DAMIAN Fantato’s article about Masons (August 28) was most welcome but in places he has gone too far.

The Masons certainly took part in many of the 18th and 19th century revolutions, not because of “conspiracy” but because their ideals and those of the revolutionaries were the same.

Mr Fantato mentions the American Revolution. George Washington, Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson were all Masons.

So were Mazzini and Garibaldi in Italy and Simon Bolivar in South America.

These things are surely ones to be proud, not ashamed of.

RALPH LEAVIS, Jourdain Road, Blackbird Leys, Oxford