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(* wmtcttts . PA < JE . Illustrations of the History of the Craft—By a Masonic Student 221 The Red Cross of Rome and Constantine—By Bro . C . Fitzgerald Matier 224 The Haushf'oot Lodge and Speculative Masonry—By R . S . ... 22 G Masonic Jottings—No . 11 228 Masonic Notes and Queries 229

Correspondence 230 Masonic Moms 232 CEAPT LoDGi 3 MEETINGS : — Metropolitan 232 Provincial 233 Turkey 235 Roval Arch 238 Mark Masonry 236

Knights Templar 237 Masonic Festivities 227 Inauguration of the Masonic Hall , Sunderland 239 South Eastern Masonic Association 239 Obituary 240 Scientific Meetings ' 240 List of Lodge , & c , Meetings for ensuing week 210 To Correspondents 210

Illustrations Of The History Of The Craft.—No. 2.

ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE HISTORY OF THE CRAFT . —No . 2 .

LONDON , SATURDAY , MARCH 19 , 1870 .

By A MASONIC STUDENT . ( Continued from Page 145 ) I propose in this chapter to point out what I believe to be the only true foundation ., on which

the history of our Order can safely rest . In a few words , I am anxious to advocate and uphold what may be called the guild theory . In 1863 I made the following statement , in regard to the opinion I then ventured to entertain

in respect of this much " vexata quasstio / ' and subsequent study and consideration have onl y tended to strengthen the conviction I then expressed , and which I had arrived at after some years of patient and careful inquiry

" Freemasonry as we have ifc to-day , affected no doubt , to a great extent by the preponderance of the Speculative clement , has come down to us I venture to believe , through a long succession of centuries , and may be most safely and satisfactorily

traced through the operative guilds and Masonic sodalities of the middle and early ages , to Roman Collegia , to Grecian communities , and thence to Jewish and Tyrinn Masons . " * And it is this same view substantially of our

Masonic Order , which I wish to bring ' now more formally before my brethren generally , because in it , and in it alone , I feel persuaded the true history of Freemasonry is to bo found . The more we study the whole question—difficult

as it confessedly is in all its bearings—the more shall we be convinced , I feel confident ere long , that no other theory can satisfy the exigencies of historical criticism on the one hand , or harmonise the confused traditions of Freemasonry on the

other , but that , which regards our Speculative Order to-day , as nothing more and nothing less , than the direct continuation and legitimate result of the olden system of operative sodalities . Let it be granted that Freemasonry exists under

an altered condition of things , and is to be found perhaps in a wider sphere than of old , when ifc was confined to the b nil diner societies of an

onerative brotherhood : yet , its normal state from which , our present Freemasonry has derived its life and history , was that of an operative Masonic guild . Now it is a mistake to suppose , as some modern writers seem to do , that this explanation of our

Masonic annals and progress is a novel one , of a comparatively very recent date and unknown to our earlier historians . It has been said for

instance , by our latest Masonic annalist , our learned German brother Dr . Findel , that the "first writer on the subject of Freemasonry who ventured to hint at the existence of an historical connection between the fraternity of Freemasons , and that of

the stonemasons was the Abbe Grandidier , a non = Mason , " who wrote in 1779 . * But though I am quite willing to admit , that he is perhaps the first writer AVIIO openly argued for the distinct existence of a purely operative

brotherhood , with signs and symbols , forms and teaching analogous to our own , yet we should never forget , that the assertion of a secret bond of union , of a similarity of symbolic teaching , of

a continuity oi organisation and existence , as between operative and Speculative Preemasonry , is really as old as the time of Anderson and Preston . Anderson , the first edition of whose "

Constitutions of the Freemasons " was published in 1728 , and Preston , whose first edition appeared in 1772 , have based their entire history of the Order , though with differences of detail peculiar to each writer , as our Bro . Findel has himself admitted ,

" on a history of architecture taken from the legends of the guilds . " And though since their time the subject has been greatly elaborated by many able foreign writers on Freemasonry—to some extent by Bro ,