Reviews

of the so-called special agents , as Mr . Vincent has himself pointed out , who , apeing their names and calling , often obtain money by false pretences from the credulous and the ignorant . Very often worthless characters , ejected ignominously from the police service and insensible to the claims of either truth or propriety , they only serve to encourage criminality of every sort , especially by

the countenance they give to , and the companionship they maintain with , some of the very worst characters of both sexes . It is an old police theory when " women are bad they arc bad , " and some of the worst criminals in this great emporium of folly , vanity , and often desperate wickedness are those " dear creatures " whom , though often acompletc misnomer , wc like to designate the " gentler " or " softer sects . "

MAGAZINES . "All the Year Round" is decidedly dull this month , though "Jenifer , " " Neighbours , " and " A Boarding House Romance" are pleasant reading . "Ihe Century" holds its own . Indeed wc think it better to refer our readers to its most striking pages , lather than repeat the warm , if normal expiessions of

encomiastic appreciation . According to us it is truly without a compeer . " Temple Bar" has some amusing and interesting articles , and its two stories "Belinda" and " lone Stewart " are nearing their " Denouments . " " The Antiquary" is also rather heavy this month , though the articles "Archaic Land Tenure in England " and " Customs of Over Cambridgeshire " deserve perusal .

Masonic Notes And Queries.

Masonic Notes and Queries .

25 S ] THE ROYAL LODGE , CHESTER . In last week ' s Freemason , Bro . Hughan suggests that the old Chester minute book , which has been the text of Bai . Whytehead ' s very interesting articles , is the same volume of records mentioned in the " Early History of Freemasonry in England , " where Mr . Halliwell says " Mr . Black possesses a minute book of the Freemasons of

Chester of the eighteenth century . " There can be no doubt that Bro . Hughan ' s suggestion is correct , for in the beginning of the minute book the following memorandum is written : " Given to me by John Lloyd , Esq ., of the Mount Boughton , at Chester , March A . D . 1 S 40 . ( Signed ) Will Henry Black . " This Mr . Black had an appointment at the British Museum , and I am told he wrote much on antiquarian subjects . I should be glad if

some of your correspondents could inform me whether he published anythingin vvhichhe used theinformation obtained from this book . As he vvas probably not a Mason he might have studied it for the purpose of obtaining matter of local or personal history . May 1 ir . akc another appeal to the good nature of your correspondents . It vvouldbe interesting to Masons in Chester to knovy if there are any older Masonic minute books in existence than this which commenced in 1743 , and if so of what lodge and date . J . C . ROBINSON .

259 ] MASONIC SEALS . Lan anyone throw light on a statement which is made by " Reghellini " of a mediaeval seal which " presents the device of several Masonic implements with the following legend : S . Artis muratorum Paitrajalorum ? " The Latin words seem to me suspicious . MASONIC STUDENT .

260 ] MACKEY'S ENCYCLOP / EDIA . I call attention to the subjoined "cutting" from the Keystone , as I for one rejoice to see that Bro . Mackey's valuable work has been so appreciated : "' Mackey ' s Encyclopaedia , ' issued nine years ago , has sold to the extent of four thousand copies . It is now nearly out of print

only twenty copies remaining unsold . We have secured a part of these , bound in full sheep , published at nine dollars each , which we vvill sell for eight . This affords a rare opportunity , which will continue for but a very limited time , to secure a work of sterling Masonic value . It is a Masonic library in a single volume . " EDITOR OF "KENNING'S CYCLOPAEDIA . "

261 ] CHARLES SACKVILLE . Why did Bro . Rob Morris in his interesting little essay on the " Medals of the Freemasons" in the "American Quarterly Review" for 1 S 58 , ignore this medal ? Had he any doubts as to its genuineness and authenticity t If he sees the Freemason perhaps he will kindly answer my query . DRYASDUST . 262 ! ¦

This controversy has reached a very interesting stage . "Dryasdust's" note of 29 th Sept ., in which ' he mentions his receipt of a letter from Mr . R . S . Poole , keeper of the medals in the British Museum , to the effect that a specimen in silver of the Sackville medal is in the Museum , having been acquired some years since from the collection of Mr . Edward Hawkins , the antiquary , is most important ,

especially as it fixes the date , if not absolutely as 1733 , undoubtedly at about that year . Moreover , the inscription " L . Natter , F , " mentioned as being beneath the bust on the obverse , with " 173 " and a fourth figure which may be " 3 , " appended , assigns the medal as the work of Natter , the letter " F" standing for " Florentia ? , " or , more probably still , for " Fecit . " Thus , as the case stands now ,

we have it established indisputably that Charles Sackville , Earl of Middlesex , was resident in Florence during the autumn , winter , and well into the spring of 1732-3 . We have it also , on the authority of Mr . Poole , that a silver specimen of the Sackville medal by L . Natter is in the British Museum , its date , the last figure of which is obscure , being described on "the card accompanying it in the

Museum cabinet " as 1733 . Wc are further told that there vvas such a medal in the Minerva Lodge collection at Leipsic . This is the direct evidence we have succeeded in obtaining . Subsidiary , but still important evidence is to be found in the statement in Findel ' s history that in 1737 , that is , four years after Sackville's sojourn in Florence

Gaston de Medicis , the last Grand Duke of the Medicean family , issued an edict against the Freemasons , thus showing that whether a previous and unqualified statement made in the same history as to Sackville having established the first Masonic lodge in Florence in 1733 is true or not , the fraternity had arrived at a sufficiently active and prosperous

Masonic Notes And Queries.

state in Italy in 1737 to have evoked a denunciatory edict from the ruler of Florence , the Pope himself following in Gaston ' s footsteps a year later . On the other hand , there is , as yet at all events , no evidence forthcoming to show that Sackville ever vvas a Freemason . He vvas not present at the initiation at Kew in 1737 of Frederick Prince of Wales , of whose household or rather of whose wife's household his lordship some years later became a leading member .

Spence , who accompanied him as a friend and tutor in his travels , and was with him at Florence , makes no mention of the Freemasons , though in one of his letters from Turin he speaks of and describes the Adepts . The words "Ab Origihe" which are on the medal constitute the device of the Strict Observance and Natter the medallist , who died at St . Petersbugh , 1763 , after a sojourn in Russia of some iS months , is said or supposed to have

taken an active interest in the establishment of a Strict Observance lodge in the great northern capital , the inference being that the medal is a Strict Observance fraud or fable , and that Natter , though , he struck the medal , antedated it to 1733 , and inscribed on it the bust of Charles Sackvilleas he might that of Charles Jones had he been as prominent a member of society—because his lordship had been in Italy and vvas a known patron of letters and the arts , as well as

the introducer of Italian opera into England . I am quite willing to admit that these statements and allegations amount to very strong presumptive evidence against the Sackville Florence Lodge theory , but the question as I will put it to be now determined is this : Do these statements tell as strongly against this theory as the direct evidence that has been obtained does i n its favour ? Let me offer two suggestions which may . serve to help us nearer to an

elucidation of the mystery . Is it possible to establish that Natter was in Florence in 1734 ? Is there anything in the archives at Knole Park , where Charles Sackville , Earl of Middlesex and afterwards Duke of Dorset , died , which can help us ? It is one of the seats of Lord Sackville , and a member of the family , Lieut .-Col . the Hon . VV . E .

Sackville-West , was W . M . of the Apollo University Lodge , No . 357 , Oxford , and Prov . G . S . W . Oxon , in 1877 . Perhaps that brother , if his attention were drawn to the matter , might be able to furnish some information . It is also desirable , as " Dryasdust" has suggested , that , if possible , we should discover who first makes mention of the medal .

G . B . A . 263 J MAKING MASONS FOR TWELVE SHILLINGS . Our erudite brother , Col . MacLeod Moore , G . C . T ., Great Prior of the National Great Priory of Canada , of the United Orders of the Temple and Malta , in subscribing for two copies of my forthcoming " Masonic Sonnets , " encloses me the following : " With regard to your query about one of the notes to my allocution read before the

Great Priory of Canada on the 10 th of July last , on the " Making of Masons for twelve Shillings " in the early part of last century , as appeared by placards on sailors ' boarding-houses , & c , in London and Liverpool , I send you the following explanation , which I should be glad if you made public in the London Freemason . In the early part of last century a book appeared in the German language , under the title of " Usber deu Zweek der Freymauren

Order . " It was translated into English , and printed by a person in Albany , New York , in 1824 , under the title of " The End ( or object ) of Free Masonry . " It vvas written in the narrative style , and the author was a nobleman who had been initiated into a purer Masonry , and was making a tour on the continent , and through England , Scotland , and Ireland for his health . During his residence in England the state that he found Masonry in led to the

publication of his work . _ He goes fully into a complete expose of all the Masonic jugglery practised on the continent by Count Cagliostri , that arch deceiver and vagabond , and also gives a most humiliating account of Masonry as he found it in Liverpool and in London . He states it as a truth , that the Freemasonry of that age and day vvas entirely unworthy of the notice of civilised men ; that at that time it vvas nothing , or if it had ever been anything ,

it had fallen so low as to become a reproach . The author states that while remaining in Liverpool he found a very large number of painted signboards stuck upon every grog-shop , sailors' rendezvous or boarding-places , and groceries , along the river , especially the sailors' boardinghouses , with the square and compasses represented oil them , and the words , painted in large letters , " Masons made here for twelve shillings . " There were scores of

such signs to be found , all near the low parts of the city , and in London they were quite as common . He had formed a very high opinion of the Order , and the state of things which he found in England at that day was so contrary to his expectations that it led him to the publication of a bold and manly defence of the Order in its purity , and an address to the Fraternity , wherever they might be found , exhorting them

to come to the rescue of a falling house . This vvas the state of Masonry in England in 1700 , and it continued in that state more or less up to the year 1735 , notwithstanding the formation of a 'Grand Lodge' in 1717 . " Preston , in his " Illustrations of Masonry , " informs us that at the end of the sixteenth and beginning of the eighteenth centuries " the Fraternity then had a discretionary power to meet as Masons in certain numbers , according to their degrees ,

with the approbation of the master of the work where any public building was carrying on , as often as they found it necessary to do so ; and when so met , to receive into the Order brothers and fellows , and practise the rites of Masonry , " Sic . Any light that can be thrown on the proceedings of the Craft previous to , and for some years after , the formation of the Grand Lodge in 1717 , is invaluable .. As a humble Masonic student , 1 would suggest to those

of my brothers who happily are blessed with more learning , wealth , and leisure than myself , that no pains should be spared to discover a copy of the first , or German , edition of the remarkable work named by Bro . Col . McLeod Moore , and to have it either literally translated or carefully compared throughout with the Albany translation , to see that the rendering is perfectly accurate , and then published for the instruction of Craftsmen , for we cannot rest content

with our present misty views of Masonic history . No doubt our energetic Bro . Findel would gladly reprint the original German work in the pages of his " Bauhiitte , " and I am sure the translation would be equally welcome to such widely-circulated periodicals as the " Masonic Review , " the " Voice of Masonry , " and others ; or it might be published as a separate volume , and as such would be heartily welcomed by the far too few brothers and lodges who ever aim at the formation of Masonic libraries . GEORGE MARKHAM TWEDDELL .

Lord Carnarvon And The Canadian Royal Arch Masons.

LORD CARNARVON AND THE CANADIAN ROYAL ARCH MASONS .

An address , richly illuminated on vellum , and decorated with Canadian leaves and flowers suitable to the time of year , was presented to the Right Hon . the Earl of Carnarvon during his recent visit to Canada . The address runs as follows : " To the Right Hon . the Earl of Carnarvon ,

"Grand Pro Z . of the Supreme Grand Chapter of Royal Arch Masons of England . " The principals and companions of Carnarvon Chapter of Royal Arch Masons , No . 5 of the Grand Registry of Quebec , most respectfully offer you their most cordial and fraternal greetings , and with much pleasure tender you the heartiest of welcomes to the Dominion of Canada . It is

with pride this chapter bears the time-honoured name of Carnarvon , and the companions knowing the high position you have always held in the Masonic Order , vvill ever strive to emulate your bright example and render Carnarvon Chapter of Montreal in every way worthy of the illustrious name it bears . The companions also desire to evince to you their great appreciation of the active interest you have always taken , and trust ever will take in Canadian affairs .

" Wishing you most cordially and fraternally many lon" - and happy years , and a long continued and bright career in Masonry , and trusting nothing but pleasant and happy memories will remain with you of this present visit , vvc hope in the near future to be able to extend to you another hearty welcome to our Dominion . " On behalf of the members of the chapter . [ Here follow the signatqres . J " Montreal , September iSth , 1883 . "

Grand Masonic Conversazione In Liverpool.

GRAND MASONIC CONVERSAZIONE IN LIVERPOOL .

In works of truecharity , in Masonic zeal , and in the exhibition of the pure fraternal spirit which is one of the numerous distinguishing characteristics of our noble Order , the Freemasons in and around the first seaport in the world have long held a proud and prominent place , and thevhave

added to their already well-established good name by the most successful and thoroughly enjoyable reunion which , as we briefly stated last week , vvas held at the Masonic Hall , Hope-street , Liverpool , on the evening of Tuesday , the 30 th ult . Judging from the remarkable and unprecedented success attending this merry meeting , it is a matter of surprise with many of the Fraternity that gatherings of this nature are not more frequent in Liveroool . Although

the members of the Craft are very numerous in this particular part of the province , and many of them occupy influential positions in life , whilst they possess a central Masonic Hall that will hold its own against any other in the provinces , and compare favourably with any similar building in the Western Division in respect to completeness and artistic taste , the holding of a conversazione , concert , or ball , save and except the annual dance in the Town Hall

in aid of the funds of the West Lancashire Masonic Educational Institution , is of very rare occurrence . _ The idea for the conversazione and ball just held , to signalise the completion of the entire decorations of the above remarkably handsome building , originated some three or four months ago at a meeting of the House Committee of the Temple , and efforts were from that moment unrelaxing to make the effort what it has proved

emohatically to be , viz ., one of the most triumphant achievements in the annals of local Freemasonry . Half-a-dozen Committees were formed to take charge of the arrangements , the first of the six being the executive body , which consisted of Bros . Henry A . Tobias , P . Prov . G . Supt . of Works , President ; R . Brown , P . Prov . G . Treas ., Vice-President ; Dr . F . J . Bailey , Prov . G . S . D ., Treas . ; H . H . Smith , l . P . M . 1505 , and R . Foote , P . M . and Treas .

1505 . Hon . bees ., with Dr . J . Kellett Smith , P . Prov . G . R . ; J . Teare Callow , P . Prov . G . Treas . ; J . Pemberton , P . Prov . G . Supt . of Works ; and J . W . Ballard , P . Prov . G . P ., assisted by the Chairmen of thesub-Committees—which were formed as under—as ex-officio members of the Executive Literary and Arts : Bros . R . A . Davies , S . W . 1380 ( Chairman ) M . Aronsberg , G . Broadbridge , A . Bucknall , T . G . Fisher , J . A . Forrest , Edward Grindlev . loshua Hocken .

John Humphreys , J . E . Jackson , Wm . John Lunt , J . Orr Marples , T . Mavvdsley , Geo . Peet , Thomas H . Sheen , T . H . W . Walker , Gilbert G . Walmsley , and Richard Washington . Entertainments : Bros . Henry Firth , Prov . G . Stwd . ( Chairman ) , J . B . Mackenzie , P . M . ( Vice-Chairman ) , John Atkinson , J . Baylis , Joseph Bell , J . P . Bryan , Josef Cantor , Abr . Child , F . Emery , Maurice Hart , Wm . Lewis , Robert Martin . Sylvester Mattison . I . A .

Muir , Major H . J . Nicholls , Joseph Queen , Wm . Savage , Joseph Skeaf , and David Keith . Music : Bros . J . P . Bryan , Prov . G . Org . ( Chairman ) , H . J . Nicholls , Josef Cantor , and Joseph Skeaf . Refreshment : Bro . H . S . Alpass , P . G . S . B ., Prov . G . Sec . W . L ., Bro . John Ballard ( Vice-Chairman ) J . Beesley , G . Broadbridge , A . Cotter , Thomas Evans , John Houlding , C . A . Luker , J . McCarthy , Thomas McCracken . 1 . C . McGuire . Svlvostpr MaHisnn .

Lewis Peake , W . W . Sandbrook , Albert T . Tow , William S . Vines , G . S . Willings , and Reginald Young . Ball : Bros . Robert Martin , P . M . ( Chairman ) , Thomas Salter , P . P . G . J . D . ( Vice-Chairman ) , H . M . Molyneaux ( Master of the Ceremonies ) , John Beesley , J . M . Boyd , A . Bucknall , A . Cotter , VV . E . Coxon , E . H . Dixon , Henry Firth , P . B . Gee , M . Hill , John Houlding , John Humphrey , James Lees , J . C . McGuire , Wm . Savage , I . L . Shrapncll ,

1 ' . bmitton , Wm . Tomkinson , andT . Trevitt . The conversazione carried out so admirably and successfull y embraced a dramatic , literary , scientific , and musical soiree , comprising a high-class concert , an art exhibition which was at once unique and admirably selected and arranged , variety entertainments of a novel and amusing character , and a ball , which vvas quite equal in all its arrangements to the one above referred to . Ihe proceeds of the entertainment vvill be devoted to some Masonic

purpose to be agreed upon by the committee , and there is little doubt on this occasion the cordial support and patronage of the Craft will enable them to hand over a considerable sum as the result . The issue of tickets was wisely restricted to about 500 , and these were all speedily taken up by Liverpool Masons and the general public . The majority of the large and fashionable company , which crowded every room in the old and new buildings , found the greatest attraction of the gathering in the sp lcn-