Original Correspondence.

land , on a visit , where he now is , was installed at a special communication of the Provincial Grand Lodge , held in the Masonic Hall , Melbourne . Fraternally yours , W . F . LAMONBY . Argus Office , Melbourne , "July 3 .

BUSINESS CAPACITY . To the Editor of the " Freemason . " Dear Sir and Brother , — As I know that just now your columns are a little hard to fill , excuse me for saying so , rather dull , Freemasonry being dormant , as a rule , at all points of the compass , I send you a " morceau " from an American paper , which may raise a hearty laugh and amuse some of your

readers—His PISHNESS CABACITY . —A stranger , who had been making some purchases in Moses Schaunburg ' s emporium , on Austin-avenue , left his umbrella in the store , whereupon one of the clerks , who had only been in the store a few days , picked up the umbrella , and was about to run after the stranger and return it to him .

" Let me see dot umprella , " said Moses , whereupon it was handed to him . " Py shimminy gracious , dot vas a silk umprella . Chust put dat avay pehind de calicoes vere nopody vill stumble over it and preak his neck . " " But I want to give it back to the owner , " remonstrated the clerk .

" Mine Gott , does you vant to make a stranger susbect dot Austin merchants have got no pishness cabacity ? If you gives him dot umprella pack he would lose all confidence in our pishness capacity . "—Texas Siftings . Remarks seem out of place : comments superfluous . Yours fraternally , JONES

Reviews

REVIEWS

THE IRISH LAND QUESTION . By HENRY GEOKGE . Wm . Reeves , 1 S 5 , Fleet-street , E . C . This is a little pamphlet which it is altogether impossible for us to review in the Freemason , and we can do nothing more properly than courteously acknowledge its reception . Admitting that it might be possible , as an abstract matter , to consider in these pages simple questions of the land

laws of a country , it utterly transcends our power or our principles of absolute neutrality , to deal with the present pamphlet , which refers to the present crisis in Ireland with much " vis " and determination of view and opinion . Just now , the land question in Ireland is so mixed up with political considerations , and what are termed Socialistic

theories , that we should be doing very wrong to dwell upon it here . As Freemasons , we respect the rights of property as much as the rights of industry ; but to anything like a subversive and Socialistic programme , though we do not affect to discuss it , we cannot be expected to offer either adhesion or approval in any shape .

CELEBRITIES OF THE DAY . W . Poole , 12 A , Paternoster-row , E . C . This is part XIV ., vol . iii ., of a "Monthly Repertoire of Contemporary Biography . " The present number contains : Earl Spencer , K . G ., Col . H . Brackenbury , Admiral Sir Beauchamp Seymour , Lord Charles Beresford , General Shobeleff , and Arabi Pasha . The articles seem , for the most

part sketchy articles , not very deep nor very minute , based upon the current press reports of the day , with one or two pure American phrases , such asl" quite a large proportion " & . c . j & c , which we do not affect to like in the Queen ' s English . The larger space of this number is ^ given , by a great error of judgment , to Arabi Pasha , who has long been discounted by the sensible and honest-minded ,

and stands before us no longer the " Veiled Prophet of Khorassan , " but a cold-Wooded , intriguing , crafty , Fellaheen , with a fanatic detestation of all non-Mahommedans , and with the gravest suspicions attaching both to his personal probity and his personal courage . It is the idlest of declamation , and the mere childishness of ignorant party speech , to call him either a patriot , a soldier , or a

statesman , anything ^ but a tool in the hands of stronger wills and hidden wire-pullers . His pleas of a national party and Egyptian independence are clearly put forward for a purpose to cover deeper designs and more slippery intrigues ; and while he has continued to hoodwink some , and throw dust into the eyes of others , he has been the " fautor and the director of cruel massacres and shameful plunder . " That a stern Nemesis will speedily be exacted

from so great a criminal all Freemasons will WISH , as well as that peace may be restored to the land of the Pharoahs , and liberty and happiness secured to a trampled down but industrious people . Even when these lines appear General Sir Garnet Wolseley and Admiral Sir Beauchamp Seymour may perhaps have brought him to account for shameful cruelties , and unjustifiable mutiny , and most horrible misdeeds .

Part XIII . of "Celebrities of the Day possesses a very special interest for Freemasons from the fact of its containing a full and particular account of the Dundas family , whose representatives in the peerage of the United Kingdom are the Earl of Zetland and Viscount Melville . The name of the chief of the province of N . and E . Yorkshire has been known and respected

throughout the Craft in England , Ireland , and Scotland for close on half a century ; for so long a time , indeed , as the earldom has been in existence and for some years before , when the head of this branch of the family bore the title of Baron Dundas . A few particulars from this interesting work cannot , therefore , be otherwise than instructive . The earldom of Zetland is of modern creation , having been

conferred on the grandfather of the present peer at the coronation of Her Majesty in 1 S 3 S . 1 he barony of Dundas was bestowed by George III . on Sir Thomas Dundas , of Kcrse , in 1794 , and in 1762 Sir Thomas ' s father , Lawrence Dundas , M . P . for Edinburgh , was made a baronet . Thus the lowest of the titular dignities possessed by the family goes back no further than 120 years . But , though the title is modern , the family is a very ancient one . Lord Wodehouselee—no mean authority—writes in thc

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"Transactions of the Royal Society : " "The Dundases are descendants of a family to which the historian and genealogist have assigned an origin of high antiquity and splendour , but which has been still more remarkable for producing a series of men eminently distinguished for their services in the highest offices in Scotland . " According to the writer in " Celebrities of the Day , " the lands of Dundas from which , in accordance with the then prevailing custom ,

the family took their name , were granted to them in 1109 ,, by VValdegrave , Earl of March , and the charter conferring the grant is still extant , being the oldest document of its kind in the possession of any family in Scotland . As to the family , very many of its members have been , as Lord Wodehouselee , says , "distinguished for their public services . " There was a Serle de Dundas in the days of YVilliam the Lion . A Hugh Dundas , who was a companion of Sir

William Wallace , is described as " a man of remarkable courage and merit ; " and his son , who fell at the battle of Dupplin , in 1332 , was a steady friend of Robert the Bruce . Alexander Dundas , of Fingask—a branch of the Dundases of Dundas—had five sons slain at tYiebattie oi Flodden , in 1513 , and in the days of James VI . of Scotland , afterwards James I . of Great Britain , Archibald Dundas , of Fingask , was held in high repute , both by his sovereign and the people .

In the stormy period of the reign of Charles L , George Dundas sided with the Parliament , and was a member of the commission that tried Montrose ; while , on the other hand , Sir J . Dundas , of Fingask , who received the honour of Knighthood in 1 C 33 , espoused the King's cause , and by so doing brought ruin on his estate . It was a great grandson of this latter , Lawrence Dundas , M . P . for Edinburgh , on whom , in 1762 , George III .

conferred the dignity of a Baronet , and who , in 176 G , purchased for £ Go , ooo the estate of the ancient Norse Earldom of Orkney and Shetland—whence Zetland , the title of the present Earl—his eldest brother , Thomas Dundas , being the representative in the British Parliament for the islands so named . Sir Thomas Dundas , of Kerse , in Stirlingshire ( still one of the family seats ) , son o £ Sir Lawrence aforesaid , was created Baron Dundas of Aske , in the county

of York , in 1794 , and dying in 1 S 20 , was succeeded by his son Lawrence , a former Pro Grand Master of the Craft , who was created Earl of Zetland in 1 S 3 S . Lawrence , second earl , who came into possession of the family honours in 1 S 39 , was the well-known Freemason , and held the Grand Mastership of the English Craft from the death of H . R . H . the Duke of Sussex , in 1 S 43 , till 1870 , when he resigned the office . At his death , in 1 S 73 , the earldom descended to

his nephew , Lawrence , the present and third earl , Provincial Grand Master of North and East Yorkshire , who , by his position and influence , worthily upholds the lustre of the family name . The earldom of Zetland has been spoken of as being of modern creation , but the title itself is most ancient , having been created in S 72 , when Harold Harfager , King of Norway , having resolved on punishing the Vikings from the Orkney and Shetland Islands , and the

Hebrides , sailed with a large fleet and conquered them , ROgnwald , Earl of Moeri , who assisted him , being rewarded for his services with the earldom of Orkney and Shetland—then cailed Hjaltland , afterwards Hiatland , Yetland , and subsequently Zetland . This ROgnwald was father of Rollo , conqueror of Normandy , andjancestor of William the Conqueror , of England ; so that the Prince of Wales , Grand Master , though in no wise related to the present Earl of Zetland , is descended

from the first earl . In the days of Rognwald , and for centuries afterwards , the earls were more like kings ; nor was it till 1471 that , on the marriage of the Princess Margaret of Denmark with James 111 . of Scotland , the earldom ceased to have a separate existence , Orkey and Shetland being pledged to Scotland for part of the Princess ' s dowry , and the earldom itself being annexed by act of the Scottish Parliament , " nocht to be gevin away in time to come , to na persain or persains excep allnarily to ane of the King ' s sonnes ot lauchful bed . "

PROCEEDINGS OF THE OHIO COUNCIL OF DEL 1 BERATORS . Edited by E . CARSON , 33 . This is one of the most important publications , as connected with the history of the Ancient and Accepted Rite , which we have seen , and deserves careful perusal and equally careful preservation . For Bro . Carson gives usboth the Constitutions of Bordeaux of the Princes of the Secret of 17 G 2 and the later ones of 178 ( 1 . A good

deal of mystery and doubt has always attached to both these documents , and that mystery and doubt are not dispelled even by the lucid and critical statement of Bro . Carson . The Constitutions of 1762 seem first to have appeared in cxtenso in 1 S 32 , ( so Bro . Carson assures us ) , though portions of them certainly appeared before . There seems to be some difficulty in ascertaining where the original is or was , as a great deal turns clearly on the transcriiit

of Bro . Delahogue , which , of course , is over thirty years later . The commission of Stephen Morin , as far as we know , also rests on the Copy of Bro . Delahogue , as nothing seems to be known of the original . As regards thc Constitutions of 17 SG , a still greater dilliculty arises , not only whither whence they came but when they first appeared . The Latin unfortunately , is very doubtful as Latin , and it seems very uncertain whether the original charter was in French

from Latin or in Latin from French . It is not quite clear in what J language the Constitutions of 1762 were composed . Hence it becomes a very important matter to ascertain the authentic and critical history of such documents , and Bro . Carson has conferred a favour on Masonic students by the publication of their translations . The question is a very important one , as almost all the German writers doubt the Constitutions of 1762 and 17 SG , and deny their

genuineness , especially their connexion with Uerlin . Even Daruty speaks hesitatingly about the Constitutions of 17 G 2 . \ Vc arc aware that Bro . Albert Pike has pronounced infavourof the Constitution of 17 SG , but then unfortunately such matters cannot now be decided merely on thc authority of any one brother however eminent ; and if the Constitutions of 17 S 2 bea " Fraus Pia " like the Locke MS ., or the Charter of Cologne , the sooner they are given up the

better . Carson makes one or two remarkable statements , which we leave without note or comment . Ihe first is as regards the Constitutions of Bordeaux , that from the copy printed in New Orleans in French and English in iS 5 < j , they were printed in 1 S 32 at Paris entirely in French , by the Supreme Council . Many talk of a publication in 1 S 12 , but it is doubtful if this contained the Constitutions in the original or extenso . They are perhaps only alluded to . A fresh edition was published in New York in English in 1 S 62 , and again by Bro , Albeit Pike , New York in 1 S 71 .

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Can anyone obtain for us a sight of this work . It seems that the Wench copies say Uordean . v , the American Berlin . Bene notanelaest . " In 1 S 0 S four articles vveretnven by Bro . Ualclii ,, from the Latin Constitutions , which seem then heard otiorthe lirst time . 1 he Latin Constitutions were , however , not mentioned , but these were termed articles of the Grand Constitutions of the Thirty-third Degree . In 1 S 32 the Uranc Conseil , according to Carson , < irst nublished the uranci

Constitutions in French , which agree with his English translation but not with the Latin ; and he quotes Bro . I ike as saying that originally the French copy was all that was known at Charleston . In 1 S 3 G the " Traitcs " of Boudon appeared in Paris , containing the Latin form , Bro . Carson says , lor the first time , and thev seem to have- cm . inat « l irom

Hicks Supreme Conseil . Bro . Pike considers them the original of the I' rend . form . But why ¦> Has not Bro . i ike been a little hasty in his conclusions ? The matter is ot great importance , as the history of thc A . and A . Rite If > 1 IA P ° P « iy written , and there can be no reason why it should be mixed up with untenable Constitutions or unauthentic documents . It is not impossible that Frederick CS *

lvr , i ? n nH r ? 1 'H » igh G ^ under » Protection , as I'erd . nand , Duke of Brunswick , was his cjreat friend . It would be very interesting to find out if any authentic records of the Convent of Wilhelmsbad , in 17 S- exist whether Frederick the Great is alluded to as the " " Magnus r £ ri ? nt Mag"US Commendatol " > " ( which is , we think , f « , ' H P b , scrvance tc ™) ' Frederick the Great may have ssucd a letter of recognition to a Council of Perfection smnprl

rcnenc , and the Latin translation has then , which wc have always thought , been taken from the French . After tiro . Carson ' s publication the matter cannot well be left where it is and it will be both right and proper for all concerned to look into the whole matter carefully , calmly , and

Masonic Notes And Queries.

Masonic Notes and Queries .

39 ] THE TOLERATION ACT . * . ? t ? / £ - ° i te" us , \ vhat is thc CNact verbiage of this act of iGbS : It is used by a recent American writer to p ™ . 1 Mas ° \ S could not meet in England in 1 1 J J Say » C C ' , P ' ' against meeting " with locked doors , ' and though the "sequitur" he seeks to establish is not clear , yet it may be well to know what the exact words of the act are .

MASONIC STUDENT . 4 ° J OLD BOOKS . Px ^' Xr ™ r ° btain " Boudo « 's TraiWs , " published at " KnnS ? 1 A 1 T , l , ut ™ e in the way of obtaining Recueil des Actes du Supreme Conseil de France , Svo , 1 S 32 . There were several works published in France between . 7 G 2 and . S 32 bearing on the Constitutions of

, Bordeaux , and those of . SG ( A . and A . S . Rite ) , and several exist , n MS . ; and though it is possible these Constitutionswere not published "in extenso , " long extracts , if not complete transcripts , were quoted . Will any brother , who has such works , kindly communicate with Rose Croix , addressed to care of Editor of the Freemason , 16 , Grea Queen-street , London , W . C . ROSE CROIX ig >

41 ] LODGE CERTIFICATES OF MEMBERSHIP . What is the date of the earliest certificate of a Mason having been initiated , passed , and raised to the Sublime Degree of M . M known to have been granted by the lodge which . conferred the Degrees ? and what is thebaic ot the latest centficate known to have been issued in this

way by any private lodge in this country ? I have at present in my possession one of those certificates , dated the " ~ £ iJS Se P 4 mber ; ' 5 ' 7 . . L . 5 S 21 , " panted by the Newcastle-upon-Tyne Lodge , No . 2 G , " which for neatness and appropriateness of design would not disgrace any Grand Lodge on the face of the globe . It was engrave * neat

;/ """" ' !>« " me pendant wax seal of the lodge is protected b y a small tin box , through which the bite vinuTi fh aCh 1 " , ? " l ° th P - ertmc * ™ b « = en passed pre ? vious to the mo ten wax being deposited thereon . Everything which helps to illustrate the past manners and cusa ° rrno excep « or ° " " , teieSt" * ' >«*« certificates GEORGE MARKHAM TWEDDELL .

A Monster Masonic Picnic.

A MONSTER MASONIC PICNIC .

A Masonic picnic upon a scale unknown to this side of the Atlantic took place on the 29 th ult ., in Franklin county Vermont , U . S . A ., when the lodges of the Montreal D ° s ridt visited . the celebrated Missisquoi Park , Hfeheate Sn in < lf train

n special Jett with some Soo passengers , and between 4 iW if m ° re WlrC s"bsc ( l u , "t ' y added ' to the party " 1 . } [ e wer , eabout 1200 by thc time the ParlV was reached , where they all alighted and marched to « S grounds , headed by the Silver Cornet Band of the Sixth I'us . hers , who accompanied the excursionists , and nlaved some fine selections of musical intervals duringfiTX ?

portly afterwards a party of about 400 arrived from St Albans , and about 300 drove in from the Bedford and surrounding districts , so that altogether there were fuFlv 2000 people in attendance at the picnic . At twelve o ' clock the brethren clothed in . regalia , formed a procession near the pavilion , and received the M . W . Grand Master of Quebec Bro . Dr . J . H . Graham , who delivered an exceedingly appropriate and interesting address in which he at some length traced the history ( both iren „ r .-, I , „ j V ,

sonic ; of the " Green Mountain State . "—Vermont Among those who received him were R . W . Bros . Hobart Bu ler , Deputy Grand Master ; ) . H . Isaacson GSerand J . F . Walker , D . D . G . M " . of Montreal Games of various kinds took place during the afternoon ; the prizes some of which were very elegant and costlv . h-i ™ L ^ i '

presented b y members ot the Masonic Fraternity in Montreal District Ihe lovers of the terpsichorean art also enjoyed themse ves in the pavilion , tripping the foM fantastic toe with zest to the music of the bafd . At six o clock the excursionists departed for home , reaching the city about nine , all ajipeanng to be well satisfied with their day ' s pleasure , cnel | :