Freemasonry And Jacobitism.

FREEMASONRY and JACOBITISM .

[ A Lecture delivered at Glasgow , on the 9 th January , 1872 , under the auspices of the St . Andrew ' s Royal Arch Chapter , No . 69 J

BY ERROL . In studying the popular Masonic accounts of the Order , the student ' s attention is arrested by manifold historical absurdities , and , to use a mild term , gross

perversions of the fact . Personages are dr . iggcd in , cither as Grand Masters or patrons , who never heard of our Society , and an impoitancc is given to it , during the pre-Christian and the Middle Aries to which it

can lay no claim . Indeed , till the beginning of last century , our Society , as it at present exists , was unknown ; and tile operative mas mis neither possessed the org misation , nor the public consideration ,

which the speculative now do . This , I believe , is the received opinion of all candid Masonic students . In fact , this is amply proved from a Crown charter granted in the fifteenth century , during the reign of Henry

VI ., wherein the masons are styled " labourers . " We also know that their position among the Serving Brethren , the third class of the Knights Templars , was insignificant , and not to be compared with the smiths ,

farriers , or even the cooks . But , while denying that speculative Freemasonry is older than a couple of centuries , it must be kept in mind that much of the peculiar philosophy and doctrines adopted by its founders are as

old as the first institution of society . Among the Jewish Essenes , among the ancient Egyptian and Greek mystagogues , among the Roman sodalities , and the societies of the Middle Ae ; es , both Moorish

and Christian , such as the Rosicrucian , the principles of brotherly love , relief , and truth were well known and practised . But it was when , by the progress of civil and religious liberty , the conservatism of guilds became

dissolved , and the fetters which , under the feudal law , bound the different grades of society in iron bands , became loosed , that

those principles settled in the building fraternity , and became the noble spirits which inhabit the temple of Freemasonry . We find the name of Prince Charles

Edward Stewart iigunng among tne votaries of Masonry , and preceding the rules of the Scottish Knights Templars an interesting , but most fallacious account of his connection with that Order . But this account

was penned as a squib by the late Bro . Professor Aytoun , who always acknowledged it as an excellent piece of fooling , and no one was more surprised than he that

such a manifest fable should have been accepted by any one a .--, fact . The statemeat of Athole having robed him in the wnitc cloak - of the Templars is absurd , as

that nobleman was iar octant jrom IUIUIburgh at the period in question , and we suspect that the Prince had other businesto att nd to at di . tt particular time than in attending meetings of the Freemasons orol a ehivnlrie o'der . It must also be born ., ' in

mind that the Prince s proceedings wniie m Edinburgh are pi-rfc . ' . tly weli ! c ; io ; vn , and , from the circumst mors whieh i ama " > ui to lay before you , the proof is positive th . ; t he had no connection in 17- ! - , either in

Scotland or elsewhere , with any such secret j Society . In 1717 the Grand Lodge of England was instituted , and , in 1 736 , tii . it of

Scotland . A complete account of the proceed- ' ings which led to the foundation of the j 1 itter will be found in the minutes of the Cnnongnte Kilwin . img , in wi ' . fdi lodge Wil'iam St . Club ' , of Rodin , was initiated ,

Freemasonry And Jacobitism.

and owing to the connection of his ancestors with the operative Masonry of the midland counties of Scotland , his claim to be the first Scottish Grand Master was pressed to a successful issue by the brethren

of his mother lodge . Now , turning to the minutes of Grand Lodge . During the years 1736 to 1750 , the only events of importance mentioned arc , the starting of a charity fund for the relief of distressed brothers ;

the interest which the Craft at large took in the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary ; a claim on the part of Mother Kilwinning to have the first , instead of the second , place on the roll of daughter lodges ; and the foundation

of a Provincial Grand Lodge in I urkcy . Not one single statement appears relative to Jacobitism , and even the officers appear to have been Hanoverians , with one exception . It may be advanced that , in the

doubtful circumstance of the Prince making good his father ' s claim to the crown , it would have been imprudent to have minuted anything , which , in the case of

defeat , would have brought the Order into peril with the powers . The argument is sound , had the Order been at all Jacobitical ; but this it never was . It held firmly by its principles of non-interference with

Church and State ; and so well was this established , that , when , in 1779 and 1817 , acts were passed for the suppression of secret societies , aspecial clause was inserted in these , specially exempting the

Freemasons from the penalties . But although the Freemasons , as a body , held loyal to the House of Hanover , many members joined the Stewart cause , arid attempted , by their connection with Freemasonry , to

make it a vehicle for the propagation of their favourite views . One of these brethren was Murray of Broughton , a member of the Canongate Kilwinning , the brethren of which lodge , to a man—so far as can be known—were Jacobites .

I have stated that Prince Charles had no connection with the Freemasons , nor could he , with his religious bias , have had any sympathy with them . Although their

interests pointed to an adherence to the Protestant faith , the last Stewarts were staunch and rigid Papists . From James II . of Great Britain and Ireland—of whom Louis

XIV . of rranee was accustomed to say , with a sneer , that lie was a man who had given three crowns for a mass—down to 1 lenry Cardinal , Duke of York , who died

in the present century , a pensioner of the British Crown , not one would abandon his relioion . evcn for the throneof these islands .

In 1730 ' , Clement XII . published the first of those stage Papal bulls , of which we have heard so many thundering from the hand of the . "entie Pius IX . in these days .

about our Masonic and anti-Papistic ears . As a Roman Catholic . Prince Charles could not have been a Freemason , for , although in the Romish creed , the end justifies the means , it is questionable whether the Pope ,

j even in the peculiar circumstances of the j case , and that from the Roman exchequer j funds were provided for the conquest of Britain , would have granted a dispensation in the Pri'ice ' s favour . Doubtless , Rome

iv , s profoundly interested in the success of the Stewart cause , and- which she only abandoned on the dawning prosnect of relir / ious equality being permitted her votaries

in these isles ; but the spread of freethought in Italy , and other Romish countries now triumphant , touched her to the tiuick . and made her warv of seeinir . 'e'

anv-! ! ! wavs the iriend to so redoubtable an ally of civil and religious anti-papistical . iberty . it has also been said that the Chevalier Ramsav . adevoted adherent of the Stewarts ,

Freemasonry And Jacobitism.

was not only a Freemason , but the inventor of several Masonic degrees . Mr . William Pinkerton , in Motes and Queries , demolished this theory , for Ramsay , like his Prince , became a Roman Catholic , and died one .

The Knights Templars , by a process most illegal and unjustifiable , conducted with a barbarity unparalleled in history , were dissolved by Papal warrant in 1312 . The members of the Order entered that of

the Hospitallers of St . John , and ceased to have any independent existence . In Scotland , by the form of legal documents , in deeds relating to Temple Lands , in the possession of the Maltese Knights , the

Templars arc mentioned as conjoint with the Hospitallers , but never alone . But , even admitting , although it is an absurdity , that Templars existed in the days of Queen Mary , we know that the Maltese Order

became then extinct in Scotland ; and I defy any one to produce evidence of the meeting of a preccptory , commandery , or chapter of either of the Orders of the Temple or Hospital , between the date of the

erection of Torphichcn into a temporal barony , and the end of last century . Prince Charles could not have belonged to the Templars any more than to the Freemasons , and those who make such rash statements

display , not only their ignorance of the commonest of historical studies , but a selfinstructed credulity , or an atrocity of falsehood scarcely to be conceived . We are to believe that the Church of Rome , the

infallible , had quietly broken through the decrees of the past , and , without explanation , by permitting the Prince to become a Freemason andaTcmplar , acknowledged the errors of opinion of former Popes and

Councils . This is absurd . It is , perhaps , an ungracious task to disabuse the fond dreams of many Masons of the truth of such stories ; but , in a Society such as ours , founded upon the pillar of truth , the less we liave to do with falsehood the better .

We have now to deal with the treemasons of 1745 , who were Jacobite ; and , first , we will deal with such scraps of authentic history as we possess , and then , as an interesting consideration , take up those

which are of a legendary kind . I he state of society in 1745 was one of great public disturbance . The government was anything but popular ; the Scots were dissatisfied with the Union , which they would

have gladly seen repealed , so that the nobles and gentry might have resided more at home , and have spent their money among their own people , rather than among the " fause Southerati . " In fact , Scotland then

was not unlike the Ireland of to-day . Military discipline and depots were unknown In the country , and all that could be called into effect to quell a riot was a patrol of militia—of whom Uryden writes :

" Mouths without hands , mainlain'd at vast expense , In peace a charge , in war a weak defence ; Stout , once a month , they inarch , a blusteiing band , And ever , but in time of need ( like our police ) at hand . "

The town guard of Edinburgh , Pontius Pilate ' s Pretorians , were about the best specimens of these gentry , and even they did not consider it detrimental to their valour to retire to the Heart of Midlothian

before a hailstorm of snowballs , or the more stinging substitute , in summer , of a thunderblast of stones . The country tempted an invader , who possessed the

slightest military knowledge , to a walkover to victor )' , and had Prince Charles , instead of retreating at Derby , marched onwards to London , George would have been in Hanover , and " the King would have enjoyed