Masonic Notes And Queries.

MASONIC NOTES AND QUERIES .

AIANCIIESTEi ; MASONIC RIFLR CORPS . AT a time Avhen our native isle is again bristling with bayonets , and . our Manchester brethren are contemplating the formation of a Masonic Rifle Corps , it may be of more than usual interest to inquire what was the conduct of the Lancashire Masons fifty-six years ago ? Born some years after the unholy contest between the two mighty neig hbouring nations of Prance and Britain had

ceased , as every true Mason will hope , never again to he renewed on the field of battle—to me the excitement caused in this country in 1803 , by the threatened invasion of the first Napoleon , is mere matter of history , rendered vivid by the descriptions of a volunteer grandsire , at whose knees T . haA'e often listened in childhood Avith anxious ears . Believing that thc majority of the readers of the Freemasons' j \[ agaziae are similarly situated , and that those who

are old enough to remember that period will have no objection to review the past , I make no ceremony in forwarding you the following scraps of Masonic history , in the hope that other brethren Avill be stimulated to furnish further particulars , so that we may , bit by bit , accumulate materials in your pages for the future historian of the Craft . In the year I have just mentioned ( 1803 ) , I find a "Loyal Masonic Volunteer Rifle Corps" formed in Manchester and its vicinage , under the command of Bro . Joseph

Hanson , Esq ., of Strange-ways Hall , Manchester ; and , on the 21 st of December , of the same 3 ear , Bro . Col . Hanson Avas presented at court , and commanded byhis Majesty ( George III . ) to appear in the regimentals of his corps , and to keep his hat on . Bro . Hanson appears to haA e been at that time highly popular ; and , it is Avorthy of remark , that of the nine regiments or companies of volunteers then raised in Manchester and its suburbs ,

that of the Freemasons was the only rifle corps . On Thursday , April 12 th , 1304 , I find His Royal Highness the Duke of Gloucester , accompanied by his son , Bro . Prince William of Gloucester , reviewing the volunteers of Manchester and its neighbourhood , on Sale Moor , when Bro . Hanson is mentioned as " Lieutenant Colonel , " and his regiment , which at that time numbered six hundred and seA'enty-six volunteers , is called the

" Manchester , Salford , Bury , and Stockport Rifle and Pike Men . " On the 30 th of September they were again reviewed or inspected , with the other volunteers of the vicinage , on Ardwick Green , by the Duke of Gloucester , accompanied by his son , as before ; the latter had been initiated into Masonry nine years previously . In the following year ( 1805 ) I find the officers of this corps presenting Bro . Col . Hanson with a splendid sword , a valuable brace of pistols , and a pike of elegant workmanship , as a token of the high estimation in which he was held . On the 10 th of December .

1807 , Bro . Hanson appears to haA-c resigned the command of the Rifle Corps , in consequence of some slander which his sensitive nature could not brook . Bro . Hanson seems to have been , as every true Freemason is , a man of strong sympathies for the distressed , and if I can obtain any good materials for a notice of him , I will- communicate them to the Magazine . In the mean time , perhaps , some brother will furnish farther particulars relating to this or any similar corps . —GEORGE MAUKHAM TWEDDEU ..

THE OLD FREEMASONS MAGAZINE . I have six volumes of the Freemasons' Magazine , which was commenced in 1793 , and haA'e just been informed that my set is incomplete . Is this so ? and if so , where can I get the others to complete it?—C . BEAI . E . [ The old magazine was published in eleven volumes , and the ei ghth volume , issued in 1797 , bore a different titleits name being changed to The Scientific Magazine and

Free-, masons' depository ; it was discontinued at the close of the year 1798 . In reply to where it may be obtained , we cannot answer our correspondent , as it has long been out of print ; but there may be some of our readers AVIIO may have a set to dispose of , or know of such , and if they will communicate with us , " C . Beale" shall have the benefit of their reply ] .

CAPTAIN GEORfiE SMITH . On the title page of The Use and Abase of Freemasonry , Svo ., London , 1785 , its author , Captain George Smith , thus describes himself;—Inspector of the Koyal Military Academy at Woolwich ; Prov . G . M . for the county of Kent ; and It . A . He was also author of Engclschc en Nedernitsche SpraaMionst , 8 vo ., Utrecht , 1758 Meg ' s Commercial Fetters , Translated from the German , Svo ., 177

Bremen , G ; Universal Military Dictionary , or a Copious Explanation of the Technical ' Terms , frc ., usetl in the Equipment , Machinery , Mocemcnls , and Military Operations of au Army , 4 to ., London 177 i >; and Bibhlheca Miliktris , or , a Catalogue of Ancient and Modern Military Boots , in eccry Language in Europe , with Historical , CWiici . / , and Explanatory Notes . < ito . ^ London , 178 : 1 . Wanted

further particulars as to Ins family , arms , services , and death , by —ANOTHER SMITH . LIEUT . DRAKE ON MASONRY . In the European Magazine , for February , 1792 , p . 124 , there is " a very curious essay by Lieut . Drake , and as the Magazine has long been out of print , I send you a copy , which may he found interesting by our younger brethren . —LL . IJ .

" On Masonry . —To brother Masons . I have presumed in this small treatise to deliver my thoughts on the originality of the word Mason ; ancM have likewise given my reasons from whence that sacred appeal , or obligation , by which we are bound , is derived ; for they being in separably united , I have endeavoured to shew how for they were conjunctively allied iu their primeval state ; and have hazarded some few conjectures on their religious "foundation . Though I may have dissented very materiallfrom the derivation of the name of oursacred institution

y . , which we are taught to believe sprang from the erection of Solomon ' s temple , yet I have proved the creed which is laid down as the established doctrine of our Masonic faith to be founded on moral and religious duty . I trust that whatever I may advance may not be deemed a renunciation of any part of that most honourable Order of which I am a . member , but be received as a humble attempt , to elucidate that which the hand of time having nearly obliterated , conjecture must now supply .

"As the origin of the religious ceremony of this island began with the Druids , and their language being Celtic ( which is supposed by the learned to have been the universal elementary language of Europe ) , I shall build my argument upon the ground work of their divine institutions , assisted by their tongue , which has been corrupted and thrown ' into the mutilated form it now bears . Numerous are the instances I can produce of words carrying a very different figure and signification to their first formation and intentionwere I to take up your time by

enume-, ration ; but as a few of them may prove strong evidences towards validating my subject , I shall produce them to shew that I have not Ijuilfc my hypothesis upon a sandy foundation . The word " religion" being given to us as a Latin derivative , I shall beg leave to point out is corrupted , from the Celtic rea and lirjio ; rea signifying a ray or circle , and ligio , to be bound , which alludes to a circle drawn round prisoners arraigned iu the name of . justice , with , wlueli in those days religion was incorporated , and out of which ray or circle it was tho highest crime to escape .

Nothing , in general , is more false or more forced than the derivations from the Gallic writers ; they will tell you " curate" is derived from citrati , the cure or cave of souls ; but it certainly comes more naturally from , the Celtic word curaish , which , signifies a preacher . Again , tho Avord physic is given to us from the Greek work <^ VBIQ , nature ; but the Celtic is icys-ahe , or skill in distempers , which offers a more natural etymology . So Avith , respect to the Avord "bishop , " which is from the Greek word E : n . < 7 % o 7 roe , i . e . overseer ; whereas the Celtic appears to be more just

from b-cy ' s-op , the president of religion . But to come to tho word "Mason "—it appears to me to have taken its rise from the Celtic word ? Ufays-on , a religious institution of the Druids called ' The Religion of the Groves . ' I shall observe that , in the sense of the bough , or office of justice , the word May is primitive to the month of May and to Maia the goddess of justice . Considering too that the Maypole was eminently tho great sign of Druidism , as the Cross was of Christianity , is there any thingforced in this conjecture that the adherents to Druidism should have

taken the name of Thc Men- of May , or Mays-on ? Hence the word . Mafs-on comes near to our present pronunciation ; the Avord on stands for homme , as it does in the politest French to this day , as on- elk for homme dit , & c . What still adds strength to my observation is / that the word Hiram , which is the corner stone of Masonry , signifies preeisely the high pole or holy bough ; it exists to this day in the provincial word ram-pike , the ram meaning a dead or withered bough ; hence I { i . -ram , or the high withered bough or maypole ; round which their dancing constituted an essential part of their religious worship .

Tlmthe words Mason and Hiram being so joined as to form the foundation of Masonry , and likewise the establishment of Druidical worship , I shall proceed to show how far the obligation is connected with them both . The Druids , agreeably to their system of preferring the night to the day , and the shades to the broad dajdight , chose for their places of abode to teach their disciples , the gloomiest groves and subterraneous cells , as Pomponius Mela says— 'Decent Drnidu ! innlta ndbilivrimos ycnlis , clam , c ' . diu , rirjinti annis , in upe . cu ant , in abdit'is saUibiui . ' ' The Druids teach ,

the nobility long and secretly for twenty years together , in caves , cell ? ,-or the most hidden recesses of the woods . ' ] S o wonder then this double privacy of the nightly meetings and sacred abodes inspired the enemies of Druidism with sinister suspicions , and more particularly as they were not wholly exempt from the propitiation of the infernal powers Inhuman victims , as say Strabo and Cato . But what still increased the number of their enemies was , they being included in tho name of the Magi ; and the magic wand and the circle being not only Avholly

abolisbed by disuse and supplanted by other forms of judicial procedure , but also proscribed by Jtoman paganism which had then crept in , and next by Christianity , could not but reduce the unhappy remnant of the Druidical votaries to ruin and despair . In France they never appeared after the destruction of the Allrigensc . s , and in Britain after tho i-Vc / a ; but Druidism , which had been for thousands of years the established religion of the Gauls , and especially Britain , could not be supposed i ,. lose , on a sudden , its hold on the minds o [ nations , therefore , such a- -, held out against the new religion would naturally form assemblies lor