The Druidical Lodge At Rotherham.

" The Brethren being marshalled in due order for Procession , and in proper Cloathing , about Eleven o ' clock in the forenoon , proceeded to the Parish Church of Rotherham , where an Excellent Sermon on the occasion w as preached by the Rever ' - Brother the Grand Chaplain to the Grand Lodge of All England , from Acts , Ch . 17 , Part of v . 17 , 'For Wc are also His Offspring '; and from church they

returned in the same due order to the House of Brother Wm . Charlton , where an Elegant Dinner was provided . About five o ' clock in the evening the Grand Lodge was opened with the usual Solemnity , and the Constitution creating a Lodgo to be held at Rotherham , under the stile of THE DIIUUHCAL LODGE or ANCIENT YORK MACEONS , was opened , and in ample form enforced , Brother Josiah Beckwith being

invested with the High Office of Right Worshipfull Master of the said Lodge . And he then appointed for his Senior Warden Brother John Hassall , and for his Junior Warden Brother James Sims ; all of whom , with the rest of the Brethren of the newly created Lodge , were saluted with proper Congratulations . The Brethren of the

Druidical Lodge in Grand Lodge assembled publickly requested that the Sermon this Day preached by our Reverend Brother might be printed , with which request be candidly complied . " Tho Lodge was closed and adjourned to Monthly , the 20 th instant . " "

Subsequently ( Gth July , 1 / 80 ) warrants were issued by the Grand . Lodge at York to the same Brethren at Rotherham to hold a Royal Arch Chapter , and a Lodge and Encampment of Templars , or Knights of the Holy Tabernacle . Josiah Beckwith , whose portrait appears at the head of this article , was a Solicitor at Rotherhani , and a brother of Thomas Beckwith , of

York , an artist of repute , whose name constantly appears upon the minutes of the Grand Lodge at this period . The portrait of Josiah IJeckwith came into my possession some years ago amongst some York collections , and is a pen etching iu Indian ink . I also have portraits of his brother , the artist , the family likeness between the

two brothers being remarkable . There was another brother , Ambrose , who was a Mason , but who subsequently got into difficulties , anil was relieved by the York brethren . The Beckwiths were an old York family , but ( I speak under correction ) died out with their last representative , Dr . Beckwith , whose monument is in the North Transept of York Minster .

T . B . WHYTEHEAD .

' Uro . THOMAS Unices , C . C , will be installed W . M . of tho Aldersgate Lodge , No . 'ltioT , by Bro . Sir John 13 . Monckton , K . S . A ., Past tirund Warden , on the third Monday in February next .

Order Of The Secret Monitor.

Order of the Secret Monitor .

| JP | p || OURIXG the past year we have heard a good deal about Hi JP ^ I if ^ 1 U O 1 ' ^ 01 ' " ^ Secret Monitor , a flourishing institnj ^ l ffg | f / jj | tion , developed from an ancient Order of David and ZZ- ^ J ^ M Jonathan , which can be traced back to about the year JSI ^ srr ^ Eal 1775 , and introduced into this country as an organised body by Dr . Zacharie , M . D . ; the late Colonel Shadwell

Gierke , Grand Secretary of Craft Masonry ; Bros . James Lewis Thomas , F . S . A . ; Charles Fitzgerald Matier , Grand Secretary of the Mark Degree ; and others . The well-known and popular personality of Dr . Zacharie was more prominently before the Masonic world during the lifetime of the late Grand Secretary than it has been since , owing mainly to the creeping on of the infirmities of ao-e .. The talc of the introduction of the Order into England has been often told , while its rapid spread , throughout all ranks of Masonry , is well nig h marvellous .

The fame of the English organisation was re-echoed as far as the shores of America , and certain brethren of the State of Virginia , who had studied the growth of the Order on this side of the Atlantic , seized upoii it . as one which they might adopt and propagate with advanta ge in the United States . They visited Dr . Zacharie , who received them with his usual courtesy and hospitality , and afforded them all available

information . An offer of complete reciprocity was made , but declined by the Brethren of Virginia , who , while adopting some of the " landmarks " in vogue in England , modified others , and produced a hybrid sort of ritual , of one degree only , which they added to several other degrees , yclept the "Allied , " comprising divers of less importance , hoping the new organisation would strike root upon American soil .

They then appear to have entered into an offensive and defensive alliance with a certain highly-distinguished and enterprising Brother in this country , to draw a sort of " ring fence " around their tentative production . After events have served to show that the " rin <> - fence , " within whose li mits this treaty was to be in force , modestly included Great Britainsand the remainder of the English-speaking world , utterly regardlcs of the not unimportant fact that most of

the ground was already occupied b y the Order of which this article treats . Their English co-partners in this species of Masonic " laud grabbing , " while on the one hand holding up pious hands in hol y horror at the bare thought of a supposed invasion of American " territory by the Order , arc thus seeking to filch its undoubted British territory , and to propagate their crudities among the Brethren here . They actuall y claim to have "annexed , " b y a famous rescript , the 29 Conclaves of the Order and all the Brethren thereof .

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