Masonic Notes And Queries.

her daughter lodges 1763 persons in the year , of which they are classified thus : — Five hundred and twenty-nine are farmers . Four hundred and thirty-eight are mechanics . Three hundred and tvrelve are merchants , traders , and druggists . Thirty-four are ministers of the gospel .

Twenty-six are attorneys-at-law . Sixty-nine are physicians and dentists . Twenty-five hold county , city , and judiciary offices . Tiventy are teachers of music or schools . ^ Six are editors of newspapers . Sixty-six are railroad men . Twenty-five are hotel-keepers .

Eleven are bankers and brokers . Eighteen are engineers . One hundred and seven are clerks and accountants . Seventy-five follow various other avocations .

MASONIC DEGREES . I trust my Masonry has taught me better than to retort upon " Ebor" in the scurrilous manner he has abused me . In the words of a disciple of Confucius , " Benevolence is the heart , and justice the way ; it is tho duty of a student to seek his lost heart . " Does " Ebor " believe that Masons are so deficient in

reasoning poivers , that his ipse dixit will convince them that the Entered Apprentice and Felloiv Craft degrees of the very impartial papers of Bro . D . M . Lyon are identical with our present Masonic degrees . What has Bro . Lyon proved ? Anything beyond the identity of bis system Avith that of the Constitutions supposed to have been used by our oivn operative lodges to those Avith

their recent admission of a Master ' s degree into this system ? So far as has yet been proved , we have operative Masonry : — -1 st . The Entering Apprentices as detailed in those Constitutions . 2 nd . A Fellow of Craft degree conferring a mark . Against the mystical Masonry of the Essenes , the Templars of the Middle Ages , the Eosicruciansand the Persian sectsviz : ¦—1 st . Our

; , . present Apprentice degree , including certain operative symbolism . 2 nd . The third degree , considered by the Essenes as a type of the lion of the tribe of Judah—a mystery evidently identical with that of the corrupt worshippers of the Sun , Avho , when they had lamented , we

areinformed , over an image of Osiris , on a symbolical revival , exclaimed , " Trust ye in God , for out of pain . sal-Tation is come unto us . " If "Ebor" is sincerely desirous of benefitting his OAVH rite , let him put together proof that the Felloiv Craft degree of the operative rite was a similar ceremony to our present third degree ; for I admit there is something to make us think that such was the

case . Let him also prove , for ive are yet entirely deficient in such proof , that there could be any Freemasonic builders before 1100 or 1200 , up to which period the monks are supposed to have erected their own churches ; and here again he has the advantage of the fact that Hiram ( not Hiram Ah iff , for ho was ' not so styled until after 1726 ) , has superseded a before-mentioned Jeivish type .

When he proves these things a most ample retractation shall be forthcoming from " A , " AVIIO will hail with sincere pleasure the labours of "Ebor , " and forget his abuse . The whole question betAveen us narroAvs itself into this : — Is " Ebor , " his disciples , or the founders of his school , to bo alloived to dictate to us ( ivhat they cannot possibly have any proper or legitimate knoivledge of ) , what is

Masonry and what is not Masonry ? Is all Masonic inquiry to be debarred from us of which they do not approve ? Let us knoiv this , so that we may know what course to adopt . To my brethren , Craft or High Grade , I say , read carefully all that has appeared since 1717 ; judge for yourselves ; and henceforth , unassailed , I assail none . —A . KNIGHTS Ol ? DEATH . This degree is conferred in Scotland in connection with the Early Grand Encampment of Knights Templars , the

chief sect of which is in Ayrshire . Before one can be received as a " Knight of Death , " he must have been admitted into the Priestly Order , between which and the Knights of Death there are seven other degrees , viz ., "Jacob ' s Wrestle , " "White Cross , " "Black Cross , " " Eoyal Mariner , " "Master Architect , " "The Mother World , " and "Knights of Patmos . " The degree in

question can be given by one to another , and has words , grips , and signs attached to it . " B . " can also be admitted into the " unrecognised Order of High Priesthood " thi-ougb the Early Grand Encampment , who practise it under the name of " The White Band , " which degree can only be given in presence of seven Knight Templars . It follows tbe "Princely Order of Eed Cross . " —D . MURRAY LYON .

HIGH PRIESTHOOD . " B . * * * * " is informed that the degree be mentions has , from time immemorial , been conferred in Lancashire , and is yet given at Eochdale , but mixed up with degrees with which it is probably unconnected . As they HOAV require candidates to be Knight Templars , and to take the Eed Cross of Babylon along with the Priesthood degree

, I may observe that by old Templar rules a Knight Companion could not be a Priest , or a Priest a Knight ; yet Grand Priors and Masters , having the power of absolving , must have been both , so that one form of tbe degree may have been the installation ceremony of E . C . A Manchester Encampment is in possession of a Bible with the following inscription , " Fox Lodge , Manchester ,

No . 99 , " surrounded Avith Masonic emblems . On the fly-leaf , "The gift of Bro . William Jennings to the Fox Lodge , A . B . 1768 ; " on the following page , "This Bible formerly belonged to the Lodge of Fortitude , No . 87 , and for the future is ordered that it shall belong to the Tabernacle of tbe Priestly Order , for tbe use of tbe same and the first pillar . " A member of the

encampment , some time ago , promised tbe writer a copy of the certificate of the degree , which , if received , should have been sent to " B . * * * * . " The other degree inquired about will be one mentioned by Dr . Oliver as the " Kadosb Prince of Death . " In connection with ancient Masonry it is unfortunate that , in Lancashire , no minutes of the High Grades were ever kept . The jewel of the Priestly degree is said to be a cross and serpent .

—A-HIGH PRIESTHOOD . In ansAver , your correspondent "B . * * * * , " by coming to ( that remote and out of the way place ) the Masonic Hall , Todmorden , he can be consecrated and made a Sir Knight Priest of the Holy Band of Brotherhood ( No . 3 ) . —JOSEPH GREENAVOOD , P . High Priest . THE TEMPLE AT PARIS .

Eeeently , reading Bro . Laniartine ' s " Pictures of the First French Revolution , " there is the folloiving description of the temple at Paris—since , I believe , pulled down : — " The Temple ivas a gloomy and antique fortress , built by the monastic Order of the Templars at a time when these sacerdotal and military theocraciesuniting against

, princes and tyrannising over the people , built strong castles for their monasteries , ancl marched to dominion with the double power of the sword and tbe cross . After their fall , the fortified dwelling they had constructed remained standing , as a relic of the olden time , neglected and forgotten by the present . The chateau of the Temple , which was situated near tbe Faubourg St .

Antoine , and not far from the Bastile , covered a vast space with its buildings , its palaces , its towers , and gardens , where silence and solitude reigned in the midst of a densely-populated quarter . The principal building was the Priory of the Order , a dilapidated residence which tbe Count d'Artois occasionally occupied , Avhen be came to Paris from Versailles . The apartments contained nothing but a few articles of old fashioned furniture , with some beds and linen for the service of tbe Prince ' s