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gibbetted in one of the American Masonic papers , is not under the Supreme Grand Council—a fact of which I was aware , as he would see if he took your valuable paper—though I must say it would have been a pardonable blunder , if I had supposed the contrary , seeing that a report of its meeting appeared in a regular Masonic Organ of an irregular

Masonic body— a chapter whose name does not appear in the Cosmopolitan Masonic Calendar , the professed record of all the Masonic bodies in the world , and published from the same office as the Freemason . Is the Editor prepared to publish reports of the

Rite of Memphis especially put down by Grand Lodge , or of any private Craft Lodges professing to be independent of that body ; and if not , why not ? With the members of this Rochdale Chapter the Supreme Grand Council have nothing to do , any further than to protest against their interfering with its

jurisdiction , but it is a different matter with Bro . Yarker and others , who have taken an oath of allegiance to the Supreme Grand Council , and then forsworn themselves . One cannot hel p feeling that if the regulations of the Antient and Accepted Rite were only properly carried outand chapters reminded that highsocial

, , , and moral character are indispensable requisites before any one can be admitted as members of that rite . We should have less of this breaking of obligations , and less of that insufferable vanity exhibited by men who seem anxious to drag their names before the Masonic public , and glory in their Bhame .

I dont know much of the Rochdale High degrees ; hut I should like to know as a matter of curiosity , what governing body in the whole world recognises them . The fact is , I suspect , that they are about as highly esteemed amongst Masons , as the American Masonic M . A . is by the members of our own universities .

As to the Supreme Grand Council interfering at all , it says nothing against the insignificance of the attempt to foist these irregular , and therefore spurious degrees upon Masons since the Grand Lodge itself did the same thing some time ago in putting down another Masonic mushroom in the shape of the Rite of Memphis . And here let me remarkthat

, " Veritas " in last week ' s " Freemason , " protests against the Rite of Misraim being compared with the Rite of Memphis , and yet it is stated on the authority of Mackey , ( whose valuable little book , the " Lexicon of Freemasonry , " ought to be in the hands every Mason ) , that the latter is but a modification of the former .

Both rites profess to give the Craft degrees and the Misraim Rite ( which was composed in 1805 , by some Masons who had been refused admission into the Supreme Council at Milan ) , gives all or almost all the degree of the Antient and Accepted Rite—the Rose * , 18 , being the 46 ° , the Grand Elected Kniht 30 65

g K . H ., , ranking as ° , and Grand Inquiring Commander , 31 , appearing as the 66 ° in that Rite . I must confess to have been astonished and pained at the severe , I might almost say insolent , article against the Supreme Grand Council on this subject , published in your contemporary of last week , and as

Correspondence.

a constant reader of both Masonic journals , I must protest against it , as uncalled for and unmasonic . But nous revenons a nos nwufons , or rather to Bro . Ashworth , and his strictures on my letter . I should like to make one suggestion , which is this , the givers of these irregular degrees are responsible to no one . The Supreme Grand Council is a

regularly constituted body , whose members are well known , one of them being the Earl of Carnarvon , D . G . M . of England . The S . G . C . requires brethren who wish to cultivate the ineffable degrees to be at least of one year ' s standing , and well recommended as Master Masons before they are eliible for the Rose > b

g It seems , unfortunately , that of late some brethren have been well recommended who were not worthy . Candidates for the 30 ° , must be Rose > Z < Masons of at least three years' standing , or they must have held or still occupy the position of M . W . S . of a Rose > £ < Chapter .

Members of the 31 ° are selected by the S . G . C . for their zeal in Masonry , their attainments , literary or scientific , their high social position , or because they are " bright and learned " Masons ,

From this body the 32 ° are selected , and from the last named dignified circle the ranks of the S . G . C . itself are filled . I am not certain that the principle of selection is not in itself as good as that of election . Of this I am certain , that in the A . and A . Rite a Mason who is worth anything is certain to get on . I am not at all sure that this is so in the Craft . Look ,

for instance , at the appointment of Grand Officers . How often is grand rank given to members from the Provinces , and what chance has a Provincial Mason ( no matter how skilful a craftsman he be ) of ever attaining the purple ? I answer , unhesitatingly , that as a general rule , he has none at all .

Dr . Oliver , to whom Masonry owes more than to any living Mason , except , perhaps , Dr . Beaumont Leeson , was made a member of the 33 ° . What honours id Grand Lodge ever confer upon him ? Bro . Ashworth seems to doubt my knowledge of the Tiautes gradesandso far as the Rochdale degrees

, , are concerned , I am fain to acknowledge I am lament , ably ignorant as to their history and origin . Perhap he will favour us with some evidence as to their time immemorial character . The A . and A . Rite is the

most widely spread m the world , Supreme Grand Councils , 33 ° , existing in almost every country in Europe and America ; which of these Supreme bodies knows of Bro . Ashworth's existence as a Rochdale 30 ° or 32 ° whichever he is , and which of them recognise his degrees ? If the Rochdale Masons know anything of the A . and A . Rite they must be aware

that one Supreme Grand Council only can exist in any country or state , and that the 32 can only be conferred by the S . G . C . I suppose they are scarcely prepared to say that the 32 ° ever existed outside or apart from the A . and A . Rite , since the appointment of Frederick

the Great as the first Sovereign Grand Commander of the Order . As to the imputation of forged charters and warrants , we had better not go into that question . It cuts both ways , and drags in the craft as well as the higher degrees , though I mig ht state that the proof of the Charleston warrants and statutes not being a forgery is to be found in the