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NOTICE ,

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Bubscription , ios . ( payable in advance . ) AJ ) communications , letters , See ., to be addressed to the Editor , 198 , Fleet-street , E . C . The Editor will pay careful attention to all MSS . entrusted to him , Tout cannot undertake to return them unless accompanied bypostags stamns .

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Now Ready . NDEX to Vol . VI . of "THE FREEMASON . " May be had at the Publishing Office , 198 , Fleetreet .

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Now ready , with Index and Preface , in Twelve Imperial Folio Paits , 5 s . each , or bound in one handsome volume , £ 3 . THE FREEMASONS' LIBER MUSICUS , Dedicated by express permission to H . R . H . THE PRINCE OF WALES , Past Grand Master of England and Wales . Edited by DR . WILLIAM SPARK , P . P . G . O ., W . V . —29 S . This Work contains 215 pp . and 11 S Musical Compositions suitable for all the Ceremonies of the Masonic Order ; First , Second , and Third Degrees ; Consecration and Dedication of Halls and Lodges ; Programmes , Toasts , Songs , Trios , Choruses , & c , for Banquets and other Festive Gatherings ; Laying Foundation or Corner Stones ; Installation ; Mark Masonry ; Royal Arch ; Masonic Funerals ; Voluntaries ; Marches , & c , Sic . Notice from the Evening Mail . " Our Masonic readers are no strangers to the name ol Bro . William Spark , the talented musician and Organist of the Town Hall , Leeds . In this really great work , now completed , Dr . Spark , has shown his great tact and judgment by completing and compiling for lhe Masonic brethren a complete library of musical , compositions of the choicest English and foreign works , ancient , traditional , modem , vocal , and instrumental , by the best composers . It comprises Masonic anthems , installation odes , dedication music , responses , oyening , closing , and intermediate music for all degrees , Thanksgivings , funeral odes , marches , songs , duets , banquet music , programmes , voluntaries , and general musical directions , arranged lor voices and organ , pianoforte , or harmonium . "' The Freemasons' Liber Musicus " is issued with the concurrence of many influential Alasonic Lodges , and under the distinguished patronage and support ofthe Most Worshipful the Grand Masters of England , Wales , Scotland , and Ireland . It forms a complete library of the choicest and rarest Masonic music , in a word , it is indispensable to all Masonic lodges . The worthy brother editor , moreover , has had the valuable co-operation and assistance of the most dbtinguished and experienced composers and organists , members of the Craft . It is brought out in the highest style of art , is printed from large engraved music plates , aud forms a very handsome folio volume of" nearly two hundred and twenty pages ! " It deserves the patronage of ' every Masonic Lodge , both at home and abroad , and for its merits alone it ought to he zealously pri / . cd by every brother . As a present to a lodge , nothing could ' be more useful , valuable , and appropriate . HANDSOME CLOTH COVERS , with gilt lines , and lettered , for Binding ( similar ( o those used for the Graphic and Illustrated News ) , price 5 s . each . LONDON : GEORGE KENNING . 198 , Fleet-street .

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Second Edition , Now Ready , 1 / 6 . ' A MASONIC MUSICAL SERVICE . In the key of C . for A ., T „ T „ B . Opening and Closing Odes . Craft Ceremonies . Royal Arch Ceremony . Consecration Ceremony . Grace before and after Meat . COMPOSED BY DR . J . C . BAKER , NO . 241 . LONDON . —Geo . Kenning , 198 , Fleet-street ; and 1 , 2 , and 3 , Little Britain . „ R . Spencer , 26 , Great Queen-street . LIVEHPOOL . —Geo . Kenning , 2 , Monument-place . MANCHESTER . —E . Henry & Co ., 59 , Deansgate . DUIILIN . —C . Hedgelong , 26 , Grafton-stveet . GLASGOW . —Geo . Kenning , 145 , Argyle-street .

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THE MARK MASONS' SONG . "COME , BRETHREN , OF THE MYSTIC TIE . " Dedicated by permission to the Right Hon . the Earl Percy , M . P ., 30 ° , Right Worshipful Provincial Grand Master of Freemasons for Northumberland , Most Worshipful Grand Mark Master Mason o £ England . Woids b y Bro . T . Burdett yeoman , Ori ginal Mark Lodge No . 1 ., composed by Bro . Henry Parker , Original Mark LodgeNo . 1 . Office , 198 . Fleet-street .

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MADAME TUSSAUD'S EXHIBITION BAKER STREET . Now added , PORTRAIT MODELS of the CZAR OF RUSSIA , SIR GARNET WOLSELEY , the Three Judges n the Tichborne Trial , Cockburn ,. Mcllor , and Lush ; the Shah of Persia , Marshal MacMahon , M . Thiers , and the ate Mr . Charles Dickens . Admission is . Children under ten , 6 d . Extra Rooms , 6 d . Open from ten a . m . to ten p . m .

Answers To Correspondents.

Answers to Correspondents .

AH Communications , Advertisements , & c , intended for insertion in the Number of the following Saturday , must reach the Office not later than 6 o ' clock , on Wednesday evening . Our good Bro . Cryptonymus's communication received , with thanks , but we think , hardly suitable for our peaceful pages . The following stand over—Report of Lod ge

439-TO FOREIGN SUBSCRIBERS . It is ^ very necessary for our friends to advise us of all money orders they remit , more especially those from the United States of America , otherwise we cannot tell where to credit them . Several remain uncredited at the present time owing to no advice having been received .

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TheFreemason, SATURDAY , J 2 / , 1874 .

Foreign Grand Lodges.

FOREIGN GRAND LODGES .

In the correspondence of some of our foreign Masonic contemporaries , we read from time to time , of the efforts of some brethren in some countries , not only to bring about a more

complete agreement , nationally , of conflicting jurisdictions , but even to set up a sort of cosmopolitan Masonic central authority . We do not at all wonder , that , in Germany , for instance ,

where the jurisdictions are many , and the local arrangements , in consequence , alike perplexing andTunsatisfactory , there should be a desire to promote German Masonic unity , and to have ,

if it be possible , one Germanic Grand Lodge . And though the difficulties in the way of such an arrangement are probably too great to be overcome at present , if these efforts for , unity

are conn Jide , we may yet hear of two Grand Lodges for Northern and Southern Germany . We cannot see why a Northern Grand jLodge from Berlin should not control all the lodges in

Northern Germany , or why a Grand Lodge from Munich or Stuttgardt should not rule over all the lodges in South Germany . That would , at any rate , be far preferable to the present state

of Masonic jurisdiction in Germany , and to that overlapping , if we may so say , of territorial Masonic Grand Lodges , of which many of the German Freemasons complain . A good deal

of the difficulty now existing has arisen from the fact , that a private lodge of Freemasons in times gone by has termed itself a Grand Lodge , and claimed for itself and officers , the title of a

Grand Lodge and of Grand Officers . Now according to our English view of the matter , a Grand Lodge is and must be an aggregate of private lodges . No single lodge can constitute

itself a Grand Lodge . And whether that Grand Lodge is ^ formed purely by delegation , as with some , or by " virtute officii , " as with us , or partly by nomination as with others , it is and

becomes " ex necessitate rei , the representative body of the entire Craft , the supreme court of legislation and appeal for all its affiliated members . But it has so happened , as we have said

before , that , in many instances abroad , private lodges have given to themselves the name of Grand Lodges , have issued charters and diplomas , though in no sense whatever a representative , or even legislative body , except in respect of

Foreign Grand Lodges.

their o . vn lodje bye-Jaws . The first step , then , in any such movement , that , has to be taken , in order to net correctly on Masonic principles , i s to reject the claims of all so-called Grand Lodges ,

which are not strictly representative bodies , and aggregate assemblies of lawfully made Freemasons . All Grand Lodges ought to be founded on one of the principles we have before laid down ,

delegation , office , nomination , or by a combination of two of them , or even of all three . In our humble opinion , on the whole , our English Grand Lodge system is the best , and most

practical , in that while it has regard to the original principle of lodge selection , it makes , as the supreme assembly of legislation and appeal those alone whom the brethren have already honoured

with their confidence and approval , those who are amongst the working members ofthe body , and thus combines both the lodge system , and ofthe hierarchical character of English Freemasonry .

Unlike most other bodies , our English Grand Lodge seeks always to keep the even balance between the authority of the Grand Master , and the rights of the Grand Lodge , and has invested

him "de facto' and "dejure" with a distinct favour of decision , and an unimpeachable authority of interpretation ot the law , within certain well known and admitted conditions of the

" lex senpta and inscripta" of Freemasonry . Some of the American Grand Lodges are formed purely we beliere , on the principle of delegation , which may commend itself to some minds , but

we who have progressed so safely aud so well in England , maintaining alike the liberties ofthe Order and the prerogatives of the Grand Master , we have every reason to be content with the

result , which is , there is little doubt , moreover , mainly owing to the wise constitutions of our Masonic forefathers and the peculiar and admirable composition of our English Grand Lodge .

But supposing , that all national Grand Lodges , became , as we think , properly , Grand Lodges in our true sense of the word , what chance would there be of any central Masonic authority being

either possible , or acceptable , or eyen workable ? As far as we can see to-day there is at present none whatever , nor is there in truth likely to be any . For whatever we may say , we must not

shut our eyes to the fact that many of the proceedings of foreign Grand Lodges are unwise and unmasonic , from our point of view , neither can -we , old-fashioned Masons as we

are , in this country , find any common bond of unity or action , or even principle with them . Their teaching is not our teaching , their practice is not our practice . To say nothing of the

great divergencies of ritual , and the hopeless rnultiplicy of countless grades , they profess openly opinions on the questions of the day , national , social , political , religious even , with which we

in England have not , and never are likely to have , the slightest sympathy . And while we condemn the Church of Rome , and most justly so , for its intolerant opposition to , and

unjustifiable persecution of Freemasonry , everywhere , we must confess with pain that some of the mblished manifestoes of Freemasons abroad

jften do little credit either to their good sense > r their forbearance , their charity , or their toleraion . We in England , on the contrary , happily : eep firmly to certain good old princip les of