Contents.

CONTENTS .

LEADERS 479 Consecration of the Aire and Calder Chapter , No . 458 , at Goole 4 S 0 Provincial Grand Mark Lodge of Northumberland and Durham 481 Soiree and Presentation at the Masonic Hall , Liverpool 481 Royal Masonic Institution for Girls 483

Bro . the Hon . Dr . Ueaney .-Complimentary Dinner at The Criterion , * . 4 X 3 Complimentary Dinner to Bro . Henry Burn , P . M . 73 ' 483 Presentation to a Cheshire Freemason 4 S 3 CORRESPONDENCEMasonic Exchange Column 4 S 3 Subscriptions of Lodges 485 The A . and A . S . Rite in Germanv 4 S 5

Notes and Queries 4 8 G REPORTS OF MASONIC MEETINGSCraft Masonry 4 86 Instruction , 4 8 S Royal Arch 4 88 Cryptic Masonry 4 88 Scotland 4 S 8 Laying the Foundation-Stone of Langside

Parish Church 489 Masonic Hall in Geetong 489 West Lancashire Masonic Educational Institution 489 Royal Masonic Institution for Hoys 489 Obituary . ' 4 S 9 Masonic and General Tidings 490 Lodge Meetings for Next Week 49 T The Theatres 492 The Craft Abroad 493

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WHEN we come to consider the evidence afforded by the mediaeval Guilds , we soon find ourselves environed with difficulties of no ordinary character . Guilds undoubtedly existed from Roman times , and probably do hail , as we say , in some form and shape from Roman Collegia . But our word Guild is of Saxon origin , and seems to have no analogy with the

Roman Collegium . The features of the Guilds social , religious , and Craft Guilds undoubtedly , as far as we know them , seem to- correspond with those discovered and educed by Mr . COOTE from Roman evidences and specialist authorities ; and , perhaps , it may be fairly contended , without fear of doubt , that sodalities , whether in the shape of a

" Summoria , " or " phratria , " or " To Koinon , " or a Collegium , or a Sodalicium , were Oriental in idea and outcome , and ot general usage and wide extent in earlier forms of society and nationality . The Anglo-Saxons , and the Danes , had undoubtedly Guilds , and with the Norman Invasion probably came in these " Loges " of " Macons , " " Cementarii , "

& c , which henceforth , until the siHteenth century , under whatever forms or attributes , or name , and with whatever powers , were , undoubtedly , the builders of our great buildings in England . The earliest trace of an Operative Guild , after the Norman Invasion , is that of the Tylers of Lincoln , 1346 , published by TOULMIN SMITH . But as he tells us 600 Guild returns ,

made in 1389 , are still extant , though decaying in one of our law offices , we can hardly say what earlier evidence of a Craft Guild may be in storefor us . Mr . TOULMIN SMITH also gives us the proportion of Craft Guilds to social and religious Guilds ; and what he publishes is so small and unimportant , as to lead to the conviction that a large number of Craft

returns still remain undiscovered , unannotated , :, guncollated and unexamined . The Tylers of Lincoln , commonly called "Poyntours , " had a Dean , a Graceman , and two Wardens , as their official representatives . Every " incomer , " ( a Tyler , we presume , from another town , ) was to

" make himself known to the Graceman , but could only be " admitted by the common consent of the Guild , and be sworn to keep the ordinances . As an entrance fee , each was to give a quarter of barley , pay 2 d . to the dole , and rd . to the Dean . An annual feast was to be held nn the Festival of

Corpus Christi , which then often lasted more than one day , and on " each day " the members were to have " three flagons , " and "five or six tankards . 'Ale' was to be given to the poor , " and prayers were to be said , and pilgrims helped . Women could be members of the Guild , " fratres et sorores . " Members were to ' 'be buried , and their burials provided for , by

the Graceman , the two Wardens , and the Dean . "If any brother ' did anything " underhanded , " and with "ill will , by which another will be wronged in working his Craft , he shall pay to the Gild a pound of wax , without any room for grace . " No Tyler , or Poyntour , " shall stay in the City , unless he enters the Guild . " Such

are the simple laws of one of the earliest Craft Guilds whose ordinances have been collated , though , as we said before , many others , and perhaps earlier ones , are still extant . It is remarkable to note to-day how this Guild life permeated England , in town and country , and how Guilds either met in one Common Hall for all the Guilds of the town ,

— with a Common and Supreme Council lor all the Guilds , or in a Guild Hall of their own . When in 1 EDWD , VI . a large number of Craft and other Guilds were suppressed , and the houses , and lands , and goods seized , no doubt much of the property and many of the old places ° f meeting fell into private hands , and after this lapse of years have

¦ alien utterly into decay , and are very difficult to trace . The [ religious , social , and Craft Guilds played a very striking part in the common life of England until the sixteenth century , and which fact , strange to say , has hardly yet been realized , and never fully developed or dealt with

b y any of our historians . The lodges of Masons in the seventeenth century at Warrington , Chester , York , and London , in Staffordshire , and up and down the land , seem to be the continuation and reorganization ot the old Craft Guilds , which , preserved in large towns , under municipal protection , grace , and absorption , gradually dwindled away in the country

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parts , until they became , in the language of the seventeenth century , "lodges of that Iimitt . " It is curious , to say the least of it , that we preserve in Masonic language the term " make himself known , " used with some definite meaning in the ordinances of the Guild of the Tylers of Lincoln in 1346 , though the return is only dated 1380 . So far ,

no Guild return of the Operative Masons has been found . If it ever turns up , or is verified in those mildewed returns already alluded to , by some student like Bro . W . H . RYLANDS , we shall see how far we still preserve the technical terms and ceremonial usages in 18 S 5 of v operative Masons in 1389 . We must not expect too much , as such records are from the nature of

the case and the customs of the time both scant and curt . This fact also explains the remarkable brevity and condensation of the earliest lodge entries . It will be seen by our readers that , though the Guilds existed , we still know very little about them , and that therefore it becomes a most difficult thing to assert as a matter of historical certainty and accuracy that the

Freemasonry of to-day is to be traced up through mediaeval and earlier Guilds to the Roman Colleges , and thence to eastern Sodalities . The ] probablity is that such is the case , and that we have in the Masonic lodges of the seventeenth century , from whence the lodges of the eighteenth century were undoubtedly derived , the remains of the old Craft Guilds , eventually

despoiled and dissolved by EDWARD VI . There seem to be traces , as we said last week , of a sort of admission form or ceremonial in the York Fabric Rolls , and all the statutes of the Guilds at present before us contain a formula for an oath of admission , and allude to a reception . That remarkable feature in one of the York Guild

Constitutions , alluding to the membership of females , is proved by the customs of many other Guilds to be not at all dubious or questionable . In fact that form of the York Constitution points to probably an active Craft Guild of Masons at York , whose other documents have passed away . Can nothing

be done to collate and publish the still existing Craft Guild returns ? They might throw great light both on Guild life and Masonic customs , and while they foi us , as Masons have a larger interest , for all archseological students they have that importance and concern which arise from a careful collation and manipulation of authentic documents and bona fide evidences .

WE understand that our benevolent Bro . CAMA will certainly be put forward again by his friends as a candidate for the office of Grand Treasurer at the

proper time . The admirers of Bro . CAMA ' S equally benevolent father , Bro . PESTONJEE HORMUSJEE CAMA , are placing his marble bust in the hospital which he is so munificently erecting and endowing on the Esplanade , Bombay , and to be called the Cama Hospital .

» » THE meeting of the Provincial Grand Lodge of North Wales and Shropshire , which was held at Denbigh on the 21 st ult ., and of which we gave a full report last week , deserves at our hands a brief passing notice . It was the final meetingof a province , which under the genial government of its

late respected P . G . M ., R . W . Bro . Sir W . WILLIAMS-WYNN , Bart ., M . P ., had played its part successfully during the thirty and three years of its existence . When the late baronet was installed in office early in 1852 , only four of the 28 lodges now existing were established , namely the two Shrewsbury Lodges , Nos . 117 and 262 , the senior Bangor Lodge , No . 384 , and the

Lodge at Holyhead , No . 597 . North Wales , too , though the oldest of four provincial organisations , had been without a ruler for many years , the patent of Sir WATKIN ' S predecessor as P . G . M . of this section of his province bearing date the year 1753 . But in the interval between 1852 and the present year , Masonry in this part of the country advanced by leaps and

bounds , and when the late chief died there were 28 lodges on the roll , 18 of them being located in North Wales and the remaining ten in Shropshire . This , as times go , and having regard to several of our provinces , is by no means an excessive complement of lodges , but the extent of country over which they ate spread is immense , and even the most enthusiastic and

active chief would find it hard work to traverse so considerable a district as often as he would like in order to keep his lodges up to the mark , and the brethren , unless provincial lodge meetings were always held at some centrally accessible place , would find it both irksome and perhaps expensive to attend . It was , therefore , a politic act on the part of the Grand Master

to break up the province and create out of it afresh the separate Provinces of North Wales and Shropshire , with Lord HVRLECH , a former Deputy of Bro . Sir VVATKIN , as P . G . M . of the former , and his latest Deputy , Bro .

Sir OFFLEY WAKEMAN , as P . G . M . of the latter . In the face of this new arrangement , a final meeting of the old province would be necessary , in order to make just provision in respect of the votes held by it to our several Institutions and other matters . This provision was made at Denbigh on