Contents.

CONTENTS .

LEADERS 445 Royal Masonic Institution for Hoys 446 Consecration of the Far ! of I . athom Lodge , No . 1922- 44 G Consecration of the Whitu-orth Lodge , c ^ o . 103 = 44 Masonic I liston-and Historians 44 S

New South Wales 44 S Provincial Grand Lotlge of North and Kast Yorkshire 449 Provincial Grand Chapter of Cornwall 449 Provincial Grand Mark Lodge of North Wales 44 a Funeral of thc Late Hro . Hugh Saunders ... 449 Dedication of the Masonic Hall , Westonsuper-Mare 440

The Late Hro . President Garfield 44 Q CORRESPONDENCEThe School Elections 45 ° English Masonry in France 450 Admission to Provincial Grand Lodges ... 4 J 0 Reviews 4 . 1 °

Masonic Notes and Queries 45 * Scotland -iS ' REPORTS OF MASONIC MEETINGSCraft Masonry 45 r Instrnction 453 Royal Arch r . 453 Mark Masonry 453 Masonic and General Tidings 454 Lodge Meetings for Next Week iii .

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THE Saturday Review of September 24 th , at page 3 S 4 , devotes a very elaborate article to the exposure , condemnation , and extinction of Freemasonry . This is an " old , old story" now , dating from 1725 , or thereabouts , and the last attack of the Saturday Review , however able or incissive , is not likely to be more successful , from all we can see , than previous

" efforts " in the same tone , temper , and spirit . Freemasonry is too strong now to care anything at all for the ridicule or sarcasms of those who , though they shake their heads wisely , as Lord BEACONSFIELD liked to say , in " saucy ignorance , " really know nothing whatever about the Society they profess to criticize , to analyze , and to expose . Freemasonry may , or may not

be , as the critic terms it , to the profane and the outsiders a " Secret dc Polichinelle , " but it clearly is not so in any sense to the large number of educated , intelligent , ' and cultivated minds of all classes of society who range themselves under its banners , believe in its work , and accept its principles of thought and action . Another remarkable point connected with this latest

attack on Freemasonry is thc long list of erratic statements and incorrect dogmatic declarations it contains . It would almost seem as if all those who assail Freemasonry , if from a different " point de mire , " had got up all they write from some compendious " cram " as if , yielding to the temptation of idle " sheepwalking , " they had recourse to exploded " squibs" and

forgotten " broadsides " for the unsound theories they enounce , thc grotesque ignorance they manifest , and thc absurd conclusions they arrive at . The Saturday Review , writing in 1 SS 1 , ought not to have fallen into the numerous errors it has fathered , ought not' to have put forth the many misstatements it has adopted , inasmuch as better and clearer sources of Masonic history

were close at hand , and there can be no excuse for thc perpetuation and promulgation of assertions in such a leading journal , which have no particle of evidence for their support , which cannot be justified by an ) ' one who has really studied the questions as issue , and must be given up unhesitatingly by the critical and conscientious of Masonic students and even non-Masonic

writers to-day . So wc will take such blunders and errata to show our readers how little there is even in this , the latest appearance of unchanged hostility or of unreasoning " animus " as regards Freemasonry . In the first place , it is a very unsound and unsafe proposition that any one can by a use of surreptitious manuals , though not a Freemason , get into a lodge . We

have some experience of Freemasonry , as our readers know , and we feel quite convinced of this , that any such assertion is reckless and unsafe in the highest degree . It is , in fact , a reproduction of what appeared in Truth some time back . Wc doubted and denied the allegation then ; we doubt it nnd deny it still . It is only , in fact , a question as to how the officers of a

lodge perform their duty . We undoubtedly do say that Masonic emblems nre found on ancient monuments , and Masonic signs are in use among Oriental and even savage nations , —and so they are . Explain the " fact , "for it is a "fact , " —as you will . The Hexaplais SOLOMON ' S seal , the Pentalpha is a sign of Hermetic mysteries and Jewish Cabala , and lias long been in use ns a Masonic emblem . No doubt it is true that there are " emblems and

emblems and " signs and signs , " but the misuse of such things by Freemasons is " quod est probandum . " Indeed , in this point of view , it is a " reductio ad absurdum ! " Thc whole argument of the writer rests on a pure " petitio principii , " and being unsound , both in premise and conclusion , is logically inadmissible . In respect of the ancient mysteries , the question is

still " sub judice , and though Freemasons do not set so much store on the statement as the writer of thc Saturday Review hastily assumes , there is without any doubt , and we can be , —it will be seen , just as dogmatic as our censor , that there is a good deal in it , " though wc need not dilate upon so well worn a

subject lo day . The assertion that " no Masonic fraternity " " exists " or " has existed " in any part of the globe , which docs not owe Us immediate origin to any European Lodge , —is notoriously an illfoundcd one . Masonic societies , or fraternities quite akin to them , exist in the East ,

¦ ind have existed from time immemorial , and any such broad and sweeping proposition as the writer indulges in , in this respect , is opposed to all modern researches , which tend to increase , not diminish , the antiquity and reality of a Masonic system . Thc very bold and dogmatic statement , that it has been '• 'Jisputably proved that Masonry took its rise in the German Steinmetzen , "

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and was , in fact , the adaptation in 1717 of an older and " extinct organization , " but with which it had no " connexion , " is entirely opposed tothe latest discoveries and opinions of our English critical Masonic School . It is , in fact , Bro . FINDEL ' S theory , which , though able and specious in itself , has been given up , after calm reflection , by every English Masonic Student of

name and authority ! And for this reason . The first idea of a connexion between Speculative Freemasonry and thc German Steinmctzen is due to a French Roman Catholic Abbe and non-Mason , the Abbe GRANDIDIER , about 17 S 4 . This theory was adopted by an able school of German Masonic writers , but there is this fatal objection to it , that were it true " perse , " there would

have been no need for German " Freimaurer " lo come to England for charters for their " Lodges , " for they had their own Steinmetzen Lodges and "Hiitten " among them , until the end of the iSth century . But the German Freemasons had never found out the connexion or . similitude , though the " Hiitten " cxistedside by side with the lodges , and the Steinmetzen were never

called " Freemasons , " or " Freimaurer , " but simply "Steinmetzen . " The writer of the article in the Saturday Review declares that the " Steinmetzen Hiitten " were closed by an Imperial Diet in 1707 . Such a statement is clearly unhistorical . We do not know to what exact act of the Diet the writer alludes , but Kloss gives us the very words of successive recognitions of the Steimetzen

by thc Diet , until 1776 . Perhaps the writer means a decree in 1 S 07 ? Neither is it in any sense correct to say that in 1717 speculative Masons adopted the terminology and usages of extinct sodalities , inasmuch as we have ' now Masonic writers alluding to tlie existence of Masonic lodges in the latter half of the 17 th century . The contemptuous allusions to Freemasonry at the close of ] the

article , comparing it to a merely friendly and benefit club , which it is not and never will lie , and lhat it is simply meant for " charitable and convivial purposes , " is in no sense an exact or reliable representation of Freemasonry , either in what it teaches , or what it does . Such remarks reminds us of Mos-SIONORE NADI , and it is just possible that both the writer of this article in

the Saturday Review , and that eminent Roman Catholic ecclesiastic , are " sworn brethren " of that excellent lodge of "Green Goslings , " whose extinction the old writer in the " last Chronicle of Barset" regrets with characteristic melancholy . We do not think that Freemasons will in any way feel that their " vocation is gone " on account of their recent crushing and

eloquent " extinguisher . We fancy—we may be wrong—that Freemasonry will survive the severe criticisms , and the correct description , and the historical deductions of the writer in the Saturday Review , whose words we have been considering and commenting upon to-day , very dispassionately , and somewhat amusedly we confess .

* * MR . WALFORD ' S work on " Gilds , " to which a Reviewer calls attention elsewhere , is well worthy the attention of Masonic students , as a portion , a very important portion , of the annals of social life and operative customs in our country which sheds a good deal of light on thc history of thc building

socialities . We say an " important portion , " important in itself , and important for tlie Masonic student to-day , inasmuch as no history of Freemasonry can be complete which does not take into consideration the reality and life of the "Gilds . " All such researches are most valuable , as their results are interesting , and Mr . CORNELIUS WALFORD-deserves the thanks of all . students of thc old past .

* * THERE canbe but little doubt , ' wc venture to think , that we must modify the " textus receptus" of Masonic history . Bro . FINDEL \ S elaborate history , as has been long seen , able and lucid as it is , cannot satisfy that careful criticism which neither favours the theories of writers , nor overlooks

the claims of positive evidence . When Bro . FINDEL wrote , he wrote as PRESTON wrote , and ANDERSON before him , according to his lights . But time has moved on , researches have increased , a spirit of enquity and doubt has supervened , the band of Masonic students has become larger , and it is now evident that we must both reconsider the whole aspect of the

history of the Craft , and the position and antiquity of the " High Grades . In reality Hermeticism must be taken into account more than has been the wont , and we shall probably arrive some day at a conclusion in respect of Masonic history which will be both reasonable and reliable . Reasonable and reliable it will be , we hope , as it will avoid both favourite " fads , "

and preconceived persuasions . We are inclined to think that , borrowing a little , perhaps , from each theory in turn , it will offer a "tout ensemble " of Masonic history , which will satisfy the most exacting criticism on the one

hand , and be based on strictly historical evidence on the other . We have dealt too long with presumptions and possibilities , let us have in future a little certainty , a little reliability , avoiding both partizan proclivities , and " post hoc propter hoc " propositions .

- ., BEFORF . we again greet our readers the elections for the Girls' and Boys ' Schools will have taken place . We understand that " votes " are greatly in demand , andthe " subscribers" must have some difficulty in acceding to