Masonic Notes And Queries.

diggings of a silver mine . The year 1421 is marked by a dark line of the blood of the followers of Huss , and specially of the Tahorites , who held substantially all the doctrines of the Eeformation , aud strove to adorn the Word by their holy lives . In that single year this one town , dug about for its treasures

of silver ore , witnessed the unparalleled spectacle of a whole ' army of martyrs' dragged as felons to the shafts of three old mines , to one 1700 , to another 1308 , ancl to the third 1321 . Men of wealth and rank , together with men rich only in faith , and devout women not a fewmaidens doubtless as well as

mo-, thers in Israel—convicted of no sin except touching the Book and the Cup , of reading the Book of Life and of drinking the Cup of Salvation—aud numbering in all 4 , 829 , they Avere cast headlong into the yawning pits . For two hundred years , till the Reformation was finally quenched in 1621 , those martyrs were

remembered every 18 th of April hy a solemn meeting in a chapel erected on the spot to their memory . ' From the foregoing , and such like , I infer that to talk about Masons promulgating the principles of Speculative Masonry in the 15 th century A . D . is simply a mistake . Had such been really the case , then General

Bigotry would have carried into practice the principle he enunciated in the 18 th century , and we would have had its history written—aye , aud that well , too —in blood . But , be that as it may , we may well revere the memory of those noble men , through whose courage and fidelity to the cause of Truth we now enjoy our present civil and religious liberty . —PICTUS .

ETJLES OF CHESS . ETOES OP MTEEAEY COH'TBOYEESY . There are rules of Chess and there are rules of Literary Controversy ; and as men play not at chess with an opponent who will not observe the rules of the game , so they engage not in Masonic historical discussion with an opponent who will not observe the rules of literary controversy . —OHAELES PITRTOS' COOPEE .

Masonic Demonstration In Glasgow And The Glasgow St. John's Lodge.

MASONIC DEMONSTRATION IN GLASGOW AND THE GLASGOW ST . JOHN'S LODGE .

CORRESPONDENCE . The Editor is not responsible for the opiniom expressed by Correspondent !

10 IHE EDITOB OB THE FBEEJIASONS' MAGAZINE AST ) MASONIC MIBH 0 B , Dear Sir and Brother , —Some further correspondence upon this subject having taken place in the G-las-£ ow Herald , I beg to enclose a copy of the same . Tours fraternally , MASONICT / S .

GLASGOAV ST . JOHN ' S -AND THE MASONIC PEOCESSION . " June 10 , 1870 . "Sir , —In his letter of the Sth inst ., 'Masonicus ' very complacently refers to his former communication as ' setting aside' the * greater part of Delta ' s ideas' on

the subject under consideration . Being of a different opinion , I may be excused for again troubling you . My brother is under a misapprehension when he supposes that No . 8 's bearing the designation of 'Journeymen , implies that it is peculiarly the lodge of journeymen Masons . It was so when , a century and a

half ago , its promoters seceded from Mary ' s Chapel , as was also the St . Andrew's Lodge at Glasgow , afterwards called the Glasgow Journeymen Pree Operatives , ' when its original members broke off from St . John's and accepted a charter from Mother Kilwinning 130 years ago . At the date ( 1783 ) at which

No . 8 had conferred on it the honour of ' carrying the mallet in all future processions of Grand Lodge , ' it had lost its original characteristic in regard to the composition of its membership , for , in common with its contemporaries , it had on its roll the names of personsboth masters and servantsbelonging to

va-, , rious professions . An unusually large proportion of its members may , at the period referred to , have been operative masons , and this may have led to its being constituted hereditary bearer of the grand mallet and other tools . That No . 8 was subsequently , and is at this moment , circumscribed in the exercise of this

privilege , is so clearly expressed in Grand Lodge laws as to render argument on the point unnecessary . In permitting so flagrant an infringement of the law of precedency , the Grand Master must have been misled by the counsel of those whose duty it was to have guarded him against being 1 imposed upon by the

pretensions either of lodges or of individual brethren . " Though in the 16 th and 17 th centuries and a portion of the 18 th Mary ' s Chapel merited the title of a Master ' s Lodge because of its government being vested in the Masonic burgesses of Edinburgh , yet up till the erection of No . 8 , journeymen masons formed a large proportion of its membership . To ' demean itself carrying working tools' is an unfortunate expression when applied to the performance of anv service that

may be required in a Communication of Freemasons . To no Masonic duty does the epithet ' menial' apply . " If by the apathy of provincial brethren for Masonic honours , or obliviousness of their Masonic rights , the Lodge Journeymen has in past times been allowed with impunity to break the law on the subject of

precedency , that can never give a valid title to act in defiance of the law . No . 8 ' s demand , therefore , was unconstitutional , because the prerogative in question is by statute limited to the metropolitan district—¦ impertinent , from its involving an intrusion into a province in which the lodpossessed no special

privige lege . The usage of the Craft in according posts of honour to the senior lodge of the district in which any public demonstration is held , justified St . John ' s claim to the honour in question , and its emphatic protest against the encroachment on its rights . " The brethren who carried the tools in 1851 on the

, occasion of the Duke of Athole laying the foundation stone of the Victoria Bridge , were ' freemen operatives , ' belonging to No . 3 bis , of whom one at least was expected to have officiated in a similar capacity on Priday last . ' Masonicus's' allusion to circumstances connected with the Nelson Monument

demonstration ( 1806 ) is beside the question . St . John's was at that date an independent lodge ; it was neither recognised by nor amenable to the Grand Lodge of Scotland , and its conduct during that isolated period of its existence cannot now be challenged . "Not onldid StJohn ' swith its long train of past

y . , office-bearers , unanimously endorse the step which the Eight Worshipful Bro . Bnird took to vindicate the honour of his lodge , but ib met the approval cf its Proxy Master , Bro . David Bryce , jun ., who , thought