Lodge Histories. The Lodge Of Probity, No. 61.

forwarded a memorial to the Board of General Purposes , praying their assistance in forwarding tho formation of a Provincial Grand Lodge for tho Province . A similar memorial was sent from the Sheffield brethren . The

petition cf tho Probity Lodge was duly presented , aud is reported as having received consideration , but more important than all it led to a reply to the effect that " instructions had been sent to Lord Dundas two years previously ,

appointing him Grand Master of the North and East Ridings , and requesting him to call that Province together ; ho was requested also to communicate with Right Worshipful Bro . Milnes , and to inform him of his appointment as P . G . M . of the Western Division . " Lord Dundas

reported to tho Board he had never received thoso instruction ? , and the matter had again to stand over . Subsequently the Leeds brethren wero apprised that the

question had been settled , and that Wakefield had been appointed the headquarters for the Province of West Yorkshire . This rumour gave rise to some correspondence , and a meeting was called , the result being that a petition was presented in favour of Leeds being the home of Provincial Grand Lodge , while the district chief was asked t ) suspend his decision on the matter until the sense of the Lodges at largo had been taken . Further correspondence on this subject ( notably two letters from Bro . M . J . Naylor , D . D ., Vicar of Wakefield , and afterwards Provincial Grand Chaplain ) go to show that the brother appointed to rule tho Western Province

was very lukewarm . Bro . Milnes even went so far as to say that ho almost despaired of the general co-operation of tho Lodges concerned ; he hardly know to what Lodges his authority extended ; or whether Yorkshire formed ono

entire Province , or was sub-divided into as many Provinces as Ridings . However , he appears to have moved in the matter , and thc result was a communication from the joint Secretaries of Grand Lodge , under date 13 th October 1819 ,

to tho W . M . of tho Probity Lodge , recounting what had been dono by tho Grand Master in July 1817 ( when the Province was really divided ) and informing him that a copy of tho letter then addressed to Bro . Milnes had that

dny beon forwarded by post at the command of tho Grand

Master . The hope was expressed in this letter to tho Prob ' ty Lodgo that tho R . W . Brother referred to ( Bro . Milncs ) would " now adopt such measures as may be in c -nformity with tho directions of His Royal Highness the

Gnu d Master , and for the prosperity of tho Order under his jurisdiction . " After all this it was but reasonable to expect that tlio Provincial Lodge would be regularly

started , but unfortunately this was not tho case . The lukewarmness of tho Provincial Grand Master asserted itf-elf , and no action appears to have beon taken on his

part . This led to another memorial ( August 1820 ) from the ever active Lodge of Probity , praying that the Provincial Grand Lodgo should bo assembled " according to the Constitutions of the Fraternity . " The effect of this memorial is not known—there is no minute or record which would lead to the supposition that a meeting was held or that a Provincial Grand Lodge was formed . In February 1821 the Probity Lodge , at the request of

thc Leeds brethren , took the initiative , and called a meeting of Masters and Officers of the Province . This meeting v ai held at the New Inn , Bradford , when it was stated that Bvr . Milnes had resigned his position as Provincial

Grand Master . At this meeting Lord Viscount Pollington was rorommended to the Grand Master as " a person in every respect fully qualified " for the appointment , and it was agreed a memorial should be presented to the Duke of Sussex , containing the recommendation , while a further

communication should bo addressed to Lord Pollin ° * ton

informing him of tho wish of the meeting , and earnestly requesting him to accede to it . All these matters were carried throngh in regular order , tho prayer of tbe petition to tho Grand Master was

granted , and the Provincial Grand Lodge held its first meeting at Wakefield , on the 18 th November 1822 . The P . G . M . was duly installed and invested the following

members was appointed the first Junior Provincial Grand Warden , another first Prov . G . Secretary , and another a Prov . G . Steward . Tiiip , in brief , is the history of tho formation of one of the most important—if not the chief—among the Provincial Graud Lodges of English Freemasonry . We havo

April , and in his selection of Officers he fully recognised thc claims of the Probity Lodge , as the moving spirit in the now order of thing- * , to special recognition . One of its

Lodge Histories. The Lodge Of Probity, No. 61.

seen how it vvas inaugurated , on a sound basis—not , however , without considerable trouble and perseverance on tho part of tho promoters—and , in the words of the

historian from whose work wo have gathered our fact ? , wo may conclude with the remark : " it has since continued to work for the good of every individual Lodge , and for tho Lodges of the whole Province collectively . "

Thero may appear to be little in association with all this to justify its being included in the History of the Lodge of Probity , but , on the other hand , we have seen that it was really this private Lodge that led and forced the

establishment of the Provincial one , and such being the case , full credit should be awarded them for their labour . As we have said above , it must be very gratifying to the members of the Lodge to-day to know it was their ancestors who brought about so important a change in the affairs of tho Craft as is here referred to . We hope that similar enthusiasm may for all time actuate the Lodge and its members . ( To be continued . )

Masonic Antiquity;

MASONIC ANTIQUITY ;

BROTHER GOULD'S NEWLY ASSUMED CHAMPIONSHIP FOR . BY BRO . JACOB NORTON . A FEW days after John Brown was executed in J- JL Virginia , for creating an anti-slavery riot , Mr . Wandell Phillips said , at a public meeting in Boston , that slavery died with John Brown . " You may imagine it ( ho said ) to be still alive , but I tell yon it is dead—past resurrection ; " and he compared the then slavery to a tree

that was severed from its root . " The tree ( said he ) seems to bo still alive , its leaves continue to be green , and it has sufficient vitality left to shoot forth new buds , but yet the tree is virtually dead . The same simile may be

applied to Masonic Antiquity , the Antiquity of Speculative Masonry , & c , which still seem to bo alive . You may here

also point to its green leaves , in the shape of Bros . Yarker and Professor Haytor Lewis in England , to Bro . MacCalla and all other American pious Masonic editors , pious

chairmen of Committees of Correspondence , pious St . John ' s Day orators , and all other American pious Masonic officials , who are , or pretend to be , as green about Masonic

history as grass after a shower in tho month of May . Yet Bro . Albert Pike , whose interest obviously is to encourage and perpetuate Masonic greenness , says , in a recent number of the Voice of Masonry : —

" Our American Masonry can only be reinstated in that high consideration among men which ifc once enjoyed , by doing something fchafc shall prove its title to ifc . Tho mystery that once snrrounded ifc is dispelled . Tho fictions on which it so long relied have been dispelled by its own historians . And now read what Professor Max Miiller urges about

the kind of evidence required to prove anything . Ho said : —

"No one would venture now-a-days to quote from any book , whether sacred or profane , without over asking thoso simple , yefc monotonous questions , viz .: When was ifc written ? Where and by whom ? Was the author an eye witness ? or does he only relate what

ho has heard from others ? And if fcho latter , were his authorities at least contemporaneous with the events which thoy related ? And were they nofc under the away of party feeling , or any other disturbing influence ?

I shall now , figuratively speaking , place Professor Max Miiller in the chair , and submit to his judgment the value of the evidence furnished by our oldest MSS . for tho

antiquity of Masonic degrees , the antiquity of specidaiho Masonry , and the antiquity of Masonry itself as an organization .

The first of the said old MSS . is known as the Halliwell Poem , or , as Bro . Gould calls it , " Tho Regius Poem . " Now , nobody knows its author ' s name or where it was written , but it was doubtless written in the 15 th century . The first event we find recorded therein is that Euclid was the originator of the Masonic Brotherhood . Now Euclid lived in the third century before Christ , and the Regius

Poem was written in the loth century after Christ , the poet therefore wrote about an event that took place abont seventeen hundred or moro years before his time , and all tho authority he gives for his statement is , that those who will read and look , may find that story in an old book . Ho does not say that he had ever read it in an old book ,