Correspondence.

But I have a more weighty charge of ignorance to prefer ; and one on which , by this time . I feel assured the Editor of the Magazine is fully versant , if not also sufficiently convinced . The toast referred to , it would appear , was given as a prelude to something else of more importance to them , which was committed to the charge of one of their number , Dr . Jones .

Your readers are aware of the circumstances under which the so-called London Bon Accord Lodge of Mark Masters was constituted . I do not again trouble you with details already sufficiently elucidated ancl proved . Suffice it to say that they are satisfied to work under some pretended warrant , granted to them by a Scotch Chapter , holding under the Supreme Chapter of Scotland ; much in the same way that , were it attainable , a Lodge of Apprentices or Fellow Crafts might be content to work under warrant from a Lodge of M . M ., holding under Supreme authority of England ,

Scotland , or Ireland . The Chapter whence such warrant emanated was the Bon Accord Chapter of Aberdeen , No . 70 on the Roll of Scotland , Comp . Rettie being at the time , ancl at present , First Principal . This R . A . Chapter , in consequence of so palpable an infringement of the Rules of the Order , and of the regulations of the Supreme Chapter of which it holds , has already been certiorated of the delict committed by it , and commanded to recal the warrant in virtue of which the London Bon Accord pretend to work , under pain of ulterior measures , by which it is contemplated

deprivation of Charter may follow if acquiescence is not given . This has caused the socalled London . Bon Accord Lodge , who regard Comp . Rettie as their founder and patron , to render him their sympathy , and they offer him , through Dr . Jones , at the foresaid banquet , their united testimony to his Masonic worth and private virtues . Comp . Rettie may be an excellent man and deserving of all that is said of him ; he may also be an excellent Mason . But with all these qualities it is yet possible that his zeal may have outran his prudence ; or he may have been cajoled or misled into an act of impropriety of which , in the present case , there cannot , on the slightest consideration be the smallest doubt .

The Supreme Chapter of Scotland in the exercise of her functions , and as concervator of the rights and privileges of the Order within her dominion , has thus been called on to perform what was felt to be a painful duty , and have characterised this irregularly-constituted body as spurious ancl illegal ; epithets which it seems to have been assigned the work of Dr . Jones to oppugn , in passing the eulogium which he did on Comp . Rettie . He proceeds in the methodical , but not very consistent or Masonic manner of attempting to annihilate first the one and then the other of these

charges , forgetting all the while that it was its illegality alone which constituted its spuriousness . He asserts in proof of its purity that its mode of working is identical with that practised in the parent Chapter of Aberdeen . Be it so : this will not constitute its legality . It is well known that some clandestine Masons have the ceremonial of the Order to which they belong most correctly ; and their knowledge , too ( with shame it is admitted ) , is found in some instances to excel that possessed by legitimate brethren ; but this will not b means stamthem with the qualities of

genuiney any p ness or purity . The end and object of the Order is entirely subverted when all recognition of supreme authority fails—the tyro in any art is entitled to assume the position which belongs to the man of science—and the quack or pettifogger is put upon an equal footing with the duly qualified and lawfully ordained practitioner . Dr . Jones next states that he and certain others forming the London Bon Accord , received their degree in Aberdeen , and none therefore can be more assured than they of its identity with that which must be admitted to be genuine . It had been

desirablethat Dr . lones had given the names of tbe parties who were conjoined with him in this illegitimate fraternity , as it might then have been tested whether they , any more than himself , were entitled to claim legitimacy ; for if the Aberdeen Chapter is cori-ecfc , and his been fulfilling its obligations to the mother " ; Chapter , Dr . Jones is not a member of it , and never received any degree whatever from that source , his name not appearing to be recorded iu the books of the Supreme Chapter , which is the only criterion of acknowledged legitimacy . It is to be doubted , therefore , whether the others stand in any different position . They may , as already said , be in possession of all