Contents.

CONTENTS .

LgADEKS 451 Provincial Grand Lodge of Cornwall 452 The Provincial Grand Lodge of Worcestershire , 453 Consecration of the Mark Excelsior Lodge , No . 359 , Liverpool 45-t The Analogy between Magic , Alchemy ,

and Old Rosicrucianism 454 C ORRESPOND EN-CEReports of Lodge Meetings 457 Masonic Girls' School 457 Masonic Libraries . ' 457 The School Elections 457 The London Mutual Masonic Voting Association 457 Notes and Queries 457

REPORTS OF MASONIC MEETINGSCraft Masonry 45 S Instruction 459 Royal Arch 460 Allied Masonic Degrees 460 Board of Benevolence 460 New Masonic Charity in West Lancashire 460 The Grand of Scotlandat Kirriemuir

Lodge 4 G 0 Ireland 4 61 South Africa 46 r Obituarv 4 61 The Theatres 461 The Craft Abroad 4 62 The Doric Club 462 Masonic and General Tidings 46 3 Lodge Meetings for Next Week 4 6 4

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THE Roman Colleges , or Guilds of Craftsmen , were part and parcel of their general and municipal system . They were in full vigour in Italy , and accompanied , the Roman legions , and were re-developed in the Roman colonies . They seem to have existed for several purposes . As Guilds of Craftsmen ( collegia opificum ) , they were governed by distinct laws and

special enactments . They had a head who was probably elected for five years , and a large array of officers , whose official names are recorded in the inscription preserved by GRUTER and SPON , and in other works , and which it is needless to repeat here . In all state processions and proceedings they took a share , and may be said to have formed part in an official relationship with

the great body politic of the Roman Government . They also had a system of mutual relief and aid . They seem to have had colleges for the instruction of the young , and pensions for the solace of the old . They had days of regular meeting and special seasons of assembly and commemoration . These legal bodies , as often happens , either by the strictness of their

laws of admission or other causes , gave rise in the process of time to illegal bodies , and the Roman laws refer to the " collegia licita" and " illicita" as an existing fact . In TRAJAN ' letter to PLINY often quoted , evidence is found of the jealousy and fear then engendered either by the power or the interference of these colleges , not only in respect of

their own special work , but as a focus of conspiracy and mutiny against the State . Originally they probably settled their own arrangements , for labourand remuneration , and , being numerous and organized , a sort of Trades Union in fact , they would be able ; to demand and obtain what they themselves asked for . Their meetings were apparently secret , but as

nightly assemblies were forbidden by the laws , so their feasts and festivals were probably alone nocturnal . But here we stop ; a veil hangs over their inner life and organization , which it seems now impossible to lift . Some rules remain , but they are principally sumptuary , pointing , indeed , to the fact of the existence of a powerful organization ,

but giving us no glimpses of any secret ceremonial or inner usages . We think , for instance , they prove to-day , that there were honorary and actual members , a system of mutual help and pecuniary relief , attendance at funerals , and certain compulsory assemblies for the rejoicing or reception of members . It has been said by others that they had ceremonies and rude forms

of initiation , but no certain authority for such a statement remains . They adopted the working tools of Masonry for their tombstones , and both the Pentalpha and Hexapla have been found . It is said that at Pompeii the square Masonic cipher is found , all apparently pointing to an esoteric system , li these rules prove , as we said before , apparently the system of secrecy in

their official gatherings , this fact has been controverted by some , on this ground , that the secrecy was only the normal usage of similar societies , and the expression and representation of actual membership . If the theory be correct which represents Lombardic , Gaulish , and Teutonic Guilds all proceeding from a common stock , the Roman Colleges , and after the fall of

the Roman Empire , migrating and settling in other localities and reproducing a system of secrecy , relief , and fraternity , it would be most interesting , if it were possible , to identify such a state of things with that of the old colleges , just as it would be important to ascertain whether , under the influences of Christianity , the Guilds took a new

departure , assumed new features , and , under the rising influence of the conventual system , then taking a great spring , adapted themselves to the needs of the times , and the new conditions of life in the world . On this point very little seems clear , and we have to rely , for the most part , on the ingenious theories of able writers , or a fancy

picture of what their history probably was , or ought to have been . The Roman occupation of Britain may be said to have finally ceased in the fourth century , and we know they had colleges of Craftsmen in England , traces of which have been found in Bath and Chichester , and equally too Guilds

were both of Saxon and Danish use . In the seventh century Gaulish Masons , to do Roman work in the Roman way , came from Gaul , and it is probable , as has been averred , that both AUGUSTINE and BENEDICT BISCOP , and WILFRED , and others , brought Roman workmen also direct

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from Rome . But what their connection with the old Roman Colleges was , is " quod probandum est . " We may believe they came from a common origin , from bodies of Craftesmen organized and assembled in the special form of colleges , witn definite laws , a legal existence , and an admitted corporate constitution . But we cannot say more , and any arguments based

on the continuity and perpetuity of the Roman Colleges as absorbed by or transformed into the early building Guilds , must be put forward cautiously , as resting for the most part only on supposition and probability . Assuming the fact of this descent and connection , a curious question has always supervened here for those who have thought over the subject . How

did the Roman Guilds , if they had them , obtain that Hebraic colouring and those Hebraic traditions which so conspicuously mark the Guild traditions ? FINDEL saw the " crux , " and , while admitting the similarity , claimed the twelfth century for the rise of the Masonic legends , as ' controlled and developed bv the Monastic

Order , and principally the Reveder force . OLIVER , at an early period , had found what a difficulty existed , scientifically and historically , as to the connection between these sodalities and the mysteries , and so propounded his famous theory of true and spurious Freemasonry ; but as he did not care apparently to decide where the true , in contradistinction to the false ,

was preserved , and how , his ingenious attempted solution of an admitted crux fell to the ground at once . Before the fall of the Roman Empire , many forms of religion , extern to Roman mythology , had found admission , and a "jus vivendi , " at Rome . The temples of Isis and the caverns of Mithras were there amid the " peregrin ; e religiones" tolerated by the State .

There was a large colony of Hebrews from Palestine , and as it is more than probable that there was a meeting point as between Hebrew and other bodies of builders in some mysteries more than others , which preserved more distinctl y the * 'prima : va religio . " After the fallof Rome , these bodies probably received a new direction and adapted themselves to new conditions of teaching and

object , and thus these biblical legends naturally became , by the mere process of acceptation , adaptation , and assimilation , the distinctive if secret teaching of these reformed and reorganized colleges , guilds , and confraternities . But still , as we said before , much even of this is only probability and possibility , not certainty or actuality as demonstrable by the accurate and safer

facts of actual and expert history . There is much to be said " pro and con ., " and if we cannot speak affirmatively or decidedly , without some necessary caution and reticence , we gain another proof , if proof be required by any student , how remarkably interesting is that wide expanse over which the history of Freemasonry travels , and how much there is in such considerations and studies to interest the student , the archaeologist , and the historian .

* * * WE understand there has been lately in the ranks of the Primrose League a strong feeling of consternation at a statement attributed to the Roman Catholic Bishop of Nottingham , to the effect that that most reputable body is a secret society , like Freemasonry , and inferentially that it deserves to be

stigmatised as a society to which no one of position or self-respect would dream of belonging . We have become so accustomed to this kind of condemnation , that papistical attacks on our worthy Craft pass quite unheeded . But the Primrose League is a new organisation , which has hardl y as yet had time to determine what are its precise nature and position in reference

to the Civil Power . Moreover , there are , it seems , Dames as well as Knights of the Primrose , and the former are no doubt a little timid especially those among them who happen to be members of the Romish Church , as to remaining longer on the roll of a Society which has been anathematised by a Romish Ecclesiastic . In these circumstances , it must be

allowed that the Tablet has done a graceful act in tendering to the perturbed Knights and Dames of the Primrose the comforting assurance that their rules and regulations are perfectly harmless , and do not justify the idea that the Primrose League is a Secret Society within the meaning of the Act against such bodies , or even in the same sense as that terrible

Craft of Freemasonry , of which , in the opinion of Holy Mother Church , as expounded by Romish Hierarchs , it is impossible to speak in terms of too severe condemnation . The Tablet further suggests that possibly too strained and serious an interpretation may have been put on the statements of the Bishop of NOTTINGHAM . On this point we are incompetent to

offer any opinion , as we have not read them . However , if it will assist in mitigating the alarm of the Primrose members , we have much pleasure in declaring that , as the Primrose League is a political Society , it can have nothing in common with Freemasonry ; that if it had anything in common

with Freemasonry , it would have every reason to be proud of its resemblance to the latter ; and by way of accentuating these glad tidings , that many of the most prominent among the Primrose Knights are likewise among the most promiment and respected members of our Society .