"The Queen And The Craft."

"The Queen and the Craft . "

iKe OW many are there among the Masons who honour this ww toast at tlie banquets which follow onr lodge meetings—En ancl during the long and prosperous reign of her Most G _ Gracious Alajesty it must have been proposed and | fi ] honoured many thousands of times , and in nearly every g part of the British Empire—how many are there , I ask , - " ^ fsy w ] j pause to consider why it is the Sovereign Lady of

these realms and the Society of Ancient Free and Accepted Masons should be thus associated together ? The majority of them , no doubt , regard it as of the very essence of Freemasonry that at our festive meetings due respect must be paid to the Head of the State . It is done at all such gatherings of loyal Englishmen ,

Irishmen , and Scotchmen , wheresoever they may happen to be gathered together , and it stands to reason that a custom which is so religiously observed iu the world without Masonry will be observed within it with , if possible , even greater earnestness and cordiality . But the Craft—why is it invariably and so intimately associated

with our beloved Sovereign ? Though loyalty to tlie powers that be is one of the fundamental principles of our Society , we cannot , in justice to our fellow countrymen , claim a monopoly of that virtue , and therefore the association cannot be intended to imply that our love and respect for tlie Queen are greater than those of non-Masons .

If her Majesty were a Mason—which is virtually impossible—then the form in which the toast is given might be taken to imply that we honoured her , not only as Head of the State , but also as Head of Freemasonry , which is only a part of the State . A reference to the earlier volumes of the Freemasons' Quarterly Eeview discloses that in

the reign of her Majesty ' s uncle and predecessor , William IV ., the first toast at our Mnsonic banquets was " The King , the Patron of the Craft . " But William IV . had been a Mason for upwards of forty years when he succeeded his brother , George IV ., and moreover , on his accession to tlie throne , he accepted the honorary office

of "Patron , " which had become vacant by his brother ' s death . In George IV . ' s reign I have no doubt tho form of the toast was the same as in King William ' s time , and for the same reason , George , on becoming Regent for his father , having resigned the position of Grand Master , which he had held for upwards of 20 years , and

accepted that of Patron . In what form it may have been given in the days of the First , Second , aud Third Georges I know not , though " Tlie King and the Craft " is to be found in the Freemasons ' Magazine , which was published in London towards the close of the last century . They were not Masons , but I dare say a mode of

expression was adopted when toasting , at all events the First and Second , which served to indicate that , though we were not more loyal than other people , we were very proud of our loyalty as well as of the loyalty which our operative predecessors had always exhibited towards the sovereigns of this country . Yet , I imagine ,

there must be a reason why this particular toast should be given as it is , especially in the case of her Most Gracious Majesty , and though the brethren may not be conversant with all the details , I do not think it will be necessary to travel far afield or that we shall experience any great difficulty in discovering it .

" here are not a few families resident in the United Kingdom in which a love for our Society appears to be hereditary , and although in many instances it will happen that one or more generations of such a family may pass which knows not Masonry , the love is not dead , but only dormant , and in ( lie lapse of time a new generation

arises in which the old love for the Fraternity is revived , and the association of the family with Freemasonry is renewed . But though , as I have said , there are many such families among us , there is none , be it gentle or simple , in which the hereditary love for our ancient Craft stands out more conspicuously than it does in our Royal Famil

y . What may have been the nature of the association which is said to have been established between sundry of our sovereigns and the Freemasons before the days of the Hanoverian dynasty , I shall not stop to inquire : but under the auspices of that dynasty the connection between the sovereign and the Craft has been a very

"The Queen And The Craft."

real one for upwards of a century and a half . The first Prince of the Blood who was received into our ranks was Frederick Prince of Wales , the Queen's great-grandfather , who was initiated into Freemasonry at his palace at Kew in 1737 , or just a hundred years before her Majesty-ascended the throne . This Prince died in 1751 , and for the next 15 years the Craft was without a Royal member , but in

1766 , the Dukes of York and Gloucester , and in 1767 , the Duke of Cumberland were made Masons , the Duke of York abroad , and the others in England . Of these Royal brethren , who were younger sons of Frederick Prince of Wales , the Duke of Cumberland was elected G . Master in 1782 , and retained the office till his death in 1790 , when his nephew , George Prince of Wales—who with the Duke of York

and Prince William , afterwards Duke of Clarence , had been initiated in 1787—was elected his successor . Of the seven sons of George III . who grew to man's estate , six were members of our Society , and of these six , the Prince of Wales and the Dukes of Kent and Sussex were Grand Masters of England ; the Duke of Cumberland , on ascending the the throne of Hanover , became Grand Master of the

Grand Lodge of that country , while the Duke of lork succeeded his , elder brother when the latter became King , as perpetual Master of the Prince of Wales Lodge , and was succeeded by the Duke of Clarence , who retained the office till his accession to the throne in 1830 , when he accepted the position of Patron . Of the next generation of the Royal Family , that is , among the grandchildren of

George III ., the only one who was a Mason was the late George V . of Hanover , who , on his father ' s death in 1851 , became Protector of Hanoverian Masoni * y and was afterwards initiated in the lodge of the Black Bear , at Hanover . Of the Queen ' s sons three havo been initiated into our Society—the Prince of Wales in Sweden and the Duke of Connaught and the late Duke of Albany in England , while two of

her daughters were married to Freemasons , the Princess Royal to Prince Frederick William of Prussia , subsequently Emperor of Germany , who was Deputy Protector and afterwards Protector of Prussian Freemasonry , and the late Princess Alice , who was married to Prince Louis of Hesse , afterwards Grand Duke of Hesse Darmstadt , and Grand Patron of the G . Lodge " ztir Eintracht" at Darmstadt . Lastly , we have the Prince of Wales ' s

eldest son , the late Duke of Clarence and Avondale , who was initiated by his father in the Royal Alpha Lodge in 1885 , and at the time of his death in January last was Past S . G . W . of England and Prov . G . Master of Berkshire . Thus , during the 155 years which have elapsed since Frederick Prince of Wales was initiated at Kew , there has been only one brief interval of 15 years , in which the Craft has been unable to boast that it numbered in its ranks one or

more members of the Royal Family . I his amply justifies the association in our first regular toast of " The Queen and the Craft . " But in narrating these facts , I have been stating only what is pretty generally known by the members of our Society . The following particulars in the Masonic career of the Queen ' s

fatherthe late Duke of Kent—are in all probability not quite so familiar , and when taken in conjunction with the work accomplished by her eldest son , the Prince of Wales , as Grand Master , and her late grandson , the Duke of Clarence and Avondale , and her own generous support of our Institutions , offer a further and still stronger justification for the toast which forms the title of this article .

THE DUKE OF KENT . Her Majesty ' s father , is said to have been initiated while on his travels in the Union Lodge at Geneva in the year ] 790 , and on the fact being made known in the Grand Lodge (" Moderns" ) , the usual compliment was paid his Royal Highness of constituting him a Past Grand Master . Our official calendar further informs us that in the

year of his initiation he was appointed Prov . G . Master of Gibraltar . It is also generally known that he took a principal part with his younger brother , the Duke of Sussex , in effecting the Union of the rival societies of " Ancient" and " Modern" Masons , into which

English Freemasonry was divided in the early years of the present century , the opinion being pretty generally held that his Royal Highness was appointed G . Master of tlie " Ancients" in succession to the Duke of Atholl , in order to facilitate the work of union . But those who accept this opinion literally , and without taking note of