Masonic Statistics.—No. 2.

gained in trade . Tlie St . James' Union has gone from Soho to the Freemasons . The Universal , a distinguished lodge , is another gain of the Freemasons ' , acquired from the spoils of the George and Vulture . The Lodge of Unity has proceeded

from Rathbone-place to the London Tavern . The Tranquillity has gone to Radley's from Abchurch laue . The Lodge of Industry has moved from Turnstile to Dick's Coffee-house . The Lodge of Joppa , the well-known ancl flourishing Hebrew

"lodge , has migrated from the Minories to the Albion . This is the oldest Hebrew lodge in London , and , perhaps , one of the oldest in Europe . The Oak has migrated from Aldermanbury to Radley ' s . The Lion and Lamb , inherited by the

London Coffee-house from the George and Vulture , may , by the change of proprietorship , again move . The Lodge of Confidence has passed from Clifford's Inn-passage to no distant station at Anderton ' s . St . Paul ' s is another London Coffee-house lodge , gained from Radley ' s , which has also to consider its arrangements . The Jerusalem is one of the

few lodges of this epoch which has not changed its abode . It still meets at the Freemasons ' . Generally the lodges of the period now described have migrated . The Percy has gone from the George and Blue Boar to the Ship and Turtle ,

: aud the Jordan Lodge from the Blossoms Inn , Lawrence-lane to the Freemasons ' . Of the lodges of this epoch the Freemasons' has lost nothing on the whole . The Lodge of Israel , a Hebrew lodge , has travelled from Crown-street , Finsbury , to

Radley ' s . The St . Michael ' s , which assembled at the George and Blue Boar , is now registered at the Albion . The Friendship , which was a Deptford lodge , is now at the Ship and Turtle . The many Deptford lodges of the early years of George

'III . must have been master mariners' lodges . The Euphrates has adjourned from Haggerstone to Mason's Hall , Basinghatl-street , That neighbourhood has , however , conferred the Lodge of Stability on Bishopsgate-street instead of

Londonwall , while the St . Andrew ' s-in-the-East has kept in Bishopsgate-street , but removed from the Vine Inn to the London Tavern . These two latter

lodges may be considered as revolving' on thenaxes . The Lodge of United Strength has gone all the way from Lambeth to reach the historic . -abode of the Hospitallers at St . John ' s Gate . [ Bro . Toclcl sends a letter to say that seven lodges are held at his house in Aldermanbury , and not one . This is matter of congratulation ,

Masonic Statistics.—No. 2.

but the error arises in the calendar , on which these statistics , as stated , are drawn up . ] ( To be continued . )

The Knights Templars.

THE KNIGHTS TEMPLARS .

( Continued from pd ' jc 185 . ) GRAND MASTEE , HUGO DE PAYENS . The Seal of the Order . —The lung sends two Templars to Europe to obtain confirmation of their rulely the Pope . •—Be Payens , with live companions , follows . — St . By ANTHONY ONEAL HAYE . CHAPTER III .

Bernard ' s epistle in praise ofthe Templars . —Council of Troyes . — -Hula confirmed . '— -A . D . 1118—1123 . For the first nine years after their rule was established the Templars lived iu the extremest poverty , devoting their whole means , and the money supplied them by the European Christians ,

to the help and assistance of the poor pilgrims . They devoted themselves peculiarly to the reception ancl entertainment of these persons , giving them money to pay the tax imposed by the Mahometans for admission , to the holy places . They were found

by the highways fig hting the Infidels , holding the cup of cold water to the lips of the footsore , weary traveller , binding up the wounds of those who had been attacked by robbers , assisting the dying in the hour of their departure to the other land , and

finally burying the dead . At this time they wore no distinctive dress , and were generally clothed in the raiment presented to them by charitable persons . The pilgrims received the best of food and clothes , and . the Knights contented themselves

with what was left . The seal of the Order , representing two Knights riding on one horse , has led to a strange misconception of the extent of their original poverty . Holland writes , " These Templars were , at the first , so poor , as they had but one

horse to serve two of them , in token whereof , they gave in their seal two men riding on one horse ;" ancl Hugo cle Payens ancl Godfrey de St . Onier are pointed out , by subsequent writers , as having only one horse between them . Such was not the case . Horses were plentiful in the Holy Land , and Baldwin would havo seen them well mounted for

duty in a country where so much depended on the charger . This seal was adopted in the clays of the Order's pomp and state , at a time when the Kni g hts had waxed haughty and proud , and meant simply to represent the bond of union that existed among the individual members . They would have been the last to adopt any arms or crest that , by