Further Comments On " Facts And Fictions."

FURTHER COMMENTS ON " FACTS AND FICTIONS . "

BT BRO . JACOB NORTON . ( Continued from page 90 ) .

I MUST first endeavour to clear away the dust with which my friendly opponent ( unintentionally of course ) bespatters the eyes of his readers . I do indeed frankly admit that no living man knows as much about the MSS .

and records of the Grand Lodge of England as friend Sadler does , and not only am I greatly indebted to him for many favours , but even Bros . Gould , Hughan , Lane , and other writers , have again and again acknowledged

his merits as a successful searcher , and finder too . But with regard to the Old Constitutions , I beg to assure him , and Bro . Nickerson our Grand Secretary will confirm it , that I have had many times all the original printed

Constitutions and Ahiman Rezons in my house , and have kept them as long as I pleased ; also Spratt ' s Dublin Constitutions , and I was even permitted to take home with me the oldest MSS . and old records belonging to the Grand Lodge

here . As far , therefore , as the old English Constitutions and other printed matter is concerned , I have had the same chance of getting information as Bro . Sadler himself had . I also read " Pacts and Fictions" before I

wrote aline in opposition to the theory propounded therein . But , with the utmost care , a man is liable sometimes to overlook or forget something , and in such a case , especially

when there is no reason to impute it to a sinister design for the purpose of misrepresentation or misleading , such a fault should not be magnified into a great sin , or to impute it to the ignorance of the opponent . For instance , I did

remember that Bro . Sadler tried to apologise for Dermott ' s pretension to his Masonic descent from " Ancient York , " but I forgot his mention of two Warrants , of 1757 and

1759 . Now , when mentioning those Warrants he never stated that in one of them at least , viz ., of 1759 , Dermott still pretented to be a York Mason , hence I called attention to the Warrants , & c . sent to Nova Scotia in 1757 , wherein York descent was claimed by Dermott , and this furnished Bro . Sadler with an opportunity of proving my unreliability . He

said" Bro . Norton has no right to say that Bro . Sadler never saw a Warrant of the Ancients older than 1772 , but he has said it nevertheless , and more than that , he has printed it , an evident proof that he has not carefully read " Masonic Facts and Fictions . "

Now I can , with equal reason say , that Bro . Sadler has not carefully read his own " Facts and Fictions ; " for on page 130 of the said book is printed this , " The earliest complete Ancient's Warrant which I met with is dated

16 th November 1772 , " hence I have only repeated what Bro . Sadler himself printed . Again , to my statement that the Nova Scotia Warrants , & c , of 1757 were not signed by the Grand Master , Bro . Sadler says , " At present I have

only Bro . Norton s unsupported assertion on the one side . Now tbe late Bro . J . F . Brennan printed all the Warrants from the Ancients preserved at Halifax , N . S ., in his " Rebold's History of Masonry " 1875 he even showed me

photographs of the said documents . Now , the three documents of 1757 are signed by Lau . Dermott only , so is a Warrant of 1768 , though headed " Thomas Matthew Grand Master . " Not so a Deputation of 1784 , a copy of

which I presented to the late Grand Secretary , Brother Harvey , and if I am not mistaken I saw it last year in the Grand Lodge library in London . Bro . Sadler will find on it fac similes of the signatures of Antrim , Dermott , and threo other names : and if the 1757 documents had been

signed by Blesinton , Blessinton , or Blesinten , I am certain that Bro . Brennen would have printed ifc also . Now I have given reason for what Bro . Sadler calls " one side , " and on his side , after quoting from the record of the " Ancients " an order to Dermott to send the required Warrants , & c , to Nova Scotia in 1757 , he

says" Now , to my way of thinking , this business seems fair and above board , and , unless Bro . Norton can produce reliable evidence to the contrary , I shall prefer to believe that there was as little forgery in this as in the case of Warrants issued in England . "

Now , in the first place , this does not prove that the Grand Master signed the said Warrants ; and second , as I stated , that the Nova Scotia Warrants were not signed by the Grand Master , I could not have imputed forgery to

Further Comments On " Facts And Fictions."

any one in this case . Bro . Sadler , however , misleads hia readers by intimating that I charged Dermott with forgery in this , as I did in another case . And now I shall proceed to point out some other mistakes in " Facts and

Fictions . " First , Bro . Sadler claims that the Installation ceremony , with word , grip , & G ., was designed by Anderson , to be

repeated atter every election ot a new master tor an old Lodge . I , however , believe that Anderson designed the installation ceremony for the Officers of a new Lodge only , and I would like Bro . Sadler to search the records of all

the old Lodges , including the one to which Anderson belonged , and find out whether there is any evidence of an installing ceremony having been performed in any Lodge during Anderson ' s lifetime , at the election of officers , after

the day of its consecration . The fact is , Masons are too fond of ceremonies to abandon one , when once established . Masonic innovation , in such a case , would be in the direction of enlarsrina-. and inflating " , rather than in

abandonment ; thus , after a Master of an old Lodge was installed , with grip , word , ' & c , not only would the next elected Master demand to be installed likewise , but the outgoing Master , whose duty it is to instal his successor , would

never consent to forego the pleasure of playing his part in the show . For these several reasons I feel satisfied that no ceremony of installation of Officers for old Lodges was ordained bv Anderson , either in 1723 or in 1738 .

Again , I have no doubt that Henry Price brought over with him to Boston the English ritual for every Masonic purpose . Well , Price was a member of the second Lodge

constituted in . boston , about l / ol , tnesaid Lioage records are regular and complete from ( if I recollect right ) 1752 to 1775 . Elections or re-elections of a Master took place at the fixrriraiinn of six months . I have earefullv examined thafc

record , but could not find a hint of the slightest ceremony taking place upon those occasions . In another Boston record of a Lodge , of about 1784 , 1 found that the new

officers were invested with their respective jewels . Still again , Saint Andrew ' s Lodge began its career without a Warrant , in Boston , in 1752 . About two or * three years after it was visited by a Scotch Mason ,

through whose influence the Grand Lodge of Scotland granted the said Lodge a Charter , in 1756 . The probability is , that the Scotch visitor posted the brethren up in all the requirements of the Grand Lodge of

Scotland , and had he informed them of the necessity of keeping up the installation ceremony after every election of new officers , such a ceremony would have

been alluded to in the Lodge records . But here again no hint of such a ceremony could I find before near the close of the last century . With these facts before me , I am justified in inferring that the installation ceremony for

officers of an old Lodge , owed its origin either to Ireland or to the Ancients . Second , with regard to the transposition of certain words , I have reason to believe that as late as 1742 no change was made by the Graud Lodge of England , nor do I believe

that the Grand Lodge ever authorised any such change . I have , however , sent some hints to an English brother which may prove that the change originated in France . As to other changes in the ritual , I have no doubt that both parties deviated from the original ritual , these deviations

were not however of sufficient importance to make a fuss about . Similar changes have taken place wherever Masonry has been established , and that is all about it . And third , Bro . Sadler devoting so much space to prove that pre-1717 Lodges received Charters from the Grand Lodge , say up to 1738 , led me to suppose that all he wanted

to prove was , that the five or six Lodges which formed the Grand Lodge of 1752 were , with a few exceptions , composed of pre-1717 Masons . Such was my impression when I

met Bro . Sadler last summer , for I had not then read more than about 70 or 80 pages , or perhaps not so many . It was from conversation with Bro . Sadler that I first

learned his theory that the Ancients were " Irish-Anglo Masons , " since , however , I have finished reading " Facts and Fictions , " to the end , and all the information he furnished in his seven articles in the FRHEMASON ' S CHRONICLE I have

become more convinced that my good brother was carried away by a wild imagination than I was before , Bro . Sadler found in tbe Grand Lodge record of 1735 , the following paragraph , viz . : — " Notice being given to the Grand Lodge that the Master

and Wardens of a Lodge from Ireland [ were ] without , desiring to be admitted by virtue of a Deputation from