society--the Alliance Sociale Démocratique--and the secret societies of 1795 there was a direct affiliation; I have quoted the assertion of Malon that "Communism was handed down in the dark through the secret societies" of the nineteenth century; I have quoted also the congratulations addressed by Lamartine and the Freemason Crémieux to the Freemasons of France in 1848 on their share in this revolution as in that of 1789; I have shown that the organization of this later outbreak by the secret societies is not a matter of surmise, but a fact admitted by all well-informed historians and by the members of the secret societies themselves.
So, too, in the events of the Commune, and in the founding of the First Internationale, the role of Freemasonry and the secret societies is no less apparent. The Freemasons of France have indeed always boasted of their share in political and social upheavals. Thus in 1874, Malapert, orator of the Supreme Council of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, went so far as to say: "In the eighteenth century Freemasonry was so widespread throughout the world that one can say that since that epoch nothing has been done without its consent."
The secret history of Europe during the last two hundred years yet remains to be written. Until viewed in the light of the dessous des cartes, many events that have taken place during this period must remain for ever incomprehensible.
But it is time to leave the past and consider the secret forces at work in the world