Masonic Notes And Queries.

THE E 0 TAD OKDEK . Bro . " Pictus " is very adroit at evading the issue between us , but , as a " canny Scot , " he cannot expect your readers to he fully satisfied with a vague reference to what some other brother is going to do in

proving something else equally undefined . If " Pictus " will refer to the innocent remarks of mine which first evoked his animadversions , he will see that I have committed myself to no definite opinion as to the date of the institution of the Eoyal Order . — J . A . H .

THE ANTIQUITY OE EEEEMASONEY . I hope before very long to publish in the pages of the Magazine some of the evidences I have collected in respect of the antiquity of our Order . I am encouraged to do this by the very able and fraternal letter of Bro . Hughan which appeared in your last

number , and which places the whole controversy in its true light . For it is not and never should be made a question of personal views and preconceived opinions , hut should rest on historical evidence and historical evidence alone ! With respect to the age of the Masonic PoemI can only repeat pace

, Bro . Buchan , that the most competent authorities on the age of MSS . have agreed , and still agree that its date may he safely ascribed to the end of the 14 th century , from 13 S 0 to 1400 . I do not know what Bro . Buchan means by " its internal evidence shows it was not of the 14 th" and it is quite clear to me that

, he could have read neither it nor the prose Constitutions , edited hy Bro . M . Cooke , carefully , when he says that neither of them " shows any evidence of speculative Masonry among their writers . "—A MASONIC STUDENT .

SCOTUS AND J . A . H . After the avowal of J . A . H . that he is on regimen , and can only assist at gastronomical celebrations and cannot assist in them , and after his allusion to the fact that the members of our lodges are more given to toddy than to solid banquetsI have no riht to

, g press the matter of " personal gastromic feats " on J . A . H . He will not blame me for still standing up for the honour of auld Scotland on the several points . —Scorns .

BEOS . HUGHAN , BUCHAN , AND J . A . H . After Bro . Hughan ' s very clear ancl able letter , Bro . Buchan cannot claim him as a supporter of the pure 1717 theory . In fact , Bro . Hughan completely gives it up—and Bro . Buchan at the same timewhen he says so well , — " Long before the Grand

Lodge of England was established , Masonry was practised as a secret society , and on a different basis to any other trade incorporations or guilds . " Even the minutes of lodges recently quoted by Bro . Hughan and others , prove incoutestably how utterly hopeless and untenable is the mistaken theory Bro . Buchan has set himself with such energy and determination to uphold . —A MASONIC STUDENT .

TOULHIN SMITH S ENGLISH GIDDS . I beg to call the attention of Bros . Hughan , Buchan , and others engaged in the investigation of Masonic archaeology to the "English Gilds " of Toulmin Smith which has just appeared . t Mr . Toulmin Smith

spent many years on this work , and collected a mass of material . He was , as we know , a laborious and zealous inquirer . As yet I have had only a cursory glance at the subject , and so far the guilds or gilds of Masons figure but little in the book . Toulmin Smith had other objects than the illustration of what we know as Masonry ; one special topic of his is the relationship of guilds as friendly societies and trades

unions . A very important appreciation of his labours is the distinction between social gilds and trade gilds , and this has its bearing on the question of what many call " speculative Masonry , " the mediaeval existence of which some doubt . Bro . Buchan is one of these , but his reduction of Orchard Halliwell ' s MSS . by one

century , is really a matter of no moment in the investigation . Where he is doing more valuable work is by calling attention to the Scotch Burgh records . The records published by Toulmin Smith are , however , more minute in their details . Adopting wholly Bro . Hughan ' s views ( pp . 288 , 298 ) , and partly a

suggestion of Bro . Buchan ' s , I think it possible that "speculative" Masonry may have been connected medievally with a social guild , and that in England Masonry had an independent descent from the social guilds , aud that when it was developed in the 17 th century in England and passed into Scotlandit was

, there , as he proposes , grafted on the trade guilds . There is much that is now dark and mysterious to be lighted up ; but I think it not unattainable in tho present progress of research .

Upon the subject of secrets and oaths for keeping guild secrets , Toulmin Smith contains much curious matter , all tending in my view to attest the antiquity of Masonic forms , and not , as Bro . Buchan thinks , to show they are absolutely modern . In this I think we are safe , that Masonry in Scotland

in any shape is a reflex of the institutions of England , although in many instances independently modified . With regard to Bro . Tounghusband ' s MSS ., Bro .. Buchan has taken a wrong view . I place the copy purposely at a late date , and have said 1720 to 1740 , and am within limits ; but , as the MSS . is now pasted

or mounted , I cannot decide whether it is not older ,, and it is much more likely to be of the 17 th century . I have , however , said distinctly that it is a transcript hy an illiterate person of an older MSS ., so that the contents of the MSS . are older than 1720 . They confoz-m , in fact , to one of Toulmin Smith ' s guild regulations , to the older MSS ., and that quoted hy Bro . Buchan at p . 298 . The MSS . is of the latter class . —HYDE CDAEKE .

DAKWIN ' S THEOEY OE THE OEIGIN OE SPECIES . Is there any sympathy or similitude between the Darwinian theory and the old notion of the transmutation of metals ?—W . P . BUCHAN . TEADES 1 IEN IN DODGES .

Whatever may have been the cause , and however Bro . Buchan may doubt the fact , I repeat that within my own knowledge there was such a rule of exclusion in some lodges until our own times . If it were not for obvious reasons , I could name eminent brethren who , on this very ground , were several years before

they could gain admission to the Order . —J . A . H .