The Girls' School Festival.

THE GIRLS' SCHOOL FESTIVAL .

ON Monday next His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales , Past Grand Master , will preside at the 83 rd Anniversary Festival of the Royal Masonic Institution for Girls .

We have so often expressed our views upon the claims of the Masonic Charities that we need not recapitulate them now . Let us , however , breathe a hope that the Girls '

Festival of 1871 will surpass in pecuniary results all those which have preceded it , and that the Institution may thus be

enabled to extend the benefits of education to every child of our indigent or deceased brethren who may seek its fostering care .

Pomeroy's Democrat And The Rochdale Brethren.

POMEROY'S DEMOCRAT and the ROCHDALE BRETHREN .

WE have received a letter addressed to the " Editor of Pomerofs Democrat , " New York , by Bro . William Ashworth , of Rochdale . Now , beyond question , our brother

editor did use some hard language respecting the Rose Croix Chapter at Rochdale , but this we conceive he did upon imperfect information as to the facts . We do not

ourselves know the precise origin of the chapter , but if its non-adhesion to the S . G . C . 33 ° is to be accepted as prima facie evidence of a spurious basis , all we can say

is—and we say it for the especial benefit of the Democrat—that the oldest Rose Croix Chapter in England , namely , the "Baldwyn , " at Bristol , has never acknowledged

the Council in Golden-square , and yet no one presumes to stigmatise its members as spurious Masons . It would have been wiser if Brother Tisdall , the Masonic editor of the

Democrat , had learned a little more of the past history and present status of Masonic degrees in England before he "dipped his pen in gall and denounced a number of

true and honourable Masons . For instance , he has also written a tissue of absurdities upon the Red Cross Order , which heknowing better probably than thc members

—states has no Christian basis , and whose origin he willingly ascribes to very modern times , in order to please those who act as purveyors to his imagination . It may

interest him to know that the Red Cross Order had a separate Grand Council in England , presided over by our best Masons , long before the Supreme Grand Council 33 was

imported from America ; that the strongest documentary proofs of its high-standing still exist , and have bee" procured from what even Bro . Tisdall will not venture to

call a spurious source—the archives of thc Grand Lodge of England . Therefore , although wc deem it advisable not to

publish Bro . Ashworth ' s letter , it by no means follows that we approve of thc article which excites his indignation .

WE are given to understand that thc "M . W . G . M . M . has constituted the warranted Mark Lodges in West Yorkshire into a province , and has nominated R . W . Bro . Thomas Perkinton , Past G . S . O ., to be the first Provincial Grand Master . A preliminary meeting of representatives from thc various lodges is to be held at Halifax on Moudav .

Multum In Parbo, Or Masonic Notes And Queries.

Multum in parbo , or Masonic Notes and Queries .

—o—BRO . J . FLETCHER BRENNAN AND THE " BIBLE QUESTION . " I am much obliged to the well-known Mason , Bro . J . Fletcher Brennan , for so

clearly expressing the views of our Jewish brethren in the United States . I mention the United States because in this country I have never heard a- word of objection raised to the system we pursue .

In England I have often seen our Jewish friends obligated on the O . T . according to their form , and exactly as they desire . We have two lodges in London mainly composed of brethren of that persuasion , and

two better lodges it would be difficult to find anywhere . I have also often conversed with Jews who are Masons , and have never yet heard them offer the slightest objection to the system advocated and followed in

this country . A Christian on the "whole Bible , " a Jew on the Old Testament , and a Mohamedan on the Koran are surely sufficient evidences of liberality and universality for any one , especially when we

recollect it is also legal for an affirmation to be taken in lieu of an oath ! I have been present when the latter has been adopted , and was much struck with the simplicity of the promise given . Where

the majority are Jews , let the Old Testament be on the pedestal , and where the most of the members are Christians , then have the " whole Bible . " I am only anxious to regard the scruples and consciences oi all . W . J AMES HUGHAN .

THE TEMPLARS AND EREEMASONRY . Bro . Forsyth's communication appears to have created some interest , ancl I shall be glad if it leads to a better understanding of

the true claims of the Templar Order . I am glad to see the letters of Bro . Buchan and " A Scotch Knight Templar " on the subject . Perhaps the latter will tell us : r . Where he considers is the chief seat of the

Order ? 2 . Is the governing body to which he refers thc Grand Conclave of Scotland ? 3 . What arc the encampments which do not recognise this body ? 4 . Why is it that the priories holding under

that body can never be called Masonic , seeing that every candidate must be a Royal Arch Mason ? 5 . When was it that there were no charters , and thc Craft lodges used to work thc Templar degree without

authority ? 6 . Perhaps this brother will kindly give the probable date , and some description , of thc Aberdeen seals and jewels ?

Probably if Bro . Forsyth can procure thc loan of thc engraved plates discovered at Stirling , the editor of THE FRHKMASON will not object to give impressions in his

. Seeing the importance ofthe work which is now in the hands of the Grand Conclave

of England , there could be no period when communications on the subject would be of greater value and interest than thc present time . LUPUS .

" THE ANNUS I . UCIS . " In reply to " W . M ., " at page 265 , I beg to send you an extract from thc Book of Constitutions , " collected and digested " by James Anderson , D . D ., revised by John

Entick , M . A ., and printed by Bro . W . Johnson , in Ludgate-strcet , London , 1767 , by order of thc Grand Lodge : — In page No . 2 , explaining A . M . I and n . c . 4004 :

" The first Christians computed their times as thc nations did among whom they lived till A . 11 . 532 , when Dionysius K ;; ignus , a Roman abbot , taught them fust to compute from thc Hirl / t of Christ ; but he lost four years , or began tlie Christian / Era

Multum In Parbo, Or Masonic Notes And Queries.

four years later than just . Therefore , though according to the Hebrew ChronOogy of the Old Testament , and other good vouchers , Christ was truly born in some month of the year of the world , or A . M . 4000 . Yet these four

years added make 4004—not before the birth of Christ , but before thc Christian sEra , viz ., ' 1750 ¦ for the true Anno Domini , or year after Christ ' s birth , is 1760 ; but the Masons being used to compute by the vulgar Anno Domini , or Christian . / Era , 1756 .:

and adding to it , not 4004 as it ought , but the strict years before Christ ' s birth , viz ., 4000 , they usually call this the year of Masonry 5756 , instead of the accurate year 5760 ; and we must keep to the vulgar

computation , and so these letters A . M . signify Anno Mundi , or year of the world , and here B . C . is not Before Christ , but before the Christian / Era . The A . M . 01- Anno Mundi is the same followed by Usher , Prideaux , & c . "

The above is a simple copy of note in explanation of A . M . 1 in the History of Masonry , published with the Constitutions

of 1767 , A . F . Was the late Bro . Deuchar , the Grand Master of the K . T . in Scotland , ever a member of the Rite of Misraim ? I have

seen certain jewels said to have belonged to him , and which bear the words Alex . Deuchar , Edin ., on the reverse . ENQUIRER .

ROMAN ARCHITECTURE . "In the style of French architecture which was created in the thirteenth century the disposition , the construction , the statics , the scale , and the ornamentation- differ

absolutely from those of the antique school . They were the consequence of two civilisations based on entirely differing principles . The Roman monument is a species of modelling on a form which

permitted the rapid use of an enormous mass of materials , consequent upon the facility with which a large body of workmen could be obtained . The Romans had at their disposal large armies habituated to public

works , and could throw a large slave population upon a building ; they therefore adopted a mode of construction convenient to these social conditions . To raise their edifices it was not necessary to have a body

of skilled labourers . Some special men to direct the works , a few painters and plasterers , who covered the crude masses with a rich envelope ; a few Greek artists to do their carving , was all the skilled labour

needed , and plenty of brute force sufficed for thc rest . Thus , wha t ever might be the distance from the metropolis to thc place where thc Romans built theiramphitheatres , their baths , their aqueducts , their palaces .

or their basilicas , their architecture was thc same , and thc buildings of the Romans were , before all things , Roman . In spite of soil or climate , regardless of thc nature

of thc materials or the custom of the inhabitants , they were buildings of the city of Rome , and never the individual work of an artist . From the moment when

Rome planted her foot upon a foreign soil , she there reigned supreme , and effaced everything that was strange to her . This was her power ; the arts followed thc same principle as her politics , and under this

crushing influence the individuality of man disappeared . Even Greece—that brilliant home of art and human development—even Greece was extinguished by the breath of Rome . Christianity alone , by giving a

sentiment of personality to the individual man , could struggle against this giant , but it took centuries to clear away the remains of Pagan civilisation . "—Building Nczvs . \ V . P . EUCHAN .

I"itto . GEOKfJE KE . VNiNf * has become Vice-President of thc Royal Masonic Institution for Hoys , the Royal Masonic Institution for Girls , ancl the Roval Masonic Uenevolent Institution .