Original Correspondence.

during those years . I havc no doubt that these men ( or many of them ) havc visited n-. ost of the Almoners in other towns besides those from whom I have regular returns . 1 havc given thc number of times that each man has app lied to one or the other of these seven Almoners as follows : —

2 P 7 have applied ... Once . 70 „ ... Twice . 25 ,, ... Three times . 19 ,, ... Four times . 10 ,, ... Five times . 2 ,, ... Six times . 1 ,, ... Seven times .

No doubt it is a very effective plan to telegraph to the applicant's lodge , but whoever docs vvill frequently find that where the lodges arc held at inns in country places he may have some days to wait for . 1 reply , as the VV . AI . or Secretary of the lodge may not call at thc inn very

frequently , and landlords do not as a rule send on communications . The system of periodical reports to thc surrounding towns has had the effects of reducing thc number of applicants very considerably within the last three years . Yours fraternally , ALMONER .

THE LATE . PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND THE GRAND MARK LODGE . To thc Editor of thc " Freemason . " Dear Sir and Brother , — Kindly publish thc annexed letter from the American

Legation in thc Freemason . Yours fraternally , DON . AL DEWAR . Ofiice of the Grand Lodge of Alark Masters , SA , Red Lion-square , High Holborn , February lOth .

jCoi'V . J " Legation of thc United States , " London , loth Feb ., 1 SS 2 . " Frederick Binckes , Esq ., " Grand Secretary . " Dear Sir ,

" Referring to my letter of thc 2 nd ult ., I havc to yiy that I communicated to thc Department of State at Washington the vote of condolence on the part of the Grand Lodge of Alark Alaster Alasons of lingland on occasion of the death of President Garfield , and that I havc just received from Air . Frelinghuyscn , the Secretary of Mate , a

despatch , dated on the 2 / th int ., in winch he states that having transmitted to Airs . Garfield . 1 copy of the vote , he desires mc In convey to Grand Lodge an expression of her deep appreciation of its touching message of sympathy to herself and lier children . " I have the honour , eve , ( Signed ) "J . R . LOWKI . L . "

PROVINCIAL GRAND STANDARD BEARER . To the Editor of the " Freemason . " Dear Sir nnd Brother , — Will you please inform mc , or perhaps some of your correspondents will do , whether this ofticcr is considered a member of Provincial Grand Lodge , and entitled to wear the purple ? Yours fraternally , P . AI .

Reviews.

Reviews .

Till- TREASURY OF SCRIPTURE KNOWLEDGE . Samuel Bagstcr and Sins , 13 , Patcrnostcr-row . The work vvhich we have placed at the head of these reviews , is one of those valuable aids to Bible reading and understanding , which wc owe to that well known linn of publishers . Indeed , there are few of us who are not indebted to them for one or other of these useful , important and admirable publications , which have enabled us to study

the Sacred Scriptures 2 ithcr in a tongue foreign to us . in polyglott versions , or in our own vernacular . As Freemasons wc , as is Itntwn , arc never ashamed to own and abide by thc inspired and sacred volume , that Great Light , without which Freemasonry becomes a misnomer , and onr meetings cannot be held . Let us note this . In other jurisdictions unfortunately , which however shall be nameless here , the Bible has been

taken out of our lodges , the name of God disowned , and all semblance of religious reverence ruthlessly banished , lt is not so long ago , either , that a Frenchman received twentythree black balls in a French Lodge . Why ? Because he had prayed to Cod sometimes . ' 'The consequence has been the decadence of all such branches of the Alasonic family ; their breaking out into absurd questions and political congeries ; confusion worse confounded existing among them ,

worse than that of thc 'Tower of Babel ; and giving us sad reminders of cruel and mournful days of old , when the name of the Alost High was absolutely officially forbidden in a fair , great city not far from our shores , and of certain unsavoury doings of a happily short-lived Commune , a few years back , vvhich continued to throw upon contemporary French Alasonry thc ridicule of the profane and Ihe contempt of all true Alasons . lt vvas the dream of Alassol's

life , as he once said openly , to see the Bible banished from Trench and English Lodges . He lived to sec it in his own favoured and genial land , but in vain were his glances directed towards perfidious Albion . linglish Alasons stood fast b y ( he ancient landmarks of their Order , and still cling with unceasing , nay , increasing reverence to the best of books . Wc welcome heartily such works as this valuable Scripture guide ancl vade meeum of Alessrs . Bagstcr

, because they effectually aid the honest Bible reader in mastering the admitted little difficulties of context and collocation , of the similar use of words , of the identical meaning of passages , and further greatly for many a grateful student a careful , a complete , a critical , if reverential exegesis of the Word of God . And vve greet such

nooks as these on another ground . . It has- been said , we know not with how much of truth , that just now , for some reason or other , though there is a great deal of talking about the Bible there is less reading of it , less patient and diligent study of its manifold wonders , less drawing out of its treasures , many and goodly , old and new . than there

Reviews.

used to be when Bibles were not so plentiful , or aids to it adapted and prepared for the scholar ' s perusal . VVe call thc attention , then , of all of our brother Chaplains , and many other readers , to this useful publication , and trust that , one and all , tbey may lind in it much of what is both useful and valuable , educational and edifying for themselves .

THE SECRET WARFARE OF FREEMASONRY AGAINST CHURCH AND STATE . Burns , Oates , and Company , Portman-strcet , London . This is a Roman Catholic attack on Freemasonry , and written in a thoroughly Ultramontane style of exaggeration , ignorance , and malediction combined . 'The prophet of evil seems to be wishful to imitate the Archbishop of

Rheims when he excommunicated and cursed the peccant jackdaw with " bell , book , and candle , " with all thc flowers of voluble expletives , and with all the artillery both of a " Jupiter Tonans " and a Papal representative . And then the most laughable matter is , that though this work vvas originally written in German , in 1 S 75 , and has since been translated into more than one foreign language , it is based

upon a purely erroneous assumption , from first to last , and though marked by much use and powerof abuse , a facile How of words , some very sounding expletives , some very theological bitterness , its facts are all fictions relatively to Freemasonry , and it is really and truly , in the great and continuing controversv between France and Freemasonry , " Vox ct pr . x-tcrca nihil . " For the premise of the writer's whole

argument , which we need not remark , "in passant , " is utterl y erroneous and ill-founded , that French Freemasonry is identical with Cosmopolitan Freemasonry , whereas , as W' 2 know , the very reverse is the case ; and Anglo-Freemasonry , which includes within its "borders" twothirds of all existing Freemasons , utterly repudiates French Freemasonry , its principles , and its practices , its changes

and its consecration , its " modus Vivendi , and even just now its " raison d'etre . " At present it is doing more harm than good , and wc are unaware of any one true Alasonic principle it cither inculcates or illustrates . The writer tgnoring . as 1 havesaid , Anglo-Saxon Freemasonry and other distinguished bodies , simply passes a most severe judgment on the doings of French 1- reemasons in the time ot thc

Commune , and the transactions of sonic " obscuri viri " in Belgium , some foolish speeches in Germany , some political proceedings in Italy , which he ! ms . 1 full righttodo . Butthc writer must be greatly at a loss either for facts or invectives when he goes back to French alibi ' s in the last century , to Robison , Barruel , and others , and to the actual decrees of the Church of Rome , which were , according to their own canonists , all

unsound and uncanonical , andjto be reckoned among thc Bulls and Allocutions " non usitata-, " to frame an indictment against Freemasonry generally . We , however , who form part of Anglo-Saxon Alasonry , can well afford to leave such excommunications to the folly of those who make them , Iodic lapse of lime , the fairness of men generally , and the clearness and calnl of our own consciences thercaiient .

I hey , stuctly speaking , do not concern us . No more loyal , no more religious bod y than that which constitutes Anglo-Saxon Freemasonry is to be found in this wide world , inasmuch as never forgetting ; thc allegiance due to thc sovereign of their native land , or their le ^ al ruler , they always pay due obedience to thc laws of every other country , whatever its form of government may be where wc

are permanently or temporarily located , vve arc very sorry when foreign Freemasons depart from the strai g ht and narrow path of true Freemasonry , despise its organisation , parody its teaching , overthrow its landmarks . But wc aic not responsible for their vagaries or their childish follies , their unreasonable speeches , their erratic deeds . So great is thc igncrance of this petulant scribe as to Freemasonry

that he actually credits Weishaupt , the head of thc llluminati , to Freemasonry ; whereas , nothing is more plain or historical than this , that Weishaupt vvas an Illuminebefore he became a Freemason . lie was a Roman Catholic professor of canon law , ( notabene ) , at Ingoldstadt , when he started his famous system of Republican atheistical destructive Nihilistic llluminatism . He was made

a Freemason at Munich much later , but found Treemasonry too loyal and religious for him , and left it . He is said to have been a prjfesscd Jesuit to boot , so that no one fact in history is positivel y more certain than that to Roman Catholicism or Jesuitism we owe the idea and the work of that detestable sect of Illumines , and of all such secret destructive political societies . VVe shall recur to the subject , as this work has a sort of official imprimatur .

PUTHAGORAS SUGRAAIA 1 A PERIOD ! KON . En Athcnais . 1 SS 2 . This is a Greek monthly magazine , No . 1 , " Etos Proton , " issued , as vve understand , by the Puthagoras Lodge , in Athens , and edited by Professor Gelani , ( thc name is rather hard to decipher , ) at " Athcncs . " Alodcrn Greek differs a good deal from thc Old Greek vve once heard of , when we " Knew the streets of Rome and Troy ,

And supped with Fates of Furies ;" or those hours when up at books , or at a friendly scob , vve prepared our lessons , meditated over a Vulgus , or read on the sly a forbidden novel . This magazine asks thc important question " Ti csti Adelphos , " What is a Brother ?

and gives us several interesting addresses and essays . If any Greek brother would like to call for it , he vvill find it in the care ol Bro . VV . Lake , at our oilice , if > , Great Qucenstn-ct . The modern Greek for thc monthly serial is , Puthagoras Alenaion Periodikon .

BOLET 1 N OFFICIAL DE GRANDE ORIENTE DE ESPANA . Anox . Noi . This is the first number of thc tenth part of a Alasonic Bulletin and Review which is issued officially by the Grand Orient of Spain . As our readers know , there have been great controversies and much confusion anent Spanish Alasonry , and the "Cosasde lispana"in Alasonry , as in other

matters , are sometimes bad for outsiders to understand . It seems that the Grand Lodge of Scotland has been in communication with the Grand Orient about a Scottish Lodge at Gibraltar , which is to work also at St . Roque , some miles from Gibraltar , in English . VVe do not

ourselves profess to understand how a lodge can work in two places , or have as it were , duplicated meetings . Hut no doubt , the English , Irish and Scottish jurisdiction docs not extend beyond Gibraltar . The Grand Orient of Spain seem to have taken a very friendly and fraternal view of the application ,

Reviews.

SYNOPSIS OF THE CHESS OPENINGS . A Tabulated Analysis , By Hro . WILLIAM COOK , a member of the Birmingham Chess Club . Third edition , with Additions and Emendations . London : W . W . Morgan , 23 , Great Quccn-strcet , W . C , 1 SS 2 . Chess is one of the most popular as well ns one of the most intellectual of games . It is played in all civilised countries . Numerous and influential Chess Clubs arc

established in their respective capitals and in most large provincial centres , lt has a rich literature and a press of its own , the first book printed in lingland by William Caxton , of immortal memory , being the " Game of the Chess . " It may be indulged in as a mere amusement , or it may be studied seriously like any other subject that calls for the excrciseof thc intellectual powers . Fortheiiscof those who practise it in the latter fashion , this admirable analysis by Bro . Cook is especially intended , and the fact of

itshavinnin 1112 short period of seven years attained thc honour of a third edition fully justifies our favourable opinion of its contents and the author ' s mode of dealing with his subject . Alore than this , however , it seems desirable to say . Much new matter has been added : " variations that have occurred in actual flay" arc given ; and thc greatest care is taken throughout with a view to insuring accuracy . In fine , the Synopsis is a credit to its author , I ' ro . Cook , of thc Birmingham Chess Club , while the style in which it has been issued reflects equal credit on the publisher .

EARLY BRITAIN—ANGLO-SAXON BRITAIN . By GKAXT AI . LK . N- , lt . A . __ Published under the direction of thc Committee of General Literature and Education appointed by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge . London : Society for Promoting Chiistian Knowledge , Northumberland-avenue , Charing Cross , S . VV . ; 43 , Oueen Victoria-street , li . C ; . | S , Piccadilly , XV . ; and 133 , North-street , Brighton . New York : Ii . and I . U . Young and Co .

Hir . Grant Alien , in his preface , tells us that bis lillie book is " an attempt to give a brief sketch of Britain under the early linglish conquerors , rather from the social than from the political point of view . " For this reason but little is said about "the doings of kings and statesmen , " attention being chiefly directed towards " the less obvious evidence afforded us by existing monuments as lo the life and mode of thought of the people themselves ; " and it is

then added " the principal object throughout has been to estimate the importance of those elements in modern British life which arc chiefly due to purely linglish or low Dutch influences . " Having stated his purpose thus clearly , the author goes on to enumerate the sources from which lie has derived his information . 'There arc " first , and above all , thc * linglish , Chronicle , ' and to an almost equal extent Bxda ' s ' T ' . eclesisastical History . '" When necessary ,

these have been supplemented by " Florence of Worcester , " and the other Latin wiiters of later date . The pretty little , but untrustworthy , romances of " William of Malmesbury , Henry of Huntingdon , and their compeers" arc not repeated , and still less those of " Geoffrey of Monmouth . " "Gildas , Ncnnius , and the other Welsh tracts , " have been used " sparingly , " and Asser with caution , iv lieu his information seems to be really contemporary . Occasional

hints have likewise been derived from " the old British Bards , from Beowulf , from the laws and from the charters in thc ' Code : ; Diplomaliciis . ' " Aiming modern authors that have been consulted must be mentioned Drs . li . A , Freeman and Guest , Canon Stubbs , Air . Kemble , Air . Green , Professor Rolleston , Sir Francis Palgrave , Canon Greenwell , Air . Isaac Taylor , Professor Huxley , and others . To these admittedly trustwoithy resources Air .

Allen has gone for Ins information , and the result L a " little book , " which unquestionably fulfils thc author ' s purpose . There are some twenty chapters , in which are successively described , "The Origin of the linglish , " " The linglish by the Shores of the ' Baltic , " " Ihe linglish Settle in Britain , " " The Colonisation of the Coast , " " The linglish in their New Homes , " "The Conque-t of thc

Interior , " Ihe Nature nnd Extent of the linglish Settlement , " "Heathen lingland , " and lastly " Anglo-Saxon Literature , " and " Anglo-Saxon Influence in Alodcrn Britain . " There is , further , a vvcll-conipilcd index , from vvhich reference to thc text is easy . In short , Air . Allen is to be congratulated on thc success of his labours , and the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge on its having published so useful an addition to our historical literature .

THE LAND OF DYKES AND WINDMILLS ; OR LIFE IN HOLLAND . With Anecdotes of Noted Persons and Historical Incidents in connection with lingland . By FKKDKKICK St'KN'ci-rK BIRD , author of " Harrington , " " Stonedcll Lodge , " Krc . London -. Sampson Low , . Marston , Searle , and Rivinglon , Crown-buildings , iSS , Fleet-street , 1 SS 2 . Wc venture to say that there is no more interesting

country in Europe than the little State of Holland , once the rival , commercially and as a naval state , of Great Britain , but now sunk into comparative unimportance in the scale of nations . Holland , too , is a country whose inhabitants , except , of course , in the large cities and towns , retain more of their primitive customs , habits , and costume than is customarily the case in old countries . Yet , though it is so near a neighbouring power , though our commercial

relations with it arc so intimate , and though it is so rich in art treasures , and so unlike other coutries of Europe , it is surprising how few Englishmen travel in it , or , at least , do more than traverse it hurriedly on their road to Germany or France . The scenery is unlike anything vve arc accustomed to in lingland , except in the Fen country and the Eastern Counties generally . The buildings are quaint and the people are quaint , while the facilities for reaching

Holland are ali the public need desire . Within twelve hours from leaving the Bishopsgate Station of the Great Eastern Railway Company an Englishman may lind himself walking by the side of the canals in Rotterdam , gazing at the statue of Erasmus , admiring its Cathedral or Great Church , or thc tine collection of animals in its Zoological Gardens . The quaint architecture , tbe women with their curious head dresses , the

strange bustle , the ships and barges of large and small tonnage and of . every description , make up a scene such as he will have some difficulty i 1 realising is only a few hours' journey from London . A short excursion by train and he will find himself in the Hague , the political capital ; and yet a little further on and he vvill be in Amsterdam , the commercial capital . Between Rotterdam and Amsterdam are Leydcn , famous for it siege and thc University , which it commemorates ; Delft , once renowned for its stone ware ;