The Uniformity Of Ritual.

novation iu itself . We imagine that the committee should include amongst its number those of our " instructors" who are known and esteemed for their correct rendering of our beautiful ceremonies . If these should agree to waive their prejudices in

favour of their own crochets , and , while endeavouring to maintain the ancient form of working , preserve all that is good and reject all that is worthless , we may hope to secure a form of ritual which will be worthy the sanction of so influential

and important a body as the Grand Lodge of England , and which our American and foreign brethren may be induced to adopt , a proceeding which , more than any other , would tend to make ""Masonry universal . "

The Master Court And The Master Degree.

THE MASTER COURT AND THE MASTER DEGREE .

By Bro . W . P . BUCHAN . In looking over the minutes as recorded in the oldest extant " Minute Boob of the Glasgow Freemen Operative St . John ' s Lodge , " I came upon one dated 29 th April , 1842 , and from it we

perceive that the chairman of the meeting there alluded to , " Deacon York , " was not then a Freemason ( or speculative mason ) at all : but occupies the chair because he was then the "deacon" of the incorporation , of masons ; further , amongst a

number of gentlemen proposed for future initiation the name of the deacon occurs as one of them . The occasion of the meeting was to increase the membership of £ t . John ' s Lodge for the forthcoming ceremony of laying the foundation

stone of a new lunatic asylum at Glasgow . Inter alia the minute says , " The deacon , collector , a number of masters , and members of the incorporation of masons were present . Deacon York in the chair . "

The word " masters " here , of course , means operative master builders , or members of the incorporation who were members of the " Master Court , " not speculative masons who had received the master degree , for , as I observed above , even

the chairman himself , although a master builder and deacon of the incorporation , had not as yet got the length of being even an apprentice Freemason . The meeting therefore was composed of the friends and members of the lodge , not of its members simply . This reminds me of the notion that the Laird of Auchinleck in 1600 , and General

Moray in 164-1 received the Master Mason degree in Mary ' s Chapel Lodge ( No . 1 ) , but they no more received that degree then than I did ; and as for the master builders or master masons of the Lodge of Edinburgh in the 17 th century , they knew no

more of our master degree than they did of the style of the architecture of the residence of the Man in the Moon . The similarity in the nomenclature adopted by Messrs . Desaguliers , Anderson , and Co . has tended to encourage the current

confusion of ideas , but when we come to examine things critically and closely , we perceive that a man ' s beino- a master mason or master builder

of the 17 th century was somewhat different from his being merely a recipient of the master degree of the 18 th century , and had Bro . Findel seen the records of the Lodge of Edinburgh personally he would not , iu all likelihood , have written as he does at page 120 of his History , and had Bro . W . A . Laurie been , more careful in his examination

of said records he might have avoided the mistakes recorded at page 52 of his History of Freemasonry . Even had he given us , verbatim et literatim , copies of the minutes alluded to they would have kept us right . However , our Masonic

historian , Bro . D . M . Lyon , "will likely shortly favour us with something in that way . Were we once in possession of verbatim et literatim copies of the extant minutes of the British lodges before 1717 , we could soon settle a great many points

which are at present unnecessarily dark and obscure . I say " unnecessarily , " because I consider that the Grand Lodges of England and Scotland ought to take action—yea , immediate action—in this matter , and see whether the bodies of which

they are the heads are or are not in reality what they are said to be . The Grand Lodge of England is especially at fault iu this matter . Although the Mother Grand Lodge of the World , and governing one of the richest Masonic bodies in the world , it

stands idly by while others are trying to elucidate its history . I ask is this honourable ? Is it honest , or is it fair ? We are forced to ask , does the Grand Lodge of England consider it pays best to keep its own members , and the public as well , in

darkness regarding its origin and history ? Or does it consider that the adoption of the non possumus idea is most in consonance with the English character ? iSurelynot ; the "lion in the way" can hardly be such-a terrible monster as to prevent his being looked in the face by English pluck ; in fact , I am inclined to consider