The District Grand Lodge Of Northern China.

5 . The use of aprons on which were marked symbolically the rank and offico of tho various officers of the State Temple or Lodge . 6 . The use of jewels , i . e ., carved pieces of jade , as insignia of office returned when the Grand Master the Emperor died and accepted by his successor to such as he confirmed in office . e > Q Vide tho Shu-king , tho forms which have come down to us are the Jk and the ||

7 . The common doctrine that the N . E . marks the commencement and the S . W . the end of things ( not as you would have expected in a rude nation the E . aud W . respectively ) , and the explanation , far more satisfactory than that given in our ritual , afforded by Chinese philosophy .

8 . The common doctrine of the brotherhood of mankind , the Emperor and his Ministers being but the ablest workmen directing- and carrying on the common weal for the public welfare . There are many other points of similarity , but ttiese will suffice to shew that there is ground for my belief , and direct those who feel disposed to work up the subject where to look . —Yours very truly , CiiALOXfiit ALAUASMB . The R . W . D . G . M . thought that the brethren would find the letters he had

read particularly interesting , ancl well worthy of the attention of anyone disposed to go into the subject . He would therefore propose that they be embodied in the minutes , ancl that they be printed ancl sent north , south , east , and west .

Wor . Bro . Dean Butcher said the communication with which they had just , been favoured was one of considerable interest . There were , as the brethren were aware , two theories as to the ori gin of Masonry . One theory derived it from the great King Solomon , B . C . 1016 , while others stated that it was simply a modern society , and that the English ritual was invented in the time of Sir Christopher Wren . This latter theory the speaker regarded as heretical and sceptical , as he firml y believed in the venerable character of their " free and

famous brotherhood . The letters of Brother Alabaster helped to upset the notion that Masonry was a parvenu institution . Bro . H . Lazarus said if he might presume to make a remark upon the letters of Bro . Alabaster , he would point out that he states he had read Chinese works of a period from four to five thousand years before Christ , whereasaccording to the Biblethe world had existed onl 5640 years ;

there-, , y fore Bro . Alabaster would make it appear that the Chinese practised Freemasonry while the world was in embryo . Bro . Rivington asked permission to make a few remarks bearing more or less directly on the matter before the lodge . He should have supposed that it

was fully established that the antiquity of Freemasonry was much older than the period referred to b y W . Bro . ( ancl Very Rev . ) Dean Butcher , a couple of centuries ago , and it equally surprised him to hear its origin attributed to King Solomon . He should have thought it plain that the Masonic tradition referred it to an earlier period . There were many indications that the speculative working of the Craft extended far back into the middle ages . Besides those records referred t . o in a little pamphlet printed for private circulation b

y our R . W . Bro . Henry Murray , he had noticed some dozen years ago , whilst looking over " Street ' s Gothic Architecture in Spain , " the Mason ' s marks on the corner-stones of those magnificent piles , which it was well known were erected by the wandering guilds of operative Masons . All of these were symbols quite familiar to modern speculative Masons ; in one there was a close representation of a Freemason ' s Lodgealmost precisely as in the present daywith

, , the Royal Arch Chapter leading off from the north-east corner of the lodge . The Masonic Legend , too , was taken almost bodily from the Talmud , but he could not say as much about this in an open lodge as would fully elucidate the subject . However , it was quite clear that speculative Freemasonry had a Jewish origin , and it was not at all likely that when the Jews were admitted