19th-century masonic writings are a rich source of information about the social


and moral outlook of the middle-class male.41 For example, masonic sermons and speeches are a useful but neglected source for the study of the mentality of the new provincial élites of the Victorian and Edwardian periods. An oration given by M. C. Peck, Provincial Grand Secretary of the North and East Ridings of Yorkshire, at the dedication of a masonic hall in Hull in 1890 outlines the qualities expected of an upright male inhabitant of Hull at that time.42 He should believe in God, treat his neighbour fairly, and look after his own body and mind. He should avoid extravagance and intemperance, and bear misfortune with fortitude. «Masons should never be sharp men as the world calls them, ready to cheat and overreach their fellows. How commonly we hear those who should no better affect to praise a man for his acuteness and business abilities, but would they trust him with their own affairs? On the other hand the truly just and honest man is the noblest work of God, and none can merit higher praise than he!» Despite their confident tone, there is not far beneath these words an anxiety which recalls Mark Carnes’s comment that late Victorian freemasonry provided respite from the growing economic and social pressures of the outside world: «even as the emerging middle classes were embracing capitalism and bourgeois sensibilities, they were simultaneously creating rituals whose message was largely antithetical to those relationships and values».43 In England, the masculine solace provided by freemasonry was closely linked to


memories of school and school life. Paul Rich has suggested that public schools and freemasonry were lynchpins of a ritualism which was a major cultural bond of the British Empire.44 Freemasonry enabled the adult male to relive the bonding rituals of school or university. Lodges were founded specifically for members of particular schools or


41 See Appendix, Document No. 7, below. 42 M. C. Peck, Three Orations Delivered in Connection with the Wilberforce Lodge No. 2134, Hull, Hull: 1890. 43 Carnes, “Middle-Class Men and the Solace of Fraternal Ritual”, p. 51. 44 P. J. Rich, “Public-school Freemasonry in the Empire: “Mafia of the Mediocre?”“, in: J. A. Mangan (ed.), “Benefits


Bestowed”? Education and British Imperialism, Manchester: Manchester University Press 1988, pp. 174-92; Elixir of Empire: The English Public Schools, Ritualism, Freemasonry, and Imperialism, London: Regency Press 1989; Chains of Empire: English Public Schools, Masonic Cabalism, Historical Causality, and Imperial Clubdom, London: Regency Press 1991; The Invasions of the Gulf: Radicalism, Ritualism and the Shaikhs, Cambridge: Allborough Press 1991. Unfortunately, while these books hint at the richness and wide-ranging connections of this theme, they do not fully document it.


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