The So-Called Exposure Of Freemasonry.

THE SO-CALLED EXPOSURE OF FREEMASONRY .

IT may interest your readers , perhaps , if I endeavour to show , within the limits of discreet publication , how far the " interesting find " I made some time since in the Guildhall Library agrees with " A Mason ' s Examination , " as furnished to the Freemason early in the course of last month b y Bro . Gould . The latter would seem to have been , so he says , the earliest of such exposures , and was published early in the year 1723 , while that in the Guildhall Library bears date the 6 th August 1 . 730 . The former has an introduction which is in

, the highest degree complimentary to the Society of Freemasons , ancl then very justly stigmatizes the exposure which follows as the work of one of those " mean wretches " who " have of late studied a thousand practices to bring this Worshipful Society into contempt and obloquy . " A few lines further on it describes them as " the persons who trump up many foolish ancl idle signs , gesturesancl practicesand vouch them for the very basis and ground lot of

, , p Freemasonry . " It speaks of the " sample of their malice , " and which they pretend was left in writing by a fellow Mason lately deceased , as being , " in very truth , " a mere " senseless pasquinade , " ancl highly derogatory to the honour of the whole bocly and each worshipful Fellow . " The Guildhall broadside is entitled " The Parish Signs and Wonders of a Free-mason ; ivith their Ways of Admitance and Entrance ; being found in the Cabinet of M . S ., a Brother

Deceas'd , the 6 th of August , 1 . 730 : likewise their Oath , and by ivhat means they know a Brother , & c . " Thus , in respect of the source whence it is supposed to have been obtained , what for the sake of brevity I will describe as " my " exposure bears a very close resemblance to that of Bro . Gould . But though , in many respects , this close resemblance is maintained , and they both contain the references on which Bro . Gould so justly lays a stress ,

there are , in other respects , many noteworthy divergences : for instance , that portion of Bro . Gould's which forms a kind of : preface to the catechism , beginning " When a Free Mason is ontei- 'd " down to " challenge yon " is wanting in mine , though the supposed matter of the oath is given in greater detail towards the end of the 1730 broadside . There is nothing at all in mine about " a thousand different positions ancl grimaces , " or "the word Maughbin , " but " Boaz ancl Jachin" are both referred to , as indeed they are in Bro . Gould ' s .

The 1730 Catechism begins m a somewhat similar manner to the 1723 ; but in the answer to the question " How shall I know you are a Mason ? " nothing is said of the kitchen and hall . The question " What is the first point of your entrance ? " and the two instructions which follow , clo not occur in mine . In their stead are the four questions , " How was yon made ? " " Give me a sign , " " Give me a letter , " ancl " Give me another . " The answer to the first accords very closely with that to a somewhat similar question in the French Ritualas

, it ivas some fifty years ago , and as , for aught I know to the contrary , it may be now . The answer to the second is , " Every square is a sign ; but the most solemn is , the right hand on the left breast , the arm hanging down , a little extended from the body . " Of the ansAvers to the other two questions , it is unnecessary to say more than that directions are given as to the manner in which they should be framedthe additional information being vouchsafed to the

, effect that the words are scriptural , and . will be found in I . Kings vii ., 21 , as the names of the " Pillars in Solomon ' s Porch . " There is , however , a marked divergence in the answers to the question " What lodge are you of ? " and " To what lodge do you belong ? " To the former , which is in Bro . Gould's , the reply is , " 1 am of the Lodge of St . Stephen ' s ; " to the latter , which is in