United Grand Lodge Of England.

For Bro . D . P . Cama P . M 1150 ... 599 „ „ R B . Martin P . M . 1506 ... 150

Majority in favonr of Bro . Cama ... 449 B >* o . Hording * hnvino * presented his report of the receipK nnd disbursements of Grand Lodge during the year 1885 ,

the same was received and ordered to be entered on the minutes . The two appeals of which notice had been given were , on the recommendation of Bro . Philbrick G . Reg * ., dismissed , while the motion by Bro . D . D Mercer was lost

by a large majority . This proposition was to the effect thai no brother who is in receipt of an annuity from the funds of the Royal Masonic Benevolent Institution , shall be entitled to participate in the funds at

the disposal of the Board of Benevolence , and Brother Mercer , in moving it said , it arose out of what happened at the Board of Benevolence in January . A brother who was then , and now , receiving an annuity of

£ 40 from the Royal Masonic Benevolent Institntion , and who had been relieved in 1870 , applied to the Board for further assistance . When he ( Bro . Mercer ) looked at the Book of Constitutions at thafc meeting he found there wns

no rule as to how such a case should be treated . There was a difference among the brethren at the Board , whether they should entertain the case or not , but the petition was so strongly supported by manv influential brethren

who were present , that 'hey determined at last to recom mend that a sura should be granted to the brother ; but in order to know how to act in the future , he thought il better thafc Grand Lodsre should decide . At the meeting

he had said , and he said again , it was opening the doo * to a very bad principle to grant relief to brethren whr * were annuitants of the Benevolent Institution . The supporters of the petitioner mad ** a very strong * appeal that .

inasmuch as he had done a very great deal for Masonry , anr a great deal for the Mesonic Charities , he should be relieved . He adm ' tted the brother had done a great dea '

for both , but his reply was , that if the brother had dotu all this amount of good his work was most munificentl y rewarded b y a grant , on a former occasion , of £ 250 from the Board of Benevolence . Brother Nunn P . O . Sword

Bearer , President of the Board of Benevolence , seconded the motion . As Grand Lodge g'ave £ 1600 a year to the Benevolent Institution , and the brother had been previously relieved very handsomely by the Board of Benevo .

lence , he thonght that brother had no right to appeal again , Brother F . Binckes P . G . Steward opposed the motion , and repeated the statements as to the great amount of good the brother in question had done to Freemasonry . He con

tended that the leading * principle and tenet of Freemasonry was Charity If a brother , or a widow , or children were , in distress , that distress was not to he refused relief because the object of Charity was in receipt of £ 4 < 1 a

year . It had been stated at the Board of Benevolence that if this particular case was relieved bv the Board , every annuitant of ( he Benevolent Institution wonld be coming to the Board of Benevolence for further relief

but he begged Grand Lodge to remember this , that the members of the Board had confidence reposed in them to deal with every individual case on its merits , and if any annuitant ' s case was brought before the

Board , if it was unworthy , the Board would have sufficient discrimination to discover the fact . He asked Grand Lodge not to indulge in a systematic legislation of disfranchisement , or to deprive the Board of Benevolence of the

discretion with which it was entrusted . Brother James Stevens and several others spoke in favour of Brother Binckes ' s view of the case , and eventually , as we have said , the original proposition was rejected by a large majorit y . Grand Lodge was then closed .

The So-Called Swedenborg Rite.

THE SO-CALLED SWEDENBORG RITE .

By BROTHER JACOB NORTON .

STEINBRENNER'S " Origin of Masonry » appeared in New Y"rk in 1863 or 1864 , and " the English editions of Firdel ' s history were successively published in 1866 and 1869 . The said works furnished conclusive

evidence that Masonic decrees did nofc exist before 1717 ancl that Tcmplarism and Scotch Rifceism were unknown to have had any connection with Masons or Masonry before 1735 . I have here , however , another book , published in

The So-Called Swedenborg Rite.

1 R 70 in the same office wherein Steinbrennev ' s " Origin " was published , viz ., " The Swedenborg Rite , " by Samuel Beswick , in which the author claims that high degreedom

in Masonry was an old institution in 1717 . Ho says : "Up ^ al , where Swedenborg graduated , has been rendered somewhat famous by the Philosophical degrees of Sfc . Martin . In one of the degrees Upsa ! is spoken of

as the first place which sent forth Freemasonry and the Templar Order over Europe . Ifc represents that ei ghtyoni Masons came to Europe about 1150 , under the care of Garimout , Patriarch of Jerusalem , and went to Sweden to

the Archbishop of Upsal , where they inclosed all their Masonic information in a marble tomb , placed in a subterranean vaulfc . This tomb was subsequently discovered

& c , & c . And according to St . Martin , these eighty-one Masons established Freemasonry in Europe , and nine of them established the Order of the Temple . "

The above tradition annihilates with "one fell swoop " Mie Grand Masterships of St . Alban , St . Augnstin , King -Vlfred , Athelstan , and others ; for in that case Masonry ^ ould not have reached Egypt but a few years before the

** eign of Henry IT . The antiquity of Masonic Templarism having * been proved on the authority of Sfc . Martin , Bro . Beswick ' s history of Swedenborg ' s Templar Masonry * * eenrifl very plausible . He savs :

"When about eig-hteen years of age , in the year 1706 , ind whilst fSwedenhorg ] was on a visit to his home in Brun ^ bo * * * he went to see the University of Lund .

Here he was for the first time initiated into the mysteries of Masonry , taking the Chapter degrees of the Scottish Rite , wbich formed part of the series . On his return he joined or affiliated with the Stockholm Chapter . "

If it should be objected that Swedenborg was in 1706 only eighteen years of age , and that he must have alsified his age in order to gain admission , we reply that it was

customary to initiate in the Continental Chapters aud Lodges at an age so low as seventeen , Mnsonic disci pline was so lax that all the Continental Universities had their

Hhanters and Lodges , which acknowledged no governing head , and therefore it is no wonder that they became disorderly from the intemperate conduct of their youthful

members . For mere boys were admitted , ancl the onl y qualification for membership was , that the candidate shall have been on the roll of the University . "

The question however is , what became of the Lund Universit y Lodge ? And Bro . Beswick explains it by the following anecdote : —He says that the Jesuits had composed an anti-Masonic sarcastic ballad ( and they must have

set it to music too ) . This ballad vvas distributed amono the non-Masonic students , and , after which , whenever ancl wherever a vouthful Kni ght appeared , the satirical ballad

( < - * as invariably hummed into his ears , and this caused the breaking up of the Lund Lodge . Bur , fche mischief d , d nofc end there . Bro . Beswick says : —

" Ifc was this lack of discipline and independence of the University Chapters and Lodges which caused Von Ecklef , Master of Stockholm Chapter * * * to give tlie Swedish system to Zinnerdorf without the privity of the Grand

Lodge . Hence , the reason why , for half a century after Swedenborg ' s initiation , the debasement of the Order became inevitable , and hundreds of degrees were fabricated ancl promulgated in the Lodges to the great detriment of

the Order and the scandal of S ^ ujbuiic Masonry . Score s of systems were in operation at the same time , each patronised and defended by able advocates in everv station of life . "

It is strange that while Bro . Beswick was acquainted with several languages , and was fully aware of fche fabrication in the lasfc century of innumerable Masonic decrees and Rites , that not tho slightest suspicion entered his

mind that his own high degrees were also invented in the last century , and such is the case with all our advocates of certain pet rights of their own . Their pets they claim as ancient , but all other Rites they denounce as bogus , & c .

Thus , a majority of the members of the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts have become infatuated with certain hio * h degrees , and therefore fche said Grand Lodge declared and resolved that only their pet degrees belong fco ancient

Masonry . The truth however is , the one kind of hio * h degrees are no more ancient than the other kinds , they are merely " six of one ancl half a dozen of the other . " Bro . Berwick gives a full account of all the visits

Swedenborg made in the course of his travels in Europe to various Lodges , Chapters , and Commanderies—one specimen will suffice . He informs us that " Swedenborg