FREE PORT 



to 250,000 per annum. In ad- 

 dition to these central institutions 

 every English province and nearly 

 every district has one or more 

 funds for local relief. Ireland and 

 Scotland also have their institu- 

 tions and benevolent funds, whilst 

 all the American jurisdictions have 

 established various hospitals, 

 creches, and other institutions. 



The term freemasonry is applied 

 strictly only to what is known as 

 Craft Masonry. Outside this parent 

 stock there are several branches. 

 Royal Arch Masonry is governed 

 in England by the Supreme Grand 

 Chapter, Mark Masonry (including 

 the Royal Ark Mariner degree) by 

 the Grand Mark Lodge, both of 

 which bodies, as well as the Craft, 

 have the duke of Connaught as 

 Grand Master. The next largest 

 masonic body is that of the Antient 

 and Accepted Scottish Rite, fol- 

 lowed by the Knights Templar, of 

 which bodies the duke of Con- 

 naught is respectively Grand 

 Patron and Grand Master. Other 

 branches are the Allied Masonic 

 Degrees, the Royal and Select 

 Masters, the Order of Malta, the 

 Knights of the Red Cross of Con- 

 stantine, the Royal Order of Scot- 

 land, the Order of the Secret 

 Monitor, and the Societas Rosi- 

 cruciana. Initiation into Craft 

 Masonry is indispensable for ad- 

 mission into any of these sub- 

 sidiary degrees. 



Bibliography. Hist, of Free- 

 masonry, G. J. G. Findel, 2nd Eng. 

 ed. 1869; Hist, of Freemasonry, R. 

 F. Gould, 6 vols., 1884-87; Lexicon of 

 Freemasonry, A. G. Mackey, 7th ed. 

 1884 ; Ars Quatuor Coronatoruni, 

 being the Transactions of the Lodge 

 Quatuor Coronati, W. J. Songhurst, 

 1887, etc. ; Encyclopedia of Free- 

 masonry, A. G. Mackey, 7 vols., 

 1898-1900 ; A Concise Cyclopaedia 

 of Freemasonry, E. L. Hawkins, 

 1908; The Grand Lodge of Eng- 

 land, 1717-1917, A. F. Calvert, 

 1917; The Builders, J. Fort Newton, 

 1918 ; The Origin and Evolution of 

 Freemasonry, A. Churchward, 1920 ; 

 Masonic Legends and Traditions, 

 D. Wright, 1921. 



Free Port. Port at which no 

 customs or other duties are 

 charged on goods. In the Middle 

 Ages there were a number of these 

 ports, some being in Italy, others 

 in Germany and elsewhere. Their 

 existence made it much easier for 

 merchants to exchange their wares 

 than would have been the case if 

 duties had to be paid before this 

 could be done. 



A modern substitute for the free 

 port is the bonded warehouse sys- 

 tem, although some free ports still 

 exist, e.g. Hong Kong and Singa- 

 pore. In other cases a free port and 

 an unf ree one are side by side in the 

 same seaport. Thus Hamburg and 



3334 



Copenhagen have each a free port, 

 as well as the ordinary one for the 

 import of goods. The former is used 

 for the receipt of merchandise that 

 is not for sale in the country itself, 

 but is being transhipped for sale 

 elsewhere. The free ports of modern 

 China are such in a different sense ; 

 they are ports open to foreign trade. 

 See Bonded Warehouse. 



Freeport. City of Illinois, 

 U.S.A., the co. seat of Stephenson 

 co. On the Pecatonica river, 112 

 m. W.N.W. of Chicago, it is served 

 by the Chicago and North -Western 

 and other rlys. Here in 1858 

 occurred the celebrated debate 

 between Douglas and Lincoln, in 

 which the former proclaimed the 

 Freeport doctrine. Settled in 1835, 

 it was incorporated in 1850, and 

 became a city in 1855. Pop. 19,845. 



Free Reed. In musical instru- 

 ments in which the sound is due to 

 the vibrations of a reed or tongue 

 the reed is termed free when it is 

 just small enough to pass through 

 the frame on which it is fitted. 

 When it is a little larger and beats 

 against the sides of the opening, 

 as in organ trumpet pipes, it is 

 called a Beating Reed or Striking 

 Reed. Most of the tongues used in 

 the harmonium and American 

 organ are free reeds. See Organ. 



Freesia. Small genus (two 

 species only) of bulbous herbs of 

 the natural order Iridaceae. They 

 are natives of the Cape of Good 

 Hope. They have long, narrow, 

 grass-like leaves and large funnel- 

 shaped white or yellow flowers. 

 F. leichtlinii has yellow or cream- 



FREETHOUGHT 



coloured flowers, and F. refracta 

 pure white blossoms, marked with 

 violet lines and sweetly scented. 



Free Soil. Name given in the 

 U.S.A., before the total abolition 

 of slavery there, to soil on which it 

 was not permitted. Early in the 

 19th century the Union consisted 

 of an equal number of slave and 

 free states, each entry of a new 

 slave state being balanced by the 

 entry of a new free soil state. 



In 1847, the anti-slavery cause 

 having strengthened, it was pro- 

 posed to make slavery illegal in all 

 the territories, particularly the dis- 

 trict recently secured from Mexico, 

 and so confine slavery to the exist- 

 ing slave states. To support this the 

 Free Soil party was formed. It con- 

 sisted of bothDemocrats and Whigs, 

 seceders from their own parties, and 

 was strong enough to secure the 

 nomination of its own candidate, 

 Martin van Buren, for the presi- 

 dency. He failed, however, and 

 they were equally unsuccessful in 

 1852, but they sent members to 

 Congress and were influential until 

 1856, when they gave up their 

 separate organization and became 

 merged in the Republican party. 

 The party motto was free soil, free 

 speech, free labour, and free men. 

 See Republican; Slavery; United 

 States: History. 



Freestone. Sedimentary rock 

 usually sandstone, but sometimes 

 limestone, which can be easily 

 worked with the chisel and lacks 

 the usual tendency to split along 

 certain planes. It is extensively 

 used in architecture for mouldings. 



FREETHOUGHT AND FREETHINKERS 



Right Hon. J. M. Robertson, Author of History of Free Thought 



The point of view of the freethinker, as that of believers in the various 



religions, is the subject of an article in this Encyclopedia. See also 



Apologetics; Christianity; Dogma; Rationalism; Renaissance 



Though the appellation " free- 

 thinker " has not entirely lost the 

 aspersive sense which generally 

 attached to it among Christians 

 from the time of its coming into 

 common use (c. 1700), the term 

 "free thought" may now be re- 

 garded as a scientific label for the 

 attitude of mind which challenges 

 all demands for belief on grounds 

 of traditional 'or documentary 

 authority. Broadly considered, this 

 attitude reacts hi the same way 

 against historical and other pro- 

 positions as against religious dog- 

 mas and narratives ; but inasmuch 

 as the latter have always made 

 the most menacing claim to un- 

 critical acceptance, it is to the 

 critical refusal of acceptance in 

 their case that the term has 

 always been commonly applied. 



On a wide survey it becomes 

 certain that while the normal 



attitude of the untrained mind 

 towards all serious or minatory 

 assertion concerning the unknown 

 is one of credulity, there has 

 occurred at all stages of human 

 development some amount of 

 variation towards rational doubt. 

 Alike among savages, among bar- 

 barians, and among the more 

 civilized peoples of all times and 

 countries, there has always been a 

 varying minority of minds who 

 spontaneously doubted more or 

 less the truth of current myths, 

 legends, and dogmas. The " scep- 

 tical " attitude is thus a natural 

 variation, like another, and it 

 depends for its spread upon the 

 totality of the circumstances which 

 check or make for free discussion. 

 These may be simply economic, or 

 largely cultural or political. ' 



Inasmuch as religious systems 

 are readily able to employ all three 



