Masonic * Notes And Queries.

MASONIC NOTES AND QUERIES .

OXFOED ¦ UNIVERSITY , THE BIBLE SOCIETY , AND FEEEMASONRY IN 1811 . The information which has reached the brother who lately wrote from Brazenose is substantially correct . When a guest of the Apollo Lodge , a few months before leaving England , I mentioned two movements amongst the undergraduates in 1811 , the first year of my

residence , the one to procure subscriptions to the British and Foreign Bible Society ; the other to establish a Freemasons' Lodge . Both movements were displeasing to our governors , and consequently the undergraduates , the most active iu them respectively , received communications from the heads of their colleges , which effectually prevented any further exhibition of zeal for biblical

distribution and Masonic increase within the precincts of the University . One of those undergraduates was soon after a candidate for a scholarship in his college . He was not elected ; and as , in 1814 , after accompanying the allied armies in their march upon Paris , he took a double first , his friends , rightly or wrongly , ascribed his failure to the participation in oneofthe above movements rather than to the lack of learning . —CHAELES PURTON COOPER .

MARKS OE MARK MASONS . If " Tessera ? " had " applied to the proper quarter , " and he was entitled to the information he desires , he would not have had the necessit y of " applying to the brethren at large . " " Tessera ? " should remember how his "fidelity" must be exemplified ( "by never seeking to obtain" ) & c . If " Tessera ? " be a Mark Master , he cannot

have forgotten how he was instructed to proceed before the Eegistrar ; and hence the impropriety of raising the question in the columns of THE MAGAZINE . If he be not , he has no right to the information he seeks . Let him wait patiently , and he will find in the contemplated print that no invisible or anonymous brother , but a real , visible , tangible , and good creature , with full name and

titles , cum multis aliis , has for a long period devoted himself zealously to set forth the meaning of the marks alluded to . There ever was , and it is supposed ever will be , stubborn sceptics towards every exposition of lost arts or sciences , condemning everything they do not understand , and cannot avoid the mode offensive in their remarks on kindly offered suggestions , and " E . E . X . "

fears " Tessera ? " is afflicted with the same disease . If " Tessera ? " will only bide the time , he , with many others , may find the results of the laborious well established , neither conjectural or illusory , combining sound informamation and explanation , but not to be understood by any who are not privileged as Mark Master Masons . " Tessera ? " should recollect that Mark Masonry and

Freemasonry are not identical , and that Mark Masonry is as distinct from Freemasonry as tho latter is from Eoyal Arch Masonry or any other of the degrees beyond it . — 30 th August , 1863 . —E . E . X . —[ We do not agree with " R . E . X . " in his estimate of Mark Masonry conveyed in the last few lines . ]

REVENUE OE THE GRAND LODGE OE IEELAND . An Irish brother says that the Grand Lodgo of Ireland is very rich . Has it so many lodges on its roll , or how does it raise the money?—PHILO . —[ It numbers about 350 lodges ; but the Grand Lodge of Ireland acknowledges the high grade Freemasons , and draws a very good revenue from them alone , as every brother

advanced to the hi gher orders pays for each step not less than ten shillings to the Grand Lodge funds . ] ¦ MASONIC BIBLIOGRArilY . Where is a list to be found of the most popular Masonic books in print ?—K . F . —[ Got a copy of Bro . Spencer ' s catalogues , and consult Bro . Dr . Hyde Clarke ' s Notes on Masonic Biography , which appeared at pages 307 and 3 * 1-1 of THE ' FREEMASONS' MAGAZINE , vol . vi ., 1859 . ]

INIGO JONES . What is known of Inigo Jones ' s life ?—F . M . M . —[ A life of this celebrated architect will be found in Chalmers ' s Biographical Dictionary . A new fact has also been recently disclosed about him , viz ., that during the civil war he buried his money and valuables in Lambeth Marsh , i . e ., the ground which extends , on the Surrey side of the Thames , from Westminster to Blackfriars ' Bridges . His will may be seen at Doctors' Commons . ]

MITCHELL S HISTORY OE FREEMASONRY AND DIGEST OF MASONIC LAW . A work under the above title was published in the United States in 185 ! " ! or 1860 , and a laudatory press notice thus speaks of it : — " The above is the title of two large and beautifully-bound volumesjust placed upon our table . On first thoughtone

, , would be inclined to think that the history of Freemasonry is a subject of too little interest to the reading public to warrant a publisher in issuing a work of such magnitude ; but that idea must be a merely fleeting one when we take into consideration the fact that the Masonic Order , in the United States alone , numbers over three hundred thousand members ; whose intelligence , social position and moral worth will compare favourably

with an equal number of any of our fellow-citizens any where in the Union . That institution , which numbered among its votaries the beloved Washington—who , in one of his letters , states that ' the object of Freemasonry is to promote the happiness of the human race '—and Franklin , and Lafayette , and Clinton , and others of the leading men of the nation down to , and including Buchanan—whose principles are those of charity

and brotherly love , and whose mystic chain encircles the whole civilised world—is not only entitled to a place in the history of the times , but to a history of its own . " Various attempts have been made in the past 130 years to sketch the history of Freemasonry . Anderson devoted , in 1723 ,. 48 pages of an old fashioned quarto to it . Preston , towards the end of that centurywrote an extension of Anderson ' s ;

, Laurie , of Edinburgh , wrote , in 1804 , a history of Freemasonry , which , though the best up to his time , was in point of fact little more than the proceedings ofthe Grand Bodge of Scotland . Oliver , in 1841 , wrote a continuation of Preston ' s history , but all these related to Masonry in England ; "Webb , in his Monitor , also imitated Preston , and gave some few facts wrapped up in a great deal of error , concerning the introduction of

Freemasonry into the North American colonies : Cross copied Webb ' s errors and extended them . The early records of many of the first lodges in the country were lost or destroyed during the anti-Masonic excitement of 1826 to 183 G ; and thus the history of Freemasonry in the United States was in a deplorable condition . To gather together the records that did exist , to collect such items of interest on this subject as were preserved in the archives of the Order throughout the older States—to examine

the traditions upon which to found a history where no record appeared , to separate what was genuine from the mass of rubbish in which it was all but lost , and to present the whole to the world in the shape of a history , was a most difficult task—one which a few , very few men of the Order , were competent satisfactorily to perform . For five and twenty years previous to his commencing to write a line on the subject , the Hon . J . W . S .

Mitchell , of Kentucky , subsequently of St . Louis , Missouri , devoted himself to a thorough examination of the subject ; and prepared himself for the important task he had undertaken to execute . In 18-1-8 he commenced to write his history of Freemasonry , and in the fall of 1858 he finished it , stereotyped thework , and published a large edition . So favourably was it received , especially in the South , that two thousand copies—four

thousand volumes—were entirely sold in four months , and another large edition called for by a demand co-extensive with the whole United States . The work was revised , many corrections made , a history of the Hon . Mrs . Aldworth ' s initiation into and connection with Freemasonry added , ancl now a second edition is upon our table . It would be impossible , in the space at our commandto review this igantic workwe can but

, g ; briefly notice it . It is the first and only complete history of Freemasonry ever published ; and some idea may be had of the elaborate manner in which it treats the subject , when the reader recollects that 11-18 pages of closely-printed matter are devoted to it . It gives a correct history of the introduction of Freemasonry into every State in the Union , of the formation of