Masonic Notes And Queries.

Croix Chapter , under the Cerneau Council , applied to Mr . Gourgas , paid for and received the degrees and a Dispensation to open and work a Lodge of Perfection . What became of the funds I cannot tell , but it is certain that but one man signed the document , which is still extant . It was the only authority that Lodge of Perfection has ever had , unless it has received something additional within the last feiv months . Thus it will be perceived a part of the advice of the Council of Charleston was folloiA-ed , but the remainder was

not so easy of accomplishment . In order to fill up a Council , it became necessary to remove the Great East from NBAV York . It could not thrive in the samp atmosphere with the one already ' established , and which had pursued the even tenor ol its AA * ay for so many years . Accordingly it was transplanted to Boston . In 1849 , 1 spent some time with Mr . Gourgas , and carefully examined his diplomas , but did not see any letters patent empowering him to establish bodies of the Ancient and Accepted Rite , and at that

time he only claimed to do so because of his having outlived or been forsaken hy all his former associates , claiming to he the sole embodiment of the Order in the Northern Jurisdiction of the United States . " Within the last few months a curious old manuscript register of one Abram Jacobs , who seems to have been a sort ot wandering Israelite and pedlar of Masonic degrees , has been placed in my hands . It gives an account of his travels through the Southern States shortly after the commencement of the present century , and of his conferring the degrees of the Ancient and Accepted Rite , regardless of time or place , and finallv closes in 1808 in this citv .

Among his last acts is that of conferring the degrees as far as the sixteenth , or Prince of Jerusalem , on John James Joseph Gourgas . To these Dr . De La Motta added the remaining seventeen , as before mentioned . Judging from the register , Mr . Jacobs did not seem to have been governed by the laws of any organization . When waited on by several eminent Masons of established bodies in this juri sdiction , he treated their remonstrances with the utmost rudeness . The above is a fair statement of the origin of the bodies

now having their Grand Easts at Boston . The establishment of the Council in STBAV York by Joseph Cerneau , in 1807 , I think , equally clear . Of the authority by Avhich the Charleston Council was established I have nothing to say , but its acts can never be considered regular , nor its members acknowledged by the Council having its Grand East at Sew York , until it shall have recalled the illegal authority by AA'hich it planted an obnoxious body on territory already legitimately occupied .

" Fraternally yours , KADOSH . " If the above statement is correct , and it should be duly tested by the SS . G . II . G-. in this country , it will be a question as to the power of the Supreme Grand Council of Charleston to incorporate the Ancient and Accepted Eite in England , and although ours is recognised by all the Supreme Grand Councils in the worldyetlike Ccesar ' s wifeit must

, , , be beyond suspicion . We hope some member of the English Supreme Grand Council will set this matter plainly before ns , or disavow their connection with the 111 . Bro . Gourgas , if the latter acted without proper authority , as stated above . G . E . T .

Literature.

Literature .

REVIEWS . Political Poems and Songs relating to English History , composed during the Period from the accession of Fdvi . III . to that of Ric . III . Edited by THOMAS "WEIGHT , Esq ., M . A ., F . S . A ., & c . Two vols . Longmans . This is one of those admirable series of early documents

issued under the sanction of the Lords of the Treasury and the Master of the Bolls . It is an admitted fact that the Poems and Songs of a people are often , so to speak , the key notes of their wishes and desires , and this nowhere more forcibly applies than it does to English productions of this kind , having a political bearing . They bear a rude , but honest kind of truth on their very face , and show , however

much our forefathez-s were inclined to jest about their grievances , they were in downright earnest . Some of them are works of considerable extent -, others are only a few lines long . They are in Latin , or English , orErench , as the case may be . Sometimes they are written in a doggerel

consisting of alternate lines of English ancl Latin . They may be divided roughly into several classes . The earlier portion belong to tbePrench wars of King Edward the Third , and the exploits of the Black Prince . A second class depict the discontents of the unhappy reign of Richard IL , as displayed in Jack Straw ' s riots , and the general unpopularity of the King ' s Ministers . A little further on wo find a

general rejoicing at the accession of Henry IV ., not unmixed with lamentation at the fate of Archbishop Scrope .. "We require a wider chronological limit to include the various poems written for and against the Lollards . At a later period , the sturdy mind of England developing in the long minority ancl troublous times of Henry VI ., proceeds , after brief panegyric of his warlike fatherto speak boldly on

, civil as well as religious matters , and to lay down tbe law about the " trewe processe of English Polycye . " An anonymous ecclesiastic attacks them in 1381 , or thereabout , using as his weapon tbe language and measure of a . Latin hymn with considerable force and fluency . Of the Church , he says in a parable :

" Hie hortus est ecclesia , [ Budum spiralis fragrantia Pulvis decora floribus , Ut Paradisa patria , Omni repleta copia , Sacris -onusta fructibus ; " Conclusa magnis mcenibus ,

Signataque custodibus , Velut regalis curia ; Prnctifevis arboi-ibus , Cunctisque aromatibus Fluens in abundantht . " But within this | Paradise , he proceeds to tell us , aa enemy sows tares :

" Lollardi sunt zi-zania , Spinas , vepres , aclollia , Quai vastant hortum vinece j Nam pejor pestilentia Non fuit in ecclesia . Incedens tams erronee . "

The pun upon Lollards and lollia recurs in this metrical controversy till it becomes quite tiresome . Tbe courtly Gower , who is great at hexameters and pentameters , and can quote a line of Horace on occasion , does not disdain to repeat it . But the advocates of the Lollards , if not equally skilled in classical and ecclesiastical metres , find other tools ready to their bands . They bave not forgotten either the

caustic vein j of Piers Plowman , or his trick of alliterativeverse . The " Complaint of the Plowman , " which belongs probably to the reign of Richard IL , begins as follows : — " A steme strife is stirred newe , In many steedes in a stound , Of sundry seedes that ben sewe , It seemeth that some been unsound ,-

For some be great groune on ground , Some been soukle , simple , and small ; Whether of hem is falser found , The falser foul mote him befal . " This has been printed before among the works of Chaucer , where of course it has no proper place . " Jacks TJplande" a poem of the same school , has been published in

, the same manner . The interest which it excited in its own day may be judged of by the fact that it called forth a reply under the name of "Eriar Daw Topias , " which was followed by " Jacke Upland ' s " rejoinder . These are preserved in a contemporary manuscript in the Bodleian Library . The friar writes with some spirit . We modernise his words a little for the convenience of the hasty reader : —

" N OAV is that seed of schism SoAvn in the Church ; The wheat fadeth with the flour , Our food is far to fetch . " Poxes frighted Avith fear Waste the corn ; And Christ's vine is vanished To the very root .