Masonic Notes And Queries.

POPERY AND ROMAN CATHOLICS . I shall be glad if Pictus can enli ghten us as to the connexion of his remarks with Ereemasonry . What has Ereemasonry to do with Ultramontauism or Gallicanism ? We have members who belong to every political shade of the Roman Catholic Church ,

and we have no justification for any offensive remarks with regard to their faith any more than we have with the shades of Baptist opinion . Such remarks are an offensive imitation of the Pope and other reviiers of Ereemasonry . —CATHOLICUS .

THE PRINCE OE WALES ( p . 108 ) . J . A . IL may be right that Grand Patron is a bad "title , and that Masonry does not want patronage ; but Grand Patron is an old title , and has just been applied by the Grand Lodge of Scotland . At all - events it is better than sham Past G . M .

J . A . H . is not happy in this , nor is he happy in his next suggestion to adopt what he regards as a Swedish plan ; for the Book of Constitutions has provided in such a case as that of the Prince of "Wales for his being G . M . with a Pro-Grand Master . The same objection must exist to H . R . H . being sham Past

G . M . as to his being G . M . de facto , and simple brethren , cannot understand why H . R . H . should be shunted out of the way in an irregular and unconstitutional manner . —A NEW MASON .

BRO . MELVILLE AND THE BIBLES . Can our learned Bro . Melville inform us whether the early printed Bibles which he talks about have their dates in their title-pages or at their ends , or whether most of them have any title-pages at all ? As the earliest books were in imitation of MSS ., and

printers names were not inserted in MSS . books before the invention of printing , Bro . Melville may , perhaps , be able to explain these other mysteries . Also why the Roman Catholic priests forgot to mutilate the written or MSS . Latin Bibles , before printing was invented , but copied them out and cared for

them , so that the printed Bibles were printed from the MSS . of the priests and friars . Also what object they had in mutilating the printed Latin Bibles by tearing off title pages which had never been put on . "When he has done these things he may enlighten j Bro . Hughan and—A BIBLIOPHILE .

MASONIC CANDIDATES . Instead of looking how many hands or feet a candidate has , would it not be an improvement to make him pass an examination as to his mental acquirements . Unless he were able to read intelli gibly , Write legibly ( or , if he wanted his arms , dictate correctly ) , and work a sum at least in simple proportion , reject him . —PICTUS .

A . MASONIC PHENOMENON . There are phenomenons exhibited at the fairs with threeJegs or no legs or arms at all , but we have now in this country a Masonic phenomenon , Bro . Capt . Tisnard , who was initiated in the English language in Alexandria in Africapassed in German in

Con-, stantinople in Europe , and raised at Beirout in Asia in the Italian language . Thus he took his degrees in three different quarters of the globe and in three different languages . — H . C .

COLLECTANEA AS TO ORDERS . I enclose some contemporary cuttings made by my late father . —HYDE CLARICE . KNIGHTS OE ST . JOHN . " Qalignani , 10 July , 1838 . " Cardinal Odescalchi has been received at Rome

as Grand Prior of the Order of St . John of Jerusalem by the Bailli , the Commanders , and Knights of the Order assembled in the Church of the Grand Priory dedicated to St . Basil . The Commander Montinho de Lima has been admitted to ah audience by the Pope , by whom he was most graciously received . ' '

ERENCH TEMPLARS . " United Service Journal . May , 1838 . " Of all the numerous Orders conferred upon Sir Sydney Smith , Admiral of the White and Lieut . Gen . of Marines , the most distinguished of which are K . C . B ., & c , that of the Templar Cross is the most remarkable and interesting . It is the self-same

ornament which hung suspended from the neck of the chivalrous Richard the Lion-hearted during his crusades in the Holy Land , and which the Admiral wears in like manner by a gold chain . The form of the cross is Latin ; it is of pure gold , and ornamented with large rubies and emerals ; an emerald

of superior size in the centre on one side , and at each end , and in the centre of the reverse , carbuncles of great magnitude . Above is a crown , the upper part resembling our ducal coronets ; and the whole is fastened to an oval frame of tbe same metal , set all round with precious stones , with curious filagree

workmanship , and also studded with gems . At the bottom hang a row of emeralds and other stones bored through and secured by gold hoops to rings in the frame , much in the same fashion as the glass drops of chandeliers . " " G-alir / nani , 18 th January , 1838 . "Mr . Maillard de Oharnburearchivest at Dijon ,

, has discovered among them three manuscripts , viz ,, two volumes of accounts kept by the Jews who formed an association for furnishing provisions and clothing for the last Crusade ; and a third volume is of the Military Regulations of the Templars approved by the Council of Troyes 1128 at the same time as the

, , Rules of the Order . These important statutes , which have never been published , and have been considered as lost , will ere long be printed and laid before the antiquaries and men of historical research , who will no doubt supply the long-desired History of the Templars . "

ARCHITECTURE . —SPIRES . Since a cathedral is a " house of God , " intended by its builders to carry up the mind of the beholder to that "house not made with hands eternal in the heavens , " should its highest central spire not end in a point ? I have often thought and felt so . I have no objection to crosses or other finial ornaments

being put upon the lower towers or gables , & c , but the highest spire should end simply in a heavenwarddirecting point . No cross , cock , or any ornament whatever but the spire itself sloping up ^ gradually , and going off into a ' simple point . To look upon the building simply as such , per se , an ornament upon the top of the spire may be by many considered necessary ; but to view it understanding its idealism , theu the intended ornament , or finial , is simply a