Original Correspondence.

for a great length of time regarded almost as the birthplace 0 f'English Masonry , ' or at least as its foster mother , and we do hope that this feeling , coupled with our strong desire will be a sufficient excuse for sincerely hoping your Lordship will grant our request .

" We have the honour to be , my Lord , your Lordship ' s most humble and obedient servants , " THOMAS GIUSON HARTLEY , Worshipful Master . J OSEPH TODD , Senior Warden . MATTHEW COOPER , Junior Warden . J CHARLES SWALLOW , Secretary . "

THE FREEMASONS' LIFE BOAT .

( To the Editor of The Freemason . ) DEAR SIR AND BROTHER , —I wish toaskthrough your columns for some information respecting a circular I have received , as AV . M . of a lodge , concerning "The Freemasons' Life Boat . " The circular is signed " E . Gotthiel , P . M . 141 , Hon . Sec , " and

contains these words , " I wish it to be distinctly understood that the Committee is neither directly nor indirectly connected with any person or persons who have at any time attempted a similar movement . " I have understood that the history of " The

Freemasons Life Boat" is simply this : — Some few years ago , a brother collected a certain sum of money for a Life Boat , but appropriated it , it was said , to his own use . I believe this was not the only instance in which private individuals had appealed to the Craft on this subject , but I cannot

say what became of the money collected . About two or three years ago a committee was formed , as I believe , to take up the subject in a proper manner , and as it was a subject in which I was much interested , I entered into communication with a brother , personally unknown to me , but who , I

believe , took a lively interest in the matter . I don ' t see his name down on the committee in the circular I have received , though I feel certain he told me he was on the committee himself , and mentioned various illustrious brethren whose names are also wanting in the circular . At the time I speak of , an appeal

was constanly made in the pages of The Masonic Mirror , I have , however , heard nothing more of the subject since . Now , I wish to know whether the committee of which Bro . Gottheil is the Hon . Sec . is the same as the one that was , I believe , started two or three

years ago ? If not , whether the present committee is to be considered as an opposition committee , as one would gather from the words I have quoted ? If it is an opposition committee , I think we ought to be informed what they propose doing with the money already collected within the last three years , as they distinctly have repudiated any connection

with any " similar movement , " though I know money has been collected for the purpose of presenting a Life Boat to thc National Life Boat Institution . Hoping that this may catch the eye of one of the committee , and produce a reply . I am , Sir ancl Brother , yours fraternally , AV . M .

THE MASONIC TOBACCO-BOX

( To the Editor of The Freemason . ) I have a number of photo-lithographs of engravings from thc notorious Bro . Finch's works . This man , who was expelled by Grand Lodge , flourished during the latter part of the last , and early in the present centuries , and appears to have bad a great

predihction for Masonic diagrams . If Bro . Dr . Swete will forward me his address , I will send him one of these photo-lithographs , which he will find is very similar to the engraving on the Tobacco-box , and indeed in some respects , may be said to be exact . Thc columns may be described in

thc same language as in Bro . Dr . Swete's letter , in THE FREEMASON , ofthe 5 th inst . Although I do not believe the engraving on the Tobacco-box to be more than a century old , I admire the fair manner in which Dr . Swete has made know its character , and feci all thc more

inclined to send him the photo-lithograph for his perusal . I should like to have a photo of the engraving on thc lid . Yours fraternally , AV . J . HUGHAN , Prov . G . Sec . Cornwall , & c . Truro , 5 th March , 1870 .

( To thc Editor of The Freemason . ) SIR , —The description given by Bro . Swete , in THE FREEMASON of March 5 th inst ., ofthe Masonic signs depicted on thc now celebrated box is full of interesting information for enquiry . Allow me also to inform Bro . " Leo . " that within the nast

few weeks , I have seen a beautifully carved oak "pre ( representing St . John the Baptist , ) thc base ° i the pedestal on which thc figure stands , contain carvings of some curious Masonic signs , and the date 1610 the whole has every appearance of antiquity . AMMI , No , 1222 ,

Jurisdiction Of Grand Lodges.

JURISDICTION OF GRAND LODGES .

( To the Editor of The Freemason . ) DEAR SIR , —If your correspondent "Delta " elects to lose his temper and his manners in his reply to my communication published in one of the numbers of your FREEMASON for December last , I do not elect to follow his example in my response . I write over my own name what I have to say . He

screens himself behind a fictitious one , for Delta is not the name of a man , but of a thing , while he is so impolite as to call me a thing . Doubtless he believes he can by one fling of his pondrous strength crush out " J . Fletcher Brennan et rei omne genus . " Perhaps he can . We shall see . To use the " Delta" opening ; " please say to

** Delta '" that I never charged him with entertaining so liberal and consistent an idea as to recommend one style of government for all Masonic Rites ; nor did I represent him to any extent as holding that different Rites should be under the same Masonic government . It is the infinite consequence that he attaches to but one style of

Masonic government , as such , that constantly blinds him to the demands of truth and justice . The Bulletin of the Grand Orient of France for August last reported thc discussion and result of the demands of G . L . ' s of Louisiana and New York , and in it there is not a line to prove , nor a word , that the Grand Master , thc General Mellinet , nor

any other Grand Master or member of that body proposed to reconsider the matter after thc vote on Bro . Poulle ' s motion . " Delta" it is that errs , and endeavours to mislead by saying what he does in that connection to favor his own predictions , and , also , in that other connection that , as he says " tbe G . L . of Louisiana has declared as effectively as if

embodied in its constitution that " men of every race and color may be candidates for Masonry within its lodges . There is not a Grand Lodge in thc United States , and not to speak only of the late slaveholding States , that in any manner recognises that the black American can be a Freemason . The dogma embodied in one of the

Charges to the operative Masons of the middle ages , and which was cancelled by thc Grand Lodge of England after the Union of 1813 , is and has ever been in the United States maintained in thc strictest manner as a " landmark , " and it is that the candidate for Masonry must bc free-born . That he must be a free man is sufficient for the Grand Lodge of

England , but not so for the Grand Lodges of thc United States of America ; and a New York writet on Masonic Law , in a work produced by him in 1864 , takes the Grand Lodge of England roundly to task for the " removal of this landmark . " At the risk of being tedious , I must crave your indulgence to represent this matter as it is , and not

as Delta' says it is , with the desire to make capital in favor of the positions of the N . Y ., La ., and other U . S . Grand Lodges . Bro . John AV . Simons , a Past Grand Master of New York Masons , and the chief advocate of thc disruption of intercourse between his Grand Lodge ancl the Grand Orient of France , which was adopted in his

Grand Lodge last June , is the writer above referred to . In his book , after offering what he styles fifteen Ancient Landmarks , he uses the following language : — " Self-interest , or the predominance of a feeling entirely extraneous , will sometimes lead men to close their eyes to the most indubitable propositions . Take , for example ,

the fourth landmark above cited . [ 4 . The new-made Mason must be free born , of lawful age , and hale and sound at the time of making . ] Its existence as a fundamental principle of Masonic law , from the very earliest times of which wc have any record is beyond dispute ; its language too plain to admit of equivocation ; and it is just as much an integral and immovable part of the

Masonic system as thc one requiring a belief in thc existence of a Supreme Being ; and we can admit an argument as to the right to abrogate one with the same propriety as the other . Nevertheless , the Grand Lodge of England a few years ago solemnly amended its constitution by striking out free bom , an I putting in its place free man ; thus changing an essential feature of the

law , or , in plain terms , removing an indisputable landmark There is a double iniquity in this proceeding of thc English Grand Lodge , from thc fact that at its establishment it was solemnly agreed that no regulation should bc adopted in derogation of thc Ancient

Landmarks , and that agreement is just as binding as a landmark , for it was entered into as a condition of the resignation of thc general sovereignty into the keeping of the Grand Lodge , which , therefore , not only sets aside a landmark , but violates an express stipulation that it would not do so . "

In reply to the above I met it , in the American Freemason for January , 1868 , with the following language : — " Had liro . Simons stated the cause for this action of the Grand Lodge of England , it would be evidently proper , and reflect more credit upon liim than any amount

of well-written testimony as to the fact . The Grand Lodge of England as their sucessor received in 1 S 13 the institution of Masonry from her predecessors , the two Grand Lodges located in London city , with all the faults and errors they had committed for nearly seventyfive years . During that time both of them had en-

Jurisdiction Of Grand Lodges.

deavoured to propagate Masonry in every country , not only the dependencies of Great Britain but others , with but little concern as to the style of population in those countries , whether slave or free . In the West India Islands , both British and French , also Dutch , in Essequebo , Demerara , New Guiana lodges were founded with English Grand Lodge warrants , some of which

exist to this day on the registry of the Grand Lodge of . England , and large portions ' of the membership of which were not free-born , although when made Masons they were free-men . The present Grand Lodge having succeeded to this inheritance—one , thc peculiarities of which it is not probable engaged the consideration of either of the high contracting parties when they transmitted to it

their respective charges , and exacted of it the engagement mentioned by Bro . Simons—believing 'twas better to be right than continue intact the letter of a ' landmark , ' whose spirit had been notoriously rendered void by the acts of its predecessors , concluded to and did change the same to correspond with the facts of the case , and no longer

continue in name that condition long since discontinued in fact . And in this , we believe , instead of condemning that Grand Lodge so severely as Bro . Simons proceeds to do in his future remarks upon the subject , all reasonable brethren will rather find cause for praise in so sensible an action . "

The manner of John W . Simons in his treatment of this subject is the manner of every Grand Lodge Officer in the United States . In no part of the world could this " landmark , " as he is pleased to consider it , have the same bearing on so many intelligent men as in this country , and hence it was found to be that which should be most strenuously

and to the very letter administered . " Delta , " as an American , is perfectly well aware of this , and yet he wants to cast the blame of rejecting black freemen in America upon the operative lodges . This is the contemptible sophism I alluded to in my last . The American operative lodges mustbt . governed by the terms of their respective Grand Lodge

Constitutions , in manner exactly as the states of this republic are governed by the Constitution of the United States , including its every amendment which by the State Legislatures , in sufficient number may be adopted . Only By-Laws are the lodges permitted to make for themselves , and should one of these conflict with that Grand

Lodge s Constitution in any particular , that lodge ' s discipline , ancl , if the offending law is not repealed , its warrant is arrested . In this way all liberty or independent action is forbidden to the operative lodges—no change to correspond with change of national circumstances , consequent on national movements being permitted to them . Such

change , under the present regime , must first obtain in the Grand Lodges , and if not there they do not obtain at all . For three years past the Grand Lodge of Massachusets , has had before it a petition from thc colored brethren in that state for recognition , and but within thc month of December last was an answer , and that in thc negative ,

vouchsafed . That body maintains that they are clandes-// w-made Masons , because when the charter to organize African Lodge , No . 459 , English Register , was ( in 1784 ) granted it was an invasion of the Masonic territory of Massachusetts by the Grand Lodge of England . No regularly organized Grand Lodge existed in Massachusetts previous to 1792 .

All history proves this , for not until then did the operative lodges of thc state organize such a body . African Lodge , No . 459 , was organized under its Master Prince Hall in 17 S 7 ; ergo , that act was an invasion of the G . L . of Massachusetts jurisdiction ! This is thc style of assumption put on by American Grand Lodges . " Delta , " as the

advocate of this high-handed , utterly illiberal , unjust and despotic style , can hardly contain his anger at being met by me writing in thc interests of truth , justice , ancl universal Freemasonry . He talks about religious sects , in contradistinction to churches , as if there was but one Christian Church in the world , and asks : would the Established

Church of England fraternize with the Presbyterian , Methodist , Baptist or Congrcgationalist—I take it this is what he wishes to say—or any other Christian Church ? As to thc fraternization , by which I suppose he means communion , that is a matter of taste , and docs not serve as an illustration ; but as to the Established Church of England

declaring as clandestine every other form of Christian worship , because it did not establish those forms , or because they were established by other Christian authorities in England , and forbidding to its members intercourse with or recognition as Christians of those other churches ancl

their members—this , I believe , no man can or will affirm the Establishment has ever done . And yet this is precisely what the Grand Lodges of Freemasons ofthe United States have done , are doing , and demand shall be done . I remain , fraternally yours ,

J . FLETCHER BRENNAN , Editor of thc American Freemason . Cincinnati , Ohio ( U . S . A . ) , Jan . 29 th , 1870 .

THE eighth and last volume of M . de Tchibatcheff ' s work on Asia Minor will shortly appear .