of the human heart, the principles which it inculcates will yet awaken the dormant energies of the Italian people, and lead them forward to a sublime destiny. Propagating republican ideas, and asserting the freedom of worship, it is in harmony with the spirit of the age, and must be triumphant in the end.

The religious character of the Order appears from the following statute: "Every Carbonaro has the natural and inalienable right to worship the Almighty according to his own opinions, and the dictates of his conscience." This spirit shows most clearly the great power and importance of the society; for the religious spirit is far more difficult to be suppressed than the political spirit, and indicates a more universal and profound excitement. Should the dreams of the Italian patriots be realized, and unity, liberty and independence find a home in that delightful land, it will be found that the Secret Brotherhood of the Carbonari has been the chief agent in the accomplishment of so desirable an end.

THE HERMANDAD, OR HOLY BROTHERHOOD OF SPAIN.

THIS object is most clearly apparent in the Spanish Brotherhood- the Hermandad-formed in 1295, in the cities of Castile and Leon. It was based on the secret principles, having secret signs of recognition, and secret places of meeting, where causes were tried, and offenders against justice were judged and punished. It operated in secret, and the blow of justice fell sure and speedy, like the bolt of lightning. It sought not only to punish crime, but to prevent it. It warned every nobleman, who showed a disposition to wrong a citizen, of the certain destruction that awaited him, if he persisted. Should he rob or injure a member of the Brotherhood, or a citizen, and refuse to make satisfaction, or give security for the better observance of the laws, his cattle, his vineyard and gardens were destroyed.

This Fraternity was the model of the later Hermandad of the municipal communities, which were formed in Castile, under the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella. It was established in 1486, with the approbation of the king, at a time when the nobles paid no attention to law, and had no respect or fear for the usual tribunal of justice, but robbed defenceless villagers and industrious citizens, and rendered the lives and property of the people everywhere unsafe.

The disturbers of the public peace were arrested by the secret Brothers, carried before the judges, and punished. Neither rank nor station protected the offender against the tranquillity of the country, nor could he find safety even in the churches. The mysterious power of this terrible but righteous Brotherhood, penetrated every place-through barred and bolted gates, and armed sentinels-and often struck its blows in the royal presence itself.

The nobility, who saw their turbulence restrained, and their judicial power limited, by this institution, opposed it with all their power, but without success; for the king protected it as a powerful means of preserving public peace.

The institution was also introduced into Aragon in 1488. The Santa Hermandad-Holy Brotherhood-a name which has occasioned some to confound this society with the Inquisition, or to consider it as depending upon that establishment-had, like the earlier institution of which it was a continuation, the object of securing internal safety, and seizing robbers, and all disturbers of the public welfare.

Of the utility of the Spanish Brotherhood there cannot be a doubt, and its beneficial effects in those stormy times were immeasurable. Its ideas were jus tice, absolute justice in the administration of the laws, and equality in society before God.

ADOPTIVE, OR FEMALE FREEMASONRY.

As considerable attention has recently been given to this branch of our subject, we subjoin a few paragraphs which relate to this form of Masonic affiliation.

THE FRENCH RITE.

FROM the various French writers, collated by the indefatigable Dr. Mackey, G. Sec. of the G. L. of S. C., we prepare, with some condensation, the history of French Adoption.

By the immutable laws of Masonry, no woman can be made a Freemason. But our French Brethren, with that gallantry for which their nation is proverbial, have sought, by the establishment of societies, to enable females to unite themselves in some sort with the Masonic institution, and thus to enlist the sympathies and friendship of the gentler sex, in behalf of the Fraternity.

These societies they have styled maçonnerie d'adoption. The Lodges of Adoptive Masonry they term loges d'adoption, because each of them was adopted under the guardianship of some regular Masonic Lodge.

Early in the eighteenth century, various secret societies sprung up in France, in imitation of Freemasonry, but admitting female members. The ladies very naturally extolled these new organizations, and more loudly than before inveighed against Masonry and its exclusiveness. To preserve themselves, the members of the Royal Art opened their own doors to females, by means of certain degrees, then invented for that purpose, and thus, in their own defence, wielded the weapons of their opponents.

In 1774, the Grand Orient (Grand Lodge) of France accepted the control of the new Rite, entitling it “the Rite of Adoption." They ordained rules and regulations for their government, providing that none but regular Masons should be allowed to visit them, and that each "Lodge of Adoption" should be held under the sanction and warrant of a regularly constituted Masonic Lodge, whose presiding officer should govern it, in conjunction with a female President or Mistress. The first Lodge under these regulations was opened in 1775, in Paris, under the warrant of St. Anthony Lodge, in which the Duchess de Bourbon presided, and she was installed Grand Mistress of the Adoptive

Rite."

This Rite had four degrees: Apprentice, Companion, Mistress, and Perfect Mistress. The first was introductory, designed mainly as a preparatory course for the emblematic degrees to follow. In the second, the temptation of Eve was represented, and its serious results pointed out, increasing in its sad consequences even to the Flood. The third, included the history of Babel. The fourth, the passage of the Israelites through the wilderness.

To each degree there was a catechism or lecture. In the third, Jacob's ladder with five rounds was introduced, which was the proper jewel of a Lodge of Adoption. It symbolically represented the virtues which a Mason should possess, while the Tower of Babel typifies a badly regulated Lodge in which disorder reigns. The journey through the wilderness represented the passage of man through an evil world.

The officers of an Adoptive Lodge were a Grand Master and Grand Mistress, an Orator, an Inspector and Inspectress, a Depositor and Depositress, a Conductor and Conductress-nine in all. The fourth and fifth act as Senior Warden, the sixth and seventh as Junior Warden. The last two are the Deacons. All

the business of the Lodge is conducted by the Sisters, the Brethren only acting as assistants.

The Lodge-room was tastefully decorated in emblematic style. In the first degree (Apprentice) the room was made by curtains to represent the four quarters of the globe; the division at the entrance being Europe; in the middle, on the right, Africa; on the left, America; and at the east, Asia. In the Asiatic locality, were two splendid thrones for the two higher officers. Before the thrones was an altar flanked on both sides by statues of Wisdom, Prudence, Strength, Temperance, Honor, Charity, Justice and Truth. The first six officers have mallets, used as in a Symbolic Lodge.

The members and visitors sit in straight lines, Sisters in front, Brothers in the rear, the latter having swords in their hands. It was admitted to be a beautiful and attractive sight.

French Adoptive Masonry is still practiced as a distinctive Rite. From the birth of the organization, in 1775, Adoptive Lodges were rapidly diffused throughout all the countries of Europe, except England, but are now chiefly, if not solely, confined to France.

THE AMERICAN RITE.

This consists of an initiation in five degrees. Nine Principles are selected, as Landmarks, or unchangeable Regulations, as follows:

I. The "Star of Christ," or "Evening Star," is the basis of the five Degrees of the American Adoptive Rite.

II. This Rite contains nothing in its ceremonies and lectures that can afford a clue to the ceremonies and lectures of any other Rite.

III. Its lessons are eminently Scriptural and Christian.