Correspondence.

of Masons , of incorporating Masons , of apprenticing for seven years , of acquiring membership by marriage with a freeman's daughter , of examination in the Masoncraft , of clerk ' s and officer ' s dues , of instituting a lodge of the free incorporated Masons of Glasgow , of impeding the erection of other lodges , of enabling

this lodge to grant charters . All the rest is equally monstrous . It will be rare news for the writers on constitutional history , the legists and archaeologists in England , Scotland , France , Belgium , Holland , and Germany , and I may say Mr . Punch , who will not , I

hope , get hold of this strange production . If this so-called charter was produced before the Court of Session , it would he the duty of the Court to impound it , and the Lord Advocate or his deputy would be very usefully employed in prosecuting the forger , if still alive ; for it is an impudent forgery , executed since the year 1740 , and perhaps comparatively recently . Tours fraternally , E , T .

New Degrees.

NEW DEGREES .

TO THE EDITOK 03 ? THE JPEEEMASOSS' MAGAZINE AXD MASONIC MIKKOB . Dear Sir and Brother , —Noticing in your pages the proceedings of a new degree , professing to be a continuation of an old one , I cannot help asking the projectors of these inventions and revivals , what legitimate object can be gained by these exhibitions of

Masonry in various shapes . The thirty-three degrees of the A . and A . Eite , or rather thirty without the Craft degrees , were the compression of the host of degrees existing about a century ago . What is their fate ? In France they were compressed to four , and these are rarely worked . Practically one

degree is worked out of thirty , sometimes one more . The end is that these attempts to trim the Craft degrees only go on for a short time , leaving the Craft degrees in full vigour , consigning the older or newer degrees to the limbo of oblivion , and not unfrequently the authors and members to ridicule . One is

tempted to say , let us have fewer degrees and more Masonry . Tours fraternallv , M . M .

Royal Arch, And Some Other Questions.

ROYAL ARCH , AND SOME OTHER QUESTIONS .

TO IHE EDITOB OE THE EKEEMASOXS' ilAGAZISE AJSB ' JIASONIO MIXED ]) . Dear Sir and Brother , —I am very much rejoiced to find again the name of my dear and noble friend , Bro . Woodford , in the pages of the Magazine , although I cannot agree with him on some points of Masonic history . He may doubt my good

intentions and estimation of him , being his opponent . What I have to say on the Eoyal Arch I have said in _ my "History of Freemasonry , " p . 139 , seep Hitherto no brother has proved the contrary , and I am convinced nobody can do so . Had the Eoyal Arch degree existed bofore 173540

_ -, it would have been worked by the new lodges in France from 1725-29 , in Germany from 1733-39 , or m Ireland in 1730 , and in Scotland in 1736 , when the Grand Lodges were instituted . Why , my dear brother ,

Royal Arch, And Some Other Questions.

if this degree was in existence , Avas it not known before 1735-45 in any of these countries ? And further , if it was in existence , why did not Pritchard know it in 1730 , when he published the Eitual of the three degrees of the Grand Lodge of England . Why don't Ave meet Avith the name of the Eoya

Arch degree in any book on Masonry or in any document like a warrant prior to 1740 ? My learned Bro . Woodford ( Magazine for Jan . 2-5 , p . 67 ) makes the admission that it existed not in name but in substance . What does this mean ? He

is of opinion that the substance of the Eoyal Arch was connected with the third degree as a second part . To this I reply , "A kingdom for a single proof of this assertion ! " From what authentic source has my dear brother the statement that at any time the third degree had a second part , and what were its symbols , traditions , ancl ceremonies ?

The third degree is , without any doubt , of comparatively modern origin ; it may have arisen subsequently to 1724 , as the Masonic historian , Bro . W . Keller has it , or some years before 1680 , as appears from Document C of the Appendix to my " History of Freemasonry . " We have not the slightest proof that a third degree was in existence before that time ;

but , on the contrary , we know from all ancient Constitutions and other documents that the fraternity of Freemasons consisted only of brethren and fellows , with a Master as presiding member .

Further , we know from Pritchard that in 1730 the third degree was very short , and had no " second part . " Another proof that the third degree had no second part is the fact that the Grand Lodge of Englandi . e ., the . oldest regular body of modern Masonsmade no alterations in the third

degreenotwith-, standing members of their lodges were anxious to become initiated in the Eoyal Arch , theu only worked by the schismatic Grand Lodge of the so-called ancient or Tork Masons ( founded about 1739 or later ) . Well 1 If the Eoyal Arch Avas the substance of the second part of the third degree , would tha

modern Masons not have had it in the third degree , and could . they have desired the Eoyal Arch ? Would not , in such a case , the Grand Lodge of England ( modern Masons ) have declared to her brethren , Never mind the Eoyal Arch of the ancients , for we have the substance of it as " second part" of our

third degree ? I suppose Bro . Woodford has asserted something which cannot be made to agree with the real history of the Craft , ancl must , therefore , remain a beautiful dream , as long as it is not made possible , not to say proved . He may look at the Articles of the Union of the two Grand Lodges of 1813 there

; he will find that the original Graud Lodge of England Avas not obliged to give up a " second part" of the third degree , because this degree was the same as that of the aucients . The Eoyal Arch Avas quite a new degree . Hitherto the Grand Lodge of Scotland has not acknowledged it .

But I can with pleasure concede to my generous friend that the substance of the Eoyal Arch was in existence before it was worked as a separate degree under the name of E . A . —i . e ., its substance was that of some other higher degrees then flourishing in France and Germany ( Scotch degree , Knight of the Burning Bush . Eed Cross , & c ) From these degrees