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subscription , los . ( payable in advance . ) All communication ' s , letters , & c ., to he addressed to the Editor , 198 , Fleet-street , E . C . Ihe Editor will pay careful attention to all MSS . entrusted to him , butcannot undertake to return them unlessaccompanied bypostag ? Stamps .

Births, Marriages And Deaths.

Births , Marriages and Deaths .

DEATH . ROWLEY . —On the 1 ith inst ., at Bromsgrove , Mrs . Joseph Rowley , aged 7 6 , the beloved mother-in-law of Bro . Wigginton . "Her end was peace . "

Answers To Correspondents.

Answers to Correspondents .

All Communications , Advertisements , Sec , intended for insertion in the Number of the following Saturday , must reach the Office not later than 6 o'clock on Wednesday evening . All Communications should be sent to 198 , Fleet Street .

" ST . J AMES ' S LODGE NO . 448 . "—The corrections came tco late ; cannot possibly republish report . The following oommnnications stand over : —Letters from " P . M ., " " An Old P . M .. " . " J . B . I I ., " Pro . F . Binckes . Reports of Lodges 172 , London ; 270 , Leicester ; 1282 ,

Brigg ; 354 , Glasgow ; 43 , Fort William ; 3 60 , Glasgow . Oj ' tuar ) Notices of Bio . Dyer and Bio . Jno . Higgins . Owing lo an accident to the " formes" at the moment of g ' oing lo press , the reports of Lion and Lamb Lodge , 192 , and Lodge of Hope , 374 , are deferred till next week .

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The Freemason , SATURDAY , J ANUARY 16 , 1875 .

The Installation Of The Duke Of Abercorn.

THE INSTALLATION OF THE DUKE OF ABERCORN .

We congratulate our Irish brethren on the installation of the Lord Lieutenant , his Grace the Duke of Abercorn , as Grand Master , in the place of their old and venerated chief , the Duke of Leinster . We have already expressed our opinion how wise was the choice , liow judicious

the selection of so distinguished and esteemed a nobleman to fill the highest ' post in Irish Freemasonry , and we beg to reiterate that opinion cf ours to-day , and accompany it with every expression of felicitation , and every lervent wish for the progress and prosperity of Hibernian

Freemasons and Hibernian Freemasonry . Indeed , it is most welcome to us , not only to hear of the most successful arrangements of the Grand Lodge of Ireland , but to read the admirable address of the Grand Master , and the able speech of Bro . Shekleton , D . G . M . While both the

speeches were truly Masonic , we feci bound to thank our distinguished brother , the Lord Lieutenant , for his seasonable and forcible statement of the great and goodly aim , and the consistent teaching of our benevolent yet calumniated Order . Not very far from the spot where our

noble brother was speaking , had issued , not long ago , a very bituminous pastoral , denouncing everybody and everything , and consigning practically an inoffensive order to a " locale " not usually mentioned to " ears polite . " Indeed , there are few charges which have not thus lately been

heaped on our head , there are few crimes of which we have not been accused b y Romanists and Ritualists , and even , poh pudor , by Scotch Presbyterians and American Baptists . " Bedad , " as Paddy would say , " a goodly crew to row in

the same boat . " AntI yet , here with the opening year of Light and Grace , the Queen ' s representative in Ireland , like the Heir Apparent to the throne in England , chivalrously casts in his lot with our anathematized fraternity , ranges himself . under our banner—avows our principles ,

The Installation Of The Duke Of Abercorn.

and defends our cause . Happy omen for the peaceful and constitutional progress of Irish Freemasonry , and may 1875 witness across the channel , just as with us here , the steady growth and onward march of our maligned and tolerant Order . That in Ireland , as in other countries , our avowed enemies will cease either from their

secret animosity or open virulence is too much to expect , but if we are only united and true to our own principleSjimder such famous leaders , we need anticipate no danger , and need fear no enemy .

The Progress Of Masonic Archæology.

THE PROGRESS OF MASONIC ARCH ? OLOGY .

All Masonic students must rejoice to think how great has been the advance in archaeological study and results . Notwithstanding the labours and researches of our German brethren , we in England , until about fifteen years ago , had left the fertile land of Masonic investigation untilled and

unexplored ; in fact , it mi ght be said , to be lying fallow . For , despite the early writings of Anderson and Hutchinson and Preston and Dermott , and the later additions of Oliver and Laurie , our Masonic histories and our Masonic lucubrations were marked with a great

deficiency of critical analysis and evidential certainty . Oliver , our most voluminous writer . though learned and laborious , is , no one can deny , somewhat diffuse and often unreliable as to data and facts ; and , in this sifting epoch , and in our sterner criticism , his various contributions to

Masonic literature and arch .-eology have had to give way to the more careful statements of our modern school . And in the progress of investigation , and the developement of our Masonic annals , much has been cleared away , which , like the debris of some fallen mm , was heaped tip

in our way , and impeded discovery and advance . The true history of Freemasonry seems to be gradually emerging from those mists of doubt , uncertainty , and mythic record , which time or carelessness , or ignorance , or fanaticism , or even scepticism , had thrown around it . We do not

accept now in our Masonic belief alt that h 3 !> been so hastily put forward of date , of persons , of events , of traditions . But the process , though disagreeable to some , and objected to by a few , has done , we believe , great good to the important cause of Masonic truth . We , for our part

have never been afraid of enq uiry , nor been opposed to full , fair criticism . On the contrary , we believe firmly , after many years of careful archaeological study , that the more our Masonic annals are sifted , the more our history is verified , the more our arch . xologv is studied , the

more that honest criticism is applied both to our legends and our organization , the more remarkable will appear the true position and the living history of Freemasonry in the world . Let us take , as an illustration of what has been said , what has been called the Templar theory of

Freemasonry . Some twenty years ago , our English Masonic literature abounded with statements , that Freemasonry had sprung from the Templars . It seems to have been the belief of the Chevalier Ramsay , whether real or assumed , it has been often put forward somewhat hastily

111 former days , by open and anonymous Masonic writers . We doubt whether at this moment any competent Masonic student would repeat , or would patronize , the ' fallacious theory . We know now all the history of the Templar dispersion in England and Scotland . In the North

of England we can point to the Monasteries after their dissolution , in which the Knights lived and died , and the old idea of a Templar perpetuation of Freemasonry , either at York , or in Scotland , or elsewhere , is as unreal and absurd

in truth , as anything well can be either in the realms of history or the domain of myth . We do not ourselves believe in any transmission of the original Templar formula ; or secrets , at least none such has ever come before us which could stand for one moment before the inexorable

accuracy of modem criticism , or answer the requirements of historical certainty . There is , indeed , at Paris , we believe , still in existence an organization called " Chevaliers de l'Ordre du Temple . " This order professes to be founded on a Charter given by Larmenius the Patriarch , who had received a commission to do so from

The Progress Of Masonic Archæology.

Jacques de Molay . We may observe here that this order declares in its avowed formularies that " the mysteries and the hieratical order of the Egyptian Initiation were given to the Jews by Moses , " afterwards to the Christians by Our Lord , and religiously preserved by the successors of St . John , and guarded by a secret order called The Brethren of the East . But when the

Templar Order was founded Hugh de Payens or Hugo de Paganis , was dubbed with Apostolical and Patriarchal power , and placed in the lawful order of the successor of St . John . Jacques de Molay , foreseeing the misfortunes of his order , it is said , designated as his successor Jean Marc

Larmenius , Patriarch of Jerusalem , and in 1 . 324 the latter gave a charter which has been signed ostensibly by a number of eminent men ; and on this charter the allegation of perpetuation and continuation rests . But we fear we must dismiss at once this theory of the origin of Freemasonry ,

it is , in fact , little different from the " chsciphna arcaui " theory of Dr . Leeson , which has long been given up as historically untenable , and in the next place we regret to say we do not believe the charter itself ; it is in our humble opinion , after many careful researches , a forged ,

and' clumsily forged , document , In the first place no one of any authority as to the age of MSS . has ever seen it or been able to consider its handwriting , said to date from t . 324 and onwards . Again , it is not very likely that in face of the Papal Bulls suspending and dissolving the

Templar Order , a Roman Catholic Archbishop would take upon himself , especially in France , where the Templars were most unjustly given over to the secular arm , to perpetuate secretly a condemned and excommunicated Order , or to

receive such a commission from Jacques de Molay . Once more , by the constitutions of the Templars ,. it was impossible that a Bishop should command the " Milites Templi , " and the alleged transmission to Larmenius , therefore , becomes much

more than doubtful . Among the many signatures , the famous Bertrand du Gucschlin is to be found , in a printed document put forth in 182- 5 , but it has been said that that hero could not write , and signed usually with a mark . This fact was stated in our hearing by a learned collector

of autographs , and a brother , many years ago . The regulations of the Order are said to date from the 587 th year of the Order , and to be written on twenty-seven folios of paper , with the effigy of John the Baptist . This would bring us to the ifJth century . As the Grand Master Philip

is said to have signed them , with others , we presume this Philip is Philip Chabot , who was Grand Master according to the Charter in 1516 . We confess , both as regards the charter and the regulations , that with some experience of old documents , we cannot believe they represent any

such date in either case . Indeed , the allusion to the Scotch Templars appears to us to decide the question , as it is in fact the basis of most of the statements of several of the French highgrades , and is clearly an anachronism . We are inclined to believe that this Order was

founded in the time of so many similar foundations , in the early part of the 18 th century , and we are willing to look upon the Due de Cosse-Brissac , in 1776 , as the " real and orig inal Grand Master . " At the same time we are open to evidence , though every thing we have seen so far

only proves to convince us of the utter inadmissibility of the pretensions of the order to antiquity . The order professes to preserve as relics some burnt pieces of bone of the G . M ., Jacques de Molay and his gallant comrades , his sword , the helmet of the Dauphin d'Auvergne , the seal of Larmenius , and the veritr . ble

"Beauceant . " Perhaps some able French brother could tell us whether the Charter could be seen by an expert , and what is the present position of the order . Until , however , we have a little valid evidence , we fear that we must utterly ignore any claims the order puts forward , either as to reality of existence , or to actuality of continuation .

Freemasonry In America.

FREEMASONRY IN AMERICA .

We have risen from the perusal of the proceedings of some American Grand Lodges , with mingled feelings of wonder and admiration , for the growth of Freemasonry in that far-off land ,