Memoirs Of The Freemasons Of Naples.

extract of his last speech to an old Masonic friend deserves to be recorded : — " It is a public misfortune that the purity of manners of a society which exceeds every other should not be more generally known among all ranks , especially the lower orders , the people ; the people have been long ignorant of the Masonic princilesthey class all secret societies in one

p ; body , but wo ourselves know the difference ; while they seek only to form themselves into powerful bodies , causing anarchy and insurrection , we willingly submit ourselves to the powers that be ; we seek only to establish virtue and charity , to wipe the tear from the eye of distress , to cheer the heart of the unfortunate , clothe the naked , feed the hungryand preventbanticipationthe wants of the

, , y , unfortunate . We may equal , but we cannot surpass such actions as these ; it is not hero they can be excelled ; and it has long been my fervent wish that the people should be no longer ignorant of the principles of our Institution ; they should be told not to perplex their mind in the minute investigation of secret signs , but to reflect that the base of this Order is charitythat the figurative and tical emblems

, yp are illustrations of a nobler subject . Buildings , however strong or noble , will decay ; but virtue , immortal virtue , takes its flight from these to the celestial abodes , and is at last received into the bosom of its God . " ( To be continued . )

Architecture And Archæology.

ARCHITECTURE AND ARCH ? OLOGY .

THE BUILDING FOR THE EXHIBITION OF 1862 . The building for the approaching International Exhibition is progressing with extraordinary rapidity . Only a few weeks ago we chronicled the commencement of tho work , and tho building already has assumed form and substance ; nearly one half of the 8 , 000 , 000 bricks to be used in it are

laid . The enclosing portions , which , as our readers have been informed , are brick-built , reveal themselves conspicuously to the passers-by in the adjoining roads . In Exhibition-road the walls are some 20 ft . high , and tho window frames to the lower-storey are fixed . A like progress has been made in Prince Albert ' s-road , whilst the frontage in Cromwell-road is carried even to a greater height . The

flooring joists for the picture-gallery are laid , and at the south-east angle the window-frames over the lofty doorways are in their place . The massive character of the brickwork in here fully displayed , and enables us to estimate in som a measure the magnitude of the work . The central doorways in Cromwell-road , with the staircases at either side of them , are arched over , and the whole of tho arches which divide this portion from the main building are , as far as brickwork is concerned , entirely finished . The floors of tho ^ picture gallery are carried by cross-timber girders resting on tivo

rows of temporary wood uprights , lolt . apart ; iron columns will , however , be eventually substituted for these latter supports ; The whole of the brickwork is exceedingly well executed . It is personally superintended by Mr . Jacobs , the sub-contractor , who has , perhaps , done more work in his time than any man living , and who understands thoroughly how to push it rapidly forward . The bricks have been supbourne

plied by Mr . Smeed , of Sitting . On entering the columnar part of the building one is truly astonished at the divers preparations ; at every step we are arrested by some new and ingenious scheme for economising labour and time , foremost amongst which is the gigantic travelling scaffold built for the purpose of fixing the huge semicircular ribs which aro destined to span the

nave . It is of squared timber , braced and bolted together , and is constructed in . three stages , surmounted by a queenpost frame with stepped sides , on which , as on tho level top , 3-inch planking is laid . The whole is 91 ft . high , and by means of it the ribs will be adjusted and fixed in their proper places . It stands on twelve iron wheels and strong axles , and is thus easily shifted , on iron railways from one end of tho lengthy nave to the other . 50 ft . of scaffolding thus supplies the place of a thousand . Its great advantage

and economy is here seen by its juxta-position with the forest of timber which is required in the scaffolding for the transepts , where the intervention of the domes would not admit of the traveller being employed . That , however , is now very nearly finished , and ropes betokening " portentious preparation" are stretched from point to point , interlacing one another liko gossamers in the hot summer

fields , apparently in inextricable confusion , but really answering a well-defined and skilfully-contrived purpose . The men running about on the dizzy heights " show scarce so gross as beetles , " and , for half-a-crown a-day , almost rival Blondin ' s feats every hour in the week . Others seated on a piece of board , with the assistance of a labourer below and a pulley abovehaul themselves up the sides of the fixed

, columns ; cradled in mid-air they bolt the massive iron girders in their places , or fix the caps of the columns as they are hoisted up to them . Everything seems done here on a grand and expeditious scale . The traditional hodman crawling up and down ladders is put aside altogether . Barrowfuls of bricks and mortar are hoistedby means of a horsea stout and a pulleyas

, , rope , , speedily and as easily as a signal-flag is run up on board a man-of-war . Iron rails with turn-tables at the intersection are laid all over the site to facilitate the transit of materials . Two of Bowser and Cameron ' s large cranes are fixed near the hydraulic testing machine , by which the main girders are subjected to a pressure of some 70 or 80 tons , applied at a quarter distance from their extremities . The girders which

support the gallery-floors are each 2 ft . Sin . deep , those which carry the roof are 2 ft . lin . deep . The hydraulic machine is by Burton , Sons , and Waller . The weight of each of the lattice-girders is between 21- and 25 cwt . Stacks of these girders are on the ground ready for immediate use . Mr . Barrow , at Stavely , is personally superintending the castings , and in another couple of months every piece of iron-work , amounting in all to little short of 4000 tons , will be delivered . In addition to this enormous weight of metal , the Thames Iron Company will supply no less than 1500 tons of wrought

. Passing onwards , we come upon a series of the timber trussed girders which are to rest on the iron ones for the gallery floor . Some dozen of these are being temporarily laid near the ground in order to be tested by an extraordinary load of bricks . Each girder consists of two pieces of timber bolted together , resting in iron shoes . They are trussed with a cast-iron strut in the centre and

Ifwrought-iron rod , which passes under it from one end of girder to the other . Joists , 9 in . by Sin ., will lie on the top of them . Close adjoining , on a large platform of deals , the carpenters are busy tracing full size the lines of the roof for the "picture gallery . " The carpenters' work is all prepared either by Messrs . Lucas ' s establishment at Lowestoft , or at Grosvenor-basin , Pimlico .

The east end of tho nave is the most advanced portion of the central or iron building . The double stage of coupled columns , which form the sides of the nave , are fixed in nine or ten bays , and are ready for the roof ribs , which are now awaiting transit at Grosvenor-wharf . The first stage of the same are also up in three or four additional bays . Many of the side columns and cross-girders are fixed , and the number

increases daily . In tho eastern transept an almost equal activity is perceptible , and more than thirty columns are in their places . The expedition with which those iron bones of the gigantic building are hauled up is one of the most noteworthy features iu the construction . A little steam-engine scarcely bigger than a pony-chaise does the work . It sets

two or three wheels in motion , over one of which a rope passes ; pulleys are placed in convenient j ^ sitions near the ground , they rest on wooden blocks , and are securely lashed to iron pins driven in the ground or to fixed uprights . One or more men , according to the distance , take up their positions with rod and blue flags , to signal to the enginedriveranother is readto haul in or out the to the

, y pay rope revolving wheel ; tho rope passes round the various pulleys , and is then fixed to the material to be raised ; a man regulates its ascent with a gye-rope , a couple more await its arrival at its destination , the blue flag is displayed , a whistle , is heard , the rope tightens , and the iron mass glides rapidly