Old Freemasonry Before Grand Lodge.

from Pontefract Castle , where many documents were placed for security during the civil wars ( Anacalypsis page 768 ) ; another valuable admission from a brother of Higgin ' s stamp is as to the

antiquity of the degrees of the " Temple " and of ' Holy Wisdom , " and although he makes no mention of the Eose Croix , yet we know that it was possessed by them . There seems little reason to doubt that the ancient operative and speculative

Craft Masonry of England was similar to that of the Haughfoot Lodge , rather than that of Kilwinning and of Mary ' s Chapel , Edinburgh ; or to doubt that the English General Assemblies , were held pretty regularly during the reign of the

Stuarts , and the supposition that the Civil wars tended to upset the old system and introduce the 1686 system , seems not wide of the mark , for we know that in 1663 such irregularities had occurred that that General Assembly endeavoured to enforce

future obedience to one Grand Master , and enacted that no initiation should be legal unless in a lodge of five of whom two (^ including tlie Master ) were to be operatives of the trade of Freemasonry . Had

-the ancient system been continued m England Sown to 1717 , or even until 1702 , as most modern writers are so anxious to persuade us that it did , we should have been in possession of such lodge minutes as they yet have in Scotland , and the

proof of its having passed into a private association of a different character , is confirmed by such documents as we have , as well as by the absence of such as we ought to have had . As there is no reason to suppose that the degree

of Eoyal Arch can be legitimately separated from the other High Grades with which it has always been associated , so we know , thanks to Bro . Hugh an ' s discovery of D'Assigny ' s work , that

these degrees wore practised at York in 1744 , and probably very long prior thereto , but it seems probable , for various reasons , that a ceremonial revision took place in 1761 on the revival , and that while the sei'ies at York at this time was , 4 ° ,

E . A ., 5 ° K . T ., 6 ° Holy Wisdom , 7 ° Rosy Cross , in the South it was , E . A ., Rosy Cross , Templar and Kadosh , and claiming from the Rosicrucians , but we require further information hereon before we can speak with precision ; and this brings us to

the present position of the Royal Order of Scotland , with an authentic history from 1740 , its legendary history being contrary to all historical research and the views of abont 1750 , viz ., a pure Templar origin from 1314 , for what in the South

of England claimed a Eosicrucian Origin . I am informed on good authority that the first degree of this Order—H . R . M . —is the Ancient Scottish Ceremony of a Master Mason , christianised , and

containing the Word , as was the case in England until Bro . Dunckerley transferred it to the Arch ceremony , the second degree—E . S . Y . C . S . S . — corresponds with the Eose Croix . This points to the selection of the two principal degrees of the

Ancient Eite on the establishment of the Modem Grand Lodge of Scotland in 1736 , and is another proof of traditional antiquity at that time . Regarding the traditional history of the Rose Croix , I may say that any one who reads impartially the

Eosicrucian works will be quite convinced of the influence , that brotherhood exercised on the Speculative Masonry of the present day . I may say that I am aware that Sir Walter Scott , Jacobus van Lennep , Sir Eichard Broun ,

and Dr . Burnes state that the Order of the Temple was continued in Scotland separately from the Hospital till nearly 1500 , but no evidence of this has been tendered , and such charter evidence as

we have access to evidently make against the view . Possibly , with the gift of the Templar estates , the Bruce compelled an equal reception from the Hospital , and we may believe that even in some commaudries the Temple element may

have swamped the Hospital ; the election , also , of David Seaton as Grand Prior of Scotland of the Temple and Hospital , seems never to have been acknowledged at Malta , and there is little doubt that it ensued from this election that with one or two

intervening names which may be discovered , Viscount Dundee was Grand Prior or Master until he fell in 1689 , but whether there was a forced connection with Freemasonry in England ( as there

was doubtless a speculative and unofficial connection both in England and Scotland , long prior thereto ) , is not certain but only traditional . Prince Charles Edward Stuart after his election at Holyrood in 1745 , seems to have appointed

Templar Commanders of Masonic Provinces , that of Germany being the seventh , but this confers no superiority upon the present Chapter General of Scotland , the chances being that the Masonic element was first incorporated in England . Much

has been said in Scotland regarding the ancient nobilitai'y proofs , those writers are probably not aware that they were officially expunged for Britain in 1545 , after the reformation . I am requested to say something here respect-