Masonic Notes And Queries.

MASONIC NOTES AND QUERIES .

MASONIC SONG WANTED . I VISITED a country Lodge last winter , and heard a song , two lines only of which I remember : — ' - ' AA'hen matters go wrong , let your judgment incline To make them go even by drawing the line . " As I see yon have adopted the plan of "Notes and Queries , " perhaps you can help me to the song I quote from , or tell ivho

ivas its author ?—J . A . M . —[ The song in question is entitled "The Mason ' s Allegory , " and was written by George Saville Carey , the son of the celebrated Henry Carey , and the father of Ann Carey , ivho was the mother of our late Bro . Edmund Kean , the tragedian . "J . A . M . " is not quite correct in his version ; the song originally ran thus : — " The trade of a Mason ' s a goocl moral school , AA'here the measures of life are establish'd by rule : AVhen affairs go awry , let your judgment incline To make matters even by drawing the line .

" Should your paths , being crooked , bewilder the mind , Or , encircled by care , no alternative find , Ne ' er let your guide , reason , give way to despair ; Old Time , with exertion , your troubles may square . " Should you meet with a brother in craft too profound , Make use of your plummet—his subtlety sound ; Ancl if you no bottom should find in his heart ,

AA'hen his hand he 2 ) resents you , then bid him depart . " Let your converse be level , your life not too gay , But just within compass , the moderate waj- ; AA'hen you're crippled by age , infirm , or oppress'd , Let Faith lend a pillar on which you ma } ' rest . " We are sorry to say that we have not been able to trace the air to which the above excellentand truly Masonicsong was

, , adapted . ] MASONIC ANECDOTE . Following the course of a former correspondent who sent a Masonic anecdote , and suggesting that any brother meeting with such would do goocl service b y forwarding them , I avail myself of that intimation to enclose a cutting from a newspaper of very old date , in which the fbllowmar is inserted : — A . C . P .

" At an inn in a town in the west of England several people were sitting round the fire in a large kitchen , through which there was a passage to other parts of the house , and among the company there was a travelling woman and a tailor . In this inn there was a Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons held , and , it being Lodge night , several of the members passed through the kitchen in their way to the Lodge apartments . This introduced observations on the principles of Masonry and the occult signs by which Masons could be known to each other . The

woman said there was not so much mystery as people imagined , for that she could show anybody the Mason ' s sign . ' AVhat , ' said the tailor , ' that of the Free and Accepted ? ' ' Yes , ' she replied , ' ancl I will hold you a half-crown bowl of punch , to be confirmed by any of the members you please to nominate . ' ' AA'hy , ' said he , ' a woman was never admitted ; ancl how is it possible you could procure it ? ' 'No matter for that , ' added she ; 'I will readily forfeit the wager if I do not establish the fact . ' The urged the unfortunate tailor to accept

company the challenge , which he at last agreed to , and the bet was deposited . The woman got up , and took hold of the tailor by the collar , saying . ' Come , follow me ; ' which he did , trembling alive , fearing he was to undergo some part of the discipline in the making of a Mason , of which he hacl heard a most dreadful report . She led him into the street , and , pointing to the sign of the Lion and Lamb , asked him ivhose sign it was . Ho answered , ' It is JMr . Loder ' s , ' ( the name of the inn-keeper . )

' Is ho a Freemason ? ' 'Yes . ' ' Then , ' said the woman , 'I have shown yon the sign of a Free aud Accepted Mason . ' The faugh was so much against poor snip for having been taken in that it was with some difficulty ho could be prevailed on to partake of the punch . "

ESTABLISHMENT OP TIIE PROV . GKAND CHAPTER AT CALCUTTA . Iii the 3 'ear 1814 , a Provincial Grand Chapter ivas established for Koyal Arch Masonry in Calcutta and its dependencies . The Companions belonging to the Chapters of London and Moira , and other Companions of the Order , met at the Lodge-room of "The Star in the East , " ivhen M . E . Comp . Compton , Prov . G . Supt . of Calcutta and its dependencies , constituted the Prov . G . Chapter

in ample and antient form . The following Companions composed the primary officers : —M . E . Comp . Compton , Z . ; Blaquiere , IL ; D'O yly , J . ; Larkins , N . ; Montague , E . ; S . Hampton , H . Alexander , and Hayes , Sojs . ; Anbury , G . Supt . of Works . After the establishment ofthe Prov . G . Chapter , the M . W . Bro . Seton , a Grand Master of the Craft of Masonry , was exalted to the degree of a Koyal Arch Mason , and became a member of the Grand Chapter . The Principals ofthe London and Moira Chapters

attended during the ceremony , and formed , ex officio , a part of the Prov . G . Chapter . —S . E . MASONRY AND THE INQUISITION . The following very true and beautiful reflections on the intolerance of the Komish church towards our Craft are to he found in vol . lxvii . of the European Magazine , p . 520 , and , I think , are worthy of finding a home among the notes in the Maaazinc . ' P . G . T .

" It might have been presumed that years of blood , ancl seasons of devastation , would have taught the heads of Christian nations to place a proper value on all those amicable ties , by whatever name they may be called , which unite man with man in the bonds of friendship , and which help to form the links of that chain by which social order might be preserved . But unhappily this is not the case , ancl the restoration of the inquisition , in Spain , has been followed by an edict from the Roman Pontiff , published on the 25 th of September , 1815 , prohibiting all the

secret societies , but particularly those of Freemasons . Suspicion , upon whose base this measure must have been erected , surely wanted a mark whereon to fix her jaundiced eye ; for in what age , we ask , havo societies of Freemasons been found inimical to the public weal , or when have they disturbed the repose of any nation—disturbed did we say—we spurn the phrase , ancl will go further . AA'e maintain that the good government and the laws of all nations are under infinite obligations to these establishments . Their doctrines are universally acknowledged to

bo all peaceful and benevolent—their principles are founded on the purest Christianity—their practice , like that of the goocl Samaritan , to bind up the wounds of the afflicted , 'to comfort and help the weakhearted , and to raise up them that are fallen ; ' their desire is ' on earth goocl will towards men . ' If the Catholic religion aims to be exalted to its former rank among the nations of Europe , it must seek some other way than this . For we hesitate not to assert , that not all the Bulls of the Pope will be able to erase from the mind of the Free and Accepted Mason that duty which , next to his unfeigned adoration of the Divine Architect , he owed to his fellow-man—Christian benevolence . "

WAS THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON A FREEMASON ? Iii the absence of records showing the time of initiation of the Duke of Wellington , it will he gratifying to obtain secondary evidence . The duke was an affiliated member of that distinguished Lodge , La Clementc Amide , of Paris , and in that capacity is commemorated hy the Lodge in the official list . The Lodge was founded on the Sth of the 1 st month , ( March ) , 5 S 05 .

The duke must have joined during the period of his resilience in Paris . Although the Lodge has not only a Eose Croix Chapter , but an Areopagitic Council of K . IL , the duke had not been admitted to any higher degree , hut is entered as M . M . The 111 . Bro . De Marcomiay will most likely be able to give further particulars . It is worth while to seek for information among the old Masons in Portugal as to intercourse of the duke with Lodges in Portugal , The above settles the fact of the duke being a Mason . —HYDE CLARKE , Smyrna , 4 th Septemher , 1859 .

EARLY MASONIC SERMON . By , whom , and in what year , was the earliest Masonic sermon delivered ?—CLERICUS . —[ The first ivith which ive are acquainted was preached at Christ Church , Boston , on St . John ' s day , Dec , 27 th , 1749 , by the Key . Charles Brockwell , A . M ., his Majesty's chaplain at Boston , New England . In the Freemasons' ' Pocket Companion of 1754 , it was first inserted . There have been several reprints of it ] .

DRUIDICAL LITERATURE . I should be obliged to you , or any of your correspondents , for the names of some books wliich treat of the Druids and their rites ; as I believe that there was among them a knowledge of some of the principles of Masonry . —STONEHENGE . —[" Stonehenge " should have told us how he came hy his belief , because in directing him to certain works , it is quite possible ive may tell him ot

those he is already acquainted with . Those ivhieh occur to us at the moment are Godfrey Iliggins ' s Celtic Druids , 4 to ., Lond ., 1829 ; Kev . W . Jones's Description of Stonehenge , Ambling , S , -c , with an Account of the Learning and Discipline ofthe Druids , Svo ., Salisbury , 1776 ; Inigo Jones ' s Most Notable Antiquity of Great Britain , vulgarity called Stonehenge Restored , hy Inigo Jones , folio , Lond ., 1 G 65 ( this work has large folding plates ) ; Dr . J . Smith ' s

Choir Craur ; the Grand Orrery of the Ancient Druids , commonly called Stonehenge , 4 to ., Lond ., 1771 ; A . Complete History of the Origin , Manners , Powers , Rites , and Superstitions , l-c , of the Druids , Svo ., Lichfield , 18101 .

STEPHEN JONES . At p . 148 of the present issue of the Freemasons' Magazine , Bro . How has very kindly furnished us with his personal recollections