Lights And Shadows Of Scottish Freemasonry.

of Denmark . " Why do you sit idly staring on , and not moA o hand nor foot to save yourselves ? Do you know that where a Scotch Mason is respected , it is more for his own individual worth than for any admiration of the system under AA'hich he was initiated , and yet our Scottish Rite as

practised at home ancl abroad is very different indeed . And Avhat is the greatest blot upon it at home 1 Why this persisting in giving three degrees in one evening . Better far give none . Ask a Candidate who has been thus initiated Avhat ho

remembers . Ten to one , nothing . Devote the time given to all three , to one , and what will be result 1 We are Avilling to pledge our reputation that the candidate will be able to give a general summary of the whole degree . Brethren , it rests Avith ourselves to make our Craft once more

respected as it ought to be , Let us go earnestly ancl heartily to Avork , to root out its imperfections , and let iu , while working , often take counsel one AA-ith another . It may be , you will say , Ave have exaggerated the evil in this present paper , but we ask you to go and look around } 'oct ere yo ( f

come to any such conclusion . Look inside your OAVII Lodges . Is everything there carried on as it ought to be ? Has your Master been placed in the chair on account of his Avorth , or his Avealth ? Are your Office-bearers conversant with their duties ,

aud do they conscientiously endeavour to perform them 1 And do you yourselves by your behaviour , shew a good example to those on either side of you 1 Consider the matter web . Never be present at , nor

counternance the giving of three degrees in one evening . Gain as much knoAvledge as you can about our various ceremonies , ancl do not keep your knoAvledge to yourself , but freel y impart it to those who are entitled to it . Sound the brethren upon the ad visibility of having a Lodge for mutual

instruction , and when j r ou have amongst you as a visitor any one AVIIO has made a name in the Craft , do not be at all afraid ol asking for information . Above all , see that you get the best ancl most able men to rule over ancl rest assured that having

you , done so , the interests of the Craft will be hirtherecl . The Craft is our common property , and each and all of us are bound to look carefully after it . If it suffer , reader , do not let it be through your neglect of it but do not be too ready to blame . Con-

Lights And Shadows Of Scottish Freemasonry.

sider your neighbour ' s position Avell before you censure him . Ask yourself cvhat you AA'ould have done had you been in his place , and having made every allowance , if you think proper to chide , do it , not only as a gentleman but as a Freemason . In fact ,

eA ' er have before you , as if in letters of living light , the golden rule : —Whatsoever ye Avould that men Avould do unto you , do ye even so unto them . X . Y . Z .

Bye-Laws Of The York Lodge: No. 236.

BYE-LAWS OF THE YORK LODGE : No . 236 .

BY THE EDITOK , SECOND NOTICE . WE now come to Bro . CoAvling ' s most interesting account of the York Grand Lodge , or rather the Grand Lodge of all England ,

and Ave think Ave had better let him give his own account in his own clear ancl expressivc Avords . There is no place in all England more interesting to the antiquarian , or more instructing to the Historian , than the

venerable City of York . Once the Metropolis of the Romans in Britain , it abounds Avith anticpiities illustrative of the life ancl manners of its first conquerors . Equally important to the Saxons ancl Daues , there is to be found in almost every street mementoes of those hardy Northmen ; while the Norman Castle , the Abbey of St . Mary ,

the g lorious Minster—the monument of more than a thousand yeans of our history , the City Walls and Bars of the Plantagenet era , the Elizabethan Manor House—once the seat of the Great Council of the north , the beautiful old Churches , the Guildhall ,

ancl innumerable remains of medieval structures , all combine to continue its historical interest ancl inrportanee ^ ° the days in which Ave IIOAV live . To the Freemasons of every country it is equally interesting , for the voice of

universal tradition ( supported by the testimony of the ancient Constitutions ) , declares it to be the birth-place—or at least the primitive seat—of Masonic government in England , and from England , in later times , Masonry has spread its benign influence to almost CA'ery part of the globe . The tradition is , that Prince Echvin , son of King Athelstane , obtained from his