenty  years'  penal  servitude  in  Siberia,  but  he 
was  too  important  a  person  to  be  trusted  out  of  sight,  and 
so  he  was  confined  in  the  most  secure  portion  of  the  fortress 
Peter  and  Paul.  For  a  time  he  was  kept  in  chains  fastened 
to  a  metal  rod,  so  that  he  could  neither  lie  down,  stand  up, 
nor  sit  with  any  approach  to  ease.  But  even  in  prison  he 
never  lost  an  opportunity  of  making  converts ;  he  received 
visits  from  high  officials,  nay,  the  emperor  himself  "  inter- 
viewed "  him.  Of  course  all  these  visits  were  paid  with  a 
view  of  sounding  him  about  the  forces  and  prospects  of  the 
revolutionary  party,  but  he  remained  true  to  them  ;  and  with 
wonderful  self-abnegation  preferred  remaining  in  prison  to 
delaying  the  killing  of  the  Tsar,  which  delay  would  have 
been  necessary  had  his  friends  undertaken  his  deliverance. 
In  1882  the  friendly  guards  around  him  were  arrested,  and 
nothing  more  was  ever  heard  of  Nechayeff  beyond  the  fact 
that  he  was  cruelly  beaten  with  rods  in  consequence  of  a 
dispute  with  the  inspector  of  the  prison,  and  died  shortly 
after.  Some  suppose  that  he  committed  suicide,  others  that 
he  was  killed  by  the  effects  of  the  blows.  He  was  keenly 
lamented  by  all  the  Nihilists,  for  all  recognised  his  ability, 
his  courage,  and  utter  disregard  of  self. 

6 1 1.  Going  among  the  People. — One  of  the  earliest  effects 
of  the  newly-awakened  enthusiasm  for  social  and  political 
freedom  was  the  eagerness  with  which  young  men,  and 
women  too,  went  "among  the  people."  The  sons  and 
daughters,  not  only  of  respectable,  but  of  wealthy  and 
aristocratic,  families  renounced  the  comforts  and  security  of 
home,  the  love  and  esteem  of  their  relatives,  the  advantages 
of  rank  and  position,  to  associate  with  the  working  classes 
and  the  peasantry,  dressing,  faring,  and  working  like  and 
with  them,  with  the  object  of  instilling  into  them  ideas  as 
to  the  rights  of  humanity  and  citizenship ;  of  expounding  to 
them  the  principles  of  Socialism  and  of  the  revolution.  Thus 
in  the  winter  of  1872,  in  a  hovel  near  St.  Petersburg,  Prince 
Krapotkine  gathered  round  him  a  number  of  working-men  ; 
Obuchoff,  a  rich  Cossack,  did  the  same  on  the  banks  of  the 


220  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

river  Don;  Leonidas  Sciseko,  an  officer,  became  a  hand- 
weaver  in  one  of  the  St.  Petersburg  manufactories  to  carry 
on  the  propaganda  there ;  Demetrius  Rogaceff,  another 
officer,  and  a  friend  of  his,  went  into  the  province  of  Tver, 
as  sawyers,  to  spread  their  doctrines  among  the  peasants ; 
Sophia  Perovskaia,  who,  like  Krapotkine,  belonged  to  the 
highest  aristocracy — her  father  was  Governor-General  of 
St.  Petersburg — took  to  vaccinating  village  children ;  in  the 
secret  memoir  drawn  up  in  1875  by  order  of  Count  Pahlen, 
the  then  Russian  Minister  of  Justice,  we  also  find  the  names 
of  the  daughters  of  three  actual  Councillors  of  State,  the 
daughter  of  a  general,  Loschern  von  Herzfeld,  as  engaged 
in  this  propaganda ;  and  from  the  same  document  it  appears 
that  as  early  as  the  years  1870  and  1871  as  many  as  thirty- 
seven  revolutionary  "  circles  "  were  in  existence  in  as  many 
provinces,  most  of  which  had  established  schools,  factories, 
workshops,  depots  of  forbidden  books,  and  "flying  sheets,"  for 
the  propagation  of  revolutionary  ideas.  But  though  the  pro- 
pagandists met  with  some  successes  among  the  more  educated 
classes,  and  received  great  pecuniary  assistance  from  them 
— thus  Germoloff,  a  student,  sacrificed  his  whole  fortune, 
maintaining  several  friends  at  the  Agricultural  Academy  of 
Moscow ;  Voinaralski,  an  ex-Justice  of  the  Peace,  gave  forty 
thousand  roubles  to  the  propaganda  —  yet  among  the 
peasantry  their  successes  were  not  equal  to  their  energy 
and  zeal.  The  Russian  peasants,  too  ignorant  to  understand 
their  teachers,  or  too  timid  to  follow  their  advice,  were  not 
to  be  stirred  up  to  assert  the  rights  belonging  to  the  citizens 
of  any  State.  Moreover,  the  young  men  and  women,  who 
went  forth  as  the  apostles  of  revolution,  were  lacking  in 
experience  and  caution ;  hence  they  attracted  the  attention 
of  Government,  and  many  were  arrested.  How  many  was 
never  known.  The  propaganda  was  stamped  out  with  every 
circumstance  of  cruelty,  the  gaols  were  filled  with  prisoners, 
the  penal  settlements  with  convicts  ;  half  the  students  at  the 
universities  were  in  durance,  and  the  other  half  under  the 
ban  of  the  law. 

612.  Nihilism  becomes  Aggressive. —  Nihilism  doctrinaire 
having  thus  proved  a  failure,  it  became  Nihilism  militant. 
The  Nihilists  who  had  escaped  the  gallows,  imprisonment, 
or  exile,  determined  that  revolutionary  agitation  was  to 
take  the  place  of  a  peaceful  propaganda.  They  began  by 
forming  themselves  into  groups  in  different  districts,  whose 
object  it  was  to  carry  on  their  agitation  among  those 
peasants  only  whom  they  knew  as  cautious  and  prudent 


THE  NIHILISTS  221 

people.  The  St.  Petersburg  group  was  at  first,  1876-78, 
contemptuously  called  "  The  Troglodytes,"  but  afterwards, 
after  the  paper  published  by  them,  "Land  and  Liberty."  There 
was  also  a  large  "group  "  at  Moscow.  Most  of  its  members 
had  been  students  at  the  Zurich  University ;  it  included 
several  girls,  one  of  whom  was  Bardina,  of  whom  more  in 
the  next  section.  Some  of  them  had  entered  into  sham 
marriages,  which  they  themselves,  in  their  letters,  called 
farces,  and  which  were  performed  without  any  religious 
ceremony,  and  were,  in  most  cases,  never  consummated, 
their  object  being  simply  to  render  the  women  independent, 
and  to  enable  them  to  obtain  passports,  and  at  many  a  trial 
it  was  proved  that  these  women  had,  in  spite  of  their 
adventurous  lives  and  intimate  association  with  men,  pre- 
served their  virtue  unimpaired.  But  the  groups,  though 
they  held  their  ground  with  varying  fortunes  for  several 
years,  remained  without  results ;  the  immensity  of  Russia, 
the  vis  inertia  of  the  peasantry,  and  the  necessity  of  acting 
with  the  utmost  circumspection,  rendered  these  local  efforts 
futile.  The  leaders  at  Moscow  wrote  despairingly.  Thus  in 
a  letter  from  Sdanowitch  to  the  members  at  Ivanovo,  a 
village  of  cotton-spinners,  we  read:  "The  news  from  the 
south  are  unsatisfactory.  .  .  .  We  send  you  books  and 
revolvers.  .  .  .  Kill,  shoot,  work,  create  riots !  "  There 
seems  to  have  been  no  scarcity  of  books  or  money :  one 
member  of  the  association  was  found  in  possession  of 
8545  roubles  in  cash,  a  note  for  noo  roubles,  and  300 
prohibited  books,  and  with  another  2450  prohibited  books 
were  discovered.  The  central  administration  at  Moscow, 
which  became  necessary  when,  after  the  arrests  in  March 
1875,  the  members  went  to  the  provinces,  provided  books, 
money,  addresses,  and  false  passports ;  carried  on  corre- 
spondence (in  cipher),  gave  warning  of  approaching  danger 
and  notice  of  the  arrest  of  brethren,  and  kept  up  com- 
munication with  prisoners.  But  this  Moscow  society  was 
discovered  in  August  1875,  and  totally  extinguished. 

613.  Sophia  Bardina 's  and  other  Trials. — But  Nihilism 
was  not  to  be  suppressed.  It  continued  to  gather  strength, 
even  among  the  peasantry,  as  was  shown  by  the  trial  of 
Alexis  Ossipoff,  who  in  1876  was  condemned  to  nine  years' 
penal  servitude  for  having  distributed  prohibited  books. 
For  the  same  offence  Alexandra  Boutovskaia,  a  young 
girl,  was  sentenced  in  the  same  year  to  four  years'  penal 
servitude. 

In  March    1877    a   new  revolutionary   society   was   dis- 


222  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

covered  at  Moscow ;  of  fifty  prisoners,  whose  ages  ranged 
from  fifteen  to  twenty-five  years,  three  were  condemned 
to  ten  years'  penal  servitude,  six  to  nine  years  (two  of  them 
were  young  girls),  one  to  five  years ;  the  rest  were  shut 
up  in  prisons,  or  exiled  to  distant  provinces.  Sophia 
Bardina,  then  aged  twenty-three,  was  one  of  the  prisoners, 
the  daughter  of  a  gentleman  ;  she  had  on  leaving  college 
received  a  diploma  and  a  gold  medal ;  but  to  further  the 
Socialistic  propaganda,  she  took  a  situation  as  an  ordinary 
work- woman  in  a  factory.  Accused  of  having  distributed 
Liberal  pamphlets  among  the  factory  hands,  she  was  im- 
prisoned, and  kept  in  close  confinement  for  two  years, 
without  being  brought  to  trial ;  she  was  included  in  the 
trial  of  the  fifty,  and  sentenced  to  nine  years'  penal  servi- 
tude in  Siberia.  On  being  asked  what  she  had  to  say  why 
sentence  should  not  be  passed,  she  made  one  of  the  most 
splendid  speeches  ever  heard  in  a  court  of  law.  In  her 
peroration,  she  said,  "I  am  convinced  that  our  country,  now 
asleep,  will  awake,  and  its  awakening  will  be  terrible.  .  .  . 
It  will  no  longer  allow  its  rights  to  be  trampled  under 
foot,  and  its  children  to  be  buried  alive  in  the  mines  of 
Siberia.  .  .  .  Society  will  shake  off  its  infamous  yoke,  and 
avenge  us.  And  this  revenge  will  be  terrible.  .  .  .  Per- 
secute, assassinate  us,  judges  and  executioners,  as  long  as 
you  command  material  force,  we  shall  resist  you  with  moral 
force ;  .  .  .  for  we  have  with  us  the  ideas  of  liberty  and 
equality,  and  your  bayonets  cannot  pierce  them  !  " 

Then  came  the  monster  trial  of  the  one  hundred  and 
ninety-three.  The  whole  number  of  persons  implicated  in 
this  prosecution  originally  amounted  to  seven  hundred  and 
seventy.  Of  the  one  hundred  and  ninety-three  who  were 
tried,  ninety-four  were  acquitted ;  thirty-six  were  exiled  to 
Siberia,  and  Myschkin,  one  of  the  leaders,  sentenced  to  ten 
years'  penal  servitude.  Seventy  prisoners  are  said  to  have 
died  before  they  were  brought  to  trial ;  the  investigations 
in  the  trial  lasted  four  years. 

At  these  and  other  trials  which  took  place  in  various 
provinces  of  Russia,  the  prisoners  conducted  themselves 
with  the  utmost  courage  and  resolution.  The  Russian 
people  appreciated  their  self-sacrificing  patriotism.  "  They 
are  saints!"  was  the  exclamation  frequently  heard  from 
the  lips  of  even  such  persons  as  did  not  approve  of  the 
objects  of  the  accused. 

614.  The  Parti/  of  Terror. — The  Nihilists  continued  to 
put  forth  manifestoes,  in  which  they  distinctly  stated  their 


THE  NIHILISTS  223 

demands.  Whilst  (justly)  accusing  the  highest  officials  and 
dignitaries  of  dishonourable  conduct,  avarice,  and  barbarous 
brutality,  they  demanded  their  removal  from  the  entourage 
of  the  emperor,  to  whom  they  then  intended  no  harm.  It 
was  the  court  camarilla  they  were  aiming  at,  and  the  sup- 
pression of  the  emperor's  private  chancellery,  commonly 
called  "the  Third  Division."  But  the  more  ardent  Nihilists 
were  for  more  drastic  measures,  and  a  portion  of  the  party, 
represented  by  their  organ,  Land  and  Liberty,  seceded,  and 
took  the  name  of  the  "  Party  of  the  People,"  which  section 
was  in  1 878  divided  again,  and  the  seceders  called  themselves 
the  "  Party  of  Terror,"  and  were  represented  by  the  Will 
of  the  People.  The  party  had  no  definite  plans  at  first ;  its 
first  overt  act  was  Solovieff's  attempt  on  the  life  of  the 
emperor  (617).  And  the  Government  seemed  to  play  into 
the  hands  of  the  Terrorists.  It  did  everything  it  could  to 
goad  the  people  to  desperation :  the  merest  suspicion  led  to 
arrest;  ten,  twelve,  fifteen  years  of  hard  labour  were  in- 
flicted for  two  or  three  speeches  made  in  private  to  a  few 
working-men  ;  spies  were  employed  by  Government  to  obtain, 
by  false  pretences,  admittance  to  Nihilistic  meetings,  in 
order  to  betray  the  members.  Naturally  the  Nihilists  reta- 
liated by  planting  their  daggers  into  such  traitors  as  they 
discovered  and  could  reach.  Thus  Gorenovitch,  originally  a 
member  of  the  propaganda,  who  had  betrayed  his  com- 
panions, was,  in  September  1876,  dangerously  wounded, 
and  his  face  disfigured  for  life  by  sulphuric  acid ;  in  the 
same  month  and  year,  Tawlejeff  was  assassinated  at  Odessa  ; 
and  in  July  1877,  Fisogenoff  at  St.  Petersburg. 

615.  Vera  Zassulic. — But  the  signal  for  the  outbreak  of 
the  terrorism,  which  distinguished  the  latter  phases  of 
Nihilism,  was  given,  unintentionally,  by  the  shot  fired  by 
the  revolver  of  Vera  Zassulic  on  24th  January  1878.  General 
Trepoff,  the  chief  of  the  St.  Petersburg  police,  had  ordered 
a  political  prisoner,  Bogolinboff,  to  be  flogged  for  a  slight 
breach  of  prison  discipline.  Vera  Zassulic  made  herself 
the  instrument  to  punish  this  offence.  Her  life  had  been 
an  apprenticeship  for  it.  She  was  then  twenty-six,  and  at 
the  age  of  seventeen  she  had  been  arrested  and  kept  in  con- 
finement two  years,  because  she  had  received  letters  for  a 
revolutionist.  She  had  then  passed  her  first  examination  as 
a  teacher,  and  was  working  at  bookbinding.  At  the  end  of 
two  years  she  was  released,  but  in  a  very  few  days  was  seized 
again,  and  sent  from  place  to  place,  and  finally  placed  at 
Kharkoff,  nearly  two  years  under  police  supervision.  At  the 


224  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

end  of  1875  sne  returned  to  St.  Petersburg.  Her  experi- 
ences had  prepared  her  for  her  deed :  she  knew  what  soli- 
tary confinement  was,  and  the  resentment  of  Russian  society 
against  Trepoff —  for  even  persons  without  revolutionary 
tendencies  called  him  the  Bashi-bazouk  of  St.  Petersburg — 
became  in  her  mind  a  conviction  that  he  must  be  punished, 
though  she  had  no  personal  acquaintance  either  with  Bogo- 
linboff  or  Trepoff.  She  waited  on  the  latter,  presented  a 
paper  to  him,  and  while  he  was  reading  it,  fired  her  revolver 
at  him,  inflicting  a  dangerous  wound,  and  then  allowed  her- 
self to  be  seized,  without  offering  any  resistance.  Though 
the  attempt  was  not  denied  at  her  trial,  the  jury  pronounced 
her  "Not  guilty,"  and  the  verdict  was  unanimously  approved 
as  the  expression  of  public  opinion  in  Russia.  Men  saw  in 
the  acquittal  a  condemnation  of  the  whole  system  of  police, 
and  especially  of  its  chief,  General  Trepoff.  Vera  Zassulic 
was  declared  to  be  free  ;  but  in  the  adjoining  street  her  car- 
riage was  stopped  by  the  police ;  a  riot  ensued,  for  the  people 
would  not  allow  her  to  be  seized  again,  and  in  the  commotion 
Zassulic  made  her  escape,  and  after  a  while  found  refuge  in 
Switzerland.  The  emperor  was  furious  at  her  acquittal, 
went  in  person  to  pay  a  visit  of  condolence  to  his  vile  tool 
Trepoff — whom  he  made  a  Councillor  of  State — and  then 
ransacked  the  whole  city  in  search  of  Zassulic,  to  put  her  in 
prison  again. 

6 1 6.  Officials  Killed  or  Threatened  &//  the  Nihilists.— The 
attempt  of  Zassulic  was  followed  on  the  i6th  August  by  the 
more  successful  one  on  General  Mesentsoff,  chief  of  the 
third  section  of  police,  who  had  become  notorious  by  being 
implicated  in  a  trial  about  a  forged  will  and  false  bills  of 
exchange.  Taking  advantage  of  his  irresponsible  position, 
he  caused  all  the  witnesses  who  might  have  appeared  against 
him  to  be  assassinated.  It  was  known  that  he  starved  the 
prisoners  under  his  charge,  subjected  them  to  all  kinds  of 
cruelty,  loaded  the  sick  with  chains,  "  all  by  express  orders 
of  the  emperor."  The  Nihilists  resolved  he  must  die.  On 
1 6th  August  1878,  just  as  he  was  leaving  a  confectioner's 
shop  in  St.  Michael's  Square,  two  persons  fired  several  shots 
at  him  with  revolvers.  He  fell,  and  his  assailants,1  leaping 
into  a  droschky  which  was  waiting  for  them,  made  good 
their  escape,  and  fled  in  the  direction  of  the  Newski 
Prospect.  One  of  them  was  a  literary  man,  who  in  1883 
lived  in  Germany.  His  name  was  frequently  mentioned  in 

1  Stepniak,  after  bis  death  in  1895,  was  accused  by  the  Eussian  press 
of  having  been  one  of  them.  See  section  645. 


THE  NIHILISTS  225 

connection  with  German  literature.  General  Mesentsoff 
died  the  same  day  at  five  in  the  afternoon.  In  a  pamphlet 
entitled  Death  for  Death,  which  appeared  directly  after, 
the  writer  declared  political  assassination  to  be  both  a  just 
and  efficacious  means  of  fighting  the  Government,  which  the 
writer's  party  would  continue  to  use,  unless  police  persecu- 
tions ceased,  political  accusations  were  tried  before  juries, 
and  a  full  amnesty  granted  for  all  previous  political  offences. 
But  the  Government  showed  no  intention  of  granting  any 
such  reforms.  Its  severity  was  increased,  and  trial  by  jury, 
in  cases  of  political  offences,  entirely  suspended.  Special 
courts  were  instituted,  guaranteed  to  pass  sentences  in 
accordance  with  the  Tsar's  wishes.  In  September  1878,  the 
St.  Petersburg  organisation  called  "  Land  and  Liberty,"  and 
consisting  of  about  sixty  members,  was  broken  up.  A  great 
many  were  imprisoned,  others  made  their  escape,  but  by  the 
energy  of  four  or  five  members  the  society  was  not  only 
re-established,  but  was  enabled  to  erect  a  printing-press,  on 
which  their  paper,  called  after  the  society,  was  regularly 
printed.  The  Tsar  having  appealed  to  "  Society  "  to  assist 
him  in  putting  down  the  revolutionary  agitators,  the  attempts 
of  "  Society "  to  do  so  led  to  numerous  riots,  and  in  St. 
Petersburg  and  Kieff,  meetings  of  students  were  dispersed 
by  policemen  and  Cossacks,  many  of  the  students  being 
wounded,  and  some  killed.  An  association  of  working-men, 
comprising  about  two  hundred  members,  whose  objects  in 
reality  were  only  Socialistic,  was  betrayed  by  the  Jewish 
spy  Reinstein,  and  about  fifty  of  the  working-men  were 
imprisoned.  Reinstein,  however,  met  his  reward  by  being 
killed  soon  after  by  the  Nihilists. 

On  the  Qth  February  1879,  Prince  Alexis  Krapotkine,  a 
cousin  of  the  famous  agitator,  Peter  Krapotkine,  and 
Governor  of  Kharkoff,  was  shot  on  returning  home  from 
a  ball,  as  a  punishment  of  his  inhuman  treatment  of  the 
prisoners  under  his  charge,  which  had  led  the  latter  to 
organise  "  hunger-mutinies "  (638),  many  of  them  pre- 
ferring starving  themselves  to  death  rather  than  any 
longer  undergoing  the  cruelties  the  governor  practised 
upon  them.  Goldenberg,  their  avenger,  made  good  his 
escape. 

On  March  12,  General  Drenteln,  the  Chief  of  the  Secret 
Police,  was  fired  at  by  a  Nihilist  called  Mirski,  who  managed 
to  escape.  The  causes  of  the  attempt  were :  firstly,  that 
Drenteln  had  caused  a  prisoner  to  be  hanged  for  trying  to 
escape;  secondly,  his  general  cruelty,  which  had  provoked 

VOL.  ir.  p 


226  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

another  "hunger-mutiny";  and  lastly, his  having  sent  many 
Nihilists  to  prison. 

617.  First  Attempts  against  the  Emperor's  Life. — Thus  we 
see  that  the  persons  aimed  at  by  the  Nihilists  gradually  rose 
in  rank,  and  the  logical  conclusion  of  aiming  at  the  highest, 
at  the  Tsar  himself,  could  not  be  evaded.     The  idea  came  to 
several  persons  simultaneously.     As  early  as  the  autumn  of 
1878  a  mine  was  laid  at  Nikolaieff,  on  the  Black  Sea,  to 
blow  up  the  emperor ;  but  it  was  discovered  by  the  police, 
the   only  one   they  did   discover.      About   the  same   time 
A.  Solovieff,  who  had  been  a  teacher,  but  who  on  becoming 
a  Socialist  learned  the  trade  of  a  blacksmith  that  he  might 
thus  place  himself  into  closer  connection  with  the  labouring 
classes,  came  to  St.  Petersburg  with  the  intention  of  killing 
the  emperor.     At  the  same  period  Goldenberg,  still  elated 
with   his   successful    attempt   on    Prince   Krapotkine,    also 
reached  the  Russian  capital  with  the  same  object  in  view — 
the  death  of  the  Tsar.     Solovieff  and  Goldenberg  entered 
into  communication  with  some  of  the  chiefs  of  "Land  and 
Liberty,"  and  eventually  Solovieff  undertook  the  task.     On 
the  2nd  April   1879,  he  fired  four  shots  at  the  emperor  as 
the  latter  was  walking  up  and  down  in  front  of  the  palace. 
Solovieff  was  seized,   tried  on  the  6th  June  following,  of 
course  found  guilty,  and  hanged  on  the  Qth  of  the  same 
month.    At  the  trial  he  declared  himself  a  foe  of  the  Govern- 
ment and  a  foe  of  the  emperor,  and  at  his  execution  he 
preserved  his  composure  to  the  last. 

6 1 8.  Numerous  Executions. — After  Solovieff's   attempt   a 
virtual  state  of  siege  was  established  throughout  the  whole 
Russian  empire,  and  a  police  order  was  issued  at  St.  Peters- 
burg requiring  each  householder  to  keep  a  dvornik,  or  watch- 
man, day  and  night  at  the  door  of  the  house  to  see  who 
went  in  and  out,  and  that  no  placards  were  affixed.     In  the 
month  of   May  there  were  4700  political  prisoners  in  the 
Fort  Petropowlovski,  who  were  removed   in  one  night  to 
eastern   prisons,  to  make  room  for   those  newly  arrested. 
Eight  hundred  prisoners,  under  strong  escort,  were  drafted 
off  from  Odessa  to  Siberia.     In  the  same  month  the  trial 
took  place  at  Kieff  of  the  persons  who,  about  a  year  before, 
had  resisted  the  police  sent  to  arrest  them  for  being  in 
possession  of  a  secret  printing-press.     Four  of  the  accused 
were  cited  as  unknown  persons,  because  they  refused  to  give 
their  names  and  were  unknown  to  the  police,  but  during 
the  trial  the  names  of  two  of  them  oozed  out.     Ludwig 
Brandtner  and  one  of  the   unknown,   but  calling  himself 


THE  NIHILISTS  227 

Antonoff,  were  sentenced  to  be  shot.  The  Governor-General 
of  Kieff,  however,  ordered  them  to  be  hanged.  Three  others, 
and  Nathalie  Arrnfeldt,  daughter  of  a  State  Councillor,  Mary 
Kovalevski,  ranked  as  a  noble,  and  Ekaterine  Sarandovitch, 
daughter  of  a  civil  servant,  were  condemned  to  hard  labour 
for  fourteen  years  and  ten  months.  Ekaterine  Politzinoy, 
the  daughter  of  a  retired  staff-captain,  for  not  informing  the 
police  of  what  she  knew  of  the  doings  of  the  other  prisoners, 
was  sentenced  to  four  years'  hard  labour.  At  another  trial, 
held  a  day  after,  two  other  Nihilists,  Osinsky  and  Sophia 
von  Herzt'eldt,  were  condemned  to  be  shot. 

619.  The  Moscow  Attempt  against  the  Emperor. — On  the 
1 7th  to  the  2ist  June  the  Nihilists  held  a  congress  at 
Lipezk  (province  of  Tomboff),  at  which  Scheljaboff,  a  pro- 
minent leader,  maintained,  as  we  learn  from  his  "Life," 
written  by  Tichomiroff,  that  since  the  Government  officials, 
such  as  Todleben  at  Odessa,  and  Tschertkov  at  Kieff,  were 
simply  the  tools  of  the  Tsar,  this  latter  must  be  personally 
punished,  which  was  agreed  to  by  his  colleagues.  It  was 
decided  to  blow  up  the  imperial  train  during  the  journey 
of  the  emperor  from  the  Crimea  to  St.  Petersburg.  The 
mines  under  the  railway  line  were  laid  at  three  different 
points — near  Odessa,  near  Alexandrovsk,  and  near  Moscow. 
But  owing  to  a  change  in  the  emperor's  itinerary,  the  Odessa 
mine  had  to  be  abandoned ;  in  that  at  Alexandrovsk,  the 
capsule,  owing  to  some  defect,  did  not  explode,  though  the 
battery  was  closed  at  the  right  moment,  and  the  imperial 
train  passed  uninjured  over  a  precipice,  to  the  bottom  of 
which  it  would  have  been  hurled  by  the  slightest  shock ; 
near  Moscow  alone  the  terrorists  made  at  least  an  attempt. 
They  had  purchased  a  small  house  close  to  the  railway,  and 
Leo  Hartmann,  an  electrician,  Sophia  Perovskaia,  and  others, 
excavated  a  passage,  commencing  in  the  house  and  ending 
under  the  rails.  The  work  was  nearly  all  done  by  hand,  and 
owing  to  the  wet  weather  the  passage  was  always  full  of 
water,  so  that  the  miners  had  to  work  drenched  in  freezing 
water,  standing  in  it  up  to  their  knees.  The  attempt  to  blow 
up  the  emperor's  carriage  was  made  on  the  1st  December 
1879,  but  his  train,  fortunately  for  him,  preceding  instead 
of  following  the  baggage-train,  the  latter  only  suffered. 
When,  after  the  explosion,  the  cottage  was  searched  some  of 
the  apparatus,  and  even  an  untouched  meal,  were  found ;  but 
the  inmates  had  all  disappeared,  and  were  not  afterwards 
apprehended,  though  many  hundreds  were  sent  to  prison 
on  the  denunciation  of  Goldenberg  (616),  who  a  few  days 


228  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

before  the  Moscow  attempt  had  been  seized  by  the  police 
with  a  quantity  of  dynamite  in  his  possession,  and  who,  to 
benefit  himself,  as  he  hoped,  betrayed  a  great  number  of  his 
fellow-Nihilists.  Finding  that  he  did  not  thereby  obtain 
any  alleviation  of  his  own  fate,  he  committed  suicide. 

620.  Various   Nihilist    Trials.  —  Another    great    trial    of 
Nihilists  took  place  at   Odessa  in  August.     Twenty-eight 
prisoners  were  tried,  of  whom  three  were  sentenced  to  be 
hanged.     They  were  Joseph  Davidenko,  son  of  a  private 
soldier,  and  Sergay  Tchoobaroff  and  Dmitri  Lizogoob,  gentle- 
men.    The  latter,  who  had  sacrificed  nearly  his  whole  for- 
tune, a  large  one,  to  the    "  cause,"  and  of  whom  Stepniak 
gives  so  moving  an  account  in  his  "  Underground  Bussia," 
justly  styling  him  "  The  Saint  of  Nihilism,"  was  betrayed 
by  his  steward,  Drigo,  the  Government  having  promised  to 
give  him  what  still  remained  of  Lizogoob's  patrimony,  about 
^"4000.      The   other   prisoners  were    sentenced   to   various 
terms  of  hard  labour  in  the  mines,  ranging  from  fifteen  to 
twenty  years. 

In  December  another  important  trial  of  Nihilists  was 
heard  before  the  Odessa  military  tribunal.  The  most  pro- 
minent prisoner  was  Victor  Maleenka,  a  gentleman,  who  was 
tried  for  the  attempt  made  three  years  before  to  murder 
Nicholas  Gorenovitch,  for  having  betrayed  some  of  his 
fellow-Nihilists  (614).  It  appeared  that  Gorenovitch  had 
been  enticed  to  a  lonely  place  in  Odessa,  where  Maleenka 
felled  him  with  blows  on  the  head,  while  a  companion  threw 
sulphuric  acid  over  what  was  supposed  to  be  the  corpse  of 
Gorenovitch,  in  order  to  destroy  all  traces.  But  the  victim 
survived,  and  appeared  as  a  witness  at  the  trial.  He  pre- 
sented a  horrible  appearance :  the  acid  had  destroyed  his 
sight  and  all  his  features,  and  even  his  ears ;  consequently 
his  head  was  enveloped  in  a  white  cloth,  leaving  nothing 
but  his  chin  visible.  It  may,  by  the  way,  be  mentioned, 
that  he  was  then  inflicting  his  awful  presence  on  poor  people 
as  a  scripture  reader,  being  led  about  by  a  devoted  sister. 
Maleenka  and  two  of  his  fellow-prisoners  were  sentenced 
to  be  hanged. 

621.  Explosion  in  the  Winter  Palace. — The  failure  of  the 
Moscow  attempt  did  not  discourage  the  Nihilists.      They 
now  adopted  the  title  of  "The  Will  of  the  People,"  and 
though  in  January  1 880  two  of  their  secret  printing-presses 
were  discovered  and  seized  by  the  police,  and  numerous  arrests 
were  made,  they  managed  to  issue  on  the  26th  January  a 
programme,  in  which  they  declared  that  unless  the  Govern- 


THE  NIHILISTS  229 

ment  granted  constitutional  rights,  the  emperor  must  die. 
The  emperor  replied  by  ordering  greater  severity  and  more 
arrests.  Then  the  Nihilists  planned  a  fresh  attempt,  more 
daring  than  any  previous  one,  to  blow  up  the  emperor  in  his 
own  palace.  Its  execution  was  undertaken  by  Chalturin,  the 
son  of  a  peasant,  a  very  energetic  agitator  and  experienced 
organiser  of  workmen's  unions.  Being  also  a  clever  cabinet- 
maker he  easily,  under  the  assumed  name  of  Batyschkoff, 
obtained  a  situation  in  the  imperial  palace ;  he  ascertained 
that  the  emperor's  dining-hall  was  above  the  cellar  in  which 
the  carpenters  were  at  work,  though  between  it  and  the  latter 
there  was  the  guardroom,  used  by  the  sentinels  of  the  palace, 
and  his  plans  were  made  accordingly.  So  blind  and  stupid 
were  the  Eussian  police  that — though  towards  the  end  of  the 
year  1879  (Chalturin  found  employment  in  the  palace  in  the 
month  of  October)  a  plan  of  the  Winter  Palace,  in  which 
the  dining-hall  was  marked  with  a  cross,  was  found  on  a 
member  of  the  Executive  Committee  who  had  been  appre- 
hended, in  consequence  of  which  the  police  made  a  sudden 
irruption  into  the  carpenters'  quarters — nothing  was  dis- 
covered, yet  Chaltnrin  used  a  packet  of  dynamite  every  night 
for  his  pillow !  A  gendarme,  however,  was  installed  in  the 
carpenters'  cellars,  and  a  stricter  surveillance  exercised  over 
all  persons  entering  or  leaving  the  palace.  This  rendered  the 
introduction  of  dynamite  exceedingly  difficult,  and  greatly 
delayed  the  execution  of  the  project. 

It  may  here  incidentally  be  mentioned  that  what  may 
appear  to  the  reader  to  have  been  an  exceptionally  difficult 
undertaking,  viz.,  to  introduce  dynamite  into  the  imperial 
palace  itself,  was,  after  all,  very  easy.  The  Winter  Palace,  till 
then  always — a  change  was  made  after  the  attempt — had  been 
a  refuge  for  numberless  vagabonds,  workmen,  friends  of  ser- 
vants, and  others,  many  without  passports,  who  could  not  have 
lived  anywhere  else  in  the  capital  with  impunity.  It  appears 
there  is  an  old  law  which  gives  right  of  sanctuary,  as  far  as 
regards  the  ordinary  police,  to  criminals  taking  refuge  in  an 
imperial  palace.  When  General  Gourko  searched  the  Winter 
Palace,  it  was  found  that  no  fewer  than  five  thousand  persons 
had  been  living  in  it,  and  no  one  knew  the  precise  duties  of 
half  of  them.  Chalturin  gave  startling  accounts  of  the  dis- 
order pervading  the  palace,  and  of  the  robberies  committed 
by  servants.  They  gave  parties  of  their  own,  invited  scores 
of  friends,  who  freely  went  in  and  out,  yea,  stayed  over- 
night, whilst  the  grand  staircase  remained  inaccessible  to  even 
highly-placed  officials.  The  servants  were  such  thieves  that 


230  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

Chalturin,  not  to  excite  their  suspicions,  was  compelled  occa- 
sionally to  take  food  and  other  trifles  as  "  perquisites."  True, 
the  wages  of  the  upper  domestic  servants  were  only  fifteen 
roubles  a  month. 

To  resume  our  narrative.  Chalturin  suffered  terribly  from 
headaches,  caused  by  the  poisonous  exhalation  of  the  nitro- 
glycerine on  which  his  head  rested  at  night.  However,  he 
continued  to  work  on  without  exciting  any  suspicion,  yea,  the 
gendarme  on  guard  tried  to  secure  the  clever  workman,  who 
at  Christmas  had  received  a  gratuity  of  a  hundred  roubles, 
for  his  son-in-law.  At  last  fifty  kilogrammes  of  dynamite 
had  been  introduced ;  the  Executive  Committee  urged  Chal- 
turin to  action  ;  and  on  the  5th  February  1880  the  explosion 
took  place,  Chalturin  having  had  time  to  leave  the  palace 
before  it  occurred.  It  pierced  the  two  stone  floors,  and 
made  a  gap  ten  feet  long  and  six  feet  wide  in  the  dining- 
hall,  in  which  a  grand  dinner  in  honour  of  the  Prince  of 
Bulgaria  was  laid.  Through  an  accidental  delay  the  imperial 
family  had  not  yet  assembled,  and  thus  escaped  total  destruc- 
tion. The  explosion  killed  five  men  of  the  palace  guard,  and 
injared  thirty-five — some  accounts  say  fifty-three.  Some  of 
the  parties  implicated  in  the  plot  were  brought  to  trial  in 
November  1880,  but  Chalturin  was  not  captured  till  early 
in  1882  ;  he  was  hanged  on  the  22nd  March  of  that  year, 
and  only  then  recognised  as  the  cabinetmaker  of  the  Winter 
Palace.  The  Executive  Committee,  in  a  proclamation,  re- 
gretted the  soldiers  who  had  perished,  but  expressed  its 
determination  to  kill  the  emperor,  unless  he  granted  the 
constitutional  reforms  asked  for.  The  Tsar,  in  reply,  invested 
Count  Loris-Melikoff  with  unlimited  authority  as  Dictator. 
The  attempt  on  the  latter's  life,  made  on  3rd  March  by  Hipo- 
lyte  Joseph  Kaladetski,  for  which  he  suffered  death  on  the  5th, 
was  not  prompted  by  the  Executive  Committee,  who,  on  the 
contrary,  expressed  their  disapproval  of  it,  because  Count 
Melikoff  had  shown  some  tendency  towards  Liberal  ideas. 

622.  Assassination  of  the  Emperor. — During  the  remainder 
of  the  year  1880,  large  numbers  of  suspected  persons  were 
arrested,  tried  by  a  secret  tribunal,  and  many  of  the  prisoners 
condemned  to  death  or  transportation  to  Siberia.  In  the 
previous  year,  11,448  convicts  were  despatched  eastward, 
and  in  the  spring  of  1880  there  were  in  the  prisons  at 
Moscow  2973  prisoners  awaiting  transportation  to  Siberia 
and  hard  labour  in  the  mines  or  government  factories. 
But  the  Nihilistic  movement,  instead  of  being  killed,  ac- 
quired fresh  strength  by  these  wholesale  persecutions ;  the 


THE  NIHILISTS  231 

Tsar,  in  his  blind  fury,  seemed  bent  on  Ms  destruction — and 
it  was  nearer  than  he  anticipated.  The  Executive  Com- 
mittee determined  that  now  the  emperor  must  die.  Forty- 
seven  volunteers  presented  themselves  to  make  the  attempt 
on  his  life.  On  the  I3th  March  1881,  the  Tsar  was  assassi- 
nated. Returning  from  a  military  review  near  St.  Peters- 
burg, a  bomb  was  thrown  by  Ryssakoff,  which  exploded  in 
the  rear  of  the  carriage,  injuring  several  soldiers.  The 
emperor  alighted,  and  a  second  bomb,  thrown  with  greater 
precision,  by  Ignatius  Grinevizki,  exploded  and  shattered 
both  the  legs  of  the  emperor  below  the  knees,  tore  open  the 
lower  part  of  his  body,  and  drove  one  of  his  eyes  out  of  its 
socket.  Within  one  hour  and  a  half  the  Tsar  was  dead. 
Grinevizki  was  seized,  but  he  was  himself  so  injured  that  he 
died  shortly  after  his  arrest.  He  was  the  son  of  a  small 
farmer,  who  with  great  difficulty  for  some  time  managed  to 
keep  his  family,  consisting  of  eleven  persons,  but  eventually 
fell  into  difficulties  ;  his  farm  was  sold,  and  he  became  insane. 
Ignatius,  in  the  greatest  poverty,  attended  several  schools. 
In  1875  he  was  sent,  as  the  best  scholar  of  his  class,  to  the 
Technological  Institution  at  St.  Petersburg ;  there  he  joined 
the  students'  unions  for  Radical  purposes,  in  which,  by  his 
activity  and  address,  he  soon  acquired  great  influence.  In 
1879  he  would  have  been  satisfied  with  a  moderate  constitu- 
tion, but  seeing  that  there  was  no  prospect  of  even  that 
small  boon,  he  joined  the  Terrorists,  working  with  and  for 
them  till  the  great  work  of  his  life  was  assigned  to  him.  The 
Nihilists  ascribe  to  him  the  fame  of  a  Brutus,  of  Harmodius, 
and  Aristogeiton !  Return  we  to  the  other  actors  in  this 
historic  tragedy. 

The  signal  for  throwing  the  bombs  had  been  given  by 
Jessy  Helfmann  and  Sophia  Perovskaia,  who  were  on  the 
watch,  waving  their  handkerchiefs.  She  and  Helfmann  were 
arrested,  as  also  some  of  the  other  conspirators,  Kibalcie, 
Micailoff,  and  Ryssakoff,  and,  with  the  exception  of  Helf- 
mann, who,  being  four  months  pregnant,  was  reprieved, 
were  hanged  on  the  1 5th  April  following.  All  the  prisoners 
died  like  heroes  ;  Perovskaia  even  retained  the  colour  in  her 
cheeks  to  the  last.  But  the  execution  was  a  "  butchery." 
(See  Kolnische  Zeitung  and  London  Times  of  i6th  April 
1881.) 

623.  The  Mine  in  Garden  Street. — On  the  25th  March  the 
revolutionary  correspondence  found  on  the  prisoners  led  to 
the  discovery  of  the  conspirators'  quarters  in  Telejewskaia 
Street,  where  Timothy  Michailoff  was  arrested.  A  copy  of 


232  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

the  proclamation  of  the  new  Tsar's  ascent  to  the  throne  was 
found  on  him,  on  the  back  of  which  were  marked  in  pencil 
three  places  of  the  city,  with  certain  hours  and  days  against 
each.  One  place  thus  indicated  was  a  confectioner's  shop  at 
the  corner  of  Garden  Street.  Just  round  the  corner  from 
this  confectioner's  in  Garden  Street  was  a  cheesemonger's 
shop,  kept  by  one  Kobizoff  and  his  wife,  whose  mysterious 
disappearance  on  the  day  of  the  assassination  led  to  the  dis- 
covery of  a  mine  under  the  street.  From  subsequent  dis- 
coveries it*  became  evident  that  this  mine  was  not  intended 
to  blow  up  the  emperor,  but  to  stop  his  carriage,  and  afford 
others  time  to  assassinate  him,  after  the  fashion  of  the  hay- 
cart,  which  stopped  General  Prim's  carriage  at  Madrid. 

624.  Constitution  said  to  have  been  Granted  by  late  Emperor. 
— It  was  said  that  the  day  before  his  death  the  emperor 
had  signed  a  Constitution,   and   that  by  their  action  the 
Nihilists   had    deprived    their   country    of    the   benefits   it 
would  have  conferred.     But  what  he  had  signed  was  merely 
the  appointment  of  a  representative  commission  to  consider 
whether  provincial  institutions  might  not  be  widened,  and 
the   calling    together   of    the    zemskij  sobor,   or   communal 
council,  a  measure  Loris-Melikoff  had  strongly  advised  him 
to  adopt,  as  a  means  of  enlisting  the  people's  co-operation  in 
putting  down  Nihilism,  the  minister  taking  care  to  remind 
the  emperor  that  such  an  assembly  would,  after  all,  be  only 
deliberative,  and  that  the  final  decision  would  always  remain 
with  the  crown.     The  whole  scheme  was  a  mere  blind  to 
allay  public  discontent,  with  no  intention  on  the  Tsar's  part 
of  relinquishing  any  portion  of  his  absolute  prerogatives. 
The  emperor's  death  thus  did  not  deprive  the  Eussian  of 
any  substantial  benefit,  but  saved  them  a  delusion. 

625.  The  Nihilist  Proclamation. — Ten  days  after  the  Tsar 
Alexander  II.  had  been  put  to  death,  the  Executive  Com- 
mittee issued  their  nobly-conceived  and  expressed  proclama- 
tion to  his  successor,  Alexander  III.,  in  which,  on  condition 
of  the  emperor  granting  (i)  complete  freedom  of   speech, 
(2)  complete  freedom  of  the  press,  (3)  complete  freedom  of 
public  meeting,  (4)  complete  freedom  of  election,  and  (5)  a 
general  amnesty  for  all  political  offenders,  they  declare  their 
party  will  submit  unconditionally  to  the  National  Assembly 
which   meets    upon    the    basis    of    the    above    conditions. 
Hundreds  of  Easter  eggs  containing  this  proclamation  were 
scattered  about  the  streets  of  Moscow  at  Easter  time.     Nay, 
a  rumour  was  then  universally  current  in  St.  Petersburg,  that 
the  Nihilists  had  deputed  one  of  their  number  to  wait  on 


THE  NIHILISTS  233 

the  Emperor  Alexander  and  explain  to  him  in  unambiguous 
words  what  they  really  wanted.  The  emperor  received 
him,  and  after  having  heard  what  he  had  to  say,  ordered 
him  to  be  placed  in  durance  in  the  Fortress  Petropowlovski ; 
the  police,  however,  failed  to  find  any  clue  to  his  identity. 
So  runs  the  story,  and  there  is  nothing  improbable  in  it, 
considering  the  daring  self-sacrifice  which  characterises  all 
the  acts  of  the  Nihilists. 

626.  The  Emperor's  Reply  thereto. — The  emperor's  reply 
to  the  Nihilistic  proclamation,  asking  for  such  constitutional 
rights  as  are  possessed  by  every  civilised  nation,  was  given 
in  a  manifesto,  issued  on  the  nth  May,  in  which  the 
emperor  expressed  his  determination  fully  to  retain  and 
maintain  his  autocratic  privileges.  Furthermore,  fresh  exe- 
cutions were  ordered,  thousands  of  his  subjects  were  exiled 
to  Siberia,  greater  rigour  was  exercised  against  the  press 
and  every  Liberal  tendency.  Not  only  did  the  emperor  not 
grant  any  reforms,  but  he  even  retracted  concessions  already 
made,  as,  for  instance,  the  reduction  of  the  redemption  money, 
whereby  nearly  four  millions  of  his  subjects  continued  to 
be  kept  in  virtual  serfdom.  Ignatieff,  the  newly-appointed 
Minister  of  the  Interior,  whilst  bravely  seconding  his  master 
in  his  oppressive  measures,  tried  to  open  a  safety-valve  to 
public  dissatisfaction  and  indignation  by  fomenting  anti- 
Jewish  riots,  the  blame  of  which  was  laid  to  the  charge  of 
the  Nihilists,  who,  however,  published  a  very  spirited  reply, 
showing  that  it  was  not  their  policy  to  incite  the  people 
against  the  Jews,  they  being,  as  was  proved  at  many  a  trial, 
and  especially  those  of  Southern  Russia,  great  supporters  of 
the  Nihilistic  movement.  But  irrespective  of  this,  it  was  no 
part  of  Nihilistic  tactics  to  set  one  race  or  religion  against 
another  in  the  empire.  Nor  did  the  despoiling  of  private 
individuals,  such  as  distinguished  the  violence  against  the 
Jews,  enter  into  their  plans.  They  robbed,  they  admitted, 
but  only  in  the  interest  of  the  "cause"  and  of  the  people. 
They  warned  the  emperor  against  listening  to  pernicious 
counsel.  But  the  emperor  closed  his  ears  to  this  advice. 
Trembling  for  his  life,  he  shut  himself  up  at  Gatshina,  to 
which  place  he  had  fled.  The  day  when  he  was  to  start,  four 
imperial  trains  were  ostentatiously  ready  at  four  different 
stations  in  St.  Petersburg,  with  all  the  official  and  military 
attendants,  while  the  emperor  fled  in  a  train  without  attend- 
ance, which  had  been  waiting  at  a  siding. 

When  in  June  1881  the  Court  removed  to  Peterhoff,  the 
railway  between  the  two  places  was  strictly  guarded  by 


234  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

troops ;  for  every  half  verst — about  one- third  of  a  mile 
English — there  was  a  sentinel  with  a  tent.  Besides  this, 
the  photographs  of  all  the  railway  officials  were  lodged  in 
the  Ministry  of  Ways  and  Communications,  so  that  any 
Nihilist,  disguised  in  railway  costume,  might  the  more  easily 
be  detected. 

627.  Attempt  against   General  Tcherevin. — On  November 
25>  a  y°ung   man   presented   himself   at   the    Department 
of  State  Police,  which  was  the  old  third  section  or  secret 
police  under  a  new  name,  and  asked  to  see  General  Tche- 
revin, the  chief  director  of  measures  for  assuring  the  safety 
of  the  emperor,  stating  that  he  had  to  disclose  some  busi- 
ness gravely  affecting  the  State.     On  being  ushered  into 
the  presence  of  General  Tcherevin,  he  immediately  drew  a 
revolver  and  fired  at  the  general,  but  missed  him,  and  was 
secured.     He  declared  that  he  was  acting  as  the  instrument 
of  others,  and  for  the  good  of  Russia,  but  named  no  accom- 
plices.    His  own  name  was   Sankofsky.      As  the  Eussian 
Government  suppressed  as  far  as  possible  all  allusions  to 
the  event — and  we  have  no  account  as  to  what  became  of 
Sankofsky — he  was  probably  tried  with  closed  doors,  and 
what  was  his  punishment  remains  unknown. 

628.  Trials  and  other  Events  in  1882. — Numerous  arrests, 
and  trials  of  persons  who  had  long  been  in  prison,  took  place 
in  1 882 ,    Of  twenty  prisoners  tried  in  February,  ten,  including 
one  woman,  were  sentenced  to  be  hanged.      On  1 2th  June 
Count   Ignatieff,    having    rendered    himself    unpopular    to 
the   public  by  his    anti-Jewish  schemes,  and   incurred  the 
disfavour  of  his  imperial  master  by  intimating  to  him  that, 
without  the  introduction  of  the  ancient  States-General  of 
the  Tsars,  the  government  of  the  country  could  not  be  satis- 
factorily carried  on,  under  the  time-honoured  fiction  of  ill- 
health   sent  in  his  resignation.       Count  Tolstoi,   who  was 
known  to  disapprove  of   the  anti-Semitic  policy  of  Count 
Ignatieff,  was  appointed  his  successor. 

Five  days  after,  the  Nihilists  received  a  terrible  blow.  In 
a  house  occupied  by  them  on  an  island  in  the  Neva,  there 
was  discovered  a  great  number  of  bombs  and  a  large  quantity 
of  dynamite ;  but  of  more  importance  were  the  papers  found 
on  the  Nihilists  apprehended  at  the  same  time,  from  which 
it  appeared  that  they  were  kept  an  courant  of  the  Govern- 
ment correspondence  in  cipher  with  foreign  countries,  as  far 
as  it  referred  to  themselves,  which  information  they  had 
received  from  Volkoff,  one  of  the  higher  officials  in  the 
Ministry  of  Foreign  Affairs.  In  July  a  secret  printing-press 


THE  NIHILISTS  235 

of  the  Nihilists  was  discovered  in  the  Ministry  of  Marine  ; 
its  director  committed  suicide.  Encouraged  by  the  disasters 
which  had  befallen  the  Nihilists,  the  emperor  ventured  to 
return  to  St.  Petersburg,  and  on  the  nth  of  September 
attended  the  fete  of  Alexander  Nevsky,  the  patron-saint  of 
the  emperor,  but  slightly  guarded,  without  evil  results ;  and 
in  the  exuberance  of  his  feelings  he  went  so  far  as  to  extend 
his  clemency  even  to  the  Nihilists,  for  on  October  4  he 
graciously  commuted  the  sentence  of  death,  passed  by  a 
secret  tribunal,  on  two  Nihilists  for  having  murdered  a 
police  spy,  to  perpetual  labour  in  the  mines — and  yet  the 
Nihilists  were  not  conciliated!  For  when,  on  the  2ist 
November,  the  emperor  and  empress  paid  a  visit  to  St. 
Petersburg  extra  precautions  were  taken  on  the  part  of  the 
police  and  military  authorities ;  all  along  the  route,  from  the 
railway-station  to  the  palace,  police-officers  in  sledges  and 
on  foot  were  met  with  at  every  half-dozen  yards  ;  policemen 
were  posted  at  regular  intervals  in  the  centre  of  the  street, 
and  the  bridges  over  the  canals  were  closely  guarded  by  the 
marine  police.  But  the  emperor  maintained  his  serenity. 
As  the  Official  Gazette  informed  its  readers :  "  Towards  the 
end  of  December  the  new  chief  of  police,  General  Grossler, 
had  the  honour  of  exhibiting  before  his  Imperial  Majesty 
several  policemen  attired  in  the  latest  new  and  last  old 
uniforms  of  the  force.  His  Majesty  carefully  examined  the 
difference,  consisting  mainly  in  alterations  of  colours  and 
buttons."  He  also  began  to  think  of  his  coronation,  which 
was  announced  to  take  place  at  various  dates  during  the 
current  year  ;  but  the  ceremony  was  postponed  from  time  to 
time,  and  did  not  finally  take  place  until  27th  May  1883. 

629.  Coronation,  and  Causes  of  Nihilistic  Inactivity. — Great 
surprise  was  excited  by  the  peaceful  nature  of  the  corona- 
tion ;  but  it  appeared  by  the  trial  (in  April  1883)  of  seven- 
teen Nihilists  at  Odessa,  five  of  whom  were  sentenced  to 
death,  that  the  conspirators  had  made  the  most  extensive 
preparations  for  killing  the  emperor  at  his  coronation,  as 
proposed  in  1881  and  1882;  but  by  the  vigilance  of  the 
police,  and  the  denunciation  of  spies,  their  schemes  were 
frustrated,  and  the  terrorists  found  it  impracticable  to  make 
the  attempt  in  1883.  As  they  themselves  declared  after- 
wards, they  came  to  the  conclusion  that  such  an  attempt 
would  damage  their  interests.  They  argued  that  the  revolu- 
tionary movement  in  Eussia  embraces  many  persons  of  mode- 
rate views,  whose  opinions  must  be  taken  into  consideration  ; 
that  the  people,  who  came  to  the  coronation  would  not 


236  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

belong  to  a  class  likely  to  approve  of  a  revolutionary  plot. 
But  the  Nihilists  profited  in  another  way  by  the  coronation. 
The  whole  force  of  the  Government,  and  its  most  intelligent 
spies,  being  concentrated  at  Moscow,  the  Nihilists  seized  this 
occasion  to  spread  their  doctrines  and  to  enrol  supporters 
at  St.  Petersburg  and  other  large  centres,  to  which  may  be 
attributed  the  great  riots  which,  after  the  coronation,  occurred 
at  St.  Petersburg,  which  were  intensified  by  the  fact  that 
none  of  the  expected  constitutional  reforms  were  granted. 
The  manifesto  issued  by  the  emperor  on  the  coronation  day 
consisted  simply  of  a  remission  of  arrears  of  taxes ;  criminals 
condemned  without  privation  of  civil  rights  had  one-third 
of  their  terms  remitted ;  exiles  to  Siberia  for  life  had  their 
sentences  commuted  to  twenty  years'  penal  servitude ;  those 
still  lying  under  sentence  for  the  Polish  troubles  in  1863 
were  to  be  set  free ;  but  confiscated  property  was  not  to  be 
restored.  Much  more  had  been  expected,  and  the  Burgo- 
master of  Moscow  had  been  bold  enough,  in  his  congratula- 
tory address  to  the  emperor,  to  express  those  hopes,  for 
which  "tpresumption "  he  was  visited  with  the  emperor's 
displeasure.  But  the  disappointment  of  the  people's  expec- 
tation of  an  amnesty  and  a  constitution  greatly  favoured  the 
spread  of  Nihilistic  doctrines.  The  Nihilists  continued  to 
hold  secret  meetings,  issue  their  papers,  flying  sheets,  and 
manifestoes.  In  September  1883  a  number  of  officers  were 
arrested,  and  a  large  depot  discovered  at  Charkoff,  contain- 
ing arms  of  every  kind,  large  quantities  of  gunpowder, 
dynamite  bombs,  and  new  printing  apparatus.  It  was  found 
that  dynamite  was  being  manufactured  in  Kolpino,  close 
by  St.  Petersburg.  Here  138  naval  and  17  artillery  officers 
were  arrested  and  conveyed  to  the  St.  Peter  and  Paul  for- 
tress. In  Simbirsk  an  artillery  colonel  was  arrested,  who 
had  gained  an  enormous  influence  with  the  peasants,  and 
incited  them  to  revolutionary  deeds. 

630.  Colonel  Sudeikin  shot  ly  Nihilists. — On  the  28th 
December  the  Nihilists  took  their  revenge  by  shooting 
Colonel  Sudeikin,  the  Chief  of  the  Secret  Police,  in  a  house 
to  which  he  had  been  enticed  by  the  false  information  of  an 
intended  Socialist  meeting.  They  also  left  a  letter  stating 
that  the  next  victims  would  be  Count  Tolstoi,  Minister  of 
the  Interior,  and  General  Grossler,  the  Chief  of  the  St. 
Petersburg  police.  "  If  ever  assassination  could  be  pal- 
liated," says  the  Evening  Standard  of  the  3ist  December 
1883,  "  it  is  in  such  a  case  as  the  present.  When  men  know 
that  sons,  or  brothers,  or  wives  are  being  driven  to  madness 


THE  NIHILISTS  237 

or  death  by  prolonged  and  deliberate  cruelty,  no  Englishman 
can  blame  them  very  greatly  if  they  take  vengeance  on  their 
tyrants.  In  a  free  country,  under  just  laws,  assassination  of 
officers  for  a  fancied  wrong  is  altogether  unjustifiable  and 
wicked ;  but  under  such  a  regime  as  exists  in  Russia,  it  can 
hardly  be  judged  in  the  same  way.  Men  may  shudder,  but 
they  cannot  unreservedly  condemn." 

631.  Attempt  against  the  Emperor  at  Gatshina. — The 
Nihilists  continued  to  issue  journals  and  proclamations,  and 
to  extend  their  influence  among  the  working  classes.  Of 
course  they  also  continued  to  meet  with  checks.  Early  in 
January  1884  numerous  arrests  were  made  among  the 
factory  hands  at  Perm,  on  the  Kama,  and  many  revolu- 
tionary documents  were  found  in  their  possession.  Towards 
the  end  of  the  month  of  December  of  the  preceding  year 
the  emperor  had  met  with  what  was  thought,  or  at  lea^t 
officially  represented,  to  be  an  accident ;  while  out  hunting, 
his  horses  took  fright,  upset  the  sledge,  and  the  emperor 
sustained  a  severe  injury  to  his  right  shoulder.  But  in  the 
following  January  it  was  rumoured  that  the  accident  was 
really  a  Nihilist  attempt  at  assassination.  It  was  said  that 
about  a  fortnight  before  the  murder  of  Colonel  Sudeikin, 
Jablonski,  alias  Degaieff,  who  had  sent  Sudeikin  the  letter 
which  led  to  his  death,  accompanied  by  a  woman,  arrived  at 
the  house  of  the  imperial  gamekeeper  at  Gatshina,  and  pro- 
ducing a  letter  from  Colonel  Sudeikin,  informed  him  that 
the  woman  was  to  be  received  into  his  house  in  order  to 
assist  the  detectives  already  at  Gatshina.  The  woman  re- 
mained, and  whenever  the  Tsar  went  shooting,  she  attended, 
disguised  as  a  peasant  boy.  On  the  day  of  the  "  accident  " 
the  woman  was  not  there,  but  made  her  appearance  next 
day  and  reported  that  the  Tsar  had  met  with  an  accident, 
/one  of  the  gamekeepers  having  carelessly  discharged  his  gun 
close  to  the  imperial  sledge  and  frightened  the  horses.  On 
the  day  after  the  assassination  of  Sudeikin,  and  when  it 
was  known  that  Jablonski  had  played  the  chief  part  in  the 
tragedy,  three  detectives  arrived  at  Gatshina  and  arrested 
the  woman.  She  was  said  to  be  a  sister  of  Streiakoff,  who 
was  hanged  for  complicity  in  the  murder  of  Alexander  II., 
and  there  were  rumours  current  afterwards  that  she  had 
secretly  been  hanged  in  one  of  the  casemates  of  the  Petro- 
powlovski  Fortress  for  the  attempted  murder  at  Gatshina. 

Odessa  then  became  notorious  for  the  frequent  murders 
and  attempted  assassinations  of  officers  of  the  gendarmerie 
by  Nihilists.  During  the  summer,  Colonel  Strielnikoff  and 


238  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

Captain  Gezhdi  were  killed;  011  the  1 9th  August  a  deter- 
mined attempt  to  kill  Captain  Katansky,  the  successor  of 
Strielnikoff,  was  made  by  a  second  Vera  Zassulic.  The  girl, 
Mary  Kaljushnia,  who  made  the  attempt,  was  a  merchant's 
daughter,  barely  nineteen,  and  her  object,  to  avenge  her 
brother,  who  had  been  sentenced  to  penal  servitude  for  life 
in  Siberia.  She  had  for  some  time  been  under  police  super- 
vision ;  she  earned  a  miserable  subsistence  by  giving  lessons, 
maintaining  herself  on  about  fourpence  a  day.  Her  requests 
to  be  allowed  to  go  abroad  were  persistently  refused.  On 
the  date  above  named,  she  called  on  Captain  Katansky, 
avowedly  with  the  object  of  renewing  her  request,  but  in 
the  course  of  conversation  she  suddenly  drew  a  revolver  and 
fired  straight  into  the  officer's  face.  But  the  ball  only 
grazed  his  ear ;  she  was  seized  before  she  could  fire  again, 
and  on  the  loth  September  following  sentenced  to  twenty 
years'  hard  labour.  She  was  tried  by  the  Odessa  Military 
Tribunal  with  closed  doors.  Several  political  arrests  were 
made  about  the  same  time,  especially  of  students  and  young 
ladies,  one  of  the  latter  a  doctor  of  medicine. 

632.  Trial  of  the  Fourteen. — In  the  month  of  October  a 
trial  took  place  in  St.  Petersburg  of  fourteen  Nihilists,  in- 
cluding six  officers  and  the  celebrated  female  revolutionist 
Figner,  alias  Vera  Filipava,  who  had  offered  shelter  to  the 
regicide   Sophia  Perovsky,  and  of  another  woman,   named 
Volkenstein,  who  had   been   implicated   in  the  murder  of 
Prince  Krapotkine  at  Kharkoff  in  1879  (616).     The  tr.bunal 
was   virtually  a  court-martial  with   closed    doors,   ant    the 
greatest    secrecy   was    observed   throughout   the    week   for 
which  the  trial  lasted.     The  six  officers  and  the  two  wom.n, 
Figner  and  Volkenstein,  were  condemned  to  death,  and  ti\e 
others  sentenced  to  hard  labour  in  the  mines. 

633.  Reconstruction  of  the  Nihilist  Party. — After  a  years  ' 
silence,  the  organ  published  clandestinely  in  Russia  by  the 
Nihilists,  the  Narodnaia  Volia  (The  Will  of  the  People),  re- 
appeared, dated  1 2th  October  1 884,  in  large  4to.     The  losses 
suffered  by  the  party  were  admitted  ;  their  type  and  printing- 
machines  had  fallen  into  the  hands  of  the  police,  and  some 
of  their  chief  men  were  in  prison.     These  losses  they  attri- 
buted  to   the   denunciations   of   Degaieff,    the   assassin   of 
Colonel    Sudeikin,    who  had   been    a  leading  Nihilist,   had 
turned   traitor,  but   finding  the   Government   not   grateful 
enough,  and  fearing  the  vengeance  of  the  Nihilists,  had  pur- 
chased his  safety  by  acting  again  for  the  latter  and  killing 
Sudeikiu.     This  latter  being  killed,  and  Degaieff  rendered 


THE  NIHILISTS  239 

harmless,  the  Committee  was  able  to  reconstitute  the  party. 
The  Will  of  the  People  also  gave  a  summary  of  the  principal 
Nihilistic  events  during  the  year,  comprising  some  interesting 
details  concerning  the  great  development  of  agrarian  Social- 
ism in  the  south  of  Russia,  facts  till  then  studiously  con- 
cealed by  the  Government.  The  paper  further  stated  that  the 
revolutionary  group,  which  had  at  one  time  separated  itself 
from  the  party  of  the  Will  of  the  People,  "The  Party  of  the 
People"  (614)  and  the  revolutionary  party  of  Poland,  had  coa- 
lesced with  the  Russian  Nihilists.  Among  the  other  subjects 
treated,  there  was  an  obituary  notice  of  Professor  Neous- 
traieff,  who  was  shot  at  Irkutsk  for  striking  the  governor- 
general  of  the  province.  The  last  pages  of  the  paper  were 
filled  with  a  long  list  of  arrests  made,  and  a  paragraph 
incidentally  mentions  that  M.  Larroff  never  belonged  to  the 
Executive  Committee,  though  he  is  recognised  as  one  of  the 
editors  of  the  review  Onwards,  published  by  the  Nihilists  at 
Geneva,  and  as  a  warm  friend  of  the  party. 

634.  Extension  of  Nihilism. — With  such  a  constant  hidden 
enemy  in  their  very  midst,  the  Government  and  people  of 
Russia  were  in  a  state  of  chronic  alarm.     Count  Tolstoi,  the 
Minister   of   the    Interior,    whilst    diligently   searching   for 
Nihilists,  was  also  their  especial  victim.     He  daily  received 
threatening  letters ;  he  scarcely  dared  stir  out  of  doors,  and 
whenever  he  did  so,  the  extra  precautions  that  had  to  be 
taken  involved  an  outlay  of  five  hundred  roubles.    And  whilst 
despotism  was  more  violent  and  resolute  than  ever,  the  trials 
constantly  going  on  showed  that  Nihilism  had  extended  its 
influence  to  the  army,  and  that  the  military  Nihilists  did 
not  belong  to  the  lower  ranks.     Whilst  the  emperor  shut  up 
Nihilists  in  one  fortress,  he  was  a  prisoner  in  another.     The 
official  press  of  Russia  about  this  time  (end  of  1884)  was 
very  sore  on  the  subject  of  the  comments  of  the  English 
press  on  Russian  affairs,  accusing  it  of  basing  its  opinions 
about  Russia  upon  the  prejudiced  writings  of  expatriated 
Nihilists,  and  further  charging  the  English  Government  with 
allowing  Nihilists  to  use  the  very  City  of  London  as  a  place 
whence  to  send  not  only  criminal  proclamations,  but  explo- 
sive substances,  such  as  dynamite,  to  Russia.     "A  family," 
it  was  said,  "  making  inquiries  about  their  son,  accidentally 
came  across  an  entire  office  of  Russian  Nihilists  within  the 
boundaries  of  the  City  proper."     Of  course  had  the  English 
Government  been  cognisant  of  these  proceedings,  it  would 
readily  have  put  an  end  to  them. 

635.  Decline  of  Nihilism. — But  Nihilism  apparently  began 


24o  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

to  decline.  A  Nihilist  manifesto,  published  in  August  1885, 
lamented  :  "  Truth  compels  us  to  own  that  the  fierce  struggle 
with  the  Russian  Government,  and  the  spirit  of  national  dis- 
content, which  gave  strength  to  our  party,  which  was,  in  fact, 
its  raison  d'Stre,  has  ended  in  the  triumph  of  absolutism."  In 
the  following  December  a  trial  took  place  at  Warsaw,  at  which 
six  persons  belonging  to  the  revolutionary  association  called 
the  Proletariate,  including  a  justice  of  the  police  and  a  captain 
of  Engineers,  were  sentenced  to  be  hanged ;  eighteen  were 
condemned  to  sixteen  years'  hard  labour  in  the  mines,  two 
to  ten  years  and  eight  months'  penal  servitude,  and  two 
others  to  transportation  to  Siberia  for  life.  Early  in  January 
1886  the  police  discovered  a  Nihilist  rendezvous  opposite 
the  Annitchkine  Palace,  at  St.  Petersburg.  A  number  of 
explosive  bombs  and  a  printing-press  were  seized,  and  several 
arrests  were  made.  In  April  it  was  reported  that  a  Nihilist 
conspiracy,  directed  against  the  life  of  the  emperor,  had 
been  discovered  at  a  place  near  Novo  Tcherkask,  the  capital 
of  the  Don  Cossacks,  to  which  the  emperor  was  expected  to 
make  a  visit.  Early  in  December  some  five  hundred  students 
attempted  to  celebrate  the  anniversary  of  a  certain  Bogolin- 
boff,  a  once  popular  poet ;  but  the  police  interfered,  and  a 
number  of  arrests  were  made,  including  many  lady  students, 
eighteen  of  whom  were  sent  off  from  St.  Petersburg  by  an 
administrative  order,  without  the  least  notion  whither  they 
were  to  be  taken,  or  what  was  to  become  of  them. 

Such  are  the  scanty  notices  we  have  of  Nihilism  in  1886. 

636.  Nihilistic  Proceedings  in  1887. — In  1887  the  Nihilists 
displayed  greater  activity.  In  February  another  conspiracy 
was  discovered,  but  the  details  were  not  allowed  to  transpire. 
All  that  became  known  was  that  a  young  prince,  a  cadet 
in  one  of  the  military  schools,  attempted  to  commit  suicide 
by  shooting  himself,  the  reason  alleged  being  his  complicity 
in  some  plot  which  he  thought  had  been  discovered.  An 
inquiry  into  the  matter  in  one  or  two  of  the  military  and 
naval  schools  resulted  in  the  arrest  of  a  large  number  of 
young  men,  as  well  as  of  two  or  three  naval  officers. 

On  Sunday,  the  I3th  March,  the  anniversary  of  the  assas- 
sination of  Alexander  II.,  a  determined  attempt  to  kill  his 
successor  was  made.  The  Russian  police  had  previous  informa- 
tion that  such  an  attempt  would  be  made,  from  Berlin,  London, 
and  Bucharest.  On  Saturday  night  a  couple  of  men  in  a  res- 
taurant on  the  Nevsky  attracted  the  attention  of  the  detectives, 
who  followed  and  watched  them  all  night.  Next  day  the  police 
were  able  to  watch  the  posting  of  six  individuals,  including 


THE  NIHILISTS  241 

three  students,  at  three  different  parts  of  the  route  to  be  fol- 
lowed by  the  Tsar.  They  carried  bombs  in  the  shape  of  books, 
of  a  bag,  an  opera-glass,  and  a  roll  of  music.  As  soon  as  they 
had  apparently  taken  their  positions  they  were  pounced  upon 
by  the  police  and  secured.  Altogether  fifteen  persons  were 
arrested,  twelve  men  and  three  women,  one  of  the  latter 
being  the  landlady  of  the  house  at  Paulo vna,  on  the  Finnish 
railway,  where  the  bomb  manufactory  was  discovered  a  day  or 
two  after  the  attempt  of  the  1 3th.  Nine  of  the  twelve  men 
were  students,  and  the  other  three  were  two  Polish  nobles  from 
Wilna  and  an  apothecary's  assistant.  Seven  of  the  accused 
were  condemned  to  be  hanged,  and  the  other  eight  to  various 
terms  of  imprisonment  with  hard  labour,  from  twenty  years 
downwards.  It  was  reported  at  the  time  that  each  prisoner 
was  found  to  have  a  small  bottle  containing  a  most  active 
poison  suspended  round  the  neck,  next  to  the  bare  skin.  In 
case  of  failure,  or  refusal  at  the  last  moment  to  accomplish 
the  task,  secret  agents  of  the  party,  who  were  on  the  watch 
all  the  time,  were  to  strike  the  chest  of  the  faint-hearted 
or  unsuccessful  conspirator,  thus  smashing  the  bottle  and 
causing  the  poison  to  enter  the  wound  made  by  the  broken 
glass.  The  Nihilists  seem  not  to  have  been  discouraged  by 
the  last  failure,  for  on  the  6th  April  next  a  fresh  attempt 
on  the  emperor's  life  appears  to  have  been  made,  though  par- 
ticulars, beyond  those  of  the  seizure  of  several  suspected 
persons,  were  not  allowed  to  transpire.  But  it  was  reported 
from  Odessa  that  in  the  month  of  the  same  year  (1887)  482 
officers  of  the  army  arrived  in  that  town  under  a  strong 
military  escort.  They  were  accused  of  participation  in  the 
last  attempt  on  the  Tsar's  life,  and  were  to  be  transported  to 
Eastern  Asia. 

In  June  the  trial  of  twenty-one  Nihilists,  accused  of 
various  revolutionary  acts  in  the  years  1883  and  1884,  took 
place  at  St.  Petersburg.  The  prisoners  included  the  sons 
of  college  councillors,  priests,  superior  officers,  a  Don 
Cossack,  tradesmen,  peasants,  and  two  women,  one  of  them 
a  staff-captain's  daughter.  Fifteen  were  condemned  to 
death,  but  on  the  Court's  recommendation,  eight  death 
sentences  were  mitigated  to  from  four  to  fifteen  years'  hard 
labour,  and  subsequently  the  emperor  for  once  reprieved 
the  remaining  seven,  five  of  whom  were  to  undergo  hard 
labour  in  Siberia  for  life,  and  the  others  from  eighteen  to 
twenty  years  each. 

Another  blow  was  sustained  by  the  Nihilists  at  the  end 
of  November,  when  the  police  discovered  laboratories  for 

VOL.  II.  Q 


242  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

the  manufacture  of  dynamite  in  the  Vassili,  Ostrou,  and 
Peski  quarters  of  St.  Petersburg.  No  wonder  that  they 
began  to  utter  cries  of  despair  towards  the  end  of  the  year 
1887.  "  Liberalism,"  they  said,  in  one  of  their  publications, 
"  has  not  eradicated  the  feeling  of  loyalty  in  society.  .  .  . 
Even  the  '  intelligent  Liberals '  have  rejected  the  invitation 
to  establish  free  printing  offices,  ...  or  even  to  serve  the 
revolutionary  press  abroad  by  sending  it  articles  for  publica- 
tion." The  Messenger  of  the  Will  of  the  People,  which  was  the 
official  exponent  of  the  party  during  the  year,  ceased  to 
appear  "for  want  of  intellectual  and  material  aid  from 
Russia."  "  Little  is  to  be  expected,"  the  Nihilists  said  else- 
where, "  from  the  present  generation  of  Russians.  .  .  . 
Russian  society,  with  its  dulness,  emptiness,  and  ignorance, 
is  to  blame.  .  .  .  Most  of  the  so-called  cultured  classes 
belong  to  that  category  of  passengers  who  are  made  to 
travel  in  cattle-trucks.  .  .  .  Russian  society  has  become  a 
flock  of  sheep,  driven  by  the  whip  and  the  shepherds'  dogs." 

637.  Nihilism  in  1888. — Little  or  nothing  was  heard  of 
Nihilism  in  that  year.  There  was  indeed  a  rumour  in 
January  that  a  new  Nihilist  conspiracy  against  the  life  of 
the  Tsar  had  been  discovered  at  St.  Petersburg,  and  that 
many  officers  and  others  had  been  arrested ;  but  it  went 
no  further  than  a  rumour.  Extensive  police  precautions 
were  adopted  at  St.  Petersburg  early  in  March,  in  anticipa- 
tion of  Nihilist  manifestations  on  March  13,  the  anniversary 
of  the  death  of  the  late  Tsar ;  but  the  day  went  by  without 
disturbances  of  any  kind.  The  accident  which  occurred  to 
the  Tsar's  train  in  November  1888  is  very  generally  sup- 
posed to  have  been  the  result  of  a  Nihilist  plot.  But  the 
unchangeable  despotic  character  of  the  Russian  Government 
was  again  exemplified  during  the  year  by  its  anti-Semitic 
policy  at  two  extremities  of  European  Russia.  Some  two 
thousand  Jews  received  notice  to  quit  Odessa,  and  the 
expulsion  laws  against  the  persecuted  Hebrews  were  also 
enforced  in  Finland.  The  Finnish  Diet  having  refused  to 
adopt  the  Russian  view  of  the  case,  the  Government  deter- 
mined upon  enforcing  the  law  as  it  exists  in  Russia ;  all  the 
Jews  to  leave  within  a  year,  with  the  exception  of  those  who 
had  served  in  the  army.  According  to  the  emperor's  own 
statement,  this  wholesale  expulsion  of  the  Jews  was  due  to  the 
fact  that  Jews  have  been  mixed  up  with  all  Nihilistic  plots. 

In  December  1888  the  papers  reported  the  discovery  by 
the  Russian  Government  of  a  ramification  of  secret  societies 
among  the  young  and  educated  Armenians,  upon  the  model 


THE  NIHILISTS  243 

of  the  "  Young  Italy  "  societies,  as  they  were  constituted 
in  1848.  The  object  of  the  Armenian  societies  is  revolution 
against  Russian  rule,  and  the  establishment  of  Armenian 
union  and  independence. 

638.  Slaughter  of  Siberian  Exiles,  and  Hunger-Strikes. — 
Towards  the  end  of  the  year  1889,  the  civilised  world  was 
horrified  by  the  account  of  the  slaughter  of  a  number  of 
exiles  at  Yakutsk,  on  their  way  to  the  extreme    east   of 
Siberia,  near  the  shore  of  the  Polar  Sea.     These  exiles  were 
not  criminals,  but  exiled  by  "  administrative  order,"  that  is 
to   say,   they  had   not   been   tried   and   convicted   by   any 
tribunal :  Government,  not  the  Law,  arbitrarily  had  ordered 
them  to  Siberia  as   suspects.     Simply  for  asking  to  take 
with   them   sufficient   food   and   clothing   for   the    terrible 
journey   still   before   them,   they   were    declared    to    have 
resisted  the  authorities,  and  a  number  of  them  shot  down ; 
a  woman,  Sophie  Gourewitch,  was  ripped  open  by  bayonets ; 
the  vice-governor  himself  twice  fired  at  the  exiles.     Not 
satisfied  with  this  butchery,  the  surviving  exiles  were  tried 
by  court-martial ;  three  were  sentenced  to  death,  and  many 
others  to  long  terms  of  penal  servitude  in  the  mines.     Early 
in  1 890,  still  more  horrifying  details  of  hunger-strikes  among 
the  exiles  reached  Europe,  and  of  the  means  adopted  by  the 
Russian  Government  to  repress  them.     One  lady,  Madame 
Sihida,  was  dragged  out  of  bed,  where  she  lay  ill,  and  received 
one  hundred  blows.     She  died  in  two  days  from  the  effects. 
Many  of  her  companions  in  misery  took  poison  ;  so  did  many 
of  the  male  prisoners.     This  occurred  at  Kara,  in  Eastern 
Siberia.     In  fact,  the  condition  of  Russian  prisons,  espe- 
cially of  those  where  political  prisoners  are  confined,  is  too 
horrible  to  be  described  in  these   pages ;   the   moral   and 
physical  suffering  wantonly  inflicted  on  the  victims   of   a 
Tsarish  cruelty  is  without  a  parallel  in  the  history  of  absolu- 
tism.    The  Tsar  cannot  be  absolved  from  personal  responsi- 
bility in  the  matter:  to  say  that  he  was  not  aware  of  the 
cruelties  practised  in  his  name,  is  saying  in  as  many  words 
that  his  neglect  of  inquiring  into  them  encouraged  them ; 
but  he  must  know  them ;  they  had  been  frequently  com- 
municated to  Alexander  III.,  notably  in  a  long  letter  written 
in  March    1890   by  Madame  Tshebrikova,  a  lady  of  posi- 
tion, and  not  in  any  way  connected  with  the  Nihilists ;  but 
for  writing  it  she  was  arrested,  and  sent  to  Penza,  in  the 
Caucasus,  and  placed  under  strict  police  surveillance. 

639.  Occurrences  in  1890. — The  Russian  students  having 
in  recent  times  shown  decidedly  Liberal  tendencies,  Govern- 


244  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

ment  endeavoured  to  repress  them,  which  led  to  repeated 
riots  and  endless  arrests,  as  many  as  five  hundred  and  fifty 
students,  who  had  protested  against  the  new  and  oppressive 
statutes  promulgated  by  the  authorities,  being  arrested  at 
Moscow  in  March  1890.  In  April  all  the  police  stations 
and  prisons  of  St.  Petersburg  were  full  of  arrested  students ; 
the  ringleaders,  mostly  young  men  belonging  to  good 
families,  were  eventually  sent  as  private  soldiers  into  the 
disciplinary  battalions  near  Orenburg. 

In  May,  fourteen  Russians  were  arrested  in  Paris,  which 
has  always  been  a  favourite  place  of  residence  with  Nihilists, 
Colonel  Sokoloff,  who  was  expelled  from  France,  Krukoff, 
a  printer,  and  Prince  Krapotkine  being  among  their  chiefs. 
The  prisoners  above  mentioned  were  proved  to  have  been  in 
possession  of  bombs,  many  of  which  had  been  manufactured 
in  Switzerland.  There  were  two  women  among  the  accused ; 
they  were  acquitted,  the  men  were  sentenced  to  three  years' 
imprisonment. 

In  November  in  the  same  year  the  Russian  General  Seli- 
verskoff  was  found  in  his  room  in  a  Paris  hotel,  shot  in  the 
head  ;  he  died  on  the  following  day  without  having  recovered 
consciousness.  He  had  been  a  Russian  spy  on  the  Nihilists. 

In  the  same  month  five  Nihilists  were  tried  at  St.  Peters- 
burg, one  of  them  being  a  woman,  Sophie  Giinzburg,  who 
was  arrested  in  Russia,  in  possession  of  bombs  and  revolu- 
tionary proclamations.  Four  of  the  prisoners  were  con- 
demned to  death.  Another  trial  took  place  about  the  same 
time,  and  as  in  the  first-mentioned  trial  the  principal  figure 
was  a  woman,  so  in  this  second  trial  the  chief  personage  was 
a  young  girl,  Olga  Ivanovsky,  niece  of  Privy  Councillor 
Idinsky,  director  of  a  department  of  the  Holy  Synod.  As 
the  names  of  high  ecclesiastical  functionaries  were  concerned 
in  the  affair,  the  authorities  shrouded  it  in  more  than  the 
usual  secrecy,  so  that  no  details  have  reached  the  outer 
world. 

640.  Occurrences  from  1891  to  Present  Date. — The  Nihi- 
lists appear  to  have  been  rather,  but  not  quite,  inactive 
during  these  later  years.  In  May  1891  a  secret  printing- 
press  was  discovered  and  seized  at  St.  Petersburg.  In 
November  of  the  same  year  a  far-reaching  political  con- 
spiracy was  discovered  at  Moscow,  and  some  sixty  persons, 
belonging  to  the  nobility,  the  literary  profession,  and  the 
upper  middle  class,  were  arrested.  In  December  a  great 
number  of  arrests  were  made,  some  of  the  accused  being 
found  to  be  in  possession  of  plans  and  details  of  the  imperial 


THE  NIHILISTS  245 

palaces.  In  1892  a  number  of  Nihilists  were  arrested  at 
Moscow,  for  an  alleged  conspiracy  to  kill  the  Tsar  on  his 
return  journey  from  the  Crimea.  An  anonymous  letter  had 
warned  the  authorities  that  the  attempt  was  to  be  made 
at  a  small  railway  station.  The  line  was  examined,  and  a 
bomb  discovered  under  each  line  of  rails.  In  spite  of  these 
failures,  the  Nihilistic  agitation  was  actively  carried  on. 
The  revolutionists  endeavoured  to  stir  up  the  lower  classes 
against  the  Tsar  by  telling  them  that,  though  he  pre- 
tended to  supply  the  masses  with  food  during  the  famine,  he 
allowed  his  subordinates  to  rob  the  people.  The  insinua- 
tion, however,  had  but  little  success  with  the  Russian  people 
of  the  lower  class,  brought  up  in  slavish  adoration  of  the 
emperor,  who  can  do  no  wrong.  In  the  month  of  December, 
Major-General  Droszgovski  was  assassinated  at  Tashkend,  in 
Russian  Turkestan.  He  had  been  acting  as  president  of  a 
court-martial  for  the  trial  of  a  number  of  Nihilists,  most  of 
whom  were  sentenced  to  various  terms  of  imprisonment. 
To  avenge  them  their  friends  killed  the  president. 

In  May  1893  the  decapitated  body  of  a  Russian  student 
was  discovered  in  a  forest,  near  Plussa  Station,  on  the  War- 
saw railway.  The  deceased  was  supposed  to  have  been  a 
member  of  a  secret  society,  and  to  have  been  killed  to  pre- 
vent his  revealing  its  secrets.  Two  young  men  were  arrested 
for  the  crime,  and  immediately  hanged.  A  widespread 
Nihilistic  conspiracy  against  the  life  of  the  Tsar  was  dis- 
covered (in  September  1893)  at  Moscow,  in  consequence  of 
which  eighty-five  university  students,  eight  professors,  and 
five  ladies  belonging  to  the  aristocracy,  were  arrested. 

Early  in  1 894  the  Government  Commission  appointed  to 
inquire  into  the  condition  of  Siberian  prisons  issued  its 
report,  in  which  instances  without  number  were  recorded 
of  merciless  floggings,  lopping  off  of  arms  and  fingers  by 
sabre  cuts,  of  cannibalism  under  stress  of  famine.  During 
the  whole  of  1892  there  was  an  almost  continuous  string  of 
convoys  of  corpses  from  Onor,  the  prison  on  the  island  of 
Saghalien,  to  Rykovskaya,  the  residence  of  the  authorities, 
and  most  of  the  bodies  were  terribly  mutilated.  In  1893,  if 
any  one  of  a  band  of  convicts  failed  in  his  work,  he  was  at 
once  put  on  half  rations,  then  on  third  rations ;  and  when  he 
could  work  no  more,  the  inspector  finished  him  with  a  re- 
volver bullet.  What  wonder,  then,  that  in  November  1894 
three  secret  printing-presses,  in  full  working  order,  with  a 
great  quantity  of  Nihilistic  literature,  were  discovered  at 
Kieff,  at  Kharkoff,  and  at  Nicolaieff  respectively?  The 


246  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

press  at  Kharkoff  -was  being  worked  by  the  students  of  the 
university  in  that  city.  Upwards  of  eighty  persons  were 
arrested.  In  September  1895,  it  was  reported  that  a  wide- 
spread Nihilistic  plot  against  the  life  of  the  Tsar  and  the 
imperial  family  had  been  discovered  by  the  Russian  police. 
Some  of  the  leaders  were  quietly  arrested,  while  dynamite 
bombs,  arms,  and  piles  of  revolutionary  pamphlets  were 
seized  daring  a  number  of  domiciliary  visits  at  Moscow.  In 
March  of  the  year  1896  six  officers  of  the  garrison  of 
Kieff,  including  a  colonel,  were  arrested  for  participating 
in  a  Nihilist  conspiracy.  According  to  the  Central  News, 
in  October  1896  the  Russian  Custom-house  officers  con- 
fiscated on  the  Silesian  frontier  a  quantity  of  light  canes 
destined  for  sale  to  the  upper  classes,  and  containing  in 
their  hollow  interior  thousands  of  Nihilist  proclamations, 
printed  on  tissue  paper.  The  Nihilists,  evidently,  are  still 
at  work.  There  is  a  Nihilist  club,  composed  chiefly  of  Jews, 
in  London,  who  publish  a  paper,  similar  in  character  to 
Most's  Freiheit  (512)  in  Yiddish,  and  printed  with  Hebrew 
type. 

641.  Nihilistic  Finances. — The  number  of  active  Nihilists 
never  amounted  to  more  than  a  few  dozen  men  and  women  ; 
they  may  have  had  twelve  or  thirteen  hundred  supporters, 
who  assisted  the  leaders  by  distributing  their  books,  pamph- 
lets, dec.,  concealing  them  when  pursued  by  the  police  or 
otherwise  in  danger,  assisting  them  to  escape  from  prison, 
assisting  them  with  money,  &c. ;  though  those  who  sympa- 
thised with  the  Nihilists,  without,  however,  taking  any  active 
part  in  the  propaganda,  may  be  assumed  to  have  been  per- 
haps one  hundred  thousand.  Whence  did  the  Nihilists 
obtain  the  means  for  executing  their  schemes?  for  creating 
a  literature,  purchasing  materials,  travelling,  carrying  out 
terroristic  measures,  supporting  and  delivering  prisoners  ? 

In  1869  Nechayeff  had  obtained  from  Herzen  the  revolu- 
tionary fund  collected  in  Switzerland,  and  amounting  to 
more  than  ;£iooo;  the  members  of  the  society,  of  course, 
gave  their  contributions ;  Lizogoob  sacrificed  his  fortune  of 
about  200,000  roubles  to  the  "cause";  the  Justice  of  the 
Peace  Voinaralski  gave  40,000  roubles ;  a  Dr.  Weimar,  a 
very  active  Nihilist,  supplied  large  sums ;  rich  people,  who 
sympathised  with  Nihilism,  but  would  not  compromise  them- 
selves, contributed  money  either  anonymously,  or  ostensibly 
for  charitable  purposes.  Besides  these  voluntary  contribu- 
tions, the  Nihilists  obtained  compulsory  ones  by  threatening 
timorous  rich  men,  or  such  as  were  known  to  have  enriched 


THE  NIHILISTS  247 

themselves  at  the  expense  of  the  State,  that  unless  they 
assisted  the  Nihilistic  cause,  they  would  be  condemned  to 
death  by  the  Executive  Committee.  The  Nihilists  also 
occasionally  helped  themselves  to  the  Government  cash ;  in 
1879  they  robbed  the  State  bank  of  Kharkoff  by  means  of  a 
subterranean  passage,  and  carried  off  one  million  and  a  half 
of  roubles.  But  their  outgoings  were  considerable;  the 
Moscow  mine  and  the  other  two  attempts  made  at  the  same 
time,  for  instance,  cost  nearly  ^4000,  and  consequently  the 
Nihilists  were  often  hard  pressed  for  money.  The  most  ex- 
travagant reports  were  circulated  at  times  as  to  their  finan- 
cial resources ;  thus  the  Cologne  Gazette  in  April  1 879  declared 
the  Nihilistic  propaganda  to  count  as  many  as  19,000  mem- 
bers, and  to  be  possessed  of  a  fund  amounting  to  two  millions  of 
roubles.  The  Nihilists  accomplished  their  objects  with  a  tenth 
of  that  amount.  In  fact,  in  1881  they  were  driven  to  imitate 
the  device  of  Peter's  Pence  and  the  Ked  Cross.  In  January 
1882  they  founded  the  association  of  the  Eed  Cross,  and 
made  appeals  in  the  Will  of  the  People  for  contributions. 
This  appeal  was  published  by  Lavroff  in  the  Paris  paper 
I? Intransigeant,  which  led  to  his  expulsion  from  France. 
However,  according  to  the  Will  of  the  People  and  other 
Nihilistic  publications,  53,000  roubles  were  received  in  1881. 
But  the  figures  dealing  with  Nihilistic  finances  can  never 
be  anything  but  approximate.  They  received  contributions 
from  French,  Swiss,  German,  English,  Italian,  and  Austrian 
sympathisers,  a  fact  showing  the  international  unity  of  the 
Revolutionists,  and  the  extensive  foreign  connections  of  the 
Russian  Nihilists. 

642.  The  Secret  Press. — The  revolutionary  party  early  felt 
the  necessity  of  propagating  their  opinions  by  the  press, 
hence  in  the  earliest  stages  of  the  movement,  as  far  back  as 
the  year  1860,  secret  printing-presses  were  set  up;  and  all 
the  various  organisations  established  afterwards,  attempted 
to  have  their  own  presses ;  but  the  difficulty  of  maintaining 
secrecy  was  too  great ;  one  after  the  other  they  were  dis- 
covered and  seized.  At  last,  in  1 876,  Stephanovitch,  a  lead- 
ing spirit  among  the  Nihilists,  succeeded  in  establishing  a 
secret  printing-press  at  Kieff.  He  lived  in  one  house,  and 
had  the  press  at  another.  A  friend  of  his  who  lodged  with 
him  was  arrested ;  he  sent  a  note  to  Stephanovitch  to  warn 
him ;  but  the  messenger  handed  the  note  to  the  police, 
which  led  to  the  arrest  of  Stephanovitch.  His  sole  object 
now  was  to  save  the  printing  apparatus.  A  woman  and  her 
husband  presented  themselves  before  the  landlord  of  the 


248  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

house  where  the  printing  office  was,  and  producing  the  key  of 
the  rooms,  the  woman  told  the  landlord  that  she  was  Stephano- 
vitch's  sister,  who  had  given  it  her,  and  given  her  and  her  hus- 
band permission  to  occupy  the  rooms  till  his  return.  The^ 
landlord  had  no  suspicion,  and  made  no  objection.  The  pair 
secretly  removed  all  the  printing  apparatus  and  left  the 
house.  Soon  after  the  police  made  their  appearance ;  they 
had  made  a  house  to  house  visitation  at  Kieff  in  search  of 
the  printing  office,  and  the  few  types  and  proofs  they  found 
here  and  there  left  in  corners,  satisfied  them  that  they  had 
come  too  late.  The  printing  apparatus  was  carried  to 
Odessa,  but  what  became  of  it  there,  is  not  known. 

A  clever  and  enterprising  Jew,  Aaron  Zundelevic,  a  native 
of  Wilna,  in  1877  managed  to  smuggle  into  St.  Petersburg 
all  the  necessary  apparatus  for  a  printing  office,  which  could 
print  works  of  some  size.  He  learned  the  compositor's  art, 
and  taught  it  to  four  other  persons.  For  four  years  the 
police  discovered  nothing,  until  treachery  and  an  accident 
came  to  their  aid.  Not  only  the  members  of  the  organisa- 
tion "Land  and  Liberty,"  which  maintained  the  office,  but 
even  the  editors  and  contributors  of  the  journal  printed  there, 
did  not  know  where  it  was.  It  was  occupied  by  four  per- 
sons. Mary  Kriloff,  who  acted  as  mistress  of  the  house,  was 
a  woman  of  about  forty-five.  She  had  been  implicated  in 
various  conspiracies.  A  pretty,  fair  girl  passed  as  the  servant 
of  Madame  Kriloff.  Intercourse  with  the  outer  world  was 
maintained  by  a  young  man  of  aristocratic,  but  silent,  man- 
ners. He  was  the  son  of  a  general,  and  nephew  of  a  senator, 
and  was  supposed  to  hold  a  ministerial  appointment,  but  his 
portfolio  contained  only  MSS.  and  proofs  of  the  prohibited 
paper.  The  other  compositor,  Lubkin,  was  only  known  by 
the  nickname  of  the  "bird,"  given  to  him  on  account  of  his 
voice.  He  was  only  twenty-three  years  of  age  ;  consump- 
tion was  written  on  his  face ;  having  no  passport,  he  was 
compelled  always  to  remain  indoors.  When  after  four  hours' 
desperate  resistance  the  printing  office  of  "  Land  and  Liberty" 
fell  into  the  hands  of  the  military,  he  shot  himself. 

The  apparatus,  as  a  rule,  was  extremely  simple ;  a  few 
cases  of  various  kinds  of  type,  a  small  cylinder  of  a  kind 
of  gelatinous  substance,  a  large  cylinder  covered  with  cloth, 
which  served  as  the  press,  a  few  jars  of  printing  ink,  a 
few  brushes  and  sponges.  Everything  was  so  arranged  that 
in  a  quarter  of  an  hour  it  could  be  concealed  in  a  large 
cupboard.  To  allay  any  suspicion  the  dvornik  could  con- 
ceive, they  made  him  enter  the  rooms  under  various  pre- 


THE  NIHILISTS  249 

tences,  having  first  removed  every  vestige  of  the  printing 
operation. 

We  have  seen  in  preceding  paragraphs  how  the  capture 
by  the  police  of  one  printing-press  speedily  led  to  the 
setting  up  of  another;  and  that  the  number  scattered  all 
over  Kussia  must  have  been  great  is  evident  from  the 
number  which  were  discovered,  and  from  which  the  multi- 
tude of  those  undiscovered  may  be  inferred.  And  their 
publications  were  scattered  all  over  the  country.  Hand- 
bills and  placards  seemed  to  grow  out  of  the  earth.  The 
army  was  deluged  with  them,  the  labourer  found  them  in 
his  pocket,  the  emperor  on  his  writing-table.  Nihilists 
wandered  all  over  Kussia,  leaving  them  in  thousands  at 
every  halting-place.  Jessy  Helfmann  was  a  travelling  post- 
office  ;  her  pockets  were  always  full  of  proclamations,  news- 
papers, handbills,  and  tickets  for  concerts  and  balls  for 
the  benefit  of  prisoners,  or  of  the  secret  press. 

643.  Nihilistic  Measures  of  Safety. — When  Nihilism  began 
to  assume  terroristic  features,  and  the  vigilance  of  the  police 
consequently  became  more  strict,  and  arrests  were  of  daily 
occurrence,  the  Nihilists  had  to  adopt  various  means  for 
their  self-protection.  A  primary  condition  was  the  posses- 
sion of  a  passport,  for  in  Eussia  every  one  above  the  pea- 
santry must  be  registered,  and  have  a  passport.  Many 
young  men  matriculated  as  students,  not  with  a  view  of 
attending  university  lectures,  but  to  obtain  the  card  of 
legitimation.  Non-students  at  first  paid  high  prices  for 
passports,  but  eventually  took  to  manufacturing  them. 
Every  society  established  its  own  passport  office,  forging 
seals  and  signatures.  One  of  these  offices,  furnished  with 
every  necessary  appliance,  was  discovered  by  the  police  at 
Moscow  in  1882.  "Illegal"  men,  that  is  to  say,  those 
who  lived  with  a  false  passport,  or  one  lent  by  a  friend, 
of  course  did  not  go  by  their  true  names,  and  their  corre- 
spondence was  taken  care  of  by  friends.  The  Nihilist  had 
to  lead  a  very  regular  life,  not  to  excite  the  suspicions 
of  the  dcornik.  Their  larger  meetings  took  place  in 
"  conspiracy-quarters,"  which  were  carefully  selected.  The 
windows  must  be  so  placed  that  signals  can  easily  be  dis- 
played or  changed.  The  walls  of  the  room  must  not  be 
too  thin,  and  the  doors  close  accurately,  so  that  sounds  may 
not  reach  the  outside.  There  must  be  a  landing  outside, 
to  command  the  staircase,  so  that  in  case  of  a  surprise  a 
few  resolute  men  can  resist  a  troop  of  gendarmes,  until 
all  compromising  papers  and  other  objects  are  removed. 


250  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

The  conspiracy-quarters  generally  were  regular  arsenals ; 
at  the  storming  of  the  office  of  the  Will  of  the,  People,  every 
one  of  the  five  Nihilists  was  armed  with  two  revolvers ;  the 
dozen  gendarmes  were  afraid  to  advance,  and  soldiers  had 
to  be  sent  for;  from  eighty  to  a  hundred  shots  were  fired 
on  that  occasion.  When  to  some  of  the  Nihilists  all  these 
precautions  became  irksome,  and  they  consequently  neglected 
them,  Alexander  Michailoff,  to  whom  they  therefore  gave 
the  nickname  of  dvornik,  severely  censured  them ;  he  would 
follow  his  associates  in  the  street,  to  see  if  they  behaved 
with  caution,  or  he  would  suddenly  stop  one,  and  ask  him 
to  read  a  signboard,  and  if  he  found  him  shortsighted, 
insist  on  his  wearing  glasses.  He  insisted  on  their  dressing 
respectably,  and  would  often  himself  find  the  means  for 
their  doing  so.  He  himself  lived  like  the  Red  Indian  on 
the  war-path.  He  endeavoured  to  know  all  the  spies,  to 
beware  of  them ;  he  had  a  list  of  about  three  hundred 
passages  through  houses  and  courtyards,  and  by  his  in- 
timate knowledge  of  places  of  concealment,  saved  many  a 
companion  from  arrest.  The  Nihilists  frequently  change 
their  lodgings,  and  keep  them  secret.  Then  they  rely  also 
for  their  safety  on  the  Ukrivaheli,  or  Concealers,  who  forma 
large  class  in  every  position,  beginning  with  the  aristocracy 
and  the  upper  middle  class,  and  reaching  even  down  to  the 
police,  who,  sharing  the  revolutionary  ideas,  make  use  of 
their  social  or  official  position  to  shelter  the  combatants  by 
concealing,  whenever  necessary,  both  objects  and  men. 
Strange  causes  sometimes  led  to  the  most  unlikely  people 
becoming  "Concealers,"  Thus  a  Madame  Horn,  a  Danish 
lady,  seventy  years  of  age,  became  one.  She  had  married 
a  Russian,  who  held  some  small  appointment  in  the  police. 
When  the  Princess  Dagmar  became  the  wife  of  the  heredi- 
tary Prince  of  Russia,  Madame  Horn  wished  the  Danish 
ambassador  to  obtain  for  her  husband  some  appointment  in 
the  establishment  of  the  new  archduchess.  The  ambassador 
was  rude  enough  to  laugh  at  her.  This  turned  her  in  favour 
of  the  Nihilists,  who  she  hoped  would  punish  the  ambas- 
sador. She  began  by  taking  care  of  the  Nihilists'  forbidden 
books,  attended  to  their  correspondence,  and  eventually  con- 
cealing the  conspirators  themselves.  Thanks  to  her  age,  her 
prudence,  presence  of  mind,  she  escaped  all  suspicion.  Her 
husband,  whom  she  ruled  absolutely,  had  to  furnish  her  with 
all  the  police  intelligence  he  could  gather. 

644.   The  Nihilists  in  Prison. — In  spite  of  all  their  precau- 
tionary measures,  many  of  the  Nihilists,  as  we  have  seen,  fell 


THE  NIHILISTS  251 

into  the  hands  of  the  police.  The  historian,  unfortunately, 
has  no  impartial  reports  to  rely  on  as  to  their  treatment  in 
prison  ;  only  once,  during  the  ministry  of  Count  Loris-Meli- 
koff,  Kussian  papers  were  allowed  to  partly  reveal  the  secrets 
of  Russian  imprisonment  and  Siberian  exile,  which  virtually 
confirmed  all  the  "underground"  literature  had  asserted, 
and  these  revelations  are  horrifying.  They  show  up  the 
imperfection  and  cruelty  of  Russian  state  institutions,  the 
brutality  and  irresponsible  arbitrariness  of  Russian  officials. 
We  find  that  the  accused  are  kept  in  prison — and  what  prisons! 
— for  two  or  three  years  before  being  brought  to  trial,  and 
for  what  crime  ?  simply  for  having  given  away  a  Socialistic 
pamphlet.  We  find  women  in  large  numbers  undressed  in 
the  presence  of,  or  even  by,  the  gendarmes  themselves,  and 
searched  by  them,  to  the  accompaniment  of  coarse  jokes.  We 
are  told  how  prisoners  were  tortured,  how  nervous  prisoners 
were  disturbed  in  their  sleep,  to  entice  them  in  their  state  of 
excitement  to  make  confessions.  Condemned  prisoners  were 
treated  with  the  same  refined  cruelty.  There  is  a  large 
prison  at  Novobfelgorod,  near  Kharkoff,  whence  the  pri- 
soners addressed  in  1878 — that  is,  before  the  attempts  on 
the  emperor's  life — an  appeal  to  Russian  society,  from  which 
we  will  quote  a  few  facts.  In  a  dark  cell,  whose  window 
is  partly  smeared  over  with  dark  paint,  lay  Plotnikoff,  on 
boards  only  thinly  covered  with  felt,  without  covering  or 
pillow,  terribly  weakened  by  years  of  solitary  confinement. 
One  day  he  rose  from  his  boards  and  began  reciting  the 
words  of  a  favourite  poet.  Suddenly  his  gaoler  rushed  in. 
"  How  dare  you  speak  loud  here ! "  he  cried  ;  "  perfect  sil- 
ence must  reign  here.  I  shall  have  you  put  in  irons."  The 
prisoner  vainly  pleaded  that  his  legal  term  for  being  in  irons 
had  expired,  and  that  he  was  ill.  The  irons  were  again  fas- 
tened on  him. 

Alexandroff,  another  prisoner,  heard  some  peasants  singing 
in  the  distance ;  their  song  found  an  echo  in  his  heart,  and 
he  sang  the  melody.  He  had  ceased  for  some  time  when 
the  guard  entered  his  cell.  "  Who  has  allowed  you  to  sing  ?  " 
he  said ;  "  I  will  give  you  a  reminder,"  and  with  his  fist 
struck  him  in  the  face.  Even  common  criminals  are  better 
treated.  They  are  allowed  to  sit  together,  two  or  three  in 
one  cell.  Seriikoff  was  put  into  the  career  for  not  saluting 
a  gaoler  standing  a  little  way  off.  The  career  is  a  cage 
totally  dark,  and  so  small,  that  a  prisoner  has  to  remain  in  it 
in  a  stooping  position.  It  is  behind  the  privy,  whence  the 
soil  is  but  seldom  removed. 


252  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

The  prisoners  in  the  fortress  Petropaulovski  are  no  better 
off.  Their  cells  are  dark,  cold,  and  damp ;  the  windows 
being  darkened  with  paint,  lights  have  to  be  burnt  nearly 
all  day.  Their  food  consists  of  watery  soup  and  porridge 
for  dinner,  and  a  piece  of  bread  morning  and  evening.  The 
stoves  are  heated  only  once  every  three  days,  hence  the  walls 
are  wet,  and  the  floors  literally  full  of  puddles.  The  prisoners 
are  allowed  to  take  exercise  every  other  day,  but  for  a 
quarter  of  an  hour  only.  They  have  no  other  distraction. 
When  Subkoffski  once  made  cubes  of  bread  to  study  stereo- 
metry, they  were  taken  away  from  him.  "  Prisoners  are  not 
allowed  amusements,"  he  was  told.  No  wonder  that  disease,  in- 
sanity, attempts  at  suicide,  and  deaths  are  of  daily  occurrence. 
Hunger-mutinies  were  another  consequence  of  this  treat- 
ment. A  very  serious  one  occurred  at  Odessa  in  December 
1882.  It  arose  in  this  way.  A  prisoner  asked  for  invalid's 
food,  but  the  prison  doctor  replied,  "  You  are  a  workman ; 
invalid's  food  costs  seventy  kopecks  ;  you  will  do  without  it." 
Another  prisoner,  a  student,  asked  for  some  medicine  for  a 
diseased  bone  in  his  hand.  The  same  doctor  replied,  "  Suck 
your  hand,  you  have  plenty  of  time."  When  this  prisoner 
shortly  after  wanted  to  consult  another  surgeon,  the  prison 
doctor  replied,  "  You  want  no  doctor,  but  a  hangman."  The 
final  circumstance  which  brought  about  the  mutiny  was  the 
order  of  the  gaoler  to  confine  a  prisoner  who  was  con- 
sumptive, and  had  asked  for  a  hammock,  in  the  career. 
Then  the  prisoners  sent  for  the  head  of  the  police,  but  he 
only  abused  them.  Then  the  hunger-mutiny  broke  out. 
The  prisoners  refused  to  take  their  food,  but  the  governor 
of  the  prison  ordered  those  who  could  not  be  persuaded  to 
eat  to  be  kept  alive  by  means  of  injections. 

The  horrors  of  transportation  to  Siberia  have  often  been 
described.  We  need  not  repeat  the  fearful  tale.  But  we 
may  state  that  these  horrors  are  intensified  for  political 
prisoners,  whilst  common  criminals  are  allowed  to  soften 
them  if  they  have  means.  Thus  Yokhankeff,  the  well- 
known  forger,  who  was  tried  at  St.  Petersburg  in  1879  ^or 
embezzling  thousands,  instead  of  having  to  make  his  way 
partly  on  foot  and  partly  by  rail,  was  allowed  to  travel  with 
every  comfort,  accompanied  by  a  female,  and  to  put  up  at 
the  best  hotels  en  route. 

The  Russian  Government,  even  under  Alexander  II., 
became  ashamed,  it  seems,  of  the  many  trials,  and  resorted, 
to  avoid  this  public  scandal,  to  removing  suspected  persons 
by  what  is  called  the  administrative  process,  an  extra- 


THE  NIHILISTS  253 

judicial  procedure  under  which  hundreds  of  persons  were 
dragged  away  from  their  homes  and  families  without  trial 
of  any  kind,  no  one  knowing  what  became  of  them.  We 
may,  however,  surmise  that  many  were  sent  to  Siberia,  since 
in  1 880  further  prison  accommodation  had  to  be  constructed 
in  Eastern  Siberia  in  consequence  of  the  great  influx  of 
political  prisoners. 

What  I  have  stated  as  to  the  treatment  of  prisoners  is  but 
what  is  based  on  authentic  documents.  Had  I  quoted  from 
the  "underground"  press,  I  should  be  accused  of  exaggera- 
tion; but  taking  the  above  statements  only,  does  such 
conduct  become  a  civilised  government  ? 

645.  Nihilist  Emigrants. — It  is  difficult  to  estimate  their 
number.  Many  of  them  conceal  themselves  to  escape  the 
Russian  spies  scattered  all  over  the  Continent,  and  not  to 
involve  the  countries  affording  them  an  asylum  in  diplomatic 
difficulties.  There  may  be  about  one  hundred  exiles  in 
Switzerland ;  there  are  said  to  be  about  seventy  in  Paris, 
and  perhaps  fifty  in  London ;  but  these  numbers  can  only  be 
approximate,  and  from  the  nature  of  circumstances,  must 
always  be  changing.  Some  of  these  fugitives  date  from  the 
earliest  stages  of  the  revolutionary  movement  before  1863, 
as,  for  instance,  M.  Elpidin,  the  bookseller,  at  Geneva.  Others, 
like  Lavroff,  were  involved  in  the  conspiracies  of  1866  and 
1869.  Others  belong  to  the  Socialistic  propaganda,  like 
Prince  Krapotkine.  Others,  again,  were  members  of  the 
"Land  and  Liberty"  or  "Black  Division"  parties.  After 
1878  there  was  a  large  addition  to  the  emigration. 

But  few  of  these  exiles  have  been  able  to  save  any  portion 
of  their  property.  Before  engaging  in  the  movement  some 
sold  their  estates,  others  leased  them  to  their  relations,  and 
allowed  them  to  be  burdened  with  debts,  so  that  in  the 
end  but  little  remains  to  be  confiscated  by  the  Government. 
Most,  even  those  who  receive  assistance  from  home,  are 
compelled  to  rely  on  their  own  exertions.  Some  give  lessons 
in  music,  in  Eussian,  in  science;  others  write  for  Eussian 
and  foreign  newspapers.  Others,  again  (about  twenty),  are 
employed  in  the  three  Eussian  printiDg-offices  at  Geneva ; 
and  perhaps  the  same  number  practise  the  trades  of  lock- 
smiths, carpenters,  and  shoemakers,  which  they  once  learned 
for  the  purposes  of  the  propaganda.  Many,  unable  to  work, 
their  mental  and  physical  powers  having  been  broken  by  long 
incarceration,  are  supported  by  the  contributions  of  the  party. 
To  suppose,  as  it  often  has  been  supposed,  that  the 
Nihilistic  movement  in  Bussia  is  directed  by  these  emigrants, 


254  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

is  a  mistake.  The  telegraph  cannot  be  employed  by  them, 
and  correspondence  is  too  slow  and  unsafe.  Whatever  has 
to  be  done  in  Russia,  must  be  decided  on  and  carried  out  by 
the  members  residing  there.  The  exile  ceases  to  take  any 
active  part  in  the  revolution  at  home,  though  he  may  in- 
directly influence  it  by  his  literary  efforts,  as,  for  instance, 
Krapotkine  and  Stepniak  have  done  to  a  large  extent.  The 
death  of  this  latter,  so  well  known  by  his  brilliant  and 
authoritative  work,  La  Russia  Sotterranea,  caused  great 
sorrow  to  all  true  lovers  of  Russia.  He  was  accidentally 
killed  on  the  23rd  December  1895,  when  crossing  the 
railway  near  Chiswick,  by  being  caught  by  the  engine  of 
a  train,  knocked  down,  and  fearfully  mutilated. 

Stepniak's  real  name  was  Serge  Michaelovitch  Krav- 
chinsky.  After  his  death  the  St.  Petersburg  press  asserted 
that  it  was  he  who  assassinated  Adjutant-General  Mesent- 
soff  (6 1 6),  the  chief  of  the  political  police,  by  stabbing  him 
with  a  dagger.  But  this  was  never  proved. 

According  to  Dalziel,  six  officers  of  the  garrison  of  Kieff, 
including  a  colonel,  were  arrested  in  March  1896  for  par- 
ticipation in  a  Nihilist  plot;  whence  it  would  appear  that 
Nihilism  is  not  dead  yet,  nor  is  it  likely  to  die  until  it  has 
attained  its  aim ;  and  the  present  emperor  does  not  seem 
likely  to  voluntarily  satisfy  it. 

646.  Nihilistic  Literature. — The  bibliography  of  Nihilism 
is  already  an  extensive  one.  Among  the  most  important 
newspapers  and  periodicals  we  have : — 

1.  The  Bell  (Kolokol),  edited  by  Herzen  and  Bakunin,  from 
ist  July  1857  to  1869.    London  and  Geneva.    After  Herzen's 
death  it  was  revived  for  a  short  time  in  1 870 ;  six  numbers 
in  4to  appeared. 

2.  Flying  Sheets.    Heidelberg,  1862.    78  pp.  8vo. 

3.  Free  Word.     Berlin,  1862.     590  pp.  8vo. 

4.  Liberty.     1863.    Two  numbers,  the  organ  of  the  party 
"  Land  and  Liberty." 

5.  The  Underground  Word,  by  M.  Elpidin.    Geneva,  1866. 
Two  pamphlets. 

6.  Cause  of  the  People,  by  Bakunin  and  Elpidin.     1 868  and 
1 869.     Nine  pamphlets. 

7.  Onwards,  a  review  in  nine  volumes.     1873-77.     Two 
thousand  copies. 

8.  Onwards,  a  fortnightly  publication  of  three  thousand 
copies  in  large  4to.     1875  and  1876.    Published  in  London. 

9.  The  Tocsin.     Monthly.      1875  to  1881. 

10.  General  Cause.     Monthly.     Geneva. 


THE  NIHILISTS 


255 


11.  The  Commune,  nine   numbers  of  which  appeared  at 
Geneva  in  1878. 

12.  Land  and  Liberty.     1878  and  1879. 

13.  Will  of  the  People,  the  organ  of  the  Terroristic  Execu- 
tive Committee.      1879. 

14.  Black  Division.      1880-81. 

15.  Free  Word. 

Of  books  we  have  : — 

1.  The  Filled  and  the  Hungry,  published  by  the  Anar- 
chists at  Geneva. 

2.  The  Terroristic  Struggle,  N.  Morosoff.    London,  1880. 

3.  Terrorism  and  Routine,  W.  Tarnoffski.    London,  1880. 

4.  Biographies   of    Perofskaia,    Scheljabow,    and    others. 
Geneva,  1882. 

5.  Le  Nihilisme  en  Eussie,  S.  Podolinski.    Paris,  1879. 

6.  La  Russia  Sotterranea,  by  Stepuiak.    Milan,  1882.    An 
English  translation  appeared  in  London,  1883. 

7.  Buried  Alive ;  Keport  concerning  the  Prisoners  in  the 
Peter  and  Paul  Citadel  at  St.  Petersburg.     1878. 

8.  Almanack  of  the  Will  of  the  People.     Geneva,  1883. 

I  have  given  the  more  important  periodical  publications 
and  books  only ;  besides  these,  there  are  published  by 
Nihilists  numerous  flying  sheets,  proclamations,  addresses, 
reports  of  trials,  &c. 

647.  Trials  of  Nihilists. — The  following  list  is  taken  from 
the  "  Almanack  of  the  Will  of  the  People  "  :— 


CO 

1 

Sentences. 

g 

8 

•4 

<D 

a 

CD 

Date. 

s 

•s 

C 

.2 

^ 

2 

1 

i 

\~  <a 

*  S 

1 

a 

I 

s 

3 

s 
1 

*l 

Q 

.1 

S 
i—  i 

1 

°1 

! 

1871 

2 

88 

4 

3 

27 

... 

54 

1872 

i 

i 

i 

1874 

i 

*j 

S 

3 

5 

l875 

2 

7 

S 

... 

... 

2 

1876 

5 

12 

6 

i 

2 

3 

... 

1877 

ii 

W 

29 

67 

2O 

I  2 

104 

1878 

8 

SO 

i 

S 

7 

2 

4 

I 

10 

1879 

22 

1  66 

16 

66 

19 

6 

4 

28 

27 

1880 

21 

no 

S 

48 

20 

ii 

4 

29 

13 

1881 

II 

34 

6 

10 

10 

... 

6 

I 

i 

1882 

IO 

37 

3 

30 

1 

... 

... 

2 

1 

256 


SECRET  SOCIETIES 


Subsequent  Trials  Collected  from  other  Sources. 


Date. 

Number  of  Trials. 

Number  of  Accused. 

Sentences. 

Executions. 

Penal 
Servitude. 

0 

1 

Imprisonment. 

a 
i—  i 

Other 
Punishments. 

Acquitted. 

1883 
1884 
1885 
1886 
1887 

2 

155 
15 
6 

IO 

2 

18 

... 

36 

14 

22 

The  above  sentences  are  those  pronounced  by  the  tribunals ; 
but  many  of  the  accused  were,  in  reality,  punished  more 
severely  than  is  apparent.  Those  who  were  acquitted  were, 
as  a  rule,  placed  under  police  supervision,  imprisoned,  or 
banished  to  no  one  could  tell  where.  The  table,  moreover, 
does  not  show  those  who  were  never  tried,  but  dealt  with 
administratively,  as  it  is  mildly  termed  :  they  died  in  prison, 
or  were  hanged  without  trial.  This  has  frequently  been  the 
case  since  1883,  whence  it  is  impossible  to  give  the  num- 
bers with  the  same  fulness  as  before  that  date.  How  many 
victims  were  so  quickly  "  removed,"  it  will  probably  be  im- 
possible ever  to  ascertain. 


XIII 
GERMAN  SOCIETIES 

648.  The  Mosel  Club. — In  1737  there  was  a  carpenter 
named  Vogt,  living  at  Weimar,  who,  being  a  native  of  Trau- 
bach,  on  the  Mosel,  was,  according  to  the  custom  of  crafts- 
men, called  "  the  Moseler."  He  established  a  tavern,  which 
was  largely  patronised  by  students,  who,  in  time,  formed  a 
club,  which  called  itself  the  Mosel  Club,  and  in  1 762  became  a 
secret  political  club,  whose  object  was  to  raise  Prussia  to  the 
ruling  power  of  Germany,  to  effect  which  the  members  even 
pledged  themselves  to  send  Frederick  II.,  who  was  a  Free- 
mason, armed  assistance.  In  1771  a  more  secret  league  was 
formed  within  the  Mosel  Club,  consisting  chiefly  of  Alsatians 
and  Badois,  and  calling  itself  the  "Order  of  Friendship." 
None  was  received  into  it  who  was  not  a  member  of  the 
Mosel  Club.  The  sign  was  a  peculiar  pressure  of  the  hand, 
and  touching  the  face.  The  members  wore  a  cross  attached 
to  a  yellow  ribbon.  After  the  year  1783  the  candidate  had 
to  swear  fidelity  to  the  Order  over  four  swords,  laid  cross- 
wise on  a  table,  on  which  four  candles  were  burning.  The 
words  were :  "  If  I  become  unfaithful  to  my  oath,  my 
brethren  shall  be  justified  to  use  these  swords  against  me." 
Lodges  were  established  at  Jena,  Giessen,  Erfurt,  Gottingen, 
Marburg,  and  Erlangen.  The  students  defied  the  statutes 
of  the  universities,  which  in  1779  led  to  a  judicial  inquiry 
and  the  abolition  of  the  Order,  which,  however,  was  quickly 
re-formed  under  the  new  name  of  the  "Black  Order";  at 
Halle  it  assumed  that  of  the  "Unionists."  But  in  the 
course  of  a  few  years  the  Order  became  extinct.  Still  Ger- 
many continued  till  the  middle  of  this  century  to  be  a  hotbed 
of  secret  societies,  in  which  the  students  of  its  many  univer- 
sities were  the  chief  actors.  Between  the  years  1819  and 
1842  such  associations  were  especially  numerous;  legal 
investigations  on  the  part  of  the  different  governments 
proved  in  the  latter  year  the  existence  of  thirty-two  of 
them.  How  much  the  members  of  such  societies  loved 
VOL.  II.  257  R 


258  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

the  rulers  "  restored  "  to  them,  appears  from  the  fact  that 
"Young  Germany"  amused  itself  on  the  king's  (of  Prussia) 
birthday  with  shooting  at  his  portrait.  Their  statutes  were 
very  severe  against  treason,  or  even  mere  indiscretion.  A 
Dr.  Breidenstein  wrote  to  Mazzini  in  June  1834  that  one 
Strohmayer,  a  member  of  the  society,  had  been  sentenced  to 
death,  not  that  he  was  a  traitor,  but  his  indiscretion  was  to 
be  feared.  Sixteen  months  after,  on  the  morning  of  4th 
November  1835,  a  milkman  found  the  body  of  the  student 
Louis  Lessing,  pierced  with  forty-nine  dagger  wounds,  in 
the  lonely  Sihl  valley,  near  Zurich.  Though  the  legal  in- 
vestigation did  not  positively  prove  it,  yet  it  was  the  general 
opinion  that  Lessing  had  acted  as  spy  on  the  "  German 
Youth  "  society,  and  been  sentenced  to  death  by  them. 

Still,  what  those  obscure  students  aimed  at  is  now  an 
accomplished  fact ;  and  the  prediction  of  Carl  Julius  Weber 
in  his  "  Democritos  "  (published  in  1832),  that  Prussia,  united 
with  the  smaller  German  states,  would  be  the  dictator  of 
Europe,  a  reality.  But  a  sad  reality  for  Europe,  since  it  has 

"  Thrust  back  this  age  of  sound  industriousness 
To  that  of  military  savageness  ! " 

Yes,  Germany  seems  to  be  retrograding  to  the  days  of 
Hildebrand  ;  for  has  not  Bismarck  gone  to  Canossa,  in  spite 
of  his  assertion  he  would  not  do  so?  and  has  not  the 
mighty  emperor-king  knelt  to  the  Pope  ? 

649.  German  Feeling  against  Napoleon. — Napoleon,  whilst 
he  could  in  Germany  form  a  court  composed  of  kings  and 
princes  obedient  to  his  slightest  nod,  also  found  implacable 
and  incorruptible  individualities,  who  swore  undying  hatred 
to  him  who  ruled  half  the  world.     Still,  those  who  opposed 
the  French  emperor  had  no  determined  plan,  and  were  misled 
by  fallacious  hopes ;  and  the  leaders,  always  clever  in  taking 
advantage  of  the  popular  forces,  threw  the  more  daring  ones 
in  front  like  a  vanguard,  whose  destruction  is  predetermined, 
in  order  to  fill  up  the  chasm  that  separates  the  main  body 
from  victory. 

650.  Formation  and  Scope  of  Tugendbund. — Two  of  the 
men  who  were  the  first,  or  amongst  the  first,  to  meditate  the 
downfall  of  the  conqueror  before  whom  all  German  govern- 
ments had  fallen  prostrate,  were  Count  Stadion,  the  soul  of 
Austrian  politics,  and  Baron  Stein,1  a  native  of  Nassau,  who 

1  The  original  MS.  of  the  great  reorganisation  projects  for  the  Prussian 
State,  1807,  was  found  in  1881,  in  the  gartenhaus  of  the  Stein  family,  at  Gross- 
Kochberg,  Saalfeld,  in  Thuringia. 


GERMAN  SOCIETIES  259 

possessed  great  influence  at  the  Prussian  Court.  The  latter, 
devoted  to  monarchical  institutions,  but  also  to  the  inde- 
pendence of  his  country,  groaned  when  he  saw  the  Prussian 
Government  degraded  in  the  eyes  of  Europe,  and  undertook 
to  avenge  its  humiliation  by  founding  in  1812  the  secret 
society  of  the  "  Union  of  Virtue  "  (Tugcndbund),  whose  first 
domiciles  were  at  Kb'nigsberg  and  Breslau.  Napoleon's 
police  discovered  the  plot ;  and  Prussia,  to  satisfy  France,  had 
to  banish  Stein  and  two  other  noblemen,  the  Prince  de  Witt- 
genstein and  Count  Hardenberg,  who  had  joined  him  in  it. 
But  the  Union  was  not  dissolved ;  it  only  concealed  itself 
more  strictly  than  before  in  the  masonic  brotherhood.  During 
Stem's  banishment,  also,  the  cause  was  taken  up  by  Jahn, 
Professor  at  the  Berlin  College,  who,  knowing  the  beneficial 
influence  of  bodily  exercise,  in  1 8 1 1  founded  a  gymnasium, 
the  first  of  the  kind  in  Germany,  which  was  frequented  by 
the  flower  of  the  youth  of  Berlin,  and  the  members  of  which 
were  known  as  Turner,  an  appellation  which  is  now  familiar 
even  to  Englishmen.  These  Turner  seemed  naturally  called 
upon  to  enter  into  the  Union  of  Virtue ;  and  Jahn  thought 
the  moment  fast  approaching  when  the  rising  against  the 
oppressor  was  to  take  place.  Among  his  coadjutors  were 
the  poet  Arndt;  the  enthusiastic  Schill,  who  with  400  hussars 
expected  in  1 809  to  rouse  Westphalia  and  overthrow  Jerome 
Bonaparte ;  Doremberg,  the  La  Rochejaquelein  of  Germany, 
and  several  others.  Stein,  in  the  meanwhile,  continued  at 
the  court  of  St.  Petersburg  the  work  on  account  of  which 
he  had  been  exiled.  The  Russian  Court  made  much  of  Stein, 
as  a  man  who  might  be  useful  on  certain  occasions.  He  was 
especially  protected  by  the  mother  of  the  emperor,  in  whom 
he  had  enkindled  the  same  hatred  he  himself  entertained 
against  France.  He  kept  up  his  friendship  with  the  Berlin 
patricians,  and  had  his  agents  in  the  court  of  Prussia,  who 
procured  him  and  Jahn  adherents  of  note,  such  as  General 
Bliicher.  Still  there  was  at  the  Prussian  Court  a  party 
opposed  to  the  Tugendbund,  whose  chiefs  were  General  Bulow 
and  Schuckmann,  who  preferred  peace  to  the  dignity  of  their 
country,  and  possibly  to  royal  and  serene  drill-sergeants — 
who,  though  no  friends  to  Napoleon,  were  indifferent  to  the 
public  welfare.  A  party  quite  favourable  to  the  Union  of 
Virtue  was  that  headed  by  Baron  Nostitz,  who  formed  the 
society  of  the  "  Knights  of  the  Queen  of  Prussia,"  to  defend 
and  avenge  that  princess,  who  considered  herself  to  have 
been  calumniated  by  Napoleon.  This  party  was  anxious  to 
wipe  away  the  disgrace  of  the  battle  of  Jena,  so  injurious  to 


260  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

the  fate,  and  still  more  to  the  honour,  of  Prussia ;  and  there- 
fore it  naturally  made  common  cause  with  the  Tugendbund, 
which  aimed  at  the  same  object,  the  expulsion  of  the  French. 

651.  Divisions  among  Members  of  Tugendbund. — The  bases 
of  the  organisation  of  the  Tugendbund  had  been  laid  in  1807 
at  the  assembly  at  Konigsberg,  where  some  of  the  most  noted 
patriots  were  present — Stein,  Stadion,  Bliicher,  Jahn.     The 
association  deliberated  on  the  means  of  reviving  the  energy 
and  courage  of  the  people,  arranging  the  insurrectionary 
scheme,  and  succouring  the  citizens  injured  by  foreign  occu- 
pation.    Still   there   was   not   sufficient   unanimity   in   the 
counsels  of   the  association,   and  an  Austrian  party  began 
to  be  formed,  which  proposed  the  re-establishment  of  the 
German   Empire,  with  the  Archduke  Charles  at  its  head  ; 
but  the  opposition  to  this  scheme  came  from  the  side  from 
which  it  was  least  to  be  expected,  from  the  Archduke  him- 
self.    Some  proposed  a  northern  and  a  southern  state ;  but 
the   many  small   courts   and   provincial   interests  strongly 
opposed  this  proposal.     Others  wanted  a  republic,   which, 
however,  met  with  very  little  favour. 

652.  Activity  of  the  Tugendbund. — One  of  the  first  acts  of 
the  Union  of  Virtue  was  to  send  auxiliary  corps  to  assist  the 
Russians  in  the  campaign  of  1813.     Prussia  having,  by  the 
course  of  events,  been  compelled  to  abandon  its  temporising 
policy,    Greisenau,    Scharnhorst,    and  Grollmann  embraced 
the  military  plan  of  the  Tugendbund.     A  levy  en  masse  was 
ordered.     The  conduct  of  these  patriots  is  matter  of  history. 
But,  like  other  nations,  they  fought  against  Napoleon  to 
impose  on  their  country  a  more  tyrannical  government  than 
that  of  the  foreigner  had  ever  been.     They  fought  as  men 
only  fight  for  a  great  cause,  and  those  who  died  fancied  they 
saw  the  dawn  of  German  freedom.     But  those  who  survived 
saw  how  much  they  were  deceived.     The  Tugendbund,  be- 
trayed in  its  expectations,  was  dissolved ;  but  its  members 
increased  the  ranks  of  other  societies  already  existing,   or 
about  to  be  formed.    The  "  Black  Knights,"  founded  in  1815, 
and  so  called  because  they  wore  black  clothes,  said  to  be  the 
old  German  costume,  headed  by  Jahn,  continued  to  exist 
after  the  war,  as  did  "  The  Knights  of  the  Queen  of  Prussia." 
Dr.  Lang  placed  himself  at  the  head  of  the  "  Concordists,"  a 
sect  founded  in  imitation  of  similar  societies  already  existing 
in  the  German  universities.     A  more  important  association 
was  that  of  the  "German  Union "  (DeutscherBund),  founded  in 
1810,  whose  object  was  the  promotion  of  representative  insti- 
tutions in  the  various  German  states,  which  Union  comprised 


GERMAN  SOCIETIES  261 

within  itself  the  more  secret  one  of  the  "  Unconditionals  " 
(Die  Unbedingteri),  whose  object  was  the  promotion  of  Liberal 
ideas,  even  without  the  concurrence  of  the  nation.  The 
Westphalian  Government  was  the  first  to  discover  the  exist- 
ence of  this  society.  Its  seal  was  a  lion  reposing  beside  the 
tree  of  liberty,  surmounted  by  the  Phrygian  cap.  All  these 
societies  were  in  correspondence  with  each  other,  and  peace- 
fully divided  the  territory  among  themselves;  whilst  the 
German  Union,  true  to  its  name,  knew  no  other  limits  than 
those  of  the  German  confederation.  Dr.  Jahn  was  active  in 
Prussia,  Dr.  Lang  in  the  north,  and  Baron  Nostitz  in  the 
south.  This  latter,  by  means  of  a  famous  actress  of  Prague, 
Madame  Erode,  won  over  a  Hessian  prince,  who  did  not 
disdain  the  office  of  grand  master. 

653.  Hostility  of  Governments  against  Tugendbund. — After 
the  downfall  of  Napoleon  the  German  Government,  though 
not  venturing  openly  to  attack  the  Tugendbund,  yet  sought 
to  suppress  it.  They  assailed  it  in  pamphlets  written  by 
men  secretly  in  the  pay  of  Prussia.  One  of  these,  Councillor 
Schmalz,  so  libelled  it  as  to  draw  forth  indignant  replies 
from  Niebuhr  and  Schleiermacher.  What  the  Germans  could 
least  forgive  was  the  scurrilous  manner  in  which  Schmalz 
had  calumniated  Arndt,  the  "  holy."  Schmalz  had  to  fight 
several  duels,  and  even  the  favour  of  the  Court  of  Prussia 
could  not  protect  him  from  personal  outrages.  The  king 
then  thought  it  fit  to  interfere.  He  published  an  ordinance, 
in  which  he  commanded  the  dispute  to  cease  ;  admitted  that  he 
had  favoured  the  "literary"  society  known  as  the  Tugend- 
bund during  the  days  when  the  country  had  need  of  its 
assistance,  but  declared  that  in  times  of  peace  secret  societies 
could  not  be  beneficial,  but  might  do  a  great  deal  of  harm, 
and  therefore  forbade  their  continuance.  The  action  of  the 
Government,  however,  did  not  suppress  the  secret  societies, 
though  it  compelled  them  to  change  their  names.  The  Tug- 
endbuud  was  revived,  in  1818,  in  the  Bursclienschaft,  or  asso- 
ciations of  students  of  the  universities,  where  they  introduced 
gymnastics  and  martial  exercises.  These  associations  had 
been  projected  as  early  as  the  year  1810,  as  appears  from 
Jalm's  papers.  Their  central  committee  was  in  Prussia ; 
and  sub-committees  existed  at  Halle,  Leipzig,  Jena,  Got- 
tingen,  Erlangen,  Wiirzburg,  Heidelberg,  Tubingen,  and 
Freiburg.  Germany  was  divided  into  ten  circles,  and  there 
were  two  kinds  of  assemblies,  preparatory  and  secret.  This 
secret  section  was  that  of  the  Black  Knights,  mentioned  in 
the  preceding  paragraph.  The  liberation  and  independence 


262  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

of  Germany  —  so,  Waterloo  had  not  effected  these  objects  ?— 
was  the  subject  discussed  in  the  latter;  and  Russia  being 
considered  as  the  greatest  opponent  of  their  patriotic  aspira- 
tions, the  members  directed  their  operations  especially  against 
Russian  influences.  It  was  the  hatred  against  Russia  that 
put  the  dagger  into  the  hand  of  Charles  Louis  Sand,  the 
of  J 


student  of  Jena,  who  stabbed  Kotzebue  (Qth  March  1819), 
who  had  written  against  the  German  societies,  of  which  there 
was  a  considerable  number.  This  murder  led  to  a  stricter 
surveillance  of  the  universities  on  the  part  of  governments, 
and  secret  societies  were  rigorously  prohibited  under  stern 
penalties  ;  the  Prussian  Government,  especially,  being  most 
severe,  and  prosecuting  some  of  the  most  distinguished  pro- 
fessors for  their  political  opinions.  The  Bursclienschaft  was 
broken  up,  and  its  objects  frustrated,  to  be  revived  in 
1830;  the  insurrectionary  attempt  made  by  some  of  the 
students  at  Frankfort  on  the  3rd  April  1833,  the  object  of 
which  was  the  overthrow  of  the  despotic,  in  order  to  establish  a 
constitutional,  government,  led  to  the  prosecution  of  many 
members  of  the  Burschcnschaft,  and  to  the  suppression  —  at 
least  nominally  and  apparently  —  of  all  their  secret  societies. 


XIV 
THE   BABIS 

654.  Bab,  the  Founder. — His  name — for  Bab  is  a  title — was 
Ali  Mohammed,  and  he  is  said  to  have  been  a  Seyyid,  or 
descendant  of  the  family  of  the  Prophet.  He  was  born  in 
1819  at  Shiraz,  where  his  father  was  a  merchant.  Ali  at 
first  engaged  in  trade  himself,  but  in  1840  he  began  to 
preach  his  new  doctrine,  declaring  himself  to  be  the  Bab,1 
i.e.  Door  of  Truth,  the  Mahdi.  In  1843  ne  made  the 
pilgrimage  to  Mecca,  but  on  his  return  was  arrested  by 
order  of  the  Shah,  and  from  1844  to  1849  kept  in  semi- 
captivity  at  Ispahan  and  Tauris,  at  which  latter  place  he  was 
sentenced  to  be  shot.  He  was  suspended  by  cords  from  the 
walls  of  the  citadel,  and  a  dozen  soldiers  were  ordered  to 
fire  at  him.  When  the  smoke  from  their  discharges  was 
dispelled  the  Bab  had  disappeared — a  cleverly-managed 
manoeuvre  to  establish  a  miracle.  But  he  was  soon  after 
reapprehended,  and  again  condemned  to  death.  The  details 
of  his  execution  are  not  known ;  it  is  reported  that  he  was 
shot.  His  long  captivity  and  mysterious  death  were  favour- 
able to  the  spreading  of  his  doctrine,  as  also  the  fact  that 
during  his  life  he  was  subject  to  occasional  fits  of  frenzy, 
and  in  the  East — and  sometimes  in  the  West — a  madman  is 
considered  to  be  inspired.  And  the  Bab,  like  all  prophets, 
did  not  disdain  availing  himself  of  mundane  means  to  pro- 
pagate his  new  doctrines  ;  he  was  greatly  assisted  therein  by 
the  eloquence,  combined  with  marvellous  personal  beauty,  of 
Kurratu'l  Ayn,  a  young  lady  of  good  family,  who  early  em- 
braced Babism,  and  suffered  martyrdom  for  it  (655).  The 
Bab  was  examined  as  to  his  teaching  in  1 848  by  Nasreddin, 
then  Crown  Prince  of  Persia,  afterwards  Shah,  and  a  number 
of  Mullahs,  the  result  of  which  inquiry  was  that  he  was 
sentenced  to  the  bastinado,  in  consequence  of  which  it  is 

1  Bab  in  Arabic  and  Chaldean  means  door,  gate,  or  court ;  hence  we  have 
Babylon,  the  court  of  Bel ;  Babel-Mandeb,  the  gate  of  sorrow,  probably  so 
called  on  account  of  its  dangerous  navigation  and  rocky  environs. 

263 


264  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

said  he  recanted  and  revoked  all  his  claims ;  but  as  we  have 
none  but  Mussulman  historians — his  enemies — to  rely  on,  as 
the  examination  was  held  with  closed  doors,  we  may  doubt 
this  statement. 

655.  Progress  of  Babism. — The  Bab's  teaching  had  not  only 
theological,   but  also  political  aims.      Persian  rulers   have 
always  been  conservative,. but  Babism  was  reformatory,  and 
the  common  people  readily  embraced  it,  as  it  seemed  favour- 
able to  the  breaking  down  of  the  despotic  powers  exercised 
by  provincial  governors,  by  whom  the  country  was  fearfully 
oppressed.      When,  therefore,  the  Babis  considered  them- 
selves strong  enough  they  seized  Mazanderan,  about  fourteen 
miles  south-east  of  Barfurush  ;  but  the  Shah's  troops  having 
cut  off  all  supplies,  they  had  to  surrender,  and  were  all  slain. 
This  was  in  1847.     In  1848,  on  the  accession  of  the  late 
Shah  a  thousand  Babis  rose  against  him  ;    they,  however, 
were  defeated  by  Mehdi  Kouli  Mirza,  uncle  of  the  new  Shah, 
and  the  three  hundred  survivors  who  surrendered  cruelly 
slaughtered,  though   they  had   been  promised   their  lives. 
Moulla  Mohammed  Ali,  a  Bab  leader,  in    1849  converted 
seven  thousand  of  the  twelve  thousand  inhabitants  of  Zanjau, 
seized  the  town,  and  drove  the  governor  from  the  citadel ; 
eighteen  thousand  royal  soldiers  were  sent  against  him,  and 
more  than  eight  thousand  of  the  combatants  killed,  and  tho 
surviving  Babis  had  to  surrender,  and  were  put  to  death 
with  horrible  tortures.     In  1850  a  follower  of  Bab,  ambitious 
rather  than  fanatical,  Sayid  Yahya  Darabi,  preached  Babism 
at  Niriz,  and  gathered  round  him  two  thousand  followers, 
with  whose  help  he  hoped  to  hold  the  town.     But  the  Shah's 
troops  attacked  him  ;  he  was  assassinated  by  being  strangled 
with  his  own  girdle ;  the  starved-out  Babis  had  to  yield,  and 
were  all  cruelly  butchered.     In  1852  some  Babis  attempted 
to  murder  the  Shah ;  the  inquiry  following  thereon  proved 
that  at  Ispahan  and  in  all  the  great  towns  of  Persia  there 
was  a  vast  association  of  Babis  and  Loutis,  whose  object  was 
the  overthrow  of  the  reigning  dynasty.      All  convicted  of 
Babism  were  seized,  and  executed  openly  or  in  secret ;  terrible 
scenes  were  enacted  by  the  Shah's  orders  in  many  towns  of 
Persia  during  a  reign  of  terror,  which  lasted  nearly  two 
years.     The  Shah's  anger  at  the  attempt,  but  especially  his 
alarm,  was  so  great,  that  to  test  the  loyalty  of  his  subjects 
he  devised  the  "  devilish  scheme,"  as  one  writer  calls  it,  of 
making  all  classes  of  society  share  in  the  revenge  he  took 
on  the  Babis.     Thus  the  man  who  had  fired  the  shot  which 
wounded  the  king  was  killed  by  the  farrashes — literally,  the 


THE  BABIS  265 

carpet-spreaders,  but  officially,  the  lictors  of  Eastern  rulers. 
They  first  tortured  him  by  the  insertion  of  lighted  candles 
in  incisions  made  in  his  body.  When  the  candles  were 
burnt  down  to  the  flesh,  the  fire  was  for  some  time  fed  by 
that.  In  the  end  he  was  sawn  in  two.  The  Master  of  the 
Horse  and  the  attendants  of  the  royal  stables  showed  their 
loyalty  by  nailing  red-hot  horse-shoes  to  the  feet  of  the 
victim  handed  over  to  them,  and  finally  "  broke  up  his  head 
and  body  with  clubs  and  nails."  Another  Babi  had  his  eyes 
plucked  out  by  the  artillerymen,  and  was  then  blown  from  a 
gun.  Another  Babi  was  killed  by  the  merchants  and  shop- 
keepers of  Teheran,  every  one  of  whom  inflicted  a  wound 
on  him  until  he  died.  Vambe'ry,  in  his  "Wanderings  and 
Experiences  in  Persia,"  mentions  one  Kasim  of  Niriz,  who 
was  shod  with  red-hot  horse-shoes,  had  burning  candles 
inserted  in  his  body,  all  his  teeth  torn  out,  and  was  eventu- 
ally killed  by  having  his  skull  smashed  in  with  a  club.  These 
are  but  a  few  specimens  of  the  cruelties  inflicted  by  order  of 
the  amiable  gentleman  who,  on  his  visits  to  this  country,  was 
so  loudly  cheered  by  the  assembled  crowds.  Among  the 
victims  of  that  persecution  was  Kurratu'l  'Ayn  (the  Consola- 
tion of  Eyes),  a  beautiful  and  accomplished  woman,  who  pro- 
fessed and  preached  Babism.  The  manner  of  her  death  is 
uncertain ;  some  say  she  was  burnt,  others  that  she  was 
strangled.  Dr.  Polak,  who  actually  witnessed  her  execution, 
in  his  "Persia,  the  Land  and  Its  Inhabitants,"  simply  says, 
"  I  was  a  witness  to  the  execution  of  Kurratu'l  'Ayn,  which 
was  performed  by  the  Minister  of  War  and  his  adjutants ; 
the  beautiful  woman  underwent  her  slow  death  with  super- 
human fortitude."  He  gives  no  details  as  to  the  manner  of 
it.  In  spite  of  this  persecution,  or  rather,  in  consequence 
of  it,  Babism  spread  with  astonishing  rapidity  throughout 
Persia,  even  penetrating  into  India.  Not  only  the  lower 
classes,  but  persons  of  education  and  wealth  have  joined  the 
sect.  The  only  portion  of  the  Persian  population  not 
affected  by  its  doctrines  appear  to  be  the  Nuseiriyeh  and 
the  Christians. 

656.  Babi  Doctrine. — It  is  contained  in  the  Biyyan,  the 
"  Expositor,"  attributed  to  the  Bab  himself,  and  consisting 
of  three  parts  written  at  different  periods.  It  is  to  a  great 
extent  rhapsodical,  frequently  unintelligible.  It  abounds 
with  mysticism,  degenerate  Platonism,  beliefs  borrowed 
from  the  Guebres,  vestiges  of  Magism,  and  in  many  places 
displays  the  influence  of  a  transformed  Christianity  and 
French  philosophy  of  the  last  century,  propagated  as  far 


266  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

as  Persia  through  masonic  lodges,  though  they  were  never 
tolerated  in  Persia.  We  shall  see  further  on  how  one 
recently  established  came  to  grief.  The  Babi  Koran  in- 
culcates, among  other  superstitions,  the  wearing  of  amulets, 
men  in  the  form  of  a  star,  women  in  that  of  a  circle ;  the 
cornelian  is  particularly  recommended  to  be  put  on  the 
fingers  of  the  dead,  all  which  implies  a  return  to  Aramean 
Paganism.  The  book  maintains  the  divinity  of  the  Bab ; 
he  and  his  disciples  are  incarnations  of  superior  powers ; 
forty  days  after  death  they  reappear  in  other  forms. 
"  God,"  says  the  Biyyan,  ''created  the  world  by  His  Will ; 
the  Will  was  expressed  in  words,  but  words  are  composed 
of  letters  ;  letters,  therefore,  possess  divine  properties."  In 
giving  their  numerical  value  to  the  letters  forming  the  words 
expressing  God,  they  always  produce  the  same  total,  viz. 
19.  Hence  the  ecclesiastical  system  of  the  Babis;  their 
colleges  are  always  composed  of  19  priests;  the  year  is 
divided  into  19  months,  of  19  days  each;  the  fast  of  the 
Ramadan  lasts  19  instead  of  30  days.  During  his  life  Ali 
Mohammed  chose  eighteen  disciples,  called  "  Letters  of  the 
Living,"  who,  together  with  himself,  the  "  Point"  (the  Point 
of  Revelation,  or  "  First  Point,"  from  which  all  are  created, 
and  unto  which  all  return),  constituted  the  sacred  hierarchy 
of  nineteen,  called  the  "  First  Unity."  Now,  Mirza  Yahya 
held  the  fourth  place  in  this  hierarchy,  and  on  the  death  of 
the  "  Point,"  which  occurred,  as  already  stated,  in  1849,  an^ 
the  first  two  "Letters,"  rose  to  be  chief  of  the  sect;  but 
Beha,  whose  proper  name  is  Mirza  Huseyn  Ali  of  Nur,  was 
also  included  in  this  unity,  and  he  asserted  that  he  was  the 
one  by  whom  God  shall,  as  Bab  had  prophesied,  make  His 
final  revelation ;  for,  be  it  observed,  the  Babi  Koran,  which  at 
present  consists  of  eleven  parts  only,  shall,  when  complete, 
contain  nineteen,  and  when  that  revelation  is  made,  Babism 
will  be  finished,  and  with  it  will  come  the  end  of  this  pre- 
sent world ;  for,  according  to  the  belief  of  his  followers,  the 
Bab  was  the  forerunner  of  Saheb-ez-Zeman,  the  Lord  of 
Ages,  who  resides  in  the  air,  and  will  not  be  seen  till  the 
day  of  resurrection.1  In  consequence  of  the  claim  of  Beha 
the  sect  was  split  up  into  two  divisions,  the  Behais  and  the 
followers  of  Mirza  Yahya  Subh-i-Ezel  (the  Morning  of  Eter- 
nity), and  after  him  called  Ezelis.  The  majority  of  the  sect 
are  Behais,  and  the  exiled  chief  Yahya  lives  at  Famagusta, 

1  I  find  this  mentioned  by  one  writer  only,  Professor  de  Filippi,  in  his 
"  Viaggio  in  Persia  nel  1862,"  published  in  the  Italian  periodical  Politecnico, 
vol.  xxii.  p.  252,  where  there  is  a  lengthy  account  of  the  Babis. 


THE  BABIS  267 

in  Cyprus,  where  Mr.  Browne,  the  translator  of  the  work 
"A  Traveller's  Narrative,"  visited  him  in  1890,  as  he  also 
visited  Beha,  at  Acre,  shortly  after.  The  Babis  are  so  far  in 
advance  of  their  Eastern  brethren  that  they  wish  to  raise 
the  status  of  woman,  maintaining  that  she  is  entitled  to  the 
same  civil  rights  as  man ;  and  one  of  their  first  endeavours 
to  attain  that  end  is  that  of  abolishing  the  veil.  Various 
charges,  as  against  all  new  sects,  are  made  against  them ; 
they  are  accused  of  being  communists,  of  allowing  nine 
husbands  to  a  woman,  of  drinking  wine,  and  of  other  un- 
lawful practices;  but  proofs  are  wanting.  It  is  said  that 
they  have  special  modes  of  salutation,  and  wear  a  ring  of 
peculiar  form,  by  which  they  recognise  one  another.  They 
arrange  their  hair  in  a  characteristic  manner,  and,  as  a  rule, 
are  clothed  in  white,  all  which  practices,  on  the  part  of 
people  who  have  to  conceal  their  opinions,  appears  very 
strange  to  outsiders.  The  Bab  forbade  the  use  of  tobacco, 
but  the  prohibition  was  withdrawn  by  Beha.  Though  only 
half  a  century  old,  the  sect  already  possesses  a  mass  of  con- 
troversial writings  on  points  of  faith — for  in  all  ages  men 
have  disputed  most  on  what  they  understood  least.  The 
Babis  may  yet  become  a  great  power  in  the  East ;  in  the 
meantime  they  afford  us  an  excellent  opportunity  of  watch- 
ing within  our  own  day  the  genesis  and  development  of  a 
new  religious  creed,  in  which  vast  power  and  authority  is 
conferred  on  the  priests,  greatly  overshadowing  that  of  the 
king  himself,  unless  he  is  a  member  of  the  sect,  which,  in 
fact,  if  the  creed  becomes  paramount,  he  must  be  to  pre- 
serve his  dignity ;  for,  according  to  the  teaching  of  the 
founder,  he  who  is  not  a  Babi  has  no  right  to  any  posses- 
sion, has  no  civil  status.  To  enhance  the  influence  of  the 
priests,  divine  service  is  to  be  performed  with  the  utmost 
pomp ;  the  temples  are  to  be  adorned  with  the  costliest 
productions  of  nature  and  art. 

But  it  is  certain  the  doctrines  of  the  Babis  suit  neither 
the  Sunnites  nor  the  Shiites,1  the  latter  of  whom  are  the 
dominant  religious  party  in  Persia,  and  who  particularly 
objected  to  the  Bab's  claim  of  being  the  promised  Mahdi, 
whose  advent  was  to  be  ushered  in  by  prodigious  signs, 
which,  however,  were  not  witnessed  in  the  Bab's  case.  The 
latter  also  was  opposed  by  the  new  Sheykhi  school.  Early 

1  According  to  the  doctrine  of  the  Sunnites,  the  Imamate,  or  vice- 
regency  of  the  prophet,  is  a  matter  to  be  determined  by  the  choice  and 
election  of  his  followers  ;  according  to  the  Shiites,  it  is  a  matter  altogether 
spiritual,  having  nothing  to  do  with  popular  choice  or  approval. 


268  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

in  this  century  Sheykh  Ahmad  of  Ahsa  preached  a  new  doc- 
trine, considered  heterodox  by  true  believers ;  still  he  found 
many  adherents,  and  on  his  death,  about  the  year  1827,  was 
succeeded  by  his  disciple  Haji  Seyyid  Kazim  of  Resht.  He 
died  in  1844,  prophesying  the  coming  of  one  greater  than 
himself.  Then  Mirza  Ali  Mahammad,  who  came  in  contact 
with  some  disciples  of  the  deceased  Seyyid  Kazim,  saw  his 
opportunity,  and  proclaimed  himself  the  Bab  ;  the  old  Sheykhi 
party  strongly  supported  him.  But  some  of  the  followers  of 
Seyyid  Kazim  did  not  accept  the  new  prophet,  and  became, 
as  the  new  Sheykhi  party,  his  most  violent  persecutors.  The 
Bab  consequently  called  the  leader  of  the  latter  party  the 
"  Quintessence  of  Hell-fire,"  whilst  he,  in  his  turn,  wrote  a 
treatise  against  the  Bab,  entitled,  "The  Crushing  of  False- 
hood." From  such  mutual  courtesies  the  transition  to  mutual 
recrimination  and  accusation  of  objectionable  teaching  and 
practice  is  easy,  and  consequently  quite  usual,  and  therefore 
not  to  be  too  readily  believed. 

657.  Recent  History  of  Babism. — The  fearful  reprisals  the 
late  Shah  in  1852  took  on  the  sect  of  the  Babis,  whatever 
may  be  thought  of  their  moral  aspect,  appear  to  have  had 
the  desired  political  effect.  From  that  day  till  the  recent 
assassination  of  the  Shah,  the  outcome  of  old  grievances, 
and  of  an  uncalled-for  renewal  of  a  fierce  persecution,  they 
have  committed  no  overt  act  of  hostility  against  the  Persian 
Government  or  people,  though  their  number  and  strength 
are  now  double  what  they  were  in  1852.  But  this  has  not 
softened  the  feeling  of  the  Shah  or  of  the  Mullahs  against 
them.  This  was  clearly  shown  in  1863.  In  that  year  a 
Persian  who  had  travelled  in  Europe  suggested  to  the  Shah 
the  establishment  of  a  masonic  lodge,  with  himself  as  the 
grand  master,  whereby  he  would  have  a  moral  guarantee  of 
the  fidelity  of  his  subjects,  since  all  persons  of  importance 
and  influence  would  no  doubt  become  members,  and  masonic 
oaths  cannot  be  broken.  The  Shah  granted  permission, 
without,  however,  being  initiated  himself;  a  lodge,  called 
the  Feramoush-Khanek,  the  "  House  of  Oblivion  " — since  on 
leaving  the  lodge  the  member  was  supposed  to  forget  all 
he  had  seen  in  it — was  speedily  opened,  and  the  Shah  urged 
all  his  courtiers  to  join  it.  He  then  questioned  them  as  to 
what  they  had  seen  in  it,  but  their  answers  were  unsatisfac- 
tory ;  they  had  listened  to  some  moral  discourse,  drunk  tea, 
and  smoked.  The  Shah  could  not  understand  that  the  terrible 
mysteries  of  Freemasonry,  of  which  he  had  heard  so  much, 
could  amount  to  no  more  than  this ;  he  therefore  surmised 


THE  BABIS  269 

that  a  great  deal  was  withheld  from  him,  and  became  dis- 
satisfied. This  dissatisfaction  was  taken  advantage  of  by 
some  of  his  friends  who  disliked  the  innovation,  and  they 
suggested  to  him  that  the  lodge  was  probably  the  home  of 
the  grossest  debauchery,  and,  finally,  that  it  was  a  meeting- 
place  of  Babis.  Debauchery  the  Shah  might  have  winked 
at,  but  Babism  could  not  be  tolerated.  The  lodge  was  imme- 
diately ordered  to  be  closed,  and  the  author  of  its  establish- 
ment banished  from  Persia.  In  quite  recent  times  the  Babis 
have  undergone  grievous  persecutions.  In  1888  Seyyid 
Hasan  and  Seyyid  Huseyn  were  put  to  death  by  order  of 
the  then  Shah's  eldest  son,  Prince  Zillu's  Sultan,  for  refusing 
to  abjure  Babism.  When  dead  their  bodies  were  dragged 
by  the  feet  through  the  street  and  bazaars  of  Ispahan,  and 
cast  out  of  the  gate  beyond  the  city  walls.  In  the  month  of 
October  of  the  same  year  Aga  Mirza  Ashraf  of  Abade  was 
murdered  for  his  religion,  and  the  Mullas  mutilated  the  poor 
body  in  the  most  savage  manner.  In  1890  the  Babi  inhabi- 
tants of  a  district  called  Seh-deh  were  attacked  by  a  mob, 
and  seven  or  eight  of  them  killed,  and  their  bodies  burnt 
with  oil.  But  it  appears  that  on  various  occasions  the  Shah 
restrained  the  fanaticism  of  would-be  persecutors  of  the 
Babis;  it  did  not,  however,  save  him  from  the  vengeance 
sworn  against  him  by  the  sect  for  former  persecutions.  On 
the  1st  May  1896  Nasreddin  Shah,  the  Defender  of  the 
Faith,  was  shot  in  the  mosque  of  Shah  Abdul  Azim,  near 
Teheran,  and  died  immediately  after  he  was  brought  back  to 
the  city.  The  assassin,  who  was  at  once  arrested,  was  Mirza 
Mahomed  Eeza  of  Kirman,  a  follower  of  Jemal-ed-din,  who 
was  exiled  for  an  attempt  at  dethroning  the  Shah  in  1891. 
After  Jemal's  departure  Mahomed  Reza  was  imprisoned; 
after  some  time  he  was  set  free,  but  continuing  to  speak 
against  the  Persian  Government,  he  was  again  imprisoned, 
but  some  time  after  obtained  his  release,  and  even  a  pension 
from  the  Shah.  He  confessed  that  he  was  chosen  to  kill  the 
Shah,  and  that  he  bought  a  revolver  for  the  purpose,  but  had 
to  wait  two  months  for  a  favourable  opportunity.  His  execu- 
tion, some  months  after  the  deed — has  it  inspired  the  Babis 
with  sufficient  dread  to  deter  them  from  similar  attempts  in 
the  future  ? 


XV 

IRISH  SOCIETIES 


658.  The   White-Boys.  —  Ireland,  helpless  against  misery 
and  superstition,  misled  by  hatred  against  her  conquerors, 
the  rulers  of  England,  formed  sects  to  fight  not  so  much  the 
evil,  as  the  supposed  authors  of  the  evil.     The  first  secret 
society  of  Ireland,  recorded  in  public  documents,  dates  from 
1761,  in  which  year  the  situation  of  the  peasants,  always 
bad,  had  become  unbearable.     They  were  deprived  of  the 
right  of  free  pasture,  and  the  proprietors,  in  seven  cases  out 
of  nine  not  Irish  landlords,  but  Englishmen  by  blood  and 
sympathy,  began  to  enclose  the  commons.     Fiscal  oppression 
also  became  very  great.     Reduced  to  despair,  the  conspira- 
tors had  recourse  to  reprisals,  and  to  make  these  with  more 
security,  formed  the  secret  society  of  the  "  White- Boys,"  so 
called,  because  in  the  hope  of  disguising  themselves,  they 
wore  over  their  clothes  a  white  shirt,  like  the  Camisards  of 
the    Cevennes.     They   also   called   themselves   "Levellers," 
because  their  object  was  to  level  to  the  ground  the  fences 
of  the  detested  enclosures.     In  November  1761  they  spread 
through  Munster,  committing  all  kinds  of  excesses  during 
the  next  four-and-twenty  years. 

659.  Right-Boys  and  Oak-Boys. — In  1787  the  above  society 
disappeared  to  make  room  for  the  "  Right-Boys,"  who  by 
legal  means  aimed  at  obtaining  the  reduction  of  imposts, 
higher  wages,  the  abolition  of  degrading  personal  services, 
and  the  erection  of  a  Roman  Catholic  church  for  every  Pro- 
testant church  in  the  island.     Though  the  society  was  guilty 
of   some  reprehensible   acts   against  Protestant  pastors,  it 
yet,  as  a  rule,  remained  within  the  limits  of  legal  opposition. 
The  vicious  administration  introduced  into  Ireland  after  the 
rising  of  1788,  the  burden  of  which  was  chiefly  felt  by  the 
Roman  Catholics,  could  not  but  prove  injurious  to  the  Pro- 
testants also.     The  inhabitants,  whether  Catholic  or  Protes- 
tant, were  subject  to  objectionable  personal  service — hence 
petitions  rejected  by  the  haughty  rulers,  tumults  quenched 


IRISH  SOCIETIES  271 

in  blood,  whole  populations  conquered  by  fear,  but  not  sub- 
dued, and  ready  to  break  forth  into  insurrection  when  it 
was  least  expected.  Therefore  the  Protestants  also  formed 
societies  for  their  security,  taking  for  their  emblem  the  oak- 
leaf,  whence  they  were  known  as  the  "  Oak-Boys."  Their 
chief  object  was  to  lessen  the  power  and  imposts  of  the 
clergy.  Established  in  1764,  the  society  made  rapid  pro- 
gress, especially  in  the  province  of  Ulster,  where  it  had 
been  founded.  Unable  to  obtain  legally  what  it  aimed  at, 
it  had  recourse  to  arms,  but  was  defeated  by  the  royal  troops 
of  England,  and  dissolved. 

660.  Hearts-of- Steel,  Threshers,  Brealc-of-Day-Boys,  De- 
fenders, United  Irishmen,  Ribbonmen. — Many  tenants  of  the 
Marquis  of  Donegal  having  about  eight  years  after  been 
ejected  from  their  farms,  because  the  marquis,  wanting  to  raise 
,£100,000,  let  their  holdings  to  Belfast  merchants,  they,  the 
tenants,  formed  themselves  into  a  society  called  "  Hearts-of- 
Steel,"  thereby  to  indicate  the  perseverance  with  which  they 
intended  to  pursue  their  revenge  against  those  who  had  suc- 
ceeded them  on  the  land,  by  murdering  them,  burning  their 
farms,  and  destroying  their  harvests.  They  were  not  sup- 
pressed till  1773,  when  thousands  of  the  affiliated  fled  to 
America,  where  they  entered  the  ranks  of  the  revolted 
colonists.  The  legislative  union  of  Ireland  with  England  in 
1800  did  not  at  first  benefit  the  former  country  much.  New 
secret  societies  were  formed,  the  most  important  of  which 
was  that  of  the  "Threshers,"  whose  primary  object  was  the 
reduction  of  the  exorbitant  dues  claimed  by  the  clergy  of 
both  persuasions,  and  sometimes  their  conduct  showed  both 
generous  impulses  and  grim  humour.  Thus  a  priest  in  the 
county  of  Longford  had  charged  a  poor  woman  double  fees 
for  a  christening,  on  account  of  there  being  twins.  The 
Threshers  soon  paid  him  a  visit,  and  compelled  him  to  pay  a 
sum  of  money,  with  which  a  cow  was  purchased,  and  sent 
home  to  the  cabin  of  the  poor  woman.  This  was  in  1807. 

Government  called  out  the  whole  yeomanry  force  to 
oppose  these  societies,  but  without  much  success.  Political 
and  religious  animosities  were  further  sources  of  conspiracy. 
Two  societies  of  almost  the  same  nature  were  formed  about 
1785.  The  first  was  composed  of  Protestants,  the  "  Break - 
of-Day-Boys,"  who  at  dawn  committed  all  sorts  of  excesses 
against  the  wretched  Roman  Catholics,  burning  their  huts, 
and  destroying  their  agricultural  implements  and  produce. 
The  Roman  Catholics  in  return  formed  themselves  into  a 
society  of  "Defenders,"  and  from  defence,  as  was  natural, 


272  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

proceeded  to  aggression.  During  the  revolt  of  1798  the 
Defenders  combined  with  the  "  United  Irishmen,"  who  had 
initiated  the  movement.  The  United  Irish  were  defeated, 
and  their  leader,  Lord  Edward  Fitzgerald,  having  been  be- 
trayed by  Francis  Higgins,  originally  a  pot-boy,  and  after- 
wards proprietor  of  the  Freeman's  Journal,  was  taken  and 
condemned  to  death ;  but  he  died  of  his  wounds  before  the 
time  fixed  for  his  execution.  The  society  of  the  United 
Irish,  however,  was  not  dispersed.  Its  members  still  con- 
tinued to  hold  secret  meetings,  and  to  reappear  in  the  poli- 
tical arena  under  the  denomination  of  "  Ribbonrnen,"  so 
named  because  they  recognised  each  other  by  certain 
ribbons.  The  Ribbonman's  oath,  which  only  became  known 
in  1895,  was  as  follows: — "In  the  presence  of  Almighty 
God  and  this  my  brother,  I  do  swear  that  I  will  suffer  my 
right  hand  to  be  cut  off  my  body  and  laid  at  the  gaol  door 
before  I  will  waylay  or  betray  a  brother.  That  I  will  per- 
severe, and  will  not  spare  from  the  cradle  to  the  crutch  or 
the  crutch  to  the  cradle,  that  I  will  not  pity  the  groans  or 
moans  of  infancy  or  old  age,  but  that  I  will  wade  knee-deep 
in  Orangemen's  blood,  and  do  as  King  James  did." 

66 1.  St.  Patrick  Boys. — These  seem  to  have  issued  from 
the  ranks  of  the  Ribbonmen.     Their  statutes  were  discovered 
and  published  in  1833.     Their  oath  was:  "I  swear  to  have 
my  right  hand  cut  off,  or  to  be  nailed  to  the  door  of  the 
prison  at  Armagh,  rather  than  deceive  or  betray  a  brother ; 
to  persevere  in  the  cause  to  which  I  deliberately  devote 
myself;    to  pardon   neither  sex   nor  age,  should  it  be  in 
the  way  of  my  vengeance  against  the  Orangemen."     The 
brethren  recognised  each  other  by  dialogues.     "Here  is  a 
fine  day!"     "A  finer  one  is  to  come." — "The  road  is  very 
bad."     "It   shall   be  repaired."— "  What  with?"     "With 
the  bones  of  Protestants." — "What  is  your  profession  of 
faith?"     "The   discomfiture   of  the   Philistines."— "  How 
long  is  your  stick  ?  "     "  Long  enough  to  reach  my  enemies." 
— "  To  what  trunk  does  the  wood  belong  ?  "     "  To  a  French 
trunk  that  blooms  in  America,  and  whose  leaves  shall  shelter 
the  sons  of  Erin."     Their  aim  was  chiefly  the  redress  of 
agrarian  and  social  grievances. 

662.  The  Orangemen. — This  society,  against  which  the  St. 
Patrick  Boys  swore  such  terrible  vengeance,  was  a  Protestant 
society.     Many  farms,  taken  from  Roman  Catholics,  having 
fallen  into  the  hands  of  Protestants,  these  latter  were,  as  we 
have  seen  (660),  exposed  to  the  attacks  of  the  former.     The 
Protestants  in  self-defence  formed  themselves  into  a  society, 


IRISH  SOCIETIES  273 

taking  the  name  of  "  Orangemen,"  to  indicate  their  Protes- 
tant character  and  principles.  Their  first  regular  meeting 
was  held  on  the  2ist  September  1795,  at  the  obscure  village 
of  Loughgall,  which  was  attended  by  deputies  of  the  Break- 
of- Day -Boys  (660),  and  constituted  into  a  grand  lodge, 
authorised  to  found  minor  lodges.  At  first  the  society  had 
only  one  degree :  Orangeman.  Afterwards,  in  1 796,  the 
Purple  degree  was  added ;  after  that,  the  Mark  Man's 
degree  and  the  Heroine  of  Jericho  (see  701)  were  added, 
but  eventually  discarded.  The  oath  varied  but  little  from 
that  of  the  entered  Apprentice  Mason,  for  Thomas  Wilson, 
the  founder  of  the  Order,  was  a  Freemason.  The  password 
was  Migdol  (the  name  of  the  place  where  the  Israelites 
encamped  before  they  passed  through  the  Red  Sea — Exod. 
xiv.  2) ;  the  main  password  was  Shibboleth.  The  pass  sign 
was  made  by  lifting  the  hat  with  the  right  hand,  three  fingers 
on  the  brim,  then  putting  the  three  fingers  on  the  crown, 
and  pressing  the  hat  down ;  then  darting  off  the  hand  to 
the  front,  with  the  thumb  and  little  finger  together.  This 
sign  having  been  discovered,  it  was  changed  to  exhibiting 
the  right  hand  with  three  fingers  on  the  thigh  or  knee,  or 
marking  the  figure  three  with  the  finger  on  the  knee.  This 
was  the  half  sign ;  the  full  sign  was  by  placing  the  first 
three  fingers  of  each  hand  upon  the  crown  of  the  hat,  raising 
the  elbows  as  high  as  possible,  and  then  dropping  the 
hand  perpendicularly  by  the  side.  This  sign  was  said  to  be 
emblematical  of  the  lintels  and  side-posts  of  the  doors,  on 
which  the  blood  of  the  passover  lamb  was  sprinkled.  The 
distress  word  of  a  brother  Orangeman  was,  "Who  is  on 
my  side?  who?  "  (2  Kings  ix.  32).  The  grand  hailing  sign 
was  made  by  standing  with  both  hands  resting  on  the  hips. 
In  the  Purple  degree  the  member  was  asked,  "  What  is  your 
number  ?  " — "  Two  and  a  half."  The  grand  main  word  was, 
"Red  Walls"  (the  Red  Sea).  The  password  was  Gideon, 
given  in  syllables.  The  society  spread  over  the  whole  island, 
and  also  into  England,  and  especially  into  the  manufactur- 
ing districts.  A  grand  lodge  was  established  at  Manchester, 
which  was  afterwards  transferred  to  London,  and  its  grand 
master  was  no  less  a  person  than  the  Duke  of  York.  At  the 
death  of  that  prince,  which  occurred  in  1821,  the  Duke  of 
Cumberland,  afterwards  King  of  Hanover,  succeeded  him — 
both  of  them  men  to  have  the  interests  of  religion  confided 
to  them!  In  1835  the  Irish  statutes,  having  been  revised, 
were  made  public.  The  society  bound  its  members  over  to 
defend  the  royal  family,  so  long  as  it  remained  faithful  to 
VOL.  II.  S 


274  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

Protestant  principles.  In  the  former  statutes  there  were 
obligations  also  to  abjure  the  supremacy  of  the  Court  of 
Rome  and  the  dogma  of  transnbstantiation ;  and  although 
in  the  modern  statutes  these  were  omitted,  others  of  the 
same  tendency  were  substituted,  the  society  declaring  that 
its  object  was  the  preservation  of  the  religion  established 
by  law,  the  Protestant  succession  of  the  crown,  and  the 
protection  of  the  lives  and  property  of  the  affiliated.  To 
concede  something  to  the  spirit  of  the  age,  it  proclaimed 
itself  theoretically  the  friend  of  religious  toleration ;  but 
facts  have  shown  this,  as  in  most  similar  cases,  to  be  a  mere 
illusion.  From  England  the  sect  spread  into  Scotland,  the 
Colonies,  Upper  and  Lower  Canada,  where  it  reckoned  1 2,000 
members ;  and  into  the  army,  with  some  fifty  lodges.  In 
the  United  States  the  society  has  latterly  been  showing  its 
toleration !  Its  political  action  is  well  known ;  it  endeavours 
to  influence  parliamentary  elections,  supporting  the  Whigs. 
The  efforts  of  the  British  House  of  Commons  to  suppress 
it  have  hitherto  been  ineffectual. 

That  the  custom  of  indulging  in  disgraceful  mummeries 
at  the  ceremony  of  initiation  into  this  Order  has  not  gone 
out  of  fashion,  is  proved  by  an  action  brought  in  January 
1897,  in  the  Middlesex  (Massachusetts)  Superior  Court  by 
one  Frank  Preble  against  the  officers  of  a  lodge,  he  having  at 
his  initiation  been  repeatedly  struck,  when  blindfolded,  with 
a  rattan,  hoisted  on  a  step-ladder,  and  thrown  into  a  sheet, 
from  which  he  was  several  times  tossed  into  the  air.  After- 
wards a  red-hot  iron  was  brought  to  his  breast,  and  he  was 
severely  burnt.  The  jury  disagreed,  but  the  outside  world 
will  not  disagree  as  to  the  character  of  such  proceedings. 

Other  Irish  societies,  having  for  their  chief  object  the 
redress  of  agrarian  and  religious  grievances,  were  the 
"  Corders,"  in  East  and  West  Meath ;  the  "  Shanavests " 
and  "  Caravats  "  in  Tipperary,  Kilkenny,  Cork,  and  Limerick  ; 
the  Whitefeet  and  Blackfeet,  and  others,  which  need  not  be 
more  fully  particularised. 

663.  Molly  Maguires. — This  Irish  sect  was  the  successor 
of  the  White-Boys,  the  Hearts  of  Oak,  and  other  societies, 
and  carried  on  its  operations  chiefly  in  the  West  of  Ireland. 
It  afterwards  spread  to  America,  where  it  committed  great 
outrages,  especially  in  the  Far  West.  Thus  in  1870  the 
Molly  Maguires  became  very  formidable  in  Utah,  where  no 
Englishman  was  safe  from  their  murderous  attacks,  and  the 
officers  of  the  law  were  unable,  or  unwilling,  to  bring  the 
criminals  to  justice.  This  led  to  the  formation  of  a  counter- 


IRISH  SOCIETIES  275 

society,  consisting  of  Englishmen,  who  united  themselves 
into  the  Order  of  the  Sons  of  St.  George,  who  were  so 
successful  as  to  cause  many  of  the  murderers  to  be  appre- 
hended and  executed,  and  ultimately  the  Molly  Maguires 
were  totally  suppressed.  The  Order  of  St.  George,  however, 
continued  to  exist,  and  still  exists,  as  a  flourishing  benefit 
society;  it  has  lodges  in  Salt  Lake  City,  Ogden,  and  other 
towns  in  Utah.  The  name  of  Molly  Maguires  was  after- 
wards adopted  by  a  secret  society  of  miners  in  the  Penn- 
sylvanian  anthracite  districts ;  with  the  name  of  their  Irish 
prototypes  they  assumed  their  habits,  the  consequence  of 
which  was  that  in  1 890  ten  or  twelve  members  of  the  society 
were  hanged,  and  the  society  was  entirely  broken  up. 

664.  Ancient  Order  of  Hibernians. — This  Order  is  widely 
diffused  throughout  the  United  States,  where  it  numbers 
about  6000  lodges.  It  is  divided  into  two  degrees,  in  the  first 
of  which,  counting  most  members,  no  oath  is  exacted,  and  no 
secrets  are  communicated.  But  the  second  consists  of  the 
initiated,  bound  together  by  terrible  oaths,  and  who  receive 
their  passwords  from  a  central  committee,  called  the  Board 
of  Erin,  who  meet  either  in  England,  Scotland,  or  Ireland, 
and  every  three  months  send  emissaries  to  New  York  with 
a  new  password.  Their  avowed  object  is  the  protection  of 
Irishmen  in  America — they  receive  only  Roman  Catholics 
into  the  society — but  they  are  accused  of  having  given  great 
encouragement  and  assistance  to  the  Molly  Maguires,  above 
spoken  of,  and  also  of  having  greatly  swelled  the  ranks  of 
the  Fenians.  The  bulk,  however,  of  the  Hibernians  ignore 
the  criminal  objects  of  their  chiefs ;  hence  the  toleration 
they  enjoy  in  the  States,  a  toleration  they  undoubtedly 
deserve,  for  they  have  recently  (November  1896)  nobly 
distinguished  themselves  by  providing  ;£  10,000  for  the 
endowment  of  a  chair  of  Celtic  in  the  Roman  Catholic 
University  of  New  York. 

665.  Origin  and  Organisation  of  Fenianism. — The  founders 
of  Fenianism  were  two  of  the  Irish  exiles  of  1848,  Colonel 
John  O'Mahoney  and  Michael  Doheny,  the  latter  one  of  the 
most  talented  and  dangerous  members  of  the  Young  Ireland 
party,  and  a  fervent  admirer  of  John  Mitchel.  O'Mahoney 
belonged  to  one  of  the  oldest  families  in  Munster,  but  be- 
coming implicated  in  Smith  O'Brien's  machinations  and 
failure,  he  made  his  escape  to  France,  and  thence  to  America, 
where,  in  conjunction  with  Doheny  and  General  Corcoran,  he 
set  the  Fenian  Brotherhood  afloat.  It  was  at  first  a  semi- 
secret  association ;  its  meetings  were  secret,  and  though  its 


2/6  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

chief  officers  were  publicly  known  as  such,  the  operations 
of  the  Brotherhood  were  hidden  from  the  public  view.  It 
rapidly  increased  in  numbers,  spreading  through  every  State 
of  the  American  Union,  through  Canada,  and  the  British 
provinces.  But  in  November  1 863  the  Fenian  organisation 
assumed  a  new  character.  A  grand  national  convention  of 
delegates  met  at  Chicago,  and  avowed  the  object  of  the 
Brotherhood,  namely,  the  separation  of  Ireland  from  Eng- 
land, and  the  establishment  of  an  Irish  republic,  the  same 
changes  being  first  to  be  effected  in  Canada.  Another  grand 
convention  was  held  in  1864  a^  Cincinnati,  the  delegates  at 
which  represented  some  250,000  members,  each  of  which 
members  was  called  upon  for  a  contribution  of  five  dollars, 
and  this  call,  it  is  said,  was  promptly  responded  to.  Indeed, 
the  reader  will  presently  see  that  the  leaders  of  the  move- 
ment were  never  short  of  money,  whatever  the  dupes  were. 
One  of  the  resolutions  passed  at  Cincinnati  was  that  "  the 
next  convention  should  be  held  on  Irish  soil."  About  the 
same  time  a  Fenian  Sisterhood  was  established,  and  the 
ladies  were  not  inactive ;  for  in  two  months  from  their 
associating  they  returned  upwards  of  ^200,000  sterling  to 
the  Fenian  exchequer  for  the  purpose  of  purchasing  arms 
and  other  war  material.  At  that  period  the  Fenians  confi- 
dently relied  on  the  assistance  of  the  American  Government. 
The  New  York  press  rather  favoured  this  notion.  In  Ireland 
the  Brotherhood  never  attained  to  the  dimensions  it  reached 
in  the  United  States,  and  without  the  assistance  of  the  latter 
could  do  nothing.  Still  the  Irish,  as  well  as  the  American 
Fenian,  association  had  its  chiefs,  officers,  both  civil  and  mili- 
tary, its  common  fund  and  financial  agencies,  its  secret  oaths, 
passwords,  and  emblems,  its  laws  and  penalties,  its  concealed 
stores  of  arms,  its  nightly  drills,  its  correspondents  and 
agents,  its  journals,  and  even  its  popular  songs  and  ballads. 
But  traitors  soon  set  to  work  to  destroy  the  organisation 
from  within.  Thus  the  Head  Centre  O'Mahoney,  who  was 
in  receipt  of  an  official  salary  of  2000  dollars,  is  thus  spoken 
of  in  the  Official  Report  of  the  Investigating  Committee  of 
the  Fenian  Brotherhood  of  America  (1866) : — 

"  After  a  careful  examination  of  the  affairs  of  the  Brother- 
hood, your  Committee  finds  in  almost  every  instance  the 
cause  of  Ireland  made  subservient  to  individual  gain ;  men 
who  were  lauded  as  patriots  sought  every  opportunity  to 
plunder  the  treasury  of  the  Brotherhood,  but  legalised  their 
attacks  by  securing  the  endorsement  of  John  O'Mahoney. 
...  In  John  O'Mahoney's  integrity  the  confidence  of  the 


IRISH  SOCIETIES  277 

Brotherhood  was  boundless,  and  the  betrayal  of  that  confi- 
dence, whether  through  incapacity  or  premeditation,  is  not 
a  question  for  us  to  determine.  .  .  .  Sufficient  that  he  has 
proved  recreant  to  the  trust.  .  .  .  Never  in  the  history  of 
the  Irish  people  did  they  repose  so  much  confidence  in  their 
leaders ;  never  before  were  they  so  basely  deceived  and 
treacherously  dealt  with.  In  fact,  the  Moffat  mansion  (the 
headquarters  of  the  American  Fenians)  was  not  only  an 
almshouse  for  pauper  officials  and  hungry  adventurers,  but 
a  general  telegraph  office  for  the  Canadian  authorities  and 
Sir  Frederick  Bruce,  the  British  Minister  at  Washington. 
These  paid  patriots  and  professional  martyrs,  not  satisfied 
with  emptying  our  treasury,  connived  at  posting  the  English 
authorities  in  advance  of  our  movements." 

From  this  report  it  further  appears  that  in  1866  there 
was  in  the  Fenian  treasury  in  the  States  a  sum  of  185,000 
dollars ;  that  the  expenses  of  the  Moffat  mansion  and  the 
parasites  who  flocked  thither  in  three  months  amounted  to 
104,000  dollars ;  and  that  Stephens,  the  Irish  Head  Centre, 
in  the  same  space  of  time  received  from  America,  in  money 
sent  to  Paris,  the  sum  of  upwards  of  106,000  dollars,  though 
John  O'Mahoney  in  many  of  his  letters  expressed  the  greatest 
mistrust  of  Stephens.  He  no  doubt  looked  upon  the  latter  as 
the  more  clever  and  daring  rogue,  who  materially  diminished 
his  own  share  of  the  spoil.  Stephens's  career  in  Ireland  is 
sufficiently  well  known,  and  there  is  scarcely  any  doubt  that 
whilst  he  was  leading  his  miserable  associates  to  their  ruin, 
he  acted  as  spy  upon  them,  and  that  there  existed  some 
understanding  between  him  and  the  English  authorities. 
How  else  can  we  explain  his  living  for  nearly  two  months  in 
the  neighbourhood  of  Dublin,  in  a  house  magnificently  fur- 
nished, whilst  he  took  no  precautions  to  conceal  himself,  and 
yet  escaped  the  vigilance  of  the  police  for  so  long  a  time  ? 
His  conduct  when  at  last  apprehended,  his  bravado  in  the 
police  court  and  final  escape  from  prison,  his  traversing  the 
streets  of  Dublin,  sailing  for  Scotland,  travelling  through 
London  to  France  without  once  being  molested — all  point  to 
the  same  conclusion.  The  only  other  person  of  note  among 
the  Fenians  was  John  Mitchel,  who  had  been  implicated  in 
the  troubles  of  1 848,  was  transported,  escaped,  and  made  his 
way  to  the  United  States.  During  the  civil  war  which  raged 
in  that  country  he  wras  a  supporter  of  the  Southern  cause, 
was  taken  prisoner  by  the  North,  but  liberated  by  the  Pre- 
sident at  the  request  of  the  Fenians  in  America. 

The  Fenian  agitation  also  spread  into  England.    Meetings 


2/8 


SECRET  SOCIETIES 


were  held  in  various  towns,  especially  at  Liverpool,  where 
men  of  considerable  means  were  found  to  support  the  Fenian 
objects  and  organisations ;  and  on  one  occasion  as  much  as 
.£200  was  collected  in  a  few  minutes  in  the  room  where  a 
meeting  was  held.  But  disputes  about  the  money  thus  col- 
lected were  ever  arising.  The  man  who  acted  as  treasurer 
to  the  Liverpool  Centre,  when  accused  of  plundering  his 
brethren,  snapped  his  fingers  at  them,  and  declared  that  if 
they  bothered  him  about  the  money  he  would  give  evidence 
against  them  and  have  the  whole  lot  hanged.  The  Fenians, 
to  raise  money,  issued  bonds  to  be  redeemed  by  the  future 
Irish  Republic,  of  one  of  which  the  following  is  a  facsimile : — 


Harp. 


£1 


Goddess  of  Liberty.  £1  Shamrock. 


Ninety  days  after  the  establishment  of 
THE  IRISH  REPUBLIC 

Redeemable  by  _ 


Board  of 
Finance. 


Sunburst. 


666.  Origin  of  Name. — Irish  tradition  says  that  the  Fenians 
were  an  ancient  militia  employed  on  home  service  for  protect- 
ing the  coasts  from  invasion.    Each  of  the  four  provinces  had 
its  band,  that  of  Leinster,  to  which  Fionn  and  his  family 
belonged,  being  at  the  head  of  the  others.    This  Fionn  is 
the  Fin  gal  of  MacPherson,  and  the  leaders  of  the  movement 
no  doubt  saw  an  advantage  in  connecting  their  party  with 
the  historical  and  traditionary  glories  of  Ireland.     But  the 
Fenians  were  not  confined  to  Erin.     The  name  was  invented 
for  the  society  by  O'Mahoney,  but  the  Irish  never  adopted  it ; 
they  called  their  association  the  Irish  Republican  Brotherhood, 
or  briefly,  the  I.  R.  B.    Fenianism  was  officially  restricted  to 
the  American  branch  of  the  movement. 

667.  Fenian  Litany. — From  the  Patriotic  Litany  of  Saint 
Lawrence   O'Toole,    published    for   the   use   of   the  Fenian 
Brotherhood,  the  following  extract  may  suffice  : — 

"  Call  to  thine  aid,  0  most  liberty-loving  O'Toole,  those 
Christian  auxiliaries  of  power  and  glory — the  soul-inspiring 
cannon,  the  meek  and  faithful  musket,  the  pious  rifle,  and  the 
conscience-examining  pike,  which,  tempered  by  a  martyr's 
faith,  a  Fenian's  hope,  and  a  rebel's  charity,  will  triumph 


IRISH  SOCIETIES 


279 


•  O'Toole,  ddivzr  us! 


over  the  devil,  and  restore  to  us  our  own  in  our  own  land  for 
ever.     Amen. 

O'Toole,  hear  us. 
From  English  civilisation, 
From  British  law  and  order, 
From  Anglo-Saxon  cant  and  freedom, 
From  the  hest  of  the  English  Queen, 
From  Rule  Britannia, 
From  the  cloven  hoof, 
From  the  necessity  of  annual  rebellion, 
From  billeted  soldiery, 
From  a  pious  church  establishment, 

Fenianism  to  be  stamped  out  like  the  cattle  plague ! 

We  will  prove  them  false  prophets,  O'Toole. 

Ireland  reduced  to  obedience, 

Ireland  loyal  to  the  crown,  It  is  a 

Ireland  pacified  with  concessions,  falsehood, 

Ireland  to  recruit  the  British  army,  O'Toole. 

Ireland  not  united  in  effort, 

Ireland  never  again  to  be  dragged  at  the  tail  of  any  other 
nation ! 

Proclaim  it  on  high,  O'Toole. 

668.  Events  from  1865  to  1871. — In  speaking  of  Stephens, 
it  was  mentioned  that  he  was  a  spy  on  the  Fenians,  but  he 
was  not  the  only  informer  that  betrayed  his  confederates 
to  the  English  Government ;  which  latter,  in  consequence  of 
"information  thus  received,"  made  its  first  descent  on  the 
Brotherhood  in  1865,  at  the  office  of  the  Irish  People,  and 
captured  some  of  the  leading  Fenians.  Shortly  after,  it 
seized  Stephens,  who,  however,  was  allowed  to  make  his 
escape  from  Richmond  Prison,  where  he  had  been  confined, 
in  the  night  of  November  24  of  the  above  year.  Further 
arrests  took  place  in  other  parts  of  Ireland,  and  also  at 
Liverpool,  Manchester,  and  other  English  towns.  The 
prisoners  were  indicted  for  treason-felony,  and  sentenced  to 
various  degrees  of  punishment.  Various  raids  into  Canada, 
and  the  attempt  on  Chester  Castle,  all  ending  in  failure, 
next  showed  that  Fenianism  was  still  alive.  But  it  was 
more  prominently  again  brought  before  the  public  by  the 
attack  at  Manchester,  in  September  1867,  on  the  police  van 
conveying  two  leaders  of  the  Fenian  conspiracy,  Kelly  and 
Deasey,  to  the  city  prison,  who  were  enabled  to  make  their 


280  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

escape,  whilst  Sergeant  Brett  was  shot  dead  by  William 
O'Meara  Allen,  who  was  hanged  for  the  deed.  A  still  more 
atrocious  and  fatal  Fenian  attempt  was  that  made  on  the 
Clerkenwell  House  of  Detention,  with  a  view  of  liberating 
two  Fenian  prisoners,  Burke  and  Casey,  when  a  great 
length  of  the  outer  wall  of  the  prison  was  blown  up  by 
gunpowder,  which  also  destroyed  a  whole  row  of  houses 
opposite,  killed  several  persons,  and  wounded  and  maimed 
a  great  number.  On  that  occasion  again  Government  had 
received  information  of  the  intended  attempt  by  traitors  in 
the  camp,  but  strangely  enough  failed  to  take  proper  precau- 
tionary measures.  On  December  24,  1867,  the  Fenians 
made  an  attack  on  the  Martello  Tower  at  Fota,  near  Queens- 
town,  Co.  Cork,  and  carried  off  a  quantity  of  arms  and 
ammunition;  and  their  latest  exploit,  in  1871,  was  another 
Canadian  raid,  when  they  crossed  the  border  at  Pembina, 
and  seized  the  Canadian  Custom-House  and  Hudson's  Bay 
post.  They  were,  however,  attacked  and  dispersed  by 
American  troops,  and  General  O'Neil  was  made  prisoner. 
This  raid,  the  object  of  which  was  to  secure  a  base  of  action, 
and  also  to  receive  from  the  American  Government  a  recog- 
nition of  belligerency,  was  carried  out  totally  independently 
of  the  new  Irish  Fenian  confederation,  of  which  O'Donovan 
Rossa  was  the  moving  spirit ;  and  the  Irish  papers  therefore 
pooh-poohed  the  account  of  this  fiasco  altogether,  or  merely 
gave  the  telegrams,  denying  that  the  enterprise  had  any 
connection  with  Fenianism.  About  this  time  it  seemed  as 
if  the  Fenian  Brotherhood  was  breaking  up;  O'Donovau 
Rossa  retired  from  the  "Directory"  of  the  confederation, 
and  went  into  the  wine  trade.  The  Fenians  themselves 
denounced  the  notorious  Stephens,  who  reappeared  in 
America,  as  a  "traitor"  and  government  informer;  and 
though  the  acquittal  of  Kelly  for  the  murder  of  head-con- 
stable Talbot  seemed  to  point  to  a  strong  sympathy  surviv- 
ing amongst  the  Irish  people  with  Fenianism,  the  jury  perhaps 
could  give  no  other  verdict  than  the  one  they  arrived  at, 
the  prosecution  having  been  altogether  mismanaged  by  the 
Government. 

669.  The  Soi-disant  General  CLuseret. — Another  personage 
had  in  the  meantime  become  connected  with  the  Fenians,  a 
soi-disant  General  Cluseret,  who  had  been  a  captain  in  the 
French  army,  but  had  been  compelled  to  quit  it  in  con- 
sequence of  some  irregularity  in  the  regimental  funds,  of 
which  Cluseret  had  kept  the  books  and  the  cash.  He  after- 
wards served  with  Garibaldi  in  Sicily,  and  Fremont  in  the 


IRISH  SOCIETIES  281 

United  States,  after  which  he  bestowed  on  himself  the  rank 
of  General.  He  came  to  Europe  with  the  mission  of  report- 
ing to  the  Fenians  of  New  York  on  English  arsenals,  maga- 
zines, and  ports  of  entry.  In  an  article  published  by  him 
in  Fraser  in  1872,  entitled,  "  My  Connection  with  Fenianism," 
he  tells  the  world  that  he  offered  to  command  the  Fenians 
if  io,OOO  men  could  be  raised,  but  the  money  to  do  so  was 
not  forthcoming.  He  asserted  that  he  had  communica- 
tions with  the  Reform  League,  whose  members  favoured  his 
designs ;  but  he  failed,  as  he  says,  because  he  had  a  knot 
of  self-seekers  and  ignorant  intriguers  to  deal  with ;  "  and 
traitors,"  he  might  have  added,  for  it  is  certain  that  the 
intended  attack  on  Chester  Castle  failed  because  the  English 
Government  had  had  early  notice  of  the  plot.  A  rising 
Cluseret  attempted  to  head  in  Ireland  came  to  grief,  and  the 
general  speedily  made  his  escape  to  France,  where  he  became 
mixed  up  with  the  Commune  (507). 

670.  Phcenix  Park  Murders,  and  Consequences. — Fenianism 
for  a  time  was  quiescent,  but  about  1880  the  Land  League 
was  established,  and  by  its  agents,  the  "  Moonlighters,"  entered 
on  a  course  of  outrages,  chiefly  against  farmers  for  paying 
rent,  which  has   not   yet   ceased,   though  their   leader,  D. 
Connell,  and  a  number  of  his  followers  were  apprehended 
early  in  1882.     This  year  was  farther  distinguished  in  the 
annals  of  crime  by  the  murder  of  Lord  F.  Cavendish,  the 
Chief  Secretary  for  Ireland,   and  Mr.   Thomas  Burke,  the 
Under- Secretary,  in  Phoenix  Park,  Dublin;  but  the  assassins 
were  not  apprehended  until  January  1883,  one  of  the  guilty 
parties,  James  Carey,  having  turned  informer.     He  received 
a  pardon,  and  was  sent  out  of  the  country,  but  shortly  after 
shot  by  O'Donnell,  who  was  executed  for  this  murder.     The 
law,  of  course,  cannot  sanction  the  slaying  of  an  informer, 
but  public  sentiment  says,  "  Served  him  right,"  especially  in 
this  case,  as  Carey  was  as  deeply  implicated  in  the  Phcenix 
Park  murders  as  any  of  the  other  criminals.     The  trial  of 
these  led  to  the  disclosure  of  an  organisation  known  as  the 
"Irish   Invincibles,"   whose   chief  was   P.    J.    Tynan,   who 
passed   under   the   sobriquet   of   Number   One,   and  which 
organisation  was  the  instigator  and  executor  of  the  Phcenix 
Park  and  of  many  other  murders,  including,  for  instance,  the 
massacre  of  the  Maamtrasna  family. 

671.  Dynamite  Outrages. — In  this  year  (1882)  the  Fenians 
began  the  use  of  dynamite  ;  a  large  quantity  of  this  material 
was   discovered,    together   with    a   quantity  of  arms,    con- 
cealed in  a  vault  in  the  town  of  Cork ;  later  on  the  Fenians 


282  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

attempted  the  storing  up  of  dynamite  and  arms  in  London 
and  other  English  towns ;  a  considerable  number  of  rifles 
and  large  quantities  of  ammunition  were  seized  in  a  house 
at  Islington  in  July  1882  ;  dynamite  was  sent  to  this 
country  from  America,  but  its  introduction  being  difficult, 
the  Fenians  attempted  to  manufacture  it  here;  a  labora- 
tory, stocked  with  large  quantities  of  the  raw  and  finished 
material,  was  discovered  at  Ladywood,  near  Birmingham,  in 
April  1883.  Still,  the  explosive  and  infernal  machines 
continued  to  be  smuggled  into  this  country,  and  attempts 
were  made  to  blow  up  public  buildings  in  London  and 
elsewhere,  the  attempts,  however,  doing,  fortunately  in  most 
cases,  but  little  harm.  One  of  the  most  serious  was  the 
one  made  at  Glasgow  early  in  1883.  In  a  manifesto  issued 
in  April  1884  by  the  Fenian  brotherhood,  signed  by  Patrick 
Joyce,  secretary,  the  Fenians  call  this  "  inaugurating  scien- 
tific warfare,"  and  declare  their  intention  to  persevere  until 
they  have  attained  their  object,  the  freedom  of  Ireland. 
In  December  1884  an  attempt  to  blow  up  London  Bridge 
with  dynamite  had  no  other  result  but  to  blow  up  the 
two  men  who  made  the  attempt;  the  chief  instigators  of  all 
these  attempts  were  two  American  organisations;  the  first 
was  that  of  O'Donovan  Eossa,  the  second  that  of  the 
association  called  the  Clan-na-Gael.  Rossa  had  agents  in 
Cork,  London,  and  Glasgow ;  but  two  of  the  most  important, 
Fetherstone  (whose  real  name  is  Kennedy)  and  Dalton, 
were  apprehended,  and  sentenced  to  penal  servitude  for  life. 
Since  then  the  party  of  Rossa  has  been  powerless.  An 
unsuccessful  attempt  on  O'Donovan  Rossa's  life  was  made 
early  in  1885  by  an  English  lady,  a  Mrs.  Dudley.  Within  a 
fortnight  after  an  advertisement  appeared  in  O'Donovan's 
paper,  offering  a  reward  of  ten  thousand  dollars  for  the 
body  of  the  Prince  of  Wales,  dead  or  alive.  And  yet,  but 
a  few  months  ago  (1896),  this  would-be  assassin,  or  in- 
stigator of  assassination,  was  permitted  to  walk  about  in 
England,  in  perfect  freedom,  and  even  to  enter  the  Houses 
of  Parliament !  The  Clan-na-Gael  is  a  more  serious  affair ; 
originally  it  was  a  purely  patriotic  scheme  for  the  removal 
of  British  power  over  Ireland ;  it  did  not  advocate  the 
slaughter  of  innocent  people  by  the  indiscriminate  use  of 
dynamite.  But  eventually  a  certain  violent  faction  obtained 
control,  and  gained  possession  of  the  large  funds  of  the  Clan, 
the  bulk  of  which  they  absorbed  for  their  own  enrichment. 
Dr.  Cronin,  who  could  have  proved  this,  was  murdered. 
The  branches  of  the  Clan-na-Gael  extend  over  the  whole 


IRISH  SOCIETIES  283 

of  the  United  States.  Its  heads  are  three  in  number: 
Alexander  Sullivan,  of  Chicago ;  General  Michael  Kerwin, 
of  New  York;  and  Colonel  Michael  Boland,  of  the  same 
city.  Sullivan  was  a  great  friend  of  Patrick  Egan,  the 
treasurer  of  the  Land  League.  One  of  the  agents  of  the 
Clan-na-Gael  was  John  Daly,  who  intended  to  blow  up 
the  House  of  Commons  by  throwing  a  dynamite  bomb  on 
the  table  of  the  House  from  the  Strangers'  Gallery.  He 
was  arrested  at  Chester  in  April  1884,  and  sentenced  to 
penal  servitude  for  life.  The  attempts  on  the  House  of 
Commons,  and  the  explosions  at  the  Tower  and  Victoria 
Railway  Station,  were  also  the  work  of  the  Clan-na-Gael, 
twenty-five  members  of  which  have  been  condemned  to 
penal  servitude,  two-thirds  of  them  for  life.  John  S. 
Walsh,  residing  in  Paris,  and  the  Ford  family  in  America, 
are  also  known  as  dangerous  agents  of  the  association. 
The  dynamiters  were  not  quite  so  active  after  the  capture 
and  conviction  of  so  many  of  their  party,  but  confined 
themselves  to  occasional  and  comparatively  insignificant 
attempts,  but  murder  was  rife  in  Ireland.  These  events, 
however,  are  now,  thanks  to  the  Report  of  the  Judges  of 
the  Parnell  Commission,  so  easily  accessible  to  every  reader, 
that  they  need  not  be  specified  here. 

672.  The  National  League. — This  is  scarcely  an  association, 
though  generally  considered  such.  It  is  not  an  Irish  pro- 
duction, but  created  in  a  foreign  land,  and  directed  by 
foreign  agents,  whose  designs  are  unknown.  The  people 
have  given  their  allegiance  to  it  because  of  the  large  bribes 
it  offered  to  their  cupidity,  and  the  fear  it  inspired.  The 
secret  societies  give  the  League  their  assistance,  without 
which  it  would  be  powerless.  But  the  real  heads  who 
direct  the  operations  of  the  rank  and  file  keep  carefully 
out  of  the  way ;  but  whilst  the  rank  and  file  know  they 
have  nothing  to  fear  from  the  people,  who  will  not  give 
them  up,  they  know  that  any  one  of  their  own  body  may 
at  any  time  betray  them  by  turning  informer.  The  Invin- 
cibles  held  their  own  for  a  long  time,  but  once  the  police 
got  hold  of  them,  informers  appeared  in  every  direction. 
This  shows,  according  to  Ross  —  of  --  Bladensburg,  in 
Murray's  Magazine,  December  1887,  from  which  I  quote, 
that  the  Irish  have  no  real  faith  in  their  own  cause;  that 
they  are  not,  like  the  Nihilists,  honest  patriots,  prepared 
to  suffer  in  a  cause  they  consider  just,  but  a  people  led 
astray  by  a  band  of  selfish  agitators,  whose  machinations 
-are  pleasantly  exposed  in  the  following  passages,  with  which 


284  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

I  will  endeavour  to  give  an  enlivening  finish  to  this  neces- 
sarily dry  account  of  the  Fenian  movement  up  to  1888. 

673.  Comic  Aspects  of  Fenianism. — In  "The  New  Gospel 
of  Peace  according  to  St.  Benjamin,"  an  American  publica- 
tion of  the  year  1867,  the  author  says:  " About  those 
days  there  arose  certain  men,  Padhees,  calling  themselves 
Phainyans,  who  conspired  together  to  wrest  the  isle  of 
Ouldairin  from  the  queen  of  the  land  of  Jonbool.  Now  it 
was  from  the  isle  of  Ouldairin  that  the  Padhees  came 
into  the  land  of  Unculpsalm.  .  .  .  Although  the  Padhees 
never  had  established  government  or  administered  laws  in 
Ouldairin,  they  diligently  sought  instead  thereof  to  have 
shyndees  therein,  first  with  the  men  who  sought  to  establish 
a  government  for  them  ;  but  if  not  with  them,  then  with 
each  other.  .  .  .  Now  the  Padhees  in  the  land  of  Unculpsalm 
said  one  to  another,  Are  we  not  in  the  land  of  Unculpsalm, 
where  the  power  of  Jonbool  cannot  touch  us,  and  we  are 
many  and  receive  money  ;  let  us  therefore  conspire  to  make 
a  great  shyndee  in  the  isle  of  Ouldairin.  .  .  .  And  they 
took  a  large  upper  room  and  they  placed  men  at  the 
outside  of  the  outer  door,  clad  in  raiment  of  green  and 
gold,  and  having  drawn  swords  in  their  hands.  For  they 
said,  How  shall  men  know  that  we  are  conspiring  secretly, 
unless  we  set  a  guard  over  ourselves  ?  And  they  chose  a 
chief  man  to  rule  them,  and  they  called  him  the  Hid-Sinter, 
which,  being  interpreted,  is  the  top-middle ;  for,  in  the 
tongue  of  the  Padhees,  hid  is  top,  and  sinter  is  middle.  .  .  . 
And  it  came  to  pass  that  after  many  days  the  Hid-Sinter 
sent  out  tax-gatherers,  and  they  went  among  the  Padhees, 
and  chiefly  among  the  Bidhees  throughout  the  city  of  Go- 
tham, and  the  other  cities  in  the  land  of  Unculpsalm,  and 
they  gathered  tribute,  .  .  .  and  the  sum  thereof  was  great, 
even  hundreds  of  thousands  of  pieces  of  silver.  Then  the 
Hid-Sinter  and  his  chief  officers  took  unto  themselves  a  great 
house  and  spacious  in  the  city  of  Gotham,  .  .  .  and  fared 
sumptuously  therein,  and  poured  out  drink-offerings  night 
and  day  unto  the  isle  of  Ouldairin.  And  they  set  up  a 
government  therein,  which  they  called  the  government  of 
Ouldairin,  and  chose  unto  themselves  certain  lawgivers,  which 
they  called  the  Sinnit.  .  .  .  Now  it  came  to  pass  when  cer- 
tain of  the  Padhees,  Phainyans,  saw  that  the  Hid-Sinter  and 
his  chief  officers  .  .  .  fared  sumptuously  every  day,  .  .  .  and 
lived  as  if  all  their  kinsfolk  were  dying  day  by  day,  and  there 
was  a  ouaic  without  end,  that  their  souls  were  moved  with 
envy,  and  they  said  each  within  his  own  heart,  Why  should 


IRISH  SOCIETIES  285 

I  not  live  in  a  great  house  and  fare  sumptuously  ?  But  unto 
each  other  and  unto  the  world  they  said :  Behold,  the  Hid- 
Sinter  and  his  officers  do  not  govern  Ouldairn  righteously, 
and  they  waste  the  substance  of  the  people.  Let  us  there- 
fore declare  their  government  to  be  at  an  end,  and  let  us  set 
up  a  new  government,  with  a  new  Hid-Sinter,  and  a  new 
Sinnit,  even  ourselves.  And  they  did  so.  And  they  de- 
clared that  the  first  Hid-Sinter  was  no  longer  Hid-Sinter, 
but  that  their  Hid-Sinter  was  the  real  Hid-Sinter,  .  .  .  and 
moreover  they  especially  declared  that  tribute-money  should 
no  more  be  paid  to  the  first  Hid-Sinter,  but  unto  theirs. 
But  the  first  Hid-Sinter  and  his  officers  would  not  be  set  at 
nought,  .  .  .  and  so  it  came  to  pass  that  there  were  three 
governments  for  the  isle  of  Ouldairn ;  one  in  the  land  of 
Jonbool,  and  two  in  the  city  of  Gotham  in  the  land  of  Un- 
culpsalm.  But  when  the  Phanyans  gathered  unto  them- 
selves men,  Padhees,  in  the  island  of  Ouldairin,  who  went 
about  there  in  the  night-time,  with  swords  and  with  spears 
and  with  staves,  the  governors  sent  there  by  the  queen  of 
Jonbool  took  those  men  and  cast  some  of  them  into  prison, 
and  banished  others  into  a  far  country,"  &c. 

674.  Events  from  1888  to  1896. — The  revelations  made  in 
1888  and  1890  before  the  "Special  Commission,"  have  ren- 
dered the  history  of  the  Fenian  conspiracy  quite  familiar  up 
to  that  date.  Of  subsequent  events  the  following  are  note- 
worthy. On  the  22d  October  1890  the  Convention  of  the 
Fenian  brotherhood  in  America  was  held  at  New  Jersey, 
when  it  was  resolved  to  make  it  an  open  association — de 
facto,  it  was  already  so  after  the  disclosures  before  the  Com- 
mission— the  council  only  being  bound  by  oath,  and  that  the 
object  should  be  to  form  naval  and  military  volunteer  forces 
to  aid  the  United  States  in  the  event  of  war  with  any  foreign 
State.  At  a  convention  held  at  New  York  in  July  1891,  it 
was  again  argued  that  the  only  organisation  now  advisable 
was  one  with  a  military  basis.  The  Clan-na-Gael  continued 
to  hold  abortive  meetings ;  outrages  of  every  kind,  including 
murder,  were  rife  in  Ireland  up  to  1892,  since  which  time  Ire- 
land is  supposed  to  be  pacified,  though  the  frequently  repeated 
dynamite  outrages  in  England,  and  the  revival  of  Fenianism 
in  America,  would  lead  to  a  very  different  conclusion.  As 
to  this  revival,  the  Irish  Convention,  commonly  called  "the 
physical  force  convention,"  met  in  September  1895  at  Chi- 
cago, and  resolved  on  the  formation  of  a  permanent  organi- 
sation for  the  recovery,  by  arms,  of  Irish  independence. 
Among  the  delegates — there  were  more  than  one  thousand 


286  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

present — were  O'Donovan  Rossa  and  Tynan  (No.  i),  and  the 
chairman,  Mr.  John  Finerty,  ex-member  of  Congress. 

In  August  1896  a  Belfast  paper  stated  that,  owing  to 
the  discovery  of  a  secret  society  of  Ribbonmen  in  Armagh, 
special  detective  duty  had  been  ordered  by  the  constabulary 
authorities  at  Dublin  Castle. 

And  yet,  in  spite  of  all  this,  Government  has  recently 
released  some  of  the  most  atrocious  dynamiters,  originally 
and  justly  sentenced  to  lifelong  penal  servitude! 

In  September  1896,  the  notorious  Patrick  Tynan,  known 
under  the  name  of  No.  I,  and  who  was  implicated  in  the 
Phoenix  Park  murders,  was  arrested  at  Boulogne ;  but  the 
demand  of  the  British  Government  for  his  extradition  was 
refused  by  that  of  France,  on  the  grounds  that  sufficient 
evidence  identifying  him  with  No.  I  had  not  been  produced ; 
that  even  if  such  identification  were  established,  there  was 
not  sufficient  proof  to  identify  Tynan  as  one  of  the  men  who 
participated  in  the  murder  of  Mr.  Burke ;  and,  lastly,  that 
his  case  was  covered  by  "  prescription,"  which  in  France  is 
acquired  after  ten  years,  an  extension  to  twenty  years  being 
allowed  only  after  a  trial  at  which  the  accused  had  been 
present.  But  Tynan  had  effected  his  escape  after  the  mur- 
ders. And  so  he  was  set  at  liberty  by  the  French  Govern- 
ment, though  it  was  shown  that  he  had  been  in  frequent 
communication  whilst  at  Boulogne  with  English  dynamiters, 
plotting  against  England  at  that  very  time.  Of  course  the 
French  acted  on  the  strict  letter  of  the  Code  Napoleon  and 
of  the  Extradition  Treaty  between  the  two  countries ;  but 
when  the  law  and  the  treaty  afford  such  loopholes  to  the 
vilest  of  criminals,  it  is  high  time  both  were  revised.  On 
his  release  from  the  French  prison,  Tynan  wrote  a  long  letter 
to  his  wife — why  should  it  be  published  ? — in  which  he  ex- 
presses his  admiration  of  Russian  civilisation  (!),  and  thanks 
God  for  tempering  the  wind  to  the  shorn  lamb  (!).  Beware 
of  a  murderer  who  gives  vent  to  such  language ;  he  is  more 
dangerous  than  the  one  who  is  violent  and  brutal  in  his 
speech. 

675.  Most  Recent  Revelations. — One  of  the  dynamiters 
whom  Tynan  had  been  in  close  and  recent  communication 
with  was  Edward  J.  Ivory,  alias  Bell,  an  American,  who  had 
been  apprehended  on  British  territory,  and  was  charged  at 
the  Bow  Street  Police  Court,  on  the  I3th  November  1896, 
with  conspiring  with  others  to  cause  dynamite  explosions 
within  the  United  Kingdom.  He  was  committed  for  trial, 
but  when  that  took  place  at  the  Old  Bailey,  in  January  1 897, 


IRISH  SOCIETIES  287 

the  prosecution,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  the  prisoner's  move- 
ments gave  room  for  very  grave  suspicions,  suddenly  collapsed 
on  a  purely  technical  point,  and  Ivory  was,  by  the  judge's 
direction,  pronounced  "  Not  guilty "  by  the  jury,  and  of 
course  immediately  discharged.  Were  it  necessary  to  vindi- 
cate the  impartiality  of  English  justice,  and  its  tender  regard 
for  the  interests  and  claims  of  a  person  accused,  the  issue  of 
this  trial  would  afford  a  very  striking  and  honourable  in- 
stance of  both.  How  far  the  interests  of  justice,  the  main- 
tenance of  law,  and  the  dignity  of  the  country  are  served  by 
such  verdicts,  is  altogether  a  different  question,  the  answer  to 
which  cannot  be  satisfactory. 


BOOK    XIV 

MISCELLANEOUS    SOCIETIES 


VOL.  II. 


MISCELLANEOUS   SOCIETIES 

676.  ABC  Friends,  The. — A  society  whose  avowed  scope 
was  the  education  of  children,  its  real  object  the  liberty  of 
man.     They  called  themselves  members  of  the  ABO,  letters 
which  in  French  are  pronounced  abaisst ;  but  the  abased  that 
were  to  be  raised  were  the  people.     The  members  were  few, 
but  select.     They  had  two  lodges  in  Paris  during  the  Res- 
toration.     Victor  Hugo  has  introduced  the  society  in  Les 
Misdrdbles,  part  iii.  book  iv. 

677.  Abelites. — A  Christian  sect,  existing  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  Hippo,  in  North  Africa,  in  the  fourth  century. 
The  members  married,  but  abstained  from  conjugal  inter- 
course, because,  as  they  maintained,  Abel  had  lived  thus, 
since  no  children  of  his  are  mentioned.     To  maintain  the 
sect,  they  adopted  children,  male  and  female. 

A  sect  having  the  same  name  existed  in  the  middle  of  the 
last  century,  who  professed  to  imitate  Abel  in  all  his  virtues. 
They  had  secret  signs,  symbols,  passwords,  and  rites  of  initia- 
tion. Their  principal  meetings  were  held  at  Greifswald,  near 
Stralsund,  at  which  they  amused  themselves  with  moral  and 
literary  debating. 

678.  Academy  of  the  Ancients. — It  was  founded  at  Warsaw 
by  Colonel  Toux  de  Salverte,  in  imitation  of  a  similar  society, 
and  with  the  same  name,  founded  in  Rome  towards  the  be- 
ginning of  the  sixteenth  century.     The  object  of  its  secret 
meetings  was  the  cultivation  of  the  occult  sciences. 

679.  Almusseri. — This  is  an  association  similar  to  that  of 
"  Belly  Paaro,"  found  among  the  negroes  of  Senegambia  and 
other  parts  of  the  African  continent.     The  rites  of  initiation 
bear  some  resemblance  to  the  Orphic  and  Cabiric  rituals.    In 
the  heart  of  an  extensive  forest  there  rises  a  temple,  access 
to  which  is  forbidden  to  the  profane.     The  receptions  take 
place  once  a  year.     The  candidate  feigns  to  die.     At  the  ap- 
pointed hour  the  initiated  surround  the  aspirant  and  chant 
funereal   songs ;    whereupon   he   is  carried  to  the  temple, 
placed  on  a  moderately  hot  plate  of  copper,  and  anointed 
with  the  oil  of  the  palm — a  tree  which  the  Egyptians  dedi- 
cated to  the  sun,  as  they  ascribed  to  it  three  hundred  and 

291 


292  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

sixty-five  properties.  In  this  position  he  remains  forty  days 
— this  number,  too,  constantly  recurs  in  antiquity — his  rela- 
tions visiting  him  to  renew  the  anointing,  after  which  period 
he  is  greeted  with  joyful  songs  and  conducted  home.  He  is 
supposed  to  have  received  a  new  soul,  and  enjoys  great  con- 
sideration and  authority  among  his  tribe. 

680.  Anonymous  Society. — This  society,  which  existed  for 
some  time  in  Germany,  with  a  grand  master  resident   in 
Spain,  occupied  itself  with  alchymy. 

68 1.  Anti-Masonic  Party. — In  1826  a  journalist,  William 
Morgan,   who  had  been  admitted  to  the  highest  masonic 
degrees,  published  at  New  York  a  book  revealing  all  their 
secrets.     The  Freemasons  carried  him  off  in  a  boat,  and  he 
was  never  afterwards  seen  again.     His  friends  accused  the 
Masons  of  having  assassinated  him.     The  latter  asserted  that 
he  had  drowned  himself  in  Lake  Ontario,  and  produced  a 
corpse,  which,  however,  was  proved  to  be  that  of  one  Monroe. 
Judiciary  inquiries  led  to  no  result.     Most  of  the  officers,  it 
is  said,  were  themselves  Masons.    The  indignation  caused  by 
the  crime  and  its  non-punishment  led  to  the  formation,  in 
the   State  of  New  York,  of  an  Anti-Masonic  party,  whose 
object  was  to  exclude  from  the  public  service  all  members 
of  the  masonic  fraternity.    But  the  society  soon  degenerated 
into  an  electioneering  engine.     About  fifty  years  after  the 
occurrence,  Thurlow  Weed  published,  from  personal  know- 
ledge, precise  information  as  to  Morgan's  assassination  by 
the  Freemasons.     His  grave  was  discovered  in  1881  at  Pem- 
broke, in  the  county  of  Batavia,  State  of  New  York,  and  in 
the  grave  also  was  found  a  paper,  bearing  on  it  the  name  of 
a  Freemason  called  John  Brown,  whom,  at  the  time,  public 
rumour  made  one  of  the  assassins  of  Morgan.    To  this  latter 
a  statue  was  erected  at  Batavia  in  1882.     Certain  American 
travellers,  indeed,  asserted  having,  years  after,  met  Morgan 
at  Smyrna,  where  he  taught  English;  but  their  assertions 
were  supported  by  no  proofs. 

682.  Anti-Masons. — This  was  a  society  founded  in  Ireland, 
in  County  Down,  in  181 1,  and  composed  of  Roman  Catholics, 
whose  object  was  the  expulsion  of  all  Freemasons,  of  what- 
ever creed  they  might  be. 

683.  Apocalypse,  Knights  of  the. — This  secret  society  was 
formed  in  Italy  in  1693,  ^°  defend  the  Church  against  the 
expected    Antichrist.      Augustine    Gabrino,    the    son   of   a 
merchant  of  Brescia,  was  its  founder.     On  Palm-Sunday, 
when   the    choir   in    St.   Peter's   was   intoning   the   words, 
Quis  est  iste  Rex  Glorice  ?  Gabrino,  carrying  a  sword  in  his 


MISCELLANEOUS  SOCIETIES  293 

hand,  rushed  among  the  choristers,  exclaiming,  Ego  sum  Rex 
G-lorice.  He  did  the  same  in  the  church  of  San  Salvatore, 
whereupon  he  was  shut  up  in  a  madhouse.  The  society, 
however,  continued  to  flourish  until  a  wood-carver,  who  had 
been  initiated,  denounced  it  to  the  Inquisition,  which  im- 
prisoned the  knights.  Most  of  them,  though  only  traders 
and  operatives,  always  carried  a  sword,  even  when  at  work, 
and  wore  on  the  breast  a  star  with  seven  rays  and  an  appen- 
dage, symbolising  the  sword  seen  by  St.  John  in  the  Apo- 
calypse. The  society  was  accused  of  having  political  aims. 
It  is  a  fact  that  the  founder  called  himself  Monarch  of  the 
Holy  Trinity,  which  is  not  extraordinary  in  a  madman,  and 
wanted  to  introduce  polygamy,  for  which  he  ought  to  be  a 
favourite  with  the  Mormons. 

684.  Areoiti. — This  is  a  society  of  Tahitian  origin,  and 
has  members  throughout  that  archipelago.  They  have  their 
own  genealogy,  hierarchy,  and  traditions.  They  call  them- 
selves the  descendants  of  the  god  Oro-Tetifa,  and  are  divided 
into  seven  (some  say  into  twelve)  degrees,  distinguished  by 
the  modes  of  tattooing  allowed  to  them.  The  society  forms 
an  institution  similar  to  that  of  the  Egyptian  priests ;  but 
laymen  also  may  be  admitted.  The  chiefs  at  once  attain  to 
the  highest  degrees,  but  the  common  people  must  obtain 
their  initiation  through  many  trials.  Members  enjoy  great 
consideration  and  many  privileges.  They  are  considered  as 
the  depositaries  of  knowledge,  and  as  mediators  between 
God  and  man,  and  are  feared  as  the  ministers  of  the  taboo, 
a  kind  of  excommunication  they  can  pronounce,  like  the 
ancient  hierophants  of  Greece  or  the  court  of  Home.  Though 
the  ceremonies  are  disgusting  and  immoral,  there  is  a  founda- 
tion of  noble  ideas  concealed  under  them ;  so  that  we  may 
assume  the  present  rites  to  be  corruptions  of  a  formerly 
purer  ceremonial.  The  meaning  that  underlies  the  dogmas 
of  the  initiation  is  the  generative  power  of  nature.  The 
legend  of  the  solar  god  also  here  plays  an  important  part, 
and  regulates  the  festivals;  and  a  funereal  ceremony,  re- 
minding us  of  that  of  the  mysteries  of  antiquity,  is  per- 
formed at  the  winter  solstice.  Throughout  Polynesia, 
moreover,  there  exists  a  belief  in  a  supreme  deity,  Taaroa, 
Tongola,  or  Tangaroa,  of  whom  a  cosmogonic  hymn,  known  to 
the  initiated,  says:  "  He  was;  he  was  called  Taaroa;  he  called, 
but  no  one  answered  ;  he,  the  only  ens,  transformed  himself 
into  the  universe ;  he  is  the  light,  the  germ,  the  foundation ; 
he,  the  incorruptible ;  he  is  great,  who  created  the  universe, 
the  great  universe." 


294  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

685.  Avengers,  or   Vendicatori. — A  secret  society  formed 
about  1 1 86  in  Sicily,  to  avenge  public  wrongs,  on  the  prin- 
ciples of  the  Vehm  and  Beati  Paoli.    At  length  Adiorolphus 
of  Ponte  Corvo,  grand  master  of  the  sect,  was  hanged  by 
order  of  King  William  II.  the  Norman,  and  many  of  the 
sectaries  were  branded  with  a  hot  iron. 

686.  Belly  Paaro. — Among  the  negroes  of  Guinea  there 
are  mysteries  called  "Belly   Paaro,"  which  are  celebrated 
several  times  in  the  course  of  a   century.     The   aspirant, 
having  laid  aside  all  clothing,  and  every  precious  metal,  is 
led  into  a  large  wood,  where  the  old  men  that  preside  at  the 
initiation  give  him  a  new  name,  whilst  he  recites  verses  in 
honour  of  the  god  Belly,  joins  in  lively  dances,  and  receives 
much  theological  and  mystical  instruction.      The  neophyte 
passes  five  years  in  absolute  isolation,  and  woe  to  any  woman 
that  dares  to  approach  the  sacred  wood  !     After  this  novitiate 
the  aspirant  has  a  cabin  assigned  to  him,  and  is  initiated  into 
the  most  secret  doctrines  of  the  sect.     Issuing  thence,  he 
dresses  differently  from  the  others,  his  body  being  adorned 
with  feathers,  and  his  neck  showing  the  scars  of  the  initiatory 
incisions. 

687.  Calif ornian  Society.  —  Several  Northern  Californian 
tribes  have  secret  societies,  which  meet  in  a  lodge  set  apart, 
or  in  a  sweat-house,  and  engage  in  mummeries  of  various 
kinds,  all  to  frighten  their  women.    The  men  pretend  to  con- 
verse with  the  devil,  and  make  their  meeting-place  shake 
and  ring  again  with  yells  and  whoops.     In  some  instances 
one  of  their  number,  disguised  as  the  master-fiend  himself, 
issues  from  the   lodge,  and  rushes  like  a  madman  through 
the  village,  doing  his  best  to  frighten  contumacious  women 
and  children  out  of  their  senses.     This  has  been  the  custom 
from  time  immemorial,  and  the  women  are  still  gulled  by  it. 

688.  Cambridge   Secret   Society. — In    1886   a   number   of 
young  men  formed  the  "  Companions  of  St.  John  "  secret 
society,  under  the  leadership  of  the  Rev.  Ernest  John  Heriz- 
Smith,  M.A.,  Fellow  of  Pembroke  College.     In  1896  it  was 
supposed  to  number  upwards  of   one   thousand   members. 
The  primary  and  avowed  object  was  to  inculcate  High  Church 
principles  and  confession  ;  its  real  object  to  be  a  member  of 
a  secret  society.     They  took  an  oath ;  the  candidate  had  his 
hands  tied,  knelt  at  a  table,  had  his  eyes  bandaged,  and  took 
a  vow  to  obey  the  head  of  the  society  in  all  things,  and 
never  to  mention  anything  relating  to  the  society  except  to 
a  member.     If  he  disobeyed  he  was  sent  to  his  room,  and 
tied  to  a  table  leg.     They  wore  for  some  time  a  badge  with 


MISCELLANEOUS  SOCIETIES  295 

the  letters  L  and  D  (Love  and  Duty) ;  afterwards  they 
wore  it  concealed  under  their  clothes,  whence  the  members 
were  named  "Belly -banders."  Whether  this  society  still 
exists,  or  whether  ridicule  has  killed  it,  we  cannot  say. 

689.  Charlotteriburg,    Order    of.  —  This   was    one    of  the 
numerous  branches  grafted  on  the  trunk  of  the  Union  of 
Virtue. 

690.  Church  Masons. — This  is  a  masonic  rite,  founded  in 
this  country  during  this  century,  with  the  scarcely  credible 
object  of  re-establishing  the  ancient  masonic  trade-unions. 

691.  Cougourde,   The. — An  association  of  Liberals  at  the 
time  of  the  restoration  of  the  Bourbons  in  France.     It  arose 
at  Aix,  in  Provence,  and  thence  spread  to  various  parts  of 
France.     Its  existence  was  ephemeral.     Cougourde  is  French 
for  the  calabash  gourd. 

692.  Druids,  Modern. — This  society,  the  members  of  which 
pretend  to  be  the  successors  of   the  ancient  Druids,  was 
founded  in  London  in   1781.     They  adopted  masonic  rites, 
and  spread  to  America  and   Australia.     Their   lodges   are 
called  groves;    in  the   United    States   they   have   thirteen 
grand  groves,  and  ninety-two  groves,  twenty-four  of  which 
are  English,  and  the  remainder  German.     The  number  of 
degrees  are  three,  but  there  are  also  grand  arch  chapters. 
The  transactions  of  the  German  groves  are  printed,  but  those 
of  the  English  kept  strictly  secret.     In  1872  the  Order  was 
introduced  from  America  into  Germany.    The  Order  is  simply 
a  benefit  society. 

693.  Duk-Duk. — A  secret  association  on  the  islands  of 
New  Pomerania,  originally  New  Britain,  whose  hideously 
masked  or  chalk-painted  members  execute  justice,  and  collect 
fines.     In  carrying  out  punishment  they  are  allowed  to  set 
houses  on  fire  or  kill  people.     They  recognise  one  another 
by  secret  signs,  and  at  their  festivals  the  presence  of  an 
uninitiated  person  entails  his  death.     Similar  societies  exist 
in  Western  Africa  (see  723). 

694.  Egbo  Society. — An  association  said  to  exist  among 
some  of  the  tribes   inhabiting  the  regions  of  the  Congo. 
Egbo,  or  Ekpe",  is  supposed  to  be  a  mysterious  person,  who 
lives  in  the  jungle,  from  which  he  has  to  be  brought,  and 
whither  he  must  be  taken  back  by  the  initiates  alone  after 
any  great  state   ceremonial.     Egbo  is  the  evil  genius,  or 
Satan.     His  worship  is  termed  Obeeyahism,  the  worship  of 
Obi,  or  the  Devil.     Ob,  or  Obi,  is  the  old  Egyptian  name 
for  the  spirit  of  evil,  and  devil-worship  is  practised  by  many 
barbarous  tribes,  as,  for  instance,  by  the  Coroados  and  the 


296  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

Tupayas,  in  the  impenetrable  forests  between  the  rivers 
Prado  and  Doce  in  Brazil,  the  Abipones  of  Paraguay,  the 
Bachapins,  a  Caffre  tribe,  the  negroes  on  the  Gold  Coast,  and 
firmly  believed  in  by  the  negroes  of  the  West  Indies,  they 
being  descended  from  the  slaves  formerly  imported  from 
Africa. 

In  the  ju-ju  houses  of  the  Egbo  society  are  wooden  statues, 
to  which  great  veneration  is  paid,  since  by  their  means  the 
society  practise  divination.  Certain  festivals  are  held  during 
the  year,  when  the  members  wear  black  wooden  masks  with 
horns,  which  it  is  death  for  any  woman  to  see.  There  are 
three  degrees  in  the  Egbo  society;  the  highest  is  said  to 
confer  such  influence  that  from  £1000  to  ^"1500  are  paid 
for  attaining  it. 

695.  Fraticelli. — A  sect  who  were  said  to  have  practised 
the  custom  of  self-restraint  under  the  most  trying  circum- 
stances of  disciplinary  carnal  temptation.     They  were  found 
chiefly  in  Lombardy;   and   Pope  Clement  V.  preached   a 
crusade  against  them,  and  had  them  extirpated  by  fire  and 
sword,  hunger  and  cold.     But  they  were  guilty  of  a  much 
higher  crime  than  the  one  for  which  they  were  ostensibly, 
persecuted ;  they  had  denounced  the  tyranny  of  the  popes, 
and   the   abuses   of  priestly  power   and   wealth,   which   of 
course  deserved  nothing  less  than  extermination  by  fire  and 
sword ! 

696.  Goats,  The. — About  the  year  1770  the  territory  of 
Limburg  was  the  theatre  of  strange  proceedings.     Churches 
were  sacked,  castles  burnt  down,  and  robberies  were  com- 
mitted  everywhere.      The   country  people  were  trying   to 
shake  off  the  yoke  feudalism  had  imposed  on  them.     During 
the  night,  and  in  the  solitude  of  the  landes,  the  most  daring 
assembled  and  marched  forth  to  perpetrate  these  devasta- 
tions.     Then  terror  spread   everywhere,  and  the  cry  was 
heard,  "  The  Goats  are  coming !  "     They  were  thus  called, 
because  they  wore  masks  in  imitation  of  goats'  faces  over 
their  own.     On  such  nights  the  slave  became  the  master, 
and  abandoned  himself  with  fierce  delight  to  avenging  the 
wrongs  he  had  suffered  during  the  day.     In  the  morning  all 
disappeared,  returning  to  their  daily  labour,  whilst  the  castles 
and  mansions  set  on  fire  in  the  night  were  sending  their 
lurid  flames  up  to  the  sky.     The  greater  the  number  of 
malcontents,  the  greater  the  number  of  Goats,  who  at  last 
became   so   numerous   that   they   would    undertake   simul- 
taneous expeditions   in   different  directions   in  one  night. 
They  were  said  to  be  in  league  with  the  devil,  who,  in  the 


MISCELLANEOUS  SOCIETIES  297 

form  of  a  goat,  was  believed  to  transport  them  from  one 
place  to  another.  The  initiation  into  this  sect  was  per- 
formed in  the  following  manner : — In  a  small  chapel  situate 
in  a  dense  wood,  a  lamp  was  lighted  during  a  dark  and 
stormy  night.  The  candidate  was  introduced  into  the  chapel 
by  two  godfathers,  and  had  to  run  round  the  interior  of  the 
building  three  times  on  all-fours.  After  having  plentifully 
drunk  of  a  strong  fermented  liquor,  he  was  put  astride  on 
a  wooden  goat  hung  on  pivots.  The  goat  was  then  swung 
round,  faster  and  faster,  so  that  the  man,  by  the  strong 
drink  and  the  motion,  soon  became  giddy,  and  sometimes 
almost  raving  mad ;  when  at  last  he  was  taken  down,  he 
was  easily  induced  to  believe  that  he  had  been  riding  through 
space  on  the  devil's  crupper.  From  that  moment  he  was 
sold,  body  and  soul,  to  the  society  of  Goats,  which,  for 
nearly  twenty  years,  filled  Limburg  with  terror.  In  vain 
the  authorities  arrested  a  number  of  suspected  persons ;  in 
vain,  in  all  the  communes,  in  all  the  villages,  gibbet  and 
cord  were  in  constant  request.  From  1772  to  1774  alone  the 
tribunal  of  Foquemont  had  condemned  four  hundred  Goats 
to  be  hanged  or  quartered.  The  society  was  not  exter- 
minated till  about  the  year  1780. 

697.  Grand   Army   of  the   Republic. — A    secret   society 
founded  after   the    Civil   War  in   the  Northern    States  of 
America,  to  afford  assistance  to  indigent  veterans  and  their 
families.     The  Order  is  a  purely  military  one ;  its  chief  is 
called  the  Commandant-General,  the  central  authority  the 
National  Camp,  and  subordinate  sections  are  styled  Posts. 
In  1887  the  society  counted  370,000  members. 

698.  Green  Island. — A  society  formed  at  Vienna  in  1855. 
The  language  used  at  their  meetings  was  a  parody  on  the 
knightly  style  as  it  was  supposed  to  have  been ;  its  object 
was  merely  amusement.     The  society  reckoned  many  literary 
men  of  note  among  its  members.     Whence  it  took  its  name 
is  not  clear,  but  it  appears  to  have  been  a  revival  of  the 
Order   of    Knights    founded    in    1771.       See    infra,   under 
"  Knights,  Order  of." 

699.  Hamgari. — A    secret   society,    dating   from    1848, 
among  Germans   in   North   America.     They   pretended   to 
be  descended   from   an  ancient  German  order  of   knight- 
hood, and  possess  about  two  hundred  lodges,  with  16,000 
members.     The  diffusion  of  the  German  language  is  one  of 
their  chief  objects.     But  why  surround  themselves  with  the 
mist    of    secrecy   but    from    a    childish    love    for   mystery- 
mongering  ? 


298  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

700.  Hemp-smokers,    African. — At    Kashia-Calemba,   the 
capital  of  the  natives  of  Bashilange-Baluba,  in  Africa  (lat. 
3°  6',  long.  21°  24'),  a  sacred  fire  is  always  kept  up  in  the 
central  square   by  old   people,  appointed  for  the  purpose, 
who  also  have  to  cultivate  and  prepare  for  smoking  the 
chiamba  (Canndbis  indica) ;    it   is   known   in   Zanzibar  as 
Changi  or  Chang.     It  is  smoked  privately,  and  also  cere- 
monially as  a  token  of  friendship,  and  is  also  administered 
to  accused  persons  as  a  species  of  ordeal.     As  the  symbol 
of  friendship,  it  is  considered  as  a  religious  rite,   known 
as  "  Lubuku,"  practised  by  an  organisation,  of  which  the 
king  is  ex  officio  the  head ;    a  social  organisation  only  in- 
directly   of    political    importance.       Its    rules,    signs,    and 
working    are    secret ;    its    aims    and    objects    unknown    to 
outsiders;    its   initiatory  rites  have  never   been  witnessed 
by   an   uninitiated   person,    much   less   by   any   European. 
Certain  external  evidences  of  its  inward  nature  are  how- 
ever sufficiently  obvious  to  all  who  care  to  investigate  the 
subject.      Chiamba-smoking   has    a   most   disastrous   effect 
on  both  the  health  and  wealth   of   its  devotees.      A  dark 
inference  of   its  true  nature  may  be  drawn  from  the  lax, 
and   indeed   promiscuous,    intercourse   between   the    sexes. 
Another  indication  of  its  licentiousness  is  afforded  by  the 
customs  observed  at  the  marriages  of  its  male  members,  and 
repealed  for  three  successive  nights,  in  which  all  decency 
is   outraged   in   the   most   revolting  and  most  public  way 
imaginable.     The  initiatory  rites  are  performed  generally 
by  the  king,  or  by  Meta  Sankolla,  the  present  king's  sister, 
on  an  islet  in  the  Lulua,  an  affluent  of  the  Sankoro  Eiver, 
a  short  distance  above   Luluaburg,  a  European  station  on 
the   top  of   a  hill  400  feet  above  the  river.      The  public 
smoking  is  begun  by  the  chief  or  senior  man  present  placing 
the  prepared  weed  in  the  "  Kinsu  dhiamba,"  or  pipe,  and  after 
smoking  a  little  himself,  passing  it  on  to  the  man  next  to 
him.     The  pipe  consists  of  a  small  clay  bowl,  inserted  in 
the  larger  end  of  a  hollow  gourd,  the  smaller  end  of  which 
has  a  large  aperture,  against  which  the  smoker  places  his 
mouth  and  inhales  the  smoke  in  great  gulps,  till  his  brain 
is  affected,  and  he  becomes  for  a  time  a  raving  madman. 

701.  Heroine   of  Jericho. — This  degree  is  conferred,  in 
America,   exclusively  on   Royal  Arch  Masons,  their  wives 
and  widows.     Its  ritual  is  founded  on  the  story  of  Rahab, 
in  the  second  chapter  of  the  Book  of  Joshua.      The  first 
sign  is  in  imitation  of  the  scarlet  line  which  Rahab  let 
down  from  the  window  to  assist  the  spies  to  make  their 


MISCELLANEOUS  SOCIETIES  299 

escape.  It  is  made  by  holding  a  handkerchief  between  the 
lips  and  allowing  it  to  hang  down.  The  grand  hailing  sign 
of  distress  is  given  by  raising  the  right  hand  and  arm, 
holding  the  handkerchief  between  the  thumb  and  fore- 
finger, so  that  it  falls  perpendicularly.  The  word  is  given 
by  the  male  heroine  (not  the  candidate's  husband)  placing 
his  hand  on  her  shoulder  and  saying,  "My  Life,"  to  which 
the  candidate  replies,  "  For  yours."  The  male  then  says, 
"If  ye  utter  not,"  to  which  the  candidate  answers,  "This  • 
our  business."  The  word  Eahab  is  then  whispered  in  the 
lady's  ear.  The  latter  swears  never  to  reveal  this  grand 
secret.  She  is  told  that  Eahab  was  the  founder  of  the 
Order,  but  it  was  most  probably  invented  by  those  who 
were  concerned  in  the  murder  of  William  Morgan  (68 1), 
who,  by  swearing  their  female  relatives  to  conceal  whatever 
criminal  act  perpetrated  by  Masons  might  come  to  their 
knowledge,  hoped  to  protect  themselves. 

702.  Human  Leopards. — A  black  secret  society  in  the 
country  near   Sierra  Leone,   who   indulge    in   cannibalism, 
buying  young   boys,   feeding   them   up,  and   then   killing, 
baking,    and    eating    them.      They   also   attack   travellers, 
and,  if  possible,  kill  them  for  the  same  purpose.      Three 
members  of  the  society  were  hanged  in  the  Imperi  country, 
a  British  colony,  on  the  5th  August   1895,  for  this  crime. 
Dressed  in  leopard  skins,  they  used  to  secrete  themselves 
in   the   bush   near  a   village  and   kill   a   passer-by,  to  be 
eaten  at  a  cannibal  feast.      One  of  those  three  men  had 
been  a  Sunday-school  teacher  at  Sierra  Leone.     His  con- 
version to   Christianity  had  evidently  not  been  very  pro- 
found.    Cannibalism  is  as  prevalent  on  the  east  coast  of 
Africa  as  on  the  west,  but  in  the  former,  where  the  natives 
eat  father  and  mother  and  any  other  relations  as  soon  as 
they  grow  old,  it  has  a  sort  of  sacramental  meaning,  the 
fundamental   idea   being   that  the   eater  imbibes  the  pro- 
perties of  the  person  eaten.     At  the  meeting  of  the  British 
Association  in  September  1896,  Mr.  Scott  Elliott  read  a  paper 
on  the  Human  Leopards. 

703.  Hunters,    The.— In   1837,  after   the  first  Canadian 
insurrection,  a  society  under  the  above  title  was  formed, 
whose  object  was  to  bring  about  a  second  insurrection.     The 
United    States    supported    them.      MacLeod,    one    of    the 
insurgents    of    Upper    Canada,   came    to    St.    Albans,   the 
centre  of  the  society's  operations,  and  was  initiated  into 
all  the   degrees,  which  he  afterwards  promulgated  through 
Upper   Canada.      There    were   four   degrees — the   Hunter, 


300  SECEET  SOCIETIES 

the  Racket,  the  Beaver,  and  the  Eagle.  This  last  was 
the  title  of  the  chief,  corresponding  with  our  rank  of 
colonel ;  the  Beaver  was  a  captain,  commanding  six  Rackets, 
every  Racket  consisting  of  nine  men;  the  company  of  the 
Beaver  consisted  of  seventy  affiliates  or  Hunters.  Every 
aspirant  had  to  be  introduced  by  three  Hunters  to  a  Beaver, 
and  his  admission  was  preceded  by  fear-inspiring  trials  and 
terrible  oaths.  Though  the  society  lasted  two  years  only, 
it  distinguished  itself  by  brave  actions  in  the  field;  many 
of  its  members  died  on  the  scaffold. 

704.  Hustanawer.  —  The   natives   of  Virginia    gave   this 
name  to  the  initiation  they  conferred  on  their  own  priests, 
and  to  the  novitiate  those  not  belonging  to  the  priesthood 
had  to  pass  through.     The  candidate's  body  was  anointed 
with  fat,  and  he  was  led  before  the  assembly  of  priests,  who 
held  in  their  hands  green  twigs.    Sacred  dances  and  funereal 
shouts  alternated.     Five  youths  led  the  aspirant  through  a 
double  file  of  men  armed  with  canes  to  the  foot  of  a  certain 
tree,  covering  his  person  with  their  bodies,  and  receiving  in 
his  stead  the  blows  aimed  at  him.     In  the  meantime  the 
mother  prepared  a  funeral  pyre  for  the  simulated  sacrifice, 
and  wept  her  son  as  dead.     Then  the  tree  was  cut  down, 
and  its  boughs  lopped  off  and  formed  into  a  crown  for  the 
brows  of  the  candidate,  who  during  a  protracted  retirement, 
and  by  means  of  a  powerful  narcotic  called  visocean,  was 
thrown  into  a  state  of  somnambulism.     Thence  he  issued 
among  his  tribe  again  and  was  looked  upon  as  a  new  man, 
possessing  higher  powers  and  higher  knowledge  than  the 
non-initiated. 

705.  Indian  (North  American)  Societies. — Nearly  all  the 
Indian  tribes  who  once  roamed  over  the  vast  plains  of  North 
America  had  their  secret  societies  and  sacred  mysteries,  but 
as  the  different  tribes  borrowed  from  one  another  religious 
ceremonies  and  symbols,  there  was  great  similarity  between 
them  all,  though  here  and  there  characteristic  signs  or  tokens 
distinguished   the    separate   tribes.      Dancing   with    all   of 
them  was  a  form  of  worship  from  the  aborigines  of  Hispa- 
niola  to  those  of  Alaska,  as,  in  fact,  it  was  with  all  savage 
nations,  whether  African,  American,  or  Polynesian.      The 
Red  Indian  tribes  all  had  their  medicine-huts  and  men,  their 
kivas,  council-rooms,  or  whatever  name  they  gave  to  what 
were  really  their  religions  houses.     Most  tribes  kept  up  a 
sacred  fire,  which  was  extinguished  once  a  year,  and  then 
relighted.     The  sacred  dogmas  and  rites  of  the  Indians  of 
the  Gulf  States  bore  so  close  a  resemblance  to  those  of  the 


MISCELLANEOUS  SOCIETIES  301 

ancient  Jews,  that  it  was  long  seriously  contended  by  ethno- 
logists and  historians  that  they  were  the  Lost  Tribes  !  The 
Cherokees,  Delawares,  and  Chippewas  kept  records  on  sticks, 
six  inches  in  length,  and  tied  up  in  bundles,  which  were 
covered  with  devices  and  symbols,  which  were  called  Kep- 
newin  when  in  common  use,  and  Keknowin  when  connected 
with  the  mysteries  of  worship.  The  most  remarkable  record 
was  that  contained  in  the  Walum-Olum,  or  red  score ;  it 
contains  the  creation  myth  and  the  story  of  the  migrations 
of  the  tribes,  represented  in  pictorial  language.  Such  picto- 
graphs  are  owned  by  every  tribe.  The  Ojibwas  have  pro- 
duced some  very  elaborate  ones,  showing  the  inside  of  the 
medicine-lodge  filled  with  the  presence  of  the  Great  Spirit, 
a  candidate  for  admission  standing  therein,  crowned  with 
feathers,  and  holding  in  his  hand  an  otter-skin  pouch ;  the 
tree  with  the  root  that  supplies  the  medicine ;  the  goods 
offered  as  a  fee  for  admission ;  an  Indian  walking  in  the 
sky,  a  drum,  raven,  crow,  and  so  on.  The  Iroquois  mys- 
teries were  elaborate,  but  are  not  well  known ;  but  it  appears 
they  were  instituted  to  console  Manabozko  for  the  disap- 
pearance of  Chibiabos,  who  afterwards  was  made  ruler  of  the 
dead — the  parallel  in  this  case  to  Persephone  is  as  curious  as 
is  the  similarity  of  the  instrument  used  in  the  Kurnai  initia- 
tion to  the  Greek  pop/Bos  (72).  The  Iroquois  were  originally 
made  up  of  five  different  tribes,  which  afterwards  were  in- 
creased to  seven,  and  their  national  organisation  was  based, 
not  on  affinity,  but  on  an  artificial  and  arbitrary  brotherhood, 
having  signs  and  countersigns  resembling  those  of  modern 
secret  societies.  The  secret  associations  of  the  Dakotas 
were  more  numerous  and  more  marked  than  those  of  the 
Iroquois,  but  some  of  them  were  mere  social  societies,  while 
others  were  simply  religious.  Miss  Alice  Fletcher,  who  has 
lived  among  them,  and  the  Rev.  J.  0.  Dorsey,  testify  to  the 
number  of  societies  among  them,  but  to  their  secrets  they 
were  not  admitted.  Mr.  Frank  Gushing  was,  in  1883, 
initiated  into  the  secret  societies  of  the  Zunis  ;  Dr.  Wash- 
ington Matthews  has  given  us  descriptions  of  the  sacred 
ceremonies  of  the  Navajos,  and  Captain  E.  G.  Bourke  of  the 
snake-dance  of  the  Moquis.  Dr.  Franz  Boos  has  described 
the  customs  of  the  Alaskans,  and  shown  that  there  are 
many  societies  among  them,  some  of  which  require  that  a 
person  should  be  born  into  them  to  be  a  member.  In  1890 
the  Sioux  ghost-dance  attracted  much  attention.  But  what 
of  all  these  Indian  mysteries  which  in  recent  years  have  been 
endowed  with  a  factitious  interest  and  importance  ?  They 


302  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

may  have  a  special  attraction  for  the  comparative  ethno- 
logist ;  to  the  general  reader  they  merely  convey  the  con- 
viction that  from  China  to  Peru,  and  from  the  Arctic  to  the 
Antarctic  Pole,  man  is  everywhere  ruled  by  the  same  in- 
stincts, fears,  and  aspirations,  which  reveal  themselves  in 
the  same  customs,  beliefs,  and  religious  rites. 

706.  Invisibles,  The.- — We  know  not  how  much  or  how 
little  of  truth  there  is  in  the  accounts,  very  meagre  indeed, 
of  this  society,  supposed  to  have  existed  in  Italy  in  the  last 
century,  and   to   have  advocated,   in  nocturnal  assemblies, 
atheism  and  suicide. 

707.  Jehu,  Society  of. — This  society  was  formed  in  France 
during  the  Revolution,  to  avenge  its  excesses  by  still  greater 
violence.      It  was  first  established  at  Lyons.      It  took  its, 
name  from  that  king  who  was  consecrated  by  Elisha  to  I 
punish  the  sins  of  the  house  of  Ahab,  and  to  slay  all  the  i 
priests  of  Baal ;  that  is  to  say,  the  relations,  friends,  and  \ 
agents  of  the  Terrorists.     Ignorant  people  called  them  the 
Society  of  Jesus,  though  this  name   scarcely  suited  them,  \ 
since  they  spread  terror  and  bloodshed  throughout  France.  ,' 
The  society  disappeared  under  the  Consulate  and  the  Empire, 
but  reappeared  in  1814-15  under  the  new  name  of  "  Knights 
of  Maria  Theresa,"  or  "  of  the  Sun,"  and  by  them  Bordeaux 
was- betrayed  into  the  hands  of  the  English,  and  the  assassins 
of  the  Mayor  of  Toulouse  at  Bordeaux,  of  General  Ramel  at 
Toulouse,  and  of  Marshal  Brune  at  Avignon,  were  members 
of  this  society. 

708.  Karpokratians. — A  religious  society  founded  by  Kar- 
pokrates,  who  lived  in  the  time  of  the  Emperor  Adrian  at 
Alexandria.     He  taught  that  the  soul  must  rise  above  the 
superstition  of  popular  creeds  and  the  laws  of  society,  by 
which  inferior  spirits  enchain  man,  and  by  contemplation 
unite  with  the  Monas  or  highest  deity.     To  his  son  Epi- 
phanes  a  temple  was  erected  after  his  death  on  the  island 
of  Cephalonia.     The  sect,  in  spite  of  its  moral  worthless- 
ness,  continued  to  exist  to  the  sixth  century ;  the  members 
recognised  each  other  by  gently  tickling  the  palm  of  the 
hand  they  shook  with  the  points  of  their  fingers. 

709.  Klobbergoll. — Associations  on  the  Micronesian  Islands, 
living  together  in  houses  apart,  and  bound  to  accompany 
their  chiefs  on  their  war  expeditions,  and  perform  certain 
services  for  them.     There  are  on  these  islands  also  female 
clubs,  the  members  of  which  attend  at  festivities  given  to 
foreign  guests,  and  render  them  various  services. 

710.  Knights,  the  Order  of. — A  satirical  order  to  ridicule 


MISCELLANEOUS  SOCIETIES  303 

medieval  knighthood,  founded  curiously  enough  by  Frede- 
rick von  Gon4,  a  Knight  of  the  Strict  Observance,  who 
himself  believed  in  the  descent  of  the  Freemasons  from  the 
Knights  Templars.  It  was  instituted  at  Wetzlar  in  1771. 
The  members  assumed  knightly  names ;  thus  Gothe,  who 
belonged  to  it,  was  Gotz  von  Berlichingen.  They  held  the 
"  Four  Children  of  Haimon  "  to  be  symbolical,  and  Gothe 
wrote  a  commentary  thereon.  The  Order  was  divided  into 
four  degrees  in  sarcastic  derision  of  the  higher  degrees 
of  spurious  masonry,  called,  (i)  Transition,  (2)  Transition's 
Transition,  (3)  Transition's  Transition  to  Transition,  (4) 
Transition's  Transition  to  Transition  of  Transition.  The 
initiated  only  could  fathom  the  deep  meaning  of  these 
designations ! 

711.  Know-Nothings. — This  was  an  anti-foreign  and  no- 
popery  party,  formed   in    1852   in   the   United    States   of 
America,  and  acting  chiefly  through  secret  societies,  in  order 
to  decide  the  Presidential  election.     In  1856  it  had  almost 
become  extinct,  but  came  to  life  again  in   1888,  having  re- 
established secret  lodges  throughout  the  country,  but  being 
especially  strong  in  New  York  and  California.      It   then 
held  large  meetings  for  the  purpose  of  renominating  for  the 
presidential  post   Major  Hewitt,  who  maintained  that  all 
immigrants  ought  to  live  in  the   States  twenty-one  years 
before   they   could   vote.      They   were,    however,    defeated, 
General  Harrison  being  elected. 

712.  Ku-KLux-Klan. — A  secret  organisation    under   this 
name  spread  with  amazing  rapidity  over  the  Southern  States 
of  the  American  Union  soon  after  the  close  of  the  war. 
The  white  people  of  the  South  were  alarmed,  not  so  much 
by  the    threatened   confiscation   of   their   property  by   the 
Federal    Government,  as  by  the  nearer  and  more  present 
dangers  to   life  and  property,  virtue  and   honour,  arising 
from  the  social  anarchy  around  them.     The  negroes,  after 
the  Confederate  surrender,  were  disorderly.     Many  of  them 
would  not  settle  down  to  labour  on  any  terms,  but  roamed 
about  with  arms  in  their  hands  and  hunger  in  their  bellies, 
whilst  the  governing  power  was    only  thinking   of   every 
device  of  suffrage  and  reconstruction  by  which  the  freed- 
men  might  be    strengthened,   and   made,   under   Northern 
dictation,  the  ruling  power  in  the  country.     Agitators  came 
down  among  the  towns  and  plantations ;  and  organising  a 
Union  league,  held  midnight  meetings  with  the  negroes  in 
the  woods,  and  went  about  uttering  sentiments  which  were 
anti-social  and  destructive.     Crimes  and  outrages  increased  ; 


304  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

the  law  was  all  but  powerless,  and  the  new  governments  in 
the  South,  supposing  them  to  have  been  most  willing,  were 
certainly  unable  to  repress  disorder.  A  real  terror  reigned 
for  a  time  among  the  white  people ;  and  under  these  circum- 
stances the  Ku-Klux  started  into  existence,  and  executed 
the  Lynch-law,  which  alone  seems  effective  in  disordered 
states  of  society.  The  members  wore  a  dress  made  of  black 
calico,  and  called  a  "  shroud."  The  stuff  was  sent  round  to 
private  houses,  with  a  request  that  it  should  be  made  into 
a  garment ;  and  fair  fingers  sewed  it  up,  and  had  it  ready 
for  the  secret  messenger  when  he  returned  and  gave  his 
preconcerted  tap  at  the  door.  The  women  and  young  girls 
had  faith  in  the  honour  of  the  "  Klan,"  and  on  its  will  and 
ability  to  protect  them.  The  Ku-Klux,  when  out  on  their 
missions,  also  wore  a  high  tapering  hat,  with  a  black  veil 
over  the  face.  The  secret  of  the  membership  was  kept  with 
remarkable  fidelity ;  and  in  no  instance,  it  is  said,  has  a 
member  of  the  Ku-Klux  been  successfully  arraigned  and 
punished,  though  the  Federal  Government  passed  a  special 
Act  against  the  society,  and  two  proclamations  were  issued 
under  this  Act  by  President  Grant  as  late  as  October  1871, 
and  the  habeas  corpus  Act  suspended  in  nine  counties  of 
South  Carolina.  When  the  members  had  a  long  ride  at 
night,  they  made  requisitions  at  farmhouses  for  horses, 
which  were  generally  returned  on  a  night  following  without 
injury.  If  a  company  of  Federal  soldiers,  stationed  in  a 
small  town,  talked  loudly  as  to  what  they  would  do  with  the 
Ku-Klux,  the  men  in  shrouds  paraded  in  the  evening  before 
the  guard-house  in  numbers  so  overwhelming  as  at  once 
reduced  the  little  garrison  to  silence.  The  overt  acts  of  the 
Ku-Klux  consisted  for  the  most  part  in  disarming  dangerous 
negroes,  inflicting  Lynch-law  on  notorious  offenders,  and 
above  all,  in  creating  one  feeling  of  terror  as  a  counterpoise 
to  another.  The  thefts  by  the  negroes  were  a  subject  of 
prevailing  complaint  in  many  parts  of  the  South.  A  band 
of  men  in  the  Ku-Klux  costume  one  night  came  to  the  door 
of  Allan  Creich,  a  grocer  of  Williamson's  Creek,  seized  and 
dragged  him  some  distance,  when  they  despatched  and 
threw  him  into  the  Creek,  where  his  body  was  found.  The 
assassins  then  proceeded  to  the  house  of  Allan's  brother,  but 
not  finding  him  at  home,  they  elicited  from  his  little  child 
where  he  was  staying.  Hereupon  they  immediately  pro- 
ceeded to  the  house  named  ;  and  having  encountered  the 
man  they  sought,  they  dealt  with  him  as  they  had  dealt  with 
his  brother  Allan.  It  appears  that  Allan  had  long  been 


MISCELLANEOUS  SOCIETIES  305 

blamed  for  buying  goods  and  produce  stolen  by  the  negroes, 
and  had  often  been  warned  to  desist,  but  without  avail. 
The  institution,  like  all  of  a  similar  nature,  though  the 
necessity  for  its  existence  has  ceased  to  a  great  extent,  yet 
survives  in  a  more  degenerate  form,  having  passed  into  the 
hands  of  utter  scoundrels,  with  no  good  motive,  and  with 
foul  passions  of  revenge  or  plunder,  or  lust  of  dread  and 
mysterious  power  alone  in  their  hearts.  Thus  in  November 
1883  seven  members  of  the  society,  the  ringleaders  being 
men  of  considerable  property,  were  found  guilty  at  the 
United  States  Court,  Atalanta,  Georgia,  of  having  cruelly 
beaten  and  fired  on  some  negroes  for  having  voted  in  favour 
of  an  opposition  candidate  of  the  Yarborough  party  in  the 
Congressional  election.  They  were  sentenced  to  various 
terms  of  imprisonment. 

713.  Kurnai  Initiation. — The  Kurnai,  an  Australian  tribe, 
performed  rites  of  initiation  into  manhood,  somewhat  similar 
to  those  of  the  0-Kee-Pa  (725),  as  did  also  all  the  Tasmanian 
tribes.     But  details  are  not  known ;  the  nature  of  the  rites 
is  only  inferred  from  the  fact  that  all  young  men  examined 
by  Europeans  were  found  to  be   deeply  scarified   on   the 
shoulders,  thighs,  and  muscles  of  the  breast.     The  Kurnai 
mysteries  are  chiefly  referred  to  here  because  of  the  curious 
parallel  they  offer  in  the  use  of  an  instrument  resembling 
the  pbfjiftos,   which  was  one  of  the  sacred  objects  in  the 
Eleusinian  mysteries  (72).     The  Kurnai  call  the  instrument 
the  turndun ;  it  is  a  flat  piece  of  wood,  fastened  by  one  end 
to  a  thong,  for  whirling  it  round,  and  producing  a  roaring 
noise,  to  warn  off  the  women.     For  a  woman  to  see  it,  or 
a  man  to  show  it  her,  was,  by  native  law,  death  to  both. 
It  is  not  unknown  in  England ;  we  call  it  a  whizzer  or  bull- 
roarer.     A  similar  instrument  is  used  by  the  Kafirs  of  South 
Africa,  where  it  is  used  for  just  its  two  principal  Australian 
purposes,  namely,  for  rain-making,  and  in  connection  with 
the  rites  of  initiation  to  warn  the  women  off.     The  bull- 
roarer  was  also  in  use  in  New  Zealand.     In  Australia  it  is 
known  by  the  names  of  witarna  and  muyumkar. 

714.  Liberty,  Knights  of. — A  sect  formed  in  1820  in  France 
against  the  government  of  the  Bourbons.     Its  independent 
existence  was  brief,  as  it  was  soon  merged  in  that  of  the 
Carbonari. 

715.  Lion,  Knights  of  the. — This  was  one  of  the  trans- 
formations  assumed   in   Germany  in   the   last   century  by 
Masonic  Templars. 

716.  Lion,  The  Sleeping. — This  was  a  society  formed  in 

VOL.  II.  U 


306  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

Paris  in  1816,  with  the  object  of  restoring  Napoleon  to  the 
throne  of  France.     The  existing  government  suppressed  it. 

717.  Z/udlam's  Cave. — A  comic  society,  formed  at  Vienna 
in  I  Si  8,  and  so  named  after  a  somewhat  unsuccessful  play 
of  Oehlenschliiger.     The  members  were  called  bodies  ;  candi- 
dates, shadows.    The  latter  underwent  a  farcical  examination, 
and  if  found  very  ignorant,  were  accepted.    Many  literary  men 
belonged  to  it ;  but  though  their  professed  object  was  only 
amusement,  the  society  was  in  1826  suppressed  by  the  police 
of  Vienna. 

718.  Mad  Councillors. — This  comical  order  was  founded 
in   1809  by  a  Doctor  Ehrmann  of  Frankfort-on-the-Main. 
Diplomas,  conceived  in  a  ludicrous  style,  written  in  Latin, 
and  bearing  a  large  seal,  were  granted  to  the  members.    Jean 
Paul,  Arndt,  Goethe,  Inland,  had  such  diplomas ;  ladies  also 
received  them.     On  the  granting  of  the  hundredth,  in  1820, 
the  joke  was  dropped. 

719.  Magi,   Order  of  the.  —  Is  supposed  to  have  existed 
in  Italy  in  the  last  century,  as  a  modification  of  the  Rosi- 
crucians.     Its  members  are  said  to  have  worn  the  costume 
of  Inquisitors. 

720.  Mahdrdjas. — This  is  an  Indian  sect  of  priests.     It 
appears  abundantly  from  the  works  of  recognised  authority 
written  by  Maharajas,  and  from  existing  popular  belief  in 
the  V  allabhacharya  sect,  that  Vallabhacharya  is  believed  to 
have  been  an  incarnation  of  the  god  Krishna,  and  that  the 
Maharajas,  as  descendants  of  Vallabhacharya,  have  claimed 
and  received  from  their  followers  the  like  character  of  incar- 
nations of  that   god  by  hereditary  succession.     The  cere- 
monies of  the  worship  paid  to  Krishna  through  these  priests 
are  all  of  the  most  licentious  character.     The  love  and  sub- 
serviency due  to  a  Supreme  Being  are  here  materialised  and 
transferred  to  those  who  claim  to  be  the  living  incarnations 
of  the  god.     Hence  the  priests  exercise  an  unlimited  influence 
over  their  female  votaries,  who  consider  it  a  great  honour  to 
acquire  the  temporary  regard  of  the  voluptuous  Maharajas, 
the  belief  in  whose  pretensions  is  allowed  to  interfere,  almost 
vitally,  with  the  domestic   relations   of   husband  and  wife. 
The  Maharaja  libel  case,  tried  in  1862  in  the  Supreme  Court 
of  Bombay,  proved  that  the  wealthiest  and  largest  of  the 
Hindoo   mercantile   communities   of   Central   and  Western 
India  worshipped  as  a  god  a  depraved  priest,  compared  with 
whom  an  ancient  satyr  was  an  angel.     Indeed,  on  becoming 
followers  of  that  god,  they  make  to  his  priest  the  offering  of 
tan,  man,  and  dhan,  or  body,  mind,  and  property ;  and  so  far 


MISCELLANEOUS  SOCIETIES  307 

does  their  folly  extend,  that  they  will  greedily  drink  the 
water  in  which  he  has  bathed.  There  are  about  seventy  or 
eighty  of  the  Maharajas  in  different  parts  of  India.  They 
have  a  mark  on  the  forehead,  consisting  of  two  red  perpen- 
dicular lines,  meeting  in  a  semicircle  at  the  root  of  the 
nose,  and  having  a  round  spot  of  red  between  them.  Though 
not  a  secret  society,  strictly  speaking,  still,  as  their  doings 
were  to  some  extent  kept  secret,  and  their  worst  features, 
though  proved  by  legal  evidence,  denied  by  the  persons  im- 
plicated, I  have  thought  it  right  to  give  it  a  place  here. 

721.  Mano  Negra. — This  association,  the  Black  Hand,  in 
the  south  of  Spain,  is  agrarian  and  Socialistic,  and  its  origin 
dates  back  to  the  year  1835.     It  was  formed  in  consequence 
of  the  agricultural  labourers  having  been  deprived  of  their 
communal  rights,  the  lands  on  which  they  had  formerly  had 
the  privilege  to  cut  timber  and  pasture  their  cattle  having 
been  sold,  in  most  instances,  far  below  their  value,  to  the 
sharp  village  lawyers,  nicknamed  caciques,  who  resemble  in 
their   practices   the   gombeen  men  of   Cork,   though  these 
latter   do  not  possess  the  political  influence  of  the  former. 
The   caciques,   though   they  bought  the  land,  in  many  in- 
stances had  not  capital  enough   to   cultivate  it,  hence  the 
agricultural  labourer  was  left  to  starve,  a  condition  which 
led   to   many  agrarian  disturbances.     The  members  of  the 
society  were  bound  by  oath  to  punish  their  oppressors  by 
steel,  fire,  or  poison ;  incendiarism  was  rife.     The  association 
was  strictly  secret;  to  reveal  its  doings  by  treachery  or  im- 
prudence meant  death  to  the  offender.     The  society  had  a 
complete  organisation,  with  its  chiefs,  its  centres,  its  funds, 
its  secret  tribunals,  inflicting  death  and  other  penalties  on 
their  own  members,  and  on  landlords  and  usurers,  such  as 
the    caciques.     The    members,    to    escape   detection,    often 
changed  their  names ;  they  corresponded  by  cipher,  and  had 
a  code  of  precautions,  in  which  every  contingency  was  pro- 
vided against.     From  1 880  to  1883  the  society  was  particu- 
larly  active,    especially   in   Andalusia,    which   induced   the 
Spanish    Government   to   take   the   most  severe   repressive 
measures  against  it.     Many  trials  of  members  took  place  in 
1883.     The  rising  was  a  purely  Spanish  one ;  it  was  absolute 
hunger  which  drove  the  Spanish  peasant  into  the  hands  of 
native  agitators.     Foreign  anarchists  endeavoured  to  utilise 
the  movement,  but  had  little  influence  on  it. 

722.  Melanesian  Societies. — The  groups  of  islands  stretch- 
ing in  a  semicircle  from  off  the  eastern  coast  of  Australia 
to   New    Caledonia,  including  New   Guinea,   the   Solomon 


308  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

Islands,  the  New  Hebrides,  New  Caledonia,  and  also  the 
Fiji  Islands,  all  abound  with  secret  societies,  which,  however, 
have  nothing  formidable  in  them,  since  all  their  secrets  are 
known ;  the  people  join,  but  laugh  at  them ;  their  lodges 
are  their  clubs,  chiefly  devoted  to  feasting;  strangers  are 
admitted  to  them  as  to  inns ;  they  exclude  women,  though 
on  the  Fiji  Islands  there  are  societies  which  admit  them. 
Young  men  are  expected  to  be  initiated  ;  those  who  are  not, 
do  not  take  a  position  of  full  social  equality  with  those  who 
are  members.  When  the  ceremonies  and  doctrines  were  as 
yet  mysteries,  outsiders  thought  that  the  initiated  entered 
into  association  with  the  ghosts  of  the  dead,  a  delusion 
strengthened  by  the  strange  and  unearthly  noises  heard  at 
times  in  and  around  the  lodges,  and  the  hideously-disguised 
figures,  supposed  to  be  ghosts,  which  appeared  to  the  "dogs 
outside."  Now  it  is  known  that  the  ghosts  are  merely 
members,  wearing  strangely-decorated  hats  made  of  bark 
and  painted,  which  hats  cover  the  whole  head  and  rest  on 
the  shoulders,  while  the  mummers  are  dressed  in  long  cloaks, 
made  of  leaves,  and  shaped  in  fantastic  designs.  It  is  also 
known  that  the  noises  which  used  to  frighten  the  natives 
are  produced  by  a  flat  smooth  stone,  on  which  the  butt-end 
of  a  fan  of  palm  is  rubbed,  the  vibration  of  which  produces 
the  extraordinary  sound.  At  the  ceremony  of  initiation  the 
usual  pretence  of  imparting  secret  knowledge  is  gone  through 
on  a  par  with  that  imparted  in  some  societies  nearer  home, 
and,  as  with  the  latter,  it  is  all  a  question  of  fees,  though  in 
some  societies  there  is  also  some  rougher  ceremony  to  be 
submitted  to ;  thus  in  that  called  welu,  the  neophyte  has  to 
lie  down  on  his  face  in  a  hole  in  the  ground,  cut  exactly  to 
his  shape,  and  lighted  cocoanut  fronds  are  cast  upon  his  back. 
He  cannot  move,  and  dare  not  cry;  the  scars  remain  on  his 
back  as  marks  of  membership.  The  neophyte,  when  initiated, 
remains  goto,  that  is,  secluded  for  a  number  of  days — in  some 
societies  for  one  hundred  days — during  which  time  he  has 
to  attend  to  the  oven  and  do  the  dirty  work  of  the  lodge. 
Learning  the  dances,  which  the  initiated  on  certain  festi- 
vals perform  in  public,  as  particularly  pleasing  to  their 
gods,  seems  to  be  the  principal  item  of  the  instruction  re- 
ceived in  the  sanctuary.  The  number  of  societies,  as  already 
stated,  is  very  large,  and  they  are  known  by  various  names. 
The  New  Britain  Society  is  called  Duk-Duk  (693) ;  that  of 
Florida,  Matambala ;  that  of  the  Banks  Islands,  Tamate ; 
that  of  the  Northern  New  Hebrides,  Qatu ;  that  of  Fiji, 
Nanga.  The  ghosts  supposed  to  be  present  are  called  duka  ; 


MISCELLANEOUS  SOCIETIES  309 

in  Florida  the  consultation  of  the  ghosts  is  known  as  palu- 
duka.  The  lodge  is  called  Salagoro ;  it  is  usually  situate  in 
some  retreat  near  the  village,  in  the  midst  of  lofty  trees,  and 
must  not  be  approached  by  women ;  masked  figures  guard 
the  path  to  it,  which  is  marked  by  bright  orange-coloured 
fruits  stuck  on  reeds,  and  the  customary  soloi  taboo  marks, 
forbidding  entrance.  The  members  of  different  societies 
are  distinguished  by  particular  badges,  consisting  of  leaves 
or  flowers,  and  to  wear  such  a  badge  without  membership  is 
a  punishable  offence. 

723.  Munibo-  Jumbo. — We  have  seen  (687)  that  there  is  a 
Calif ornian  society,  whose  object  it  is  to  keep  their  women 
in  due  subjection.    Among  the  Mundingoes,  a  tribe  above  the 
sources  of  the  river  Gambia,  a  somewhat  similar  association 
exists.    Whenever  the  men  have  any  dispute  with  the  women, 
an  image,  eight  or  nine  feet  high,  made  of  the  bark  of  trees, 
dressed  in  a  long  coat,  -crowned  with  a  wisp  of  straw,  and 
called  a  Mumbo-Jumbo,  or  Mamma  Jambah,  is  sent  for.     A 
member  of  the  society  conceals  himself  under  the  coat  and 
acts  as  judge.     Of  course  his  decisions  are  almost  always  in 
favour  of  the  men.    When  the  women  hear  him  coming  they 
run  away  and  hide  themselves,  but  he  sends  for  them,  makes 
them  sit  down,  and  afterwards  either  sing  or  dance,  as  he 
pleases.     Those  who  refuse  to  come  are  brought  by  force, 
and  he  whips  them.     Whoso  is  admitted  into  the  society  has 
to  swear  in  the  most  solemn  manner  never  to  divulge  the 
secret  to  any  woman,  nor  to  any  one  not  initiated.     To  pre- 
serve the  secret  inviolable,  no  boys  under  sixteen  years  of  age 
are  admitted.    About  1727  the  King  of  Jagra,  having  a  very 
inquisitive  wife,  disclosed  to  her  the  secret  of  his  member- 
ship, and  the  secrets  connected  therewith.     She,   being  a 
gossip,  talked  about  it ;  the  result  was,  that  she  and  the  king 
were  killed  by  the  members  of  the  association. 

Obcah,  see  Egbo  Society. 

724.  Odd  Fellows. — This  Order  was  founded  in  England 
about  the  middle  of  the  last  century.     The  initiatory  rites 
then  were  of  the  usual  terrifying  character  we  have  seen 
practised  in  the  ancient  mysteries,  accompanied  by  all  the 
theatrical  display  intended  to  overawe  the  candidate,  who 
had  to  take  the  oath  of  secrecy.     The  Order  has  its  signs, 
grips,  words,  and  passwords ;  one  word  was  Fides,  which  was 
uttered  letter  by  letter ;  one  sign  was  made  by  placing  the 
right  hand  on  the  left  breast,  and  at  the  same  time  pro- 
nouncing the  words,    "  Upon  my  honour."     Another  sign 
was  made  by  taking  hold  of  the  lower  part  of  the  left  ear 


3io  SECKET  SOCIETIES 

with  the  thumb  and  forefinger  of  the  right  hand.  What  the 
signs,  grips,  and  passwords  now  are,  it  is  impossible  to  tell, 
since  these,  as  the  only  secrets  of  the  Order,  are  kept  strictly 
secret.  Every  half-year  a  new  password  is  communicated 
to  the  lodges.  In  1819  the  Order  was  introduced  into  the 
United  States.  There,  are  three  degrees :  the  White,  Blue, 
and  Scarlet ;  there  is  also  a  female  degree,  called  Rebecca, 
and  High  Degrees  are  conferred  in  "Camps."  The  Odd 
Fellows  in  the  lodges  wear  white  aprons,  edged  with  the 
colours  of  their  degree ;  in  the  camps  they  wear  black  aprons 
similarly  trimmed.  Since  the  American  prosecutions  of  the 
Freemasons,  which  also  affected  the  Odd  Fellows,  the  oath 
of  secrecy  is  no  longer  demanded  (see  741). 

725.  0-Kee-Pa. — A  religious  rite,  commemorative  of  the 
Flood,  which  was  practised  by  the  Mandans,  a  now  extinct 
tribe  of  Red  Indians.     The  celebration  was  annual,  and  its 
object  threefold,  viz. :  (i)  to  keep  in  remembrance  the  sub- 
siding of  the  waters ;  (2)  to  dance  the  bull-dance,  to  insure 
a  plentiful  supply  of  buffaloes  (though  the  reader  will  see  in 
it  an  allusion  to  the  bull  of  the  zodiac,  the  vernal  equinox) ; 
and  (3)  to  test  the  courage  and  power  of  endurance  of  the 
young  men  who,  during  the  past  year,  had  arrived  at  the  age 
of  manhood,  by  great  bodily  privations  and  tortures.     Part 
of  the  latter  were  inflicted  in  the  secrecy  of  the  "  Medicine- 
hut,"  outside  of  which  stood  the  Big  Canoe,  or  Mandan  Ark, 
which  only  the  "Mystery-Men"  were  allowed  to  touch  or 
look  into.    The  tortures,  as  witnessed  by  Catlin,  consisted  in 
forcing  sticks  of  wood  under  the  dorsal  or  pectoral  muscles 
of  the  victim,  and  then  suspending  him  by  these  sticks  from 
the  top  of  the  hut,  and  turning  him  round  until  he  fainted, 
when  he  was  taken  down  and  allowed  to  recover  conscious- 
ness ;  whereupon  he  was  driven  forth  among  the  multitude 
assembled  without,  who  chased  him  round  the  village,  tread- 
ing on  the  cords  attached  to  the  bits  of  wood  sticking  in  his 
flesh,  until  these  latter  fell  out  by  tearing  the  flesh  to  pieces. 
Like  the  ancient  mysteries,  the  0-Kee-Pa  ended  with  drunken 
and  vicious  orgies.    The  Sioux  at  Rosebud  Agency,  in  Dakota, 
still  practise  the  same  barbarous  rites,  but  in  a  milder  form. 

726.  Pantheists. — An  association,  existing  in  the  last  cen- 
tury in  this  country  and  in  Germany ;  Bolingbroke,  Hume, 
and  other  celebrities  belonged  to  it.     Its  object  was  the  dis- 
cussion of  the  maxims  contained  in  Toland's  "  Pantheisticon." 
John  Toland  was  born  in  Ireland  about    1670,  and  was  a 
Deistical  writer,   who   anticipated,    two  centuries  ago,   the 
"  higher  criticism  "  of  the  present  day  in  his  "  Christianity 


MISCELLANEOUS  SOCIETIES  311 

not  Mysterious."  His  writings  attracted  much  attention 
here  and  in  Germany,  which  country  he  repeatedly  visited. 
As  his  teaching  was  considered  atheistical,  its  followers  had 
to  study  it  secretly.  The  members  of  the  association  met  at 
the  periods  of  the  solstices  and  of  the  equinoxes,  and  the  pro- 
fane, and  even  the  servants,  were  rigorously  excluded  from 
the  meetings. 

727.  Patriotic  Order  Sons  of  America. — This  Order  was 
organised  in  Philadelphia  in  1847.     It  suspended  operations 
during  the  Civil  War,  but  at  its  conclusion  it  was  reorganised, 
and  now  counts   over    200,000   members.      The  aims  and 
objects  of  the  Order  are  the  teaching  of  American  prin- 
ciples ;  born  Americans  only  are  admitted.     Its  lodges  are 
called  camps.     It  is  a  benefit  society,  and,  like  all  similar 
associations,  has  no  secrets,  but  simply  endeavours,  by  cer- 
tain symbols  and  signs  of  recognition,  to  impress  on  their 
members  their  principles  and  brotherhood. 

Pednosophers,  see  Tobaccological  Society. 

728.  Phi-Beta-Kappa. — The  Bavarian  Illuminati,  accord- 
ing to  some  accounts,  spread  to  America.     Students  of  uni- 
versities only  are  admitted  to  the  Order.     The  password  is 
(friXocrotyia  BLOV  /cvpepwrjTr,?,  philosophy  is  the  guide  or  rule 
of  life.     The  three  letters  forming  the  initials  of  the  Greek 
sentence  were  chosen  as  the  name  of  the    society,   whose 
object  is  to  make  philosophy,  and  not  religion,  the  guiding 
principle  of  man's  actions.     The  Order  was  introduced  into 
the  United  States  about  the  year  1776.     It  had  its  secret 
signs  and  grips,  which,  however,  were  all  made  public,  when 
about  the  year  1830  the  society  ceased  from  being  a  secret 
one :  the  sign  was  given  by  placing  the  two  forefingers  of 
the  right  hand  so  as  to  cover  the  left  corner  of  the  mouth, 
and  then  drawing  it  across  the  chin.     The  grip  was  like  the 
common  shaking  of  hands,  only  not  interlocking  the  thumbs, 
and  at  the  same  time  gently  pressing  the  wrists.     The  jewel 
or  medal,  always  of  silver  or  gold,  and  provided  at  the  candi- 
date's expense,  is  suspended  by  a  pink  or  blue  ribbon.     On 
it  are  the  letters  Ph,  B,  and  K,  six  stars,  and  a  hand.     The 
stars   denote  the  number  of  colleges  where  the  institution 
exists.     On  the  reverse  is  S.  P.  for  Societas  Philosophise, 
and  the  date  December  5,  1776,  which  indicates  the  time  of 
the  introduction  of  the  Order  into  the  States. 

729.  Pilgrims. — A  society  whose  existence  was  discovered 
at  Lyons  in  1825,  through  the  arrest  of  one  of  the  brethren, 
a  Prussian  shoemaker,  on  whom  was  found  the  printed  cate- 
chism of  the  society.     Though  the  Pilgrims  aimed  above  all 


312  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

at  religious  reform,  yet  their  catechism  was  modelled  on  that 
of  the  Freemasons. 

730.  Police,  Secret. — Whilst  revolutionaries  and  disaffected 
subjects  formed  secret  associations  for  the  overthrow  of  their 
rulers,  the  latter  had  recourse  to  counter-associations,  or  the 
Secret  Police.  In  France  it  was  very  active  in  the  early  part 
of  the  last  century,  but  chiefly  as  the  pander  to  the  debau- 
cheries of  the  Court.  For  political  purposes  women  of  loose 
morals  were  employed  by  preference.  Thus  a  famous  pro- 
curess, whose  boudoirs  were  haunted  by  diplomatists,  a 
Madam  Fillon,  discovered  and  frustrated  the  conspiracy  of 
Cellamare,  the  Spanish  ambassador  in  1718  at  the  court  of 
the  Eegent  (Philippe  d'Orleans,  who  governed  France  during 
the  minority  of  Louis  XV.),  which  was  directed  against  the 
reigning  family,  in  favour  of  the  Duke  of  Maine.  The  am- 
bassador was  obliged  to  leave  France.  From  the  clironique 
scandaleuse  of  those  times  it  is  evident  that  the  police  were 
always  closely  connected  with  the  ladies  of  easy  virtue,  whom 
they  employed  as  their  agents.  Towards  the  end  of  the 
eighteenth  century  the  police  were  secretly  employed  in  pre- 
venting the  propagation  of  philosophical  works,  called  bad 
books.  The  Revolution  abolished  this  secret  police  as  im- 
moral and  illegal ;  but  it  was,  as  a  political  engine,  re-estab- 
lished under  the  Directory,  to  which  the  expelled  royal 
family  opposed  a  counter-police,  which,  however,  was  dis- 
covered in  the  month  of  May  1800.  Napoleon,  to  protect 
himself  against  the  various  conspiracies  hatched  against  him, 
relied  greatly  on  the  secret  police  he  had  established ;  but 
there  is  no  doubt  that  the  mad  proceedings  of  Savary,  Duke 
of  Rovigo,  Napoleon's  last  chief  of  police,  hastened  the  downfall 
of  the  Empire.  Under  Louis  Philippe  again  the  secret  police 
had  plenty  of  work  to  do,  in  consequence  of  the  many  secret 
societies,  whose  machinations  we  have  already  described  (597). 

In  Prussia  also  the  secret  police  was  very  active  from 
1848  to  the  Franco- Prussian  war,  during  which  its  chief 
duty  was  to  protect  the  King  of  Prussia,  his  allied  princes, 
and  Bismarck  against  the  attempts  at  assassination  which 
were  then  so  rife.  How  the  secret  police  had  plenty  of 
occupation  in  Russia,  where  it  was  known  as  the  "Third 
Division,"  we  have  seen  in  the  account  of  the  Nihilists. 
In  this  country  a  secret  police  has  never  been  tolerated ; 
it  is  opposed  to  the  sentiment  of  the  people,  who  always 
connect  it  with  agents  provocateurs. 

We  have  seen  (693)  that  a  kind  of  secret  police  exists 
in  New  Pomerania  and  Western  Africa. 


MISCELLANEOUS  SOCIETIES  313 

731.  Portuguese  Societies. — During  the  early  part  of  this 
century  various  secret  societies  with  political  objects  were 
formed   in    Portugal,   but    as   they  never   attained   to   any 
importance  or  permanence,  it  will  be  sufficient  to  mention 
the  names  of  three  of  them :    the  Septembrists,  Chartists, 
and  Miguellists,  the  latter  founded  in  favour  of  Don  Miguel, 
who  for  a  time  occupied  the  throne  of  Portugal. 

732.  Purr  ah,  The. — Between  the  river  of   Sierra  Leone 
and  Cape  Monte,  there  exist  five  nations  of  Foulahs-Sousous, 
who  form  among  themselves  a  kind  of  federative  republic. 
Each  colony  has  its  particular  magistrates  and  local  govern- 
ment ;  but  they  are  subject  to  an  institution  which  they  call 
Purrdh.     It  is  an  association  of  warriors,  which  from  its 
effects  is  very  similar  to  the  secret  tribunal  formerly  exist- 
ing in  Germany,  and  known  by  the  name  of  the  Holy  Vehm 
(206) ;    and  on  account  of  its  rites  and  mysteries  closely 
resembles  the  ancient  initiations.     Each  of  the  five  colonies 
has    its    own    peculiar    Purrah,    consisting    of    twenty-five 
members ;    and  from  each  of  these  particular  tribunals  are 
taken    five    persons,    who    form    the    Grand    Purrah    or 
supreme  tribunal. 

To  be  admitted  to  a  district  Purrah  the  candidate  must 
be  at  least  thirty  years  of  age ;  to  be  a  member  of  the 
Grand  Purrah,  he  must  be  fifty  years  old.  All  his  rela- 
tions belonging  to  the  Purrah  become  security  for  the 
candidate's  conduct,  and  bind  themselves  by  oath  to  sac- 
rifice him,  if  he  flinch  during  the  ceremony,  or  if,  after 
having  been  admitted,  he  betray  the  mysteries  and  tenets 
of  the  association. 

In  each  district  comprised  in  the  institution  of  the  Purrah 
there  is  a  sacred  wood  whither  the  candidate  is  conducted, 
and  where  he  is  confined  for  several  months  in  a  solitary 
and  contracted  habitation,  and  neither  speaks  nor  quits 
the  dwelling  assigned  to  him.  If  he  attempt  to  penetrate 
into  the  forest  which  surrounds  him,  he  is  instantly  slain. 
After  several  months'  preparation  the  candidate  is  admitted 
to  the  trial,  the  last  proofs  of  which  are  said  to  be  terrible. 
All  the  elements  are  employed  to  ascertain  his  resolution 
and  courage ;  lions  and  leopards,  in  some  degree  chained, 
are  made  use  of;  during  the  time  of  the  proof  the  sacred 
woods  resound  with  dreadful  howlings ;  conflagrations  appear 
in  the  night,  seeming  to  indicate  general  destruction ;  while 
at  other  times  fire  is  seen  to  pervade  these  mysterious  woods 
in  all  directions.  Every  one  whose  curiosity  excites  him 
to  profane  these  sacred  parts  is  sacrificed  without  mercy. 


3H  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

When  the  candidate  has  undergone  all  the  degrees  of  pro- 
bation, he  is  permitted  to  be  initiated,  an  oath  being  pre- 
viously exacted  from  him  that  he  will  keep  all  the  secrets, 
and  execute  without  demur  all  the  decrees  of  the  Purrah 
of  his  tribe,  or  of  the  Grand  and  Sovereign  Purrah. 

Any  member  turning  traitor  or  rebel  is  devoted  to  death, 
and  sometimes  assassinated  in  the  midst  of  his  family.  At 
a  moment  when  a  guilty  person  least  expects  it,  a  warrior 
appears  before  him,  masked  and  armed,  who  says:  "The 
Sovereign  Purrah  decrees  thy  death."  On  these  words 
every  person  present  shrinks  back,  no  one  makes  the  least 
resistance,  and  the  victim  is  killed.  The  common  Purrah 
of  a  tribe  takes  cognisance  of  the  crimes  committed  within 
its  jurisdiction,  tries  the  criminals,  and  executes  their  sen- 
tences ;  and  also  appeases  the  quarrels  that  arise  among 
powerful  families. 

It  is  only  on  extraordinary  occasions  that  the  Grand 
Purrah  assembles  for  the  trial  of  those  who  betray  the 
mysteries  and  secrets  of  the  Order,  or  rebel  against  its 
dictates;  and  it  is  this  assembly  which  generally  puts  an 
end  to  the  wars  that  sometimes  break  out  between  two  or 
more  tribes.  From  the  moment  when  the  Grand  Purrah 
has  assembled  for  the  purpose  of  terminating  a  war,  till  it 
has  decided  on  the  subject,  every  warrior  of  the  belligerent 
parties  is  forbidden  to  shed  a  drop  of  blood  under  pain  of 
death.  The  deliberations  of  the  Purrah  generally  last  a 
month,  after  which  the  guilty  tribe  is  condemned  to  be 
pillaged  during  four  days.  The  warriors  who  execute  the 
sentence  are  taken  from  the  neutral  cantons ;  and  they 
disguise  themselves  with  frightful  masks,  are  armed  with 
poniards,  and  carry  lighted  torches.  They  arrive  at  the 
doomed  villages  before  break  of  day,  kill  all  the  inhabitants 
that  cannot  make  their  escape,  and  carry  off  whatever  pro- 
perty of  value  they  can  find.  The  plunder  is  divided  into 
two  parts ;  one  part  being  allotted  to  the  tribe  against  which 
the  aggression  has  been  committed,  whilst  the  other  part 
goes  to  the  Grand  Purrah,  which  distributes  it  among  the 
warriors  who  executed  the  sentence. 

When  the  family  of  the  tribes  under  the  command  of  the 
Purrah  becomes  too  powerful  and  excites  alarm,  the  Grand 
Purrah  assembles  to  deliberate  on  the  subject,  and  almost 
always  condemns  it  to  sudden  and  unexpected  pillage  ;  which 
is  executed  by  night,  and  always  by  warriors  masked  and 
disguised. 

The  terror  and  alarm  which   this  confederation  excites 


MISCELLANEOUS  SOCIETIES  315 

amongst  the  inhabitants  of  the  countries  where  it  is  estab- 
lished, and  even  in  the  neighbouring  territories,  are  very 
great.  The  negroes  of  the  bay  of  Sierra  Leone  never  speak 
of  it  without  reserve  and  apprehension ;  for  they  believe  that 
all  the  members  of  the  confederation  are  sorcerers,  and 
that  they  have  communication  with  the  devil.  The  Purrah 
has  an  interest  in  propagating  these  prejudices,  by  means 
of  which  it  exercises  an  authority  that  no  person  dares  to 
dispute.  The  number  of  members  is  supposed  to  be  about 
6000,  and  they  recognise  each  other  by  certain  words  and 
signs. 

733.  Pythias,  Knights  of. — This  Order  was  instituted  shortly 
after  the  American  Civil  War  in  1 864  at  Washington,  whence 
it  soon   spread  through  the  United  States.     Its  professed 
object  was  the  inculcation  of  lessons  of  friendship,  based  011 
the  ancient  story  of  Damon  and  Pythias.     It  calls  itself  a 
secret  organisation,  but  in  reality  is  only  an  ordinary  benefit 
society,  though  it  may  have  a  secret  object,  since  it  has 
within  itself  a  "uniform   rank,"  which  in  its  character  is 
essentially  military.     The  drill  has  been  so  revised  as  to 
bring  it  into  perfect  harmony  with  the  tactics  of  the  United 
States  army ;  the  judges  at  the  competitive  drills  of  the 
order  are  officers  of  the  United  States  army.     This  "  uniform 
rank  "  counts  upwards  of  30,000  members. 

734.  Rebeccaites. — A  society  formed  in  Wales  about  1843, 
for  the  abolition  of  toll-bars.    Like  the  Irish  White-Boys  the 
members  dressed  in  white,  and  went  about  at  night  pulling 
down  the  toll-gates.      Government  suppressed  them.     The 
supposed  chief  of  the  society  was  called  Eebecca,  a  name 
derived  from  the  rather  clever  application  of  the  passage  in 
Genesis  xxiv.  60,  "  And  they  blessed  Eebekah,  and  said  unto 
her  .  .  .  Let  thy  seed  possess  the  gate  of  those  which  hate 
thee." 

735.  Redemption,    Order   of. — A    secret    and    chivalrous 
society,  which  in  its  organisation  copied  the  order  of  the 
Knights  of   Malta.     Its   scope   is   scarcely  known,  and   it 
never  went  beyond  the  walls  of   Marseilles,  where  it  was 
founded  by  a  Sicilian  exile. 

736.  Red  Men. — In  1812,  during  the  war  between  Eng- 
land   and   the   United    States,    some    patriotic   Americans 
founded  a  society  with  the  above  title.     They  took  its  sym- 
bolism from  Indian  life :  the  lodges  were  called  tribes ;  the 
meeting-places,  wigwams  ;  the  meetings,  council  fires,  and  so 
on.     On  festive  occasions  the  members  appeared  in  Indian 
costume.     A  great  many  Germans,  settled  in  America,  joined 


3i6  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

the  society,  but  being  looked  down  upon  by  the  thorough- 
bred Yankees,  the  Germans  seceded  and  founded  an  order 
of  their  own,  and  called  it  the  "  Independent  Order  of  Red 
Men."  In  both  societies  there  are  three  degrees — the  Eng- 
lish has  its  Hunters,  Soldiers,  and  Captains  ;  the  German 
is  divided  into  the  Blacks,  Blues,  and  Greens.  There  are 
higher  degrees  conferred  in  "  camps."  The  two  societies 
count  about  forty  thousand  members.  After  the  cessation 
of  the  war  with  England  (1814)  the  societies  lost  their  poli- 
tical character,  and  became  mere  benefit  societies,  which 
they  now  are. 

737.  Regeneration,  Society  of  Universal. — It  was  composed 
of  the  patriots  of  various  countries  who  had  taken  refuge 
in  Switzerland  between  1815  and  1820.     But  though  their 
aims  were  very  comprehensive,  they  ended  in  talk,  of  which 
professed  patriots  always  have  a  liberal  supply  011  hand. 

738.  Saltpetrers. — The  county  of  Hauenstein,in  the  Duchy 
of  Baden,  forms  a  triangle,  the  base  of  which  is  the  Rhine 
from  Sackingen  to  Waldshut.     In  the  last  century  the  abbot 
of  the  rich  monastery  of  St.  Blasius,  which  may  be  said  to 
form  the  apex  of  the  triangle,  exacted  bond-service  against 
the  Hauensteiners.     This  they  resented ;  a  secret  league  was 
the  result.     From  its  leader,  Fridolin  Albiez,  a  dealer  in  salt- 
petre, it  took  the  name  of  Saltpetrers.    The  abbot,  supported 
by  Austria  in  1755,  finally  compelled  them  to  submit,  though 
the  sect  was  revived  at  the  beginning  of  this  century  to 
oppose  reformatory  tendencies  in  church  and  school.    Mutual 
concessions  in   1840  put  an  end   to  the  strife  and  to  the 
society.      In   Tirol   the   Manharters,    so   called  after   their 
leader,  Manhart,  had  the  same  object  in  view — resistance  to 
Reformation  principles — and  were   successful  in  attaining 
them,  they  being  warmly  supported  by  the  Pope. 

739.  Sikh  Fanatics. — The  Sikhs — Sikh  means  a  disciple, 
or  devoted  follower — first  came   into   notice   in   1510  as  a 
religious  sect.     Their  prophet  was  Nanuk.     Two  centuries 
afterwards  Guru  Govindu  developed  a  more  military  spirit ; 
he  added  the  sword  to  their  holy  book,  the  "  Granth."    From 
1798  to  1839  the  Sikhs  were  at  the  zenith  of  their  power. 
Their  distinguishing  marks  were  a  blue  dress,  because  Bala 
Ram,  the  brother  of  Krishna,  is  always  represented  as  wear- 
ing a  blue  dress,  with  long  hair  and  beard ;  every  man  had 
to  carry  steel  on  his  person  in  some  form.     The  ordinary 
Sikh  now  dresses  in  pure  white.     All  the  sect  were  bound 
in  a  holy  brotherhood  called  the  Khalsa  (meaning  the  saved 
or  liberated),  wherein  all  social  distinctions  were  abolished. 


MISCELLANEOUS  SOCIETIES  317 

The  fierce  fanatical  Akalis  were  soldier-priests,  a  sombre 
brotherhood  of  military  devotees,  chiefly  employed  about 
their  great  temple  at  Amritsar  (meaning  the  fountain  of 
immortality).  They  initiate  converts,  which  is  done  by 
ordering  the  neophyte  to  wear  blue  clothes,  by  being  pre- 
sented with  five  weapons — a  sword,  a  firelock,  a  bow  and 
arrow,  and  a  pike.  He  is  further  enjoined  to  abstain  from 
intercourse  with  certain  schismatic  sects,  and  to  practise 
certain  virtues.  As,  according  to  tradition,  Govindu,  when 
at  the  point  of  death,  exclaimed,  "  Wherever  five  Sikhs  are 
assembled,  there  I  shall  be  present,"  five  Sikhs  are  neces- 
sary to  perform  the  rite  of  initiation.  The  Sikhs  may  eat 
flesh,  except  that  of  the  cow,  which  is  a  sacred  animal  to 
them  as  well  as  to  the  Hindus. 

The  phase  of  Sikh  fanaticism  which  revealed  its  existence 
in  1872  by  the  Kooka  murders  may  be  traced  to  the  following 
sources : — The  movement  was  started  a  good  many  years  since 
by  one  Earn  Singh,  a  Sikh,  whose  headquarters  were  fixed  at 
the  village  of  Bainee,  in  the  Loodhiana  district.  His  teach- 
ing is  said  to  have  aimed  at  reforming  the  ritual  rather  than 
the  creed  of  his  countrymen.  His  followers,  moreover,  seem 
to  have  borrowed  a  hint  or  two  from  the  dancing  dervishes 
of  Islam.  At  their  meetings  they  worked  themselves  into 
a  sort  of  religious  frenzy,  which  relieved  itself  by  unearthly 
howlings ;  and  hence  they  were  generally  known  as  the 
"  Shouters."  Men  and  women  of  the  new  sect  joined  to- 
gether in  a  sort  of  wild  war-dance,  yelling  out  certain  forms 
of  words,  and  stripping  off  all  their  clothing,  as  they  whirled 
more  and  more  rapidly  round.  Ram  Singh  himself  had 
served  in  the  old  Sikh  army,  and  one  of  his  first  moves  was 
to  get  a  number  of  his  emissaries  enlisted  into  the  army  of 
the  Maharajah  of  Cashmere.  That  ruler,  it  is  said,  would 
have  taken  a  whole  regiment  of  Kookas  into  his  pay ;  but 
for  some  reason  or  another  this  scheme  fell  to  the  ground. 
Possibly  he  took  fright  at  the  political  influence  which  his 
new  recruits  might  come  in  time  to  wield  against  him  or 
his  English  allies.  Ram  Singh's  followers,  however,  multi- 
plied apace ;  and  out  of  their  number  he  chose  his  lieutenants, 
whose  preaching  in  time  swelled  the  total  of  converts  to 
something  like  100,000.  Of  these  soubahs,  or  lieutenants, 
some  twenty  were  distributed  about  the  Punjab.  The 
great  bulk  of  their  converts  consisted  of  artisans  and  people 
of  yet  lower  caste,  who,  having  nothing  to  lose,  indulged  in 
wild  dreams  of  future  gain.  Their  leader's  power  over  them 
appears  to  have  been  very  great.  They  obeyed  his  orders  as 


3i8  SECEET  SOCIETIES 

cheerfully  as  the  Assassins  of  yore  obeyed  the  Old  Man  of 
the  Mountain.  If  he  had  a  message  to  send  to  one  of  his 
lieutenants,  however  far  away,  a  letter  was  entrusted  to  one 
of  his  disciples,  who  ran  full  speed  to  the  next  station,  and 
handed  it  to  another,  who  forthwith  left  his  own  work,  and 
hastened  in  like  manner  to  deliver  the  letter  to  a  third.  In 
order  to  clinch  his  power  over  his  followers,  Ram  Singh 
contrived  to  interpolate  his  own  name  in  a  passage  of  the 
"Granth" — the  Sikh  Bible — which  foretells  the  advent  of 
another  Guru,  prophet  or  teacher.  But,  whatever  the 
teachings  of  this  new  religious  leader,  there  is  reason  to 
think  that  his  ultimate  aim  was  to  restore  the  Sikhs  to 
their  old  supremacy  in  the  Punjab  by  means  of  a  religious 
revival ;  and  he  stirred  up  the  religious  fervour  of  his  fol- 
lowers by  impressing  on  them  that  their  war  was  a  war 
against  the  slayer  of  the  sacred  cow,  which  to  their  Euro- 
pean conquerors  of  course  is  not  sacred,  and  has  ceased  to 
be  so  to  many  natives  of  India.  But  the  insurrection  was 
quickly  suppressed.  The  whole  band,  which  never  numbered 
three  hundred,  was  literally  hunted  down,  and  the  ring- 
leaders blown  from  guns.  This  may  appear  severe  punish- 
ment ;  but  it  is  to  be  borne  in  mind  that  though  the  number 
of  insurgents  who  were  taken  with  arms  in  their  hands  was 
only  small,  they  had  behind  them  a  body  of  nearly  100,000 
followers,  bound  together  by  one  common  fanaticism,  who 
had  to  be  taught  by  very  prompt  and  severe  action  that  our 
power  in  India  is  not  to  be  assailed  with  impunity. 

The  Sikhs  are  divided  into  numerous  sects,  the  most  im- 
portant being  the  Govind  Sinhi  community,  comprehending 
the  political  association  of  the  Sikh  nation  generally.  The 
Sikh  sect,  as  a  religious  and  secret  one,  is  rapidly  diminishing. 

740.  Silver  Circle,  Knights  of  the. — A  secret  organisation 
formed  in  the  Rocky  Mountains  in  1893  against  the  suspen- 
sion of  silver  coinage.  The  Knights  threatened,  in  case  the 
Sherman  Law  should  be  repealed,  to  compel  Colorado  to 
leave  the  American  Union  and  unite  with  the  republic  of 
Mexico,  which  is  a  silver  coinage  country.  The  western 
states  were  at  that  time  honeycombed  with  secret  societies 
deliberating  the  question  of  secession.  Many  of  these 
societies  were  armed  organisations,  and  were,  it  is  said,  in 
the  habit  of  holding  moonlight  meetings  for  purposes  of 
drill.  The  members  had  secret  signs  and  passwords  to 
recognise  one  another  in  public.  But  the  repeal  of  the 
Sherman  Act  in  August  1893  crushed  their  hopes,  and 
caused  the  collapse  of  the  society. 


MISCELLANEOUS  SOCIETIES  319 

741.  Sonderbare  Gesellen. — German  societies,  formed  on  the 
model  of  the  English  Odd  Fellows,  whose  name  they  took, 
and  of  which  the  above  is  a  literal  translation.     They  now 
call  themselves  Freie  Gesellen  (Free  Brethren),  or  Helfende 
Briider  (Helping  Brethren).     But,  unlike  their  English  pro- 
totypes, who  have  no  other  secrets  than  their  signs,  grips, 
and  passwords,  the  German  Gesellen  are  closely  connected 
with  Freemasonry,  which,  as  we  have  seen,  is  not  so  colour- 
less abroad  as  it  is  here,  and  they  proclaim  themselves  an 
institution  for  the  deliverance  of  nations  from  priests,  super- 
stition,  and   fanaticism.      The   Order  was  introduced  into 
Germany  in  1870,  and  gradually  into  Switzerland,  France, 
Holland,  Mexico,  Peru,  Chili,  Sweden,  Spain,  and  even  some 
Polynesian  islands,  so  that  now  it  counts  upwards  of  fifty 
grand  lodges  and  nearly  eight  thousand  lodges,  exclusive  of 
English  ones  (724). 

742.  Sopkisiens. — "The  Sacred  Order  of  the  Sophisiens," 
or   Followers   of   Wisdom,   was   founded   by  some   French 
generals  engaged  in  the  expedition  to  Egypt  (1798-99),  and 
was  to  a  certain  extent  secret.     But  some  of  its  pursuits 
oozed  out,  and  were  to  be  found  in  a  book,  partly  in  MS. 
and  partly  printed,  the  title  of  which  is  "  Melanges  relatifs 
a  1'ordre  sacre   des   Sophisiens,  etabli  dans  les  Pyramides 
de  la  Kepublique  frangaise,"  in  4to.     (See  No.  494  in  the 
catalogue  of  Lerouge.)     Where  is  the  book  now  ? 

743.  Star  of  Bethlehem. — This  Order  claims  a  very  ancient 
origin,  having,  it  is  alleged,  been  founded  during  the  first 
century  of  the  Christian  era.     In  the  thirteenth  century  it 
was  an  order  of  monks  called  Bethlehemites,  closely  identified 
with   the    Church    of   the   Nativity   built   by  the  Empress 
Helena  in  the  year  330,  in  the  centre  of  which  is  the  grotto 
of  the  Nativity,  where  a  star  is  inlaid  in  the  marble  floor  in 
commemoration   of  the  star  which  shone  over  Bethlehem. 
The  Order  was  introduced  into  England  in  1257,  and  soon 
became  a  benevolent  order,  and  members  were  called  Knights 
of  the  Star  of  Bethlehem.     Women  were  admitted  to  member- 
ship in   1408.     In  1681  it  was  introduced  into  America  by 
Giles  Cory,  of  ye  City  of  London,  but  fanaticism  soon  drove 
it  out  of  that  continent,  for  in  September  1694  the  grand 
commander  was  cruelly  put  to  death  "for  holding  meetings 
in  ye  dead  hours  of  ye  night."     It  was  reintroduced  into 
New  York  in  1869  by  A.  Gross  of  Newcastle-on-Tyne.     In 
1884  the  members  dropped  the  title  of  Knights,  and  the 
original  name  of  Order  of  the  Star  of  Bethlehem  was  re- 
assumed. 


320  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

744.  Thirteen,  The. — To  Balzac's  fertile  imagination  we 
are  indebted  for  the  book  entitled  Les  Treize,  the  fictitious 
story  of  a  society  of  thirteen  persons  who  during  the  First 
Empire  bound  themselves  by  fearful  oaths,  arid  for  objects 
the   author   dare   no   more  reveal  than  the   names  of  the 
members,  mutually  to  support  one  another.     The  work  con- 
sists of  three  tales,  the  first  being  the  most  interesting  for 
us,  since  it  pretends  to  record  the  stormy  career  of  Ferragus, 
one  of  the  associates,  and  chief  of  the  Devorants  spoken 
of  in  the  French  Workmen's  Unions  (369).     A  society  of 
thirteen  (not  secret)  has  recently  been  founded  in  London, 
in   imitation,   I    assume,    of   a   society  formed  in    1857   at 
Bordeaux  for  the  same  purpose  as  the  London  one,  namely, 
by  force  of  example  to  extirpate  the  superstition  regarding 
the  number  thirteen,  of  which  very  few  persons  know  the 
origin.     In  the  ancient  Indian  pack  of  cards,  consisting  of 
seventy-eight   cards,   of   which   the   first   twenty-two    have 
special  names,  the  designation  of  card  xiii.  is  "  Death,"  and 
hence  all  the  evil  influences  ascribed  to  that  number ! 

745.  Tobaccological  Society. — When  in  531  Theodora  from 
a  ballet  girl  had  become  the  wife  of  the  Emperor  Justinian  L, 
she  wished  to  be  surrounded  by  philosophers,  especially  the 
expounders  of  Pythagoras.     But  for  once  the  philosophers 
stood   on  their   dignity,  and   declined   imperial   patronage. 
This  led  to  their  persecution,  and  the  closing  of  their  schools 
and  academies ;   they  were  not  allowed  to  hold  meetings. 
But  Pythagoreans  must  meet,  hence  they  met  in  secret,  first 
in  a  ruined  temple  of  Ceres  on  the  banks  of  the  Ilissus,  and 
afterwards  in  an  octagonal  temple,  built  by  one  of  them,  at 
the  foot  of  Mount  Hymettus.     They  called  themselves  Ped- 
nosophers,  which  in  a  philologically  incorrect  manner  they 
interpreted  as  meaning  "  Children  of  Wisdom."     For  their 
symbol  they  adopted  the  anemone,  which  flower  was  said  to 
have  sprung  from  the  blood  of  Adonis,  wounded  by  a  wild 
boar — so  philosophy  arose  afresh  from  philosophy  persecuted 
by  superstition.     At  first   women    and    children   were   ad- 
mitted, but  they  were  told  part  only  of  the  secret,  whatever 
it  was.     The  sign  was  crossing  the  arms  on  the  breast,  so 
that  the  index  finger  touched  the  lips.     The   sacred  word 
was  theus-theos,  "  Hope  in  God."     The  chief  of  the  Order 
was  known  to  but  a  few  members  by  his  real  name ;  to  the 
rest  he  passed  under  a  pseudonym.     There  were  different 
degrees  in  the  Order,  which  perpetuated  itself  until  1672  in 
various  countries,  England  included.     In  this  year  Charles 
II.   prohibited   all   secret   societies,    and  the   Pednosophers 


MISCELLANEOUS  SOCIETIES  321 

changed  their  name  to  Tobaccologers,  and  adopted  the 
tobacco  plant  as  their  emblem,  its  red  flower  suggesting  to 
them  philosophy  persecuted  by  Justinian  and  others.  At 
their  meetings  they  discussed  chiefly  academical  subjects ;  in 
fact,  modern  academies  owe  to  them  their  origin.  Many  men 
of  note  belonged  to  the  Order,  which  was  divided  into  four 
degrees — the  glamour  of  secrecy  must  be  kept  up  to  the  last ! 
The  members  in  the  lodge  wore  a  triangular  apron.  To- 
wards the  end  of  the  last  century  the  Order  declined  in  this 
country,  and  its  papers,  its  records,  and  mysteries  eventually 
fell  into  the  hands  of  the  French  Marquis  d'Etanduere,  who 
left  them  to  his  son,  at  whose  death  they  were  examined  by  a 
M.  Doussin,  to  whom  he  had  left  them  ;  and  this  M.  Doussin 
thereupon  reconstituted  the  society  at  Poitiers  in  1806, 
where  it  continued  till  about  the  year  1848.  The  tobacco 
plant,  its  culture  and  manufacture,  were  the  subjects  of 
symbolical  instructions,  and  for  the  real  names  of  the  towns 
where  lodges  existed,  the  names  of  localities  famous  for  fine 
sorts  of  tobacco  were  substituted.  Persons  known  to  belong 
to  the  society  popularly  went  by  the  designation  of  snuff- 
takers. 

746.  Turf,  Society  of  the. — When  the  failure  of  the  Car- 
bonaro  conspiracy,  and  especially  its  non-success  in  its 
attempt  on  Macerata  (562),  led  to  the  temporary  suppres- 
sion of  the  Carbanaro  society,  the  youths  of  Italy,  who  had 
hoped  to  distinguish  themselves  by  fighting  and  driving  the 
Austrian  out  of  Italy,  felt  sorely  disappointed.  The  more 
rational  ones  submitted  to  the  inevitable,  and  returned  to 
peaceful  occupations.  But  the  more  hot-headed  and  restless 
members  of  the  society  sought  outlets  for  their  exuberant 
spirits  in  forming  associations  of  various  kinds,  and  some- 
times of  the  most  objectionable  character.  Such  a  one  was 
the  Compagnia  delta  Teppa,  or  Turf  Society,  which  arose  at 
Milan  in  iSiS.1 

Two  derivations  of  the  name  of  the  society  are  given. 

The  members  of  the  society  wore  plush  hats,  and  it  was 
a  regulation  that  this  plush  was  to  be  cut  as  short  and  as 

1  The  account  which  follows  is  taken  chiefly  from  the  Cento  Anni  of 
Rovani,  who  relied,  in  his  turn,  on  the  statement  of  one  Milesi,  a  member 
of  the  Turf  Society.  There  is  also  a  report  of  the  police,  which  finally 
suppressed  the  society,  but  this  report  is  inaccessible  to  the  public.  In  the 
Ambrosinian  Library  at  Milan  there  is  a  MS.  in  several  volumes,  written 
by  Prebendary  Mantovani,  giving  the  history  of  the  Teppa,  but  this 
information  reached  the  author  too  late  to  be  utilised  here.  As,  however, 
Milesi  refers  to  that  MS.,  he  probably  incorporated  in  his  own  account  its 
most  important  details,  so  that  we  may  safely  conclude  that  in  Rovani's 
work  we  have  all  that  is  known  about  the  Teppa. 

VOL.  II.  X 


322  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

smooth  as  turf.  The  other,  and  more  probable,  origin  of  the 
name  is  the  fact  that  the  members  held  their  meetings  at 
first  on  the  lawns  of  beautiful  turf  in  the  Piazza  CastelLo  at 
Milan.  Their  pursuits  may  be  described  as  a  revival  of 
Mohocking ;  they  bound  themselves  to  beat  every  man  they 
met  in  the  streets  after  dark,  which  practice,  however,  was 
chiefly  resorted  to  against  men  having  handsome  wives,  whom 
members  of  the  society  wished  forcibly,  or  with  consent,  to 
disgust  with  their  husbands  or  abduct  from  their  homes ; 
and  a  certain  amount  of  ridicule  attaching  to  the  infliction 
of  such  a  beating,  the  victims  in  most  cases  made  no  public 
complaint.  Of  course,  in  many  cases  it  was  the  Turfists 
who  got  the  worst  of  the  encounter.  The  Austrian  police 
shut  its  eyes  to  all  these  proceedings,  of  which,  through  its 
spies,  it  was  fully  cognisant,  on  the  principle  that  it  was 
better  these  young  men  should  vent  their  overflow  of  spirits, 
their  physical  and  mental  energies,  on  such  follies,  and  even 
on  criminal  exploits,  than  employ  them  in  political  schemes 
and  pursuits,  which  would  be  certain  to  be  directed  against 
Austrian  rule  and  rulers.  The  society  might  have  subsisted 
longer  than  it  did  had  it  not  grown  foolhardy  by  long  impu- 
nity. What  at  last  compelled  the  police  to  interfere  was  as 
follows : — 

There  lived  in  the  Via  Pennacchiari  a  dwarf  known  by  the 
nickname  of  Gasgiott,  who  earned  his  living  by  artificial- 
flower  making.  He  was  of  a  violent  and  quarrelsome 
temper,  but  thought  himself  a  great  favourite  with  the 
women ;  none  of  them,  he  fancied,  could  withstand  him. 
One  night,  as  some  members  of  the  Teppa  happened  to  be 
in  the  Via  Pennacchiari,  a  girl  complained  to  one  of  them, 
Milesi  (the  author  of  the  MS.  consulted  by  Rovani?),  a 
man  of  athletic  proportions,  that  Gasgiott  had  grossly 
insulted  her.  Milesi  bestowed  on  the  dwarf  a  sound  thrash- 
ing, and  carrying  him  to  an  inn,  where  Baron  Bontempo, 
the  chief  of  the  Teppa,  was  waiting  for  him,  suggested 
shutting  up  the  dwarf,  with  scanty  food,  for  some  time 
in  the  country  to  "cool  his  blood,"  which  was  done.  But 
one  idea  suggests  another:  the  capture  of  one  dwarf  led 
to  a  regular  hunt  after  the  species,  and  in  a  short  time 
about  a  dozen  of  them  were  shut  up  in  a  mansion  belong- 
ing to  Baron  Bontempo,  called  Simonetta,  and  situate  outside 
the  walls  of  Milan.  Then  another  thought  suggested  itself 
to  the  members  of  the  Teppa. 

Among  the  fine  pretences  with  which  they  sought  to 
justify  their  questionable  proceedings  was  the  allegation 


MISCELLANEOUS  SOCIETIES  323 

that  it  was  their  duty  to  redress  wrongs  of  which  the  law 
took  no  cognisance.  Now,  they  argued,  there  are  every 
year  hundreds  of  men,  young  men,  just  entering  life,  and 
married  men  with  families,  ruined  through  the  wiles  and 
the  extravagance  of  designing  women,  whom  the  law  cannot 
touch  for  the  injuries  they  have  inflicted  on  their  victims. 
Many  women,  notorious  for  such  conduct,  some  of  them 
ladies  of  position,  and  connected  with  aristocratic  families, 
were  then  living  at  Milan.  It  struck  the  Turfists  they 
would  be  suitable  companions  for  the  imprisoned  dwarfs. 
The  idea  was  carried  out.  About  ten  ladies  were  by  treachery 
or  force  brought  to  Simonetta,  and  there  shut  up  with  the 
dwarfs.  The  orgy  that  ensued,  says  Eovani,  could  only  be 
described  by  the  pen  of  an  Aretino.  But  it  is  easy  to 
understand  that  a  number  of  ladies,  so  entrapped,  would 
not  quietly  submit  to  such  abduction  or  the  advances  of 
the  dwarfs.  The  authors  of  the  mischief  were  only  too 
glad  to  release  them  on  the  very  next  day,  and  the  dwarfs 
also.  As  all  the  prisoners  had  been  brought  to  the  mansion 
by  roundabout  ways,  and  in  close  carriages,  and  were  taken 
away  in  the  same  manner,  they  had  no  clue  to  the  position 
of  their  prison ;  but  a  scheme  like  this  could  not  be  carried 
out  without  a  good  many  persons  being  let  into  the  secret ; 
the  ladies  who  had  been  carried  off  cried  aloud  for  vengeance, 
and  many  young  men,  belonging  to  respectable  families,  who 
had  joined  the  society  from  curiosity,  or,  as  they  fancied,  to 
increase  their  own  importance,  seeing  the  dangerous  practices 
in  which  they  had  involved  themselves,  were  ready  to  give 
information.  The  police  could  no  longer  shut  its  eyes  and 
pretend  ignorance,  and  so  one  morning,  in  the  year  1821, 
more  than  sixty  members  of  the  society  were  arrested,  and, 
for  want  of  more  suitable  accommodation,  at  first  imprisoned 
in  the  convent  of  St.  Mark,  whence  some  were  sent  to 
Szegedin  and  Komorn,  or  drafted  into  the  army.  Many 
others  were  arrested  afterwards ;  some  of  the  members 
made  their  escape,  having  been  warned  beforehand.  Thus 
the  society  collapsed,  between  three  and  four  years  after 
its  foundation. 

The  members  recognised  one  another  by  the  one  saluting 
the  other  with  both  hands  joined,  whereupon  the  other  put 
his  right  hand  to  his  side,  as  if  going  to  place  it  on  the 
hilt  of  his  sword.  There  were  only  two  degrees,  that  of 
captain  and  that  of  simple  brother;  the  former  was  bound 
to  initiate  four  new  members.  General  meetings  were  always 
held  in  the  same  place,  special  ones  in  different  localities, 


324  SECRET  SOCIETIES 

which  were  constantly  changed.  The  society  was,  moreover, 
divided  into  two  grand  centres,  the  centre  of  Nobles  and  that 
of  Commoners. 

747.  Utopia. — A  society  founded  at  Prague  in  the  fifties, 
and  which  had  such  success  that  in  1885  it  reckoned  eighty- 
five  lodges  in  Germany,  Austria,  Hungary,  Switzerland,  and 
other  countries.    A  council  of  the  league  was  held  at  Leipzig 
in  1876,  and  another  at  Prague  in  1883.     The  president  of 
every  lodge  is  called  Uhu  (screech-owl) ;  at  manifestations  of 
joy  they  cry  "  Aha  ! "  and  at  transgressions  against  the  laws  of 
Utopia,  "  Oho  ! "   The  members  are  divided  into  three  degrees : 
Squires,  Younkers,  and  Knights  ;  guests  are  called  Pilgrims. 
The  German  name  of  the  society  is  Allschlaraffia ;  Schlaraf- 
fenland  in  German  means  the  "land  of  milk  and  honey," 
the   land    of   Cocagne,   where   roast-pigeons   fly   into   your 
mouth  when  you  open  it,  and  roasted  pigs  run  about  the 
streets  with  knife  and  fork  in  their  backs.     From  the  name, 
the  character  of  the  society  may  be  inferred. 

748.  Waliabees. — This  sect,  the  members  of  which  attracted 
considerable  attention  in  1871,  on  account  of  their  suspected 
connection   with   the  murders  of  Chief-Justice  Norman  at 
Calcutta,   and   of  Lord  Mayo   in    1872,   has   the   following 
origin:  About   1740  a  Mohammedan  reformer  appeared  at 
Nejd.   named  Abdu'l  Wahab,  and  conquered  great  part  of 
Arabia  from  the  Turks.     He  died  in  1787,  having  founded  a 
sect  known  as  the  Wahabees.     The  word  Wahab  signifies  a 
Bestower  of  Blessings,  and  is  one  of  the  epithets  of  God, 
and  Abdul  Wahab  means  the  servant  of  the  All  Bountiful. 
The  Wahabees  took  Mecca  and  Medina,  and  almost  expelled 
the  Turk  from  the  land  of  the  Prophet.     But  in  1818  the 
power  of  these  fierce  reformers — their  doctrine  being  a  kind  of 
Islam  Socinianism,  allowing  no  title  to  adoration  to  Moham- 
med— waned  in  Arabia,  to  reappear  in  India  under  a  new 
leader,  one  Saiyid  Ahmad,  who  had  been  a  godless  trooper 
in    the  plundering  bands  of  Amir  Khan,  the  first  Nawab 
of  Tonk.     But  in  1816  he  went  to  Delhi  to  study  law,  and 
his  fervid  imagination  drank  in  greedily  the  new  subject. 
He  became  absorbed  in  meditation,  which  degenerated  into 
epileptic  trances,  in  which  he  saw  visions.     In  three  years 
he  left  Delhi  as  a  new  prophet,  and  journeying  to  Patna 
and    Calcutta,  was   surrounded   by   admiring   crowds,   who 
hung   upon   his    accents,    and    received    with    ecstasy   the 
divine  lesson  to  slay  the  infidel,  and  drive  the  armies  of 
the   foreigner    from  India.      In    1823    he   passed   through 
Bombay  to  Eohilkhand,  and  having  there  raised  an  army 


MISCELLANEOUS  SOCIETIES  325 

of  the  faithful,  he  crossed  the  land  of  the  Five  Rivers,  and 
settled  like  a  thundercloud  on  the  mountains  to  the  north- 
east of  Peshawur.  Since  then  the  rebel  camp  thus  founded 
has  been  fed  from  the  head  centre  at  Patna  with  bands  of 
fanatics,  and  money  raised  by  taxing  the  faithful.  To  account 
for  such  success,  the  reader  will  have  to  bear  in  mind  that 
in  Mohammedan  countries  a  doctor  of  civil  law,  such  as 
Saiyid  Ahmad  was,  may  hold  the  issues  of  peace  or  war  in 
his  hands,  for  with  Mohammedans  the  law  and  the  gospel 
go  together,  and  the  Koran  represents  both.  Akbar,  the 
greatest  Mohammedan  monarch,  was  nearly  hurled  from  the 
height  of  his  power  by  a  decision  of  the  Jaunpur  lawyers, 
declaring  that  rebellion  against  him  was  lawful.  And 
the  Wahabee  doctrine  is,  that  war  must  be  made  on  all 
who  are  not  of  their  faith,  and  especially  against  the 
British  Government,  as  the  great  oppressor  of  the  Moham- 
medan world.  Twenty  sanguinary  campaigns  against  this 
rebel  host,  aided  by  the  surrounding  Afghan  tribes,  have 
failed  to  dislodge  them ;  and  they  remain  to  encourage  any 
invader  of  India,  any  enemy  of  the  English,  to  whom  they 
would  undoubtedly  afford  immense  assistance.  Though  the 
general  impression  in  England  and  India  seems  to  be  that 
the  murder  of  Mr.  Norman  is  not  to  be  attributed  to  a 
Wahabee  plot,  yet  so  little  is  known  of  the  constitution, 
numerical  strength,  and  aims  of  the  secret  societies  of  India, 
that  an  overweening  confidence  in  the  loyalty  of  the  alien 
masses — as  the  Times  curiously  enough  terms  them — on  the 
part  of  the  English  residents  in  India,  is  greatly  to  be  con- 
demned, for  there  still  exists  an  active  propaganda  of  fanatic 
Wahabees  at  great  Mussulman  centres  ;  and  though  the  vast 
Mussulman  community  throughout  India  look  on  the  fanatics 
with  dislike  or  indifference,  yet  they  need  careful  looking- 
after  by  Government  ("  Cyclopaedia  of  India,"  by  Surgeon- 
General  Edward  Balfour.  Three  vols.  London,  1885). 

A  few  lines  higher  up  we  referred  to  secret  societies  of 
India;  from  among  these  we  may  specially  mention  the 
Mina  robber  settlement  at  Shahjahanpur,  which  town  formed 
part  of  the  possessions  of  the  Rohilla  Patans,  whose  domi- 
nion was  overthrown  by  the  British  in  1774.  The  Minas 
are  the  descendants  of  Rohilla  chiefs,  and  the  district  they 
occupy  being  the  centre  of  a  small  tract  of  land,  entirely 
surrounded  by  independent  native  states,  affords  them  refuge 
and  ready  means  of  escape  when  pressed  by  the  British 
police.  And  they  are  doubtless  fostered  and  protected  by 
the  minor  chiefs  and  head-men  of  native  states,  who  share 


326  SECEET  SOCIETIES 

the  spoil.  They  are  supposed  to  form  a  corporation  some- 
what similar  to  the  Garduna  (306-311).  It  has  been 
suggested  that  the  Minas,  possessing  a  splendid  physique 
and  animal  courage,  the  very  qualities  needed  for  such  a 
purpose,  should  be  utilised  in  frontier  and  border  forces, 
as  the  Mazbis,  a  similar  marauding  tribe,  were  utilised  and 
reclaimed. 


ADDENDA    ET    CORRIGENDA 


VOL.  I. 

Page  35,  line  12  from  top,  delete  'may.3 

Page  36,  line  5. — To  'the  religion  of  Buddha  still  survives,'  add  'in 
its  integrity.'  It  may  be  remembered  that  in  February  1895  an  ancient 
and  highly-artistic  image  of  Buddha  was  brought  from  Ceylon  to  be 
set  up  in  the  temple  of  Budh-Gaya,  in  Bengal,  which  the  Buddhists 
regard  as  the  most  sacred  spot  on  earth.  The  ceremony  of  setting  up 
the  image  led  to  serious  riots  between  the  Buddhists  and  a  crowd  of 
Hindoo  devotees  who  objected  to  it.  The  legal  proceedings  which 
ensued  proved  abortive,  in  consequence  of  the  complicated  questions 
of  law  involved  therein. 

A  work  published  at  the  beginning  of  this  year  (1897)  by  the 
Clarendon  Press,  and  entitled  'A  Eecord  of  the  Buddhist  Eeligion 
as  practised  in  India  and  the  Malay  Archipelago  (A.D.  671-695).  By 
I-tsing.  Translated  by  J.  Takakusu,  B.A.,  M.D.  With  a  letter  from 
Professor  F.  Max  Miiller,'  is  of  great  value  for  the  history  of  Buddhism, 
on  the  rise,  growth,  and  development  of  which  this  work  gives  ample 
and  reliable  information. 

Page  36. — In  §  38  it  is  stated  that  there  is  no  proof  of  the  real 
existence  of  Buddha.  The  recent  discovery  by  Dr.  Fuhrer  of  the 
spot  where  Buddha  is  reputed  to  have  been  born,  the  Lumbini  garden, 
as  also  of  the  stone  pillar  therein,  with  the  inscription,  '  Here  the 
worshipful  was  born,'  is  no  evidence,  as  at  first  sight  it  might  appear, 
of  the  actual  existence  in  the  flesh  of  Buddha.  Tradition  says  that  he 
was  born  in  the  locality  named,  and  that  centuries  after  his  supposed 
birth  a  certain  king  caused  a  stone  pillar  to  be  set  up  to  record  the 
fact.  The  discovery  amounts  to  an  identification  of  the  spot  pointed 
out  in  the  tradition.  But  this  qualification  is  not  intended  to  detract 
from  the  merit  of  Dr.  Fuhrer's  discovery,  the  effect  of  deep  research 
and  ingenious  reasoning,  the  results  of  which  he  has  given  to  the 
world  in  a  very  lucid  demonstration.  The  discovery  is  a  very  preg- 
nant one. 

Page  45.  Addendum  to  §  51.— 'The  temple  of  Hathor,  at  Dendera, 
inferior  in  size  to  the  temples  at  Karnak  only,  surpasses  them  in 
beauty.  It  was  in  this  temple  that  the  zodiac,  famous  in  the  annals 
of  Egyptology,  was  discovered.  It  is  engraved  in  Denon's  "Egypt." 
From  the  more  modern  researches  instituted,  it  would  appear  that 
the  temple  was  erected,  not,  as  has  been  asserted,  in  the  time  of  the 
Ptolemies,  but  rather  in  the  most  ancient  dynasties.  The  goddess 
Hathor  cosmically  represents  the  darkness,  out  of  which  is  born  the 
light,  hence  the  sun  daily  springs  from  her.  She  was  the  prototype 
of  the  Black  Virgins  of  Roman  Catholicism.' 


328  ADDENDA  ET  CORRIGENDA 

Page  53,  line  13  from  bottom,  delete  'a'  before  * hierogrammatical.' 
Page  64,  line  1 5  from  bottom,  for  '  offered '  read  '  offer.' 
Page  99,  line  12  from  top,  delete  ' ) '  after  '  it.' 
Page  113,  line  14  from  top,  for  'said'  read  'affirmed.' 
Page  142,  §  178.     Waldo. — According  to  a  genealogy  compiled  by 
Morris    Charles   Jones   (publication  undated),   the  Waldo   family  is 
descended  from  '  Thomas  Waldo  of  Lions,'  one  of  the  first  who  publicly 
renounced  the  doctrines  of  the  Church  of  Rome.     The  representative 
of  the  English  branch  of  the  family  came  to  this  country  in  the  reign 
of  Queen  Elizabeth. 

Page  152,  line  3  from  top,  for  'Hostes3  read  'Nostes.' 
Page  1 68,  §  213.  Vehm. — Add:  'The  last-named  work  on  the  Vehm 
in  our  list  of  authorities  under  the  heading  of  "  Free  Judges "  is  that 
of  Theodor  Lindner.  It  treats  the  subject  fully,  one  may  say  exhaus- 
tively, comprising  more  than  670  large,  closely-printed  pages.  His 
summing  up  on  the  character  and  working  of  the  institution,  which 
we  may  accept  as  final,  is  that  the  Vehm,  though  to  some  extent  a 
palliative  of  the  lawlessness  of  the  times,  was  yet  liable  to  great  abuses, 
since  great  and  powerful  persons  always  could  have  sentences  passed 
on  them  by  one  Court  annulled  by  another.  Besides,  what  was  the 
good  of  passing  sentences  which  could  not  be  executed  ?  From  the 
accounts  given  by  Lindner — accounts  based  on  official  documents — 
it  is  clear  that  public  order  and  security  were  never  in  a  worse  plight 
than  during  the  most  flourishing  days  of  the  Vehm.  Nay,  the  tribunal 
offered  many  a  villain  the  opportunity  of  plunging  honest  people  into 
trouble  and  expense.  The  Vehm  neither  purified  nor  improved  legal 
procedure,  but  threw  it  into  greater  confusion.' 

Page  169,  §  215.  Beati  Paoli. — Add:  'Gioachimo,  or  Giovacchino, 
as  his  name  is  sometimes  written,  was  a  Calabresian  Cistercian  monk, 
and  abbot  of  Curacio,  whose  fame  as  a  prophet  was  so  great  that  King 
Richard  I.  when  passing  through  Southern  Italy  wished  to  converse 
with  him,  but  came  to  the  conclusion  that  the  prophet  was  an  "  idle 
babbler"  ;  moreover,  all  the  predictions  he  uttered  anent  what  was 
to  happen  in  the  Holy  Land  proved  wrong.  Still,  he  appears  to  have 
been  a  man  of  parts  ;  he  was  deeply  versed  in  theology,  and  the  author 
of  many  works.  Dante  speaks  of  his  prophetic  powers  in  the  Paradise, 
c.  xii. 

'John  of  Parma  lived  in  the  twelfth  century,  and  his  book  Evangelium 
JEternum  was  publicly  burnt  by  order  of  Pope  Alexander  IV.  in  1258.' 
Page  173,  line  n  from  bottom,  for  'Toulouse'  read  'Tours.' 
Page  175,  line  21  from  top,  for  'amd'  read  'and.' 
Page  198,  §  239.  Add:  'From  the  Humanitarian  for  March  1897 
I  learn  that  there  is  actually  at  the  present  day  an  Astrological  Society 
in  London,  at  the  annual  meeting  of  which  Mr.  Alan  Leo  gave  "  a  very 
interesting  address,"  in  which  he  said  that  astrology  "  was  built  upon 
a  beautiful  symbology,  the  symbols  of  which  were  the  same  to-day 
as  at  the  beginning ;  the  circle,  which  represents  the  sun ;  the  half- 
circle,  which  means  the  moon  ;  and  the  cross,  representing  the  earth. 
A  cross  over  the  circle  is  Mars  or  War,  a  cross  under  the  circle,  Venus 
or  Love.  The  Sun,  Mars,  and  Venus  represent  the  Spirit.  In  the 
half-circle  are  all  the  planets  relating  to  the  mind.  A  cross  over  the 
half-circle  is  Saturn  or  the  Devil  ;  the  half-circle  over  the  cross  is 
Jupiter  or  Jehovah,  the  Higher  Mind.  Every  person  is  born  under 


ADDENDA  ET  CORRIGENDA  329 

some  influence,  and  the  study  of  astrology  enables  people  correctly  to 
see  the  qualities  they  have  in  them.  The  Speaker  challenged  any  man 
to  show  that  astrology  is  not  true  ;  sooner  or  later  it  will  become  the 
religion  of  the  world."  Surely  after  this  dogmatic  and  lucid  exposition, 
our  public  schools  and  universities  will  at  once  add  the  study  of 
astrology  to  their  curriculum  !  Sir  Eichard  Phillips  called  astrology 
the  mother  of  the  sciences,  though  herself  the  daughter  of  superstition.' 

Page  224,  line  17  from  bottom,  for  'Epologue'  read  'Apologue,'  and 
for  '  Apilogue '  read  '  Epilogue.' 

Page  230,  §  280.  The  Rosicrucians. — At  the  end  of  §  280  add :  « In 
the  anonymous  publication  "Das  Ganze  aller  geheimen  Ordensverbin- 
dungen"  (Full  Account  of  all  Secret  Orders),  Leipzig,  1805,  evidently 
written  by  one  fully  initiated,  I  find  the  following  note  on  this 
Master  Pianco  :  "  He  had  long  been  a  Mason,  before  he  became  a 
Eosicrucian.  His  chief  was  a  hybrid  between  man  and  beast.  No 
honest  Christian  could  cope  with  him  without  fear  of  being  flayed 
alive.  If  doubts  were  suggested  to  him,  he  uttered  blasphemies,  of 
which  the  most  violent  miscreant  would  have  been  ashamed.  Pianco 
shook  off  the  dust  of  his  chamber,  and  fled  the  companionship  of  such 
heathens."  This  sheds  a  rather  curious  light  on  the  composition  and 
character  of  the  Eosicrucian  fraternity,  "whose  bear  was  supposed  to 
dance  to  none  but  the  most  genteelest  of  tunes." ' 

Page  231,  §  281.  Asiatic  Brethren. — Add  :  'As  soon  as  we  are  indis- 
creet enough  to  pry  behind  the  scenes  of  secret  societies  the  illusion 
their  outward  seeming  grandeur  produces  vanishes,  and  the  hollowness 
of  their  pretences  and  shallowness  of  their  charlatanism  become  ap- 
parent. The  Order  of  the  "  Asiatic  Brethren,"  who,  as  our  text  states, 
took  so  high-sounding  a  title,  in  their  private  transactions  proved  but 
a  poor  and  pitiful  lot.  Marcus  Ben  Bind — we  have  seen  that  they 
affected  Jewish  names — was  a  member  who  was  most  active  in  develop- 
ing the  Order.  He  introduced  the  "cabalistic  nonsense"  and  fanciful 
inventions  which  formed  its  basis,  and  most  of  its  papers  were  his 
property.  These  the  chiefs  cajoled  out  of  him,  giving  him  no  other 
compensation  than  making  him  Ocker-Harim,  or  Chief  Custodian  of 
the  Archives.  When  he  complained,  he  suffered  for  it  (probably  he  was 
imprisoned).  But  the  chiefs,  nevertheless,  admitted  and  admired  his 
merits  and  profound  wisdom,  as  he  kept  adding  cabalistic  and  Hebrew 
terms  to  their  ritual.  They  made  use  of  him,  promising  him  great 
things  ;  but  when  he  asked  for  money,  the  wire-pullers  behind  the 
curtain  refused  it ;  they  needed  a  great  deal  for  themselves  ;  he  was  to 
be  satisfied  with  the  crumbs  which  fell  from  the  rich  men's  tables. 
Then  he  rebelled,  and  finally  resigned,  and  his  revelations  were  a  treat 
for  the  outside  "  cowans." ' 

Page  258,  §  306.  The  Garduna. — Add:  'The  Spanish  wordgarduna 
means  a  marten,  and  it  is  with  regard  to  the  well-known  qualities  of 
that  animal  that  in  Spain  a  clever  and  expert  thief  is  familiarly  known 
as  a  garduno.' 

Page  270,  §  321.  The  Oamorra. — Add  :  '  According  to  the  law  of  the 
28th  September  1822  of  the  Bourbon  police,  "secret  or  quasi-secret 
associations  are  condemned  to  the  third  degree  in  chains  ;  the  chiefs  to 
the  gallows,  and  a  fine  of  from  one  thousand  to  four  thousand  ducats." 
And  again,  according  to  the  law  of  the  24th  June  1828,  "the  meeting 
of  two  persons  is  sufficient  to  constitute  a  secret  society."  And  yet  the 
Camorra  was  not  touched.' 


330  ADDENDA  ET  CORRIGENDA 

Page  274,  §  325.  The  Camorra. — Add:  'The  recently-published 
"  Stories  of  Naples  and  the  Camorra,"  by  the  late  Charles  Grant,  afford 
but  a  faint  reflex  of  the  terrible  character  of  the  Camorra.  Whoso 
wishes  to  thoroughly  study  the  subject  should  read  "  I  Verrni :  Studi 
Storici  su  le  Classe  Pericolose  in  Napoli  di  Francesco  Mastriani " 
(Napoli,  1877.  5  vols.).  And  the  present  writer  has  been  among  the 
Camorristi  at  Naples,  and  found  in  them  none  of  the  redeeming  features 
Mr.  Grant  allows  them  :  they  are  all  unmitigated  scoundrels.' 

Page  299,  line  14  from  bottom,  for  '  dates'  read  'date.' 

Page  316,  §  364.  The  German  Union. — Add:  'The  inner  history  of 
the  German  Union  presents  some  curious  features.  Bahrdt,  its  reputed 
founder,  was  in  1777  in  London,  and  there  initiated  into  Freemasonry. 
He  had  but  a  poor  opinion  of  German  Freemasonry,  and,  therefore,  on 
his  return  to  Germany  visited  none  of  the  lodges.  *  But  a  high  official 
of  the  Imperial  Chamber  at  Wetzlar,  Von  Ditfurth,  suggested  to  him 
the  formation  of  a  society  which  should  carry  out  the  true  objects  of 
Freemasonry,  viz.,  the  restoration  of  human  rights,  and  the  free  use  of 
reason.  In  1785,  Bahrdt  received  an  anonymous  letter,  containing 
the  plan  of  the  German  Union.  The  letter  was  signed,  "  From  some 
Masons,  your  great  admirers."  In  the  same  year  he  was  visited  by  an 
Englishman,  who  urged  him  to  establish  a  lodge,  promising  to  connect 
it  with  English  Masonry.  Bahrdt  showed  him  the  scheme  of  the  Union, 
which  the  Englishman  highly  approved  of.  Bahrdt  founded  a  lodge, 
consisting  of  five  or  six  of  his  friends  and  sixteen  young  men.  But 
the  lodge  was  denounced  as  a  financial  speculation.  Bahrdt  grew 
uneasy,  especially  when,  in  1787,  he  received  another  anonymous  com- 
munication from  the  same  source  as  the  first,  announcing  the  formation 
of  a  German  Union,  which  he  was  invited  to  join.  The  letter  contained 
printed  details  and  forms  of  oaths,  which  were  afterwards  published  in 
the  book  "More  Notes  than  Text."  Bahrdt  eagerly  embraced  the 
offer,  and  exerted  himself  to  extend  the  German  Union.  He  became 
acquainted  with  a  Dr.  Pott,  who  had  the  reputation  of  being  a  wag, 
making  a  fool  of  everybody,  and  perhaps  in  consequence  of  this  new 
acquaintance  he,  in  1788,  lost  a  thousand  dollars  through  the  Union  to 
which  he  devoted  all  his  time.  In  the  summer  of  the  same  year  he 
received  from  Berlin — as  Bahrdt  alleges — the  MS.  of  the  satire  on  the 
"  Edict  of  Keligion,"  which  he  got  printed  at  Vienna.  This,  as  well 
as  the  publication  of  "  More  Notes  than  Text,"  and  the  treachery  of 
Roper,  led,  as  mentioned  in  the  account  of  the  German  Union,  to  his 
final  ruin.' 


VOL.  II. 

Page  60,  $  439.  African  Architects. — Add :  '  A  few  additional  de- 
tails on  the  "African  Architects"  may  not  prove  uninteresting.  The 
Order  was  divided  into  two  sections,  the  first  of  which  comprised  five 
degrees  :  (i)  The  Apprentice  of  Egyptian  secrets,  called  Menes  Mnsce ; 
(2)  the  Initiate  into  JEgean  secrets  ;  (3)  the  Cosmopolitan  ;  (4)  the  Chris- 
tian Philosopher  ;  (5)  the  Aletophile,  or  Lover  of  Truth.  The  second  or 
inner  section  of  the  Order  comprised  :  (i)  Armiger,  who  was  told  what 
Fos  Braeder  Law  and  the  word  Galde  signified  ;  (2)  Miles,  who  was  in- 
formed that  the  letters  G  and  L  did  not  mean  geometry  and  logic,  but 
were  the  initials  of  the  founder  of  the  Order  ;  (3)  Eques,  or  knights,  who 


ADDENDA  ET  CORRIGENDA  331 

were  invested  with  a  ring  they  wore  on  the  finger  of  the  right  hand, 
or  on  the  watch.  The  ring  was  formed  of  gold  love-knots,  and  the 
letters  E.S.  Usually  the  members  called  themselves  jEdiles  or  Archi- 
tects, because  architecture  was  the  science  they  most  pursued.  Their 
mathematics  consisted  in  producing  clever  variations  of  the  triangle, 
square,  and  number  X.  At  their  meetings  they  spoke  Latin  ;  all  their 
books  were  bound  in  red  morocco,  with  gilt  edges.  Their  chief  archives 
were  at  a  place  in  Switzerland,  which  was  never  to  be  revealed,  and 
which,  among  its  treasures,  comprised  the  papers  of  the  Grand  Master, 
George  Evelyn  of  Wotton,  in  Surrey,  the  seat  of  which  John  Evelyn 
has  left  us  an  account.  The  hall  of  initiation  was  either  occupied  by 
a  choice  library,  or  its  walls  beautifully  painted.  "  I  found,"  wrote 
one  of  the  members,  u  such  a  hall  at  N.,  built  over  a  barn,  and  which 
you  would  never  have  taken  for  a  lodge.  The  hall  had  many  windows, 
and  was  adorned  with  statues.  There  was  a  dark  chamber,  a  banquet- 
ing-hall,  a  bedroom  for  travellers,  and  a  well-appointed  kitchen. 
Over  the  door  of  the  hall  stood  a  horse,  which,  when  you  pressed  a 
spring,  with  a  kick  of  its  foot  caused  a  fountain  in  the  adjoining 
garden  to  play."  I  was  told  that  this  lodge  was  built  by  order  of 
Frederick  II.  The  introducer  of  candidates  wore  a  dress  of  blue  satin  ; 
the  Master  sat  at  a  table,  on  which  were  placed  globes  and  mathemati- 
cal instruments.  Candidates  were  to  be  men  of  science  or  artists,  who 
had  to  submit  proofs  of  their  skill.  Their  rules  of  procedure  in  general 
were  formulated  on  those  of  the  Academic  Frangaise.' 

Page  134,  §  514. — Tae-ping-wang.  Add:  '  Tae-ping-wang  called 
himself  the  King  of  Peace,  and  proclaimed  himself  the  younger  brother 
of  Jesus  Christ,  appointed  to  establish  a  universal  kingdom  and  com- 
munion of  the  faithful.  We  cannot  assume  this  Chinese  leader  to  have 
had  any  knowledge  of  the  dreams  of  European  Rosicrucians,  and  yet 
these  latter  in  the  Thesaurinella  Ghvmica-aurea  (244)  predicted  the  advent 
•of  a  mysterious  personage  they  called  Elias  Artista,  who  was  to  estab- 
lish the  rule  of  Christ  in  a  new  world.  Tae-ping-wang  thus  appears, 
curiously  enough,  as  a  Chinese  Artista.' 

Page  139,  §  519.  Europe  after  the  Congress  of  Vienna. — Add:  '  The 
opinions  as  to  the  consequences  of  the  downfall  of  Napoleon,  expressed 
in  this  paragraph,  will  probably  excite  hostile  criticism,  as  they  did 
when  on  a  former  occasion  I  expressed  myself  to  the  same  effect.  This 
is  not  the  place  to  discuss  the  question ;  but  if  the  record,  in  these 
pages,  of  the  secret  societies  which  arose  after  the  Congress  of  Vienna 
be  not  sufficient  to  satisfy  the  critic  and  the  reader  of  the  correctness 
•of  my  views,  and  I  be  challenged  to  the  discussion,  I  will  not  de- 
cline it.' 

Page  160,  §  545.  The  Carbonari.— Add :  'The  Code  of  Carbonarism 
is  found  most  fully  in  "  The  Memoirs  of  the  Secret  Societies  of  the 
South  of  Italy,  particularly  the  Carbonari"  (London,  1821).  This 
work,  translated  from  the  original  French  MS.,  was  the  production  of 
Baron  Bertholdy,  a  converted  Jew,  who,  however,  retained  the  habits 
and  manners  of  his  race.  He  was  about  the  above  date,  and  probably 
till  about  1825,  the  Russian  Ambassador  to  the  Papal  Court.  Of  a 
restless  and  inquisitive  disposition,  he  delighted  in  political  intrigue, 
and  was  mixed  up  with  all  tumults  and  popular  agitations.  He  was 
said  to  know  everything,  and  be  ubiquitous  ;  his  sinister  physiognomy 
and  inquisitorial  prying  gained  him  among  the  Neapolitans  the 
•sobriquet  of  the  "  Wandering  Jew." ' 


332  ADDENDA  ET  CORRIGENDA 

Page  207,  §  601.  Polish  Patriotism. — Add:  'The  opinions  here  ex- 
pressed may,  like  those  of  §  519  (sea,  note  thereon),  challenge  contradic- 
tion, but  as  they  are  based  on  facts,  they  can  be  substantiated.  Here  I 
content  myself  with  referring  to  M.  C.  Courriere,  an  admirer  of  the 
Poles,  who  in  his  "  History  of  Contemporaneous  Literature  among  the 
Sclavonians"  (Paris,'  1879),  confesses  that  in  the  wars  which  led  to  the 
dismemberment  of  the  kingdom,  the  Poles  were  more  often  lighting  for 
the  preservation  of  their  aristocratic  privileges  than  for  national  liberty. 
The  Polish  poet  Julius  Slowacki  (b.  1809,  d.  1851),  styled  by  Nickiewicz 
the  "  Satan,  of  Poetry,"  speaking  in  the  name  of  the  people,  thus  ad- 
dressed the  poet  Sigismund  Krasinski : 

"  To  believe  thee,  son  of  the  nobleman, 
It  were  virtue  in  us  to  endure  slavery." 

And  Slowacki  himself  was  of  gentle  birth.  Certes,  sounder  notions  as- 
to  Polish  patriotism  prevail  in  this  generation  than  were  current  in 
former  times,  but  we  still  hear  too  much  about  the  "crime"  of  the 
partition  of  Poland.  The  same  reasons  which  led  to  that  partition  are 
the  only  justification  for  our  present  interference  in  Turkey.' 

Page  259,  §  650.  Baron  Stein. — Add :  '  The  generally-accepted  state- 
ment is  that  Stein  founded,  or  was  one  of  the  founders  of,  the  Tugend- 
bund ;  but  the  first  idea  of  it  was  suggested  by  Henry  Bardeleben,  whom 
Stein  declared  to  be  patriotic,  but  short-sighted.  Historians  say  that 
Stein  was  a  friend  and  protector  of  the  Union,  but  in  his  correspondence 
we  find  passages  like  the  following  : — "  If  there  are  well-meaning 
persons  who  are  pleased  to  belong  to  secret  societies,  why  should  we 
quarrel  with  such  weakness'^  .  .  .  The  Union  of  Virtue,  founded  in 
1812,  is  respectable  because  of  its  good  intentions,  but  hitherto  it  ha& 
done  no  work  ;  it  is  very  angry  with  the  French,  but  its  anger  appears 
to  me  like  the  anger  of  dreaming  sheep."  And  of  Jahn,  whom  it  was 
proposed  to  introduce  to  him,  he  said  :  "  Don't  let  the  grotesque  (fratzen- 
haften)  fellow  come  near  me."  And  yet  Jahn,  as  is  well  known,  and  a& 
our  text  partially  shows,  rendered  great  service  to  the  German  people. 

Curiously  enough  another  Baron  Stein,  who  cannot  be  identified, 
though  he  is  described  in  the  journals  of  the  day  (1781  to  1788)  as 
Privy  Councillor  to  the  Count  Palatine  of  Cologne,  travelled  about 
Suabia  and  the  Lower  Rhine,  inviting  people  of  rank  to  join  a  secret 
society,  presenting  them  with  leaden  medals  of  Pope  Pius  VI.,  and  pro- 
mising to  get  them  installed  Knights  of  the  Papal  Order  of  the  Golden 
Spur.  Stein  called  his  Order  that  of  Jesus  Christ.  Under  the  pretence 
of  writing  a  topographical  work  on  Suabia,  he  endeavoured  to  make 
useful  acquaintances  and  obtain  influence,  but  failed  ;  the  journals  of 
the  day  pronounced  his  Order  to  be  somewhat  of  a  swindle,  and  it 
collapsed  in  consequence.' 

Page  260,  §  651.  Tugendbuud. — '  It  was  partly  owing  to  these  dis- 
sensions that  what  is  called  the  rising  of  Germany  to  expel  the  French 
resulted  in  the  end  merely  in  the  formation  of  a  Free  Corps,  which 
with  all  his  efforts  Liitzow  could  only  bring  up  to  a  strength  of  three 
thousand  combatants.  There  was  really  no  spontaneous  rising,  though 
there  were  isolated  instances  of  national  enthusiasm  and  individual 
bravery.  The  King  of  Prussia,  to  whom  Scharnhorst  had  proposed 
the  appeal  to  the  loyalty  and  patriotism  of  his  people,  had  so  little  faith 
in  either,  that  for  a  long  time  he  refused  the  appeal  to  be  made,  but 


ADDENDA  ET  COKRIGENDA  333 

when,  during  his  stay  at  Breslau,  eighty  waggons  full  of  volunteers 
made  their  appearance,  his  faith  in  his  subjects  was  restored,  and  he 
wept  tears  of  joy  !  The  king  was  grateful  for  small  mercies.' 

Page  278,  §  666.  Fenians :  Origin  of  Name. — Add :  '  It  is  a  curious 
coincidence — if  mere  coincidence  it  be,  and  not  the  result  of  a  connec- 
tion etymologically  traceable  with  the  tribe  of  Benjamin  (19) — that  in 
French  Romane  the  word  Fenian  should  mean  "idle,"  "lazy,"  an 
epithet  which  is  justly  applicable  to  the  bulk  of  the  members  of  that 
Irish  association.  I  here  merely  throw  out  a  hint  j  the  question  de- 
serves following  up.' 

Since  writing  my  summary  of  Fenianism,  I  have  perused  Mr.  John 
O'Leary's  recently-published  '  Becollections  of  Fenians  and  Fenian- 
ism.'  The  work  is  disappointing.  It  contains  no  revelations  such  as 
one  might  expect  from  a  man  deeply  initiated  into  all  the  secrets  of 
Fenianism.  All  we  gather  from  it  is  that  the  association,  at  least  the 
English  branch  of  it,  was  always  in  want  of  funds,  and  that  it  never 
had  any  great  chance  of  wresting  Ireland  from  the  grasp  of  England. 
Yet  the  author  ends  with  these  words,  published  only  a  few  months 
ago,  and  which  therefore  deserve  attention  :  '  But  that  spirit  [longing 
for  freedom]  is  not  dead  .  .  .  but  merely  sleepeth  ;  and  if  there  be  men 
still  in  Ireland,  and,  still  more,  boys  growing  into  men,  willing  to  strive 
and  struggle  and  sacrifice,  if  needs  be,  liberty  or  life  for  Ireland,  to 
Fenianism  more  than  to  aught  else  is  that  spirit  and  feeling  due.' 

In  my  list  of  '  Authorities  Consulted,'  John  Rutherford's  '  Secret 
History  of  the  Fenian  Conspiracy '  is  included.  Mr.  O'Leary's  opinion 
of  this  book  is  as  follows  :  '  This  is  one  horrible  libel  from  beginning 
to  end,  and  seems  to  be  compiled  altogether  out  of  the  reports  of  the 
various  State  trials,  of  the  American  Conventions,  and  a  narrative  of 
John  O'Mahony's.  All  these  were  easily  accessible  sources,  and  there 
was  nothing  in  the  least  "  secret "  about  them.  This  "  History  "is  ... 
as  vile  a  book  as  I  have  ever  read.  John  Rutherford  is,  of  course, 
a  false  name,  and  I  cannot  make  out  that  any  one  can  give  even  a 
probable  guess  at  the  ruffian  who  used  it.'  And  of  course,  also,  Mr. 
O'Leary  writes  as  a  partisan — of  the  other  side. 

Page  299,  §  702.  Human  Leopards. — Add :  '  The  leopards  are  said 
to  worship  an  idol  called  Boofima,  which  is  occasionally  lent  to  friendly 
tribes  for  divination  or  incantation,  and  the  members  of  the  society 
derive  their  name  from  their  custom  of  plunging  three-pronged  forks, 
or  sharp -pointed  cutting-knives,  shaped  like  claAvs,  and  fixed  in  thick 
gloves  they  wear,  into  the  bodies  of  the  persons  they  attack.  How 
curiously  Boofima  reminds  one  of  Baphomet ! '  (204) 

'  We  may  add  that  the  West  coast  of  Africa  abounds  with  so-called 
secret  societies,  into  which  boys  and  girls  are  initiated  when  ten  or 
twelve  years  of  age  ;  but  as  their  aims  are  trivial,  their  rites  absurd  or 
hideous,  they  intrinsically  possess  but  little  interest,  though  relatively 
they  deserve  attention,  as  showing  the  universally-diffused  longing  of 
man  after  mystery,  and  the  readiness  of  medicine-men,  shamans,  bonzes, 
marabouts,  priests,  and  mystery-mongers  of  all  sorts,  to  minister  to  that 
longing.' 

Page  301,  §  705.  Indian  (North  American)  Societies. — Add:  'Mana- 
bozko,  according  to  the  Indian  legend,  was  a  person  of  miraculous  birth, 
who  came  to  teach  the  Red  men  how  to  clear  the  forest,  to  sow  their 
fields  with  grain,  to  read  and  write.  He  was  known  among  the  different 


334  ADDENDA  ET  CORKIGENDA 

tribes  by  the  several  names  of  Michabou,  Chiabo,  Tarenyawagon, 
and  among  the  Ojibways  on  the  southern  shore  of  Lake  Superior  as 
Hiawatha,  under  which  name  he  is  familiar  to  Europeans  through  Long- 
fellow's "Indian  Edda"  bearing  that  title.  The  Iroquois  worshipped 
him  under  his  original  name  of  Manabozko.  Chibiabos,  his  friend, 
was  a  musician,  the  ruler  of  the  Land  of  Spirits,  or  of  Light,  the  Indian 
Apollo.  In  Indian  folk-lore  Hiawatha  is  a  very  different  person  from 
the  hero  of  the  poem.  In  the  prose  tales  of  the  Red  men  he  is  a 
notorious  liar,  a  cruel  and  treacherous  destroyer  of  all  he  can  get  into 
his  power.' 

Page  105.  P.S. — French  and  English  journals  of  the  2oth  and  2ist 
April  1897  have  published  to  the  world  the  fact  that  the  tale  of  Diana 
Vaughan  and  her  diabolic  marriage,  and  the  book  of  the  mythical  Dr. 
Bataille,  were  pure  mystification  by  M.  Leo  Taxil,  the  reported  convert 
to  Roman  Catholic  orthodoxy,  having  no  foundation  whatever  in  reality. 
The  public,  the  priests,  the  cardinals,  yea,  the  pope  himself,  were  taken 
in  by  them — and  they  got  no  more  than  they  deserved.  It  was,  no 
doubt,  one  of  the  finest  and  grandest  hoaxes  of  this  century,  and  says 
but  little  in  favour  of  our  intellectual  progress  that  it  should  be  possible 
in  our  day.  If  its  revelation  will  teach  superstitious  people  a  lesson, 
they  may  in  future  be  saved  from  the  charge  of  rendering  themselves 
supremely  ridiculous. 


INDEX   TO   VOL.    II 


[The  figures  refer  to  pages] 


ABC  Friends,  291 

Abbreviations,  Masonic,  15 

Abel,  family  of,  3 

Abelites,  291 

Aberdeen,     Masonic     deputation 

sent  to,  59 

Abiff,  Hiram,  3,  4,  5,  6 
Abruzzi,  societies  in,  180 
Acacia  in  Masonry,  24,  25,  27 
Accepted  Masons,  10 
Accoltellatori,  200 
Acting  Company,  French,  204 
Adam,  3,  6 

the  first  Mason,  8 

Administrative     process     against 

Nihilists,  252,  256 
Adonai,  3,  6 
Adoniram,  97 

Adoptive  Masonic  Lodges,  82 
JEneis  quoted,  25 
Africa,  Masonry  in,  98 
African  Architects,  60,  330 

Hemp-smokers,  298 

Agliardi,  Cardinal,  104 

Ahmad  of  Ahsa,  268 

Akbar,  325 

Alcock,  Sir  Rutherford,  138 

Alexander  I.  of  Russia,  144,  146, 

147,  154,215,  216 

II.  of  Russia,  209 

Ali,  Mehemet,  185 

Ali  Pasha,  147 

Almusseri,  African  society,  291 

Alphabet,  Masonic,  15 

"  Alpina,"  Swiss  Grand  Lodge,  97 

Alvarez,  Captain,  101 

America,  Freemasonry  in,  98 

American  societies,  297,  298,  299, 

3",3i5 
Amru,  a  carpenter,  5 


Anarchists  at  Prague,  127 
Ancient  and  Accepted  Scotch  riter 

13,  55,  92 
Ancient  Reformed  Rite  of  Masonry, 

J3 

Ancients,  Academy  of  the,  291 
Anderson,  James,  u,  no 
Androgynous  Masonry,  84-90 
Anne,  Empress  of  Russia,  96 
Annichiarico,  Giro,  180 
Anonymous  society,  292 
Anti-Masonic  party,  292 

Publications,  103,  104 

Anti-Masons,  292 
Anti-Napoleonic  Masonry,  66,  67 
Anti-Semitic  policy  of  Russia,  242 
Antiquity  of  Masonry,  fabulous,  8 
Antonini,  General,  189 
Anubis,  28,  29 

Apocalypse,  Knights  of  the,  292 
Apophasimenes  society,  188 
Apprentice,  Masonic  initiation,  21 
Arabic  figures,  origin  of,  15 
Architect,  Grand  Master,  34-36 
Architects,  African,  60 
Arena,  conspiracy  of,  197 
Areoiti,  293 
Argonauts,  94 
Armenian  demonstrations  in  1895 

and  1896,  213 
society,  Anti-Russian,   212, 

213,  242 

Arndt,  the  poet,  259 
Artista,  Elias,  331 
Ashmole,  antiquary,  9 
Asia,  Initiated  Brethren  of,  73 

Masonry  in,  98 

Asiatic  Brethren,  329 
Asimakis,  a  Hetairist  traitor,  147 
Assassins  of  Christ  in  Masonry,  91 
Associated  Patriots,  202 
Astrological  society  in  London,  328 


336 


INDEX 


Athelstanand  Masonry  in  England, 

5i 

"  Athenaeum  "  quoted,  2 1 7 
Augustus,  Stanislaus,  97 
Ausonia,  ancient  name  of  Italy, 

165,  167 
Avengers,  294 


B 


BABEUF,  113 
Babi  Koran,  266 
Babis,  263-269 

attribute  special  qualities  to 

number  19,  266 
Babism,  doctrines  of,  265 

progress  of,  264 

Bakunin,  218 

Balkis,  Queen  of  Sheba,  4,  7 
Barabas  Brethren,  179 
Bardina  Sophia,  a  Nihilist,  221 
Basilidean  system  of  agriculture, 

Basle,  International  Congress  at, 
121 

Bataille,  Dr.,  his  book  on  Devil- 
worship,  105,  334 

Behais,  a  Babi  sect,  266 

Bel,  component  part  of  Jabulon,  3 1 

Belfort,  revolutionary  attempt  at, 
202 

Bell.     See  Ivory 

"  Belly  Banders,"  295 

Paaro,  294 

Benjamin,  tribe  of,  333 

Benoni,  friend  of  Hiram,  5 

Bentinck,     Lord    William,     170, 
184 

Berlin  Congress,  2 1 1 

Berne,     Council     of,     persecutes 
Masons,  102 

Bertholdy,  Baron,  331 

Beyan,  or  Bab  "Expositor,"  265 

Biran,  Marquis  of,  47 

Biren,  favourite  of  Empress  Anne 
of  Russia,  96 

Bismarck  and  Canossa,  258 

Biyyan.     See  Beyan 

Black  Flag,  Chinese  society,  133 

Knights,  260,  261 

—  Needle  society,  198 

Order,  257 

Virgins,  327 

Blanc,  Louis,  1 1 3 


Blanqui,  chief  of  the  "  Seasons  " 
society,  205 

—  accused  of  having  betrayed 
the  society,  205 

Blazing  Star  of  Masonry,  17,  28 

—  Star,  Order  of  the,  55 
Bliicher,  General,  259 
Blue  Lotus  Hall,  132 

Masonry,  18 

Blunders  of  Ipsilanti,  148,  149 
Boaz,  17 

Bonaparte,  Joseph,  1 86 

Lucien,  178 

Bonanni  forges  list  of  Grand 
Masters,  47 

Bonneville,  Chevalier  de,  5  5 

"  Book  of  Constitutions  [Masonic! 
for  Ireland,"  8 

Bourbons  and  Carbonari,  171 

Brazen  Sea  of  Solomon's  temple,  5 

Break-of-Day  Boys,  271 

Bridge  of  Swords,  Chinese,  134 

Brigands  formed  into  secret  so- 
ciety, 171 

Erode,  Madam,  261 

Bruce,  Robert,  51,  52 

Brunswick  Convention,  59 

Duke  of,  61,  62 

Buddha,  birthplace,  life,  and  image 
of,  327 

Builders'  dispute  in  London,  114 

Bull-roarer,  305 

Bull's  Head,  society  of  the,  47 

Burke,  Thomas,  281 

Burschenschaft,  261,  262 

Byron,  Lord,  186 


CAGLIOSTRO,  44,  6 1,  78,  79,  80 
Cain,  3,  6 
Cairo,  lodge  of,  48 
Calabria,  Duke  of,  173 

societies  in,  180 

Calderari,  171,  172,  184 
Californian  society,  294 
Calvary,  Mount,  40,  42 
Cambaceres,  64,  65,  67 
Cambridge  secret  society,  294 
Camorra,  character  of  the,  329,  330 
Canada,  Fenian  raids  into,  279, 

280 

Cannibalism  in  Africa,  299 
Canosa,  Prince  of,  171,  184 


INDEX 


337 


Cantu,  Cesare,  169 

Cape  Coast  Castle,  Masonic  lodge 

at,  98 

Capitula  Canonicorum,  57 
Capo  d'Istrias,  Count,  143,  146, 147 
Caravats,  Irish  society,  274 
Carbonari,  157-177,  33* 
and  Guelphs,  178 

demand    constitution  from 

King  of  Naples,  173 

in   Lombardy  and  Venetia, 

'75 

Carbonarism  in  Spain,  142 

marks  transition  period  in 

history  of  secret  societies,  174 

Carbonaro    charter    proposed    to 
England,  169 

degree,  most  secret,  167 

manifesto,  166 

symbols,  signification  of,  165 

Carey,  James,  shot  by  O'Donnell, 
281 

Caroline,  Queen,  73 

Carrascosa,  General,  172 

Castle  Tavern,  London,  93 

Catherine  II.,  97 

Cats  and  Dogs,  195 

Cavendish,  Lord  F.,  281 

Cellamare,  conspiracy  of,  312 

Centenaries  of  Masonic  lodges,  98 

Cento  Anni  by  Rovani,  321 

Centres,  Italian,  179 

Ceremonies,  ridiculous,  at  initia- 
tions still  practised,  274 

Certificates  of  the  Decisi,  182,  183 

Chain,  society  of  the,  85 

Chalturin,  229,  230 

Charcoal-burners,  157,  158 

Charles  I.  initiated  into  Masonry,  9 

II.  initiated  into  Masonry,  9 

III.  of  Naples,  73 

Charles  Albert,  190 

Charles,  Archduke,  260 

Charlottenburg,  Order  of,  295 

Charter  of  Cologne,  9 

Chartres,  Duke  of,  12,  55 

Chartists,  Portuguese,  313 

Chen-kin- Lung,  137 

Cherkesoff,  Prince,  218 

Chester  Castle  attacked  by  Fenians, 
279,  281 

Chevaliers  Bienfaisants,  62 

Chibiabos,  301,  334 

Chicago,  chief  seat  of  Anarchism, 
127 
VOL.  II. 


Chicago,   Fenian   Convention  at, 

276,  285 
Children  of  the  Widow,  27 

of  Wisdom,  320 

Chinese  lodges,  134 

Church,  the,  and  Carbonari,  175 

General,  180 

Masons,  295 

Christ's  martyrdom  represented  in 

Carbonarism,  162 
Cincinnati,  Fenian  Convention  at, 

276 
Citations  before  Masonic  tribunals, 

92,  108 

Civil  war  in  France,  119 
Clan-na-Gael,  282,  283,  285 
Clement  V.,  Pope,  296 

XII.,  n,  100 

Clerkenwell  House  of  Detention, 

Fenian  attack  on,  280 
Clermont,  Chapter  of,  55,  57 
"  Clio,"  lodge  at  Moscow,  97 
Clover  leaves,  66 
Cluseret,  General,  121,  280 
Cock-lane  ghost,  104 
Collegium  Muriorum,  10 
Colletta,  advocate,  172 
Cologne,  10 
Commune,  113 
Communistic  societies,  206 
Communists  defended  by  Inter- 
national, 123 

Companions  of  Penelope,  85 
Company  of  Death,  200 
Comuneros,  139-142,  176 
Conceptionistas,  140 
Concitiatore  e  i  Carbonari  quoted ,  1 69 
Concluding  ceremony  of  Knights 

Templars'  initiation,  50 
Concordists,  260 
Congo  secret  societies,  295 
Congregazione     Catholica 

tolica  Romana,  194 
Congress  of  Wilhelmsbad,  n,  61 
Consalvi,  Cardinal,  195 
Consistorials,  193 
Constantini,  Santa,  192 
Constitution  alleged  to  have  been 

granted  by  Tsar,  232 
Contributions    levied    by 

national,  124 

Convention  at  Brunswick,  59 
Coping  Stone,  the,  60,  61 
Corcoran,  General,  275 
Corders,  Irish  society,  274 

y 


Apos- 


Inter- 


338 


INDEX 


Correspondence,       revolutionary, 

how  carried  on,  189 
Cory,  Giles,  319 
Cosmqpolitans,  187 
Cosse-Brissac,  Duke  of,  47 
Costume  of  Masons  in  lodge,  16 

—  of  Princes  Rose-Croix,  41 
Cougourde,  the,  295 

Council  of  the  Emperors  of  the 

East  and  West,  92 

of  the  Knights  of  the  East,  55 

Cousinage,  bon,  158 
Coustos,  John,  101 
Cromwell,  Thomas,  leaves  the 

Masons  ,£10,000  per  annum,  74 
Cross,  the,  33 
Cruelties  practised  on  Babis,  264, 

269 
practised      on      Nihilist 

prisoners,  251 

—  practised  on  Siberian  exiles, 
243,  245,  252 

Crusaders,  Masons  alleged  to  be 

descended  from,  1 1 
Customs,  Masonic,  14 

D 

DANGERS  threatening  London,  1 1 8 
Death,  society  of,  176 
Decisi,  180,  181,  182-184 
Defenders,  Irish  society,  271 

—  of  the  Faith,  140,  142 
Defoliators,  Androgynous  society, 

86 

Degaieff,  Nihilist,  238 
Delahodde,  a  French  spy,  204,  205 
Delphic  priesthood,  184 
"  Democritos"  by  Weber,  258 
Derwentwater,  Lord,  54 
Desaguliers,  Dr.,  1 1 
Deschamps'  "Societes  Secretes,"  104 
Deutsch,      Simon,     member      of 

"Young  Turkey  "party,  210,  212 
"  Devil  in  the  Nineteenth  Century, 

the,"  105 

Devil-worship,  105,  295 
Devorants,  320 

De  Witt,  D6rring,66,  167,  168, 194 
Diffusion  of  Freemasonry,  96 
Dionysiacs,  9,  10 
Discovery    of    statutes    of    Triad 

society,  132 
Dog-Star,  28 
Doheny,  Michael,  Fenian,  275 


Donegal,  Marquis  of,  27 1 

Dorring.     See  De  Witt 

Doussin,  M.,  321 

Dramatic  portion  of  mysteries,  27 

Drenteln,  General,  225 

Dressier,  Anarchist,  127 

Druids,  modern,  295 

Dudley,    Mrs.,    attempts    Rossa's 

life,  282 
Duk-Duk,  295 
Dumouriez,  General,  63 
Dunkirk  Masonic  lodge,  54 
Dvornik,  226,  249,  250 
Dynamite  outrages,  281 

E 

EAGLE  and  Pelican,  Knights  of 
the,  40 

Eckert,  Dr.  E.  E.,  quoted,  62,  104 

Eclectic  rite,  14 

Egbo  society,  295 

Egyptian  Masonry,  78,  79 

society,  secret,  185 

Eleutheria,  password,  194 

Elohim,  3 

Elpidin,  Russian  bookseller  at 
Geneva,  253 

Emigrants,  Nihilist,  253 

Emiliani,  Signor,  188 

Emmanuel,  Victor,  187 

Empire,  French,  and  International, 
119 

Encampments,  49 

England,  International  in,  1 1 8 

English  opposition  to  Masonry,  103 

Enoch,  3 

Epirotes,  147 

Eugene,  Prince,  65 

European  Patriots,  or  White  Pil- 
grims, Calabrian  society,  180 

Eve,  3 

Evelyn,  George,  of  Wotton,  33 1 

Exhibition  of  1862,  116 

Ezelis,  Babi  sect,  266 


FABR^-PALAPRAT,  48 

Families,  the,  French  society,  205 

Fanor,  a  Mason,  5 

Farmakis,  a  Hetairist,  153,  155 

Farmassoni,  a  Russian  sect,  92,  93 

Felicity,  Order  of,  86 

Fellow-craft  degree,  23,  24 


INDEX 


339 


Female  Nihilists,  223, 227, 238, 244 

Fendeurs,  158,  159 

Fenian  attacks,  various,  280,  282, 

283 
bonds,  278 

—  dynamite  outrages,  281 
Investigating  Committee,  276 

Litany,  278,  279 

—  raids  into  Canada,  279 

sisterhood,  276 

Fenianism,  comic  aspects  of,  284 

special  Commission  on,  285 

spreads  into  England,  277 

Fenians,  275-287,  333 
Ferdinand  IV.,  King  of  Naples,  73 

—  VII.,  King  of  Spain,  96,  140, 
172 

I.,  King  of  the  Two  Sicilies, 

171,  174,  181 
Fessler's  rite,  13 
Fides,  password  of  Odd  Fellows, 

3°9 

Fieschi  attempts  life  of  Louis 
Philippe,  204 

Finances,  Nihilistic,  246 

Find  el,  Masonic  writer,  109 

Fire,  sanctuary  of,  6 

Sons  of,  4 

Fitzgerald,  Lord  Edward,  272 

Fleury,  the  actor,  63 

Fontanelli,  General,  179 

Fourier,  Socialist,  1 14 

France,  Carbonarism  in,  176 

Masonry  in,  54 

regenerated,  68 

Francis,  Duke  of  Tuscany,  after- 
wards Emperor  of  Germany,  72, 
98,  102 

Francis  I.,  King  of  France,  1 57, 166 

Franco- Prussian  war  and  Inter- 
national, 122 

Fraternal  Democrats,  114 

Fraternitad  Lberica,  86 

Fraternity  of  Royal  Ark  Mariners, 

93 

Fraticelli,  an  ascetic  sect,  296 
Frederick  the  Great,  207 
Frederick  II.,  King  of  Prussia,  60 

I.,  King  of  Sweden,  102 

Augustus     III.,     King     of 

Poland,  103 

William  III.,  62 

"Freiheit,"  126,  127 

French  rite  of  Masonry,  13 

secret  societies,  causes  of,  206 


French   secret   societies,   v 

202-206 

"  Freemason  "  quoted,  109 
Freemasonry,  alleged  early  origin 

of,  8 

decay  of,  108 

division  of  its  history,  9 

—  in  Spain,  140 

—  Masonic  opinions  of,  109 

—  of  present,  in  Italy,  76 
possesses  no  exclusive  know- 
ledge, 107 

summoning  sovereigns,  108 

vain  pretences  of,  106 

vanity  of  its  ritual,  107 

Freemasons  discovered  at  Naples,73 
marriages  of,  109 

—  operative  and  speculative,  9 
persecuted,  100-105.    See  also 

Masons  and  Masonry 
French  workmen  visting  London, 

116 
Friends  of  Greece,  193 

of  Truth,  202 

Friendship,  Order  of,  257 
Fiihrer,    Dr.,    his     discovery    of 

Buddha's  birthplace,  237 


G 


GABRINO,  Augustino,  292 
Galatis,  a  Hetairist,  145,  146 
Galatz,  149,  151 
Garden  Street  mine,  231 
Garduna,  meaning  of  word,  329 
Garibaldi,  Giuseppe,  187,  190 

Menotti,  211 

Gasgiott,  a  dwarf,  322 

Gatshina,  attempt  on  Tsar's  life 

at,  237 
Genesis  and  development  of  a  new 

creed,  267 

Geneva,  workmen's  congress  at,  1 17 
Georgakis,  Hetairist  chief,  147, 149, 

152,  153,  155 
German    Empire,    proposed     re- 

establishmeut  of,  260 
"  German  Helvetic  Directory,"  97 

Union,  260,  330 

•  workmen  in  London,  1 14 

Germany  and  Carbonarism,  176 
—  Freemasonry  in,  1 1,  98 

full  of  secret  societies,  257 

retrogression  of,  258 


340 


INDEX 


Ghee  Hin  association,  133 
Giardiniere,  177 
Gibraltar,  Masonic  lodge  at,  96 
Gideon,  password  of  Orangemen, 

273 

G  in  Blazing  Star,  35 
Gioachimo,  Cistercian  monk,  328 
Gnosis  of  Grand  Master  Architect, 

35 

Gnostic  sect  in  Russia,  92 
Goats,  296 

Goldenberg,  a  Nihilist,  225,  226 
Golden  Lily  Hui,  137 

Orchid  District,  132 

Gone,  Frederick  von,  303 
Good  Cousins.     See  Carbonari 
Gordon,  General,  134 

George,   Master    of    Grand 

Lodge,  10 1 

Gorenovitch,    Nicholas,    Nihilist, 

223,  228 
Gormogones,  93 
Gormones,  93 
Gramont,  Duke  of,  47 
Grand  Arch  of  the  Hetairia,  145, 

146 

—  Army  of  Republic  (American), 

297 

Copt,  79,  80 

Elect  of  Carbonari,  163 

Lodge  of  England  first  meets 

at  York,  5 1 

Lodge  of  Three  Globes  at 

Berlin,  13 

Master  Architect,  35 

Master  Grand  Elect  of  Car- 
bonari, 164 

—  Master  of  Orangemen,  273 

—  Orient,  12,  56,  64,  65,  66,  69, 
73,  82,  92,  94,  140 

"Granth,"  the  Sikh  Bible,  318 
Greece,  liberation  of,  144 
Green  Island,  297 
Gregory  XVI.,  Pope,  189,  191 
Grinevizki,  Ignatius,  throws  bomb 

which  kills  the  Tsar,  231 
Grips  in  Freemasonry,  23,  26,  45 

Hetairia,  145 

Gross,   A.,  re-introduces   Star  of 

Bethlehem  into  New  York,  319 
Grossing,  F.  R.  von,  adventurer, 

88,  89 

Gugumos,  an  adventurer,  59 
Guinea,  secret  society  in,  294 
Giinzburg,  Sophia,  Nihilist,  244 


II 


HAD- HAD,  bird  messenger  of  the 

genii  of  fire,  6 
Haji  Seyyid  Kazim,  268 
Half-yearly  word  of  command  of 

Grand  Orient,  66 
Hamilton,  George,  97 
"  Hamlet "  quoted,  28 
Hardenberg,  Count,  259 
Harmony,  Order  of,  89 
Harugari,  297 
Hathor,   temple  of,   at  Dendera,. 

327 

Hawk,  symbol  of  Etesian  wind,  28 
Hearts  of  Steel,  271 
Helena,  Empress,  319 
Helfmann,  Jessy,  231 
Hemp-smokers,  African,  298 
Heredom,  a  corruption  of  Latin 

hceredium,  52 

Hertz-Smith,  Rev.  E.  J.,  294 
Heroden,  51,  52 
Heroine  of  Jericho,  273,  298 
Heron,  symbol  of  south  wind,  28 
Herzen,  Socialist,  218 
Hetairia,  143-156 

fate  of  the,  1 54 

final  success  of  the,  156 

first  members  of,  145 

laid  under  the  ban,  1 50 

—  Philomuse,  143 
Hiawatha,  334 

Hibernians,  Ancient  Order  of,  275, 
Higgins,  Francis,  272 
High  degrees  in  Masonry,  u,  14 
Hiram  Abiff,  3,  4,  5,  6,  7,  25,  30 

legend  of,  explained,  26 

slain  at  west  door,  6,  27 

Hiram,  King  of  Tyre,  3,  30 
Hofer,  Andreas,  197 
Hogarth  ridicules  Masons,  109 
Hohenloh-Schillingfiirst,    Prince, 

J95 
Holland,  Masonry  in,  98 

persecutes  Masons,  100 

Holy  of  Holies  in  Grand  Master 

Architect  Lodge,  34 
Holy  Union,  194 
House  of  Oblivion,  268 
"  Hudibras  "  quoted.  95 
Hund,  Baron,  11,  57 
Hung,  meaning  of  term,  131 
Hung  League,  131 
seal  of,  135 


INDEX 


Hunger-strikes   among   Nihilists, 

243 
Hunters,  American,  at  Ravenna, 

186 

a  Canadian  society,  299 

Huseanawer,  Virginian  society,  300 
Hydromancy  of  Cagliostro,  80 


IGNATIEFF,  Russian  Minister  of 
the  Interior,  233 

•"  Illegal "  men  in  Russia,  249 

Illuminati,  league  between  Masons 
and  German,  62 

Italian  society  to  restore 

Napoleon,  199 

Masonic,  in  Italy,  72,  73 

Independents  aim  at  indepen- 
dence of  Italy,  184 

India,  Masonic  lodges  in,  98 

Indian  (North  American)  societies, 
300,  301,  302,  334 

Initiated  Brethren  of  Asia,  73 

Initiation,  Apprentice,  21 

—  Carbonarism,  160 

Chinese  societies,  132,  135 

—  Comuneros,  141 

-  Fellow-craft,  23 

—  Grand  Architect,  35 

—  Irish  societies,  270-275 

-  Kafir,  305 

—  Knight  of  Kadosh,  37 

—  Masonry,  at  Venice,  75 
— •  Master,  24 

—  Misraim,  45 

Modern  Knights  Templars,  49 

—  Mopses,  85 
Purrah,  313 

—  Hoyal  Arch,  30 
Kose-Croix,  41,  42,  43 

I.  N.  R.  I.,  attestation  of  signature 
of  Italian  litterateurs,  180 

its  meaning  in  Rose-Croix,  43 

International,  113-126 

doctrines  of,  117 

excommunicates  Masons,  7 1 

Invisibles,  obscure  Italian  society, 
302 

Ipsilanti,  145,  147-149,  i52>  T53> 

Irad,  son  of  Enoch,  3 
Irish  Master,  54 
people,  279 


Irish  societies,  270-287 
Iroquois  mysteries,  301 
Italian  confederates,  199 

lodges  under  Napoleon  I.,  75 

societies,  various,  199 

Italy,  proposed  partition  of,  193, 

J95 

Ivory,  E.  J.,  tried  for  conspiracv, 
286 


JABAL,  son  of  Lamech,  4 

Jabulon,  Master  Mason's  word,  31 

Jachin,  column  of  porch  of 
Temple,  17 

Jah,  one  of  the  components  of 
Jabulon,  31 

Jahn,  founder  of  the  Turner,  259 

James  II.  initiated  into  Masonry,  9 

Jehovah  creates  Adam,  3 

Jehu,  French  society  of,  302 

Jemal-ed-din  attempts  dethrone- 
ment of  Shah,  269 

Jericho,  Heroine  of,  298 

Jerusalem,  clerical,  typifying 
Rome,  57 

Jesuitical  influences  in  Masonry, 
57,  62,  70,  83 

Ji-Koh, 


officer  in  Chinese  society, 


132 


John,  St.,  Brethren  of,  10 

John  VI.,  Emperor  of  Brazil,  issues 

edict  against  all  secret  societies, 

1 02 

Jubal,  inventor  of  the  harp,  4 
Ju-ju  houses,  296 


KADOSH,  a  term  of  honour,  37 

Kafir  initiation,  305 

Kaljushnia,  Mary,  a  second  Zas- 

sulic,  238 

Karairas,  Hetairist,  1 5 1 
i    Karpokratians,  sect  of,  302 
i    Katansky,  Russian  official,  238 
!    Kelly,  Fenian,  279,  280 
I    Kharkhoff,  residence  assigned  to 

Zassulic,  223 
Kilwinning,  chief  seat  of  Masonic 

Order,  51 

Klobergoll,    Micronesian   society, 
302 


342 


INDEX 


Knigge,  Baron  de,  14 
Knight  of  Kadosh,  55 
Knights  and  Ladies  of  Joy,  84 

Guelphic,  178 

of  Apocalypse,  292 

of  Beneficence,  62 

of  Christ,  47 

—  of  Eagle  and  Pelican,  40 

of  Liberty,  305 

of  Lion,  305 

of  Maria  Theresa,  302 

of  Pythias,  315 

of  Queen  of  Prussia,  259 

of  Silver  Circle,  3 1 8 

of  !Sun,  28th  degree  of  Scotch 

rite,  14 

French  degree,  5  5 

in  favour  of  Napoleon, 

198 
Templars,  Masons  pretend  to 

be  descended  from,  9,  n,  51 

modern,  47-50,  208 

the  Order  of,  302,  303 

Knowledge      not      diffused      by 

Masonry,  107 

Know-Nothings,  American,  303 
Koh,  Chinese  term  for  elder,  132 
Ko-lao-Hui  society,  136,  137 
Konarski,  Simon,  a  chief  of  Young 

Poland,  208 
Kopper,    von,    founds    Order    of 

African  Architects,  60 
Kotzebue  stabbed  by  the  student 

Sand,  262 
Krapotkine,  Prince  Alexis,  225 

Prince  Peter,  219 

Ku-Klux   Klan,  Southern  States 

society,  303-305 
Kunz  de  Kauffungen,  157 
Kurnai,  Australian  society.  305 
Kurratu'l    'Ayn,  a    Bab    martyr, 

263,  265 


LACORNE,  dancing-master,  and 
Pirlet,  a  tailor,  invent  degree 
of  "  Council  of  the  Emperors  of 
the  East  and  West,"  92 

Ladder,  mysterious,  in  Masonry,  37 

Ladies  kidnapped  by  Turf  society, 
323 

Ladies  of  St.  James  of  the  Sword 
of  Calatrava,  84,  85 

of  St.  John  of  Jerusalem,  84 


of 


La  Fayette,  General,  176,  187,  202 
Lainez,  James,  General  of  Jesuits, 

57 

Lamech,  3,  6 

Land  and  Liberty,  Russian  so- 
ciety, 221,  223,  225 

Larmenius,  successor  of  Molay,  47 

Latini,  a  Carbonaro  society,  179 

Lausanne,  workmen's  congress  at, 
120 

Lavater,  Master  of  "  German  Hel- 
vetic Directory  "  lodge,  97 

Lavillana,  Marquis  of,  101 

Lavroff,  Nihilist,  218,  239,  253 

Lay  bach,  Congress  at,  173 

Ledru,  a  physician,  obtains  pos- 
session of  the  charter  of  Lar- 
menius, 47 

Leopards,  Human,  299,  333 

Lessing's     (G.     E.)     opinion 
Masonry,  36 

Lessing,  Louis,  a  student,  assassi- 
nated, 258 

Letters  of  Young  Italy  intercepted 
by,  and  recovered  from,  Austrian 
police,  189 

Leviticon  society,  48 

—  work  by  a  Greek  monk,  48 

Lewis,  English  Masonic  term,  an- 
swering to  French  Louveteau,  14 

Liberty,  Knights  of,  305 

Li  Hung  Chang,  1 33 

Limburg,  Goats  at,  296,  297 

Lion,  Knights  of  the,  305 

Lion's  grip  in  Masonry,  26,  27 

List  of  Grand  Masters  of  Temple, 
fictitious,  47 

Litany,  Fenian,  278,  279 

Literature,  Masonic,  109,  no 

Nihilistic,  254 

Litterateurs,  Italian,  179 

Liverpool,  Lord,  opposes  Masonry," 
103 

Lizogoob,  Dmitri,  Nihilist  martyr, 
228 

Lodge,  arrangement  of  Masonic, 
16,  17 

in  Adoptive  Masonry,  83 

in  rite  of  Misraiin,  45 

of  Rose-Croix,  40,  41 

opening  of,  18 

Lodges  founded  by  Cagliostro,  80 

number  of,  99 

of  Carbonari,  158,  i 

Logos,  the,  31 


INDEX 


343 


London,  dangers  threatening,  1 1 8 

Nihilist  club  in,  246 

secret  Italian  society  in,  186 

Trades'  Union  Congress  in, 

126 

Loris-Melikoff,  Count,  230 
Louis  XII.  protects  Waldenses,  1 58 
XIV.    suppresses     Modern 

Knights  Templars,  47 
-  of  Bourbon,  Prince  of  Cler- 

mont,  gives  name  to  Chapter  of 

Clermont,  57 

Philippe,  69,  204,  205 

Louveteau,  French  Masonic  term 

answering  to  English  Lewis,  14, 

15 

Lovers  of  Pleasure,  87 

Ludicrous  Masonic  degree,  94,  95 

Ludlam's  Cave,  satirical  society, 
306 

Lumbini  garden,  Buddha's  birth- 
place, 327 

Lux  ex  tenebris,  password  in  Mis- 
raini  degree,  45 

Lyons,  Communistic  riots  at,  123 


M 


MACBENACH,  7,  25 

Macerata,  Carbonaro  attempt  at, 

171 

Mackey,  Masonic  writer,  109 
Macrobius  quoted,  14 
Mad  Councillors,  comic  society,  306 
Magi,  Order  of  the,  306 
Magnan,  Marshal,  70 
Magus,  the,  of  Trowel  society,  72 
Mahabone,  Masonic  word,  26 
Maharajas,  Indian  sect,  306 
Mahdi,  the,  263 
Mahomedans  rise  against  Chinese 

Government,  133 
Mahomed  Reza  assassinates  Shah 

of  Persia,  269 
Mainwaring,  Colonel,  9 
Maison,     probable      etymon      of 

Masonry,  10 

Manabozko,  Indian  deity,  301,  334 
Manchester,     Fenian    attack     on 

police  van  in,  279 
Mandan  Ark,  310 
Manhes,  General,  170 
Manichsean  sect,  27 
Mano  Negra,  307 


Mantchoos,  present  rulers  of  China* 

134 

Maria  Louisa,  175 
Maria  Theresa,  102 
Mark  Masonry,  92 
Marriages,  Masonic.  109 
Marshall  and  Ramsay,  57 
Martin,    St.,   French  writer   and 

mystic,  62 

Marx,  Dr.  Karl,  114,  126 
Mason,  C.  W.,  assists  Chinese  in- 
surgents, 137 
Masonic  alphabet,  1 5 
charities,  52 

-  dating,  14 

grips,  23,  26,  45 

lodge  established  in  Persia, 

268 

lodges  in  various  countries,  96 

societies,  whimsical,  72 

—  word,  lost  and  found,  19 
Masonry,  adoptive,  82 

aim  of  continental,  94 

androgynous,  84 

condemned  by  Congress  of 

Trent  in  1896,  104 

derivation  of  name,  10 

genuine,  1 9 

—  modern,  is  ineffective,  52 

opposed  by  priests,  68 

origin  of,  10 


politically  insignificant,  69 

spurious,  19 

"  Masonry,  the  Way  to  Hell,"  103 
Masons.     See  Freemasons 
Mason's  Daughter,  89 
Massa,  possible  etymon  of  Masonry 

10 

Master's  word  in  Masonry,  25 
Mavromichalis,  Petros,  146 
Mayo,  Lord,  assassinated,  324 
Mazzini,  188,  189 
Mediterranean  password,  50 
Mehujael,  grandson  of  Enoch,  3 
Melanesian  societies,  307-309 
"  Memoires  pour  servir  a  1'Histoire 

du  Jacobinisme,"  103 
Memphis,  rite  of,  44,  46 
Menichini,  Abbe,  172 
Menotti,  Carbonari  leader,  187 
Mesentsoff,  General,  224,  225,  254 
Methusael   invents    sacred    char- 
acters, 3 

a  Hebrew  miner,  5 

Mexico,  Grand  Lodge  of,  98 


344 


INDEX 


Michailoff,  Alexander,  250 
Miguellists  in  Portugal,  3 1 3 
Milesi,  member  of  Turf  society, 

321,  322 
Mina  robbers  in  India,  325 

Spanish  patriot,  140 

Ming  dynasty,  132 

Mirski's     attempt     on     life     of 

Drenteln,  225 
Mirza  Yahya,  266 
Misericordia,  Societa  della,  177 
Misley,  Henry,  187 
Misraim,  rite  of,  14,  44,  68 
Mitchel,  John,  Fenian,  275,  277 
Modena,  Duke  of,  175,  195 

prisons  of,  175 

Modern  Knights  Templars,  47-50 
Moffat  mansion,  headquarters  of 

American  Fenians,  277 
Mohammed  Ali,  the  Bab,  263 
Molay,  James,  56,  91 
Molly  Maguires,  274,  275 
Monks  of  the  Screw,  72 
"Monthly  Magazine"  quoted,  109 

;,  102 


Moreau,  General,  196 
Morelli,  Italian  officer,  172,  174 
Moreno,  Garcia,  99 
Morgan,  William,  292,  299 
Mosaic  floor  in  Masons'  lodge,  16 
Mosel  Club,  257 

Motto  of  Modern  Knights  Tem- 
plars, 50 

Mumbo  Jumbo,  309 
Murat,  King,  and  Carbonari,  170 

Lucien,  69 

Queen  Caroline,  170 

"  Murray's  Magazine  "  quoted,  283 
Mustard-Seed,  Order  of  the,  91 
"Mysteres  les  plus  Secrets  de  la 
MaQonnerie,"  103 


NAAMAH,  sister  of  Tubal-Cain,  6 
Names  of  Armenian  committees, 

212,  213 

of  Carbonaro  officers,  162 

Naples,  Freemasonry  in,  73 
Napoleon  L,  attempt  to  seize  him 

while  travelling,  197 

favours  Masonry,  64,  65 

favours     Modern     Knights 

Templars,  48 


Napoleon     I.,     German     feeling 
against,  258 

his  secret  police,  312 

societies  against,  196-198 

societies  in  favour  of,  198 

Napoleon,  Joseph,  12,  64 
Napoleon  III.,  69,  70,  187 
Nasreddin,  Crown  Prince  of  Per- 
sia, 263 
National  Freemasonry,  208 

Knights,  Italian,  199 

League,  Irish,  283 

Nechayeff,   Sergei,  a   pioneer   of 

Nihilism,  218 

New  Pomeranian  society,  295 
New  York,  Fenian  convention  at, 

285 

Nicholas  I.  becomes  emperor,  216 
Nihilism,  founders  of,  218 
Nihilist  club  in  London,  246 

emigrants,  253 

finances,  246 

literature,  254 

—  manifesto  of  1885,  240 
meaning  of  term,  2 1 7 

—  measures  of  safety,  249 

—  preparations  for  assassinating 
Tsar,  241 

printing  press,  secret,  247 

prisoners,  250 

proclamation  of  1881,  232 

proclamations   in   walking- 
sticks,  246 

stores  discovered,  234,  236, 

240,  241,  242,  245,  246 

trials,  220,  221,  222,  225,  226, 

228,  234,  235,  236,  240,  241,  244, 
255,  256 

Nihilists,  217-256 

—  in  England,  239 
Nile,  inundation  of,  29 
Nilometer,  32 
Nimrod,  first  hunter,  4 

N,  letter  standing  for  nostri  with 

Jesuits,  62 
Noachites,  or  Royal  Ark  Mariners, 

93 

or  Russian  Knights,  94 

Noah,  his  descendants,  4 

Grand,  title  of  president  of 

Noachites,  93 

Nola,  defection  of  royal  soldiers 

at,  172 
Norman,  murder  of  Chief-Justice, 

324 


INDEX 


345 


North,  The,  Russian  society,  215 
Nostiz,  Baron,  founds  society  of 

"Knights    of     the    Queen    of 

Prussia,"  259 
Notre-Dame  of  Paris  set  on  fire  by 

students,  203 
Number  19  venerated  by  Babis, 

266 

0 

OAK- BOYS,  270 

Oath  of  Apprentice  in  Masonry,  22 

—  of  Calderari,  172 

—  of  Carbonaro,  161,  163 

—  of  Fellow-craft  in  Masonry,  24 

—  of  Master  in  Masonry,  26 

—  of  Mosel  Club,  257 

—  of  Reds  of  the  Mountain,  206 
—  of  Republican  Brother  Pro- 
tector, 171 

—  of  Ribbonman,  272 

of  St.  Patrick  Boys,  272 

of  Unita  Italiana,  200 

Ob  or  Obi,  295 

Obeah.     See  Egbo 

Obeeyahism.     See  Egbo 

u  Obelisk  and  Freemasonry,"  by 

Dr.  Weisse,  8 
Observance,  Relaxed,  59 

-  Strict,  57 

Obuchoff,  a  Cossack,  219 
Oceania,  Freemasonry  in,  98 
Odd  Fellows,  309 
Ode,  password,  194 
Odessa,  Nihilist  assassinations  at, 

237 

O'Donnell  shoots  James  Carey,  281 
Officers  of  Argonauts,  94 

—  of  Masonic  lodge,  16,  17 

—  of  Rose-Croix  degree,  40 

—  of  Royal  Arch  degree,  30 
0-Kee-Pa,  Red  Indian  society,  310 
O'Leary,  John,  his  "  Recollections 

of  Fenians  and  Fenianism,"  333 
Oliver,  Masonic  writer,  109 
O'Mahoney,   Colonel    John,   275, 

276,  277 

Omladina,  210,  211 
On,  component  part  of  word  Jabu- 

lon,  31 

Operative  masonry  ceases,  52 
Operative  masons,  9,  5 1 
Orangemen,  272 
Order    and     Progress,    student's 

association  in  France,  203 


Order  of  Friendship,  257 

—  of  the  Temple,  14 
Origin  of  the  alphabet,  1 5 

of  term  Fenian,  278,  333 

Orleans,  Duke  of,  69 
Oro-Tetifa,  a  Tahitian  god,  293 
Osiris,  27,  28 
Oudet,  Colonel  James  Joseph,  196, 

197 


PACIFIC  Union,  194 

Padillo,  John,  140 

Palmerston,  Lord,  187,  189 

Panizzi,  189 

Panslavism,  210,  211 

Pantheists,  310 

Papal  Bulls  against  Masonry,  100, 

104 
Paris,  arrest  of  Nihilists  in,  244 

—  its  destruction  planned,  121 
Parma,  Duchess  of,  175 

John  of,  328 

Partition  of  Poland,  207 

"  Party  of  the  People  "  in  Russia, 

239 

Passports,  how  obtained  by  Nihil- 
ists, 249 
Passwords  in  Masonry,  23,  26,  31, 

32,  45>  50  t 

in  Hetairia,  145 

in  Roman  Catholic  Apostolic 

congregation,  194 

of  Odd  Fellows,  300 

Patriotic  Order  Sons  of  America, 

311    * 
reformers,  193 

—  society,  208 
Payne,  George,  1 1 
Pednosophers.    See  Tobaccological 

society 

Pedro,  Don,  142 

Pe-lin-Kiao,  Chinese  society,  131 
Pellico,  Silvio,  176 
Pentagon,  Cagliostro's,  79,  80 
"  People,   going    among   the,"   in 

Russia,  219 

Pepe,  General,  172,  174 
Perak,  Chinese  secret  societies  in, 

133 

Perfection,  Masonic  rite  of,  14 
Perovskaia,  Sophia,  227,  231,  238 
Persecution  of   Freemasonry,   II, 
100-103 


346 


INDEX 


Persigny,  M.  de,  53 

Pestel,  Colonel,  216 

Pfenniger,  Prefect  of  Zurich,  219 

Phi- Beta- Kappa  society,  311 

Philadelphia  lodge  at  Verviers,  53 

Philadelphian    rites     introduced 

into  French  army,  196 
Philadelphians  in  Calabria,  180 

of  Besanson,  196 

Philip  the  Fair,  56 
Philip  V.  of  Spain,  101 
Philo,  writer  on  Masonry,  106 
Philosophic  Scotch  rite  of  Masonry, 

13 

Phoenix  Park  murders,  127,  281 

Pianco,  Master,  329 

Pichegru  conspires  against  Napo- 
leon, 197 

Pierre,  Delahodde's  alias,  205 

Pilgrims,  a  French  society,  3 1 1 

Pirlet.     See  Lacorne 

Pius  IX.,  Pope,  191 

Platonica,  afterwards  Italian  Con- 
federates, 199 

Poe,  E.  A.,  quoted,  129 

Poland,  Masonry  in,  97 

independence  of,  115 

partition  of,  207 

revolutionary  party  of,  and 

Nihilists,  239 

Police,  secret,  312 

Polignac,  Prince  Julius  de,  195 

Polish  patriots,  207,  331 

secret  national  government, 

208,  209 

Pope's  flight  from  Home,  192 

Portugal,  Masonry  in,  96 

Portuguese  societies,  313 

Prim,  Marshal,  108 

Primitive  Scotch  rite,  13 

Principi  Summo  Patriarcho,  167 

Printing  press,  secret  Nihilistic, 
247,  249 

Prison,  Nihilists  in,  250 

u  Proofs  of  a  Conspiracy,"  by 
Robison,  103 

Protestant  Irish  societies,  271,  272 

Proverb,  Italian,  108 

Prussian  secret  police,  3 1 2 

Publications  of  Quatuor  Coronati 
lodge,  1 10 

"Punch,"  quoted,  117 

Purrah,  The,  African  society,  313- 

3J5 
Pythias,  Knights  of,  315 


Q 

QUATUOR  Coronati  lodge,  no 

Queen  of  England  threatened  by 
Anarchists,  124 

Questions  asked  of  Masonic  Ap- 
prentice, 23 

Quezeda,  Captain,  140 


II 


RADETZKY  enters  Milan,  190 
Radnor,    Lord,   denounces'   Free- 
masons, 103 

Ragon,  Masonic  writer,  109 
Raising  of  aspirant  in  Masonry,  26 

Osiris,  painting  of,  28 

Ramsay,   Chevalier  Andreas,   nr 

54,  55-  93 

Ram  Singh,  a  Sikh,  317 
Rancliffe,  Lord,  president  of  Noa- 

chites,  93 
Raven,  Baron,  chief  of  Relaxed 

Observance,  59 

Ravenna,  Accoltellatori  at,  200 
Rays,   The,   Anti-Napoleonic   so- 
ciety, 197 
Rebeccaites,  315 
Reclus,  Elyse"e,  Anarchist,  109 
"  Rectangular  "  referred  to,  92 
Red    Cross    of   Constantine    and 

Rome,  Order  of,  92 
Red  Men  society,  3 1 5 
Redemption,  Order  of  the,  315 
Reform  needed  in  Masonry,  77 
Reformed  Masonic  rite,  14 
Regeneration,  Society  of  Univer- 
sal, 316 

Registrar  of  the  Dead,  184 
Relaxed  Observance,  59,  94 
Report  on  Fenian  Brotherhood,  276 
Republic  proclaimed  in   France, 

122 
Republican     Brother    Protector's 

oath,  171 
Results  of  downfall  of  Napoleon, 

J39 

Reviving  the  International,  at- 
tempt at,  1 26 

Revolutionary  Club,  199 

Revolutions  attempted  in  Italy, 
189 

Rhetz,  Conrad  von,  founder  of 
Argonauts,  94 


INDEX 


347 


Rhigas,  Constantinos,  Greek  poet, 

143 

Rhodocanakis,  Prince,  92 
Rhombos,  301,  305 
Ribbonmen,  271,  272 
Riego,  the  Hampden  of  Spain,  101 
Right- Boys,  270 
Rights  of  Man  society,  204 
"  Rite  of  Egyptian  Masonry,"  78 
Rites  of  Adoptive  lodges,  82,  83 
Rochelle,    revolutionary    attempt 

at,  202 

Rohilla  Patans,  325 
Rose-Croix  lodge,  40 

Prince  of,  40 

Rose,  German  Order  of  the,  88,  89 
—  Knights  and  Nymphs  of  the, 
87 

Rosenwald,  Lady  of,  88 
Rosicrucianism,  n,  329 
Rosicrucians  not  Rose-Croix,  40 
Rossa,  O'Donovan,  280,  282,  286 
Rossi,  life  and  death  of,  190-192 
Royal  Ark  Mariners,  93 

Carboneria,  159 

Russia,  Freemasonry  in,  96 
Russian  Union  of  Safety,  214 
Russians  of  rank  going  among  the 

people,  219,  220 

Rutherford,  John,  his  "Secret 
History  of  the  Fenian  Con- 
spiracy," 333 


S 


SACRED  Battalion  of  Hetairia,  149, 

i5°>  153 
Safety,  measures  of,  adopted  by 

Nihilists,  249 
Saheb-ez-Zeman,  the  Lord  of  Ages, 

266 

Saint- Agnan,  Viscount,  179 
Saint-Simon,  1 13 
Saint  John,  Brethren  of,  10 

-  Martin's    Hall,    workmen's 

meeting  at,  117 

Patrick  Boys,  272 

Saiyid  Ahmad,  Wahab  leader,  324 

Saltpetrers,  316 

Sam-Sings,  133 

Sam  Tian  society,  133 

"  Sanctuary,  The,"  explains  rite  of 

Memphis,  46 
Sand,  Louis,  262 


Sanfedisti,  194 

Sankofsky's  attempt  on  Tchere- 

vin's  life,  234 

Sarawak,  secret  society  in,  133 
Satirical  society,  302,  303 
Savary,  Minister  of  Police,  67 
Sayid  Yahya  Darabi,  264 
Schismatic  rites,  91,  92 
Schlaraffenland,  324 
Schmalz,  Councillor,  261 
Schools,  Society  of,  203 
Schroder's  rite,  14 
Schropfer,  59,  80 
Scotch  degrees,  1 1 

Ladies  of  France,  86 

rite,  65 

rites  of  Masonry,  13 

sign,  grand,  35 

Scotland,  Masonry  in,  5 1 

Scythers,  208 

Seasons,    the,    a    French    secret 

society,  205 
Secret  printing  presses  of  Nihilists, 

228 

societies,  aims  of,  9 

Sekko,  monastery  of,  155 
Seliverskoff,  General,  244 
Selvaggi,  secret  society,  199 
Senegambia,  secret  society  in,  291 
Septembrists  in  Portugal,  313 
Seth,  alleged  founder  of  Order  of 

Harmony,  89 
family,  8 


Seven  steps  of  mysterious  ladder 

in  Masonry,  37-39 
Severo,  Duke  of  San,  73 
Shah,  late,  opposed  by  Babis,  264 
Shanavests,  Irish  society,  274 
Sheba,  Queen  of,  4,  5 
Sherwood  reveals  plot  to  dethrone 

Alexander  I.  of  Russia,  215 
Shiites,  267 

Shirtless,  the,  French  society,  202 
Siberian  exiles,  243 
Sibley,  Ebenezer,  93 
Sicilian  societies,  193 
Sign  of  Orangemen,  273 
Signs  in  Masonry,  23 

in  rite  of  Misraim,  45 

of  Hetairia,  145 

—  of  Modern  Knights  Templars, 

49 

Sikh  Fanatics,  3 1 6-3 1 8 
Silvati,  172,  174 
Silver  Circle,  Knights  of  the,  318 


348 


INDEX 


Simonetta,  country  house  belong- 
ing to  Turf  society,  323 
Sioux  rites,  310 
Sirius,  28,  29 
SlavonianConfederation,proposed, 

215 
Sleeping  Lion,  French  society  to 

restore  Napoleon,  305 
Socialistic  systems,  1 1 4 
Society  of  the  Chain,  85 

• of  Schools,  203 

Solomon  3-5,  7,  30 
Solovieff,  223,  226 
Sonderbare  Gesellen,  319 
Sonnet  quoted,  186 
Sons  of  Fire,  4 

of  Mars,  186 

of  St.  George,  275 

of  Thought,  4 

Sophisiens,  319 

Sovereign  Chapter  of  the  Scotch 

Ladies  of  France,  86 
Prince  Masons  of  St.  John  of 

Jerusalem,  92 
Sovereigns      summoned       before 

Masonic  tribunals,  108 
Spain,  Carbonarism  in,  176 

Freemasonry  in,  96 

secret  societies  in,  139 

Spanish    secret  societies    divided 

into  four  parties,  142 
Special  Commission  on  Fenianism, 

285 

Spectres  meeting  in  a  tomb,  202 
Speculative  Masons,  9 
Spratt,  Edward,  8 
Spurious  Masonic  degrees,  19 
Stabbers,  Committee  of,  200 
Star  of  Bethlehem,  319 
Stark,  Dr.,  59,  61 
Stein,  Baron,  258,  332 

Privy  Councillor,  332 

Stephanovitch    establishes    secret 

printing  press  at  Kieff,  247 
Stephens,  the  Fenian,  277,  279 
Stepniak,  214,  228,  254 
Straits       Settlements,       Chinese 

societies  in,  133 
Strasbourg,  Masonic  Grand  Lodge 

at,  10 

Strict  Observance,  u,  57,  6 1,  97 
Strozzio,  Count  Filippo,  72 
Stuart,  Charles,  52,  54,  57,  58 
Student  riots  in  Russia,  243,  244 
Russian,  found  dead,  245 


Sublime  Knight  elected,  55 
Subterranean  Prague,  211 
Sudeikin,  Colonel,  237,  238 
Sufites,  48 
Suliotes,  148 
Sun  Wen,  133 
Yet  Sun,  133 

—  and  zodiac  symbolised,  45 
Sunnites,  267 
Supreme  Grand  Council,  65,  69, 

92 
Surrey    tavern,     Surrey     Street, 

Strand,  93 

Sweden,  Freemasonry  in,  97 
Swedenborg,  rite  of,  14 
Swedish  Masonic  rite,  14 

ritual,  ancient,  97 

Switzerland,  Freemasonry  in,  97 


T 


TAAROA,  a  Polynesian  deity,  293 
Tae-ping-wang,    Chinese    leader, 

m  532»  33i    . 

Tahitian  society,  293 

Tai-Koh,  chief  of  Chinese  secret 

society,  132 
Tallard,  Count,   helps    to  found 

secret  society  in  court  of  Louis 

XIV.,  47 

Tangaroa.     See  Taaroa 
Tartar  dynasty  in  China,  131 
Tau,  books  of,  3 


triple,  32 


Tcherevin's  (General)  life  at- 
tempted, 234 

Temple,  the,  Johannite  church  in 
Paris,  49 

Teppa,  Compagnia  della,  321 

Terror,  Russian  party  of,  222 

Terrorists  in  France,  302 

Test,  severe,  of  a  member's  fidelity, 
198 

Theobald,  patron  saint  of  Carbon- 
ari, 158 

Theodora,  wife  of  Emperor  Jus- 
tinian I.,  320 

Th'ien  -  Hauw  -  Hoi'h,  Chinese 
society,  131 

Third  Division  of  Russian  police, 
223 

Thirteen,  number,  why  considered 
ominous,  320 

the,  societies,  320 


INDEX 


349 


Thirty-one,  Tuscan  society,  199 
Thot,  Egyptian  deity,  29 
Three  Globes,  Masonic  lodge,  60 
Threshers,  Irish  society,  271 
Tirol,  secret  league  against  France 

in,  197 
Titles,  extraordinary,  introduced 

into  Masonry,  45 
Tobaccological  society,  320,  321 
Todtenbund,  176 
Toland,  John,  310 
Tolstoi,  Count,  234,  239 
Tongola.     See  Taaroa 
Torres,     lodges     of     Comuneros, 

141 
Torrubia,  Peter,  betrays  Masons, 

101 
"Traveller's Narrative,  A,"  quoted, 

267 

Treachery  of  Fenian  leaders,  277 
Trent,  Anti-Masonic  Congress  at, 

104 
Trepoff,    General,    fired    at    by 

Zassulic,  224 
Triad  society,  132 
Triangle,  double,  31 

golden,  7 

mystic,  7 

Triangles  in  Royal  Arch,  31 

Triangular  altar,  7 

Trinitarii,  184 

Trinosophists,  69 

Troubelskoi,  Prince,  26 

Trowel,   the,   whimsical   Masonic 

society,  72 
True  Poles,  207 
Tsakaloff,   Athanasius,    Hetairist, 

144 
Tsar  Alexander  II.,  assassinated, 

230 

Tsar,  precaution  taken  on  travel- 
ling of,  233 

Tsar's  appeal  to  Russian  society, 
225 

coronation,  235 

—  lii'e  attempted,  226-228,  230, 
240,  245,  246 

reply  to  Nihilist  proclama- 
tion, 233 

—  responsibility,  243 
Tschudy,  Baron,  55 
Tsing-lien-Kiao,  131 
Tsings,  the,  131,  134 
T,  symbolic,  3,  5,  7 
Tubal-Cain,  4,  6 


Tugendbund,  258-262,  332 
Turf,  Society  of  the,  321-324 
"Turk,  the,  and  the  French  Sol- 
dier," book  written  by  Oudet, 
197 

Turkey,  Freemasonry  in,  98 
Turks  and  Hetairia,  144-156 
Turner,  or  gymnasts  in  Germany, 

259 

Tuscany,  Duke  of,  98 
Tynan,  P.  J.,  Fenian,  281,  286 


u 


UKRIVAHELI,    or    Concealers    of 

Nihilists,  250 

Ulrich,  Duke  of  Wurtemberg,  157 
Unconditionals,  inner  section   of 

German  Union,  261 
Union  for  the  Public  Weal,  Rus- 
sian, 215 

of  Boyards,  215 

of  Safety,  Russian,  214 

of  Virtue.     See  Tugendbund 

Unionists,  German,  257 
Unions,  Workmen's,  114 
Unita  Italiana,  200 
United  Irishmen,  271,  272 

Slavonians,  2 1 5 

Utah,  secret  societies  in,  275 
Utopia,  a  comic  society,  324 


VAUGHAN,  Miss  Diana,  104 
Vault  under  Solomon's  Temple, 
Master's  word  hidden  therein,  7 

under    Solomon's    Temple, 

Master's  word  discovered,  31 
Vehm,   the,    Lindner's  work  on, 

328 

Veils,  passing  the,  Masonic  cere- 
mony, 32 

Vendicatori,  Sicilian  society,  294 
Vendite  of  Carbonari,  158,  159 
Venice,  Masonry  in,  74 
Vienna,  Anarchists  at,  127 

Congress  of,  its  results,  331 

early  Masonic  lodge  at,  10 

Visible,     the,     among     Guelphic 

Knights,  178 

Vogt,    founder    of    Mosel    Club, 
257 


350 


INDEX 


W 

WAHAB,  meaning  of  term,  324 
Wahabees,  Indian  sect,  324-326 
Waldo,  family  of,  328 
Wales,  Prince  of,  Grand  Master  of 

English  Freemasons,  103 
Wang -lung,    leader    of    Chinese 

society,  131 

Warrington,  Masonic  lodge  of,  9 
Weber,    C.    J.,    German    author, 

quoted,  258 
Weisse,     Dr.    J.    A.,    author    of 

"  Obelisk    and    Freemasonry," 

quoted,  8 
Wellington,    Duke    of,    reported 

offer  of  crown  of  Italy  to,  185 
White-Boys,  Irish  society,  270 
-  Lily,   Chinese  society,   131, 

J33 
Pilgrims,  Calabrian  society, 

1 80 

Whites  and  Reds  in  Poland,  209 
Whizzer,  301,  305 
Wilhelmsbad,  Congress  of,  u,  59, 

61 

Wilson,  General  Robert,  187 
Thomas,  founder  of  Order  of 

Orangemen,  273 

Will  of  the  People,  Russian  so- 
ciety, 223,  228,  238,  250 
William  II.,  Norman  king,  294 
Winter  Palace,  explosion  in,  228 
Witt.     See  De  Witt 
Wittgenstein,  Prince,  member  of 

Tungendbund,  259 
Wolf  in  Masonry,  14 
Women,  Greek  and  Arab,  in 

Masonic  lodges,  186 

—  not  admitted  to  European 

Freemasonry,  82 


Wonderful    Association,    Chinese 

society,  131 
Wood    store   of    the    Globe    and 

Glory,  Masonic  society,  86 
Word,  the  Lost,  31,  42 


X 

XANTHOS,  E.,  of  Patmos,  a  Free- 
mason and  Hetairist,  144 


YARKER,   John,    Masonic   writer 

quoted,  109 

Yellow  Cap,  Chinese  society,  131 
York  Masons,  antiquity  of,  5 1 

rite  of  Masonry,  13 

Young  Germany,  258 

Italy,  175,  188,  191 

Poland,  208 

—  Turkey,  210,  212 


ZAMBECCARI,  Livio,  a  Mazzinist, 

1 88 

Zappatori,  Italian  labourers,  103 
Zassulic,  Vera,  223 
Zerubbabel,  Royal  Arch  officer,  30 
Zinzendorf,  Count,  60,  91 

rite  of,  14 

Zundelevic,     Aaron,     establishes 

secret    Nihilist    press    at    St. 

Petersburg,  248 
Zurich,  Masonic  Grand  Lodge  at, 

10 
International  Congress    at, 

123 


THE   END 


Printed  by  BALLANTTNE,  HANSON  &  Co. 
Edinburgh  6*  London 


Spates  on 

Standard  and  Decent  VForks 

Published  by 
Qeorge    l^edway 


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OCCULT    LITERATURE 

3\£otes  on  Standard  and  cE(ecent  Works 
published  by  Cjeorge  c£(edcway 

DURING  the  past  ten  or  twelve  years  the  litera- 
ture of  the  Occult  Sciences  and   Philosophy 
has  assumed  a  fresh  importance,  and,  as  a  consequence, 
has  remarkably  increased  in  the  chief  countries  of  the 
world. 

This  literature  has  always  existed  in  England,  and 
it  is  here  that  its  new  developments  have,  for  the 
most  part,  originated.  But,  previously  to  the  year 
1886,  the  publication  of  works  on  this  subject  was 
in  the  hands  of  amateurs,  and  their  circulation  was 
limited  to  the  resources  of  book-depots  belonging  to 
one  or  two  private  societies.  At  that  period,  how- 
ever, Mr.  GEORGE  REDWAY  began  to  undertake  the 
production  of  books  by  eminent  occultists,  both  living 
and  dead,  and,  with  the  interruption  of  the  few  years 
following  the  sale  of  his  original  business,  he  has 
continued  to  issue  in  a  popular  form,  and  at  a  mode- 
rate price,  most  of  the  best  works  that  have  appeared 
of  their  kind  in  the  language.  The  following  succinct 
account  of  the  entire  series,  which  has  been  published 
from  time  to  time  under  his  auspices,  including  recent 
additions,  will  be  useful  to  students  of  the  subject  as 
a  guide  in  the  choice  of  books,  and  will  give  at  the 
same  time  a  comprehensive  idea  of  the  extent  and 
importance  of  Mr.  Redway's  enterprise  in  this  depart- 
ment of  literature. 

1 


The  plan  followed  is  one  of  merely  informal  enu- 
meration, so  that  the  various  works  must  not  be 
regarded  as  classified  in  the  order  of  their  import- 
ance, which  would  be  difficult  or  impossible  ;  while 
a  grouping  under  subject-headings,  having  regard  to 
the  scope  of  the  bibliography,  has  been  deemed  un- 
necessary. For  convenience  in  reference  only,  the 
works  of  Mr.  A.  E.  Waite  have  been  placed  in  a 
separate  section  under  the  name  of  the  author. 


ANNA  KINQSFORD.  Her  Life,  Letters,  Diary,  and  Work.  By 
her  Collaborator,  EDWARD  MAITLAND.  Illustrated  with  Por- 
traits, Views,  Facsimiles,  &c.  Two  vols.  Demy  8vo,  315.  6d.  net. 

The  genesis  of  the  New  Gospel  of  Interpretation,  which  found  its  first 
expression  in  "The  Perfect  Way,"  is  here  fully  set  forth  by  the  "  surviving 
recipient  "  of  the  gospel,  and  these  two  volumes  are  of  great  and  even  im- 
perishable interest.  By  its  profound  mystical  importance,  to  set  aside  the 
beauty  of  its  literary  form,  "  The  Perfect  Way"  marked  a  new  period  in 
the  religious  thought  of  the  age,  finding  its  appropriate  complement  in 
"  Clothed  with  the  Sun,'1  the  book  of  Mrs.  Kingsford's  illuminations. 
Now  this  life  of  the  seeress  explains  and  completes  both,  and  it  is  not 
surprising  that  it  has  been  the  most  successful  work  of  its  kind  published 
during  the  past  twelve  months. 


PSYCHIC  PHILOSOPHY  AS  THE  FOUNDATION  OF  A 
RELIGION  OF  NATURAL  LAW.  By  V.  C.  DESERTIS. 
With  Introduction  by  ALFRED  RUSSEL  WALLACE,  D.C.L., 
LL.D.,  F.R.S.  Crown  8vo,  55.  net. 

Though  appearing  under  a  name  previously  unknown  in  psychological 
literature,  this  work  has  been  welcomed  as  perhaps  the  best  existing 
exposition  of  the  philosophy  of  Spiritualism.  As  Dr.  Wallace  explains  in 
his  preface,  it  founds  a  philosophy  of  the  universe  and  of  human  nature  on 
the  facts  of  psychical  research,  the  basis  of  which  philosophy  is  necessarily 
the  familiar  proposition  that  faith  must  be  justified  by  knowledge.  The 
consideration  is  divided  into  two  parts,  the  first  dealing  with  the  experi- 
mental facts,  and  the  second  with  "theory  and  inferences,"  set  forth  in  a 
manner  which  has  been  rightly  characterised  as  really  powerful  and  origi- 
nal ;  some  of  the  author's  most  important  material  is  derived  from  modern 
scientific  conceptions  as  to  the  constitution  of  matter  and  ether. 


(     3     ) 

THE  IMITATION  OF  S'ANKARA.  Being  a  Collection  of 
several  Texts  bearing  on  the  Advaita.  By  MANILAL  N.  DVIVIDI. 
Crown  8vo,  53.  net. 

This  is  a  production  of  the  Bombay  Press.  The  Oriental  texts  in  ques- 
tion number  658,  and  have  been  derived  from  the  Upanishads,  the  Institutes 
of  Manu,  the  Mahabharata,  and  other  sacred  writings,  the  Sanskrit  originals 
being  also  given.  Seeing  that  for  the  most  part  they  were  in  existence 
before  the  birth  of  S'ankara,  they  must  be  regarded  as  the  spirit  which 
guided  that  teacher,  and  are  thus  not  his  imitation,  but  that  which  he 
himself  followed. 

THE  GREAT  SECRET,  AND  ITS  UNFOLDMENT  IN 
OCCULTISM.  A  Record  of  Forty  Years'  Experience  in  the 
Modern  Mystery.  By  a  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND  CLERGYMAN. 
Crown  8vo,  53.  net. 

The  "modern  mystery"  is,  of  course,  Spiritualism,  and  perhaps  this 
crisp  and  eminently  readable  narrative  has  a  little  suffered  by  some  in- 
exactitude in  its  title.  The  author  is  well  known  not  only  in  the  sphere 
of  liberal  theology,  but  in  that  of  letters,  and  as  his  identity  is  in  no  way 
concealed  by  the  narrative  for  those  who  have  any  acquaintance  with  the 
movement,  it  is  to  be  regretted  that  his  name  has  been  suppressed. 

NEO=PLATONISM.  Porphyry,  the  Philosopher,  to  his  Wife, 
Marcella.  Now  first  translated  into  English  by  ALICE  ZIMMERN. 
With  Preface  by  RICHARD  GARNETT,  C.B.,  LL.D.  Crown  8vo, 
33.  6d.  net. 

Marcella  was  a  widow  whom  the  philosopher  espoused  late  in  his  life 
from  an  intellectual  interest  in  the  welfare  and  education  of  the  children 
whom  she  had  borne  to  her  first  husband.  Porphyry  was  the  pupil  of 
Plotinus  as  Plotinus  was  of  Ammonius  Saccas.  The  letter,  preserved 
in  the  Ambrosian  Library  of  Milan,  is,  unfortunately,  imperfect  at  the 
end.  With  the  preface  of  Dr.  Garnett  and  Miss  Zimmern's  admirable 
introduction  on  Neo-Platonism,  it  is  presented  under  the  best  auspices 
to  English  readers. 

MIRACLES  AND  MODERN  SPIRITUALISM.  Three 
Essays  by  ALFRED  RUSSEL  WALLACE,  D.C.L.,  LL.D.,  F.R.S. 
New  and  Revised  Edition,  with  Chapters  on  Phantasms  and 
Apparitions.  Crown  8vo,  5s.  net. 

The  work  of  Dr.  Wallace  and  the  "Researches"  of  Professor  Crookes 
have  been  always,  from  the  evidential  standpoint,  the  Jakin  and  Bohaz 
of  the  edifice  of  modern  Spiritualism  in  England.  Both  are  much  too 
well  known  to  require  description  or  advertisement.  The  extensions^  of 
the  present  edition  deal  with  objective  apparitions  and  the  raison  d'etre 
of  phantasms,  each  having  special  reference  to  the  theories  of  Psychical 
Research. 


(     4     ) 

ANIMAL  MAGNETISM;  or,  Mesmerism  and  its  Pheno- 
mena. By  the  late  WILLIAM  GREGORY,  M.D.,  F.R.S.E. 
Fourth  Edition.  With  Introduction  by  the  late  "  M.A.  (Oxon)." 
Demy  8vo,  6s.  net. 

Since  the  days  of  Dr.  Gregory  and  the  classic  mesmerists  whom  we 
connect  broadly  with  his  period,  animal  magnetism  has  assumed  a  new 
and  possibly  more  scientific  terminology ;  but  it  is  a  matter  of  surprise,  on 
re-reading  this  standard  treatise,  to  note  how  trivial  have  been  the  advances 
made  since  the  subject  has  been  taken  into  account  by  the  professional 
"modern  scientist."  The  experiments  of  this  careful  observer  have  lost 
none  of  their  importance,  and  the  introduction  of  Mr.  Stainton  Moses, 
written  for  a  previous  edition,  now  very  rare,  will  enhance  the  value  of  the 
work  in  the  eyes  of  all  English  Spiritualists. 


THE  TAROT  OF  THE  BOHEMIANS.  The  most  ancient 
book  in  the  world.  For  the  exclusive  use  of  Initiates.  By 
PAPUS.  Translated  by  A.  P.  MORTON.  With  numerous  Illus- 
trations. Crown  8vo,  53.  net. 

Ostensibly,  the  "  Tarot "  is  a  method  of  divination  comprised  in  seventy- 
eight  symbols,  from  which  our  modern  cards  have  descended.  The  fact  of 
its  existence  seems  to  have  been  first  discovered  by  a  French  archaeologist 
at  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century,  and  he  connected  its  figures  with 
primitive  Egyptian  symbolism.  The  subject  was  further  developed  by 
Eliphas  Le"vi,  who  regarded  it  as  the  first  book  of  humanity,  and  thought 
that  all  problems  of  science,  philosophy,  and  religion  could  be  solved  by 
means  of  its  combinations.  The  work  of  Papus,  who  has  attained  similar 
conclusions,  is  the  first  formal  and  elaborate  treatise  upon  the  whole  of  this 
interesting  question,  and  he  claims  to  give,  also  for  the  first  time,  the  Key 
to  the  construction  and  application  of  the  "  Tarot." 


THE  MAGICAL  RITUAL  OF  THE  SANCTUM  REGNUM. 

Interpreted  by  the  Tarot  Trumps.  Translated  from  a  MS.  of 
ELIPHAS  LEVI,  and  Edited  by  Dr.  WYNN  WESTCOTT.  With 
Eight  Coloured  Plates.  Crown  8vo,  73.  6d.  net. 

A  special  interest  attaches  to  this  publication,  which  has  not  been  printed 
in  the  language  of  the  original.  The  MS.,  with  its  carefully  drawn  figures, 
was  written  in  an  interleaved  copy  of  a  small  Latin  treatise  by  Trithemius, 
and  sent  to  Baron  Spedalieri,  circa  1861 ;  it  is  the  subject  of  reference  in 
one  of  Le"vi's  letters  to  that  disciple,  by  whom  it  was  ultimately  presented 
to  Mr.  Edward  Maitland.  Mr.  Maitland  seems  to  have  regarded  it  as  a 
commentary  on  the  work  of  Trithemius,  which  goes  to  show  that  he  did 
not  read  it :  it  was  not  until  it  passed  into  the  possession  of  Dr.  Westcott 
that  it  was  discovered  to  be  an  original  and  highly  interesting  ritual  of 
magic. 


(     5     ) 

THE  RATIONALE  OF  MESMERISM.  A  Treatise  on  the 
Occult  Laws  of  Nature  governing  Mesmeric  Phenomena.  By  A. 
P.  SINNETT.  Second  Edition.  2s.  6d.  net. 

In  addition  to  the  sources  of  occult  knowledge  with  which  Mr.  Sinnett 
claims  to  be  connected,  he  has  had  considerable  experience  as  a  practical 
mesmerist,  and  is  therefore  entitled  to  speak  upon  his  subject  with  personal 
as  well  as  derived  authority. 


LIGHT  ON  THE   PATH:    KARMA:    GREEN   LEAVES. 

A  Treatise  written  for  the  personal  use  of  those  who  are  ignorant 
of  the  Eastern  Wisdom.  By  MABEL  COLLINS.  Imperial  32mo, 
is.  6d.  net. 

A  series  of  aphorisms  or  maxims  partly  referable  to  Oriental  Scriptures, 
this  little  work  has  been  a  Golden  Rule  among  Theosophists,  and  not  the 
less  popular  because  of  the  unhappy  controversy  of  which  it  subsequently 
became  the  centre. 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  YEAR.     A  Record  of  Feasts  and  Cere- 
monies.    By  MABEL  COLLINS.     Imperial  32mo,  is.  6d.  net. 

A  sequel  to  ' '  Light  on  the  Path"  and  a  kind  of  Theosophical  companion 
to  the  Calendar  ;  suggestive,  and  with  an  interior  meaning. 


A  HANDBOOK  OF  PALMISTRY  AFTER  THE  ANCIENT 
METHODS.  Sixth  and  Revised  Edition.  By  ROSA  BAUGHAN. 
With  Five  Plates.  Demy  8vo,  is.  net. 

The  most  popular  introduction  to  the  study  of  the  Hand  ever  published 
in  England.  It  has  been  in  circulation  for  ten  years,  and  is  still  always  in 
demand.  The  present  revised  edition  supersedes  all  others,  and  those  who 
have  earlier  impressions  will  do  well  to  consult  this. 


THE  GNOSTICS  AND  THEIR  REMAINS:  Ancient  and 
Mediaeval.  By  C.  W.  KING.  Second  Edition.  With  Wood- 
cuts and  Plates.  Royal  8vo,  ics.  6d.  net. 

Mr.  King  is  our  only  authority  on  the  attractive  but  perplexing  subject 
of  the  Gnostic  sects,  and  this  second  edition  of  his  standard  work  is  so 
much  an  enlargement  upon  the  first  that  it  is  almost  entitled  to  rank  as 
an  independent  treatise.  It  is  here  offered  to  the  public  at  half  its  original 
cost,  and,  when  the  present  remainder  is  exhausted,  the  copies  now  avail- 
able at  a  small  price  will  become  much  enhanced  in  value.  Without  being 
apparently  a  mystic,  and  writing  rather  from  the  standpoint  of  history  and 
numismatics,  the  author  approaches  his  subject  sympathetically,  and  is 
in  most  respects  an  authoritative  guide. 


(     6     ) 

THE  VIRGIN  OF  THE  WORLD  OF  HERMES  MER- 
CURIUS  TRISMEQISTUS.  Rendered  into  English  by 
ANNA  KINGSFORD  and  EDWARD  MAITLAND,  Authors  of  "The 
Perfect  Way."  With  Illustrations.  4to.  Imitation  Parchment. 
los.  6d.  net. 

Despite  its  attribution,  "  The  Virgin  of  the  World"  represents  a  school 
of  initiation  which  is  usually  regarded  as  distinct  from  that  which  produced 
the  other  writings  referred  to  Hermes  Trismegistus.  It  differs,  on  the 
one  hand,  from  the  "Divine  Pymander,"  which,  perhaps,  connects  more 
closely  with  Neo-Platonism  of  the  Christian  era ;  and,  on  the  other,  from 
the  "Golden  Treatise,"  which  cannot  be  dated  much  earlier  than  the 
fifteenth  century.  "  Asclepios  on  Initiation,"  the  "Definitions  of  Ascle- 
pios,"  and  some  "Fragments  of  Hermes,"  are  included  in  the  volume, 
which  is  an  indispensable  companion  to  Chambers'  valuable  edition  of  the 
other  works  ascribed  to  Hermes. 


THE  KABBALAH  UNVEILED.  Containing  Three  Books  of 
the  Zohar.  Translated  from  the  Chaldee  and  Hebrew  text  by 
S.  L.  MACGREGOR  MATHERS.  Post  8vo.  With  Diagrams. 

[Out  of  print. 

No  attempt  has  as  yet  been  made  in  English  to  furnish  a  complete  and 
catholic  account  of  the  developments  of  Kabbalistic  literature,  though  the 
keys  of  tne  Hebrew  and  Christian  Scriptures  are  both  said  to  be  contained 
therein.  The  literature  is  indeed  so  large,  and  presents  so  many  difficulties 
of  interpretation,  that  the  few  scholars  competent  for  the  task  have  evidently 
shrunk  from  undertaking  it.  In  the  absence  of  any  other  source  of  in- 
formation, the  work  of  Mr.  Mathers  has  been  in  considerable  demand. 
It  translates  in  extenso  certain  important  books  of  the  Zohar,  giving  an 
interlinear  commentary  on  the  first,  and  copious  notes  to  the  others. 
There  is  also  a  long  introduction,  which  is  informing  and  valuable. 


MAGIC,  WHITE  AND  BLACK;  or,  The  Science  of 
Finite  and  Infinite  Life.  By  FRANZ  HARTMANN,  M.D. 
Third  Edition,  revised  and  enlarged.  Crown  8vo.  Frontispiece 
and  Woodcuts.  6s.  net. 

A  presentation  of  magical  doctrine  from  a  Theosophical  standpoint. 
The  ethical  value  has  been  regarded  as  high  by  authorities  in  the  same 
line  of  thought,  and  Dr.  Hartmann's  treatise,  enlarged  and  revised  for 
each  successive  edition,  has  been  singularly  successful. 


(     7     ) 

THE  KEY  OF  SOLOMON  THE  KING.  Now  first  translated 
from  Ancient  MSS.  in  the  British  Museum,  by  S.  L.  MACGREGOR 
MATHERS.  With  numerous  Plates.  Crown  410,  255.  net. 

A  scholarly  edition  of  what  is  regarded  as  "  the  original  work  on  practical 
magic,"  based  upon  the  best  texts,  and  crowded  with  talismanic  and  other 
figures.  It  gives  the  actual  mode  of  operation,  which  should  enable  any 
person  so  disposed  to  call  up  and  discharge  spirits,  as  well  as  full  instruc- 
tions for  other  departments  of  ceremonial  magic.  It  must,  however,  be 
observed  that  the  ' '  Keys  of  Solomon "  are  referred  to  the  domain  of 
White  Magic,  and  do  not,  therefore,  deal  with  evil  spirits  evoked  for  evil 
purposes.  The  "Keys  of  Solomon  the  King"  are,  further,  to  be  dis- 
tinguished from  those  of  Solomon  the  Rabbi,  which  have  not  yet  been 
edited. 


ASTROLOGY  THEOLOGIZED:  The  Spiritual  Herme- 
neutics  of  Astrology  and  Holy  Writ.  Edited  by  ANNA 
BONUS  KINGSFORD.  With  numerous  Symbolical  Illustrations. 
4to.  Parchment.  IDS.  6d.  net. 

An  old  astrological  maxim  tells  us  that  Sapiens  dominabitur  astris,  and 
this  work  is  actually  a  formal  treatise  upon  the  method  of  ruling  the  planets 
by  the  law  of  grace.  In  other  words,  our  destinies  are  written  in  the  stars, 
but  it  is  possible  to  erase  or  rectify  the  record.  This  very  curious  book, 
practically  the  sole  treatise  upon  the  spiritual  side  of  astrology,  was  first 
published  in  1649,  and  its  authorship  remains  unknown.  It  connects  on 
the  one  side  with  the  Paracelsian  doctrine  of  interior  stars  and  external 
signatures,  and  on  the  other  with  the  modern  interpretations  of  Eliphas 
Le"vi;  indeed,  the  maxim  of  the  French  Magus,  "When  we  think  that 
we  are  reading  in  the  stars,  it  is  in  ourselves  we  read,"  would  be  an  admir- 
able motto  for  the  title-page.  The  late  Dr.  Kingsford's  preface  to  the 
reprint  deals  with  the  "true  method  of  interpreting  Holy  Scripture,"  and 
attracted  considerable  attention  at  the  time  of  its  first  appearance. 


THE  ASTROLOGER'S  GUIDE.  Being  the  One  Hundred  and 
Forty-six  Considerations  of  Guido  Bonatus,  and  the  Choicest 
Aphorisms  of  the  Seven  Segments  of  Cardan.  Edited  by  W. 
ELDON  SERJEANT.  Demy  8vo,  75.  6d.  net. 

Bonatus  was  a  Florentine  astrologer  of  the  thirteenth  century,  who  was 
famous  for  his  successful  predictions,  but  he  ultimately  became  a  Franciscan. 
Jerome  Cardan,  who  is  a  greater  name  in  the  starry  science,  was  a  skilful 
physician,  and  to  him  mathematics  are  indebted  for  developments  of 
importance.  The  present  reprint  is  the  translation  of  Henry  Coley  as 
regards  Bonatus,  and  that  of  William  Lilly  as  regards  Cardan,  who 
flourished  in  the  sixteenth  century.  Mr.  Serjeant's  edition  places  two  rare 
works  within  the  reach  of  all  who  are  interested. 


POSTHUMOUS    HUMANITY:    A   Study   of    Phantoms. 

By  ADOLPHE  D'AssiER.  Translated  and  Annotated  by  HENRY 
S.  OLCOTT,  President  of  the  Theosophical  Society.  Crown  8vo, 
7s.  6d.  net. 

A  presentation  of  facts  establishing  the  existence  of  a  posthumous  per- 
sonality, not  only  as  regards  man,  but  other  animals,  and  even  vegetables. 
Shortly  put,  it  is  an  attempt  to  demonstrate  the  occult  doctrine  of  the 
fluidic  form.  From  one  point  of  view,  this  study  of  psychic  phenomena 
offers  an  unattractive  contrast  to  the  mystic  doctrine  of  union  with  the 
Divine,  but  this  is  because  it  deals  only  with  the  elementary  spheres  of 
transcendental  experience,  and  it  must  not  be  regarded  as  less  remarkable 
or  less  suggestive  because  its  inferences  are  somewhat  dismal. 


THEOSOPHY,     RELIGION,    AND    OCCULT    SCIENCE. 

By  HENRY  S.  OLCOTT.    Crown  8vo,  73.  6d.  net. 

A  series  of  lectures  presenting  the  alternative  between  Theosophy  and 
Materialism,  and  dealing  comprehensively  with  old  Western  Magic,  modern 
Spiritualism,  Eastern  Sociology  and  Eastern,  especially  Indian,  Religions. 
It  is  perhaps  the  most  successful  work  ever  published  by  Col.  Olcott— 
scholarly,  well  expressed,  at  once  popular  and  attractive  in  form.  It  has 
had  a  wide  sale,  and  deserved  it. 


INCIDENTS  IN  THE  LIFE  OF  MADAME  BLAVATSKY. 

Compiled  from  information  supplied  by  her  Relatives  and  Friends, 
and  Edited  by  A.  P.  SINNETT.  With  Portrait.  Demy  8vo, 
IDS.  6d.  net. 

Madame  Blavatsky  was  herself  a  mirror  or  epitome  of  the  occult  sciences. 
She  personified  all  their  wisdom,  all  their  extravagance,  while  she  also 
incorporated  into  her  history  most  of  the  accusations  which  have  been 
made  against  them.  Her  story  is  here  told  with  Mr.  Sinnett's  well-known 
ease  of  style  and  considerable  literary  skill.  It  is  not  now  a  complete  life, 
for  not  only  has  the  subject  passed  away  since  it  was  written,  but  much 
additional  knowledge  has  been  made  public  concerning  her.  It  deserves 
and  would  repay  rewriting,  and  yet,  as  it  stands,  it  is  always  fresh  and 
interesting.  There  is  not,  however,  the  same  living  and  moving  portraiture 
of  Madame  Blavatsky  which  is  to  be  found  in  the  brilliant,  though  un- 
happily hostile,  biography  of  M.  Solovyoff. 


(     9     ) 

THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  MYSTICISM.  By  CARL  DU  PREL. 
Translated  from  the  German  by  C.  C.  MASSEY.  8vo.  Two  vols. 
i os.  6d.  net. 

These  noble  volumes  are  the  outcome  of  a  happy  combination — on  the 
one  hand,  an  author  who  is  among  the  first  of  living  German  Mystics ;  on 
the  other,  a  translator  who  is  himself  a  Mystic,  and  of  established  repute 
among  many  like-thinking  in  England.  It  is  impossible  in  a  brief  space 
to  present  a  satisfactory  analysis  of  a  work  which  is  so  important  and  at 
the  same  time  so  voluminous.  The  author  explains  that  he  has  attempted 
"  to  erect  a  philosophical  fabric  of  doctrine  on  the  empirical  basis  of  the 
sleep-life,"  and  to  disprove  the  "false  presumption"  that  "our  Ego  is 
wholly  embraced  in  self-consciousness."  It  is  maintained  that  an  analysis 
of  the  dream-life  exhibits  the  Ego  as  exceeding  that  limit.  A  very  similar 
doctrine  was  propounded  in  Fichte's  "Way  to  the  Blessed  Life,"  namely, 
that  only  a  small  portion  of  our  being  is  illuminated  by  the  sun  of  con- 


sciousness. 


THE   INDIAN   RELIGIONS;   or,   Results  of  the  Myste= 
rious  Buddhism.     By  HARGRAVE  JENNINGS.    8vo,  6s.  net. 

Sufficient  attention  has  not  been  given  to  the  very  curious  speculations 
in  this  volume,  some  of  which  are  highly  suggestive,  though  marred  by 
inaccuracies,  extravagances,  and  a  determined  effort  to  write  in  a  bizarre 
fashion.  By  the  way,  at  the  time  of  its  publication  it  was  accepted  as  a 
new  work,  but  it  was  really  edited  for  the  publishers  from  materials  in 
earlier  volumes  by  Mr.  Jennings,  now  long  since  out  of  print  and  exceed- 
ingly rare,  as,  for  example,  "  Curious  Things  of  the  Outside  World."  The 
work  thus  possesses  a  certain  bibliographical  value  apart  from  the  occult 
lucubrations,  which  have  always  attracted  a  certain  class  of  minds  to  the 
author  of  the  "  Rosicrucians." 


THE  INFLUENCE  OF  THE  STARS.    By  ROSA  BAUGHAN. 
8vo,  53.  net. 

Miss  Baughan  has  for  many  years  possessed  an  almost  unrivalled  reputa- 
tion as  a  professional  palmist,  and  would  seem  to  be  no  less  skilled  in  dis- 
cerning the  future  by  means  of  the  lines  on  the  hand  than  was  Mdlle. 
Lenormand  by  the  help  of  the  combinations  of  cartomancy.  At  the  same 
time,  Miss  Baughan,  in  her  published  works,  is  prudently  disinclined  to 
check  the  old  doctrine  of  chiromancy  by  the  result  of  her  personal  observa- 
tion. The  three  occult  sciences  dealt  with  in  this  book  are  elucidated  in  a 
practical  manner,  and  their  connection  very  clearly  exhibited. 

PALMISTRY  AND   ITS   PRACTICAL  USES.     By  LOUISE 
COTTON.     With  Twelve  Plates.     Crown  8vo,  2s.  6d.  net. 

A  less  elaborate  treatise  than  that  noticed  above,  the  late  Mrs.  Cotton's 
book  is  elementary  only,  and  the  clear  text,  which  is  assisted  by  excellent 
illustrations,  has  proved  useful  to  many  beginners. 


THE  TAROT:  Its  Occult  Signification,  Use  in  Fortune= 
Telling,  and  Method  of  Play.  By  S.  L.  MACGREGOR 
MATHERS.  With  Pack  of  78  Tarot  Cards,  55.  net. 

This  little  work,  as  will  be  seen,  is  designed  to  accompany  a  set  of  Tarot 
cards,  and  it  makes  no  pretension  to  deal  in  an  elaborate  manner  with  the 
complex  symbolism  of  the  "  book  of  antique  initiation  ;  "  but  it  may  serve 
as  a  syllabus  or  introduction  to  the  more  ambitious  exposition  by  Papus, 
and  has  been  found  useful  in  cartomancy  by  those  disinclined  towards  the 
study  of  a  larger  and  more  technical  work. 


THE  LIFE  OF  PARACELSUS  AND  THE  SUBSTANCE 
OF  HIS  TEACHINGS.  By  FRANZ  HARTMANN,  M.D.  Post 
8vo,  IDS.  6d.  net. 

The  occult  philosophy  of  Paracelsus  concerning  Magic,  Pneumatolpgy, 
Sorcery,  Alchemy,  Astrology,  and  Medicine,  is  here  set  forth  and  explained 
according  to  the  tenets  of  Theosophy.  It  has,  therefore,  considerable 
interest  for  the  followers  of  this  school,  while  the  attempt  to  interpret 
an  old  teacher  of  occult  philosophy  from  the  standpoint  of  later  views  is 
not  without  importance  for  the  more  general  student  of  the  subject. 
Dr.  Hartmann's  concise  digest  has  thus  been  always  in  requisition. 


THE  HIDDEN  WAY  ACROSS  THE  THRESHOLD;  or, 
The  Mystery  which  hath  been  Hidden  for  Ages  and 
from  Generations.  With  Plates.  Large  8vo,  155.  net. 

This  voluminous  treatise,  thus  suggestively  entitled,  is  scarcely  capable 
of  brief  description,  so  large  is  the  field  of  occult  interest  which  it  covers. 
Perhaps  the  best  which  can  be  said  of  it  in  this  place  is  that  the  author 
claims  to  have  been  initiated  by  several  secret  societies  possessing  an  occult 
tradition,  and  that  his  work  has  been  regarded  by  capable  judges  as  indi- 
cating an  access  to  sources  of  information  which  could  not  well  be  attained 
by  the  ordinary  methods  of  study. 


THE  LIFE  OF  JACOB  BOEHME,  THE  GOD-TAUGHT 
PHILOSOPHER.  An  Introduction  to  the  Study  of  his  Works. 
By  FRANZ  HARTMANN,  M.D.  Demy  8vo,  los.  6d.  net. 

Here  Dr.  Hartmann  has  followed  the  same  plan  as  in  the  case  of  the 
"  Life  and  Writings  of  Paracelsus."  We  have  first  an  account  of  the 
mystic,  and  then  a  compendious  digest  of  his  doctrine  arranged  in  sections, 
with  a  Theosophical  commentary.  The  reader  who  is  not  a  Theosophist 
can  dispense  with  the  commentary,  and  will  still  have  a  handbook  to  the 
writings  of  Boehme  which  will  be  more  valuable,  because  more  sympa- 
thetic, than  that  of  Bishop  Martensen. 


(  II  ) 

THE  CLOUD  ON  THE  SANCTUARY.  Translated  by 
MADAME  ISABEL  DE  STEIGER.  With  a  Preface  by  J.  W. 
BRODIE-INNES.  Crown  8vo,  35.  6d.  net. 

The  work  of  the  great  German  Mystic,  Eckartshausen,  embodying  per- 
haps the  most  profound  instruction  ever  offered  concerning  the  esoteric 
mysteries  of  Christianity,  this  treatise,  prized  by  a  select  few  in  its  original 
tongue,  and  familiar  also  to  others  in  its  French  translation,  is  here  given 
for  the  first  time  in  an  English  version,  with  some  annotations  by  the  trans- 
lator, a  lady  well  known  in  occult  circles,  and  a  transcendentalist  as  well 
as  an  artist.  Mr.  Brodie-Innes  contributes  a  short  preface  which  will  be  of 
value  to  those  who  are  acquainted  with  his  remarkable  work  on  the  "True 
Church  of  Christ"— a  work,  it  may  be  added,  which,  in  a  more  recent 
aspect,  represents  much  of  the  mystic  teaching  to  be  found  in  "  The  Cloud 
on  the  Sanctuary." 


THE  TRANSCENDENTAL  UNIVERSE.  Six  Lectures  on 
Occult  Science,  Theosophy,  and  the  Catholic  Faith.  Second 
Edition.  By  C.  G.  HARRISON.  Crown  8vo,  2s.  6d.  net. 

Mr.  Harrison  regards  Transcendentalism,  and  especially  its  Theosophic 
development,  from  the  standpoint  of  esoteric  Christianity,  and  in  a  slight 
degree  he  connects  with  the  school  of  Eckartshausen.  His  impeachment  of 
Madame  Blavatsky,  if  not  entirely  new,  embodies  many  original  elements, 
and  has  attracted  some  attention.  The  little  work  is  exceedingly  clear  and 
readable. 


A   PROFESSOR  OF  ALCHEMY.     By  PERCY  Ross.     Crown 
8vo,  35.  6d.  net. 

Presented  under  the  guise  of  a  novel,  and  possessing  an  artistic  excellence 
which  is  rare  in  works  of  fiction.  "A  Professor  of  Alchemy"  is  really  the 
life  of  the  celebrated  French  adept,  Denys  Zachaire,  very  slightly  coloured 
by  romance.  The  alchemist  has  himself  written  the  history  of  his  quest 
after  the  Magnum  Opus,  and  the  story  by  "Percy  Ross"  is  a  kind  of 
idealised  supplement  thereto,  which  heightens  the  interest  surrounding 
one  of  the  most  remarkable  personages  in  the  whole  range  of  Hermetic 
biography. 


DEMON-POSSESSION  AND  ALLIED  THEMES.     By  the 

Rev.  JOHN  NEVIUS,  D.D.    Crown  8vo,  7s.  6d.  net. 

The  work  of  an  American  who  spent  forty  years  of  his  life  as  a  missionary 
in  China,  and  there  had  the  subject  of  Diabolical  Possession  forced  upon 
him.  Contains  the  result  of  his  experiences  and  researches,  and  valu- 
able bibliographical  additions.  Interesting  from  any  point  of  view,  but 
especially  from  that  of  the  Christian  occultist. 


A  BLANK  PAGE.  A  Story  for  the  Bereaved.  By  PILGRIM. 
Crown  8vo,  53.  net. 

A  graceful  and  touching  story  dealing  suggestively  with  the  experiences  of 
Modern  Spiritualism.  It  is  certainly  the  best,  perhaps  the  one  spiritualistic 
novel  which  has  appeared  in  England. 

THE  SECRET  SOCIETIES  OF  ALL  AGES  AND 
COUNTRIES.  By  C.  W.  HECKETHORN.  New  Edition, 
thoroughly  revised  and  greatly  enlarged.  Two  vols.  Demy  8vo, 
;£i,  iis.  6d.  net. 

A  new  work  rather  than  a  new  edition,  the  result  of  twenty-five  years' 
study  and  research,  and  truly  encyclopaedic  in  its  range,  extending  from 
Egyptian  Mysteries  to  the  latest  doings  of  the  Nihilists,  and  including  160 
Secret  Organisations  in  all.  It  is  the  only  book  of  its  kind,  and  is  not 
likely  to  be  superseded. 

HUMAN    MAGNETISM;    or,    How   to    Hypnotise.      By 

JAMES  COATES.     Crown  8vo,  53.  net. 

A  practical  work  by  a  writer  whose  long  experience  qualifies  him  to 
speak  with  authority.  The  instructions  are  full,  explicit,  and  illustrated 
with  admirable  photographs;  but  it  is  more  than  a  book  of  instruction,  it 
is  also  a  critical  account  of  the  subject  up  to  date,  from  the  standpoint  of 
Animal  Magnetism,  enriched  and  qualified  by  a  full  acquaintance  with  all 
Continental  theories. 


2ENIA  THE  VESTAL;  or,  The  Problem  of  Vibrations. 

By  MARGARET  B.  PEEKE.     Second  Edition.     Small  410,  53.  net. 

An  occult  novel,  which  claims,  however,  to  be  inspired  by  direct  occul 
teaching,  derived  from  existing  centres  of  initiation.  It  is  in  any  case  a 
fascinating  story,  having  a  genuine  romantic  motive,  some  admirable 
pictures  of  European  travel,  and  some  living  characters. 


For  any  of  the  Books  in  this  List  apply  to 
the  Publisher 

GEORGE  REDWAY,  9  HART  STREET,  BLOOMSBURY 
LONDON 


Works  by  <^Mr.   Arthur  Edward  Waite 

DEVIL= WORSHIP  IN  FRANCE;  or,  The  Question  of 
Lucifer.  A  Record  of  Things  Seen  and  Heard  in  the  Secret 
Societies,  according  to  the  Evidence  of  Initiates.  By  A.  E.  WAITE. 
Crown  8vo,  53.  net. 

An  exhaustive  examination  of  all  the  evidence  fabricated  in  France  con- 
cerning the  actual  existence  of  a  religion  of  Lucifer.  In  addition  to  its 
occult  interest,  it  constitutes  a  most  remarkable  contribution  to  the  litera- 
ture of  Freemasonry,  as  that  fraternity  is  the  subject  of  special  accusation 
in  connection  with  devil-worship  by  a  host  of  French  writers,  some  of  whom 
are  high-grade  Masons.  This,  Mr.  Waite's  latest  work,  has  received  marked 
recognition  from  the  general  press. 

TRANSCENDENTAL  MAGIC;   Its  Doctrine  and  Ritual. 

By  ELIPHAS  LEVI.  Now  for  the  first  time  translated  into  English 
by  A.  E.  WAITE.  With  all  the  Original  Illustrations,  a  Bio- 
graphical Preface,  copious  Index,  and  Portrait  of  the  French 
Magus.  Demy  8vo,  153.  net. 

An  unabridged  and  faithful  rendering  of  Eliphas  Le"vi's  most  important 
work,  which  in  the  original  is  so  well  known  by  students  as  scarcely  to 
need  description.  The  present  translation  will,  no  doubt,  become  a  text- 
book for  English  readers.  Eliphas  Le"vi  may  be,  to  some  extent,  regarded 
as  the  founder  of  modern  occultism,  and  he  is  certainly  the  most  brilliant 
and  accomplished  of  all  the  expositors  of  transcendental  science  and  philo- 
sophy. The  "  Dogme  et  Rituel  de  la  Haute  Magie"  marks  an  epoch  in 
esoteric  literature,  and  it  is  here  made  accessible  to  all. 


THE  TURBA  PHILOSOPHORUM.  Translated  into  English, 
with  the  variations  of  the  Shorter  Recension,  explanations  of 
obscure  terms,  and  parallels  from  the  Byzantine  Alchemists.  By 
A.  E.  WAITE.  Crown  8vo,  6s.  net. 

The  "  Turba  Philosophorum "  is  the  most  ancient  Latin  treatise  on 
Alchemy  and  the  Great  Work  ;  it  is  the  subject  of  continual  reference  by 
all  later  adepts,  ranking  second  only  to  the  writings  of  Hermes  Trisme- 
gistus,  and  recognised  as  a  final  authority  in  the  "practice  of  the  philo- 
sophers." While  it  has  been  the  subject  of  innumerable  commentaries, 
and  of  the  most  pious  veneration  on  the  part  of  Hermetic  students,  this 
curious  fountain-head  of  alchemical  literature  in  the  West  has  never  been 
previously  translated. 


(     14     ) 

THE  MYSTERIES  OF  MAGIC:  A  Digest  of  the  Writ- 
ings Of  Eliphas  LeVi.  With  Biographical  and  Critical  Essay 
by  A.  E.  WAITE.  Revised  Edition.  Crown  8vo,  IDS.  6d.  net. 

This  work  fulfils  a  purpose  quite  distinct  from  that  of  "  Transcendental 
Magic,"  inasmuch  as  it  is  not  simply  translation,  but  presents  in  an 
abridged  and  digested  form  the  entire  writings  of  Eliphas  Le"vi  which  had 
appeared  up  to  the  time  of  its  publication.  Mr.  Waite's  extended  sum- 
mary has  been  generally  appreciated,  and  the  large  impression  issued  in 
1886  being  exhausted,  this  revised  and  enlarged  edition,  following  a  new 
and  improved  plan,  has  been  recently  issued. 


THE  REAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  ROSICRUCIANS. 

Founded  on  their  own  Manifestoes,  and  on  Facts  and  Documents 
collected  from  the  Writings  of  Initiated  Brethren.  By  A.  E. 
WAITE.  With  Illustrations.  Crown  8vo,  73.  6d.  net. 

Written  from  the  historical  standpoint,  giving  the  chief  documents  in 
extenso,  together  with  an  elaborate  summary  and  analysis  of  the  various 
views  which  have  prevailed  from  time  to  time  about  "The  Virgin  Fraternity 
of  the  Rose."  Mr.  Waite's  account  has  been  accepted  as  the  standard,  as 
it  is  indeed  the  only  serious  source  of  information,  upon  the  subject  in 
England. 


THE  OCCULT  SCIENCES:  A  Compendium  of  Trans- 
cendental  Doctrine  and  Practice.  By  A.  E.  WAITE. 
Crown  8vo,  6s.  net. 

To  furnish  a  preliminary  and  elementary  account  of  the  various  divisions 
of  the  transcendental  sciences  has  been  attempted  by  more  than  one  writer, 
but  not  usually  from  a  sympathetic  standpoint,  and  not  certainly  as  the 
result  of  any  considerable  knowledge  or  research.  The  present  work  deals 
with  almost  all  the  occult  sciences,  from  Alchemy  to  the  minor  methods 
of  Divination  ;  it  has  also  an  historical  section,  giving  some  account  of 
Mystics,  Rosicrucians,  and  the  esoteric  side  of  Freemasonry.  Lastly,  the 
modern  phenomena  connected  with  Mesmerism  and  Spiritism,  together 
with  the  claims  of  Theosophy,  are  dealt  with  in  a  comprehensive  survey. 
This  work  of  Mr.  Waite  has  been  particularly  successful,  and  is  always  in 
demand. 


(     15     ) 

LIVES  OF  ALCHEMYSTICAL  PHILOSOPHERS.  Based 
on  materials  collected  in  1815  and  supplemented  by  Recent 
Researches.  By  A.  E.  WATTE.  Demy  8vo,  IDS.  6d.  net. 

Alchemical,  like  Kabbalistic,  literature  is  far  too  technical  and  too 
established  in  exegetical  difficulties  for  ordinary  readers  to  find  much  satis- 
faction in  its  perusal.  But  the  lives  of  the  seekers  after  the  Magnum  Opus, 
the  Quintessence,  and  the  Universal  Medicine  are  in  many  cases  romantic 
records  which  will  interest  those  who  care  little  comparatively  for  the 
pursuit  which  engrossed  them.  The  biography  of  Cagliostro  related  in 
this  volume  has  much  the  same  adventurous  element  as  Gil  Bias  or 
Guzman  d'Alfarache.  There  is  also  a  large  bibliography,  and  an  intro- 
duction dealing  with  the  modern  interpretations  of  alchemical  symbolism. 
Persons  who  wish  to  know  the  evidence  for  transmutation  in  the  past 
as  a  fact  of  physical  science  will  be  astonished  at  its  extent  and  convincing 
character. 


THE  MAGICAL  WRITINGS   OF   THOMAS   VAUGHAN. 

Edited,  with  Introduction  and  Notes,  by  A.   E.  WAITE.     4to, 
I os.  6d.  net. 

The  first  four  treatises  published  by  the  renowned  Eugenius  Philalethes, 
in  the  order  of  their  publication,  with  the  Latin  passages  translated  into 
English,  an  introduction  and  notes.  The  edition,  in  itself  unpretending, 
has,  at  the  same  time,  proved  of  considerable  interest  to  lovers  of  the 
Royalist  Mystic  on  account  of  the  unique  biographical  materials  contained 
in  the  preface.  The  works  here  reprinted  are,  moreover,  rare  in  their 
original  editions,  and  command  high  prices,  so  that  this  edition,  in  the  old 
orthography,  offers  a  cheap  substitute  to  students. 


THE   BOOK   OF   BLACK   MAGIC  AND  OF   PACTS. 

Including  the  Rites  and  Mysteries  of  Goetic  Theurgy,  Sorcery, 
and  Infernal  Necromancy.     By  A.  E.  WAITE.     Crown  4to. 

[In  the  press. 


„  „ 


16 


Mr.  GEORGE  REDWAY  is  also  the  Agent  for  the  following 
Works  of  Mr.  A.  E.  WAITE,  first  published  by  JAMES 
ELLIOTT  &  Co.,  and  including  an  unique  series  of 
Hermetic  translations  :  — 

THE  HERMETIC  AND  ALCHEMICAL  WRITINGS  OF 
PARACELSUS.  Now  for  the  first  time  translated,  faithfully 
and  unabridged,  into  English.  Edited,  with  a  Biographical  Pre- 
face, Elucidatory  Notes,  a  copious  Hermetic  Vocabulary,  and 
Index,  by  A.  E.  WAITE.  Two  vols.  Crown  4to,  £2,  I2S.  6d.  net. 

THE  HERMETIC  MUSEUM.  Restored  and  Enlarged,  com- 
prising TWENTY-TWO  Treatises  on  the  Mysteries  of  Alchemy  and 
the  composition  of  the  Medicine  of  the  Philosophers.  Now  first 
done  into  English  from  the  rare  Latin  Edition  of  1678.  With  all 
the  Illustrations  reproduced  in  facsimile  by  a  photographic  process. 
Two  vols.  Small  410,  £2,  2s.  net. 

THE  NEW  PEARL  OF  GREAT  PRICE:  A  Treatise 
concerning  the  Treasure  of  the  Philosopher's  Stone. 

Translated  from  the  much-prized  Aldine  Edition  of  1546,  and 
Edited  with  Preface  and  Index.  The  Original  Illustrations  photo- 
graphically reproduced.  Crown  8vo,  I2s.  6d.  net. 

A  GOLDEN  AND  BLESSED  CASKET  OF  NATURE'S 
MARVELS,  concerning  the  Blessed  Treasure  of  the 
Philosopher's  Stone.  By  BENEDICTUS  FIGULUS.  With  a 
Life  of  the  Author  by  A.  E.  WAITE.  Crown  8vo,  125.  6d.  net. 

THE  TRIUMPHAL  CHARIOT  OF  ANTIMONY.  By  BASIL 
VALENTINE.  With  the  Commentary  of  Theodore  Kerckringius, 
the  Physician.  Translated  from  the  Latin  Edition  of  1685,  with 
Biographical  and  Critical  Introduction,  by  A.  E.  WAITE.  En- 
graved Title  and  Plates  of  Alchemical  Vessels.  Crown  8vo, 
IDS.  6d.  net. 

THE  ALCHEMICAL  WRITINGS  OF  EDWARD  KELLEY. 

Translated  from  the  First  Hamburg  Edition  of  1676,  and  Edited, 
with  a  Biographical  Introduction,  an  Account  of  Kelley's  relations 
with  the  celebrated  Dr.  Dee,  and  a  Transcript  of  the  so-called 
"Book  of  St.  Dunstan,"  by  A.  E.  WAITE.  With  Illustrations. 
Crown  8vo,  75.  6d.  net. 

COLLECTANEA  CHEMICA.  Being  certain  Select  Treatises  on 
Alchemy  and  Hermetic  Medicine,  by  EIREN^US  PHILALETHES, 
GEORGE  STAKKEY,  Sir  GEORGE  RIPLEY,  &c.  With  Prefatory 
Note  by  A.  E.  WAITE.  Crown  8vo,  7s.  6d.  net.