Mother Kilwinning.

favourable to the Order of which he was about to become a member , and pointing out the glaring inconsistency of exalting a libertine to the seat of a teacher of religion and morality , he begged to be excused from becoming a Ereeemason—a resolution which , to the deep regret of the brethren of the

province of Ayr , his lordship . ever afterwards adhered to : and thus , through the inadvertent ignoring on the part of one lodge of an important Masonic principle , Ereemasonry was deprived of the support of a nobleman whose virtues and high attainments would have increased its lustre and widened its influence for good in the neutral world as well as within the mystic itself .

1685-89 , the apprentice fee is raised from . 20 s . scots to 23 s . 4 > d ., which sum continued to be exacted for entry till 1704-5 , when three members' sons are found to be admitted on payment of four shillings scots of entry-money each ; while other two persons are noted as having paid at entry 30 s . 4 < d . and 40 s . 4 < d . respectively . There is a complete hiatus in the minutes

from 1689 to 1695 , in which year objections are taken to the election to office of brethren who had not paid for their marks ; and the meetings of the court in the remaining five years of the century seem to have been occupied in the reception of members , the regulation of the ways and means of the lodge , and the reiteration of the most grievous lamentation for the " great loss " the lodge continued to sustain " for the want of ordour amang them . "

At the beginning of the eighteenth century the Lodge of Kilwinning is found to be existing under a new regime , and at a low ebb as to numerical strength : and at the annual meeting of 1704 only nine brethren convene , and " with consent of the Trade" elect "Thomas Hamilton deacon of the

Masons belonging to the Lodge of Kilwinning , William Cowan Warden of the same society , and Andrew Cowan Clark . " This is the first mention of the election by a vote of the lodge of a clerk—an official , who , according to " ancient statutte " should be " ane famous notar" receiving his appointment as

, " ordiuar dark " of the lodge from the warden and deacon , irrespective of the vote of the brethren ; and judging from the illiterate manner in which many' of the previous minutes are drawn up , we think this is not the first occasion on which the the services of an

operative have been secured to record the proceedings of the lodge . In tbe minute of December 20 , 1705 , it is again noted that the lodge " met with consent of the Trade , " and proceed to the election of a deacon , warden , clerk ; and officer ; and " the same day , by consent of the meeting , it was agreed that no ineasson shall iinploy no cowanwhich is to

with-, say out the word , to work . If there be ane Measson to be found within 15 miles he is not to employ ane cowan , under the pain of 40 shillings , scots . " . This definition of " cowan" proves the absurdity of the attempt made by certain anti-masonic writers to derive the word from the " chouans" of the Erencb

Eevolution . Mackay , to shew that the word was Masonically in use long before the Erench Eevolution was every meditated , quotes from an edition of Anderson ' s Constitution , printed in 1769 , a sentence in which " cowan " occurs ; but here we find it in use by Mother Kilwinning in 1705 to denote irregular or unintiated operative Masons , —and its application

as above proves also the Mother Lodge to have been at that period a society incorporated for trade purposes . During tbe next fifteen years the minutes are meagre and commonplace : and in 1720 we find a " hyschall" added to the staff of officebearers 2 s .

p , given to tbe poor , and 20 s . lent out on interest . A tax upon the officebearers of the lodge is imposed in the following proportions , viz ., the deacon to pay to the old and decayed members Ss , scots money , warden 4 .., officer and j > hyschalle 2 s . each yearly—an authoritative precedent in favour of the compulsory

subscription to the Masonic Eund of Benevolence by members of the Grand Lodge of Scotland . It is often remarked of Grand Lodges that they possess a keener eye to tbe replenishment of their exchecquer than to the proper discharge of other and more important duties belonging to them as

executive and governing bodies . Without attempting to defend our Masonic legislators from the charge of over-anxiety for the procuring of " remittances " from the daughter lodges , it may serve as some palliation of their weakness in this respect when we state that in the olden time the prompt payment of

the prescribed " dues , " seems like charity to have " hid a multitude of sins " against the laws and constitution of the Order , and to have in the eyes of the Kilwinning fraternity constituted one of the highest graces . More like members of a joint-stock company than the trustees of funds contributed for benevolent purposes , the brethren in the cradle-land of Scottish Masonry , contenting themselves with the disbursement of the merest pittance to the poor and

indigent , continued for a period of one hundred and fifty years to make to one artother liberal advances of money from the lodge's funds , for which bills were accepted , but which in numerous cases were destined never to be retired . So great was the loss to the lodge from this cause , that in 1728 it was " enacted that when any money is to be lent out of the box the

borrower shall give a cautioner which is not entered with the lodge ; and if the cautioner shall enter with the lodge , the borrower shall be obhged at the first meeting to give a new cautioner that is not entered . " This enactment , not a very complimentary one to the commercial integrity of the fraternity in these times ,

was followed up by another to the effect that " he who enters an apprentice is to cause him to pay his entrymoney , —him failing , to pay it himself , "—another precedent which continues to be followed in the case of intrants by more than one Masonic grand body in our own time . The same year the " eorum of members

to regulate the books and affairs of the lodge " were successful in neutralizing the repudiation principle so largely permeating the granters of bills for value received— -several members having returned their borrowed money in exchange for their bills . Again and again , however , is the poverty of tbe lodge

identified with the subject of protested bills : and to such a degree had they relapsed into the bill-trade that in 1743 so many as ten protested bills are handed to a member of the lodge , a writer by profession , with instructions to " opperate payment the best way he can . " At the annual meeting following his receipt of these bills the writer reported that he had not been able to recover any of the " money contained in tbe ten bills ; " but others were given him , upon all of