Fair Or Foul.

feeling which dictated this decision of Grand Lodge . It is to be hoped that a full and searching enquiry will be made , and if the foul

charges alluded to jae not substantiated , we trust that the extreme penalty known to Masonic law will be meted out to the unworthy accuser .

Multum In Parbo, Or Masonic Notes And Queries.

Multum in Parbo , or Masonic Notes and Queries .

—?—THE MARK DEGREE . On reading Bro . Buchan ' s notice of the Mark degree , and the testimony of Brother Officer , G . D . of Scotland , it occurred to

me that perhaps those two well-known brethren , in connection with other qualified Fremasons in Scotland , would endeavour to trace the period of the introduction of the

Mark degree into Scotland . Where is the first minute that alludes to the Mark degree , and is such to be found worked in a Craft lodge or a Royal Arch chapter ?

Unfortunately , the records that would probably throw light on the subject are missing , and not all the endeavours of Bro . Hughan and other brethren ( well known to the Craft for their Masonic studies ) have

as yet resulted in the discovery of the important volume , which is said to contain references to the Royal Arch as early as A . D . 1 743 . The next earliest wc know of is to be found in the Banff Records of A . D .

1765 , and which have been published by Brother William James Hughan , P . M ., & c . Facts we want , and must have , if we . are

to obtain the support of the reasonable and thinking members of our ancient Fraternity . JJJ

MANUSCRIPTS . As some controversy has arisen about the true age of the MS . which is Art . 29 , 3329 Sloane MSS ., in the British Museum , I am anxious to let the brethren know that

I purpose to publish the same , very shortly , with a fac simile of the handwriting and paper-mark , that we may have the whole matter fully and fairly before us . A . S . A . WOODFORD . P . G . C .

ANTAGONISM IN THE HIGH DEGREES . A word or two in reply to " Constancy . " I alluded to " Christian Masonry" as it comes under the Irish working immediately after the R . A . Degree . I am aware that

several of the "high degrees " may be given to persons not professing the Christian faith , and that under the A . and A . Rite such degrees as the Rose Croix , which is essentially and emphatically a Christian

degree , ' is communicated to candidates not of that religion , with the clumsy and unsufficient proviso that they are at liberty to apply its teachings in connection with whatever form of faith they may

profess . I believe some of the lately " callcd-up " Prince Masons here arc able to give degrees , & c , but that such is by no means the rule

regarding them . A point that might be worth ascertaining is : In how many instances has a dispensation been required for their installation , in consequence of their comparatively short membership in the Order , & c . ?

The Rite , as worked in Ireland , is most inconsistent . It professes to derive its authority from the A . and A . Rite , but requires Templar qualifications in its candidates .

Multum In Parbo, Or Masonic Notes And Queries.

The whole subject here requires a thorough revision , which I trust it will shortly receive . Dublin . AN IRISH H . K . T . " A MASONIC STUDENT" ON THE MASTER

DEGREE AND' THE ROYAL ARCH . In your contemporary of the 26 th ult ., "A Masonic Student" observes : "Nothing can be more incorrect or unhistoric than Bro . Buchan ' s repeated assertion that ' the

Master ' s degree never existed before 1717 , ' or ' the Royal Arch until the fourth decade of last century . '" And he further says : " As regards the ' Master ' s degree , ' there is plenty of indisputable evidence to prove

that it was well known and practised in this country before 1650 , while there is a great body of proof now forthcoming that the threefold division of Master , Fellow Craft , and Apprentice is coeval with the existence of the Masonic guilds in this countrv . "

Now , no one denies the existence of this " threefold division " centuries ago ; what is denied is , that this " division " consisted of degrees , or , of our three degrees . Another point is , that this " threefold division "

existed among other crafts , as well as among the masons ; possibly the masons simply copied that system of classes from some of the other , crafts . As to the Master degree ( not " Master ' s" ) being well known and

practised before 1650 ! that , in my opinion , is a mere dream ; however , produce this pretended " indisputable evidence , " and if it is all right , I . am ready to admit it—after it is produced . More , I deliberately challenge

" A Masonic Student to back up his statement ; he has made a similar statement again and again , but I could never get him to produce his " indisputable evidence" yet . Is he able to do it now ?

He also says the Royal Arch existed before the fourth decade of last century . Now , if such were really the case , give us a little "indisputable evidence" in support of

the idea , Por my part , I am not aware of the Royal Arch being so old as 1730 , nor of its ever having been referred to in any document before then .

In shorty it appears to me that under the circumstances , "A Masonic Student , " is bound in honour as a gentleman , cither to properly substantiate his statements or else to withdraw them . His own words prove

this , for he says : " I hope my brethren generally will bear in mind that unsupported statements do not constitute proof , and that constant repetitions of oft-repeated

fallacies do not supply us with a satisfactory , or credible , or authentic history of Freemasonry in this country . " W . P . BUCHAN .

COMMITTEES OK TASTE . I fully sympathise with the remarks upon "Committees of Taste , " at page 550 ; they arc both timely and appropriate . It would seem that Freemasons arc always made the

victim ' s of defective jewellery . Look , for instance , at the wretched dumps which were presented to the Stewards at the inauguration of Freemasons' Hall ; it could hardly be supposed they could be outdone in

ugliness , but the committee , or whoever designed the " centenary jewel , " engraved in the new edition of the Constitutions , have certainly carried their point , and kept the worst till

the last . I trust , however , the issue of their hideous medal will not prevent lodges from adopting some design of their own of a better character than their guides seem able to achieve for them . VlATOK . THE ARK . Wc extract the following from "The

Multum In Parbo, Or Masonic Notes And Queries.

Freemasons' Quarterly Magazine " for July , 1854 : — If we take the Indian Bacchus , as many very erudite mythologists are inclined to do , to be derived from Noah , the introduction of the eista mystica , or sacred allegorical chest , is perfectly

accounted for ; its introduction into the Eleusinian processions and the Dionysiacal rites was frequent , and is incontestible . Virgil cannot enumerate the instruments necessary to agriculture without allusion to the mythic character of the chest , or wicker hamper ( Georg . i ., ver . 166 ) : —

" Arbutea ; crates et mystica vannus Iacchi . " The subject is so frequent on medals of a serpent , the emblem of good fortune and health , creeping into a wicker basket , that the peculiar name of c ( r ) tstoferi has been attributed to them

by numismatists , a name which the Latin artists of the Church have appropriated to a saint whom they significantly name Christopherus , from always bearing on his shoulder the mostprecious portion of the Church , its soul and founder , as

the infant Jesus . This is best illustrated by the pictorial representations of a Dionysiacal procession , figured in the " Antiquities of Herculaneum , " vol . ii ., p . 135 . A women forms part of the group , carrying on her shoulder a square

box with a projecting roof ; and what stamps it peculiarly as a type of the Noachite Ark is a door in the front . Numerous allusions to the Bacchic Ark are scattered through all the classic writers ; and so sacred was its name that , equally with the sacred

Tetragrammaton of the Jews , it was unpronounceable . Oppian ( Cyneg . ii . 258 ) calls the ark of firwood , that had contained the infant Bacchus , and which was carried in procession by the sacred choir , ) Q ] kav app-qryv , area ineffabilis ; and Homer uses the word chelos in tlie same

signification , in which both Suidas and Hesychius interpret it as Kiflo-of , an ark . Pausanias ( lib . ii . ) says that Vulcan made a small statue of Bacchus and gave it to Jupiter , who entrusted it to Dardanus , the Trojan , as the Palladium of

his newly-elected Troy . In the sacking of that city by the Greeks , the portion of Eurypylus was an ark ( yapi < a £ ) , wherein was contained this statue ; but at his first attempt to look into his ark to examine the statue , he was deprived of his

senses , and became insane . We cannot avoid alluding here lo the coincidence noted for the Ark of the Lord , which the men of Bethshemesh had profaned by looking into it , as related ( i Sam ., chap , vi ., ver . 19 ) , and the punishment

there recorded ; nor can tlie conformity of the exposure of Moses amongst the bulrushes be passed over in noting the frequent recurrence of of analogous facts in Holy Writ , and the mythological fables of the heathen . The northern

Sagas are not evempt ; the Volundr Saga tell us Voland , or Gualand ( Walter Scott's Wieland Smith , in ' ' Kenilworth * ' ) , was exposed in a chest hollowed out from a single tree ; and the Danish legend of Scaf is more curious and

interesting , as it is supposed lo designate the fate of the earliest ruler of the Schleswig Angli , and consequently the immediate progenitor of one of the tribes who conquered our island from the Britons , and settled there . The best account

we have found of this tradition is in a recemlyedited roll of British history , by Thomas Sprott , the property of Joseph Mayer , Esq ., of Liverpool , of which , at our suggestion , the libera ? proprietor consented to give a facsimile edition ,

principally for private distribution , and whose zeal and liberality have again been so amply proved in the recent purchase of the Faussett Collection of British Antiquities . After giving a spirited portrait in the margin labelled . SV- //< 7 / , the

writer proceeds : " Iste , ut ferunt , in quadam Insula Germanire avulstis sine rcmige puerulus , posito ad caput ejus framenti manipulo , ( mem patria lingua Schaf ( Anglice Sheaf ) dicitur , dormiens inventus est ; hae autcm de causa Schaf

appellatus ab liominunis lllnis regionis : pro miraculo acceptus est et sedule ( sic ) nutritus , qui adultus etate regnavit in oppido quod nunc Slaswick tunc vero Hedybye appellatur : olim dicebatur Vetus Anglia ( unde Angli in Britanniam venerunt ) inter Gothos et Saxones instituta . "