Masonic Progress In England.

annexed to the "Mark , " some of which are good , some bad , and one or two indifferent . With careful manipulation , the degrees of " Royal and Select Masters "

may be taken kindly to in England , but we much doubt if the melodramatic "high falutin " of the " Super-Excellent " degree will ever find favour in the sight of English Masons . As to the inane farce of "Admiral

Noah " and his coxswain " Ham , with the Ark and the other beasts , as our poor friend Artemus Ward would say—why , the sooner it and all its accompaniments are swept

away in a Masonic deluge the better , even if we have to deplore the consequent disappearance of a more than proportionate number of the sons of Issachar .

Taking the " Cosmopolitan Masonic Calendar for 1872 " as our guide , we find that the Order of Knights Templar stands next in numerical strength to the Mark

Masters , numbering , as it does , 121 encampments , an increase of six during the year 1871 . His Royal Hig hness the Prince of Wales is now identified with the English

Templars , and wc have no hesitation in adding , that the Order is eminently worthy of the esteem with which it is regarded by the Prince .

The " Knig hts of the Red Cross of Constantine /' anodur old chivalric order , stand next to the Templars in the Calendar , with 62 conclaves on the roll , an increase of no

less than twenty-eig ht during the annual period . About a dozen of tluse conclaves are , however , located in the United States of America , where , it is only rease . 11

ble to suppose , independent Grand Councils of the Order will , in due course , be established . It is noteworthy that the meetings of the " Red Cross " and " Temple " orders

are expressly permitted by the Articles of Union between the two Grand Lodges in 1 S 13 , at which time his Royal Highness

the late Duke of Sussex was Grand Master of the " Knights Templars , " and also of the "Knig hts of the Red Cross of Constantine . "

The " Ancient and Accepted Rite is the last of the great Masonic powers whose position we have under review . Under the Supreme Council 33 , forty-two Rose

Croix chapters are working , ei ght having been added during the past year . This Rite will soon possess a splendid hall of its

own in Golden-square , and has lately exhibited other signs of increasing vitality , which augur well for its future prosperity .

On the whole , we are proud to record our satisfaction at the progress of Freemasonry , and its attendant orders , in England during the past year , believing , as we

do , that there is room enough for all ; and so long as the unrecognised degrees are conducted in unison with the hroad

principles of the Craft , we shall not only maintain their right to exist , but emphatically wish them God speed in their career .

MARK MASONRY . —The M . W . G . M . M . has approved of a warrant for a new lodge at Whitefield , to be called the " Wike Lodge . "

Multum In Parbo, Or Masonic Notes And Queries.

Multum in Parbo , or Masonic Notes and Queries .

e 3 MARK AND ROYAL ARCH . Bro . W . P . Buchan says , " We can admit the existence of the Royal Arch in the

fourth decade of the last century , whereas we have no evidence of the existence of any Mark Degree until some time after that . "

The Royal Arch degree is admitted to he no older than 1740 . At that date their secrets were given in a Master Mason ' s lodge . As regards the Mark , on the contrary ,

the G . C . of Scotland itself reports that " it was wrought by the operative lodges of St . John ' s Masonry from time immemorial , and long before the institution of the G . L . of

Scotland in 1736 . " Mother Kilwinning Lodge made members choose their marks in the seventeenth century , and charged them four shillings each for the same .

Can Bro . Buchan tell us how the G . C . of Scotland came into existence in 1717 ? They are very zealous in picking holes in the constitution of the Mark G . L ., which is constituted by ten immemorial English

lodges , and several Scotch which have returned to their Masonic allegiance . But what R . A . chapters constituted the G . C . of Scotland ? They have sedulously kept their origin in the dark , and I more than suspect

that it rests upon no legitimate foundation whatever , but is sclf-conslitutcd , and therefore spurious from beginning to end ; as it is certainly unacknowledged , as Masonic , by the G . L . of Scotland . AN ENGLISH MARK MASTER .

PRINTED RITUALS . "An American Freemason , " challenges my statement as to printed Rituals . Has he ever heard of the publications of the

New York Masonic Publishing Company ? I shall be very sorry to heat that Brothers Sickles and Macoy have been doing anything irregular , or that they can be mentioned in the same breath with Pritchard .

If the Brother wishes further information either as to my name , which he cavils at , or as to the Rituals , he will have it . RANDOLF HAY .

The Prince Of Wales.

THE PRINCE OF WALES .

THURSDAY ' S BULLETIN . Sandringham , Jan . 4 , Noon . His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales has

slept well , and is in all respects making satisfac tory progress . ( Signed ) WILLIAM GULL , M . D . J LOWE , M . D .

WE have great pleasure in announcing that the M . E . First Grand Principal , the Marquis of Ripon , A " . C , has appointed Col . Francis Burdett ,

M . K . Z . 1194 , Crand Superintendent of Royal Arch Masons in the province of Middlesex , ovei which our distinguished brother presides in the Craft as Provincial Grand Master .

IN another part of this impression we record the death of the " oldest Freemason" in England —the statement as to whose age is so well authenicated as to satisfy the doubts even of another Sir George Cornewall Lewis . We regret

also t ~> have seen in the daily press an account o" the decease of die R . W Bre . Williaai Combyn Stephens , P . G . Ward-n of Eng ' aud , and for many years representative of the Grand Lodge of Canada . Bro . Stephens was only 54 years of age at the time of his deatL

The Footsteps Of Masonry;

THE FOOTSTEPS OF MASONRY ;

OR , Freemasonry in relation to Authentic History . Bv BRO . W . VINER BEDOLFE , M . D ., J . W . 1329 , Hon , See . Sphinx Lodge of Instruction . ( Continued from pa % e 707 , Vol . 4 . )

Having , as we trust , established the identity of our Masonic with municipal institutions , and , further , commenced the identification of the offices and ceremonies with those which can be proved to have existed amongst those grand

originators of municipal institutions , viz ., the Romans , we now resume this identification and elucidation . We must again , however , inculcate the importance of hearing this fact ( of its municipality ) in mind , since it is the only clue tlut

can carry us through the labyrinth of time , and enable us to bridge that chasm in which so many histories lie engulfed . In pursuing our subject , we have not thought it necessary to carry back our investigations into

the period of fable or dubious story . Doubtless , it can always be said , " Fortes ante Agamemnonen vixere , " signifying that even that was not the beginning . Yet our object has been simply to find the first firm ground on which to stand ;

and as m our day the engineer constructing a bridge , say across the Thames , is , from experience , content with that solid substratum the London clay without seeking lower formations , so are we content with what history vouches , with what universal consent has consecrated .

There have undoubtedly been periods when these collegia , or lodges , have nearly disappeared from view , simply because no minute records of those periods exist ; but supposing a planet to have suddenly disappeared before the epoch of Gallileo ,

" Like the lost plciad , seen no more below ;" had fragments , or small bodies , been subsequently developed by his invention of the telescope , and found to be still moving in the orbit of the planet , should wc have doubted

their connection with the former occupant of that orbit ? To have done so would have been illogical ; and we trust to bring similar logical

proof of the identity of our own lodges with those of ancient times . Premising this , we proceed . " EAR OF CORN NEAR A FALL OF WATER . "

I now call attention to the word said to be signified in a Masonic lodge by " an ear of coin near a fall of water . " The explanation of this

word , viz ., " plenty" is quite in accordance with the emblem ; but the story of its origin , apparently Talmudic , as given in the lectures , is quite at variance with its spirit .

To distinguish "friend from foe , the true from the false , the chaff from the wheat , was its object , and it is represented to have been anciently placed over the inner door or entrance to the ' •'J ' ablinum " of the Iodize .

Now , the word itself is possibly only a corruption of " tribulum , " a flail , or threshing machine , and derived from the Greek rpifiin , to thredi . Passive infinitive , rnificsOcu , to be

threshed ( tnbesthai ) . The " ear of corn ' signifying the wheat for threshing , and the " stream 01 water" where the true grain should be separated from the husk .

It was in this sense St . Paul ( being a Roman ) employed this metaphor in the word "tribulalion , " alluding to the purgation of the threshing floor , for , writing to these same Romans ( 8 and 25 ) , he says : " What shall separate us ? Shall

' tribulation' ? " And the figure has ever since been usee ! in the sense of the separation of true from false Christians , by persecution . Dr . Trench , in his Book on Words , takes this view of the " tribulum , " as an emblem in use