The Prospects Of Masonic Literature.

press , like a properly conducted press anywhere is an additional guarantee , in our humble opinion , for the safe progress of society , the needful development of intellect , and the peace and well-being of the human race . We

can only hope that iiro . Uouley s appeal may De answered by our American brethren , in a true Masonic spirit , and that we may yet have to record another happy victory of right and truth , and cultivation , over the opposing influence of prejudice , ignorance , and benumbing apathy .

The Opening Of The New Masonic Temple At Rome.

THE OPENING OF THE NEW MASONIC TEMPLE AT ROME .

Italy continues , as it has long been , a land of the deepest interest to all educated Englishmen . That happy association of our j outh , which , in our great and sheltered " acadames , " linked us with the " Morgen land " of poetry and history , of legend and romance , is preserved by us more

or less during our busy lives . There are few of us who have not strayed in the " tiempi passati " amid the ruins of Rome , and the " debris " of the Colosseum , few indeed to whom the Italy of many hundred years is not familiar , in all its eventful annals , and in its imperishable worthies .

It is this wonderful , if pervading " classicalism , " to use a modern word , which has tended , in our opinion , so much to round off the sharper angles of the Anglo-Saxon character . To the blunt and honest , if dogged sensibilities , of our semi-Teutonic ancestors , we have superadded the "

gentie lesse " of the Norman Preux Chevalier , and upon this has been grafted that appreciation of the free struggles of Rome , and the intellectual aspirations of Greece , which have rendered the character of Englishmen so " thorough , " if with many defects , as before the nations of the world .

Hence to Italy , Roman , Christian , Mediaeval , nay , even Papal , Englishmen have all turned as age has followed age , with the deep sympathy of memory and admiration . And , as Freemasons , we have also much of deeply seated interest , in

the Masonic present and future of that favoured land . Until quite recently , Freemasonry was practically unknown in Italy , it was suspected , denounced , watched , and suppressed . It was a subject of fear to the rulers , and even of doubt to the ruled . Hence arose what is inevitable

under such circumstances , an anomalous and regrettable state of things . The lodges , forbidden to meet under the wise sanctions of law and order , met in secret , and there was cast over Freemasonry what is always prejudicial to its interests , a hindrance to its progress , and unfair

to its real character , that colouring of a political secret association , of which Freemasonry proper knows nothing . But all these untoward obstacles have gradually passed away , or at any rate are slowly yielding to the onward and humanizing march of liberation and enlightenment . The

Roman Catholic church has not yet , indeed , given up its hostility to Freemasonry , and does still , and will probably yet still , in the fervour of its perverse fanaticism , like some other good but most mistaken men nearer home , impede alike by open denunciation and secret calumny , the

benevolent and philanthropic teaching of true Freemasonry . We congratulate our Italian brethren on the opening of the New Masonic Temple at Rome , and we trust that this successfully completed work may be the omen to them of many more peaceful and fraternal victories ,

We believe that the Italian Freemasons have , so to say , the " game in their own hands , " if only - ** hey will , to use a familiar expression , " run straight , " and carefully avoid any declinations from the one right course , as usual a straight and a narrow path , either to the right hand or to the

left . Their first attempt should be to be " quit " of all real or supposed political tendencies . Freemasonry has nothing to do with secret political societies , with " carbonari " or " Madre Natuia , " with any of these peculiar forms of " Giovene Italia , " which have their own ends to

attain and their own principles to propound . And these aims and these principles are not Masonic . The tendency of too many foreign bodies of Masons is to indulge in the fine phrases and stereotyped formulae of socialism or Communism , accompanied with the vague and often meaamgless professions of humanitarian

The Opening Of The New Masonic Temple At Rome.

sympathies and philanthropic designs . The Italians are , in themselves , not only a most tolerant , but a most genial people , full of kindness and affection for their fellow men , and those of their own kith and kin . To them Freemasonry in its message of fraternity , equality ,

benificence , toleration , justice and truth , its practical vitality , and its active charity , will appeal with forcible emphasis . These are , after all , Italian virtues , despite the errors and false teachings of others , and as such they will , we

doubt not , soon permanently take root in the luxuriant Italian soil . May the future progress of Freemasonry in Italy be one of practical utility , of expansive benevolence , and of true fraternity .

Archæological Progress. Vi.

ARCH ? OLOGICAL PROGRESS . VI .

The famous so-called York Constitution , published by Krause , originally in the "KunsturkunderiT' in r 8 io , has been the subject of much controversy . He , himself , originally announced it as " the ancient York Constitution , accepted in the year 926 from an original ,

preserved by the Grand Lodge of York , translated into Latin by an Englishman in 1807 , and retranslated from Latin into German by Bro . Schneider , in Altenburg , in 1808 , and illustrated with explanatory notes by the editor . '' Such is the original description given by Krause , in

the edition of 1810 , which we have not seen , according to our able Bro . Findel . The history of this document is somewhat peculiar . Quite at the end of the last century , or at the beginning of this , Bro . Schneider , of Altenburg , received from a Bro . Bottger , then in London , an account

of an old York Constitution , which he had seen . This letter is to be found in the Altenburg journal for Freemasons , 1 . B S 408 . He discribes this MS . as a very old one , consisting of 107 leaves , in large folio , of which nearly one third was illegible by him , on account of its being

in old English . In this volume were contained the charges said to be collected by command of King William III ., in 1694 , as also the fourteen regulations from King Edred ' s until Henry Eighth's time . Bro . Schneider , of Altenburg , in unison with Bros . Morlin and Pierer , therefore

continued his enquiries in respect of the York Constitution . In 1803 he told a Bro . Van Dyk , passing through Altenburg from Holland of it , and expressed his desire to have a copy of it . In the beginning of the year 1808 , Bro . Van Dyk sent him a Latin MS ., which he said was a copy

of the York Constitutions , and which he had received , through a certain Colonel William Erskine , who lived in Scotland , but was often at York in the summer . A certain I . Stonehouse , dating and sealing his letter from York , Jan . 4 th , 1806 , declared the Latin to be a " true copy of a

MS ., which , composed in the ancient vernacular tongue of the country , was written on parchment , and was preserved in the archives of the most venerable Society of Architects of this town , contains the same things as the Latin translation . " At the conclusion of the Regulations of Edred ,

& c , Stonehouse also says , this translation in the Latin tongue answers to those , which , from time to time , have been added to the parchment MS . above mentioned , and are found at the end of the same . " This is signed the same day in 1806 . This Latin translation was again

translated into German by Bro . Schneider , and is certified to be correct , by a certain Carl Erdmann Weller , 9 th January , 1809 , according to his opinion , and that of three linguists of the Royal Saxon Chancellerie at Altenburg . Such is the history of the document , and a very remarkable one it is . Several points in it must strike even

an uncritical student . Of the original MS ., nothing is so far known , as no extant constitution agrees with its description , and the charges of William III ., and the regulations of Edred , are entirely strange to our English Masonic historians and students , Who translated the MS . constitution into Latin

is not told us . In one place Krause calls it " Stonehouse ' s translation , " but nothing has as yet been discovered , either of Col . Erskine or of Stonehouse . There is as yet no known Masonic constitution in Latin , and where

Archæological Progress. Vi.

Colonel Erskine got it from , seems very difficult to understand , unless indeed , it was a " prolusio lathomica" of the famous Dr . Brown . Admitting that there are some circumstances of suspicion about its history , let us go and see what its internal evidence has for us .

In the first place , we must give up the Edwin name and theory . The tradition probably refers , as good old Drake pointed out in 1726 , to Edwin of the Deira , and not to Athelstan ' s brother . If there was an old guild at York , as there might have been in Edwin ' s time , it might

have been patronized by him and subsequently have received a charter of confirmation from Athelstan . But Edwin the Atheling ' s name is clearly a mistaken interpolation . It is very remarkable , that there are expressions in Krause ' s Constitution which are perhaps only to be found

in Anderson ' s Constitutions , especially of 1738 . Both mention Carausius , both say that he gave the Masons two and not three-pence , and both call Edwin , correctly , Athelstan ' s brother . Both refer to the early establishment of a Grand Lodge , and the early meeting of the Grand

Assembly of York . What then is the value of Krause ' s MS ., per se ? That it represents a constitution of 926 is both absurd and untenable . The archaisms , the verbiage , the allusions all forbid such an idea . But the constitution , notwithstanding we dethrone it from its high archaelogical pedestal , is still , in our

opinion , a valuable document , and genuine , as a Masonic constitution . We cannot now trace the original , it is true j at least we have not done so , so far , and as we observed before , no one in England knows anything about the Charges of 1594 , or the Regulations of Edred . But we still believe the documents to be Masonic

documents , and to have been probably seen by Anderson and Preston . Whether the original " Codex " seen by Bottger now exists it is impossible to say , if we had it before us , we could perhaps affix a date to it , but judging from the translation , though we admit such a medium is not entirely reliable , we should not be disposed to

place the MS ., at any rate , earlier than the contemporary constitutions of the 15 th century , if even it does not belong to a still later epoch . In all our discussions , therefore , it appears to us , we can only use Krause ' s Constitution , & c , as an old and interesting Masonic document . We reject entirely the supposition , that it was fabricated at the beginning of this century .

Lodge Meetings.

LODGE MEETINGS .

Our lodge meetings almost universally still have for us all happy associations and pleasant memories . They are to us like an oasis in the outspread desert of time , for there , as in every well-ordered lodge meeting , we all of us assembled in blither days perhaps , of yore , to keep up the

venerable traditions , and to " work " the cherished ceremonial of our good and genial Craft . Today we are older , and may be sadder than of old . Time has thinned our locks and bowed our forms , the lapse of years , the conditions of our calling , the wear and tear of life , nay even

the trials and sorrows of mundane experience , have affected us all more or less , and ours are now serious and sobered views of men and things , instead of the exuberant flow of spirit , and the gay " insouciance " of early days , and to us , therefore , lodge meetings are not quite so

accessible or so available as in other and younger days . We have home duties and claims , or our steps are not so elastic , or our health so good , as one and both used to be , or we find that our first consideration must be sterner avocations , and that our society must henceforth necessarily

consist of the domestic circle . All these , and many other causes and contingencies , as years advance , make some of us less assiduous than we were in our lodge attendance , less frequent in our appearance amid the friendly and fraternal gathering . Yet , as we said at the outset , all our

associations and memories of lodge meetings are pleasing and refreshing . There was the humble " upper room , " wlwre we met , a cheery and goodly band , say some four short " lustra " ago . We seldom missed a lodge meeting then , and our assemblies were alike agreeable and always welcome . In that old spot we saw the light of Ma-