Freemasonry.*

into the arcana ot the Craft , ancl on that occasion the intruder AA'as a AA'oman Avho coidd count with confidence on masonic forbearance ancl gallantry . Towards the middle of the last century the Irish lodge No . 44 was held at Donerafle House , Arthur , second Lord Doneraile , being the Worshipful Master . His sister , the Honourable Elizabeth St . Leger , AA'ho afterwards jnarried Mr . Aldworth , of Newmarket , in the county of Corkmany of whose descendants are now living—determined on a certain occasion to discover AA'hat Freemasonry really Avas . " According to one account" Mr . Woodford

, says , " she concealed herself in a clock ; and according to another she saAV the proceedings of the Lodge through a ereA * ice in the wall . That she AA'as made a Freemason is undoubted ; though when so made does not quite clearly appear . " Mrs . Aldworth alone of her sex Avithin the United Kingdom during modern times appears to have been made a Freemason , ancl to Avhat " degree " she Avas advanced Ave are not informed . But in the earl y ages of Freemasonry in this country , as shoAvn by some ancient manuscripts quoted

by Mr . Woodford , there were "dame masons" as Avell as " master masons . " The " apprentice" is charged , for example , in one manuscript that " he shall not steal or pick away his master ' s or dame ' s goods , " and in another manuscript that " he shall not disclose his master ' s or dame ' s counsel or secrets : " Avhence Mr . Woodford infers that " at one time the AVICIOAVS of masons Avere permitted to carry on work under the guild , ancl in that case the apprentice would serve out his time . " "It may be , " it is added ,

" that this ride was even enlarged so as to admit the Avidows ancl daughters of masons "a supposition which may well suggest misgivings about the " secrets'" to matter-of-fact Englishmen . But "they manage these things clifferently abroad ; " and formerly both in Germany and France there existed , ancl now there exist in America , it seems , several systems of AA'hat Mr . Woodford designates as " androgynous , " and stigmatizes as spurious , Freemasonry . Concerning the German " Mopses " a good deal of doubt prevails , inasmuch as it is eA'en a moot point Avhether the word " mops " signifies " the Avife of a Freemason" or " a Dutch mastiff or pug dog "—or both apparently . At any rate , the " Mopses" were an ephemeral folk , and nothing has been seen of them for aboA'e a

hundred and fifty years . But in France "Maconnerie d'Adoption , " another mixed development of the Craft , flourished during a considerable part of the ei ghteenth and was revived in the early years of the nineteenth century . BetAveen about 1740 ancl . 1760 the " polite nation" boasted of many " ^ androgynous" orders of Freemasonry ; for instance , "L'Ordre de la Felicite , on les Felicitaires , " "L'Ordre des Chevaliers et CheA'alieres de 1 'Ancre , " " L'Ordre des Chevaliers et Nymphes de la Bose" " L'Ordre des

, Dames Ecossaises de l'Hospice du Mont Thaba , " ancl " L'Ordre de la Perseverance "all of them prettier names at least than the " Mopses . " But later , or for ten or twenty years before the outbreak of the Eevolution , secret societies Avere the " rage " Avith ail classes , eA'en AA'ith the " great ladies" of the French Court . Under the patronage of the Cardinal de Bohan , Cagliostro established his system of "E g 3 'p tian Masonry , " installed himself as " Grand Cophte , " and opened lodges for sisters as well as brethren

at Strasburg , Lyons , and Paris , of Avhich lodges the tAvo principal Avere named " La Stigesse Triomphante" ancl " Les Phflatethes . " Another order received the particular protection of theDuchesse de Bourbon and the Princesse deLamballe , and in the "Loge St . Antoine" one of them , as Grande Maitresse , Avas in the habit of conferring the four degrees of "apprentie , " " eompagnonne , " " maitresse , " and " parfaite maitresse . " But the new sisterhood passed aivay with the old regime ; and although , as . Mr . Woodford tells it

us , " Avas partially revived under Napoleon I ., ancl again under the Bourbons , it gradually came to an end , and does not UOAV exist . " In America , however , the " happy hunting-ground" for the defunct extravagances of Europe , something of the same land seems to haA'e been . set on foot of late years . There an " adoptive rig ht "—the term " adoptive " ( why it does not appear ) being the masonic equivalent for " female "—was instituted in 1855 consisting of five degrees : "Jephtha ' s daughteror the daughter ' s

, , degree ; " "Ruth , or the Avidow ' s degree ; " "Esther , or the wife ' s degree ; " "Martha , or the sister ' s degree ; " ancl "Electa , or the Christian martyr ' s degree ; " the " whole assemblage" being called the "Eastern Star . " Besides , there seems to be a society of which . three of the grades are—the "Mason ' s Wife , " the "Heroine of Jericho , " and the