Masonic Notes And Queries.

THE FIEST G . M . OF AMERICAN MASONS . Who was the first Grand Master appointed over tbe American Masons by the G . M . of England ? - — C . E . —[ An inscription in Townsend Cemetery , Massachusetts , reads as follows : — In memory of Henry PriceEsq .

, , who was born in London about tho year of our Lord 1707 . He removed to Boston about the year 1723 , received a deputation appointing him Grand Master of Masons in New England ; and in the year 1733 was appointed a * cornet iu the Governor ' s troop of Guards .

with rank of Major . By his diligence and industry in business he acquired the means of a comfortable living , with which he removed to Townsend , in the latter part of his life . He quitted mortality the 20 th day of May , 1780 , leaving a widow and two young

daughters , with a numerous company of friends and acquaintances to mourn his departure , who have that ground of hope concerning his present lot which results from his undissembled regard to his Maker , and extensive benevolence to his fellow creatures , manifested by a behavior consistent with his character

as a Mason , and his nature as a man . ] HIRAM AEIF AND THE DIONYSIAN ARTIFICERS . What are the grounds for supposing Hiram Abif to have been a member of the Dionysian Artificers ?—DOEIC . ST . PAUL , GAL . II . 9 . In the Epistle to the Galatiansii . 9 the following

, , remarkable words occur : — "When James , Cephas , and John , who seemed to be pillars , perceived the grace was given unto me , they gave to me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship , that we should go unto the heathen , and they unto the circumcision . " Can any oue point out similar passages to a BIBLE STUDENT ? FEESIAN EITE .

Did the Persian Rite take its rise in Persia ?—F . —[ No . ] BEO . ANTHONY SAYEE , G . M . What was Bro . Anthony Sayer , the G . M . elect on St . John the Baptist ' s Day , 1717 ? Is there any biography of him extant , or can it be stated with any degree of certainty why he was chosen G . M . ?•—Ex . Ex . —[ He was so elected because he was the senior W . M . or P . M . of a lodge present . ]

Notes On Literature, Science, And Art.

NOTES ON LITERATURE , SCIENCE , AND ART .

\ Ve have already denounced , in our " Notes , " the cruel practice of vivisection , or dissecting animals alive , under the pretence of advancing science . On the 14-th of last month ( April ) , we are glad to find the Emperor of the French receiving a deputation of four English gentlemen from the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals very favourably . The deputation consisted of

General Sir J . Scott Lillie , Samuel Gurney , Esq ., M . P ., the P > ev . M . Jackson , and John Curling , Esq . Mr . Curling laid before his Majesty some startling statements , relating to the cruelties practised at the veterinary schools of Alfort , Lyons , and other places in Prance . He stated that during sixteen weeks of the year , between March and July , every Monday and Thursday , at Alfort alone

seven or eight poor horses , which have been kept from twenty-four to forty-eight hours without food , are " cast , " or thrown to the ground and rendered helpless , at nine o ' clock in the morning , when eight pupils commence all sorts of separate and painful operations on each horse , and continue the torture until five o ' clock in the

afternoon ; one bleeding it , another cupping it , a third operating on

the eyes , a fourth removing an entire hoof , a fifth trying operations to remove imaginary stone , and the other three pupils each practising other , perhaps more painful experiments . The Emperor , we are told , was ignorant of these barbarities , with the relation of which he was much moved , aiid promised an immediate inquiry into them , with a view to taking action thereon . "We trust the revolting cruelties which have so long disgraced science in France and in

other countries will soon become of very rare occurrence : for " the beasts of the field , " as Dr . Chalmers has well said , " are not so many automata , without sensation , and just so constructed as to give forth all the natural signs and expressions of it . Nature hath not practised this universal deception upon or . r species . These poor animals just look , and tremble , and give forth the very same indications of

suffering as we do . Theirs is the distinct cry of pain ; theirs is the unequivocal physiognomy of pain ; they put on the same aspect of terror on the demonstrations of a menaced blow ; they exhibit the same distortions of agony after the infliction of it . The bruise , or the bum , or the fracture , or the deep incision , or the fierce encounter with one of equal or superior strength , just affects

them similarly to ourselves . Their blood circulates as ours ; they have pulsations in various parts of the body like ourselves ; they sicken and they grow feeble with age , and finally they die , just as we do . They possess the same feelings , ancl what exposes them to like suffering from another quarter , they possess the same instinct with our own species . The lioness robbed of her whelps causes the wilderness to ring aloud with the proclamation of her wrongs ; or

the bird whose little household has been stolen , fills and saddens all the grove with melodies of the deepest pathos . All this is palpable to the general and unlearned eye ; and when the physiologist lays open the recesses of their system by means of that scalpel under whose operation they just shrink and are convulsed as any living subject of onr own species , there stands forth to view the same sentient apparatus , and furnished with the same conductors

for the transmission of feeling to the very minutest pore upon the surface . Theirs is unmixed and unmitigated pain ; the agonies of martyrdom , without the alleviation of the hopes and the sentiments whereof they are incapable . When they lay them down to die , their only fellowship is with suffering ; for in the prison-house of their beset and bounded faculties , there can no relief be afforded by

communion with other interests or other things . The attention does not lighten their distress , as it does that of man , by carrying off his spirit from that existing pungency and pressure which might else bo overwhelming . There is but room in their mysterious economy for one inmate , and that is the absorbing sense of their own single and concentrated anguish . And so in that bed of

torment , whereon the wounded animal lingers and expires , there is an unexplored depth and intensity of suffering which the poor dumb animal itself cannot tell , and against which it can offer no remonstrance , an untold , an unknown amount of wretchedness of which no articulate voice gives utterance . But there is an eloquence in its silence , and the very shrond which disguises it only serves to aggravate its horrors . "

The " young gentleman , " whose s . itire of The Season was unfavourably reviewed in the Aiheneum , is about to publish a retort , under the title of My Satire and its Censors . The Rev . Robert Vaughan , D . D ., author of the Life and Opinions of Wyctiffe , has a letter in the Atheneewm , ou the great Reformer ' s birthplace , which must set at rest the doubt for ever . The facts

are simply as follows : Leland , in his Itinerary , positively states that " John YViclif , hereticus , was born at Spreswel , a poor village , a good mile from Richmont . " But none of the writers on Wycliffe could discover where Spreswel was . " When I made my first in- , quiries on this subject , " says Dr . A augh » n , " I was assured by authority in which I thought it became rue to confide , that there

was not , and that there never had been , any place in Riehmondshiro named Spreswel . My conjecture at that time , now more than thirty years since , was that possibly there might have been some