Ancient Grand Lodge Of York.

going to Ireland , was live hours in travelling from St . Asaph to Convay . Between Convay and Beaumarische he was forced to walk great part of the way , and his lady was carried in a litter . His coach was , with great difficulty , and by the help of many hands ,

brought after him entire . In general , carriages were taken in pieces to Convay , and borne on the shoulders of stout Welsh peasants to Alenai Straits . In some parts of Kent and Sussex , none but the strongest horses could in winter get through the bog , in which , at every step ,

they sunk deep When Prince George of Denmark ( husband of Queen Anne ) visited the stately mansion of Petworth , in wet weather , he was six hours in going nine miles , and it was necessary that a body of sturdy hinds should be on each side of his coach to prop it . Of the

carriages which conveyed his retinue , several were upset and injured . A letter from one of his gentlemen-in-waiting has been preserved , in which the unfortunate courtier complains that during fourteen hours he never once ali ghted , except when his coach was overturned , or stuck fast in the mud . "

" On the best highways heavy articles were , in the time of Charles the Second , generally conveyed from place to place by stage waggons . In the straw of those vehicles nestled a crowd of passengers , who could not afford to travel by coach or on horseback , and who were prevented

b y their infirmity or by the weight of their luggage from going on foot . " The price per mile for conveyance in these waggons is not stated , we may , however , judge from the charges for transmitting heavy goods , that passengers then were mulct of much more money per mile than they

are now . Thus , " from London to Birmingham the charge was seven pounds per ton , and from London to Exeter twelve pounds per ton . This was fifteen pence a ton per mile—more by a third than was afterwards charged on turnpike roads , and fifteen times as much as now demanded b y

railway companies . We may , therefore , rationally conclude that passage money for those wretched conveyances bore a similar ratio to the price then charged for transporting of heavy goods , namely , fifteen times as much as we pay to-day for travelling by rail .

And let us now look at the question from another point of view , viz ., the comparative amount of wages given and received to , and by the different artizans in those days . I have stated in a former communication that the government used to legislate what amount of

wages each handicraft was to receive ; there was , however , then , as now , an undercurrent at work , which the government could not effect b y legislation , viz ., the relative value of the precious metals with each other , and with all other commodities . The laws of supply and demand were

in those days unknown , hence we find wages were constantly advancing ; the riots of Wat Tyler and Jack Cade ; the act of Parliament in Henry the Sixth reign , making it a penal offence for carpenters and masons to assemble in their respective lodges , plainly shows the discontent

of the working people . Nor was the discontent confined to the working people alone . In Stafford ' s dialogue , pnblished in 1585 , the squire addressing the farmer , says , " Can you not remember that within these thirty years I could in this town buy the best pig or goose for 4 d .,

which now cost i 2 d . ; a capon for 3 d . or 4 d . ; a chicken for id . ; a hen for 2 d ., which now costeth me double and treble . ... I have seen a cap for 13 d ., as good as 1 can get now for 2 s . 6 d ., etc ., etc . " Such of us , " says the same authority , " as do abide in the country , cannot

with two hundred a year keep that house that we might have done with two hundred marks , but sixteen years past ; a mark was 6 s . 8 d . " It is evident then , that in spite of legislation , prices of products and of labour advanced ; but the question is , did the price of the masons' labour advance in the same ratio ? From Sir

Frederick s tables , it appears that in 15 JO the wages per day for masons was Sd . In 1575 , a master mason , a tyler , a plumber , a house painter , received is per day , a common labourer onl y Sd . In 1601 , a mason or tyler received is . 2 d ., a common labourer iod . per day . In 1610 , in the busiest time of the year , viz ., before Michael-

Ancient Grand Lodge Of York.

mas ( September 29 th ) , " for a Freemason which can draw his plot and set accordingly , having charge over others , is . 2 d . " ( for a master carpenter , the same ) . "In Warwickshire , in 1865 , the justices directed that throughout the county wages should be as follows : —A

Freemason , 11 master brick mason , a master carpenter , his servant or journeyman if above eighteen , a plow-wright , a cartwright , a master bricklayer , tyler , plasterer , shingler , master thatcher , mower and reaper , at 6 d . per day . " Assuming that , in addition to the 6 d . a day , he was

furnished also with board , which may have cost another 6 d . per day , then the masons in Warwickshire , in 1685 , received less payment than the same classes received in some other part of the country in 1610 ( Knight ' s Pictorial Idistory of England , vol . ii ., p . 903-4 ) . We thus see how

the Government persevered in keeping the price of labour down as low as possible ; but it possessed no power to keep down correspondingly the price of provisions , & : c . We have seen that while certain commodities doubled and trebled in value , in the course of more than thirty years ,

during the sixteenth century , the price of labour , especially of the Alasons , never doubled between 1500 and 168 5 , ^ ' learn from the above that the status of the best working Freemason , as indicated by the wages he received , was not higher than those of artisans of many trades .

It , therefore , not only dispels the absurdity ot the supposed higher respectability of the mason ' s trade ; it not only demolishes Bro . Woodbury ' s new-fangled idea that the masons had an esoteric and exoteric philosophy unknown to their equals , but it also makes it appear truly ridiculous that with such scanty means as their wages

afforded , the masons , and masons only , could afford to keep up such an organization as the Grand Lodge of York , with all the attendant expenses , waste of time , dangers , hardships , and other sacrifices necessary to make an annual pilgrimage to the city of York . And now let us resume the investigation of our AISS .

I have so far alluded only to Halliwell ' s poem ; but the same injunction to attend at the assembly is also found in some other AISS . In the rituals the said law is somewhat modified ; thus it says : "And also that every Maister and Fellow shall come to the assembly , and if it bee

within fifty myles about him , if he have any writeinge . And if yee have trespassed against the science , for to abide the award of Alaisters and Fellows , and to make them accorder if they may , and if they may not accord them , to go to common law . " Now , if there is any meaning

m the above quotation , it is simply this : that if two or more have a dispute , the case should be referred to assembly , who shall " ' accord " or make peace between the contending parties ; but if that could not be effected , then the aggrieved might bring a lawsuit . The same idea may also be gleaned from the older AISS .. but with this

difference , viz .: in oiden time the sheriff ' had the power of seizing the chattels of the offending party ; but in more modern times , when Government ceased to appoint supervisors over the assemblies of the guilds , and when the attendance of the sheriff" fell into disuetude , all the assembl y could then d ^ , in case of a dispute , was simply to endeavour to arbitrate between the contendin <*

elements , and thus prevent lawsuits among the brotherhood . But it will be seen that the party summoned to appear before the assembly was limited , "if it bee within fifty myles . " In one of the rituals in Bro . Hughan ' s history of the Grand Lodge of York , it limits the distance to only five miles ; but whether fifty or five , it is evident that there was no such n thinn- nc

supreme jurisdiction over a certain area—it precludes the supposition that there was a jurisdiction , for instance , over a county , and hence we may come to the conclusion that Alasons , like other operative bodies , held only local , independent , annual assemblies . And in accordance with their local regulations , members were obliged

to attend those meetings unless they were absent from home a distance of fifty or less miles , as provided for in their respective codes . To impress these facts more clearly , I must once more recall to mind the main object of these assemblies , and these were , first , to make arrangement with the local justice or mayor about the price

Ancient Grand Lodge Of York.

of labour ; second , to grant permission to members to take apprentices ; third , to settle the squabbles among themselves , so as to prevent law suits ; and fourth , to admit into membership those who have served out their seven years ' apprenticeship , and also , now and then , to admit

a gentleman as an honorary member or fellow . F ' or such purposes , which was , indeed , common to all other guilds , it was no more necessary for masons than any other trade to tax themselves with the expense of keeping up a Grand Lodge having jurisdiction over all England , compelling

them to lose so much time , to undergo so many hardships , to risk so many dangers which the annual pilgrimages to York must have subjected those who lived at a distance . In short , we find that the wages of about a dozen different kinds of mechanics were the same ; we find that the

laws of nearly all these associations were pretty much alike ; we can see that with the small wages the masons received it was absolutely impossible for them to keep up an organisation such as Grand Lodge of all England . I am ,

therefore , satisfied that the same kind of government and the same kind of local , independent , annual assemblies which then sufficed for the wants of all other guilds , must also have sufficed for the wants of the Masonic fraternity in those days .

And that is not all , for we must bear in mind that the fiction of localizing the Athelstan

Assembly to the city of York was unknown until the sixteenth or seventeenth century , for the word "York" is not mentioned in the Halliwells ' , AIS . And the date , viz ., 926 . was unknown to all the writers and copyists previous to 1 721 .

I have 111 previous communications also shown how Alasonic history was manufactured , for instance , the writer of Halliwell ' s AIS . was ignorant of the Alasonry of Solomon , the Hirams , St . Alban , etc . The authors , of the operative

rituals , knew nothing of Hiramship ' s Alasonry —that name is first mentioned in Desagulier ' s Constitution of 1721 . I have also shown that the Alasonry and Grand Alastership of the St . Johns were unknown even to Anderson and Desaguliers .

We thus see how successive additions were piled up by successive Alasonic authors , each pretending to know historical facts unknown to his predecessors , though they lived nearer to the period he was writing of . And last , though not least , the explosion b y Bro . Findel ot the fiction—circulated by Dr . Oliver and his

satellites—of the existence in the archives at York of the original Athelstan charter or constitution . Taking , therefore , all these facts together , I must come to the conclusion that it is hi gh time to cease making ourselves ridiculous b y talking of York Rite , York Alasonry , York Constitutions , or of "the Ancient Grand Lodge of York . " J ACOB NORTON .

Original Correspondence.

Original Correspondence .

To the Editor if the Freemason . Dear Sir and Brother , — W hat was my ' surprise on recently taking up the "North British Dail y Mail , " to find the enclosed statement .

" His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales attended on Alonday afternoon , at the great hall in the Freemasons' Tavern , Great Queen Street , for the purpose of being installed a brother of the " F ' aith and Fidelity" Lodge of Good Templars .

I he public by some means became aware of the intended visit , and a large number of persons assembled to witness the arrival of the Prince , who was loudly cheered as he drove up in a private carriage . "

I presume the J-iditor meant Knights Templar of good old memory , instead of " Good Templars , " a body of teetotallers , of whose merits time will tell , without discussing ] them at the present time . I remain , yours fraternally , CHAS . G . FORSYTH . H . No . 50 , R . A .