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Article "FENIAN HIGH TREASON, ← Page 2 of 2 Article THE COMING FESTIVAL. Page 1 of 1 Article THE COMING FESTIVAL. Page 1 of 1 Article EARLY EIGHTEENTH CENTURY ENGLISH FREEMASONRY-A STUDY. Page 1 of 1
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
"Fenian High Treason,
of the three Montreal lodges , under their sorry treatment , but from what we hear of them and know of them , they will be all induced we believe to treat the whole matter with absolute contempt , manfully avoiding any provocation themselves , overlooking equally sundry other manceuvres and tricks , and acts of chicanery and double dealing , of which if they condescend to take no public or Masonic notice , they have the perfect rig ht to comp lain of and to condemn .
The Coming Festival.
THE COMING FESTIVAL .
Not many days hence will be held in the great hall of the Freemasons ' Tavern the annual Festival of the Royal Masonic Benevolent Institution , and the ' brethren who have kindly undertaken to aid Bro . Terry in raising the necessary funds for the year ' s expenditure will give account of their stewardship . That the account will be satisfactory we have no manner of doubt The brethren who have placed their services for the occasion at the
disposal of the Charity may be relied upon to do their work zealously and effectively . Many of them are veterans , who have borne their part at previous Anniversaries , and borne it well . Others are new to the work , but their inexperience will have the effect of stimulating them to make unusual efforts in order to secure an unusually brilliant result . We may , indeed , be certain of this , that whether the total subscribed exceeds or falls short of
that of last year , the Stewards , as a body and individually , will be found to have done their duty . The question we have seriously to consider now is the effect which the result of their labours will have in meeting the exceptionally heavy requirements of the Institution . We commented on these last week , but we are satisfied the plea of urgency in this instance will not be looked upon as a mere figure of speech , and that our readers will need available
no apology from us for reverting to them again at the earliest opportunity . The Male Fund , as the senior and more costly of the two branches of the Royal Masonic Benevolent Institution , claims priority of attention . Its authorised number of annuitants is 170 , and in order to fulfil the obligations of the Charity towards these worthy old members of our Order , the sum of £ 6800 is annually required . At present there are twelve vacancies to be
filled up , and there is always the sad possibility that more may occur between now and the day of election in May next . There will also have to be elected three " deferred annuitants , " that is to say , three brethren who will be placed without further trouble on the Fund as the requisite vacancies arise . Thus , on the third Friday in May next , 15 certainly , and it may be morewill have to be chosen by ballot from an approved list , as already
, settled , of 46 applicants . There is , of course , a great disproportion between the numbers respectively of the vacancies to be filled—immediately and prospectively—and the candidates who have been adjudged worthy of acceptance ; but , small as it is , there is always this consolation , namely , that if the disproportion has been smaller in some previous years , there are others in which it has been as great , if not greater . We know this is poor comfort
indeed to the 30 poor old men—more or fewer—who , in any circumstances , will have to face the chances of another ballot , but the disappointment of some is inevitable , until , at least , that good time comes , when either there will be no more old Masons in want of help , or the Institution is financially strong enough to provide for all . However , it is something for us to know that , if there are 46 applicants on the list , the relief of fully one-third of
that number is placed beyond the possibility of accident . If we turn to the Female Fund , the prospect that meets us is pitiable in the extreme . There are more Annuitants on this than on the elder branch of the Institution , there being an authorised establishment of 182 widows , as against the 170 old men as stated in the previous paragraph . Yet , as a widow's annuity is only £ 32 a year , as in the of an
against ^ 40 case aged brother , the total required is about £ 1000 less , or in actual figures £ 5824 . What , however , constitutes the extreme hardship of the prospect in this case is that , while there are no less than 81 candidates for election , there is absolutely not a single vacancy to be filled . Thus , but for the intervention of the Committee on Wednesday , as reported elsewhere , none of these 81 poor old women could have been
helped immediately , and only three of them—the deferred annuitantsprospectively , until the time for another election came round . This , as we pointed out last week , would have been indeed a lamentable deadlock—81 old women , all of whom had seen better days , and many of whom may have lived in affluence , crying aloud piteously for aid , and there was absolutely none forthcoming . A state of things like this would have been little short
of calamitous ; but it is impossible to create vacancies , and equally impossible to say off-hand what fresh annuities can be granted . However , as we have just hinted , the Committee at their regular meeting on Wednesday , when they found themselves face to face with a return so lamentable , resolved , after a very long discussion , on increasing the annuitants on the
the Widows Fund by 10 , so that when election day comes round in May next , about 1 in every 6 of the 81 old ladies will be received upon the Fund . This is better than we had hoped , and who knows but what , if last year ' s total is equalled , it may be found possible to elect even a few more still ? However , it is sufficient to know this much ; what further may be found possible rests with the Craft , rather than the Committee .
THE CHAIRMAN . Among the hardest of the many hard tasks which are continually devolving upon the Secretaries of our Masonic Institutions must undoubtedly be classed that of securing the services of efficient Chairmen at successive Anniversary Festivals . It is not every brother of distinction who cares or is able to assume the responsibility of conducting such a celebration to
a successful issue , and Bro . Terry is to be congratulated on having enlisted for the approaching anniversary of the Royal Masonic Benevolent Institution the sympathy and aid of so eminent a brother as Sir M . Hicks-Beach , Bart ., M . P ., P . G . M . Gloucestershire . There are also further reasons for congratulating him on the success which has attended this part of his arrangements . It is not the first time Sir Michael Hicks-Beach has
presided on such an occasion , the Girls School having enjoyed the advantage of his influence and advocacy in 1881 . Moreover , he is eminently popular in his province , which , albeit of modest strength in comparison with several others , is nevertheless a well-ordered and harmonious body , and , above all things , loyal to the very backbone to the cherished principles of the Craft .
He is also a practised speaker , who extorts the sympathies as well as commands the attention of his audience ; while that his heart is in the cause he will advocate on the day appointed is shown by his connection with the Charities and the following record of services rendered both in the humbler and the more exalted spheres of Masonic duty . Sir M . Hicks-Beach was initiated by dispensation , while yet under age , in the Apollo University Lodge , No . 357 , Oxford , on the 21 st February ,
The Coming Festival.
18 5 6 , the ceremony being performed by his cousin , Bro . W . W . B . Beach , P . M . —now Prov . Grand Master Hants and Isle of Wight—who was temporarily in occupation of the Master's chair . In 1859 he joined the Westminster and Keystone Lodge , No . 10 , and in 1865 was elected its W . M . This , however , was not his earliest experience in that character . In 1861 he was installed W . M . of the Cotteswold Lodge , No . 592 , Cirencester , and
the same year was appointed Prov . G . S . W . of his native province . In 1865 , the year of his presidency over Lodge No . 10 , the late Lord Zetland conferred on him the collar of G . S . W . of England , and a few days later he became G . Pr . Sojourner in the Supreme Grand Chapter . In 1880 , on the resignation of the late Lord Sherborne , the Prince of Wales appointed him his lordship ' s successor in the P . G . Mastership of Gloucestershire , an
appointment which we need hardly say has given , both at the time it was made and ever since , the greatest possible pleasure to the Craft , both locally and generally . Early last year he was installed first M . E . Z . of the Royal Gloucestershire Chapter , No . 839 , Gloucester , and in December his honours in this branch of Masonry culminated in his appointment and installation as Prov . Grand Superintendent of the newly-erected Royal Arch Province of Gloucester . It has already been stated that our distinguished
brother presided in 1 S 81 as Chairman at the Festival of the Royal Masonic Institution for Girls , but this represents only a part , though we admit it is an important part , of what he has done in behalf of our Charities . To be as precise as possible , we may mention that he is a Vice-President of and has been twice Steward for the Girls' School , and is a Life Governor and past Steward of the Boys' School and Benevolent Institution . That such a brother will exert himself to the utmost in behalf of our old men and wnmrm
is a foregone conclusion , and we can only hope that the Craft will show their sense of his valuable co-operation by supporting him generally as well as loyally at the appointed time .
Early Eighteenth Century English Freemasonry-A Study.
EARLY EIGHTEENTH CENTURY ENGLISH FREEMASONRY - A STUDY .
I take to-day a period of 25 years , and I am sorry to say we have as yet , if ever we shall have , very little evidence about it in " respect of Masonic life and work . There was a lodge at Alnwick , and probably at Swalwell , early in this period , and we may assume that there was a lodge at York , and that the four London lodges of 1717 had a history and previous existence . Alnwick seems to have been Operative , like Swalwell , in the main , and was probably , owing to its propinquity to Scotland , more Scottish than English
in its general outcome . In the minutes of the Swalwell Lodge , now the Lodge of Industry , which actually begin in 1725 , we find traces of a system at work which seems ancient j but appears to be different from what Bro . D . M . Lyon points out to be existent at the same period in Scotland . Up to the present time no traces of such Freemasons , except the Sloane MS ., have turned up which seem to touch upon ceremonial in that early period , except certain attacks and alleged exposures , or quasi treacherous representations of what Freemasonry was .
About 1724 , we gather , also in 1730 , from certain counterfeit representations of Freemasonry in England , which gained currency , that good coin existed , but of which true examples can hardly be found to-day by the most enterprising seekers and collectors . When Payne put together his Regulations in 1720-21-22 , and Anderson reproduced them in 1723 , we have a right to assume , as a matter of fact , that a system of secret reception and formal
ceremonial existed , for some time , —let us say , at any rate , ' * legal memory . " What it was , is the one point all Masonic students would like to realize . We have , indeed , one witness who speaks of the state of affairs in 1717 boldly and confidently ; but he " proves too much , " and cannot be safely relied on . He declares the brethren who met in 1717 to be " rusty , " ignorant of the true ceremonies ; and as when he wrote this he was himself busily
engaged in advancing a favourite little " vanity " of his own , not only does he decry a rival " emporium , " but he abuses the " plantiff ' s attorney . " I do not think we need trouble ourselves much with Dermott . He wrote for a purpose , with an end to gain , patent to the critic and student to-day , and he was not particular in what he said , and sacrificed truth at the shrine of interest and faction . His bolder statement that a Third Degree
ceremonial was invented upon the Second by the brethren in 1717 , may be fairly dismissed at once ' as an after-thought and an invention . Indeed , it stands to reason that if the Third Degree was invented then , our Grand Lodge in 1723 , 1738 , & c , deliberately asserted what is not true . Therefore , though we are Belt without any actual evidence of a ceremonial up to 1725 , except what the Sloane MS . affords and Dermott produces , and
he is a discredited [ witness . We may assume from the " counterfeit ' s " existence that a real form also existed . We have prominently before us certain alleged rythmical portions . If the rythmical form could be relied on or upheld as archaic , it would point to much antiquity of an alleged ceremonial . But can it ? For some time I rather leant to its archaic evidence ; but careful study leads me to
doubt the value of it , and I am inclined to believe it to be late , if not arranged for the occasion . There is no ringabout it , either of quaintness or reality . Had the Grand M ystery proved a similar form or the Sloane MS ., I should have been ready to yield to such a " consensus" of evidence . But on the whole I do not now think that the rythmical couplets , & c , have any certain value in them . At the same time , if
any way authentic , they might preserve for us traces of an older form . The conclusion I wish to draw from this study is , the great need of caution , and the absolute impossibility at present of deciding the whole question . The two main views may fairly be contrasted and " weighed in the balance . " On the one side you have the authoritative evidence of official statements in 1723 , of a system ( trigradal ) , existing in 1720 , and we may fairly assume in and before
1717 1717 . We have a curious MS . whose transcription may be 1716 or 1717 , or it may run back to 1680 , which preserves an early seventeenth century diction , also a trigradal system . To assume , as some have done , that the Sloane MS . is merely that of an operative lodge or a mere " exposure , " is clearly an unsound way of treating the document . It may be that or cither , but it is certainly also much more . We must therefore await fuller li ght before we can with safety attempt in to decide this
any way important question . Much may be said by way of hypothesis , more may be advanced b y way of argument , a good deal may be put forward for illustration and explanation ; but , as it seems to me , it is absolutely impossible for the Masonic student , critic , or historian to do more " as at present advised , " than offer to agree with any ingenious explanation , or fair theory of what is and must remain for some little time a crux , well nigh irreconcileable even by the most zealous and painstaking searchers after Masonic truth , " M . S .
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
"Fenian High Treason,
of the three Montreal lodges , under their sorry treatment , but from what we hear of them and know of them , they will be all induced we believe to treat the whole matter with absolute contempt , manfully avoiding any provocation themselves , overlooking equally sundry other manceuvres and tricks , and acts of chicanery and double dealing , of which if they condescend to take no public or Masonic notice , they have the perfect rig ht to comp lain of and to condemn .
The Coming Festival.
THE COMING FESTIVAL .
Not many days hence will be held in the great hall of the Freemasons ' Tavern the annual Festival of the Royal Masonic Benevolent Institution , and the ' brethren who have kindly undertaken to aid Bro . Terry in raising the necessary funds for the year ' s expenditure will give account of their stewardship . That the account will be satisfactory we have no manner of doubt The brethren who have placed their services for the occasion at the
disposal of the Charity may be relied upon to do their work zealously and effectively . Many of them are veterans , who have borne their part at previous Anniversaries , and borne it well . Others are new to the work , but their inexperience will have the effect of stimulating them to make unusual efforts in order to secure an unusually brilliant result . We may , indeed , be certain of this , that whether the total subscribed exceeds or falls short of
that of last year , the Stewards , as a body and individually , will be found to have done their duty . The question we have seriously to consider now is the effect which the result of their labours will have in meeting the exceptionally heavy requirements of the Institution . We commented on these last week , but we are satisfied the plea of urgency in this instance will not be looked upon as a mere figure of speech , and that our readers will need available
no apology from us for reverting to them again at the earliest opportunity . The Male Fund , as the senior and more costly of the two branches of the Royal Masonic Benevolent Institution , claims priority of attention . Its authorised number of annuitants is 170 , and in order to fulfil the obligations of the Charity towards these worthy old members of our Order , the sum of £ 6800 is annually required . At present there are twelve vacancies to be
filled up , and there is always the sad possibility that more may occur between now and the day of election in May next . There will also have to be elected three " deferred annuitants , " that is to say , three brethren who will be placed without further trouble on the Fund as the requisite vacancies arise . Thus , on the third Friday in May next , 15 certainly , and it may be morewill have to be chosen by ballot from an approved list , as already
, settled , of 46 applicants . There is , of course , a great disproportion between the numbers respectively of the vacancies to be filled—immediately and prospectively—and the candidates who have been adjudged worthy of acceptance ; but , small as it is , there is always this consolation , namely , that if the disproportion has been smaller in some previous years , there are others in which it has been as great , if not greater . We know this is poor comfort
indeed to the 30 poor old men—more or fewer—who , in any circumstances , will have to face the chances of another ballot , but the disappointment of some is inevitable , until , at least , that good time comes , when either there will be no more old Masons in want of help , or the Institution is financially strong enough to provide for all . However , it is something for us to know that , if there are 46 applicants on the list , the relief of fully one-third of
that number is placed beyond the possibility of accident . If we turn to the Female Fund , the prospect that meets us is pitiable in the extreme . There are more Annuitants on this than on the elder branch of the Institution , there being an authorised establishment of 182 widows , as against the 170 old men as stated in the previous paragraph . Yet , as a widow's annuity is only £ 32 a year , as in the of an
against ^ 40 case aged brother , the total required is about £ 1000 less , or in actual figures £ 5824 . What , however , constitutes the extreme hardship of the prospect in this case is that , while there are no less than 81 candidates for election , there is absolutely not a single vacancy to be filled . Thus , but for the intervention of the Committee on Wednesday , as reported elsewhere , none of these 81 poor old women could have been
helped immediately , and only three of them—the deferred annuitantsprospectively , until the time for another election came round . This , as we pointed out last week , would have been indeed a lamentable deadlock—81 old women , all of whom had seen better days , and many of whom may have lived in affluence , crying aloud piteously for aid , and there was absolutely none forthcoming . A state of things like this would have been little short
of calamitous ; but it is impossible to create vacancies , and equally impossible to say off-hand what fresh annuities can be granted . However , as we have just hinted , the Committee at their regular meeting on Wednesday , when they found themselves face to face with a return so lamentable , resolved , after a very long discussion , on increasing the annuitants on the
the Widows Fund by 10 , so that when election day comes round in May next , about 1 in every 6 of the 81 old ladies will be received upon the Fund . This is better than we had hoped , and who knows but what , if last year ' s total is equalled , it may be found possible to elect even a few more still ? However , it is sufficient to know this much ; what further may be found possible rests with the Craft , rather than the Committee .
THE CHAIRMAN . Among the hardest of the many hard tasks which are continually devolving upon the Secretaries of our Masonic Institutions must undoubtedly be classed that of securing the services of efficient Chairmen at successive Anniversary Festivals . It is not every brother of distinction who cares or is able to assume the responsibility of conducting such a celebration to
a successful issue , and Bro . Terry is to be congratulated on having enlisted for the approaching anniversary of the Royal Masonic Benevolent Institution the sympathy and aid of so eminent a brother as Sir M . Hicks-Beach , Bart ., M . P ., P . G . M . Gloucestershire . There are also further reasons for congratulating him on the success which has attended this part of his arrangements . It is not the first time Sir Michael Hicks-Beach has
presided on such an occasion , the Girls School having enjoyed the advantage of his influence and advocacy in 1881 . Moreover , he is eminently popular in his province , which , albeit of modest strength in comparison with several others , is nevertheless a well-ordered and harmonious body , and , above all things , loyal to the very backbone to the cherished principles of the Craft .
He is also a practised speaker , who extorts the sympathies as well as commands the attention of his audience ; while that his heart is in the cause he will advocate on the day appointed is shown by his connection with the Charities and the following record of services rendered both in the humbler and the more exalted spheres of Masonic duty . Sir M . Hicks-Beach was initiated by dispensation , while yet under age , in the Apollo University Lodge , No . 357 , Oxford , on the 21 st February ,
The Coming Festival.
18 5 6 , the ceremony being performed by his cousin , Bro . W . W . B . Beach , P . M . —now Prov . Grand Master Hants and Isle of Wight—who was temporarily in occupation of the Master's chair . In 1859 he joined the Westminster and Keystone Lodge , No . 10 , and in 1865 was elected its W . M . This , however , was not his earliest experience in that character . In 1861 he was installed W . M . of the Cotteswold Lodge , No . 592 , Cirencester , and
the same year was appointed Prov . G . S . W . of his native province . In 1865 , the year of his presidency over Lodge No . 10 , the late Lord Zetland conferred on him the collar of G . S . W . of England , and a few days later he became G . Pr . Sojourner in the Supreme Grand Chapter . In 1880 , on the resignation of the late Lord Sherborne , the Prince of Wales appointed him his lordship ' s successor in the P . G . Mastership of Gloucestershire , an
appointment which we need hardly say has given , both at the time it was made and ever since , the greatest possible pleasure to the Craft , both locally and generally . Early last year he was installed first M . E . Z . of the Royal Gloucestershire Chapter , No . 839 , Gloucester , and in December his honours in this branch of Masonry culminated in his appointment and installation as Prov . Grand Superintendent of the newly-erected Royal Arch Province of Gloucester . It has already been stated that our distinguished
brother presided in 1 S 81 as Chairman at the Festival of the Royal Masonic Institution for Girls , but this represents only a part , though we admit it is an important part , of what he has done in behalf of our Charities . To be as precise as possible , we may mention that he is a Vice-President of and has been twice Steward for the Girls' School , and is a Life Governor and past Steward of the Boys' School and Benevolent Institution . That such a brother will exert himself to the utmost in behalf of our old men and wnmrm
is a foregone conclusion , and we can only hope that the Craft will show their sense of his valuable co-operation by supporting him generally as well as loyally at the appointed time .
Early Eighteenth Century English Freemasonry-A Study.
EARLY EIGHTEENTH CENTURY ENGLISH FREEMASONRY - A STUDY .
I take to-day a period of 25 years , and I am sorry to say we have as yet , if ever we shall have , very little evidence about it in " respect of Masonic life and work . There was a lodge at Alnwick , and probably at Swalwell , early in this period , and we may assume that there was a lodge at York , and that the four London lodges of 1717 had a history and previous existence . Alnwick seems to have been Operative , like Swalwell , in the main , and was probably , owing to its propinquity to Scotland , more Scottish than English
in its general outcome . In the minutes of the Swalwell Lodge , now the Lodge of Industry , which actually begin in 1725 , we find traces of a system at work which seems ancient j but appears to be different from what Bro . D . M . Lyon points out to be existent at the same period in Scotland . Up to the present time no traces of such Freemasons , except the Sloane MS ., have turned up which seem to touch upon ceremonial in that early period , except certain attacks and alleged exposures , or quasi treacherous representations of what Freemasonry was .
About 1724 , we gather , also in 1730 , from certain counterfeit representations of Freemasonry in England , which gained currency , that good coin existed , but of which true examples can hardly be found to-day by the most enterprising seekers and collectors . When Payne put together his Regulations in 1720-21-22 , and Anderson reproduced them in 1723 , we have a right to assume , as a matter of fact , that a system of secret reception and formal
ceremonial existed , for some time , —let us say , at any rate , ' * legal memory . " What it was , is the one point all Masonic students would like to realize . We have , indeed , one witness who speaks of the state of affairs in 1717 boldly and confidently ; but he " proves too much , " and cannot be safely relied on . He declares the brethren who met in 1717 to be " rusty , " ignorant of the true ceremonies ; and as when he wrote this he was himself busily
engaged in advancing a favourite little " vanity " of his own , not only does he decry a rival " emporium , " but he abuses the " plantiff ' s attorney . " I do not think we need trouble ourselves much with Dermott . He wrote for a purpose , with an end to gain , patent to the critic and student to-day , and he was not particular in what he said , and sacrificed truth at the shrine of interest and faction . His bolder statement that a Third Degree
ceremonial was invented upon the Second by the brethren in 1717 , may be fairly dismissed at once ' as an after-thought and an invention . Indeed , it stands to reason that if the Third Degree was invented then , our Grand Lodge in 1723 , 1738 , & c , deliberately asserted what is not true . Therefore , though we are Belt without any actual evidence of a ceremonial up to 1725 , except what the Sloane MS . affords and Dermott produces , and
he is a discredited [ witness . We may assume from the " counterfeit ' s " existence that a real form also existed . We have prominently before us certain alleged rythmical portions . If the rythmical form could be relied on or upheld as archaic , it would point to much antiquity of an alleged ceremonial . But can it ? For some time I rather leant to its archaic evidence ; but careful study leads me to
doubt the value of it , and I am inclined to believe it to be late , if not arranged for the occasion . There is no ringabout it , either of quaintness or reality . Had the Grand M ystery proved a similar form or the Sloane MS ., I should have been ready to yield to such a " consensus" of evidence . But on the whole I do not now think that the rythmical couplets , & c , have any certain value in them . At the same time , if
any way authentic , they might preserve for us traces of an older form . The conclusion I wish to draw from this study is , the great need of caution , and the absolute impossibility at present of deciding the whole question . The two main views may fairly be contrasted and " weighed in the balance . " On the one side you have the authoritative evidence of official statements in 1723 , of a system ( trigradal ) , existing in 1720 , and we may fairly assume in and before
1717 1717 . We have a curious MS . whose transcription may be 1716 or 1717 , or it may run back to 1680 , which preserves an early seventeenth century diction , also a trigradal system . To assume , as some have done , that the Sloane MS . is merely that of an operative lodge or a mere " exposure , " is clearly an unsound way of treating the document . It may be that or cither , but it is certainly also much more . We must therefore await fuller li ght before we can with safety attempt in to decide this
any way important question . Much may be said by way of hypothesis , more may be advanced b y way of argument , a good deal may be put forward for illustration and explanation ; but , as it seems to me , it is absolutely impossible for the Masonic student , critic , or historian to do more " as at present advised , " than offer to agree with any ingenious explanation , or fair theory of what is and must remain for some little time a crux , well nigh irreconcileable even by the most zealous and painstaking searchers after Masonic truth , " M . S .