Masonic Notes And Queries.

Brest de La Chaussue , Right Worshipful Master of Exactitude Lodge , Grand Elect Perfect Master , Knight and Prince of Masons , & c . The Seals of the Order were affixed ancl the Patent countersigned by Daubertain , Grand Elect Perfect Master , Knight ancl Prince of Masons , Eight Worshipful Master of the Lodge of St . Alphonso , Grand Secretary of the Grand Lodge , and Sublime Council of Princes of Masons , & c . —Ex . Ex ]

CONSTRUCTION OP A MASONIC HALT ,. On what principle should a Masonic Hall bo constructed . —A MASTEB . BUILDEK . —' It should be isolated , and , if possible , surrounded by lofty walls , so as to be included in a court , and apart from any other buildings , to preclude the possibility of being overlooked by cowans or eavesdroppers ; for Freemasonry being a secret society ,

the curiosity of mankind is ever on the alert to pry into its mysteries , and to obtain by illicit means , that knowledge which is freely communicated to all worthy applicants . As , however such a situation in large towns , where Masonry is practised , can seldom be obtained , with convenience to the brethren , the lodge should be formed in an upper storey ; and if there be any contiguous buildings , the windows should be either in the roof , or very high from the floor . ]

THE MOST EXCELLENT MASTER S JEWEL . Will some one describe the jewel worn by a most excellent Master ? and oblige . —J . E . THE FRENCH BANQUETTING TEEMS . W . M ., who enquired about the battery ancl rod oil will , perhaps , find the following Preach banqnetting terms of service to him . The table is called—platformh ;

table-cloth , voile ; napkin , drapean ; a dish , plateau ; a spoon , trualli ; a fork , pioelie ; a knife , glaive ; a deeanter , barriqae ; a glass , canon ; the candles , etoiles ; snuffers , pinces ; chairs , sialics ; meats in general , matcriav . x ; bread , pierrc brute ; wine , poudre forte , rouge ou Manclie ; water , poudre foible ; cyder , or beer , poudre jaune ; sjiirits , poudre fidmimante ; salt , sable ; pepper , cimant on sable jaune ; to eat , mastiquer ; to drink , tirer une canonnce ; to carve , degrossir . —DECOMBH . ES .

MASONIC CYPIIEllS . Are there more than one , or two , Masonic cyphers and what are they like ?—0 . A . —[ Every degree , abroad , has its own peculiar cypher and when it is considered there are extant nine hundred degrees , the description of the various cyphers will include any , and every , form yon may please to imagine to yourself . ]

SONS OE LIGHT . Prom whence is the derivation of " Sons of Light , " as applied to Masons ?—S , M . BED . BISSET . Brother Bisset is said to be the author of ' ' Let there be light . " Who was he , when did he live and die , and of what lodge was he a member ?—M . S .

Notes On Literature, Science, And Art.

NOTES ON LITERATURE , SCIENCE , AND ART .

Mr . Shirley Brooks' new novel , which was expected to appear last month , has been deferred until the end of the present dull season . A report that the Gentleman ' s Magazine was about to come to an end is contradicted by Sylvanus Urban in the last number . The Gentleman ' s Magazine is now- in iis 131 st year , and seems

as remote from death as ever . The third volume of Mr . Smiles's Lives of the Engineers will consist ofthe lives of George ancl Robert Stephenson , including a narrative bv the latter of his father ' s inventions and improve-

Notes On Literature, Science, And Art.

ments in connection with the locomotive engine and railways . The life of George Stephenson will be a thoroughly revised deition of Mr . Smiles ' s former biography . Mr . William J affray , a gentleman for many years connected with the journalism and periodical literature of the metropolis , has departed for the " golden colony" of Australia , to join one of the leading journals of Melbourne , and probably take a political position in that busy community .

Mr . H . A . Bruce , M . P . is writing the "Life and Letters of the late Lieutenant General Sir William Napier , " the historian of the Peninsular war . Sir Rutherford Alcock , British minister in Japan , has in preparation , a narrative of his three years' residence among the Japanese . It will appear in two volumes , curiously illustrated

with maps ancl pictures . Tlie Due de Pasquier is said to have left memoirs which are continued to the last events of the day , and will embrace forty volumes . This stupendous work is to be published afc the expense of the author , who , it is said , has taken care that several copies of the memoirs are abroad and in security .

The Bodleian Library possesses a collection of drawings of French monuments for the most part now destroyed , which formerly belonged to the Bibliotheque du Roi . These have have lately engaged tho attention of French antiquarians , and inquiries have been made how these valuable drawings escaped from their original place of deposit . M . Boutaric has discovered

a series of documents ivhich throw light on the affair . It appears the drawings wove abstracted from the Bibliotheqe du . Roi between the years 17 S 1 ancl 17 S 4 by one of the curators . The abstraction was detected in I 7 S 4 , and the party suspected was examined , and subsequently removed from his post . The drawings found their way to England into a private collection , and passed through different hands . They were acquired hythe Oxford Library about 1826 .

The sale of M . Ruber ' s collection of coins , chiefly formed while he was Austrian Consul General in Egypt , is worthy of record as the dispersion of tho cabinet of a true numismatist . The rarest or most beautiful coins were a tetradrachm of Syracuse , with the head and name of the nymph Arethusa , which ultimately became the property of Mr . E . Wigan , a gold

stater of Cius , in Bithynia , believed to be unique , ancl a tetradrachm of Alexander , the son of Roxana , wifch the posthumous portrait of his father Alexander the Great , both of which wore acquired by the British Museum .

Visitors to Mr . J . Leech ' s exhibition of paintings will learn with satisfaction that Messrs . Agnew , having purchased the whole of the collection that remained unsold , are about to publish somo twenty of them in colour-printing . These comprise especially the hunting scenes , ancl are to be entitled " Fair England . "—Alhenamm .

Sir Charles Eastlake has just bought Gainsborough ' s portrait of Mrs . Siddons for the National Gallery , from Major Mair , the luishiind of Mrs . Siddon's granddaughter , for 1000 guineas . A meeting has been held at the rooms of the Architectural Society to inaugurate a new society , to be called the Society of Sculptors of England .

The Imperial Academy of the Fine Arts at St . Petersburg has issued a notice that tho annual exhibition of pictures , sculptures , drawings , engravings , & c , by living artists , will open on the 19 th September next , and invites foreigners to send their works to ifc .