P.M.'S And The Working Brethren Of Lodges.

ought m common propriety to explain to those present the authority under which he assumes the chair pro . tern ., and that , having done so , he is fully competent to conduct all the proceedings , unless objection be offered and a claim to occupation of the chair be made by a P . M . present who may have a just right to precedence . I conceive that the law No . 6 under

, the head "Masters and Wardens , " is intended only to define the proper order of precedence , and to prevent unseemly dispute when the W . M . is absent , and has neglected to provide a competent substitute . The question is simply , —Do the words " Senior Past Master of the lodge " mean " the senior P . M . -who is a

member of the lodge ? ' ' or do they mean " the senior Past Master who has passed the chair of the particular lodge ? " Either version may be taken , but the former commends itself b y the ease and brevity with which the hiatus is filled up ; it is , I conceive , the most rational one , and , therefore , the one adopted in

practice . In my experience such has been the regular custom in every lodge with which I have been connected , and never do I remember any interference with , the wish of the W . M . as to his representative under the circumstances named . I admit at once that , as the law at present stands , a P . M . in the lodge should not make a claim to supersede a P . M . of the lodge who demands the chair as a right iu the

absence of the W . M ., but if the W . M . requests any P . M . in the lodge to discharge his duties by acting as his locum tenens , and no objection be offered by the brethren present , I maintain that the P . M , so acting , does not infringe any Masonic law . Since writing the preceding , I have heard from the Grand Registrar of England ; andas he is the

, authorized interpreter of Masonic law , I may , perhaps , be permitted to quote him . He says : — "In my opinion the strict ri ght of presiding in a particular lodge is limited to the W . M . and the P . M . ' s who have served in the office of W . M . iu that lodge . It is not an uncommon practice for the W . M . of a lod

ge to request any eminent brother to perforin the cere monies in his unavoidable absence . In such a case , I see no harm in a brother who has not served the office of W . M . in that lodge presiding in the lodae . If any of the P . M . ' s of such lodge object to his presiding , I think he would be wise to abstain from doing so . "

This , it appears to | me , is very different from the dictum of the P . G . M . for Devon , which at present places me in a disadvantageous position in regard to the ^ Craft in general , and the P . M . ' s of lodges with which I may become in any way connected . I hope that the subject will be well ventilatedand

, that a correct , or at least a definite , decision may be the result , so that the same principle may prevail throughout the Craft . Tours fraternally , H . H .

Masonic Archæology . — British Museum.

MASONIC ARCH ? OLOGY . — BRITISH MUSEUM .

TO TUB EDIIOE OE IKE EB . EEMASONS MAGAZINE AND MASONIC MIttROK . Dear Sir and Brother , —The discovery by Bro . Melville , that the Assyrian marble in the British Museum is not merely of topographical application , but a veritable astrolabe of universal interest , so

Masonic Archæology . — British Museum.

changes the character of that ancient relique , so en " hances its value in a national sense , as to suggest that Bro . Melville ' s paper , descriptive of its astronomical signification , should be appended thereto , just as other reliques , comparatively of no value , have exp lanatory notes annexed to them for general

instruction . The practical nature of the suggestion encourages the hope that the executive department of the Museum will take the steps-requisite to recognise the discovery in connexion with the Assyrian marble . The importation of Cleopatra ' s needle into England

at an expense of £ 1 , 500 has just been mooted m Parliament , but such monuments of antiquity like the Assyrian marble lose their significance when unaccompanied by some authentic interpretation of their historic or scientific value . The cabinet of foreign coins not long since

purchased by the nation at an outlay of many thousand pounds , because illusitrative of ancient history , would m like manner fail in its object without the explanatory letter-press of one of the initiated—a virtuoso . The Assyrian marble referred to might have

remained in the category of unconsidered reliques for generations to come , had not Bro . Melville , initiated in the mysteries of symbolic writing , pronounced it to be an astrolabe of universal interest . Tours fraternally , W . N . CRAWEORD .

THE AXCIENT BB . ITOXS . ~ -Those numerous writers who represent the brave Ancient Britons as being totally without roads of any kind , are evidently in error . The cannibals who , according to recent researches in ancient sepulchres by industrious antiquarians like the . Rev . William Greenwell , of Durham , appear , at some remote period , to have inhabited our country , previous to what

has been hitherto regarded as the Aborigines , and who had , in the course of nature , been forced to give place to a still superior race , may possibly have been in that deplorable condition . Bub a people who understood so well how to fortify their fords , that the strong stakes they had driven into the bed of the Thames remained for many centuries ; and whose enduring earthworks still

show how every mountain top in Britain had been chosen as their " coigne of vantage ; " whose courage in war struck the veteran Roman legions with surprise , and whose skill in riding their small hardy horses and whose dexterity in driving their scythe-armed chariots would be now viewed with admiration in any circus in Europe ; whose careful casting of many metal articles

, of both use and ornament , as well as the construction of their vehicles , show considerable mechanical ability aud artistic skill ; whose knowledge of agriculture extended to the cultivation and garnering of corn , and to the use of marl as a manure ; and whose Bardo-Drnidical system of religion , if we may form any notion of it by the Historical Triads of the Cymry ( the numbers three and

seven being apparently , from remotest ages , dear to superstition ) , was a higher and a holier thing than much that yet passes current among men as sacred ; that such a people , I say , should have possessed no rude roads even , to enable them to pass with ease through their interminable forests , is no article of my historical creed , aud I can only express my surprise that it should form any portion of the belief of so many other authors . — GEORGE MARKHASI TWEDDELL .