388 THE FRENCH BLOOD IN AMERICA 



who have been so kindly received on these peaceful shores, it belongs 

 to pay distinguished respect to the wisdom of the Hero whom we de- 

 plore ; we, whom cruel fate has torn from our homes, without suffer- 

 ing us to carry away anything Ijut tears and our innocence, to interest 

 the pity of mankind, should ever hold him in grateful remembrance. 



II 



Modern Freemasonry owes more than is commonly 

 known to the Hnguenot blood. The records vshow that 

 the four "Immemorial Lodges," which established the 

 Grand Lodge of England, June 24, 1717, had for their 

 Grand Lodge leading Spirits James Anderson, a Scotch Presbyterian 

 1717 minister of Loudon, and John Theophilus Desaguliers, 



LL. D., of Christ Church, Oxford, a French Huguenot, and 

 the son of a clergyman. He was a Fellow of the Royal 

 Society, and engaged so earnestly in the "revival" and 

 promotion of Freemasonry that he deserves the title of 

 " The father of modern speculative Freemasonry." The 

 present Grand Lodge of England, which was instituted in 

 London in 1717, is largely indebted to him for its exist- 

 ence. In 1719 Desaguliers was elevated to the throne of 

 the Grand Lodge, He did much to make Freemasonry a 

 living institution for the good of humanity, and his learn- 

 ing and social position gave a prominence to the order 

 which brought to its support noblemen and other men of 

 influence. With others he instituted the "Plan of 

 Charity," which was subsequently developed into what is 

 now known in the Grand Lodge of England as the " Fund 

 of Benevolence." It was from the union of these four 

 lodges that the Fraternity spread into Scotland and Ire- 

 land and then to the Continent — France, Germany and 

 Italy. In Germany, Frederick the Great became Grand 

 Master and constituted lodges. In Italy, the affiliation 

 with Freemasonry of the great leaders. Garibaldi, Cavour, 

 Mazzini and Victor Emmanuel, who were active in the 

 abolition of the temporal power of the papacy and the 

 establishment of the kingdom of Italy, was one of the 



