Masonic History.

anticipate that a diligent study of the history of the Craft , would satisfy Mr . Seeley , that the Masonic " public" constitute an honourable exception to the general rule enunciated in his concluding sentence . With regard to the question of Wren ' s " initiation " or " adoption , " and to the affirmative evidence which has been adduced , Bayle makes some general remarks which appear to me to be in point . In his dictionary ( Art .

Balde , Note c *) he says— " A hearsay report should be recorded only in one of two cases ; firstly , if it is very probable , secondly , if it is mentioned in order to be exploded . " He also points out "the danger of trusting to hearsay reports in historical questions . " If we accept the late Sir G . C . Lewis as an authority , " a historical narrative , however probable , must be well attested . If it is merely probable ,

without being attested , it cannot be received as historical , t To adopt the language of Dr . Dalcho— " I have called in question a number of circumstances , the validity of which I could not establish satisfactorily to my own mind , and in exposing them to view , I have been governed by no other principle , than the wish to point out the elegance of the system when it was first established , and to deprecate the cause of its alteration . The road

to truth , particularly to subjects connected with antiquity , is generall y choaked with fable and error , which we must remove , by application and perseverance , before we can promise to ourselves any satisfaction in our progress . Because a story has been related , in one 7 vay , foran hundred years past is , not , alone , sufficient to stamp it -with truth ; it must carry on the face

of it , the appearance of probability , and if it is a subject , which can be tried by the evidence of authentic history , and by just reasoning from established data , it will never be received by an enlightened mind , 6 ~ n the ipse dixit of an } ' one . "

The Royal Arch In America.

THE ROYAL ARCH IN AMERICA .

T . B . WHYTEHEAD

Comp . Tracy P . Cheever has forwarded to me an account of the celebration of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Royal Arch Chapter of the Shekinah , held at Chelsea , Massachusetts , which forms a very interesting record . The celebration seems to have been of an exceedingl y elaborate character , and was marked , amongst other matters , by a most eloquent oration by Comp . Woodbury . The oration contains an able sketch history

of the successive temples at Jerusalem ,. followed by a brief but well compiled account of the discoveries by the Palestine Exploration Society of the Temple Foundations , and the Masons' marks thereon found . Comp . Woodbury then proceeds to discuss the modern history of Freemasonry , and touches upon the probable origin of the Arch and Templar Degrees in this country , and quotes Dr . Anderson ' s reference to "Societies and Orders of the

Warlike Knights , " as suggesting a connection between the Ancient Fraternity and the Templars . I do not think we can afford to put aside any clue , however faint , which may tend to throw light on our early history , but there can be nothing in what Anderson wrote to justify any conclusion whatever ; and to suggest that because Anderson uses the words " the whole body resembles a well built arch , " therefore , the Royal Arch may then have been in existence ,

is very far fetched indeed . Referring to Freemasonry at York , our brother appears to be inclined to fall into the common error of asserting that "the Lbage at York " was in its earliest days a Grand Lodge . His argument is that if the London brethren - were entitled to assert themselves as a Grand Lodge , then the York brethren should be allowed the same privilege . This is quite true , but the fact remains

that the York brethren made no such pretension until long after the London brethren set the example . The lodge at York was , I take it by its own showing , liothing more than "a lodge" until 1761 . The Athelstone legend does not go further than to say that assemblies of Masons were held at York by virtue of a charter . It does not assert for the York Masons themselves any . pridrity of jurisdiction . In days when travelling was difficult and dangerous , and York was the key of the main road

between North and South , it is easy to see why it should be selected as a convenient meeting place , and why Masonry should have been kept up in that centre with more vigour than elsewhere . Bro . Woodbury alludes to the inventory made at York in 1779 of articles belonging to the " Grand " Lodge , but loses sight of the fact that this list was made after the declaration in 1761 , that this body was the Grand Lodge of all England , and that in none of the older documents is the word "Grand " used at all .

Bro . Woodbury says— " There is yet preserved among the York documents another parchment roll containing the manual subscriptions , & c , of persons made Masons in the Grand Lodge . " Nothing of the kind . The roll in question does not in a single instance speak of a Grand Lodge . The earliest entry on this roll is as follows : '' March 19 th , 1712 . At a private lodge , held at the house of James Boreham , situate in Stonegate , in the

city of York , Mr . Thomas Simpson , Mr . Caleb Greenbury , Mr . Jno . Morryson , Mr . Jno . Russell , Mr . Jno . Whitehead , and Mr . Francis Morryson were all of them severally sworn and admitted into the honourable Society and Fraternity of Freemasons . Geo . Bowes , Esq ., Deputy Fresident . " Throughout the entire roll the meetings are referred to as " private lodges , " except on St . John ' s Day , when they are called " general lodges . "

In not one of the parchment documents is there the sli ghtest allusion to the Royal Arch . Then he refers to the old seal mentioned in the Inventory as evidence of the antiquity of the Royal Arch at York , on the ground that the three crowns of Edwin cut upon this seal form the seal of the Grand Chapter of England at the present time . In this matter I fail entirely to follow our brother ' s

reasoning , and as for the seal itself no one who has seen it would for a moment mistake it for an antique . It was certainly cut subsequent to the declaration of 1761 . You have already published my account of the earliest Royal Arch minute book found at York , which dates from 1762 , and there is not the smallest allusion to any Degree of this kind before this date in any of the York records yet discovered .

Comp . Woodbury , in referring to the Mark Degree , has unintentionall y ' misquoted me when he refers to my short history of that Degree . In my ' brief notes I distinctly stated that prior to 1852 I did not believe the Mark had any existence as a separately worked Degree , though , doubtless , there might have been a practice of selecting Marks . It is very important , as Bro . Hughan has shown , that brethren should clearly distinguish between the simple practice of selecting a Mark , and the working of the Mark Degree .

The Royal Arch In America.

Proceeding on , our brother gives some notes on the Cryptic Degrees , which in America are regarded as the stepping stones to the Royal Arch , and which do not seem to call for particular comment , and his oration closes with an eloquent appeal to the members of the chapters to live up to the precepts o the Degree . The oration is followed by a poem and by an historical sketch of the chapter by Comp . Cheever . Like numerous other American Masonic reports with which I am from time to time favoured , that under notice is replete with interest .

Masonic History And Historians.

MASONIC HISTORY AND HISTORIANS .

BY MASONIC STUDENT . I am anxious to throw out a few " hints " anent Masonic history which , after some careful researches of many years now , seem both advisable and necessary for all Masonic students . 1 . We must approach the subject simply as an historical question dependent on evidence , and decided by facts without [ prepossessions or

"fads of any kind of our own . The great difficulty is , that in all such questions as affect us in our studies of Masonic annals the tendency is to make things " square" with preconceived theories of our own , which we have favoured and fostered until we decline to give them up , and then we constitute the subject a personal one , and , shutting our eyes to realities , and our ears to argument , vainly uphold our own special little " vanity . "

2 . There are no doubt great difficulties in the way of Masonic investigation . Our ceremonies being oral , and our traditions oral , too , it is all but impossible openly to advert to much we dilate upon in our lodges , inasmuch as many things are really to us "Aporreta , " and cannot be mentioned properly to " ears profane . " And this difficulty confronts us in our historical enquiries . Our writers have always been " weighted " by this great

drawback , and have been unable to go into many things , which if not directly , yet inferentially might clearl y be pressed into their service . For instance , a good deal of evidence as to pre-1700 Freemasonry and the antiquity of our own system might be fairl y drawn from our ritual observances , and yet , despite the bad example of Oliver , the tendency of our time , and a ri ghtful tendency too , is to keep such subjects for our lodges . 3 . In dealing with traditions , qua traditions , we must be careful and

reverential in the handling of them . It is not a case of " sequitur , " remember at all , that because traditions are incorrect , therefore they are untrustworthy . It was pointed out years ago by one of the greatest " experts" of MSS . that we must bear in mind that there was a " substratum " of truth in all traditions , if only we could find it , and that as all traditions became incorrect through the lapse of time , or the repetition of men , so while we were not slavishly to accept them , we were not equally as slavishly to reject them "in toto . "

4 . What we , I think , require just now is not merely the overthrow of certain old and well worn statements , but a careful sifting of all assertions by our new lights and our more availing opportunities . We want practically , as Bro . Gould well says , to begin "de novo , " and to endeavour to lay down certain leading principles by which the value of evidence , whether direct or indirect , historical or traditional , may be accurately tested and wei ghed . As

it is we are writing at haphazard , so to say . One writer objects to one statement , another doubts a date , a third attacks Anderson , a fourth depreciates Preston , a fifth upholds the Guild theory , a sixth clings to the Hermetic , a seventh laughs at all , and declares that we are raising a sham and new formation on old foundations from 1717 to 1721 , in the same spirit that an old antagonist once said , we might as well call ourselves " Free

ratcatchers " as " Freemasons " properly . Thus " runs the world away , " and after many years of careful study and patient research , and ' really remarkable discoveries , if we do not take care we shall end by being just as incoherent , inconclusive , unsound , and uncritical as that dear , good , old sentimental , unscientific , careless , and " sheepwalking" school , whose errors

we complain of , whose aberrations we deplore , and whose carelessness of reference , and hopelessness of imitation we have , no doubt , great grounds to reprove and disavow . But such is the current of all similar affairs , such the reaction always of human thought , and like those fair beings immortalized by the lyric bard , we are , in such matters , for the most part , " Always in extremes , And always wrong . "

Masonic Statistics And Population.

MASONIC STATISTICS AND POPULATION .

As we gave those of America in a former issue we now give those of Germany . The population of the German Empire on ][ the 1 st of December , 1880 , has now been finally ascertained . It amounts in 31110 45 , 1 94 , 172 souls , as against 42 , 727 , 260 at the previous census in 1875 .,. The increase in five years is therefore 2 , 466 , 912 . The population of the different States of the Empire is nowas follows : Prussia , 27 , 251 , 067 , against 25 , 742 , 404 in 1875 ;

Bavaria , 5 , 271 , 516 , against 5 , 022 , 390 in 1875 ; Saxony , 2 , 970 , 220 , against 2 , 760 , 586 in 1875 ; Wurtemberg , 1 , 970 , 132 , against 1 , 881 , 505 in 1875 ; Baden , 1 , 570 , 189 , against 1 , 507 , 179 in 1875 ; Alsace-Lorraine , 1 , 571 , 971 , against 1 , 531 , 804 in 1875 ; Hesse-Darmstadt , 936 , 944 , against 884 , 218 in 1875 ; Mecklenburg-Schwerin , 576 , 827 ; Mecklenburg-Strelitz , 100 , 26 9 ; Saxe-Weimar , 309 , 503 ; Saxe-Meiningen , 207 , 147 ; Saxe-Altenburg , 155 , 062 ; Saxe-Coburg Gotha , 194 , 479 ; Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt , 80 , 149 ;

Schwarzburg-Sondershausen , 71 , 083 ; Reuss ( elder line ) , 50 , 872 ; Reuss ( younger line ) , 101 , 265 ; Oldenburg , 337 > 4545 Brunswick , 349 , 429 ; Anhalt , 232 , 747 ; Waldeck , 56 , 548 ; Schaumburg-Lippe , 35 , 332 ; Lippe-Detmold , 120 , 216 ; Lubeck , 63 , 571 ; Bremen , 156 , 229 ; and Hamburg , 454 , 041 . According to C . Van Dalin ' s accurate " Calendar for 1881 , " there are in Germany 8 Grand Lodges , with 439 lodges , and 39 , 711 members . There arc 5 independent lodges , with i 486 members , and 5 Provincial Grand Lodges , whose " status " is neither easy to realize or describe .

The library of the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts , U . S . A ., now contains 2250 bound volumes and 2000 pamphlets—only 100 of said volumes being not Masonic . It includes the Masonic library of the late Bro . Leon Hyneman , and 700 volumes , the liberal gift of R . W . Bro . William Sutton . Bro . M . Bodenham is the W . M . designate of the Audley Lodge , No . 1 S 9 6 , which will be consecrated on the 26 th proximo by Bro . Sir Watkin WilliamsWynn , Bart ., M . P . Bro . the Hon . R . W . H . Gidd y , D . G . M . Griqualand , is on his way to England , having left Kimberley , South Africa , on the 22 nd ult .