Masonic And Anti-Masonic Processions.

MASONIC AND ANTI-MASONIC PROCESSIONS .

BY BRO , JACOB NORTON . I MAILED last week to the FREEMASON ' CHRONICLE a pliutogriipli of the first p » ge of the '' Westminster Journal , or Weekly Miscellany , " of 8 th May 1742 , containing a picture of a '' Scald Miserable" processiou on

the previous 27 th of April . There is also another caricature of the same turn-out of the mock Masons . I own a copy on a reduced scale , but the original broadside is thus desoribed in Nichols' and Stevens' edition of Hogarth , Vol . II ., p 159 et seq .

Tbe print , representing a view of the Somerset House in the Strand , is 3 feet \\ \ inches in length aud ten inches in width , and is intituled ' A Geometrical view of the Grand

Procession of the Scald Miserable Masons , designed as tbey were drawn up over against the Somerset House in the Strand on the twenty seventh of April Anno . 1742 . Iuvented and engraved by A . Benoist , ' " & c .

The procession of the Grand Lodge of 27 th April 1742 , together with tho rival procession of the Scald Miserables , must have created a demand for the caricatures , for 1 find that " the great demand there has been made for the

Westminster Journal of the 8 th iostaut occasioned reprinting the following piece . " The said piece is simply a sarcasm ou Masouic processions , repeating the description of the Scald Miserables . In short , it seems that a second

edition of the Went minster Journal was issued ; thus the Masonic procession of 1742 brought out two distinct caricatures exhibiting the procession in different parts of London . Now I confess that I hitherto supposed that the

" Scald Miserables " ( as they styled themselves ) made their first appearance in 1742 . Bro . Carson , of Cincinnati , however , assured me that he bought at Spencer ' s sale some years ago a broadside of a proce-sion of Miserables of

1741 , and referred me to Hone ' s Every Dny Book for a copy of that picture , and I subsequentl y found that there was a procession of Scald Miserables in 1711 . I must now , however , say something about tbe ori gin and evolution of our modern Masouic processions .

From Anderson I learn that on 24 th June 1722 Grand Master Wharton came to Merchant Taylor ' s Hall , attended by some eminent brothers in their coaches . On the next 24 th Jnne tbe eminent brothers came in their

coaches " duly clothed . " After which they processioned around the table in the Hall . The next Masonic procession took place 27 th December 1728 . In 1730 the Masonic show was made more attractive , for on that occasion

brothers without distinction rode in carriages , while the brothers of distinction rode in chariots . In 1734 the science of Masouic processiouing was further improved b y the addition of a baud of music , which played grandly on

trumpets , hautboys , kettledrums , and French horns I must here , however , add that in America the science of Masouic processioning has been further advanced by the tarn-oat of hundreds , or even thousands , of great Masonic

philosophers , wearing cocked hats ai > d swords , and what not , who collectively look the picture of sublimity , and are generall y admired b y American gazers as nearly equal to a Barnum circus procession . In England , however , there

was an opposition to Masonic processions from its very Start ; for no sooner had the " distinguished brothers , duly clothed , " made their public appearance , than the Chinese Order of the " Gormagons" came also out in

public procession , and these Gormagon processions may have been tbe cause of discontinuing Masonic processions between 1724 and 1728 . Any-how , the Gormagons turned out in 1728 aud 1730 , and Harry Carey , in his poems , printed in 1729 , gave us the following doggrel : —

" The Masons and the Gormagons Are laughing at each other , While all mankind are laughing at them , Then why do they make such a pother ?

" They bait their hooks for simple gulls , And truth with bain they smother , But when they ' ve taken their culls , Why then ' tis— ' Welcome Brother . ' "

The said Carey was the author of " Sally in our Alley , " and of " God save the King , " the former was printed , with other poems of Carey , in 1729 ; the latter was composed later on . Carey was also the Doctor or Surgeon to the Prince of Wales ,, and as the Prince was a AJason Carey should have stopped manifesting his contempt for the Free-

Masonic And Anti-Masonic Processions.

masons . But it was not in bis nature so to do . Well , the said Carey , a Mr . Whitehead , and some other jolly boys , managed to scrape sufficient money together , and organized

a mock Masonic procession , on 19 th March 1741 . On the next day tbe following notice thereof appeared in the London Daily Post : — " Yesterday some mock Free-Masons marched through

Pall Mall and the Strand as far as Temple Bar in procession ; first went fellows on jack-asses , with cowhorns in their hands ; then , a kettle drummer on a jack-ass , having two butter-firkins for kettle-drums : then followed two

carts , drawn by jack-asses , having in them the Stewards with several badges of their Order ; then came a mourning coach , drawn by six horses , each of a different colour and size , in which were the Grand Master and Wardens , the

whole attended by a vast mob . They stayed without Temple Bar till the Masons came by , and paid their compliments to them , who returned the same with an agreeable humour that possibly disappointed the witty contriver of

this mock scene , whose misfortune is , that though he has some wit , his subjects are generally so ill chosen that he loses by it as many friends as other people of more judgment gain . "

The Prince of Wales was so disgusted with Dr . Carey ' s doings that he dismissed him from his service , but that did not stop the jolly boys from repeating the fun on the next turn-oufc of the Grand Lodge , for besides causing a

broadside to be published , a copy of which , as alread y mentioned , was obtained by Bro . Carson ( but unfortunatel y burnt in the conflagration of the Cincinnati Temple ) , the newspaper of 28 th April 1742 announced as follows : —

" Yesterday being the annual feast of the antient and honourable society of Free and Accepted Masons , they made a grand procession from Brook-street to Haberdashers '

Hall , where an elegant entertainment was provided for them , and the evening was concluded with that harmony and decency peculiar to that Society .

" Some time before the Society began their cavalcade , a number of shoe-cleaners , chimney-sweeps , & c , on foot and in carts , with ridiculous pageants carried before them , went

in procession to Temple-Bar , by the way of a jest on Freemasons , at the expense , as we hear , of one hundred pounds sterling . "

As the 1742 procession , was ridiculed in two distinct caricatures , it seems to have damped the ardour of the Craft for public processioning , for in 1743 there was no Masonic procession . But as Carey died in 1 . 743 our

brethren probably imagined that the " Scald Miserables " died with him ; hence , on 2 nd May 1744 , the Grand Lodge again paraded . But on the next day , the following statement appeared in the papers : —

" Yesterday several of the mock-masons were taken up by the constable empowered to impress men for his Majesty ' s service , and confined till they can be examined by justices . "

Ihis rather high-handed action of the constable doubtless encouraged those brethren who like to make a public show of themselves to try the experiment once more . Accordingly , the Grand Lodge again paraded in 1745 ; the

books in my possession fail to quote any newspaper reports of 1745 . But in Hone ' s " Every Day Book , " Vol . 2 nd , April 18 th , there is a picture of a mock procession , and at the bottom of tbe picture is the following inscription : —

" THE SOLEMN AND STATELY PROCESSION OF THE SCALD MISERABLE MASONS , As it was martiall'd on Thursday , the 18 th of this instance , ApriV

Thereon Mr . Hone remarks , "The year wherein this procession took place is not ascertainable from the broadside ; but from the mode of printing and other appearances

it seems to have been some years before that which is represented in a large two-sheet ' Geometrical View ' . . . as drawn up over against the Somerset House in the Strand on the 27 th of April 1742 . "

Now , 1 have carefully examined the dates of all the meetings of the Grand Lodge from 1717 , and found that it never held a meeting on the 18 th of April before 1745 ,

when the Grand Lodge marched in procession ; and what is more , the 18 th of April in 1745 was on a Thursday . The p dure in Hone ' s Book furnishes therefore evidence of a turn-out of the Scald Miserables in 1745 . I however

strongly suspect that the broadside from which Hone copied the pictu : e was a second edition of the 1741 broadside , with the inscription changed in order to adapt it for