The Knights Templars.

bassaclors to Europe to the Pope and the Christian sovereigns soliciting their alliance , and offering them possession of the Holy Land . The Pope received the ambassadors with distinguished favour , promised them every assistance , but his promises

and those of the European Kings ivere never fulfilled . The spirit which had prompted the Crusades was dead , and Europe was preparing for that convulsion which ended in the Eeformation . Genoa alone sent aid to the Holy Land , the

example being set by the ladies who assumed the cross to avert the Divine wrath which they feared would come upon them from the town being laid under tlie horrors of an interdict .

Jacques de Molai having refreshed his troops renewed hostilities with the enemy , and advancing as far as Gaza defeated the Saracens , and drove them back into the sandy deserts of Egypt . Treachery , however , wrested further success from

him , for a Saracen chief , who had been appointed governor of Damascus , instigated the Musselmen of Syria to revolt , and the Templars Avere forced to fall back upon Jerusalem . Casan sent troops to their assistance , but while they ivere preparing

to inarch upon Damascus he died , and the Christians were deprived of their Tartar allies . The Templars left the Holy City , the ramparts of which they had begun to build , and which they were doomed never to see again , and never more

to raise the ruddy standard of the cross upon its walls . This reverse was scarcely talked of in Europe , and though the name of Jerusalem ivas still pronounced among the congregations of the faithful , it had no power to awaken the religious enthusiasmof knio'lita and warriors . The

Templars retired to the sea coast and embarking set sail for Luinisso . A strong force Avas left to garrison the island of Aradns and Tortosa , but the Musselmen speedily attacked them , and they were all killed or taken prisoners .

The Hospitallers shortly after the return of the Templars to Europe attacked Bhodes , and the Sicilian Templars , with De Molai , made a fray into Greece , but after reducing several towns , and seizing much plunder they returned to Europe . Thus ended for ever the dominion of the

Temp lars in the Last , and with , the loss of this dominion began to raise that plot of monarch and priest against the Knights , which ended in the overthrow of the Order , and ferocious butchery of its members . ( To be continued . )

Palestine Exploration Fund.

PALESTINE EXPLORATION FUND .

It is very unusual to find Masonic work going on outside the Masonic body , and to have to notice labours carried on under the direction of a board , not itself consisting ivholly of Freemasons , which yet are in the highest degree interesting to

the Craft at large . Nothing could more engage the sympathy and assistance of the brethren than the ivork now carried on by the Palestine Exploration Eund . To fix the sites of a thousand places which are household words to every Mason ; to

investigate the gigantic works of the great Masters , Solomon ancl H . A . ; to lay bare the elaborate systems of aqueducts , conduits , and reserroirs , which kept the Holy City supplied with water ; and to show to an admiring world the very

wall—a marvel of masonry , when battlements were so high , says Josephus , that a man looking over turned dizzy at the depth below him—which the great King designed and built , these are objects which this society has proposed to itself , and , with

a perseverance worthy of the highest praise , in spite of scant acknowledgment , has been steadily and quietly following out for three years . Too quietty , for it ivas not till last June that its existence ivas brought before the notice of the Grand

Lodge of England , which promptly responded to the call , and gave the fund the sum of a hundred guineas . Since then other lodges have been appealed to , not in vain , and the usual benevolence of Masons has in this case been stimulated by

the thought that the highest objects of Speculative Masonry are touched by this enterprise . There is not space in our columns to go into all the details necessary for a right understanding of the work done . But a few particulars may be given . On

Mount Moriah , where the Temple formerly stood , there still rises a wall enclosing a square area of some seventeen hundred feet . At the south wall , outside the area , which is held sacred by the Mahometans , and not allowed to be touched ,

Lieutenant Warren has been excavating . The first discovery which he made proved conclusively that the old tradition Avas true about the magnitude of the wall of the Temple . It Avas . actually in some places upwards of 150 ft . high , and nearly

a thousand long—a stupendous piece of Masonry . The stones , beautifully cut and joined so closely that the blade of a knife cannot be thrust into the joints , at present the most perfect specimen of Jewish mason's art ; down to the very bottom the same pains have been bestoived aud the same