Mackey – Encyclopedia Of Freemasonry Vol. 1

VIIFRENCH SOCIETIES597 . Various Societies after the Restoration .-One wouldthink that, according to the "philosophical" historians, nonation ought to have been more content and happy, afterbeing delivered from their tyrant Napoleon, than the French .But, in accordance with what I said in sect . 519, no nationhad more reason to be dissatisfied and unhappy through therestoration of a king by grace of God " and " right divine ."Draconian statutes were promulgated by the Chambers, themere tools of Louis XVIII ., which led to the formation of asecret society called the "Associated Patriots," whose chiefscenes of operation were in the south of France . ButGovernment had its spies everywhere ; many members ofthe society were arrested and sentenced to various terms ofimprisonment . Three leaders, Pleignier, a writing-master,Carbonneau, a leather-cutter, and Tolleron, an engraver,were sentenced to death, led to the place of execution withtheir faces concealed by black veils, as parricides wereformerly executed, and before their heads were cut off, theirright hands were severed from their arms-for had they notraised them against their father, the king? The conspiracyof the Associated Patriots collapsed . But other societiesarose. In 1820 the society of the " Friends of Truth," consistingof medical students and shopmen, was established inParis, but was soon suppressed by the Government . Theleading members made their escape to Italy, and on theirreturn to France founded a Carbonaro society, the leadershipof which was given to General Lafayette . It made twoattempts to overthrow the Government, one at Belfort, andanother at La Rochelle, but both were unsuccessful, and theCarbonaro society was dissolved . The society of the " Shirtless,"founded by a Frenchman of the name of Manuel, whoinvoked Sampson, as the symbol of strength, had but a veryshort existence . That of the "Spectres meeting in a Tomb,"which existed in 1822, and whose object was the overthrow of202