Correspondence.

Correspondence .

We do not hold ourselves responsible for the opinions expressed by our correspondents , but we wish , in a spirit of fair play to all , to permit—within certain necessary limitsfree discussion .

QUALIFICATION OF PAST PRINCIPALS . To the Editor of the "Freemason . " Dear Sir and Brother , I am exceedingly obliged to Bro . H . Lovegrove , P . G . Std . Br ., for his reply to my question . I am fully aware that Rule 2 is quite clear ; but this is just my question which came to my mind :

How can a companion be a Grand Officer in the chapter who has not been a subscribing member for many years ; he might perhaps have lately joined a chapter ( which I doubt ) , but certainly he has not passed the chair again ? This being the case , I thought perhaps I did not quite understand Rule 2 . — Yours fraternally , AN OLD P . Z . September sth .

Free And Freemasonry.

FREE AND FREEMASONRY .

BY BRO . R . F GOULD . I . The sea of knowledge , with its din , Before us breaks , and wc , We thrust our little dippers in And think we ' ve drained the sea . —S . W . Foss .

A paper of great originality and power , bearing the above title , was read by Bro . G . W . Speth before the Lodge of the Quatuor Coronati , on the 8 th of J anuary , 1897 . Since the foregoing date , several new " parts" of the great " English Dictionary " of the Philological Society , have appeared , and attention has already been directed in the present journal ( of August 6 th and 13 th ) to

definitions which are given of the words Free and Freemason . The first letter on the subject was written by the Rev . E . Fox-Thomas and the next by Dr . Chetwode Crawley , but to the remarks of the latter brother I shall first of all refer , as they supply the reason why I have selected certain definitions occurring under the letter F . in the " New English Dictionary , " as presenting a suitable theme for an article in the Freemason .

Dr . Crawley , after stating that a modification of Bro . Speth's theory has been adopted by the learned Editors of the Dictionary , goes on to say , " The tribunal is the highest in the Republic of Letters as far as Philosophy is concerned . The Editors are men of world-wide reputation as scholars , they are completely outside the Craft , and thus totally unbiassed by the

traditional misconception that we have inherited from our Masonic forefathers . We must ruefully acknowledge that the number of Masonic authors whose works command respect among scholars can be summed up on the fingers . Hence the great value of the a uthoritative recognition [ italics mine ] of this theory of Bro . Speth's , at once so novel and so modestly introduced . "

I shall premise that the excellent paper read b y Bro . Speth , has no warmer admirer than myself . It is in every respect an ornament to the columns of Ars Quatuor Coronatorum , andone hardly knows whether to pay the greater tribute of respect to the patient industry of the writer , or to the masterly manner in which his arguments are arranged .

Anything like an adequate summary of the views advanced by Brc Speth , in what he so modestly terms " a Tentative Enquiry , " would carry me too far , but his principal conclusion has been summed up very tersely and Well by Bro . Conder ( in discussing the paper ) , whose words I reproduce : " That about the end of the thirteenth century or early in the fourteenth , the members of our Craft were known as freemasons , because they were free

from , and not free of trade Guilds and municipal authority ; that is to say , they were in no way bound by Civic or Guild rules and regulations , and in fact occupied an almost unique position unknown in every other handicraft , that of being able to rely on their own constitutions ^ nd laws for support and reference in any case of dispute , and on the Church in particular for their daily employment . " The same brother continues , and with irresistible cogency—* to prove this theory is a difficulty , to refute ita greater . "

, The editors of the " English Dictionary , " however , after examining and rejecting two popular theories ( 1 ) that freemason was derived from mason de franche peer , and ( 2 ) that freemasons were those who were " free" of the masons' guild , proceed to deal with what I have called the " principal conclusion " of our Bro . Speth , which they recite very much

after the manner of Bro . Conder , and conclude by an expression of tneir opinion , that " perhaps the best hypothesis is that the term refers to the mediaeval practice of emancipating skilled artisans in order that they might be able to travel and render their services wherever any great building was in process of construction . "

" It will be seen ( observes Bro . Crawley ) "that a modification of B : o . Speth's theory has been adopted by the learned Editors after prolonged research and an exhaustive survey of the whole ground . " " That " an exhaustive survey of the whole ground" cannot possibly have been made by the compilers of the " Dictionary " will shortly enter into the scope of these remarks , but I shall submit , in the first instance ,

that even if the dictum of our Bro . Crawley is to be regarded as incontrovertible , that in the matter immediately before us , the " tribunal " whose decision he quotes so approvingly , as "the highest in the Republic of Letters , " the utmost point to which it carries us , is by no means an " Authoritative recognition of Bro . Speth ' s Philological theory of the words Free and Freemason , " but by the greatest latitude of interpretation can onl y

be viewed as elevating it into the position of what may be described in the language of Dr . Kuenen , as the " dominant hypothesis . " * Dr . Crawley observes with much force , that the number of Masonic authors whose works command respect among scholars is infinitesimal . The " fact , " for such it undoubtedly is , must , as he pleasantly puts it , be " ruefully acknowledged "; nevertheless a melancholy consolation may perhaps be derived from the relleclion that , in the abyss of ignorance to which we ace

Free And Freemasonry.

consigned , there is a lower depth still , which is occupied by those—including scholars and men-of-Ietters—who venture to write on the subject of Freemasonry , without having been admitted within the portals of the Institution . Exceptio probat retrulam— " The exception proves the rule "—and in the

course of a long Masonic life , I can remember but a solitary instance of anyone unacquainted with our " mysteries , " having written with discrimination on topics which fall , in strictness , within the province of Masonic writers , and are rarely discussed except in what , for want of a better term , may be called the literature of the Craft .

The well-known architectural writer and historian , Wyatt Papworthwhose comparatively recent death will be fresh in the recollections of most readers of the Freemason— -is the authority to whom I allude . Nearly 40 years ago , Mr . Papworth read a Paper on the " Superintendents of English Buildings in the Middle Ages , " which appeared in the Transactions of the R . I . B . A . for i 860 , and , after a lapse of more than a quarter of a century , it was awarded the rare distinction of reproduction in the same professional journal .

To what may be called the second edition of this remarkable Paper— , which will be found in the Transactions of the R . I . B . A . ( 1 S 87 ) , Vol . iii ., N . S ., pp . 185—234—was appended the following editorial note : " The contributions , perhaps as important as any ever published by the Royal Institute of British Architects , having been now thoroughly revised under the care of Mr . Papworth , are here reprinted , with further notes and other addenda ,

collated by him . The esteem shown for his various Papers has been proved by the reference to them and reprints from them in various publications , especially by Mr . J . G . Findel ( 'History of Freemasonry , ' Svo ., Lond ., 1 S 66 , translated from the German ) , and by Mr . R . F . Gould ( ' History of Freemasonry , ' 4 to ., six vols ., Lond ., 1882-87 ) , who , to some extent following the same enquiry , not only availed himself largely of the contents , but carefully added to them , criticised various portions , and elaborated others . "

It may be added , that the original authorities for the " Master Masons , " and for many of the other statements contained in the Paper aforesaid , will be found in The Dictionary , issued by the Architectural Publication Society , where also articles by Mr . Papworth , under the headings of " Architect , Freemason , Lodge , Master Mason , " etc ., etc ., can be referred to .

The Editors of the " English Dictionary " of the Philological Society do not , however , appear to have studied Wyatt Papworth except through the medium of Bro . Findel , and the latter , I more than suspect , drew his inspiration not from the original fount , but from a somewhat imperfect copy of the Paper printed by the R . I . B . A . in 1 S 60 , which was published in the Freemasons' Magazine and Masonic Mirror of slightly later date .

But I must proceed by steps , and the point to which I shall next address - myself is the question—Whether there are others besides the late Wyatt Papworth who , though not belonging to the Craft , can be relied upon either as purveyors of authentic Masonic intelligence , or as sagacious critics in matters closely bound up with the history of the Fraternity . To begin with the encyclopedias , can an example be given where the subject of " Masonry" ( or " Freemasonry " ) has been treated with the

slightest approach to accuracy in any one of these repositories ? It is true , no doubt , that an excellent account of the Masonic Institution will be found in " Johnson ' s Universal Cyclopaedia " ( New York , 1 S 95 ) , which may seem at a first view to answer my question in the affirmative ; but as the familiar name of "Josiah H . Drummond " is subscribed to the article , the illustration has really no bearing whatever on the point I have submitted for consideration .

But while it is very evident that the encyclopaedists are not to be relied upon in their accounts of Freemasonry , shall we be justified in arriving at a different conclusion when we pass into the region of lexicography , and examine more particularly the definitions of " Free " and " Freemason , " which are given in the Dictionary of the Philological Society .

A copious extract from the latest addition to the" dictionary " was given by Bro . E . Fox-Thomas , in the Freemason ol August 6 th ( p . 370 ) , a portion of which I reproduce : " Free masons , in the fourteenth and following centuries , were a certain class of skilled workers in stone v they travelled from place to place , finding employment wherever important buildings were

being erected , and had a system of secret signs and passwords by which a craftsman who had been admitted , on giving evidence of competent skill could be recognised v In 1717 , under the guidance of the physicist , J . T . Desaguliers , four of these societies or ' lodges' in London united to form a ' Grand Lodge , ' with a new Constitution and ritual , and a system of secret signs . "

That the " Freemasons " ( or Masons ) of the fourteenth century possessed a system of secret signs and words by which a travelling workman could be recognised , is a statement that will be more particularly examined in the final portion of the present article , but I may at once remark , that to the best of my own knowledge , nothing but conjecture—pure and simple—can be advanced in its support .

The next assertion , namely , that Dr . Desaguliers was the founder of the first of Grand Lodges , has been made , apparently , on the authority of Findel , _ who , at p . 136 of his well kno vn work , incorporates with a narrative of the ' proceedings of the Grand Lodge of England , a highly imaginative magazine article , dealing with and summarily deciding one of the most important points in Masonic history . Long ago—February 26 : h , 1 SS 1 —I wrote in the

breemtaon , " As a suggestion , speculation , or theory , the reconstruction of the Society by Desaguliers may , perhaps , be soberly entertained , but as the statement of a fact , and unsupported by a scintilla of evidence , its appearance in such ' Masonic Classics' as Findel ' s ' History of Masonry , ' and Lyon ' s ' History of the Lodge of Edinburgh , ' is calculated , to say the least , to weaken the authority of those standard works . "

The journal on which Bros . Findel and Lyon relied , was the Masomc Eclectic ( now defunct ) , a monthly magazine , edited by John W . Simons and Robert Macoy , and published at New York . In volume 1 , at p . 189 , there appears , — " Desaguliers , by the Latomia Society of Atlantic Lodge , " and the following are the opening words of the article , — " That the revival of Masonry in 1717 , or rather the new form which it then assumed as a spiculntivc institution , was mainly owing to the efforts of Dr . Desaguliers there seems

to be no doubt . " We are further told , and the ipsissima verba re-appear in the famous " Histories " referred to above , that " the spirit of toleration which I Desaguliers j found prevailing among the members of the fraternity , inspired him with the idea of reconstructing the Society on a basis which should unite together in harmony those who were divided by relig ious and political schisms . " The " Latomia , " or Masonic Historical Society 01 Atlantic Lodge , No . 17 S , New York , was founded in October , 1 S 5 S , for the purpose of encouraging and promoting the study of Freemasonry , by a fr * ** 6