The Grand Officers.

pediency of the members of Grand Lodge selecting a portion of their rulers . It seems to me that this is the only course by which we can remedy the evil , because in the first place no favouritism could be shown , and no brother would get an appointment unless he well deserved it ; or , at all events if he did so . it would he more an exception than the rule as it is at present . And in the next place brethren would take more trouble to qualify themselves

for office than they do now , because they would know that they bad the same chance as their fellows , and that , provided they displayed sufficient ability and Masonic knowledge , no office in Grand . Lodge would be cfosed against them . Depend upon it , sir , if this system were adopted we should soon have a different state of things throughout the Craft . Brethren would not then think themselves entitled to Grand office merely on account of their social position .

or because they were on terms of intimacy or friendship with lhc ruling powers ; but would strive for that which might then really be considered an honour instead of a reward for want of merit , which it too often is now . Lnfortunatcly , too , the example of Grand Lodge is contagious , and Provincial GrandLodges , as well as private Lodges , think themselves perfectly justified in appointing brethren to office whose

only qualification for such appointment ( except their social position ) is their unfitness ; but if they found that Grand Lodge made no appointments , except really good ones , a spirit of emulation would prompt them " to go and do likewise , " and we should be then spared the anomaly which we too often witness of seeing a AA . M . in the chair ( by whom we are supposed to be instructed ) , wdio can neither open nor close his Lodge in the three degrees !

The time will come when these matters will find their proper footing , and when Masonic theory and practice will , in some degree at all events , assimilate ; but I am afraid unless some alteration takes place very shortly we shall have to still designate this good time as " looming in the future . " In recommending the election of some portion of the Grand officers by Grand Lodge itself , I am aware a great part of the

patronage would be taken from the M . AV . Grand Master ; but in order that he might still have the authority to which he is entitled as the head of the Craft , I would suggest that he should have the right of approving or disapproving of any brother so elected if he pleased ; and also that the Grand Lodge should only have the privilege of electing the Grand AVardens , Grand Secretary , and Assistant Grand Secretary , the other appointments remaining as now in the hands of tlie M . \ A . Grand Master . This would also

relieve the M . AA' . G . M . of much unpleasantness , and be the means of getting " the right men in the right rdaces , " for who could so well know the merits of any individual Brother as those with whom he was constantly brought in contact ? I . am , dear Sir and Brother , yours fraternally , AV . 11 . COLE , P , M , No , ' 990 . and B . C . No . 32 . London . 25 //; June . 1859 ,

Masonic Literature.

MASONIC LITERATURE .

TO THIS EDITOR OP THE FREEMASONS' MAGAZINE AND MASONIC MIRROR . DEAR SIB AN / D BROTHER , —Having seen in this day's issue of the Freemasons' Magazine , a letter signed "II . Garrod , So . 11 , " in wliich that brother strongly urges the support of Bro . Binckes's proposition , to he brought before Grand Lodge , recommending a search among the MSS . in the British Museum , the Bodleian Library" and other places" as likely to be of great

, , service to the history of Freemasonry b y disinterring the valuable stores of material supposed to he accumulated in those repositories , and placing them before the Craft in an accessible form—perhaps you will permit me to trespass a little on your space , and show that a more chimerical fallacy never entered the brain of man . Disclaiming all intention of being egotistical , I am afraid offence may be taken at the following detail ; but even at that risk I

feel it is due to my less informed brethren to place before them the actual facts of the case ; and how very little there is to be gathered from the British Museum and the Bodleian Libraries . The " other places , " so vaguely defined by Bro . Garrod , I must confess to be beyond my ken . Owing to a love of antiquity , an acquaintance with one of the most erudite ( although I think mistaken ) men of the nineteenth

century , the late Godfrey Iliggins ; and having , as a choir boy , been several times admitted to sing at Masonic banquets , a spirit of inquiry was stirred within me , and when I became admissible by age , I applied for , and obtained , an admission to the readingroom of the British Museum , and have since visited almost every library of note in this country . Joining to my own profession the unthankful , but more profitable , occupation which Dr , John-

Masonic Literature.

son termed " a bookseller ' s hack , " when other work was slackmy researches , commenced about twenty years since and carried down to the present moment , took me regularly into the subject of Freemasonry , and long before I was initiated I had commenced collecting the titles of all works I could see , or hear of . touching on that science . This has grown steadily , larger and larger year by year and , in round numbers , I have about eight

hundred entries as to Masonic books and references to works in which Freemasonry is mentioned ; and I have , cither wholl y or in part , read about three hundred books on the subject , from the smallest catchpenny to the most voluminous treatise . But with all this reading I was far from satisfied : I was known , and employed , as a transcriber of rare and curious MS ., and what so natural that 1 should set a great value on discovering any early

IMS . that treated of the subject ? I felt that any one could read printed books , but I knew that few , very few , can decipher the quaint handwriting of tlie sixteenth , seventeenth , and eighteenth centuries , and could I hit upon such a treasure my reward would , as I thought , be proportionality great ; so to work I went , hunted for years and still hunt yet , to find Masonic MSS . and have much pleasure in supplying Bros . Garrod and Binckes with a list of all

the MSS . on Freemasonry that are in the library of the British Museum . They are as follow : — The Poem , Bibl . Reg . 17 . A . i ., so admirably edited by my friend . James Orchard Halliwell , Esq ., having been in print since 1843 , and succeeded in 1814 by a second edition , cannot be looked upon as an available rarit 3 r . Harl . MS . 2051 . 'Well known—referred to in the En

cyclopaedia Metropolitana , Art . "Freemasonry . " Harl . MS . 1942 . Printed in Freemasons' Quarterly Review ( 1830 ) hi ., p . 288 . Lansdowne MS . No . 98 , art . 48 . Printed in the Freemasons ' Magazine ( 1794 ) , ii ., p . 81 , and reprinted in the present series ( 1858 ) iv ., p . 343 . Sloane MS . 3848 ( fob 213 ) dated by the writer 1 C 4 G , as well as another in the same collection , viz . ' , 3323 ( fol . 105 ) , dated 1 ( 359

, both of which are copies of the Lansdown MS ., No . 98 . The above list comprises every Masonic document , in MS ., to be found in the whole of the various collections deposited in the British Museum ! The letters and papers bearing on Masoniy deposited in the Bodleian Library , are contained among the Rawlinson MSS . and the whole , or very nearly so , have been printed under the head

of " Masonic Antiquities , " in the Freemasons' Magazine for 1857-8 . The MSS . of " that great Mason , Elias Ashmole , " contain some few allusions to Freemasonry , but they are so incorporated with alchemical formula ; that it is almost impossible to know , for certain , what he intended to record , and to sum up all , if transcribed , would about fill six pages of your Magazine .

I give these details , the result of twenty years' inquiry , for the benefit of Bros . Garrod and Binckes , assuring them I have all my life been a hunter for curiosities , but I never yet discovered such a mare's nest as they seem to have stumbled on . Granting that it is desirable that our Craft and its history should be fairl y displayed , shorn of the ravings and fiction with which it has been tlie practice of modern writers to clothe itand

; knowing that there are extant trusty and unerring sources of such information which , if my life is spared , I shall not fail to avail myself of to write an honest impartial History of Freemasonry in England but , as I have no wish . to be forestalled , I cannot disclose more at the present time . Hoping I have shown that Bro . Garrod ' s idea of " placing the Craft in jiossession of a literature in some degree worthy of it . "

as far as the MSS . in the British Museum and the Bodleian Libraries are concerned is pure unsophisticated moonshine , and apologising for the length of this communication , 1 . am , dear Sir and Brother , yours truly and fraternally , ' MATTHEW COOKK , Formerly one of the Children of Her Majesty ' s Chapels Royal , Honorary Music-Master to the Royal Freemasons' School for Female Children , June 22 ?? ' / , 1859 .

Masonic Charities.

MASONIC CHARITIES .

TO THE EDITOR OF THE FREEMASONS' MAGAZINE AND MASONIC MIUROR . SIR AND BROTHER , —In addressing this letter to yon I am most desirous that my motives should not be misinterpreted . I am a member of the Union Lod ge , No . 149 , Margate , and have observed with considerable satisfaction he strenuous and