Masonic Authority Claimed By The S.G.C. 33°.

Meanwhile , I trust I have to some extent shown to "A Royal Arch Companion " that if the S . G . C . 33 have not put their claims to authority over all the degrees prominently forward , it is expediency that restrains them ; and I

trust that he and others will see the necessity of standing " shoulder to shoulder " in defence of our " ancient landmarks" against a body that propounds to a brother who has got the M . M . degree , and seeks to join the A . and A .

Rite , a slavish oath of allegiance to their authority , that hedges in his Masonic career and prevents him holding Masonic communion with brethren who hail from more ancient bodies , possessed of legal and constitutional rights ;

and that when the final struggle comes , he and they will be found on the side of justice and right , helping to depose from its present position a system illogical , unmasonic , and well nigh intolerable .

AN IRISH H . K . T . Dublin , and July , 1871 .

The High Grades In Ireland.

THE HIGH GRADES IN IRELAND .

BY HISTORICUS . ( Continued from page 324 ., ) In your last the writer endeavoured to show the volcanic nature of Craft ground in Ireland . It is lamentable to observe that even in England

Irish high-grade Masons are endeavouring to introduce the same fiery element into this country . They may rest assured that such a course , if successful , will inevitably cause the destruction of Masonry in this country , for such

a state of things as exists under the popular and esteemed Duke of Leinster is altogether out of question in this country . Therefore , beware . If we can procure the necessary information , we will devote a few words to the consideration of

the history of the " Royal Grand Council of Ancient Rites—time-immemorial , " which is believed to have introduced " Misraim" into Ireland in 1822 ; but of the three Supreme Grand Councils of the " Ancient and Accepted

Rite" existing in Britain , that of Scotland , without question , is the most regular—for the New York Council , which instituted the English , in 1846 , was // regular and //// recognised at that time . The Supreme Council of Charleston

deserves the support of the Craft for the honesty and straightforwardness with which it admits the Frederick the Great forgery , and states itself , from 1801 , the " Mother Council ofthe World . " In 1804 that body introduced the Rite into

Paris , France , and that organisation , through Dr . Morrison , conveyed the Rite to Edinburgh . Previous to this time the Rose Croix and many other degrees ( including Misraim ) were practised by the Knights Templar of Scotland . Thus we

find the degree of Templar Priest , Knight of the Sepulchre , the Holy Grave , Constantine , Black Mark , Knight of Death , Ne Plus Ultra , White Cross , St . John the Baptist , & c . ; but the Kadosh Degree , though the writer is partial to it , never

was popular in Scotland , and has even been styled the " execrable degree of petit du . " The fact of the Scottish S . G . C . requiring the degrees of the " Royal Order of Scotland " prior to the Rose Croix must always limit the number of

members of the Ancient and Accepted Rite . A good thing , we say , for the Craft , so long as Grand Lodge refuses to recognise anything but blue Masonry , as is the case at present in England and Scotland . The abandonment of

the Order of Misraim in Scotland seems to have been caused by the stand made against "Accumulated Rites" by the Schismatic Council of Bro . Gourges . This stand would be just and right were the Ancient and Accepted Rite

superior in authenticity to either Misraim or Memphis ; but this is not so , as thc one rite is quite as good as the other—lacking the latter a few extra years of antiquity upon the former . We will , however , return to the history of the Irish Council of Rites : —

" But , with respect to the former rumour , they distinctly assert , without fear of refutation , and with a full knowledge of the facts , also with the most ample and satisfactory evidence of the same , that the Chapter of Zimmerman—out of

The High Grades In Ireland.

which the Council of Rites , at the period of its unauthorized assumption of supreme power , was framed—possessed , at that time , as a Society of Prince Masons , no better or other title whatsoever than that which a degraded Mason could

confer . And in proof of this they appeal to the framed diploma or certificate to Bro . Fowler , hung up by him for exhibition in the public office ofthe G . L ., and bearing the signature of Zimmerman ; to the paper of authorisation itself , exhibited by a member of the Council of Rites ,

a friend of Bro . Fowler , to a member of the Grand Chapter ( who has already deposed to that fact , and can , at any time , again be brought forward to verify it ) and , also , to the first page ofthe " Records" of that chapter itself , in which its title is plainly and unequivocally set out exactly as it is here stated and described .

" Thus matters stood for about thirty years , during which time tlie chapter so formed by Bro . Fowler under , and by virtue of , the piece of paper which had been given him by Zimmerman continued occasionally to meet and to initiate

candidates and as the Grand Chapter had no doubt that a great portion , at least , of the mystery had been communicated by Emanuel Zimmerman ; also as the new chapter did not presume to arrogate to itself even the name of a

Grand Chapter ; moreover , as the names of several highly-respectable citizens were found upon its rolls , the Grand Chapter , while it never countenanced or recognised these irregular proceedings , yet , during all that period , neverthrew up any technical obstacles , or adopted any defensive

movements , to crush a Society which , though illegitimate in its origin , appeared to be honest in its purposes ; in short , never interfered at all , or in any manner , to-prevent or restrain the original chapter from pursuing its own course as an independent body with which the Grand Chapter was in no way concerned .

" But about the year 1 S 38 the case presented a new aspect . Encouraged by the forbearance of the Grand Chapter , the Chapter of Zimmerman then put forth a . claim to despotic power . Without obtaining the assent or adhesion of the

Grand Chapter , or of any authorised society of Prince Masons , it constituted itself a chapter paramount ; and by a vote of its own , devolving upon a part of itself an authority which the whole never possessed . It thus sought to bring

into bondage as its vassals , not only other chapters of Prince Masons whose title and legitimacy were less questionable than its own , but even the Grand Chapter itself , from the refuse of which it had been engendered .

" Though from the formation of the Chapter of Zimmerman , in the year 1804 , the Grand Chapter hacl abstained from any attack upon it , or impeachment of its title—still this irregular chapter seems to have heen in daily

apprehension of an exposure of its spurious birth . Aware of the absence of all legal or regular authority , and conscious of the rottenness of its original foundation , it appears all through to have been haunted by the terror of discovery , as by some

ghastly spectre ' and to have avoided a disclosure as though it were to be its death warrant . " Filled with these apprehensions , the Chapter of Zimmerman about four or five years ago anxiously cast about to discover some mode of

obtaining a title . What was it to do ? Could it contrive to make itself antique in a moment ? Could it plant and rear for itself the root and branches of the genealogical tree from which it

was suddenly to put forth the tender bud of its existence ? it had no legal parents , no authorised or even reputable stock , to which it could trace its origin ; ancl it seemed to be altogether in a very helpless and pitiable position .

" But as necessity has ever been the parent of invention , so in the present case it gave rise to the invention of a parent . Adopting that maxim of genius , ' aut inventiam autfaciam' the Chapter of Zimmerman , not being able to discover the faintest trace of a legal origin—failing , after the

most careful and laborious search , to make out for itself a Masonic father—boldly determined to begefc one ; and under the impulse of this grand and truly original conception it directly set about the execution of the pleasing task . *¦ Having met together in private , and without

The High Grades In Ireland.

tbe assistance or superintendence of any other chapter , the Chapter of Zimmerman gravely selected out of its own members a certain number of persons , whom it appointed a sovereign body—generally for the purpose of governing the Order of Prince Masons , but speciall y and

particularly for the more pressing purpose of granting authority and warrant to the Chapter of Zimmerman itself ; and thus , of extending in its turn the fostering care of aparentandguardianto its parentless and unprotected progenitors . But ,

after having brought forth its own father safely into this breathing world , difficulties , similar to those which attended the birth of the illustrious Martin Scriblerus , now oppressed the disconcerted wits of the Chapter of Zimmerman , viz .,

How , and by what name or names , it ought to baptise the interesting babe which it had destined to become its sire . ' The Grand Chapter , ' probably , would have been the name selected , but that denomination had been long

pre-occupied in Dublin . ' The Royal Chapter ' might , perhaps , have served the purpose , but a chapter hearing that appellation had been for upwards of five centuries a well-known body in Scotland . Thrown back again upon the

ingenuity of its inexhaustible resources , the Chapter of Zimmerman at length triumphantly produced the splendidly-superb cognomen of ' The Supreme Grancl Council of Rites for Ireland , " Szc , & c . —a patronymic which was at once

hailed with demonstrations of the most extravagant delight , being alike euphoneously dignified and appropriately unintelligible . The next step necessary to be taken was to invent magniloquent titles for the members of the body

corporate of ' 1 he Governor —thus begotten and baptised . In this department , it would seem that these worthies could find no suitable region in which the wing of fancy might expand and imagination take its flight . But tbe powers of

the wise seldom remain unoccupied or long without an object upon which they may interest and exercise themselves . Though the study of more official names was incompetent to afford much space for the exertion of those brilliant

abilities which had already achieved so much , yet these philosophic Masons were determined , under every disadvantage , still to accomplish something above the common course of affairs . They resolved that , under their hands and management , some flower should grow , even in

the most arid and unfruitful soil . The native dullness of the subject could not deter these congenial spirits from research . They explored its innermost recesses—they traversed its heavy bogs and unproductive wastes , and waded through the mire—until they at last discovered and made themselves masters of a wilderness of

verbiage , with which no former , or other , system of nomenclature can bear the slightest comparison . Never was a collection of names put together which were more suited , from their wild magnificence , to entrance and overawe the

multitude ; or from their stolid and insignificant solemnity , to astonish and confound the learned . The Secretary of this mushroom body is termed ' The Grand Secretary of the Supreme Grand Council of Rites for Ireland ; " and to that superlative functionary , in such capacity , is committed

the custody of' The Records' of the ' Supreme Grand , " though all the records that the poor man ever had to keep were the lodge-book , the tavern bills , and the bit of parchment given to Fowler by Zimmerman , and since then pleasantly called , by his followers , an Authorization . ( To be continued . )

Oi * Thursday , the 29 m tut ., Bro . H . M . Levy , in thc name of a few members of the Lodge of Joppa , No . 188 , presented Brother W . G . Jennings , the manager of the Albion Tavern Company , with

a solid gold locket , seal , and a gold pen and pencil case wilh suitable inscription , for thc high esteem he is held in by thc members of that lodye , and his i assiduity in looking after the comforts of its' members on every occasion when the lodge meets .

SMALL-POX , FEVERS , AND SKIN DISEASES . — The predisposition to is prevented by Lam plough ' s * ' yre ' c Saline . Vitalising and invigorating , ils effects are remarkable in their cure and prevention . Take it as directed . Sold by chemists and the maker , Ii . Lamplough , 112 , Iiolbgrn-hiU . —[ Advt . *)