Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Answers To The Memorial Of The Oldge Of Glasgow St. John,
ANSWERS TO THE MEMORIAL OF THE OLDGE OF GLASGOW ST . JOHN ,
No . 3 bis . ( Vide Memorial at page 662 of THE FREEMASON , Dec . ijt / i , 1870 J 151 , West Nile-street , Glasgow , December 14 th , 1870 .
To the Most Worshipful the Grand Master Mason of Scotland , the Right Worshipful Depute and Substitute Grand Masters , the R . IV . Senior and Junior Grand Wardens , and the Remanent Officebearers and Members of the Grand Lodge of Freemasons of Scotland .
DEAR BRETHREN , —At the meeting of the Grand Lodge of Scotland , held in the Freemasons' Hall , Edinburgh , upon the 7 th day of November , 1870 , a document was read by Bro . John Baird , R . W . M . No . 3 bis , purporting to be a memorial or petition sent in by the Lodge of Glasgow St . John , No . 3
bis , anent the carrying of the working tools at Masonic processions in the Glasgow province . After this document had been read and presented , I took the liberty to remark to the effect that I ( although a member of No . 3 bis ) knew nothing about this document , and would consider myself
disgraced were my name attached to it ; and as for the Malcolm Charter , to which allusion was made in it , I considered it to be nothing else than a disgraceful forgery . After this-, a motion was proposed by Bro . William Officer , Acting Junior Grand Wardenand unanimously agreed to , that this
, memorial from the Lodge of Glasgow St . John , No . 3 bis , should lie upon the table until next quarterly communication , so as to afford time for examination into its contents . Since then I have received from Bro . John Lawrie . Grand Clerk , a " certified true copy " of this memorial , as also , at
the same time , a letter from him dated 8 th December , 1870 , requiring me to lodge with him , within fourteen days , mv reasons for making the statements I made regarding it at the quarterly communication on 7 th November , 1870 . Accordingly , in answer to this request , I respectfully beg leave to present the following remarks : —
Firstly . I beg leave to observe that , although this document was presented to Grand Lodge upon the 7 th day of November , 1870 , in name of the Lodge of Glasgow St . John , No . 3 bis , yet said document was not read in , or adopted by , the Lodge of Glasgow St . John , No . 3 bis , until the
15 th November , 1870 , or eight days after its presentation ! At which meeting I was present , and , as a member of No . 3 bis , condemned it , and likewise reiterated my opinion that the " Malcolm Charter " they were founding upon was a forgery . Secondly . Said document or memorial is , in my
opinion , a very imperfect one , and contains many mistakes , as I shall proceed to show . Consequently , if such be the case , it would be anything but complimentary to any person to have his name attached to it . In proof of which I proceed to take up the " First " head of this memorial , which states
that " the Lodge of Glasgow St . John ( No . 3 bis ) had , by charter dated 1157 , conferred upon them and their predecessors the whole rights and privileges of Masonry within the city of Glasgow , " & c . Now , the first question here evidently is : Is this pretended " charter dated 1157 " genuine ? To
which I answer , No ' . Further , before going into the proof of its non-genuineness , allow me to remind the Right Worshipful Office-bearers of the Grand Lodge that when this St . John ' s Lodge , in 1849-50 , wished to join the Grand Lodge of Scotland , they then brought up this same pretended charter , and
held it forth as being granted to them by Malcolm 3 rd , Canmore , King of Scots , in 1057 ; but upon examination thereof the Grand Lodge of Scotland at that time very justly decidedly refused to acknowledge said document as a charterof Malcolm
the Third ' s , or of date 1057 , and gave them their position of No . 3 bis upon the 1628 Roslin Charter . Now , however , in this case it will be observed that the date given is 1157 , which takes 100 years off its pretended age , and brings it down to the time of Malcolm IV .
However , whether the date given out be 1051 , 1057 , or 1157 , all , in my opinion , are equally false , for , upon examining the document itself , we find it saying , My true age is much neater 1 S 57 than any of the foregoing dates—as I now proceed to shew : First . The styles of the writing , and also of the Latin , are quite modern , as also the character of
its contents comparatively so ; while , in some points , it reminds me of the Glasgow Burgh Charter , 1175 , as given in McUre ' s ( 1736 ) "History of Glasgow . " Second . The idea of an incorporation of Masons in Glasgow receiving a Royal Charter from either Malcolm III . or IV . is absurd and contrary to all reliable Scottish history .
Answers To The Memorial Of The Oldge Of Glasgow St. John,
Third . Even Glasgow itself did not receive its charter of erection as a Bishop ' s Burgh until the reign of William the Lion , and about A . D . 1175 . Fourth . In tracing back the existence of this document as far as possible , I have been unable as yet to discover any evidence of its existence before
the year 1806 , or nearly sixty-five years ago . At this time a Masonic procession was to take place in Glasgow in honour of the laying of the foundation-stone of the Nelson ' s monument on Glasgow Green , and at which procession the members of the Glasgow Freemen Operative St . John ' s Lodge ,
although not then in connection with the Grand Lodge of Scotland , not only wished to be present , but also to take precedence . The Glasgow St . Mungo Lodge , which was then the senior lodge of the province on the Grand Lodge roll , however , objected to this , as per
their minutes of that date ( a copy of which appears at page 2 ° 7 , & c , of the Freemasons' Maga zine for Oct . 15 th , 1 S 70 ) , where they rest upon the Laws and Regulations of the Grand Lodge of Scotland , especially appendix iii ., chap , xii ., as given at page 324 of Alexander Lawrie ' s " History of
Freemasonry ,- " published in 1 S 04 , and resting upon which they refused to acknowledge the St . John ' s Lodge , and call this Malcolm document , which was so opportunely brought foi ward or "discovered' ' then , a " pretended charter ; " and in refusing to allow the St . John ' s Lodge to interfere with them ,
they are backed up by Bro . William Guthrie , Grand Secretary , and also by Sir John Stuart of Allanbank , the Provincial Grand Master , who says , '' On no account can or will I permit any lodge to appear in this procession that does not hold of the Grand Lodge of Scotland . "
All this shows how mistaken are the statements in this St . John ' s memorial , which say , " those privileges were never called in question , " or , where it states that the St . John ' s Lodge " were assigned by virtue of their position precedence in rank over all the daughter lodges of Scotland . " For all , that I
am aware , they got in 1 S 06 was that St . John Stuart asked for " five or six handsome figures of operatives having black cloathes to carry my proper ensigns ; " and it so happened that the operatives , having " handsome figures " and " black cloathes , " so chosen , belonged to St . John ' s Lodge , which was
so far a credit to that body ; but that might have been only an accident so far , and it was a concession of Sir John Stuart to take them , as he entirely refuses to acknowledge or have any intercourse with the Glasgow St . John ' s Lodge as such ; for the Grand Lodge of Scotland , as an independent
body , and as the head of Speculative Freemasonry in Scotland , is not bound to recognise the pretensions of any operative or other lodge out of its pale , or even within it , any further than it may rightly consider said pretensions to be just and reasonable . The pretensions of operative Masons are one thing ,
the prerogative and constitution of the Grand Lodge of Scotland another . Further , even the minutes pf the Lodge St . John themselves prove the mistake of saying " those privileges were never called in question , " for in ¦ 833 , when the foundation-stone of the
jamauiastreet Bridge at Glasgow was to be laid , these socalled privileges of theirs were disallowed ; however , great agitation was got up , and considerable pressure put upon the Lord Provost * and Dr . Cleland , Superintendent of Public Works , which latter had been imposed upon by the pretended Malcolm
Charter , and had even published a so-called translation of it in his " Annals of Glasgow , " as per vol . ii ., page 485 . But whether the English " translation , " or the pseudo " old monkish Latin " be the older , I cannot at present affirm . However , no doubt by appealing to this precious document they
carried their point , to a certain extent at least , not , as I consider , because of any just and ( awful right they had to interfere with the proceedings of the Grand Lodge of Scotland then ; but because local influence backed up , as it seems to me , by falsehood , fraud , and imposition , mixed with , or
working upon , ignorance , were for the time triumphant . Then be it observed that all the occasions mentioned in this memorial from the St . John ' s Lodge as the precedents , where some of its members have carried the tools in Masonic processions in Glasgow , are after A . D . 1806 , as the oldest date
there given is ibio . Consequently , seeing that this is the case , and that it was the St . John ' s Ledge itself which brought forward or " discovered " this pretended Malcolm Charter in 1 S 06 to further its pretentions then , and has ever since upheld it as a
great foundation of those pretensions , it follows that if said pretended charter be false , a- ; I consider it is , all these pretensions based upon it fall at once to the ground , and the Lodge of Glasgow St . John as such , and as a lodge holding of the Grand Lodge of Scotland has no more right and
Answers To The Memorial Of The Oldge Of Glasgow St. John,
privilege over any of the other lodges under the sway of Grand Lodge than its position of No . 3 bis gives it , or the laws of Grand Lodge allow it . Another point I may here mention is that although when St . John ' s joined the Grand Lodge of Scotland , about twenty years ago , it got the high
position of No . 3 bis , yet founding upon this pretended Malcolm Charter , they have been again and again hinting at demanding a higher position on the Grand Lodge roll ; in fact , this was made the foundation of a sort of standing grievance , by which , as it appears to me , a feeling was kept up the members of
among No . 3 bis as if they had not got justice at the hands of Grand Lodge as per , inter alia , a motion by Bro . D . Hannay , Senior Warden , alluded to in a St . John ' s Lodge minute , of date 4 th August , 1 S 6 3 : "That steps ' be taken to have this lodge placed in its proper position on
the roll of the Grand Lodge of Scotland ; " and , again , at the December festival of St . John ' s Lodge , 1807 , which was styled their " 810 th Anniversary !' and at which Bro . Captain Speirs , of Eldcrslie , M . P ., the newly-elected Prov . G . M . for Glasgow , was present , and acted as Chairman ( vide report of
proceedings as given in Freemason's Magazine for January nth , 1868 ) , we find him saying , ' upon the authority of this pretended Malcolm Charter : " That although their lodge ranked y / z in the Grand Lodge of Scotland , it was not in its proper place , " and so on . Then , later still , we find Bro . Thomas M'Guffie
( the same , I suppose , who is mentioned in the memorial as carrying the plate ) , asserting in the Glasgow Herald , of date June 17 th , 1870 ( and as we also see by Freemason's Magazine , of date July 9 lh , 1 S 70 ) , that " The Glasgow Freemen Operative St . John ' s Lodge is the senior lodge in Scotland ,
even to the Grand Lodge ; and had our predecessors in office done tln-ir duty , every lodge in Scotland would have required to get a charter from them , and the St . John ' s would now be in the receipt of a large income , which I suppose the Grand Lodge now enjoys I" Se we perceive that
founding upon Malcolm's pretended charter the members of Glasgow St . John ' s Lodge would not only rise above all the other lodges in Scotland , but would fain soar above the Grand Lodge itself . However , the statements made by Bro . Captain Speirs , P . G . M ., at the so-called "gioth
Anniversary " of St . John ' s Lodge in December , 1867 , led to an examination into the authenticity of this pretended Macolm Charter , and in which examination circumstances led 111 c to take an active part , and not only so , but under these circumstances I was bound in honour as a gentleman to make the result
of said examination known , whatever that result was , which I did ; and although by doing so I felt that many of my brethren in the lodge might be displeased , I could not help that , but simply strove to act upon the square , and to do what I felt to be
my duly , be the result what it might . Therefore , I not only made a personal examination of the document myself , but have also striven to get it examined by , or to learn the opinions of some of the best authorities in the country , which opinions I now proceed to give : —
Dr . Anderson , in his " Memoirs of the House of Hamilton , says : " Apart from other considerations the writing is not above 200 or 300 years old . " Professor Cosmo Inncs , V . P . R . S . E ., S . A . S . Scot ., & c , whose high standing and skill as a chartologist are well known , as witness his 'cting as editor to
that splendid new work , '" The National Manuscripts of Scotland , " and many other authoritative and first-class works , and who saw it in 1 S 68 , said it was a forgery executed within the last 150 years , or taking plenty of time , within 200 at the utmost . Further , it was made up of pieces taken out of
different charters , and stuck together . Even before he saw it , and from a description of it which I sent him , he said it was a forgery ; and when I asked him how he knew that before he saw it , he very kindly and courteously answered , " Our first Corporate Charters were to burghs , and not till long
after came those to the gilds and corporations within and under burghs ; but we have no charters to burghs till William the Lion ( 1165-1214 ) . " So you see it did not require much sagacity to stamp the charter of Malcolm , full of the phraseology and the minute distinctions of a much later
day , as a forgery . The late Dr . G . A . Walker Arnotr , the distinguished Professor of Botany in the University of Glasgow , and who long tool . " an active interest in Masonry , as well as holdirg several high offices therein , called ibis pretended . barter a forgery , and shortly before his death wrote me as follows : —
" 2311 ! May , tSOS . — On getting out of bed this forenoon (& c ) , 1 read the Glasgow Herald , and in it what I presume is a letter from you , signed ' W . P . Ii / I congratulate you on the frank and open manner in which you state your conclusions ; and were such to be done in other cases , many discourteous dissensions would cense , " & c . ( To bt continued . )
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Answers To The Memorial Of The Oldge Of Glasgow St. John,
ANSWERS TO THE MEMORIAL OF THE OLDGE OF GLASGOW ST . JOHN ,
No . 3 bis . ( Vide Memorial at page 662 of THE FREEMASON , Dec . ijt / i , 1870 J 151 , West Nile-street , Glasgow , December 14 th , 1870 .
To the Most Worshipful the Grand Master Mason of Scotland , the Right Worshipful Depute and Substitute Grand Masters , the R . IV . Senior and Junior Grand Wardens , and the Remanent Officebearers and Members of the Grand Lodge of Freemasons of Scotland .
DEAR BRETHREN , —At the meeting of the Grand Lodge of Scotland , held in the Freemasons' Hall , Edinburgh , upon the 7 th day of November , 1870 , a document was read by Bro . John Baird , R . W . M . No . 3 bis , purporting to be a memorial or petition sent in by the Lodge of Glasgow St . John , No . 3
bis , anent the carrying of the working tools at Masonic processions in the Glasgow province . After this document had been read and presented , I took the liberty to remark to the effect that I ( although a member of No . 3 bis ) knew nothing about this document , and would consider myself
disgraced were my name attached to it ; and as for the Malcolm Charter , to which allusion was made in it , I considered it to be nothing else than a disgraceful forgery . After this-, a motion was proposed by Bro . William Officer , Acting Junior Grand Wardenand unanimously agreed to , that this
, memorial from the Lodge of Glasgow St . John , No . 3 bis , should lie upon the table until next quarterly communication , so as to afford time for examination into its contents . Since then I have received from Bro . John Lawrie . Grand Clerk , a " certified true copy " of this memorial , as also , at
the same time , a letter from him dated 8 th December , 1870 , requiring me to lodge with him , within fourteen days , mv reasons for making the statements I made regarding it at the quarterly communication on 7 th November , 1870 . Accordingly , in answer to this request , I respectfully beg leave to present the following remarks : —
Firstly . I beg leave to observe that , although this document was presented to Grand Lodge upon the 7 th day of November , 1870 , in name of the Lodge of Glasgow St . John , No . 3 bis , yet said document was not read in , or adopted by , the Lodge of Glasgow St . John , No . 3 bis , until the
15 th November , 1870 , or eight days after its presentation ! At which meeting I was present , and , as a member of No . 3 bis , condemned it , and likewise reiterated my opinion that the " Malcolm Charter " they were founding upon was a forgery . Secondly . Said document or memorial is , in my
opinion , a very imperfect one , and contains many mistakes , as I shall proceed to show . Consequently , if such be the case , it would be anything but complimentary to any person to have his name attached to it . In proof of which I proceed to take up the " First " head of this memorial , which states
that " the Lodge of Glasgow St . John ( No . 3 bis ) had , by charter dated 1157 , conferred upon them and their predecessors the whole rights and privileges of Masonry within the city of Glasgow , " & c . Now , the first question here evidently is : Is this pretended " charter dated 1157 " genuine ? To
which I answer , No ' . Further , before going into the proof of its non-genuineness , allow me to remind the Right Worshipful Office-bearers of the Grand Lodge that when this St . John ' s Lodge , in 1849-50 , wished to join the Grand Lodge of Scotland , they then brought up this same pretended charter , and
held it forth as being granted to them by Malcolm 3 rd , Canmore , King of Scots , in 1057 ; but upon examination thereof the Grand Lodge of Scotland at that time very justly decidedly refused to acknowledge said document as a charterof Malcolm
the Third ' s , or of date 1057 , and gave them their position of No . 3 bis upon the 1628 Roslin Charter . Now , however , in this case it will be observed that the date given is 1157 , which takes 100 years off its pretended age , and brings it down to the time of Malcolm IV .
However , whether the date given out be 1051 , 1057 , or 1157 , all , in my opinion , are equally false , for , upon examining the document itself , we find it saying , My true age is much neater 1 S 57 than any of the foregoing dates—as I now proceed to shew : First . The styles of the writing , and also of the Latin , are quite modern , as also the character of
its contents comparatively so ; while , in some points , it reminds me of the Glasgow Burgh Charter , 1175 , as given in McUre ' s ( 1736 ) "History of Glasgow . " Second . The idea of an incorporation of Masons in Glasgow receiving a Royal Charter from either Malcolm III . or IV . is absurd and contrary to all reliable Scottish history .
Answers To The Memorial Of The Oldge Of Glasgow St. John,
Third . Even Glasgow itself did not receive its charter of erection as a Bishop ' s Burgh until the reign of William the Lion , and about A . D . 1175 . Fourth . In tracing back the existence of this document as far as possible , I have been unable as yet to discover any evidence of its existence before
the year 1806 , or nearly sixty-five years ago . At this time a Masonic procession was to take place in Glasgow in honour of the laying of the foundation-stone of the Nelson ' s monument on Glasgow Green , and at which procession the members of the Glasgow Freemen Operative St . John ' s Lodge ,
although not then in connection with the Grand Lodge of Scotland , not only wished to be present , but also to take precedence . The Glasgow St . Mungo Lodge , which was then the senior lodge of the province on the Grand Lodge roll , however , objected to this , as per
their minutes of that date ( a copy of which appears at page 2 ° 7 , & c , of the Freemasons' Maga zine for Oct . 15 th , 1 S 70 ) , where they rest upon the Laws and Regulations of the Grand Lodge of Scotland , especially appendix iii ., chap , xii ., as given at page 324 of Alexander Lawrie ' s " History of
Freemasonry ,- " published in 1 S 04 , and resting upon which they refused to acknowledge the St . John ' s Lodge , and call this Malcolm document , which was so opportunely brought foi ward or "discovered' ' then , a " pretended charter ; " and in refusing to allow the St . John ' s Lodge to interfere with them ,
they are backed up by Bro . William Guthrie , Grand Secretary , and also by Sir John Stuart of Allanbank , the Provincial Grand Master , who says , '' On no account can or will I permit any lodge to appear in this procession that does not hold of the Grand Lodge of Scotland . "
All this shows how mistaken are the statements in this St . John ' s memorial , which say , " those privileges were never called in question , " or , where it states that the St . John ' s Lodge " were assigned by virtue of their position precedence in rank over all the daughter lodges of Scotland . " For all , that I
am aware , they got in 1 S 06 was that St . John Stuart asked for " five or six handsome figures of operatives having black cloathes to carry my proper ensigns ; " and it so happened that the operatives , having " handsome figures " and " black cloathes , " so chosen , belonged to St . John ' s Lodge , which was
so far a credit to that body ; but that might have been only an accident so far , and it was a concession of Sir John Stuart to take them , as he entirely refuses to acknowledge or have any intercourse with the Glasgow St . John ' s Lodge as such ; for the Grand Lodge of Scotland , as an independent
body , and as the head of Speculative Freemasonry in Scotland , is not bound to recognise the pretensions of any operative or other lodge out of its pale , or even within it , any further than it may rightly consider said pretensions to be just and reasonable . The pretensions of operative Masons are one thing ,
the prerogative and constitution of the Grand Lodge of Scotland another . Further , even the minutes pf the Lodge St . John themselves prove the mistake of saying " those privileges were never called in question , " for in ¦ 833 , when the foundation-stone of the
jamauiastreet Bridge at Glasgow was to be laid , these socalled privileges of theirs were disallowed ; however , great agitation was got up , and considerable pressure put upon the Lord Provost * and Dr . Cleland , Superintendent of Public Works , which latter had been imposed upon by the pretended Malcolm
Charter , and had even published a so-called translation of it in his " Annals of Glasgow , " as per vol . ii ., page 485 . But whether the English " translation , " or the pseudo " old monkish Latin " be the older , I cannot at present affirm . However , no doubt by appealing to this precious document they
carried their point , to a certain extent at least , not , as I consider , because of any just and ( awful right they had to interfere with the proceedings of the Grand Lodge of Scotland then ; but because local influence backed up , as it seems to me , by falsehood , fraud , and imposition , mixed with , or
working upon , ignorance , were for the time triumphant . Then be it observed that all the occasions mentioned in this memorial from the St . John ' s Lodge as the precedents , where some of its members have carried the tools in Masonic processions in Glasgow , are after A . D . 1806 , as the oldest date
there given is ibio . Consequently , seeing that this is the case , and that it was the St . John ' s Ledge itself which brought forward or " discovered " this pretended Malcolm Charter in 1 S 06 to further its pretentions then , and has ever since upheld it as a
great foundation of those pretensions , it follows that if said pretended charter be false , a- ; I consider it is , all these pretensions based upon it fall at once to the ground , and the Lodge of Glasgow St . John as such , and as a lodge holding of the Grand Lodge of Scotland has no more right and
Answers To The Memorial Of The Oldge Of Glasgow St. John,
privilege over any of the other lodges under the sway of Grand Lodge than its position of No . 3 bis gives it , or the laws of Grand Lodge allow it . Another point I may here mention is that although when St . John ' s joined the Grand Lodge of Scotland , about twenty years ago , it got the high
position of No . 3 bis , yet founding upon this pretended Malcolm Charter , they have been again and again hinting at demanding a higher position on the Grand Lodge roll ; in fact , this was made the foundation of a sort of standing grievance , by which , as it appears to me , a feeling was kept up the members of
among No . 3 bis as if they had not got justice at the hands of Grand Lodge as per , inter alia , a motion by Bro . D . Hannay , Senior Warden , alluded to in a St . John ' s Lodge minute , of date 4 th August , 1 S 6 3 : "That steps ' be taken to have this lodge placed in its proper position on
the roll of the Grand Lodge of Scotland ; " and , again , at the December festival of St . John ' s Lodge , 1807 , which was styled their " 810 th Anniversary !' and at which Bro . Captain Speirs , of Eldcrslie , M . P ., the newly-elected Prov . G . M . for Glasgow , was present , and acted as Chairman ( vide report of
proceedings as given in Freemason's Magazine for January nth , 1868 ) , we find him saying , ' upon the authority of this pretended Malcolm Charter : " That although their lodge ranked y / z in the Grand Lodge of Scotland , it was not in its proper place , " and so on . Then , later still , we find Bro . Thomas M'Guffie
( the same , I suppose , who is mentioned in the memorial as carrying the plate ) , asserting in the Glasgow Herald , of date June 17 th , 1870 ( and as we also see by Freemason's Magazine , of date July 9 lh , 1 S 70 ) , that " The Glasgow Freemen Operative St . John ' s Lodge is the senior lodge in Scotland ,
even to the Grand Lodge ; and had our predecessors in office done tln-ir duty , every lodge in Scotland would have required to get a charter from them , and the St . John ' s would now be in the receipt of a large income , which I suppose the Grand Lodge now enjoys I" Se we perceive that
founding upon Malcolm's pretended charter the members of Glasgow St . John ' s Lodge would not only rise above all the other lodges in Scotland , but would fain soar above the Grand Lodge itself . However , the statements made by Bro . Captain Speirs , P . G . M ., at the so-called "gioth
Anniversary " of St . John ' s Lodge in December , 1867 , led to an examination into the authenticity of this pretended Macolm Charter , and in which examination circumstances led 111 c to take an active part , and not only so , but under these circumstances I was bound in honour as a gentleman to make the result
of said examination known , whatever that result was , which I did ; and although by doing so I felt that many of my brethren in the lodge might be displeased , I could not help that , but simply strove to act upon the square , and to do what I felt to be
my duly , be the result what it might . Therefore , I not only made a personal examination of the document myself , but have also striven to get it examined by , or to learn the opinions of some of the best authorities in the country , which opinions I now proceed to give : —
Dr . Anderson , in his " Memoirs of the House of Hamilton , says : " Apart from other considerations the writing is not above 200 or 300 years old . " Professor Cosmo Inncs , V . P . R . S . E ., S . A . S . Scot ., & c , whose high standing and skill as a chartologist are well known , as witness his 'cting as editor to
that splendid new work , '" The National Manuscripts of Scotland , " and many other authoritative and first-class works , and who saw it in 1 S 68 , said it was a forgery executed within the last 150 years , or taking plenty of time , within 200 at the utmost . Further , it was made up of pieces taken out of
different charters , and stuck together . Even before he saw it , and from a description of it which I sent him , he said it was a forgery ; and when I asked him how he knew that before he saw it , he very kindly and courteously answered , " Our first Corporate Charters were to burghs , and not till long
after came those to the gilds and corporations within and under burghs ; but we have no charters to burghs till William the Lion ( 1165-1214 ) . " So you see it did not require much sagacity to stamp the charter of Malcolm , full of the phraseology and the minute distinctions of a much later
day , as a forgery . The late Dr . G . A . Walker Arnotr , the distinguished Professor of Botany in the University of Glasgow , and who long tool . " an active interest in Masonry , as well as holdirg several high offices therein , called ibis pretended . barter a forgery , and shortly before his death wrote me as follows : —
" 2311 ! May , tSOS . — On getting out of bed this forenoon (& c ) , 1 read the Glasgow Herald , and in it what I presume is a letter from you , signed ' W . P . Ii / I congratulate you on the frank and open manner in which you state your conclusions ; and were such to be done in other cases , many discourteous dissensions would cense , " & c . ( To bt continued . )