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The Stuarts And Freemasonry.
stand that " proofs" which only exist in a heated imagination are rather difficult of introduction to any pages . Bro . Yarker has already made so many mistakes that I could place no reliance upon what he says , unless it was otherwise supported . Mr . Pinkerton no doubt hits hard , hut Masonic pretensions require it —like the cats , they seem to have nine lives . W . P . BUCHAN .
Having incontestahly , as I think , proved that the Stuarts kuew nothing about Freemasonry , I leave their name out of the heading to this article , aud direct my reply , in the first place , to Mr . Clarke . He , while acknowledging " the numerous literary and historical forgeries to he found in the ordinary books on Freemasonry" suggests " that it does not necessarily
, follow that the body of Freemasons is to he charged with the authorship of these lies , hut rather to be set down as dupes . " From the above premises Mr . Clarke may set them down as he pleases , but he cannot term , them either truthful or sagacious men ; and it is not very clear to me in what sense he uses the word "
ordinary . " If by that term he speaks critically of Freemasons' books , I quite agree with him—they certainly are of a very ordinary nature indeed . Nevertheless , four editions of Anderson ' s " Constitutions" have the approbation of the Grand Lodge , ancl Preston ' s "Ill ustrations of Masonry" was sanctioned as a guide by
the opposing party of the Lodge of Antiquity , of which he was Master , and has since been adopted in nearly all the English lodges as an indispensable Masonic compendium . Hutchinson , in his "Spirit of Masonry , " 1764 , also has the sanction of the Grand Lodge , and his work was lately reprinted in 1843 with the
King-, Henry VI . fraud , and the calumny upon Mr . Locke , by the Rev . Bvo . G . Oliver , a great luminary among the Freemasons . I differ , however , from Mr . Clarke respecting his idea that Masonic societies were founded by the Jacobites in opposition to the Hanoverians . IndeedI am
, afraid he is not an orthodox Freemason , for they have always disclaimed any connection with politics . Preston , in his "Illustrations , " in giving the charge at the first degree , thus addresses the newly-made brother-.
—" In the state , yon are to bo a quiet and peaceable subject , true to your sovereign , and jnst to your country ; never to countenance disloyalty or rebellion , but patiently submit to magisterial authority , and conform with cheerfulness to the government of the kingdom in which you live . That the Gregorians were not Jacobites is proved by the following MS . invitation to dinner by them
, now in my possession -. — The Committee appointed by a Chapter of the ancient and honourable society of Gregorians request the honour of your company to celebrate the festival of the Glorious Revolution in 1688 , at the Swan Inn , on Wednesday , the 5 th day of November , 1787 . Dinner at three o ' clock . Tickets , seven aud sixpence each , wine included .
Mr . Stephen Jackson astutely thinks that the Gormagons , or African Masons , will yet be discovered by Dr . Livingston ; and it was most probably by a similar mode of thinking that the M . W . G . M . of the Grand Lodge of Masons in Ohio stated , in his annual communication , that the cause of insurrection in China was the cruel order of the Emperor for the suppression of the Triads , a Masonic fraternity in the Celestial Empire . This was duly mentioned in Notes and Queries ( first series , xi . 280 ) , in a note headed " Chi-
The Stuarts And Freemasonry.
nese devolution and Masonry . ' ' As soon as an answer could arrive from Jlong Kong , it was replied to by tho D . P . GM . of British Masonry in China , who proved , as it might be supposed by any rational man , that the Triad Society had nothing to do with Masonry , as it was entirely political in origin and offensive in characterwhile Masonry wasof course , purely
, , sociable , charitable , and innocuous . " As to the word revolution , " continues our D . P . G . M . "itis sufficient to remark that the Masonic system strictly prohibits the disturbance of the peace and good order of society . " In 186-1 the Marquis of Donegall was at the town
of Belfast ; as he was Provincial Grand Master of the district , the Freemasons there gave him a grand dinner . After dinner , the Marquis—who was , I believe , in the chair—made a speech impugning the well-known incapacity of the magistrates for allowing the Belfast riots of that year to proceed to such a fatal
length . He was immediately cried down by a storm of groans and hisses from his brethren sitting round , the table ; and I was subsequently informed that the Marquis was severely rebuked by the Grand Master of Ireland for presuming to introduce a subject ever so distantly relating to politics at a Masonic meeting . I am sure that I could easily give Mr . Clarke a hundred such instances of the Freemasons' utter
disinclination to discuss political subjects , which , if it did not go the whole distance , would go far to prove that the Jacobites aud Freemasons never were counectecl . With z-espect to Mr . Yarker , he condescends to abuse me : of that I feel proud . I am not a "Roman Catholic ; they are well able to take care of themselves
, and no doubt will well chastise Mr . Yarker for the calumny he has dared to insinuate respecting their prelates . I will leave the crux of the Lord Athol ( sic ) to further puzzle him . Surely , as ho knows so many great secrets , he cannot want information on than point ; and I will refer to a subject that all may
comprehend . How dare he to speak , in JV . and Q . of an Order of Freemasons ? It is no order . Orders Military are companies of knights instituted by kings or princes . Orders Keligious are societies of monastics , founded by the Pope . There are even orders Eeligious
Military , privileged by the Pope to say mass aud prohibited from marriage like the Knights of the Temple ; hut Freemasons are none of these . In 1751 , when tho Freemasons petitioned Parliament for a charter of incorporation , it was merely as a society , but their petition was most contemptuously refused . In the Act of 30 Geor ? 3 III . entitled " An Act for the more
effectual suppression of Societies established for Seditious and Treasonable Purposes , and for better Preventing Treasonable aud Seditious Practices , " they are merely termed " certain societies under the name of lodges of Freemasons . A barrister tells me that that Act has never been repealed , and consequently assemblies of 'Freemasons are illegal to this day .
But Mr . Yarker shelters himself under the assumed secrets of Freemasonry ; I say there are no secrets whatever belonging to it . The legend upon which the degree of Master Masonry was founded , tho murder of Hiram in the Temple of Jerusalem , was told by Sam . Pritchard , iu his " Masonry Dissected , ' ' in 1730 . It was also published in the Daily Journal of Aug . 15 , 1730 , and many of the preceding aud fol-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Stuarts And Freemasonry.
stand that " proofs" which only exist in a heated imagination are rather difficult of introduction to any pages . Bro . Yarker has already made so many mistakes that I could place no reliance upon what he says , unless it was otherwise supported . Mr . Pinkerton no doubt hits hard , hut Masonic pretensions require it —like the cats , they seem to have nine lives . W . P . BUCHAN .
Having incontestahly , as I think , proved that the Stuarts kuew nothing about Freemasonry , I leave their name out of the heading to this article , aud direct my reply , in the first place , to Mr . Clarke . He , while acknowledging " the numerous literary and historical forgeries to he found in the ordinary books on Freemasonry" suggests " that it does not necessarily
, follow that the body of Freemasons is to he charged with the authorship of these lies , hut rather to be set down as dupes . " From the above premises Mr . Clarke may set them down as he pleases , but he cannot term , them either truthful or sagacious men ; and it is not very clear to me in what sense he uses the word "
ordinary . " If by that term he speaks critically of Freemasons' books , I quite agree with him—they certainly are of a very ordinary nature indeed . Nevertheless , four editions of Anderson ' s " Constitutions" have the approbation of the Grand Lodge , ancl Preston ' s "Ill ustrations of Masonry" was sanctioned as a guide by
the opposing party of the Lodge of Antiquity , of which he was Master , and has since been adopted in nearly all the English lodges as an indispensable Masonic compendium . Hutchinson , in his "Spirit of Masonry , " 1764 , also has the sanction of the Grand Lodge , and his work was lately reprinted in 1843 with the
King-, Henry VI . fraud , and the calumny upon Mr . Locke , by the Rev . Bvo . G . Oliver , a great luminary among the Freemasons . I differ , however , from Mr . Clarke respecting his idea that Masonic societies were founded by the Jacobites in opposition to the Hanoverians . IndeedI am
, afraid he is not an orthodox Freemason , for they have always disclaimed any connection with politics . Preston , in his "Illustrations , " in giving the charge at the first degree , thus addresses the newly-made brother-.
—" In the state , yon are to bo a quiet and peaceable subject , true to your sovereign , and jnst to your country ; never to countenance disloyalty or rebellion , but patiently submit to magisterial authority , and conform with cheerfulness to the government of the kingdom in which you live . That the Gregorians were not Jacobites is proved by the following MS . invitation to dinner by them
, now in my possession -. — The Committee appointed by a Chapter of the ancient and honourable society of Gregorians request the honour of your company to celebrate the festival of the Glorious Revolution in 1688 , at the Swan Inn , on Wednesday , the 5 th day of November , 1787 . Dinner at three o ' clock . Tickets , seven aud sixpence each , wine included .
Mr . Stephen Jackson astutely thinks that the Gormagons , or African Masons , will yet be discovered by Dr . Livingston ; and it was most probably by a similar mode of thinking that the M . W . G . M . of the Grand Lodge of Masons in Ohio stated , in his annual communication , that the cause of insurrection in China was the cruel order of the Emperor for the suppression of the Triads , a Masonic fraternity in the Celestial Empire . This was duly mentioned in Notes and Queries ( first series , xi . 280 ) , in a note headed " Chi-
The Stuarts And Freemasonry.
nese devolution and Masonry . ' ' As soon as an answer could arrive from Jlong Kong , it was replied to by tho D . P . GM . of British Masonry in China , who proved , as it might be supposed by any rational man , that the Triad Society had nothing to do with Masonry , as it was entirely political in origin and offensive in characterwhile Masonry wasof course , purely
, , sociable , charitable , and innocuous . " As to the word revolution , " continues our D . P . G . M . "itis sufficient to remark that the Masonic system strictly prohibits the disturbance of the peace and good order of society . " In 186-1 the Marquis of Donegall was at the town
of Belfast ; as he was Provincial Grand Master of the district , the Freemasons there gave him a grand dinner . After dinner , the Marquis—who was , I believe , in the chair—made a speech impugning the well-known incapacity of the magistrates for allowing the Belfast riots of that year to proceed to such a fatal
length . He was immediately cried down by a storm of groans and hisses from his brethren sitting round , the table ; and I was subsequently informed that the Marquis was severely rebuked by the Grand Master of Ireland for presuming to introduce a subject ever so distantly relating to politics at a Masonic meeting . I am sure that I could easily give Mr . Clarke a hundred such instances of the Freemasons' utter
disinclination to discuss political subjects , which , if it did not go the whole distance , would go far to prove that the Jacobites aud Freemasons never were counectecl . With z-espect to Mr . Yarker , he condescends to abuse me : of that I feel proud . I am not a "Roman Catholic ; they are well able to take care of themselves
, and no doubt will well chastise Mr . Yarker for the calumny he has dared to insinuate respecting their prelates . I will leave the crux of the Lord Athol ( sic ) to further puzzle him . Surely , as ho knows so many great secrets , he cannot want information on than point ; and I will refer to a subject that all may
comprehend . How dare he to speak , in JV . and Q . of an Order of Freemasons ? It is no order . Orders Military are companies of knights instituted by kings or princes . Orders Keligious are societies of monastics , founded by the Pope . There are even orders Eeligious
Military , privileged by the Pope to say mass aud prohibited from marriage like the Knights of the Temple ; hut Freemasons are none of these . In 1751 , when tho Freemasons petitioned Parliament for a charter of incorporation , it was merely as a society , but their petition was most contemptuously refused . In the Act of 30 Geor ? 3 III . entitled " An Act for the more
effectual suppression of Societies established for Seditious and Treasonable Purposes , and for better Preventing Treasonable aud Seditious Practices , " they are merely termed " certain societies under the name of lodges of Freemasons . A barrister tells me that that Act has never been repealed , and consequently assemblies of 'Freemasons are illegal to this day .
But Mr . Yarker shelters himself under the assumed secrets of Freemasonry ; I say there are no secrets whatever belonging to it . The legend upon which the degree of Master Masonry was founded , tho murder of Hiram in the Temple of Jerusalem , was told by Sam . Pritchard , iu his " Masonry Dissected , ' ' in 1730 . It was also published in the Daily Journal of Aug . 15 , 1730 , and many of the preceding aud fol-