Complimentary Dinner To Bro. J. L. Mather, P.A.G.D.C.

COMPLIMENTARY DINNER TO BRO . J . L . MATHER , P . A . G . D . C .

The above dinner was given at Ye Cheshire Cheese , Addle-street , City , on Saturday , the 24 th ult ., under the chairmanship of Bro . Frederick Binckes , ably supported by Bros . James Terry , as Vice-Chairman ; Richard Baker , Hon . Sec ; J . Barnett , Hon . Treas . ; and a goodly number of representative brethren .

The toast of " The Queen and Royal Family was proposed by the CHAIRMAN , and warmly responded to by the brethren singing the National Anthem . Thetoastof the evening , "Bro . J . L . Mather , " elicited a very eloquent speech from the CHAIRMAN , expressing the feelings of all present in a most acceptable manner . Bro . 1 . L . MATHER , in a forcible and impressive speech

acknowledged the compliment paid him by so many of his old friends in Masonry . Bro .. WM . ROEBUCK proposed "The Health ofthe Chairman , Bro . Frederick Binckes . Bro . MAPLE proposed " The Health of the Vice-Chairman , " which was responded to by Bro . J AMES T ERRY , in one of his usual pleasant and humorous speeches . The CHAIRMAN then gave the toast , "The Corporation

of the City of London , " acknowledged by Bro . T . H ASTINGS MILLER , C . C . The CHAIRMAN proposed "The Health of the Hon . Treasurer , Bro . J Barnett , and the Hon . Sec , Bro . Richard Baker , " responded to by Bro . J . BARNETT . The pleasure of the evening was added to by the singing of Bros . George Gardner , Barnett , Stephens , and others . The dinner was well served as per the following menu :

Hors d'Oeuvres . Prawns . Salad . Sardines . Soup . Hare . Celery . Fish . Turbot , Hollandaise Sauce . Fried Smelts . Entrees . Ris de Veau a la Jardiniere .

Cutlets of Pigeons , a la Rachel . Removes . Boiled Turkey . Roast Capons . Ox Tongues . York Ham . Chines of Mutton .

Game . Pheasants . Grouse . Sweets . Plum Puddings . Mince Pies . Madeira Jelly . Stewed Pears . Ice Pudding . Dessert .

Order Of The Secret Monitor.

Order of the Secret Monitor .

HORATIO SHIRLEY CONCLAVE ( No . 5 ) . —A meeting of the above conclave was held on Wednesday last , at the Holborn Restaurant . There were present Bros . Horatio Henry Shirley , S . R . ; Dr . Zacharie , G . S . R . ; George Kenning , C . ; E . C . Mulvey , Guide ; Cooper , V . D . ; Weiss , jun ., V . D . ; Read , Guardian ; Major Penrose John Dunbar , Treas . ; Pakes , Sec ; Weiss , sen ., Dr . Goodchild , Scurrah , and others .

The minutes of the last meeting were read and confirmed . Four brethren were inducted into the Order . Bro . George Kenning was elected S . R . ; Bro . Major P . J . Dunbar , Treasurer ; and Bro . Walkley , S ., for the ensuing year . A jewel was voted to the retiring S . R . The brethren afterwards dined together , Bro . H . H . Shirley presiding .

The Poet Burns.

THE POET BURNS .

I have recently read , with much pleasure , the interesting History of the Lodge Canongate Kilwinning , No . 2 , which has fallen from the pen of its much respected Past Master , Bio . Allan Mackenzie . I think undue importance is placed by the worthy author and by the lodge itself on the association which is said to

have existed between it and the Poet Burns . At the time of Poet Burns' first appearance in Edinburgh , the fact of a man in his social position being the author of the poems and songs he had then recently published created much surprise and interest in Edinburgh , and in consequence he was , on this occasion of his first visit , feasted and noticed by many of its leading inhabitants in a way very

gratifying to him . The object of Burns' visit was to secure the publication of a second edition of his works , which the local publisher of the first edition refused to undertake , and he found , through his Masonic privileges , a convenient entre into the society of men of letters and of influence . In the Lodge Canongate Kilwinning , then a rendezvous of the leading Whigs in Scotland , he fortunately

found among its members some country gentlemen from his own locality who showed him special attention and gave him valuable introductions . These attentions conduced to the Poet ' s popularity and to the successful issue of the second edition of his works . In the history of the Lodge Canongate Kilwinning , the Poet is claimed not only as having been elected its first Poet Laureatebut as having held that

, office from 17 S 7 until his death in 1796 . The records of the Lodge which 1 some years ago examined , give no countenance to this assertion , and the woithy author frankl y admits that until 1815 there is no mention in them of such a fact . On the 1 st February , 1787 , Burns was assumed a member of the lodge , but , according to my remembrance , his name does not again appear on the records

of the lodge until 1 S 15 . It is said that on the 1 st March , 178 7 , Burns was "inaugurated , " or , "installed" as Poet Laureate , and that the inauguration was attended by about 60 of the most eminent and best known public and literary men in Scotland , and a picture , painted in 18 4 6 , is referred to as a faithful representation of the inauguration . But it appears to me that had such an event happened

the resolution to confer such an office on the Poet vvould have been minuted . At that date 1 , 0 such office existed , and before it could have been conferred it fell to have been created , which step must have preceded installation into " ¦•It was not until 1815 , 28 years after the alleged occurrence , and 19 years after the Poet ' s death that any Mention is made of the event .

The Poet Burns.

In dealing with this matter , Bro . Mackenzie desires his readers to infer that the minutes record the occurrence , for he states that on 1 st March , 17 S / , the lodge met fur certain purposes , and , among others , for " conferring a tribute of respect on Burns . In the course of the evening the R . W . Master conferred upon him the title of Poet Laureate of the lodge ; " and Bro . Mackenzie mentions the persons

who signed the minute of the meeting . From these statements one would think that the minute referred to instructed the author ' s assertion , particularly , as a reflection is made on Bro . D . Murray Lyon for not noticing it in his wellknown history . But the reason for that omission was , according to my recollection , that the minute is silent on the subject . Many minutes of little interest are quoted at

length in the history , but this minute on which so much is founded , is singularly omitted . On the following page , however , Bro . Mackenzie frankly states that the earliest mention "in the minutes of his ( Burns ) having held the office of Poet Laureate of the lodge is recorded in that of gth February , 1 S 15 ! " He further seeks to support the alleged inauguration by quoting two disjointed portions of

" tattered rhymes , " which , he says , " were written by Burns as a mark of esteem " to Bro . Dunbar , the Senior Warden ofthe lodge ; but in this statement he is , according to Bro . James Marshall , also inaccurate , for Bro . Marshall gives the same rhymes in full , and states that the "tattered rhymes" sent by Burns to Dunbar had not been found . They are not , therefore , the mutilated rhymes quoted in

the History of the Canongate Lodge as the composition . of Burns , and , if the two first lines of the rhymes there quoted , had not been suppressed , the reader would have seen that they referred , not to a Masonic lodge , but to the " Crockallan Crops , " a convivial society , of which Burns and Dunbar were both members . The allegation that Burns was elected Poet Laureate of

the lodge , is further sought to be supported by letters written by Bro . Peacock , the Secretary of the lodge , to Bro . Murray Lyon so recently as 1 S 73 , in consequence of hearing that Bro . Lyon was , in his then forthcoming History of Freemasonry , "to discredit" the fact . The reasons given in these letters amount to little . They are mostly assumed inferences from alleged facts , the accuracy of

which are not known , and are not instructed . The chief reasons founded on are that Bro . Marshall " believed " in the inauguration , that his statement of the occurrence had not until then , 1 S 73 , been questioned , that Bro . McNeill , the Master of the lodge—1830-1837— " had no doubt whatever of the fact , " and that unnamed old members of the lodge "had often borne testimony to their personal

acquaintance with Burns , and to their having been at meetings of the lodge when he was there as Poet Laureate , and that there are members of the lodge at the present time ( 1873 ) who associated tor years with those members who had the privilege of Burns' company in the lodge when he wore the jewel of his office as Poet Laureate , " which " had the name of Robert Burns engraved upon it when the

Poet Laurcateship -mas conferred on him . " It would have been satisfactory had Bro . Peacock given the names of the persons to whom he here refers , and his authority for stating that a jewel was procured and worn by Burns on which his name was engraved at the date he specifies . The lodge records instruct no such putchase or engraving , and , without some satisfactory information , he must excuse

me , in the circumstances , accepting his unsupported statements as conclusive of the facts he sets forth . The persons to whom he refers must , at the time he wrote , have reached a very advanced age , and when the statements are otherwise tested by well established facts , they are rendered most improbable . The installation of Burns took place , it is said , at the lodge ' s last meeting for the

season . He could , as I afterwards show , have at the most attended only the two subsequent monthly meetings of the lodge held in October and November , 17 S 7 . But there is nothing to instruct that he was at these meetings . Where , then , had the persons to whom Bro . Peacock refers the opportunities of associating with Burns , as he asserts ? Certainly not in the Lodge Canongate Kilwinning !

As to the statements of Bro . Marshall on Masonry , many of them are fabulous and incorrect , and are otherwise unreliable . As regards his statement of Burns ' inauguration , it was doubted , on the publication of Bro . Marshall's little work , by at least one of its reviewers . Past Master Alexander McNeill's statement on the subject amounts to little . It simply was that , on being questioned ,

he said he had " no doubt" on the subject . But he gave no grounds for his opinion . Had he known of any , we are entitled to assume that he , an experienced lawyer , would have stated them . But the author of the history of the lodge himself , while he sets forth that Burns held the office of Poet Laureate for nine years , at the same time contradicts in effect that

statement , and says that it was the "title ' only of Poet Laureate , and not that office , which was conferred on the Poet , and was conferred , not by the lodge , but by the Master of the lodge ! In his speech within the lodge at the celebration by it of the Centenary of Burns' alleged installation , Past Master William Nathaniel Fraser , with the apparent concurrence of the lodge , made a similar

statement , and Bro . William Hunter , the Past Master of the Lodge Journeyman , in his lecture on " Burns as a Mason , " said the same thing . Bro . Marshall , also , virtually repeats the statement , for he speaks of Burns being " recognised " and "acknowledged" as the Poet Laureate of the lodge . These statements are inconsistent with the fact of Burns having been elected and installed

into such an office . He could not have been installed into a " title , " and the Master had no right to confer such a "title . " It is unlikely that he would have sought to have conferred , as a "tribute of respect , " an honour so empty —a " title " to an office which had no existence . But until 1835 there was no such office in the Lodge Canongate Kilwinning as that of Poet Laureate .

According to Masonic usage the several offices in the lodge were vacated and re-filled annually . The minutes which bear a record of these annual elections are silent as to Burns and his office . According to them it had no existence 1 In none ot his numerous letters does the Poet refer to such an appointment . He was then in close correspondence with many intimate friends , but neither they nor he

make the slightest allusion to the alleged fact . We are told by some of the reviewers of a "Winter with Burns , " that the circumstance , if it occurred , was " one of the few occasions in which during the Poet ' s lifetime his poetical genius was publicly acknowledged and proclaimed ;" and yet neither he , nor any of his friends , nor any of his biographers , take any notice of such an acknowledgment

The Poet Burns.

The Poet was proud of honours paid him , and toik frequent notice of them . On his visit to the Lodge St . Andrew , Edinburgh , shortly prior to the alleged inauguration , he writes that the toast was given of " Caledonia and Caledonia's Bard , Robert Burns , " and proudly records his gratification at the compliment . In like manner he records his honorary affiliati n a few months later by the Eyemouth

Lodge , but , singularly , neither he , nor the Lodge Canongate Kilwinning , nor any one else , make any contemporaneous record of the great and exceptionable honour said to have been conferred on him by a lodge of foremost distinction , at a special gathering of upwards of sixty of the most distinguished Scotsmen of the age ! The elder Laurie , who must have personally known of the fact had

it occurred , published his History of Freemasonry in Scotland , in 1804 , and his son , the late Grand Secretary of Scotland , publihed his amended History of Freemasonry in 1859 . He became Assistant to his father as the Grand Secretary so long ago as 1831 , and had the fact occurred , he must also have heard and have otherwise known of it . Neither of these leading officials and historians of the Craft

alluded to it ; nor is there any reference to the event in any of thecontemporaneousminutesor proceedings of Grand Lodge nor in those of the sister lodges in Edinburgh , nor in the newspapers , or magazines , or other periodicals of the day . A reviewer of a "Winter with Burns" in 1 S 46 evidently doubted its occurrence , for he describes it as " an event in the Poet's life which is probably not generally known as

having really occurred ! The other business which was transacted by the lodge on the night in question renders it also unlikely that it did occur . According to a " Winter with Burns , " a resolution was that evening carried and an address adopted to the Prince of Wales on becoming a member of the Craft , and two gentlemen were entered apprentices , and i-everal " others who entered as

apprentices at last meeting . were raised to the Degree of Master . " These proceedings must necessarily have occupied considerable time ; and besides , the author indicates that thegenilemen of the lodge had that evening to attend a ball , which " occupied the whole night , " in the newly-erected Assembly Rooms . But Bro . Marshall further states that the Earl of Buchan attended the meeting and wrote a letter to the Poet ,

in which he advised him to visit the battle fields and scenes celebrated in song on the Scottish border , and handed it to him at the meeting . His lordship , there is no doubt , did write such a letter to Burns , and we have thelatter ' s reply , which , however , is dated "February , 1787 , " and which acknowledges Lord Buchan ' s letter , but not as of the ist March ,, but ist February , 1787 . Bro . Marshall is thus

again seen to be inaccurate , and an as experienced Mason he must have known that in the turmoil of such a meeting , the writing of such a letter was unlikely . But assuming that his lordship ' s letter was dated ist March , and was written and handed to the Poet at the alleged inauguration , one vvould have expected to find in the Poet ' s reply some reference to the honour conferred on him on the occasion . But no allusion is made to such an honour or to such a

meeting itself . These circumstances render the alleged gathering and inauguration improbable . But if they did actually occur , why was all notice of them suppressed ? The organisation of such a meeting must have occasioned much trouble and anxiety . The object of it was to confer a signal mark of respect on the Poet , and the greater the publicity given to it so much the more was the object of those interested in it attained .

It is impossible to believe that those convening and carrying through such a demonstration would have purposely supressed all mention of it . But , singularly enough , this is what Bro . Marshall asserts they did . His explanation is that , after consultation with the Grand Secretary and Grand Clerk of the Grand Lodge , the Secretary of the lodge resolved , on their advice , to take no notice of this

great event . Such an explanation casts a flood of ridicule on the whole story . The Master and Wardens and Secretary of the lodge and the Grand Secretary and Grand Clerk were at the time well-known practising lawyers , and would , in the common course of business , have recorded the facts had they occurred . Bro . Marshall further represents Burns as having been

" the life of the lodge , " and it is said , as has been seen , that old members "repeated many reminiscences of the Poet , and events which had occurred in the lodge when there in company with him , " and reference is made to "the seat he always resorted to . " From such and other similar statements the reader would { infer that Burns' connection with the lodge had been long , close , and continuous . But

this was not so . In a " Winter with Burns , " and his correspondence and diaries , his Masonic movements in Edinburgh are closely traced , and from them it is seen that he could have attended , at the most , only three meetings of the Lodge Canongate Kilwinning during the season 1786—87 . He returned to Edinburgh on the second and last occasion of his residence there , on 16 th September , 1787

, and he left it on 18 th February following . Ihere is no record which I can find of his attendance at any Masonic meeting in any lodge during that period , and he certainly nowhere makes reference to any . Shortly after his second return to Edinburgh , he sustained a severe injury to one of his knees , which , he states in a letter , dated January 21 st , 1788 , had confined him to his room " for six horrible weeks

—anguish and low spirits had made me unfit to read , write , or think ; " and , he added , that as soon as he could bear the journey he would leave Edinburgh . In another letter , dated 14 th February , 1788 , he said that he had been ill nearly three months , " though he was getting vastly better . "

On the iSth February , 1788 , he was able to leave Edinburgh and return to Ayrshire . The monthly meetings of the lodge commenced for the season yearly in October , and terminated in March . He thus during the Masonic season of 1787—SS could not have attended more than two such meetings , if he attended any .

As regards the picture of the alleged " inauguration , " it is purely imaginary , and is , in fact , a mere collection of the portraits of eminent friendly contemporaries of the Poet scattered throughout the country , and assumed by the artist to have been present on the occasion . Bro . Marshall , on whose suggestion the painting was executed , places it no

higher ; indeed , several of the persons whose portraits figure in the picture as present at the ceremonial , clothed as Freemasons in Masonic paraphernalia , were admittedly not members of the Order , and some are represented as present who had ceased to reside in Scotland or near Edinburgh . —Yours fraternally , WILLIAM OFFICER , Past G . D . ot Scotland , Edinburgh , November 14 th ,