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all alike to be sacrificed to personal consideration or private interests of any kind whatever . Depend upon it tho authoritcs will take good care that all qualified members of Grand Lodge can vote freely , comfortably , and conscientiously . # *•* ** #

SEVERAL of our . correspondents in re the Election of Grand 1 reasurer seem to have got into a " fog- " on the question , and to be writing beside the mark . They confuse , according to our views , the privilege of public choice and thc propriety of private selection . No one disputes or can dispute the absolute legal rig ht of members of Grand Lodge to put forward

any duly qualified candidate for thc olfice of Grand Treasurer . The law allows it , and the annual election proves it . But a contrariety of opinion may exist as to the advisability and fitness of any select circle adopting any particular brother and " naming him" for Grand Treasurership , because it leads to inevitable imitation . No one indeed can allege

that such procedure is absolutely " contre leges , " though they may doubt its befittingness and good form . And therefore we think it well to make this remark once for all . The Freemason publishes the views and ideas of both sides in the controversy , as a truthful record of passing events interesting to the Craft , and , as a "Masonic paper , is neutral , as indeed it

must be from the necessity of the case , in the discussion , allowing the friends of the respective candidates fair play and a full hearing . ' All that it does seek to " bar " and object to are expressions of an " animus " which seem to overpass the wise and safe limits of Masonic forbearance , equity , and good feeling .

* * A PROOF of the value of the new rule that country petitioner ' s cases to the Lodge of Benevolence must be reported on by the Grand Secretaries of their respective provinces was shown on Wednesday last . These reports lessened both thc work and the responsibility of the Board , and the members were able to deal with the cases in a most satisfactory manner .

* » WE call attention to the review of the report of the Grand Lodge of Nova Scotia elsewhere , by which it would seem that in that far off jurisdiction they have a " free and easy , " " rough and ready " way of measuring the needs and value of Masonic membership . A

companion after apparently 17 years' secession from his chapter is declared by that chapter , on the payment of a sum of six dollars , never to have surrendered his membership , and to be ns real a member of thc chapter as those companions who have faithfully paid their subscriptions . We cannot

understand such a paradoxical position , and are not surprised that the Grand First Principal objects to such a state of things . It is this very laxity of Masonic membership which does so much harm to Freemasonry whereever it is permitted to exist .

• • • WE congratulate our good brethren in Scotland on " moving on " in the great cause of Masonic Charity . To enlarge their actual donations to deserving cases , and to create some subsidiary institutions would , we venture to think , react with singular good effect on Scottish

Freemasonry . It is not necessary , 111 order to grant annuities to decayed Freemasons and their Widows , to help to educate thc sons and daughters of Scottish Freemasons , to erect great buildings , neither need they run into great office expenses . A Board of Education might manage one division , a Board of Relief might manage the other . They might effect

in Scotland what is done in Lancashire and Cheshire and elsewhere pay for the schooling nnd board of thc children at thc schools near their homes , and grant annuities to Aged Freemasons and their Widows as the money comes in . There are no doubt two sides to this , as to any question under thc sun , but taking everything into account " pro and con , " it seems clear to

us that Freemasonry , to be consistent with Us own professions and to be perfectly developed , must carry out the golden precepts both of theoretical and practical charity ! . We hope too before long , however unpopular at first ,

the Grand Lodge of Scotland will enforce an annual subscription of some amount to each lodge by its members . As a tentative measure the compulsory " subscription " may be small at [ first , but the recognition of the principle itself will , we feel sure , both advantage nnd vitalize Scottish Freemasonry . »*»

WE are immensely amused by the following paragraph from the Rough Ashlar oi Adelaide , January 30 th , 1884 * . " Referring to the unpleasantnesses that have arisen between the Grand Lodges of England and Canada , several brethren in the cities of London and Liverpool ( England ) , by way of showing their sympathy with the Canadian Grand Lodge , are said to have

applied to that Grand Lodge for warrants to open lodges in London and Liverpool to work under the jurisdiction of the Grand Lodgeof Canada . Of course this is just as constitutional as for lodges in Canada , which has a Grand Lodge of its own , to be established under the jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge of England . " The Scribe must we think be very ignorant of

the feelings or practice of English brethren . Wc are struck by the audacity of the references to the Grand Lodge of Canada , which has no grievance whatever , and which originally made an open and deliberate concordat with the Grand Lodge of England in regard to the loyal English edges . We fancy there is a mistake somewhere .

* * # Wr . observe that a movement is making headway for an independent Giand Lodge of South Australia , but are astonished to find officials of the District Grand Lodge countenancing and heading such a movement . We agree with Bro . ROBERTS that there is not the slightest call for or justification of the movement . We shall recur to the subject more fully next week .

Seventeenth Century Masonry.

SEVENTEENTH CENTURY MASONRY .

It seems to us that for some reason or other sufficient store is not placed by many on the reality of seventeenth century Masonry , which , according to our views , is now historically before us , and which , though somewhat still in haze and dimness , will ere long be looked at and , let us hope , realized in fuller and clearer light . It always was a " Crux " for Masonic writers , and which they attempted to get over in various ways , why

Freemasonry should seem to start into ncw life and existence in 1717 , and yet that all evidence of it as an organized body was apparently wanting before 1700 . The admission of Ashmole into the Order in 1646 was known , and the meeting of that lodge in 1682 was recorded , but they were casual incidents some thought , isolated facts others

contended , and with little bearing on the current of general Masonic , history . But true criticisms can never long be silenced , or its canons safely neglected , and as facts have accumulated and evidences have multiplied , we have , undoubtedly , to deal with seventeenth century Freemasonry , and a very curious and difficult problem it is , after all , to solve .

1 . First of all , —we yet know about it only "in part . " We await still clearer " indicix " and more direct testimony before we can safely decide or discuss its main features , its undoubted outcome .

2 . But though this be so , there are certainly salient points in respect ol it which we cannot afford lo overlook or despise any longer , and which , though not conclusive so far , seem to point as a sign-post to what we may yet expect to be entirely and certainly before us . 3 . We begin then with this proposition—a seventeenth century

Freemasonry existed , and we prove it in this way . Ashmole ' s initiation tells us that he was admitted , as is clear , into a regularly organized system , and if it then existed in 1646 , we arc not stretching the laws of evidence or inference too far when we say the same system must have existed in or about 1600 .

Mr . Wallbran always said that the archaisms of the Sloane MS . " Freemasons' Secrets " were before the middle of the seventeenth century , and though its actual transcription is probably about 1715 , yet remembering Plot ' s evidence , to which we shall allude later , it is not too much to assume that that consummate judge of old English was right , and lhat wc have in it a representation of thc symbolical teaching of early seventeenth century

Freemasonry . Passing on from 16 46 to 1682 , we learn that in that year Ashmole received a " summons " to attend a lodge in London , so that a form of summons was then in use . Mis language is somewhat obscure , especially in his use of the word " fellow , " but an initiation took place of several candidates . To make the chain of sequence still more complete , wc ought to have alluded to Bro . Ryland ' s very able papers about Randle

Holmes , by which it clearly appears that he fully recognized the difference between the City Company and the Society of Freemasons , and that thc Harleian MS ., which is among thc Chester papers , belonged to a lodge at Chester , and that we have there a portion of the minutes of thc lodge . In 1686 Dr . Plot made a statement concerning Freemasonry in his " History of Staffordshire " which is an exact description of our Masonic

system still , as regards its speculative character , and no onc can doubt who reads thc words of this non-Masonic writer that he describes a system akin to our own . Thc MS . of the Lodge of Antiquity is another " missing link , " as it contains thc name of Bro . Padgett , who was Clerk to the Society of Freemasons , but was not , it is asserted , a member of thc Masons'

Company . We have traces ofa lodge at Vork in 1690 , at Alnwick in 1705 and which must necessarily be earlier even , at Swalwell , the Lodge of St . Paul ' s , now the Antiquity , and then , in 1717 , the old Masons revive the Order . I leave out hore thc consideration of the mention of Freemasons , or the use of the coat-of-arms and other points , as they are only collateral issues .

There are two further important points connected with seventeenth century Masonry to which we must shortly allude . What is thc exact force of the 1942 Harleian MS . Wc have always felt that it is a very important " factor " in the question , though Oliver by his uncritical and hasty use of it did much to discredit its authority and impair its value . If thc authorities of the British Museum arc correct , it is before 1663 . If so it

rather , as we see it , strengthens the argument we have been submitting for thc existence of a seventeenth century Masonry , and would , if really of early date in the seventeenth century , give the sanction of the Craft to . 1 system which wc apprehend had been creeping on all over thc country , from the suppression of the Guilds in the first or second year of the reign of Edward VI . The question of the connection of Inigo Jones and . Sir Christopher Wren

with our Order cannot be left unnoticed . There arc many difficulties about both admittedly , but on the whole we are strongly of opinion that the Masonic tradition in each case is true . Anderson ' s silence in 1723 is certainly a very difficult matter to explain , but it is quite possible that as time was precious , the 1723 Constitutions , which seem to bear on their face the marks of hurry and incompleteness , were solely issued to meet a

passing need of some authoritative publication , and were always intended to be preparatory to a fuller and more careful compilation . If Sir Christopher Wren is represented in this frontispiece it would confirm the old tradition , though the apparent ignoring of Sir Christopher Wren by the Grand Lodge is another severe difficulty , Dermott ' s later explanation , if unverified , no

doubt lends force tothe arguments of those who deny Sir Christopher Wren ' s Masonic claims as Grand Master . Those who doubt Anderson ' s assertions in 1738 must go further , for there is no " via media . " His statements are either true or untrue ; he either invented these " facts " or had access to MSS . unknown to us .

The use of the coat-of-arms is a very curious fact , which has never yet been satisfactorily explained . The arms were granted to the Masons' Company in the reign of Edward IV ., and were used by Guilds of Freemasons up and down thc country . Dermott declares that Leon Judah , the learned Rabbi of Modena , ( a real personage ) , left these arms on his papers , and that he

exhibited a plan of the Temple about 1680 , ( a fact ) , and we have seen a panel , which is believed to be seventeenth century work , with these identical arms . The }' , no doubt , may have belonged to a Guild . Thus there are four coats-of-arms for us to deal with—the old grant b y Benolt , the form published by Dermott , the York arms of Edwin , and the coat-of-arms finally approved of at the Union ,