Mother Kilwinning.

duced and partaken of during the transaction of business . The reader will in his perusal of former papers have noted the important place in the lodge proceedings asssigned to refreshment ; but in no previous case do the Kilwinning records show the convivial element to have been so intimately mixed up with the business of the lodge as on the present most extraordinary and ever-to-be-remembered

. The next meeting" of Mother Kilwinning " was held at Irvine , on the 23 rd November . It was called " to regulate and settle the business of the Lodge . " There was read to the brethren the following " Extract from Books of Grand Lodge ,

ratifying and approving of the Treaty and Settlement betwixt them and the Mother Lodge" : — "At a quarterly committee meeting of the Grand Lodge of Scotland , held this 2 nd day of November , 1807—Present and the representatives of 64 lodges . The report of the

Mutual Committees of the Grand Lodge and of the Kilwinning Lodge was then read and considered by the Grand Lodge , when an objection was stated by Brother Cunningham , Senior Warden of Mary's Chappel , on the ground of that body being depz-ived of her place on the rollaud

, after a good deal of argument , Brother John Miller , Proxy Master of St . Thomas Arbroath Lodge , moved that the report of the Mutual Committees should be approved of . This motion was seconded by Brother Thomas Miller , Esq ., Advocate of the Lodge Dalkieth , and the Grand Lodge

accordingly approved of the report by the Committees , with the dissenting voice of Brother Cunningham alone , who in the name of the Lodge Mary's Chappel protested against the present proceedings and took instruments in the Clerk ' s hands ; when Brother John Sutherland , Proxy

Master for the Lodge Royal Arch , Pollockshaws , and a member of Mary ' s Chappel Lodge , took a counter protest on this ground , that he was satisfied that the present measure would meet with the approbation of a great majority of the members of Mary ' s Chappeland likewise took instruments in

, the Grand Clerk ' s hands—whereupon the Grand Lodge solemnly enacted and declared , in terms of the said report of the Mutual Committee of the Grand Lodge , and of the Mother Kilwinning Lodge ; and upon a motion of Brother Thomas Miller , Esq ., the unanimous thanks of the Grand

Lodge were voted to the members of the Committee for their active exertions in thus putting at length at final rest , so disagreeable a Masonic schism , by which the Grand Lodge embraced the whole Masons of Scotland , and by which the Charity Funds would be so greatly increased . "

The Secretary of the Mother Lodge further submitted and read to the meeting- the Commission from Grand Lodge in favour of the Worshipful William Blair of Blair , Master , as Provincial Grand Master of Ayrshire—of which Commission more hereafter . After agreeing to request the Grand

Mother Kilwinning.

Secretary at Edinburgh to provide " sashes and aprons" for the representatives of the Mother Lodge at the anniversary meeting of Grand Lodge on 30 lh November in that year , the Lodge of Kilwinning , thus denuded b y then' own voluntary act of the prerogatives of an independent Grand

Body , were for the first time since their re-union with Grand Lodge called to harmonise in the light of a subordinate capacity—a noble instance of selfsacrifice at the shrine of Masonic unity .

Masonic Notes And Queries.

MASONIC NOTES AND QUERIES .

EltENCH BEEISITION OE EHEEMAS 02 TRT . The TJnivers Maeonnigue has given the following definition of Freemasonry , which , no doubt , will he full of information for the Craft at home . —Ex . Ex . — [ " In order to fully comprehend the duties imposed by Masonry , we must first define it ; we must tell what it is . Whatthenin Masonry ? We replit is much : it

, , y , is of the utmost importance , or it is nothing at all . It is nothing to the vulgar man or the wicked . It is much to the sensible and virtuous man . It is nothing , any more tlmn colours to the blind , music to the deaf , poetry and fine arts to brutes , to the ambitious , the avaricious , the egotistical , the untrue . It is much to

the sensible , sincere , aud generous man , who knows the ills of humanity , and would remedy them . She is neither a plot , a faction , nor a party ; she serves the ambition , the cunning , or tiie cruelty of no one . She is order and truth in all things ; she is the hatred of vice , the love of virtue ; aud she is a living voice

saying , "Do not unto others that which you would not that others should do unto you : " on the contrary , " Do as you would be done by . " She is the calm , amid the tempest , a light-house iu shipwreck , consolation in misfortune , the antidote against every kind of tyranny , fanaticism , aud lies . In a word , she is the true bond of nations , the preserver of that moral

balance the wicked would destroy . Thus she is everything to those who understand her , nothing to those whose souls are dead , or , rather , she is the mirror in which they dare not look . What was she , in ancient times , for Tiberius , for Caligula , for Nero ? Just what she is now for those who resemble them . Some one has said that Masonry was a reliion . That

g is true , if we may apply the name to an institution that leaves no doubt after it , that opens no door to argument ou her principles and precepts . It is the clearest , the simplest of all religions—that which has the nearest affinity to the good sense with which Heaven has endowed us , ancl on this account it is not

to be confounded with the others . Read and judge . All religions take charge of man at his birth , and keep him in charge till he dies . Masonry , on the contrary , only accepts a man when lie has arrived at mature age , and when his intelligence enables him to ajipreeiate the value of things . A given ceremony makes an

infant a portion of a given church , as , for example , circumcision or baptism make him a Jew or a Christian before he is in any way capable of understanding the proscribed dogmas of those sects . The baptism of Masonry is science and virtue—the initiate hears ancl understands what is said to him ; the lamp of reason is placed in his own hands . By the aid of