Ar00100

( Contents . PAGE . Old Freemasonry before Grand Lodge—By Bro . Hyde Clarke ... 241 Brabmo Somaj—By Indophalus 242 Masonic Discipline—By Crux 243 The Haughfoot Lodge and Speculative Masonry 245 Masonic Ramblings—By Rcitam 246 ChiofForeigu Ashlar—By J . A . H . 248

ps Burgh Records—By Bro . W . P . Buchan 250 Masonic Notes and Queries 251 Correspondence 253 Masonic Mems 254 CEAPT LODGE MEETINGS : — Metropolitan 254 Provincial 255 Ireland 258

Mark Masonry 258 Boyal Order of Scotland 25 S Reviews 258 Obituary 259 Poetry 259 List of Lodge , & c , Meetings for ensuing week 260 To Correspondents 260

Old Freemasonry Before Grand Lodge.

OLD FREEMASONRY BEFORE GRAND LODGE .

LONDON , SATURDAY , SEPTEMBER 25 , 1869 .

By Bro . HYDE CLARKE , P . D . D . G . M . for Turkey .

The difficulty ive Lave as to Freemasonry before 1717 is not only that we have very few materials , but that we cannot connect those materials so as to arrive at some compact notion of what was the general state of affairs . Pew real inquirers

suppose that in 1660 ., for instance , the first , second , and third degrees will be found as they are now , but the best informed inquirers have been baffled in tracing back those degrees satisfactorily . We know changes took place in 1717 , and for anything we know changes quite as material may have taken place previously .

Bro . Youn ghusba . nd , who has devoted some learning and attention to Freemasonry , has lately acquired a MS ., which in the present state of such investigations by Bros . Hughan , Buchan , & c , is worthy of attention . The conventional phrase for

a M . S . in such a case is the " valuable , " or " very valuable MS . " of Bro . Younghusband . Now the MS . of Bro . Younghusband is a very miserable MS . —fragmentary , mutilated—the bungling copy of an illiterate scribe , most likely not earlier than

the beginning of the last century , ranging between 1720 and 1740 . It is , however , its miserabla character which has most likely saved it , for the anti quary of the last century would not be tempted by such trashand the zealous Masonafraid of

, , revelation , may have looked upon it as an idle scrawl , not dangerous . It has most likely only been saved by a country Mason as a writing relating to Masonry , and has , perhaps , never been

read for a century , in fact until of late years it would not meet with any attention , for it has very little apparent reference to what is now understood as Freemasonry . It is not a document got up to sell , as

something very ancient , but is the copy of some illtrained person from an original , and most likely the copy of successive copies . What shows this well enou . p-h are the references to tlie Bible in

Latin , and to Euclid , ancl other points , making the period before the Reformation . It is not , however , to be understood that the whole matter is strictly ancient . Bro . Younghusband proposes to read the MS .,

with some notes , before the Masonic Arcbteological Institute in the next session , and it may be of interest to Masonic inquirers to know what are some of the suggestions which arise from the perusal of this document . 1 say suggestions ,

because in the present state of our knowledge we cannot safely offer definite conclusions , and for my own part my remarks arise from only a cursory perusal of the MS . The MS ., it will be seen , forms part of the

chain from the MS . of J . O . Halliwell , and Bro . Matthew Cooke to our present ritual and organisation , and connecting the records given in the pages of the FKEEJIASONS' MAGAZINE by Bros . Hughan , Buchan , & c , and notably with the records of the Haughfoot Lodge in the last number , page 222 .

It suggests that the ritual of thc third degree is older than 1717 , but then these other points arise . It is quite open to admit that the present third degree is the old second degree , and what is new is the ritual of the second degree . The ritual

of the third degree is peculiar , ancl suggestive of its containing- matter from the old body of Masonry . That of the second degree , however , may be new ; it is cut short , and is just the kind of imperfect development from splitting one

degree into two , bringing forth twins , with imperfect nourishment for one . One of the . most ancient portions of the ritual of the third degree does not belong to that degree at all , but to the second or third .

" Good repute" appears to be , as might be conceived , a modern substitute , and the phrase was " Good fame ancl name . '" The external examination outside the door of the lodge must have been more extensive and more