But in spite of its innocuous character, Freemasonry, merely by reason of its secrecy, soon began to excite alarm in the public mind. As early as 1724 a work entitled _The Grand Mystery of the Freemasons Discovered_ had provoked an angry remonstrance from the Craft[349]; and when the French edict against the Order was passed, a letter signed "Jachin" appeared in _The Gentleman's Magazine_ declaring the "Freemasons who have lately been suppressed not only in France but in Holland" to be "a dangerous Race of Men": No Government ought to suffer such clandestine Assemblies where Plots against the State may be carried on, under the Pretence of Brotherly Love and good Fellowship. The writer, evidently unaware of possible Templar traditions, goes on to observe that the sentinel placed at the door of the lodge with a drawn sword in his hand "is not the only mark of their being a military Order"; and suggests that the title of Grand Master is taken in imitation of the Knights of Malta. "Jachin," moreover, scents a Popish plot: They not only admit Turks, Jews, Infidels, but even Jacobites, non-jurors and Papists themselves ... how can we be sure that those Persons who are known to be well affected, are let into all their Mysteries? They make no scruple to acknowledge that there is a Distinction between Prentices and Master Masons and who knows whether they may not have an higher Order of Cabalists, who keep the Grand Secret of all entirely to themselves?[350] Later on in France, the Abbé Pérau published his satires on Freemasonry, _Le Secret des Francs-Maçons_ (1742), _L'Ordre des Francs-Maçons trahi et le Secret des Mopses révélé_, (1745), and _Les Francs-Maçons écrasés_ (1746)[351] and in about 1761 another English writer said to be a Mason brought down a torrent of invective on his head by the publication of the ritual of the Craft Degrees under the name of _Jachin and Boaz_.[352]