242 R. M. Johnston cient openings, the French pamphleteer may be guessed to have had easy access to the circle in which Barth, Nicolai and Walther were conspicuous, or in other words, to the " German Union." Mr. Welschinger's hesitation at entering this very obscure field of history may be easily understood, for the authorities are contra- dictory, uncertain and misleading, but however difficult and un- satisfactory the task, it may be better to attempt to give some sort of indication of what must ever remain a very obscure chapter of history, than to take the course Mr. Welschinger does of ignor- ing what is incapable of strict proof Unless some general view of the operations of the secret societies of France and Germany be obtained, no correct survey of the basis of Mirabeau's mission to Berlin can be had. France and Germany, not to mention other parts of Europe, were at that time sown with masonic lodges, but the practice of the Masons of the two countries differed widely, as did that of the indi- vidual lodges. In France, new sects arose, and rites of all sorts, some of them wildly extravagant. Still, as a whole, the lodges remained essentially masonic in character. Without giving an extended account of the sects, and of the peculiarities of such lodges as those of the " Chevaliers Bienfaisants " of Lyons, or of the " Contrat Social " at Paris, without dwelling on the Martinistes, the Amis Reunis and the Philalethes, or on such excesses as were com- mitted, for instance, at Ermenonville under the guidance of the quack St. Germain, the only fact that need be insisted on is that a great body of French Masons were grouped as Philalethes, or Amis Reu- nis, into the " Grand Orient " of France under the Mastership of the Due de Chartres, afterwards Due d'Orleans, and that the Panchaud- Talleyrand group were within the innermost circle. Among the for- eign correspondents of this group, it is as nearly certain as possible that Ferdinand of Brunswick, Mauvillon andd'Alberg can be placed, the latter then, as in later days, a far more important personage than he appeared to the public. Leaving the Amis Reunis for the present, let us cross the frontier. In Germany, the Masons had not gone so far in variation and complexity of ritual as in France, though the "strict observance," in which the Duke of Brunswick took a prominent part, deserves mention ; on the other hand, several secret societies arose from among the masonic lodges, with well defined and advanced pro- grammes. Leaving on one side the Rosicrucians, who need not enter into the subject and who may be dismissed as an offshoot of masonry, the most famous of these were the Illimniiati or Ilinmiiies, as they shall be called here. The founder of this society was a
