Correspondence.

the Grand Lodge , had sent to the Directory of the Order ( Bunde's Direefcorium ) , a lengthy critical examination of the constitutions and statutes of the system of the thirty-three degrees . The collection of these constitutions , & c , has the title Statutes and Regulations , Institutes , Laws , and Grand Constitutions of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite , compiled with notes from authentranslated b

tic documents for the use of the Order , y Albert Pike , thirty-third M . P . Sov . G . Com ., of the Supreme Council for the Southern Jurisdiction of the United States , New York , 1859 . The Grand Master then gave the principal contents of the historico-critical examination of Bro . Merydorff , and mentioned particularlthat the above-named

Constituy tions and Laws , which formed at present a basis of a system of high degrees in America , France , and England , were attributed to King Frederick the Great , who was said not to have issued them himself , but at least to have approved and signed them at the Grand Orient of Berlin , on the 25 th day of the 7 th month of the year 1762 , and in May , 1786 . These documents are in the Latin , French ,

and English languages . The last of them , May 1 , 1786 , begins with the following introduction , "Nos Frederieus , Dei Gratia , fecerunt , " & c . Ia the French text , " Nous Frederic par la Grace du Dieu—ou Franc Maconnerie , " & c , and concludes as follows : "Datum in nostra regati sede Berolini , " & c . The Constitutions have the following introduction ; "Probanbe prassente sansiente—deliberavunt , " & c and closes with " Deliberatum , actum , sancitum . in Magno et Supremo Concilio , " & a . According to the contents of these documents , Frederic

the Great is said to have revised , reorganised , and increased from twenty-five to thirty-three degrees , the system of High Degrees in a Supreme Council , held at Berlin , and which have often been the subject of critical examination in consequence of the doubts ofthe authenticity which have always been uttered . Bro . Le Blanc de Marconnay directed a letter upon

this subject , dated May 28 th , 1833 , from New York , to the Directory of the Grand National Mother Lodge of the Three Globes . He wrote as folllows : — " The highest tribunal of the thirty-third and last degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scotch Rite ( a Masonic authority which has extended its jurisdiction over Europe , principally France ) , claims to have its authority from Frederick I ., King of

Prussia , the said monarch having on the 1 st of May , 1786 , revised the Masonic Constitutions and Statutes of the high degrees for which he had himself given the reglemens , & c . Are these historical traditions founded on truth ? Is there any trace to be found of such a fact ? Is there any probability for there being a reality ?" > The answer which the Directory returned on the 17 th

of August , 1833 , says , "The Grand National Mother Lodge of the Three Globes , was founded on the 13 th of September , 174-0 , under the authority of Frederic the Great , who was its first Grand Master . He never had anything to do with the organisation and legislation of the Grand Lodge . All that has been related of his having in 1786 , originated a high Masonic Senate , & c ,

has no historical basis . '' Kloss alludes to this subject in a long examination in his History of Freemasonry in France , p . 409 , and stamps the Constitutions and Statutes of the Ancient and

Accepted Rite as " the grand lie of the Order . As harsh as this judgment may appear at a first glance , the Directory of the Grand Lodge of the Three Globes , after repeated researches in the archives and historical collections , cannot help sustaining it , by declaring the Constitutions and Statutes entirely false because : — ¦ 1 King Frederic the Great attended to Masonic affairs

. for only seven yeai's from his initiation in 1738 to 1744 , and was never engaged in them afterwards . He kept himself aloof from erery direct participation in them , devoting himself with almost superhuman exertions exclusively to the troubles and cares of government and in the command of his army .

2 . In the year 1762 the third Silesian campaign engaged the whole of the time and activity of the King , and from the 1 st of May , 1786 ( the last day of his public life ) , a few months only before his death ( 17 th August , 1786 ) , he resided , a martyr to the gout , decrepit and weary of life , in his castle of Sans Souci , near Potsdam , not in Berlin . According to the most reliable

information , " the King arrived at Berlin , September 6 th , 1785 , visited his sister , the Princess Amalia , inspected his public works , and spent the night at the mineral springs to attend on the next day ( September 10 th , 1785 ) , the manoeuvres of his artillery . From the place of review the King returned to Potsdam . He never again came afterwards to Berlinfor after having passed the winter

, in great suffering , his approaching end became no longer doubtful to his physicans in 1786 , and the suffering monarch moved on the 17 th April , 1786 , to the castle of Sans Souci , where he through four months suffered , and died a hero . 3 . It is , therefore , a falsehood that Frederic the Great had convoked on the 1 st of May 1786 in his residence at

, , Berlin , a Grand Council for regulating the high degrees . It does not correspond at all to the manner of thinking and acting of the sublime Sovereign , to have occupied himself near the end of his earthly career , with things which he had characterised as idle , valueless , and playwovk .

4 . The documents kept from time to time m the archives of the Grand National Mother Lodge , do not show the slightest trace of the above-mentioned documents , or of the existence of a Grand Council in Berlin . 5 . Of the persons who are said to have signed these documents , only Stark and 'Woellner are here known , the others are entirely unknown , nowhere mentioned in any of the numerous Masonic books or writings collected here .

But Spark could not have signed the documents of 1762 and 1786 , for he was from 1760 to 1765 well known in England and France , and in Paris was the expounder of the Oriental manuscripts of the library . In 1766 he returned to Germany , and became corrector at "Wismar . In 1769 he was appointedProfessor of Oriental languages at Koenigsberg , in Prussia , whence he went , in 1781 , "

as first preacher of the Court of Darmstadt . Stark declares in his book , The Accusations against Dr . Sta / rk and his Defence , Francfort and Leipsic , 1787 , pp . 88 and 245 , that he had renounced , since 1777 , all his Masonic connections ; had not participated in any way afterwards with Masonic matters ; and had been very indifferent to thing that had happened the Freemasons ;

any among so indifferent that he did not want to answer letters of his former friends who wrote on such subjects . ¦ Woellner had been elected in 1775 "Als Schollischer Obermeister , ' ' and held this office until the year 1791 , when he was elected National Grand Master . Nowhere in the archives can be ^ found evidence that he took an interest in the high degrees . A letter sent to him b

y " des Philalethes Chess legitimes du regime Maconnique de la respectable Loge des Amis Reunis al'Orient deParis , " kept in the archieves of the National Mother Grand Lodge , touches the meeting of a convention in Paris , on the 15 th of June , 1786 . It is signed by Bro . Lavalette de Langes , Garde du Tresor Moyal . The purpose of the convention was to beto confer upon Masonic doctrine ,

, and by the concentration of lights and the comparison of opinions , to clear up the most important points relating to the principles , dogmas , advantages and the true aim of Freemasonry , viewed only as a science . A later letter from Bro . Lavalette de Langes , received February 9 th , 1787 , shows that the meeting of the convention had been put off to 21 st February , 1787 . On this letter is a

remark that it had not been answered . The Grand Lodge resolves to insert this report of the directory , into the protocol , and so to promulgate it to all the lodges .