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NOTICE , The Subscription to THE FREEMASON is now 10 . 9 . per annum , post-free , payable in advance .

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subscription , ios . ( payable in advance . ) AU communications , letters , & c , to be addressed lo tlie Editor , 198 , Fleet-street , li . C . The Editorwill pay careful attention to all MSS . entrusted to him , toutcannot undertake to return them unlessaccompanied hypostasis tamps .

Now Readv . INDEX to Vol . VI . of "THE FREEMASON . " May be had at the Publishing Office , 198 , Fleetstreet .

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THE HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY , FROM ITS ORIGIN TO THE PRESENT DAY . Drawn from the best sources and the most recent investigations . BY J . G . FINDEL , Second Edition , Revised , and Preface written by Bro . D . MURRAY LYON .

One vol ., 800 pages 8 vo ., with an Index . Cloth gilt . Pi ice , 10 s . Od . " This boi . k is a strictly historical one , from which all is excluded that is not based upon ascertained or probable fact . "—Builder . " Of its value to Freemasons , as a detailed history of their Brotherhood , it is not possible to speak too highly . "Public Opinion .

" The author seems to have fairly exhausted tlie subject . "—The Athenaeum . " The edition we are now considering is a second English edition , which had the great advantage of Bro . D . M . Lyon ' s able superintendence and editorship in its English dress . There can be no doubt but , that so far , Bro . Findel ' s work is the most complete work on Freemasonry

which has yet appeared , and that he deserves the greatest credit for his careful and accurate treatment of all evidence on the subject , and for his honest desire after truth . Bro . Findel gives up in the view he has so clearly and consistently put forth our early Masonic history , the older theory of the Roman Colleges , & c , and limits the origin of Freemasonry to about the twelfth century , and as

then arising from the operative Masons , and specially the " Steinmeitzen" and " Bauhutten" of Germany . Bro . Findel gives us a good deal of evidence on this head , and one thing is clear from his work , that the German Freemasons were , at a very early period , organized into lodges with a Alasler over them , and with outward regulations and inner ceremonies peculiar to the Craft . Bru . Findel rejects

all the views which have been from time to time put forward oi a Templar or a Rosicrucian origin . Whether or no Bro , Findel ' s theory of the date of the rise of Freemasonry be correct , matters very little : we do not omselvcs profess to accept it j but this wecan fairly say of Bro Findel's work , it is marked from first to last by the most remarkable tokenof industry , ability , and cart , of patient research , and

of skilful criticism . We know of no work which so clearly sets before us our amount of knowledge up to the present time on the great question of Masonic Archreology , and there can be little doubtthat what Preston ' s work is to English Freemasonry , Findel's work is to cosmopolitan Freemasonry . Indeed no student in Masonry can now dispense with it , and it is a perfect storehouse both of Masonic ewdence and Masonic

illustrations . We earnestly recommend all the lodges in this country to obtain a copy for the lodge library before the work is bought up for America ; and we believe that no Mason will rise from the perusal of its pages without a higher idea both of the historical truth and intrinsic value of Freemasonry , and of fraternal regard and recognition to the latest and not the least well-informed or effective of our Masonic historians . The preterit century has produced

no such equal , in authority arrd usefulness , to the great work of our Bro . Findel , and we wish him and it , in all of fraternal sympathy and kindly intent , many earnest readers , and mote grateful students . "—The Masonic Magazine . ' " This volume is the history of Masonry par excellence Every interested person may regard it , therefore , as the present text-book on the subject . "—Manchester Guardian London : GEORGE KENNING , 19 S , Fleet Sired .

Madame Tussaud's Exhibition.

MADAME TUSSAUD'S EXHIBITION .

BAKER STREET . Now added , PORTRAIT MODELS of the CZAR OK RUSSIA , SIR GARNET WOLSELEV , the Three Judges in the Tichborne Trial , Cockburn , Mellor , and Lush ; the Shah of Persia , Marshal MacMahon , M . Thiers , and the late Mr . Charles Dickens . Admission is . Children under ten , Od . Extra Rooms , ( id . Open from ten a . m , to ten p . m .

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Second Edition , Now Ready , i / O

MASONIC MUSICAL SERVICE

In the key of C . for A ., T ., T ., B

Opening and Closing Odes . Craft Ceremonies . Royal Arch Ceremony . Consecration Ceremony . Grace before and after Meat . COMPOSED BV DR . J . C . BAKER , NO . 241 . LONDON . —Geo . Kenning , 19 S , Fleet-street ; and 1 , 2 , and 3 Little Britain . „ R . Spencer , 26 , Great Queen-street . LIVERPOOL . —Geo . Kenning , 2 , Monument-place . MANCHESTER . —E . Henry & Co ., 59 , Deansgate . DUULIN . —C . Hedgeiong , 26 , Grafton-street . GLASGOW . —Geo . Kenning , 145 , Argyle-street .

. A . ,

Answers To Correspondents.

Answers to Correspondents .

All Communications , Advertisements , & c , intended for insertion in the Number of the following Saturday , must reach the Office not later than 6 o ' clock on Wednesday evening .

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TheFreemason, SATURDAY , SBI-TEMBI ' R 19 , 1874 .

Scottish Freemasonry.

SCOTTISH FREEMASONRY .

We have been struck , as wc think all our readers willhave been , with a very able letter , which appeared in our impression of Sept . 12 th , signed " Scoticus Masonicus . " That letter is

marked , in our opinion , not only by much ability End power , but by an especially straightforward way of p lacing the true state of the case before all thoughtful and zealous Freemasons . For , to

say the truth , the state of Scottish Freemasonry has long been a subject of deep regret to many of our readers over the border . We have long felt how very unsatisfactory and anomalous was I

the position alike of the lodges and brethren in that fine country , and where so many good Masons do undoubtedly reside . Why are we to be so regular , and careful and precise , in England ?

Why ara we to be so well managed and so financially prosperous , when just across the borderline , if we wish to see anything of Masonry , we find a completely different state of things , which

in some respects is a matter of deep astonishment and deeper regret to us " Cannie Southrons ?" Now " Scoticus Masonicus / ' give us the true key to the weakness and deficiency of Scottish

Masonry . If it be true that his view is not a novel one , as we have alluded to it more than once ourselves , and our able Bro . Hughan has done the same , we yet never before remember to

have seen the real state ofthe case put so lucidly so forcibly , and so convincingly . But how in truth can Scottish Masonry or any other Masonry flourish under such a mistaken system ? In the

first place , financially , it is utterly wrong . The Scotch Lodges , and the Scotch Grand Lodge are living on their capital , not upon their income . Their " increment" of returns is very small

indeed , and all that the Grand Lodge has to depend upon are the fees of oflice , small amounts for registration , & c .. . and the payments for new warrants , not many . The private lodges have

no income except what arises from the initiation fees , which in many lodges are ludicrously small . Hence , in order " to make the two ends meet / ' they have to have

Scottish Freemasonry.

recourse to frequent " emergency" lodges for initiation , and this hurried system precludes necessarily any very strict enquiry into character , and many brethren are initiated , and passed , and

raised in Scotland , who never visit their mother lodge again , and from whom that lodge receives no further aliment of any kind . It is true that lodges in Scotland can have an annual

subscription , if they will , but we fancy " Scoticus Masonicus" is right when he says you can count on your lingers those lodges which do so , as the Scottish Masonic mind is very much

averse to an annual subscription . The consequence is that all Masonic charity is dwarfed and stinted in Scotland to a degree quite out of character with its kind-hearted people , and above

all with the real wishes and intentions of our many warm-hearted brethren there . Scottish Masonry has no benevolent fund , of any value or importance , to show as a proof of the zeal

and sincerity of its members . It has a benevo' ent fund , which however , is , as it were , rather a God-send to the financially cripp led condition of the Grand Lodi-e , than available for any real

effective purpose of Masonic benevolence . The simple fact that in nineteen months it distributed £ 4 ^ 0 to 1 or ; applicants , an average of ^' 4 4 s . each , besides £ 11 disbursed in casual charity ,

speaks volumes as to the dormant condition of Scottish Masonic Charity . Some of the Provincial Grand Lodges have also benevolent funds but the sums they distribute are alike both

small and casual . We in England have vivid remembrances of applicants for relief , travelling f rom lodge to lodge , who , in nine cases out of ten , were Scotch Masons , and -who , having been

made Masons for a very small sum originally , and who , clearly ought never to have been admitted into ovir Order at all , had become Masonic vagrants . All the Northern provinces of

England , and indeed the Midland , can testify to the same state of affairs , equally prevalent and equally deplorable . It is said , there is no grievance without reform , no ailment without a

cure . So we say to day to the Grand Lodge of Scotland , reform at once your present weak and defective system . Make all the members of Scottish Masonry pay a subscription to a lodge , and let

the fact of being a subscribing member to a lodge be the test of admission to Grand Lodge itself . Levy annually a payment from each lodge , as we do , to be divided between your general

purposes and your fund of benevolence , and you will soon reap the benefit of the change , alike in a truer system of Masonry generally , and in returnim *; financial prosperity . It may be , that

there are some difficulties in the way , but if the Scottish Grand Lodge only will adopt as its motto " obsta principiis , " it will ere long reanimate Scottish Masonry with abetter spirit , and a higher tone altogether of work and duty .

Approaching Elections Of The Boys' And Girls' Schools.

APPROACHING ELECTIONS OF THE BOYS ' AND GIRLS' SCHOOLS .

We have received the voting papers for the next election of these excellent Institutions , and wc think that our remarks upon the cases they contain may not be unacceptable to our leaders . At the . election for the Girls' School , October 18 th , there are 29 candidates , and t j vacancies