Architecture And Abchæology.

The Dean and Chapter of St . Paul ' s appeal for subscriptions to render their cathedral fit for the services they ought to celebrate in it . It is stated that the organ of the choir has been removed from the centre , and placed on thc north side , according to the original ! plan ; the screen has also heen removed , so that the whole choir can be seen from east to west . It- is desirable to rearrange

the stalls ; to do this effectively , and add a light screen in unison with the architecture ivill cost £ 8 , 500 . The great Panopticon organ , which Alessrs . Hill built at a cost of £ , ' 5 , 000 , has been purchased for £ 1 , 050 ; it is proposed to erect it in the south transept , for the use of the special evening and annual services under the dome . To remove and reerect this for use will cost £ 800 ; for a proper case , £ 2 , 000 more . Thus it appears , for immediate and

necessary works , an outlay of £ 4 , 150 ivill be requisite , and for subsequent architectural completion about £ 3 , 200;—ivith which sum , ive may remark , a church might be built in Bethnal Green . Towards this amount £ 2 . 200 is in hand . The capitular revenues having passed from the control of the Bean and Chapter , arc not available for the above purposes . It is proposed to enrich the cathedral with coloured decorationsaccording to a lan by Mr .

, p ' - ' enrose , who suggests the use of mosaics , as originally planned oy AVren . A marble pulpit , in memory of Capt . R . Fitzgerald , is about to be erected under the dome , and the offer of a stained class window has been received .

IJic Athenceum says—We enter protest against thc rumour that it is intended to restore Nctley Abbey , upon Southampton Water , in order that the building may again be used for divine service , and of course completely to destroy the beauty of the edifice as it is , in the state of ruin . 'The inducement to such an act could onl j ' be to save a litttle money . Are ive never to have done with the idea of money ? Is nothing else valuable on this earth?—that we

must for ever be Milling to sacrifice all associations , all dignity , reverence and pride , for thc sake of saving ? Is it so sure that the saving ivould be economical , aud the patched up building answer its purposes even as well as an edifice that might be built anywhere ? AVe style such a " restoration " a desecration advisedly , because every man has felt thc consecrating influence of decay . The associations of an ancient abbeylike that of'Netl

, cy , are so venerable , that to disturb them is to destroy . Let time take them , and the dead past bury its dead ; but while they remain , insult them not hy putting the galvanic life of a quasirestoration , whicli is real ruin , upon them . It is really but right that the clergy of the Protestant faith should be called upon to resist such barbarism as this report implies . To restore a church that has been in constant use is one thingthat is rarel h

; y enoug done with anything like success ; so that too frequently the oldnew building has a smirk upon it which is infinitely painful to the beholder , and to one who has any spirit of true reverence in him far more distressing than the architectural anomalies our more recent

ancestors may have botched on to the work of those more removed . But to restore a building that has been in ruins for centuries , and has a claim to our veneration even as a ruin , is another matter , which can never be advocated under a plea of restoration , in the same sense as in the other case ; for by restoring you simply destroy one of the glories of thc edifice . The members of the British Archieological Association will hold

their seventeenth annual meeting at Shrewsbury , August 6 th to llth inclusive . A large local committee has been formed , together with an extensive list of vice-presidents . The business of the week will include various pleasant excursions .

Masonic Notes And Queries.

MASONIC NOTES AND QUERIES .

MASO-711 Y IN S 1 CILV . Ix 1811 there were the following Lodges in the kingdom of the Two Sicilies , which held warrants from the Grand Lodge of England : — No . 237 , Lodge of Perfect Union , in his Sicilian Majesty's Regiment of Foot , at Naples ; No . 215 , AVell Chosen Lodge , at Naples ; No . 337 , Lodge at Alcssina ; No . 3-1 . 0 , Lodge at Naples ; No . 35 . 1 , La Loggia dcllc A erita , at Naples , in

15 ryclone ' s Tour through Sicily , when speaking of Girgenti ( agriyinliiin ) , a description is given of a dinner , at which he and his fellow travellers assisted , given by thc nobility of thc place to the bishop , many reverend canons and other ecclesiastics being partakers of the ( east . Bryclone says , "We found in tin ' s company a number of Freemasons , who were delighted beyond measure when th discovered that wc were their brethren "

ey . This was iu the year 1770 . AVith respect to the lUuminces , may 1 ask what authority is there for supposing they extended to Italy ? . Ve know that Freemasonry was almost universal among the higher ecclesiastics during the middle ages , thc Rose Croix being instituted by them , as a means ol' union to overthrow thc growing

tyranny and arrogance of thc papacy , when , under Gregory A II . it dethroned kings and parted husband and wife . Hurd , in his Treatise on Jteligion , speaks thus of thc brethren of thc Rose Croix or Neplus Ultra : " They were to declare openly that tbe pope was Antichrist , ami that the time would come when they should pull down his triple crown . They rejected and condemned thc doctrines of thc and of Mahometcalling thc one and the

pope , other blasphemies of thc east and the west . They called their Society the Confraternity of the Holy Ghost . They claimed a right of appointing their successors and conveying to them all their privileges : —to keep thc devil in a state of subjection , and that their fraternity could not be destroyed , because God always opposed an impenetrable cloud to screen them from their enemies . " Rosetti in his work , Sullo Spirito Anlipapuli , corroborates

Kurd ' s statement ivith regard to the objects of the secret societies in Italy , and his information was derived from Italian authorities unknown in this country ; he says , speaking of the Rose Croix , "The rites , which , hastily considered , may seem absurdities , will , when maturely judged , be found otherwise . " The beautiful allegory of this degree could only have been devised by minds highly educated and accomplished . —J . How .

QUAKER FREEMASONS . In the Freemasons' Magazine for January , 1855 , it is recorded that in thc Mojra Lodge , No . 109 , at a meeting held November 28 th , 185 _ 1 , Bro . Law , AV . AI ., initiated Mr . Driver , a member of the Society of Friends . —R . S . ' 1 'IIE DUKE 01 ' lVEl _ I , I __ . GTO : t .. Alay there not he some difficulty in tracing the late Duke of

AVellington ' s initiation , in the fact that at the period he bore the name of Arthur AVesley ? In the books of the town council of Trim his signature stands A . AVesle }' , and I have understood that it was at this time he entered the Order ; his father residing at Dangan Castle in the same county ( Aleath ) , where I remember to have heard a Lodge was held . —J . How . HIGH GHADES .

In "Notes and Queries" in your Magazine of June 2 nd , I observed a few remarks about the High Grades appearing in processions . I may add my testimony ; I saw in Boston , U . S ., in 1857 , on tbe occasion ofthe inauguration ofthe statue to General AVarren , who fell on Breeze Hill , at the Battle of Bunker ' s Hill , the most magnificent masonic procession one could conceive , among which were four hundred Knights Templar with their banners and regalia . The Boston brethren certainly did full justice to their deceased brother , who fell so gloriously , fighting for their independence . —11 . BURTOX .

DOCTOl- FIl'lET . D D ' ASSIGXY . A Brother having lent me 'Dennett ' s Akiman Jlezon , printed at Belfast in 1782 , at page 33 there is inserted "Ahabath Olam , a prayer repeated in thc Royal Arch Lodge at Jerusalem . " I" am not about to quote the prayer itself , because that is ivell known to every Alason , having been printed in almost every ivork on Alasonry , but I shall trouble yon with the following extract : —

" Having inserted this prayer , and mentioned that part of Alasonry commonly called the Royal Arch ( which I firmly believe to be the root , heart , and marrow of Freemasonry ) , I cannot forbear giving a hint of a certain evil designer , who has made a trade thereof for some time past , aud has drawn in a number of worthy honest men , and made them believe that he and his assistants truly taught them every part of thc abovemmied

branch of Alasonry , which they soon communicated to the worthy brethren of their acquaintance , without being able to form any sort of judgment whereby they might distinguish truth from fillschood , and , consequently , could not discern the imposition ; but , as the wise Seneca justly observes , it fares with us in human life as in a routed army , and so they follow one upon the neck of anothertill the whole field comes to be but one heap of

mis-, carriages . This is the case of all those who think themselves Royal Arch Alasons , without passing the chair in regular form , according to the ancient custom of the craft . To this I will add the opinion of our worshipful brother , Doctor Fificld D'Assigny , printed in the . year 1714 .. ' Some ofthe fraternity ( says he ) have expressed an uneasiness at this matter being kept a secret from them ( since they had already passed through the usual degrees of

probation ) , and I cannot help being of opinion , that they have no right to any such benefit until tliey make a proper application , and arc received with due formality : and , as it is an organized body of men ivho have passed the chair , and given undeniable proof's of their skill in architecture , it cannot be treated with too much reverence ; and more especially since the characters of thc present members of that particular Lodge are untainted , and their