Masonic Notes And Queries.

stand , is allowed many privileges , but how comes it that the British Lodge ( No . 8 ) , is so distinguished ? What has it , ever done to merit . such a privilege , and when was it first legalised?—TEUE BLUE AND SILVER . ARMS IN LODGES . Who can tell me what is the usual plan . when , iu foreign countries , Masons hold a Blue Lodge aud admit members of the superior degrees , such as Knights Templar , Rose Croix , & c , to be present either by courtesy or by right—do the high Masons wear their swords ?—Ex . Ex .

Notes On Literature, Science, And Art.

NOTES ON LITERATURE , SCIENCE , AND ART .

The working men of Bolton , in Lancashire , have presented to Mr . Gilbert French , author of The Life of Samuel Grampian , a graceful and appropriate testimonial , in the shape of a writingdesk made from the wood ancl metal of a " mule " which formerly belonged to the inventor . E . A . Freeman , Esq ., M . A ., is to lecture at the Architectural

Museum , South Kensington , on Wednesday next , the 20 th inst . the title ofthe lecture being , "An Architectural Journey in Aquitaine . " Essays and Reviews has reached a sixth edition , ancl ivill soon reach a sixteenth if the excitement which the booh has called forth

continues . One adroit dodge we have already noticed in connection with this excitement . Some of the publishers who had on hand a stock of most unsaleable , heavy theology boots , which few hut their compilers ever cared to peruse , are now attempting to push them off in connection with this movement . Lady Mary Wortley Montague is thus " hit off" hi the Autobio grapjiy of the Eev . Dr . Carlyle , recently issued : — "Dr .

Gregoryhad met with Old Montague at the Eoyal Society in London , who was fond of all mathematicians , and had made himself master of his mind . Montague introduced him to his wife , a fine womim , who was a candidate for glory in every branch of literature hut that of her husband , and its connections and dependencies . She was a faded beauty , a wit , a critic , an author of some fame , ancl a friend ancl coadjutor of Lord Littleton . She had some parts and knowledgeand miht have been admired bthe first order of

, g y minds , had she not been greedy of more praise than she was entitled to . She come here for a fortnight , from her residence in Newcastle , to visit Gregory , who tool * care to show her off . hut she did not take here , for she despised the women , and disgusted the men with her affectation . Old Edinburgh was not a climate for the success of impostures . Lord Kames , who was at first catched with her Parnassian coquetry , said at last that he "believed , she had as much learning as a well-educated college lad here of

sixteen . I could have forgiven her for her pretensions to literary fame , had she not loudly put in her claim to the praise and true devotion of the heart , which belongs to genuine feelings and deeds , in which she was remarkably deficient . We saw her often in the

neighbourhood of Newcastle , and in that town , where there was no audience for such an actress as she was , her natural character was displayed , which was that of an active manager of her affairs , a crafty chaperon , ancl a keen pursuer of her interest , not to he outdone by the sharpest coal dealer on the Tyne ; but in this capacity she was not displeasing , for she was not acting a part . " In the first volume of The Constitutional History of England since the Accession of George III , by Thomas Erskine May , Esq .,

C . B ., we have the following remarks on the peerage . — " Meanwhile , the admission of Scottish peers to hereditary seats in the House of Lords is tending to a singular result . At no distant period the Scottish peerage will probably become absorbed in that of the United Kingdom . One half their number have already heen absorbed : more may hereafter he admitted to the House of Lords ; andas no new creations can be madeive foresee the ultimate

, , may extinction of all but sixteen Scottish peers , not embraced in the British peerage . These sixteen peers , instead of continuing a system of self-election , will then probably be created hereditary peers of Parliament . The Act of Union will have worked itself out , ancl a parliamentary incorporation of the two countries will he consummated—more complete than any which the most sanguine promoters of the Union couldin their visions of the futurehave

, , foreshadowed . A similar absorption of the Irish peerage into the peerage of the United Kingdom has also been observable , though , by the terms of the Act of Union , the full number of one hundred Irish peers will continue to be maintained . In 1 SC 0 there were one hundred ancl ninety-three Irish peers , of whom seventy-one had seats in Parliament as peers of the United Kingdom . Thus , ihe

peers of Ireland sitting in Parliament , including the representative peers , amounted to ninety-nine . " Dr . Knox , the eminent anatomist , read a paper at the meeting of the Ethnological Society , on the Gth inst ., " On the Collection of Human Crania and other Bones in the Crypt of the Church of Hythe , Kent ; " after which Mr . Lockliavt read , a paper " On the Miau-tsze , or Aborigines of China . "

At the meeting of the Institution of Civil Engineers on the Sth inst ., a paper was read by Mr . H . Hooper , entitled , " Description of a Pier erected at Southport , Lancashire ; " followed by one , " On the Construction of floating Beacons , " by Mr . Bindon B . Stoney . The Artists' Benevolent Fund appears to be worked with great economy , and we trust their dinner on the 23 rd inst . will he

productive of much good to the Charity . The next Congress of the Archssological Institute is to he holden at Peterborough , in the last week of July . The various editions of Shakepere ' s plays and poems , issued before the famous first folio of 1623 , are about to he reproduced in lithographed fac-similes , for the use of students . "We hope the

scheme will meet with that success whieh it merits . The famous Villa 3 Iassimo , near the baths of Diocletian , at Rome , is about to be transformed into a railway station . Mr . D . Ferguson has recently issued a handbook on Tiie Natural History of Pedcar and its Neighbourhood . The ancient Town-hall of Hereford , a timber structure which

antiquaries would fain have preserved , was wholly demolished about a month since . The present members of the corporation of that city will have earned for themselves a most unenviable notoriety . Mr . Augustus L . Egg , A . B . A ., we regret to learn , has been obliged to leave London for the South of France , in consequence of ill health . As the gifted artist is only in his forty-fifth year , we trust that he will be spared for many years to come , and that we shall see , from his easel , illustrations of our great national hard , superior to any which we have yet received from the same hand .

A book is in the press , under the somewhat singular title of Popular Authors and Great Authors at a Discount . The author of Adam Bede has a new work in the press , entitled , Silas Marner , the Wearer of Saveloe . The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals is now inviting all persons to lay before it any information they possess on the cruel practice of vivisection , or dissecting animals

alive , as practised both in this country and abroad . Surely , if ever the interests of science imperatively required such barbarities , the information that has been acquired hy dissecting so many millions of poor dumb creatures alive , can now be orally taught in colleges , or communicated and preserved by the printing press , ancl the revolting practice given up , as no fresh discoveries of importance are

likely to accrue from its continuance . We believe , with Dr . Millengen , " that if any such beneficial results did arise from the inquiries , they were not commensurate with the barbarity of the experiments . " That excellent writer remarks , that " millions of animals have had their bones broken , scraped , bruised in every possible manner , to discover the process of the formation of hone ,

called osteoge ny" ancl he asks , "has a single fracture of a human limb been more rapidly consolidated by these experiments , which flit hundreds of pages in the works of Duhamel , Haller , Scarpa , and other physiologists ? " As every true Freemason is not only a lover of science , but the chaivpion of all the injured and oppressed , be they human or merely belong to the dumb animal creation , we

trust that the numerous men of letters and of science who range under our banner , will not be indifferent to this appeal . The experiments of M . Majendie alone are sickening to read of . The next preliminary literary examination of candidates for the diploma of Member of the Boyal College of Surgeons will be held at London , on Monday and Tuesday , the 3 rd and 4 th of June . Mr . Hiram Power ' s statue of California , lately arrived from the artist ' s studio in Florence , is being shown in London . 'The Senate of ihe University of Loudon will proceed to elect