The New Grand Officers.

teachings of Freemasonry . We must have Grand Officers who have set an example to the brethren in every respect ; whose devotion has been proved by

practical deeds , and not merely by lip-service . Let the rule be as our Right Worshipful Bro . Havers observed in Grand Lodge , to "Seek merit wherever it may be found , "

whether in the metropolis or the provincial districts , and when found let it be rewarded with those high dignities which are so justly appreciated by the Craft . We know that

great care is exercised in the selection of the Grand Officers of England , and we feel convinced that the Earl De Grey and Ripon has wisely and impartially exercised his right

of choice for the first time . That his lordship may rely upon the support of English Masons we are well assured , and we

conclude with the expression of a hope , that his reign may be long and prosperous , over a happy and united brotherhood .

Multum In Parbo, Or Masonic Notes And Queries.

Multum in Parbo , or Masonic Notes and Queries .

THK " RED CROSS" ORDER . In your paper of the 9 th of April I find that H . R . H . the Duke of Sussex is mentioned as Chief of the above degree . Having lately gone through our manuscripts and finding several

relating to different degrees referred to in your " Multum in Parvo " column , I enclose copy of a circular , which you may insert should you think proper . Jos . GREENWOOD , Todmorden . Gi-and Conclave of Emergency of the Royal Order oj II . R . D . M . K . D . S . II . Palestine , 1 st and 2 d Column of the Seven Darrecs Hi ., v ., vii ., ix ., l . x . x . xi .

NE PLUS LI . TRA . Sir Kt ., —You are respectfully requested to attend thc Duties of the Grand Conclave at the Free Masons' Tavern , on Thursday , the 6 th day of August , iSl 2 , at 4 o ' clock in the afternoon precisely , A . L . 5816 , A . n . 1812 , A . D . 694 , A . . 493 . _ _ .

For the Installation of His Royal Highness the Duke of Sussex as Grand Master of the Order , thc appointment of Grand Officers , and other general business ; upon which occasion your attendance is most earnestly requested at 4 o'clock in the afternoon precisely . ROHERT GILL , Grand Serine and Registr . No . 16 , Sun-street , Bishopsgate "Without .

" RECIPROCITY " AND " W . J . HUGHAN ( page 235 ) . Bro . IV . J . Hughan says 1 am a Scotch Mason , should it not be Scots Mason ? Perhaps Bro . " Leo " will reply to this . EDINBURGH .

A RECENT ACT OK PARLIAMENT . At page 199 of THE FREEMASON , the words ought to read " A recent Act of Parliament , " instead of " An old Act . " The question was asked by myself , if Masonic emblems are to be regarded as armorial bearings , and so liable to

taxation , under the recent Act , 32 and 33 Vic cap 14 ? It will be gratifying to the members of Masonic lodges throughout Great Britain to know that the Board of Excise has decided not so to regard them . To have pronounced Masonic emblems armorial bearings would have

been an unnatural straining of the terms of the Act , and would have been felt as a great hardship by Freemasons generally . I am glad , therefore , that the Board of Excise has taken what I may venture to call a' common-sense

view of the matter . It is evidently , also , a just view ; the Masonic emblems not being personal distinctions as armorial bearings , are but merely indicating connection with a lodge , and with the Masonic Fraternity . CI / ALMKK . S f . PATOX .

I 1 RO . " W . C * . D . AXD " DR . CHALMERS . " On my many visits to the Journeyman l , odge , Edinburgh , No . S , I made inquiries of the Right Worshipful Master the reason of a bust of I ) r .

Multum In Parbo, Or Masonic Notes And Queries.

Chalmers being placed in a niche of their lodge , and he replied " that it was in respect for him , and that in his young days he had often visited the lodge . " CHALMERS I . PATON . THE " RED CROSS , " BRO . " LUPUS , " AND BRO . MATIER , RE RRO . HUGHAN .

Bro . " Lupus knows my opinion ot his Masonic worth sufficiently well , I should hope , not to suppose for one moment I spoke of him when referring to the " petty opposition , " & c , that the " Red Cross " degree had received . I did not

even think of him when writing die observation . The matters under discussion appear to be generally in process of elucidation , and I am glad to find Bro . " Lupus " is quite my way of thinking , as also Bro . Matier with respect to the degree in

question . Xot having claimed anything but a Masonic origin . / fr / - any Masonic Chivalric degree , I do not see how my last letter on the subject under discussion can be considered as an amende honorable . Perhaps Bro . Matier will kindly

enlighten me as to what part of my previous communications he refers to when making such a statement . I claim for the " Red Cross " as legitimate a Masonic constitution as any other Masonic

Chivalric degree . Other brethren more conversant than myself with the history of the Order when purely chivalric , claim that the Masonic Red Cross is a direct descendant of the old Order , which was not Masonic . All that is

needful to secure our adhesion to this statement is to make known the proofs on which such a claim is made . It would be well for brethren interested in this discussion to refer to my previous letter , so as to see with me that I have nothing to reply to . W . J . HUGHAN .

P . S . —As much of Bro . " Lupus " letter refers to Bro . " R . VV . L ., " I can only say I have always found the latter brother very ready and willing to answer any of my numerous inquiries . Now is the time , however , to make known what exists with respect to this degree . W . J . H .

EARLV GERMAN ARCHITECTURE . " It was left for the Germans to carry this system to its acme of absurdity . Half the merit of the old round arched Gothic cathedrals on the Rhine consist in the solidity and the repose they display in every part . Their walls and

other essential constructions are always in themselves sufficient to support the roofs and vaults , and no constructive contrivance is seen anywhere * but when the Germans adopted the pointed Gothic style , their builders—they cannot be called architects—seemed to think that the

whole art consisted m supporting the widest possible vaults on the thinnest possible pillars , and in constructing the tallest windows with the most attenuated mullions . The consequence is , that , though their constructive skill still excites

the wonder of the Mason or engineer , the artist or the architect turns from the cold vaults and lean piers of their later cathedrals with a painful feeling of unsatisfied expectation , and wonders how such dimensions and such details should produce so utterly unsatisfactory a result . "

' * The Germans borrowed their pointed style from the French , at a period when it had attained its highest degree of perfection in the latter country . " Anent Strasburgh Cathedral— " What he ( Erwin von Steinbach ) really did , was to

commence the western facade , of which he laid the foundation in 1277 , and superintended the erection till his death , 41 years afterwards ( 1318 , or thereby ) , when he was succeeded by his sons , who carried it up to the platform in 1364 . There is no novelty or invention in his design , and only

those mistakes and errors which all Germans fellintowhenworkingin pointed Gothic . Thc spire that now crowns this front , rising lo a . height of 468 feet from the ground , was not finished till 1437 , and betrays all the faults of its age . The

octagonal pari is tall and weak in outline , the spire ungraceful in form , ancl covered with an unmeaning and constructively useless system of tracery . The long stone bars which protect and hide the windows ( of the facade ) are admirable

Multum In Parbo, Or Masonic Notes And Queries.

specimens of Masonry , but they are no more beautiful than those which protected our kitchen windows in Modern times . " Compare the foregoing able remarks of Mr . Ferguson with the mistakes unfortunately made by Bro . Tindell at page 17 of his , in . many

respects , very valuable " History of Freemasonry , " and ~ the similar remarks at page 85 of the " Freemason's Vade Mecum ; " also the following purely imaginary statement at page 54 of that work " The further improvement of the Gothic style , and the bringing of it to perfection ( I ) , was reserved nevertheless to the Germans . " This

and many other similar remarks show that the author is not quite so well posted up in the true history of Gothic architecture as he might be , neither does he seem to understand that architecture does not consist in a large collection of pretty and clever littlenesses , pasted together

without due consideration of their effect when put together as a whole ; but ofthe making up of one grand and uniform whole , wherein every subordinate part duly blends in with the mass to make up a uniform , consistent , and duly proportioned whole . This is what Strasburgh—the

glory and boast of Alsace—wants ; its high spire appears to me as a heterogeneous mass , the octagonal part suggesting the idea of having been stolen from off some other building , while the tapered part reminds me of a Chinese pagodaperhaps some poor bereaved Chinaman laments

its loss to this day ! The German skcinmctzen got to be very good stonecutters , but it seems to me they were very bad artists ; and although they were clever and handy masons , yet the rise and progress of Gothic architecture during the

twelfth and thirteenth centuries was about as much due to them as it was to me . And as for the great Masonic lodges of Germany which existed in the fifteenth century , how comes it that none of these were the mother of the

German Ireemasonry ofthe eighteenth and nineteenth centuries ? Were our Freemasonry derived from these old operative lodges , we would have expected Germany to have received its

speculative Masonry from its own operative lodges , whereas it did not ; but German Speculative Masonry , as well as all other Speculative Masonry anywhere practised , was adopted or copied from that of England after 1717 . W . P . B .

The Symbolism & Significance Of Numbers.

The SYMBOLISM & SIGNIFICANCE OF NUMBERS .

Bv BRO . WILLIAM CARPENTER , P . M ., P . Z . ( Continued pro in page 231 , ^ 8 ( eight ) is the beginning of a new week , and it indicates new life or resurrection . Noah ' s family of eight persons commenced a new life

after the Flood , and Christ rose from the dead on the eighth day . Eight also denotes the primitive law of nature , being the first cube , anil points out that all men are born equal . It is also esteemed the number most to be desired , new life .

9 ( nine ) , as a symbol , has been taken in verydiverse senses . As 3 ¦ * - 6 it is partly divine and partly evil ; as 4 -i- 5 it is incomplete worldliness ; as the square of 3 , it represents an intensity of individual completion . A striking peculiarity in

this number is , that it always reproduces itself by multiplication : thus 2 x 9 18 , i . e ., 1 and 8 ; 3 x 9 = 27 , i . e ., 2 and 7 ; 4 *•* 9 - 3 6 , i . e ., 3 and 6 ; 5 x 9 = 45 , i . e ., 4 and 5 , and so throughout . Hence , the Pythagoreans considered it a

symbol of matter , which though continually changing its form , is never annihilated . It was consecrated to the spheres , because the circumference of a sphere is 360 degrees , and 3 x 6 x 0 arc equal to 9 . It is also called the triple ternary .

As 111 Freemasonry , 9 derives its name from its being the product of 3 multiplied into itself , so in the higher degrees , 27 , which is 3 * 9 , and 81 , or 9 x 9 , are esteemed as sacred numbers .

10 ( ten ) is the first wholly complete number ; and it is the must sublime , as it * contains the monad , or Unity , which created all things , and o , thc symbol of the chaos , out of which the world was formed . It is also the foundation of