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Simancas have to do with the state papers of England ?* Courage my lords of the Treasury , English state papers may yet be , and will be found in China or Shina ! f But to Mr . Brewer . " To the difficulty arising from a general absence of

dates in papers of this early period must be added the uncertainty in the different modes of calculations adopted by different nations . Some states followed the Roman , some the old style . Some commenced the year on Christmas day , some at tho variable feast of Easter . In some instances the same writer followed no rule , but

wavered between both styles ; some adopted tbe style of tho place where they chanced to be staying , or of the correspondent to whom their letters were addressed . " " This uncertainty in tho chronology of tho times involved the necessity of numerous researches . " " It was indispensable to arrive at some certain data for

determining the shifting dates of uncertain papers- " "At last hy one method or another" " the date of each separate document was determined with tolerable exactness , " ( p . xi ) .

Accordingly the history of the 16 th century is not dependent on state records , but to "shifting dates of uncertain papers by one method or another" adjusted to tall y with admitted modern chronology—pray who manufactured modern

chronology ? What are sensible , people to think of William the conqueror , and John with his Magna Carta , & c . Oh ye Masons what have ye done ? But leaving Masonry out of the question . With all the self conceit of this age , it is impossible lo

believe that documents purporting to be written by Kings , Bishops , and chiefs of enli ghtened men in Henry the Sth ' s reign , were those of men who did not know what they themselves meant when writing—and that Mr . Brewer does know what

. they intended to mean . Oh clever age . Clever Mr . Brewer prophet of the past , and still more clever Lords of the Treasury ancl Master of the Rolls . Probably the oldest English writer , or rather

probably the most ancient English printed book is "The Pastyme of People , " b y John Rastell "bravely copylyd and emprynted in Chepesyde , at the sygne of the meermayd next to Poll y ' s-gate . "

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This work is historical of England and very scarceand was reprinted b y Mr . Dibden in 1811 . In theadvertisement , Mr . Dibden says that , " In BastelFs impression tho several histories are so ' confusedly arranged that the reader finds himself at

Rome , Paris , and London in the same page , and mixingwith foreigners and Englishmen before ho knows wherehe is , or can remember preceding events . With all theeditor ' s well-known attachment to ancient lore he conceived that adherence to antiquity in these particulars would be both blind and productive of confusion . "

( p . v ) . A patched up affair then must be chronological history whether obtained from state records or tlie most ancient English authors . Now from what has been shewn it may be suspected that the priestly

Masons in ancient days managed these clerical ! matters , and that esoteric celestial fable has been in ignorance , accepted by exoterics as historical fact .

The Pope And The Freemasons.

THE POPE AND THE FREEMASONS .

The following article appears in the Free Lance of April the 3 rd , a serio-comic paper published at Manchester : — " Almost side by side in last week ' s papers appeared the two following paragraphs : —

"' THE EABL OF ZETLAND AOT TUB FEEEJIASOXS . —The present year completes the quarter of a century during which the Earl of Zetland has held ! the office of Grand Master of the Freemasons of England , and his lordship having intimated his intention to retire from the office at the close of the year

, the Freemasons are getting up a testimonial to him , which promises to reach the sum of £ 5 , 000 . His lordship lately declared that he would not apply the testimonial to any personal object or to any of the existing Masonic charities , and it now appears that it is his intention to invest the money in the names

of trustees , and devote the interest to the relief of distinguished brethren who may become distressed , and their widows or other relations depending upon them . '

"Having looked on that picture let us look on this . The writer is giving the general tenor and contents of a letter of his HolinessPius IS . '" Among other things the letter expresses again " affliction and astonishment " that the Archbishop should have been present at the obsequies of Marshall

Magnan , Grand Master of the Freemasons . The Freemasons , indeed , are very heavily denounced . "They are , " tlie letter says , "sects of impiety , bound only by complicity in odious crimes ; full of perverse manoeuvres and diabolical artifices ; corrupters of moralsand destroyers of every idea of honourtruth

, , , or justice ; propagators of monstrous opinions , disseminators of abominable vices and unheard-of wickedness ; reversers of all authority of the Catholic Church and of civil society ; and capable , if possible , of driving God himself out of heaven ! '