The French Masonic Orphanage.

band ac ? aoc in round numbers , and that the receipts from February 24 th , 1877 , to February 24 th , J 878 , amounted to £ 800 in round numbers >—in all e ^ iooo . This sum of 29 , 776-64 francs is made up of various items ( which we need not

allude to here ) , while theexpenditure is 22 , i 33 " 34 francs , or , £ 810 in round numbers , leaving about £ 196 in hand . We are not told what is the number of orphans provided for , but we think we shall agree , in wishing , for the French Freemasons , an extension of their charitable works .

Charity Organization.

CHARITY ORGANIZATION .

In our recent remarks we alluded to the last report of the Charity Reform Association . Such was a mistake . The report alluded to was not the last , nor was it apparently an official report , but sent as a report by a kind friend . The Charity Reform Association is clearly not responsible for that report nor amenable to such remarks .

Original Correspondence.

Original Correspondence .

[ We elo not hold ourselves responsible for , or even as approving of the opinions expressed by our correspondents , but we wish , in a spirit of fair play to all , to permit—within certain necessary mils—free discussion . —ED . 1 . ? -

SOJOURNERS . To the Editor of the " Freemason . " Dear Sir anel Brother , — I feel quite sure that Comp . Buss is right . The word in the Grand Chapter Constitutions is "Sojourners , " and if Installed Masters it is quite clear that they are as eligible for the Third Chair as the Principal Sojourner himself . I am , yours fraternally , A P . Z .

GRAND LODGE OF CUBA . To the Editor of the " Freemason . " Dear Sir and Brother , — Our Grand Lodge has been recognised hereto by 19 in U . S . A ., and that of Scotland . We are working according to true Masonic principles , and have already founeled two schools , one for male and one for female poor children .

A project ( or an asylum is also on the table . As we intend asking the sanction of the government for our work , I most earnestly request that you may send us a transcript of the Act of Parliament permitting the institution of Freemasonry throughout the United Kingdom . I hope you will do us this favour cheerfully . Our first Grand Annual Communication took place on

the 24 th ult ., extending during four days . Proceedings will doubtless soon be sent to the Grand Lodge of England . Bro . G . Gonzales Amador was elected G . M . I am , dear Sir and Brother , fraternally yours , E . A . LECERFF , Grand Lecturer anil Member Com . on Foreign Corresp . G . L . of the I . of Cuba .

GRAND LODGE OF THE ISLAND OF CUBA . OFFICERS FOR 1878 . Gregoiio Gonzales Amador Grand Master . Brenvenido Hernandez . „ ...,...., S . G . W . Juan B . Hernanelez , J . G . W . Aurelio Almeieia G . S .

Julio P . Durege G . Treas . E . A . Lecerff G . Sec . Florencio Cancio G . S . D . Eduardo A . Salles G . J . D . Joaquim Cruzado G . M . of Cer . Jose E . Sallds G . Almoner

THE ROYAL ARCH DEGREE AND ITS TRACING BOARD . To the Editor of the "Freemason . " Dear Sir and Brother , — I have been very much impressed and pleased with the important address delivered b y Bro . the Rev A . F . A . Wooelford , on the occasion of the consecration of the Eclectic Chapter . There seems considerable difficulty

in historically appreciating the Royal Arch Degree—but at any rate an accielent has enabled me to discover and become possessed of an important and probably unique historical document in relation to it , which now hangs on my walls . I know of nothing like it , anel it is manifestly

no forgery . You will say , what is it ? I will , therefore , proceed to describe it . Its dimensions , in its glazed frame ( which is certainly one hundreel anel twenty years old ) , are fifteen inches by ten inches . It is on paper and coloured . At the top is a parallelogram coloured yellow—displaying in the centre an equilateral triangle , bearing these letters :

Ittwnediately beneath this is an arch—the capstone of which is removed , and placed on the left to admit the rays of an all-seeing eye , with ten rays in number , which irra-

Original Correspondence.

diate a purple-covcreel ^ tabl " , fringed with gold and supported on a pediment amiJst clouds , and blue radiance surrounds this arch . The arch bed bears the words " Holiness to the Lord . " This arch rests on the well-lenown three pillars of Wisdom , Strength , and Beauty . The Ionic column supports the left side of the arch . On the Doric column is a representation of Charity , anel from behind the

column is a hand protrueling and pointing downwards , holding a plumb line . The Corinthian column is in front on the right si- ! e . At the base of the Corinthian column is a pickaxe anel crowbar—at that of the Ionic column a shovel . Between the columns next to the Ionic column is a three-legged round table , on which lies the volume of the Sacred Law , with a triple Tau over it ; next to the table

stands J ., by his side Z ., and leaning against the base of the Doric column is II . Thesa three personages are suitably and emblematically garmented , and the flooring of the arch on which they stand is green , the round table being hung with a drapery of three colours . 1 venture to think

that every Royal Arch companion will rejoice that this important document has not been lost . As I said before , it is in my belief unique , and I shall take great care that it shall be preserved for the benefit of Masonry—simplex munditiis . I remain , dear Sir and Brother , sincerely and fraternally

yours , KENNETH R . H . MACKENZIE , IX , " Supreme Grand Secretary Swedenborgian Rite . Hounslow , 4 th May , 1878 .

THE PRIMITIVE 1 LLUMINATI . * To the Editor of the " Freemason . " Dear Sir anil Brother , — There is a chapter of learning well known to and beloved by the wearers of wig and gown , which professes to define the distinction between latent and patent ambiguities . The secrets of Craft Masonry would seem ,

in their treatment by public writers to have been most delicately dealt with so as to partake of both characteristics . Undoubtedly , the occult marks of recognition between the brethren have been , I will not say displayed , rather they have occasionally been allowed to appear , ir . type , but they have been so communicated that while they have appeared patent to the brother they have remained latent to the

cowan . My readers who have courteously followed me so far , will long ere this have eliscovered that I exquisitely relish an anecdote , when in point , to enliven a dry disquisition . Well , I think I can illustrate my meaning , anent this proposition , by a little story . An old Scottish laird owned a—we will say—a free trader , to use the polite euphemism formerly employed to designate a smuggling the as

vessel : " an honest factor' ^ on coast acted owner ' s agent in disposing of the cargo when successfully run ; peering over the accounts when presented by this officer the pawky principal often found himself sorely exercised by an item " to hire of saddle and bridle , " so much , and when this invariable charge had many times appeared , he , one day , asked an explanation , "Ye ken laird" said

the factor , " That I nae charge ye the hire of the wee bit berstie that I hae to ride to brecng ye the accoounts but ye wad nae that I suld be out of pocket by paying for the loan of the furrneeture . " " Nonsense , " said his employer , " Let me never sec such an item among your disbursements again . " The next time the owner scrutinised the sheet carefully , and triumphantly pointed out to his

myrmidon , " There ! there ! Sandy , I tauld ye ye coul doo vary weel wi ' oout 't had ye the min Its nae there . " Ah , laird , laird , " responded the honest man , " its there , scure cneugh , but ye canna see 't ! " The fact being that a judicious splitting up of the sum of the mulct had divided the txiction between other , and , to the laird ' s audit , less exceptionable items . In like manner the secrets of Freemasonry may be very fairly discussed in

print , if sufficient caution be used that to the outer world want of light may preclude the discovery . In the supposititious ceremony I am about imaginatively to describe , points of resemblance to the modern method of admitting to Craft privileges may doubtlessly be detected . On the other hand , points of divergence cannot escape observation . But both will , I hope , only be palpable to those who possess the key . For

" Which pretender is and which is King , God bless us all is quite a different thing . " It is not my business to indicate identity nor to point out dissimilarity . " Herein the patient must minister to himself . " Let me recapitulate the essentials , the primitive illuminati—to employ , I hope , a perfectly neutral term—would ,

presumably , desiderate in a candidate for their companionship . They would exact a perfect freedom of inclination to embrace their tenets , to partake cf their privileges , and to share their dangers . Mental vigour and bodily potency—I will not say prowess—would be indispensable , for the safety of the whole community , might , at a critical moment , be entirely dependent on the discretion and

physical ability of any one individual member . These would be the contributions he must bring to the common stock . To ascertain that he possessed them the emeritii woulel pursue a course of strict investigation , which I will call Examination . This proving satisfactory , a pledge , must be exacted from him , for which we have a technical word , but which may be expressed to the outer world , as a

guarantee of eluty with a sanction attached . Let us call this the Sanction . So far—again to employ a very ex - pressive technicality derived , like the word sanction in its more extended meaning from the lexicon of the long robes —the contract would be , but unilateral . But one party to the engagement has hitherto bound himself ; to render it bi-Iatcral—another technical word—the other parly to the a greement must signify his or their willingness to recog-

Original Correspondence.

nise and be bound by the terms . This form may be denominated Reception . To make it available he or they must confer something upon the contractee—a consideration—or the bargain would be that simulacrum oE a pact abhorred by lawyers , a mere nudum pactum . Let us call this equivalent , Communication—there is another word will occur to the initiated—and the hypothetical ceremony is

complete . For the sake of brevity and mnemonic convenience I will formulate it thus : ( 1 ) Examination ; ( 2 ) Sanction ; ( 3 ) Reception ; ( 4 ) Communication . I proceed to examine these purely imaginary heads abstractedly as if , never having : heard of speculative—or even operative—Freemasonry , we were called upon to devise the orsjamsa ' . ion of such a community as I have

been supposing to exist in the very earliest ages of mankind . And , in the first place , to understand the essentiality of the requisite of Examination we must investigate a little more in detail the state of the society at large in which , our hypothetical occult missionary operations were to be performed . It is difficult at this distance of time to

apprehend how few comparatively of the denizens of the nomad world were at any one period in a state of moral and physical freedom . Some philosophers have propounded that war is the normal state of man . Be that as it may in the present day , in the ancient world he would be a bold man who would maintain the contrary to have been the case . Unless the illuminatus would confine

the blessings of his profession to those of his own household he must perforce have sought for converts in the members of fiiendly or hostile tribes . With respect to the former there would perhaps at 110 time have been any insuperable difficulty in ascertaining the qualifications of candidates , but with the latter his ministrations must have been largely employed upon captives taken in war , or

acquired by purchase when affiliated to his sept . But here a difficulty would arise . The freedom desiderated must obviously have been not merely physical but moral . Now the instances of absolute moral freedom among captives taken in war , or obtained by baiter , must necessarily have been comparatively few ; physically free men—men who had achieved their absolute emancipation—may have

been numerous , but , for reasons to be hereafter adduced , the examiner was bound to satisfy himself that the neophyte had been born free , and that , at the age when he was entitled to , or the period at which he acquired , his emancipation , he was under no such disability of quasi serfdom as bound the freedman to his patron in the more modern states of society in Greece

anel Rome—nay , why should I exclude even our own country ? for down to , at all events , the infancy of our first Masonic pundit Elias Ashmole , a considerable section of our fellow countrymen were under that disqualification of semi-bondage which the fcuelal law had imposed , and the shadow of which even endured to almost our own time in the absurd fictions of copyhold tenure .

The candidate's moral freedom must , then , have been assured by the satisfaction of the examiner that he was under no such influence—call it legitimate or illegitimate as you will—as that possessed by the patron over his liberated bondman . I am personally inclined to think that a connection of reciprocal protection and dependence , analogous to that , which from that of patron and freedman ,

developed into that of lord and serf in more modern times , existed from the very earliest period of human history , but , if I can establish the necessity for absolute freedom from this implied condition of deference to a quasi controller on the part of the candid itc , I have said enough for my theory . That the lair sex have never been regarded as wholly emancipated in this sense will

account , not only for their ineligibility in our modern system of speculative Freemasonry , but also for their exclusion from the privileges of all the ancient systems of religion . The Roman law , following the Mosaic tradition , ever held the female as in potestas—either to the head of the family or to the husband . In other words the individual not morally free was ever regarded as

exposed to a vis major potentially inimical to the safety of a society , the first condition of which was its occult organisation . Hence , too , the necessity that the candidate be of full age—I repeat that our modern legal notion of maturity at twenty-one years , purely indigenous to our country , is an arbitrary and variable standard adopted for conveni-nce sake , and probably unfixed at

the early period wc arc con-idering — and born freeand at the time of his candidature morally anil physically at libeity to adopt or reject the systtm presented for his contemplation . Then he must have been physically potent—I say nothing of personal valour—philosophically speaking the assumption must be that all men , bodily perfect , possess the same attiibutes of material

courage . But this physical potency must be considered under two heads—again patent and latent . I will not enlarge upon them . There are obviously patent disqualifications in the absence of a member necessary to active offence or defence ; and for latent modifications of the presumable virile capacity , the curious in such matters can examine for themselves how that great authority , Blackstone , treats the subject of the law of " Mayhem , "

and they will see what I mean , and , if they should be inclined to pursue the subject faither , that patt of the Volume of the Sacred Law , which treats of the subject of the necessary physical endowments of the Jewish Priesthoodin Leviticus I believe it is—followed by the uninterrupted usage of the Romish Church , from its foundation to the present time , will sufficiently indicate the personal abilly to which I allude . * Again , if we bear in mind the object of the possession of physical potency , namely the fulfilment of the im-